Chapter 241: Why Don't You Go Drop an Island on Them?
Shiki sat casually on the edge of the gunwale, not showing the slightest trace of hostility.
Impel Down was a fascinating place. Whenever a pirate locked inside ever managed to see the light of day again, they often underwent an earth-shattering transformation.
Whether they achieved profound enlightenment or warped into a raving lunatic depended entirely on the individual.
Having spent two years in the Eternal Hell of Level Six, Shiki had actually come to terms with a lot of things. Even an absolute monster like Rocks had ultimately fallen at God Valley; if someone wanted to overturn the world, they first had to quietly accumulate their strength.
"Whatever, none of that matters," Shiki said. "Still, the World Government and I are irreconcilable enemies. If you've got some kind of master plan brewing, why don't you leak a little of it to me?"
He wore the crafty expression of a merchant, seemingly hoping to strike some kind of deal with Nereus.
Hearing those words, Nereus sat up and looked at Shiki in his brand-new "skin."
"What plan? How come I don't know about it?"
"Hmph, stop playing dumb," Shiki scoffed. "We've known each other for years; there's no way you're like Harald, willingly playing lapdog for the World Government. I don't even know what kind of idiot is running the show over there to actually trust a guy like you."
"Trust?" Nereus replied smoothly. "Their attitude isn't trust; it's simply that the current situation aligns with their interests. As long as this status quo isn't directly shattered, they're willing to cede a portion of their interests to maintain it. That is the essence of the World Government. If you're really that bored, why don't you use your power to haul an island over Mary Geoise and drop it on their heads? Drop it and run—who knows, the World Government might just offer you amnesty too."
Shiki froze for a moment upon hearing Nereus's words. With his Devil Fruit abilities, lifting a small island wasn't difficult at all, but he had honestly never thought of doing something like that before.
The main reason was that he had zero desire to compromise with the Marines or the World Government—not even temporarily. Moreover, if he did something like that without showing his face, they wouldn't even know who did it, which defeated the whole purpose.
Besides... it wasn't as if Mary Geoise was completely incapable of dealing with a falling island. More importantly, he didn't possess Nereus's overwhelming strength or the ability to just dive underwater whenever he pleased.
If he truly pushed the World Government into a corner and they hunted him relentlessly, things could get ugly fast.
Still, to say he shouldn't do it at all wasn't right either; the idea wasn't entirely without merit.
"Jihahaha! You actually gave me a pretty good suggestion. Are you trying to use me as your bait?"
"You think too highly of yourself, Shiki," Nereus said calmly. "Even if you volunteered to be bait, you wouldn't quite make the cut."
He wasn't a "D.", nor was he Joy Boy, nor was he researching the Ancient Weapons.
No matter how much of a ruckus Shiki caused, at most it would draw a Marine extermination fleet. The World Government wouldn't deploy the God's Knights over him, let alone have the Five Elders step onto the battlefield themselves.
Sensing that Nereus had no intention of revealing his thoughts, Shiki didn't mind. In fact, feeling like he had genuinely picked up a useful tip, he laughed boisterously and flew off into the distance.
"That guy... well, whatever," Nereus muttered. "If he actually goes and drops a couple of islands on Mary Geoise, at least it'll give them something to do. Although with how things are right now, Harald is probably going to be the one stuck doing the dirty work again."
Devil Fruit users applied their powers in weird and wonderful ways, and the true origin of Devil Fruits remained an absolute mystery across the seas.
Whether they were the products of ancient technology or natural phenomena was a subject of endless debate. Vegapunk himself held a hypothesis that Devil Fruits were born from human desires and dreams—though whether that theory would change in the future remained unknown.
Within known limits, some users utilized their abilities in unimaginably bizarre ways; the only limit was one's imagination.
Bullet was the same. Although he had survived the battlefield by relying on the Clump-Clump Fruit, Nereus felt that as Bullet's personal strength increased, the fruit had actually become a liability.
After all, Bullet constantly relied on his massive Haki reserves to increase his physical size through assimilation. That tactic was largely meaningless in battles between top-tier powerhouses, even if it was exceptionally effective for stomping fodder.
It seemed he needed to prepare some suitable "materials" for this mercenary of his.
Different fruits exerted different effects. The petrification caused by the Love-Love Fruit was permanent.
Unless the user actively released it, the petrification would never undo itself—not even if the user was slapped with Seastone handcuffs, knocked unconscious, or killed.
The Hobby-Hobby Fruit was semi-permanent; as long as the user didn't lose consciousness or fall into a coma, the effect would last indefinitely.
Meanwhile, the structures formed by the Clump-Clump Fruit required the user to actively maintain them, and they could only be combined onto the user's own body. The user didn't even need to lose consciousness—the moment they stopped expending stamina to maintain the form, it would fall apart.
Otherwise, Bullet would have been an absolute godsend on a construction site.
"Still, rather than worrying about Shiki, I should go check on how those kids are doing."
Not long after Shiki's departure, a school of fish brought Nereus fresh intelligence: the group that had set sail from Delta Island was currently navigating the waters not far away.
Although they hadn't told Nereus when they set sail, he was well aware of their whereabouts—after all, bounties had been slapped on their heads shortly after they left.
Even the reasons for their bounties were remarkably similar to his own back in the day, giving Nereus a touch of nostalgia.
Although they had spent the past few years developing in the Four Blues, they had undergone plenty of tempering. The training curriculum on Delta Island was thorough and complete, providing foundational regimens for physical combat, swordsmanship, and even methods for cultivating Haki.
Even if they had spent some extra time in the Four Blues, they were growing steadily step by step.
Coupled with Kuma—user of the Paw-Paw Fruit—they had encountered virtually no serious trouble in the first half of the Grand Line.
Their leader, Luna, currently had a bounty of sixty million Berries, which wasn't particularly eye-catching in the current Great Pirate Era, but their true combat power went far beyond that number.
On the night of a full moon, as long as they didn't run into those ancient monsters, even a New World captain would suffer a crushing defeat against them.
The Sulong form provided a massive boost to the Mink Tribe, effortlessly allowing their combat power to undergo a qualitative leap.
Luna, along with Master Nekomamushi and Duke Inuarashi, had already mastered this power, whereas the vast majority of people in the first half of the Grand Line and the Four Blues knew nothing about the Mink Tribe.
Any enemy unfortunate enough to cross their path on a full moon night would find themselves rhythmically beaten to death.
Even during their own operations, they would sometimes intentionally wait for the night of the full moon. Luna was even actively researching ways to free the Mink Tribe's Sulong form from its lunar restriction so they could enter that state at any time.
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