If he could stay in Drum Kingdom, maybe he could find the Human-Human Fruit that never showed itself. Unfortunately, the commotion from the previous break-in at Drum Palace had scared the king of Drum Kingdom badly.
He desperately urged the Marines to send people to take them down.
Judging by it, the Marines coming would be either an Admiral or one or two Vice Admirals. Vane didn't want to keep his team here and put them in danger just for a single Human-Human Fruit.
When the time came, Vane changed course and left the wastelands of Drum Kingdom.
Not long after he left, beneath a forest somewhere in the wasteland, a small reindeer accidentally saw a streak of red beneath the snow.
...
"Everyone's back, right?"
They stayed only one day. The crew spent some money in the port town; the local ice wine was pretty good.
But the biggest spender was Martha. Her identity was doctor—the ship's doctor.
Coming to this famous medical nation, she was extremely excited. She spent a lot of money buying medical supplies and medical books, and even, after getting Vane's consent, wanted to invite some famous doctors to join the team.
Unfortunately, real famous doctors were unwilling to follow pirates and leave. The current Drum Kingdom was still that kingdom famous for medicine; doctors held an extremely high status in the kingdom.
People with an adventurous spirit were, after all, a minority. Leaving a stable life to wander with pirates—out of a hundred people, there might not even be one willing to go.
Not being able to recruit anyone in one day was normal.
"Ku hahaha, those doctors really don't know what's good for them. Want me to go kidnap a bunch and bring them back, Doctor Martha?"
"If you do that, just wait for Captain Vane to teach you a lesson, Burgess."
"Ku haha~ I'm just joking."
Burgess and Dice, the two burly men, were carrying things for Martha. These two were very similar in many aspects, but in terms of chattiness they were at two extremes.
Burgess loved to talk—a total chatterbox.
Dice was usually as silent as a gorilla and wouldn't start conversations.
"Martha, I'll help you."
As the three of them had just reached the pier, Sugar warped to their side and brought them onto the ship one by one.
"Ku haha, what a convenient ability."
"No need to envy him. In the future, the captain will find a Devil Fruit that suits you too."
Even Burgess, who was good at chatting, couldn't hold it in: "??? I'm one year younger than your!"
Yes—despite being built like a mountain of muscle and "aging before his time," Burgess was actually one year younger than Monet.
"Set sail."
At Vane's order, the Thunder Fortress left the port of Drum Kingdom.
Once he left, the next destination became uncertain again. If the Marines wanted to catch him, they had to wait for Vane's next move; otherwise, they could only rely on luck to search the vast sea.
...
"Looks like we won't pass by Alabasta."
After sailing for a few days, Vane confirmed they wouldn't pass by Alabasta. Although Alabasta at this time didn't have the Crocodile, it probably didn't have any powerful Devil Fruits either.
Otherwise, it wouldn't have been wrecked by that old croc with no ability to resist at all.
And Alabasta only interested him for two Devil Fruits.
One was the Dog-Dog Fruit, Jackal Model; the other was the Bird-Bird Fruit, Falcon Model. These two animals were enshrined by Alabasta as guardian deities.
He'd still have to go to Alabasta someday.
After all, both were Zoans. The Dog-Dog Fruit could trigger the Gyarados energy stone, and the Bird-Bird Fruit could trigger a new Pokémon.
"Captain, we need to be careful on the next stretch. Quite a few ships have hit floating ice here and sunk."
Sunk after hitting floating ice at sea?
The Titanic ending?
"Didn't we run into any floating ice around Drum Kingdom that could sink a ship?"
Drum Kingdom was a famous winter country on the Grand Line.
"Captain, that's because we're about to pass the coldest country in the first half of the Grand Line—Baldimore."
Baldimore? The name felt quite unfamiliar to Vane.
Baccarat, who had gathered a lot of information, came out to explain: "Baldimore is called the Future Country, and it's also called Karakuri Island."
"It's the hometown of the great scientist Vegapunk."
Right! Karakuri Island, the Future Country, Vegapunk's hometown!
Isn't that the island Franky arrived at after being blown away by Kuma?
"The Future Country is an even harsher winter island than Drum Kingdom. The seas around the island are covered by thick ice. To enter, you have to rely on an icebreaker."
So the Future Country was pretty safe. After all, among the many pirates around nowadays, only the Ice Pirates under Whitebeard had icebreakers.
And on the Future Country there were various mechanical animals from Vegapunk's early experiments, which were quite dangerous for pirates in the first half of the Grand Line.
"Meowth, do we have a tool that can enter the Future Country?"
Vane himself wasn't afraid of the cold, but this time he would bring more people ashore. It would be best to have a more comfortable way to travel.
"Of course we do, meow! The multi-terrain amphibious Gyarados machine!"
It was basically an upgraded version of the Gyarados submarine, just able to adapt to more land terrain.
Originally, Meowth's hot-air balloon would also work, but in a blizzard-ravaged environment, the balloon was worse than Vane flying over himself.
"Then the Gyarados submarine it is. Bonez, Dice, Tant—you three must stay on the ship."
"Meowth, Burgess, Lena, Sugar must come with me to the Future Country. The rest can decide for themselves whether to stay or go."
Lena and Sugar were for mobility, Meowth was for the Future Country's technology, and Burgess was pure labor.
In the end, only Monet joined the team going to the Future Country. If Sugar weren't going, Monet wouldn't have joined.
The Thunder Fortress found a suitable spot and lowered the amphibious Gyarados machine. After lowering it, Baccarat activated her Vision-Vision Fruit ability.
The entire Thunder Fortress entered a semi-cloaked state.
The Gyarados machine traveled a distance over the sea, quickly reached the vicinity of the ice, found a spot, and climbed onto the ice.
Once on the ice, the machine deployed treads. The speed wasn't slow, similar to an electric scooter.
"Thanks to Meowth's invention, the wind and snow on the ice are the fiercest."
Their group stayed inside the iron shell, enjoying normal temperatures, while through the glass they could see the howling wind and snow outside on the ice.
"This meow has plenty more inventions. You'll have lots to be amazed at in the future, meow."
The Gyarados machine sped along the ice and quickly broke through the densest area of wind and snow.
The blurry outline of the Future Country gradually appeared. They slowly saw the shadow of a forest and soon arrived at the edge of it.
"Look! Under the tree!"
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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