Brownbeard looked at (Franky) Nami, who was screaming, his brows deeply furrowed.
"Hey! Shut up, you… person…"
He stared at the robot with Nami's voice and Franky's body, and for a moment, words caught in his throat.
This bizarre combination before him left him at a loss for words. After a pause, he continued,
"Orochimaru-sama is absolutely not some cunning snake!
That person… is kind, gentle, and captivatingly beautiful…"
Brownbeard closed his eyes, Orochimaru's image appearing in his mind, and a blush involuntarily spread across his face.
His expression was as if he had fallen into a vortex of beautiful dreams, his eyes full of intoxication and admiration.
₍₍ (̨̡ ‾᷄ ⌂ ‾᷅ )̧̢ ₎₎ ₍₍ (̨̡ ‾᷄ ᗣ ‾᷅ )̧̢ ₎₎ (ँ੬ه ँ)
When Brownbeard slowly opened his eyes, what greeted him were the Straw Hat Pirates' disgusted faces.
Immediately, his eyes widened in anger, and he roared like thunder,
"What are those expressions?! Orochimaru-sama is such a kind person! What kind of attitude is that?!"
(•̶̑ ૄ •̶̑) Luffy picked his nose and flicked a booger onto Brownbeard.
"Sure enough, he's talking about someone else, right? What a coincidence, someone has the same name as Orochimaru."
The group nodded in agreement.
(Nami) Sanji took a puff from his cigarette.
"And then what? What do you want to say? Besides the 'beautiful' part, which I agree with, the rest doesn't fit at all, right? If it really is Orochimaru, then he must be so pretty that you're having fantasies."
"Mhm, mhm…" The group nodded in unison again.
"You are truly too rude. I suppose you people cannot comprehend Orochimaru-sama's benevolent heart."
Brownbeard scoffed disdainfully, looking at everyone with pity.
It must be that Orochimaru-sama looked down on them, which was truly pitiful, and thus didn't bestow kindness upon them.
"Anyway, you're all about to be killed. Law will definitely come to save me, so I'll be merciful and tell you.
I hate your generation of Pirates the most, but Law and Orochimaru-sama are exceptions.
It was Basil Hawkins who destroyed my Brownbeard Pirate Crew.
Thanks to him, I lost my legs and could no longer be a Pirate. My companions were also wiped out.
The place I escaped to, barely clinging to life, was this Punk Hazard.
Do you know what kind of place this is?
This island, it was once known as a lush treasure trove of life."
The group stared at Brownbeard with puzzled expressions. "Here??"
Luffy was the first to speak, his voice full of bewilderment,
"I can't see anything special about it at all." As Zoro's voice faded, everyone nodded, their gazes sweeping over the surrounding ice mountains.
"This was originally a research facility of the World Government Scientist Vegapunk, an experimental site where weapons and drugs were constantly developed.
Some prisoners were not sent to jail but were brought to this island. They were like guinea pigs, used as subjects for human experiments.
But four years ago, Vegapunk's chemical weapon experiment failed. Two of the three research institutes were destroyed by explosions, and this is the ruin of one of those institutes."
Listening to Brownbeard, Luffy and the group gasped in amazement.
Usopp patted the surrounding buildings. "No wonder it's such a mess here."
Brownbeard continued his story, his voice somewhat heavy.
"The explosion spread intense heat and toxic substances, taking the life of the island.
But, under these circumstances, those people in the Government abandoned the experimental prisoners and fled, leaving no one behind, and then completely sealed off the island.
It is said that the remaining prisoners, in order to survive on the island filled with poison gas, hid in the only remaining intact Third Research Institute.
Those who didn't die lost the use of their lower bodies due to neurotoxins, with no future to speak of.
But after a year like this, our benevolent master came to this island.
He used his special abilities to purify the poison gas on the island and bestowed scientific-powered legs upon the immobile prisoners, taking them in as his subordinates."
(Chopper) Franky and (Sanji) Chopper, hearing this, were moved to tears.
Brownbeard continued to tell the story of this island, his voice getting a little excited at this point.
"I came to this island a year later, which was about two years ago. At that time, I was dying, having lost my legs, and was crawling with difficulty on this island.
There were still some residual toxins on this island at that time. Just breathing would make me want to vomit, and I had already lost the will to live.
Then, a giant object appeared out of nowhere and crashed onto my head, bringing me to the brink of death.
At that moment, it was Orochimaru-sama who saved me!
Ah… Orochimaru-sama, what a beautiful person… Orochimaru-sama fed me healing medicine, allowing me to survive with great difficulty.
He even painstakingly tied ropes around my body and dragged me to my master's side.
My master was so overjoyed that he cried with happiness that I could become his subordinate. To thank Orochimaru-sama, he specially gave Orochimaru-sama a set of experimental equipment."
"Dragged??"
The crew heard this word, and the corners of their mouths twitched involuntarily.
They could all imagine that scene in their minds, firmly believing that Orochimaru must have dragged him because he found him dirty.
Could this Brownbeard have had some strange hallucinations due to being near death? Orochimaru isn't the type to casually save people.
He definitely wanted that set of experimental equipment and didn't want to pay for it, so he used Brownbeard to trade for the equipment.
The group all looked at Brownbeard with subtle, meaningful glances, secretly thinking, "This is another unlucky fellow who got conned by Orochimaru."
(Nami) Sanji sighed helplessly and asked, "May I be so bold as to ask, what is your bounty poster worth?"
Brownbeard looked bewildered, answering uncomprehendingly, "Eighty million Berries, why?"
Upon hearing this, everyone simultaneously covered their foreheads… Good heavens, it was confirmed now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The situation at the time was like this:
Orochimaru sat on Doflamingo's shoulder and came to Punk Hazard with him.
"Doffy, I've got my eye on Caesar's new equipment. It's not expensive, just eighty million. Do you think he'll give it to me?"
Doflamingo hesitated, wanting to speak but holding back.
"You didn't pay for the equipment last time, did you? I don't think it's very likely, because he's told me many times about this, asking you not to covet his equipment anymore."
Orochimaru 'Tch'ed. After all, he had just become Doffy's lover, and he couldn't just keep fleecing one person. Caesar was easier to fleece.
While the two were talking, Orochimaru suddenly saw Brownbeard crawling below. His eyes lit up, and he pulled out a stack of bounty posters from his spatial storage, flipping through them and handing them to Doffy.
"Doffy! Look! Eighty million, isn't it right here!
You go find Caesar first. After all, your transaction is a secret. I'll handle this person."
Doflamingo watched, full of helplessness, as Orochimaru leaped from his shoulder, landing directly on Brownbeard's head.
He secretly thought to himself: That's quite a height. To jump down like that and land on someone's head, it'd be a miracle if they survived.
Sure enough, Brownbeard instantly became critically ill, nearly dying.
In desperation, Orochimaru rummaged through the leftover medicines he made for Sabo and found a defective pill, which he fed to Brownbeard.
Afterward, he dragged Brownbeard in front of Caesar, and after a combination of coaxing and threatening, successfully obtained the eighty-million-Berry equipment.
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