“Look at that guy. That’s a wild Lunarian, right?”
“What do you mean, a wild Lunarian? Boss, what kind of description is that?”
It was early morning, and behind a towering sand dune, a group of people looking like pirates were lying in wait.
Compared to the cold of midnight and the scorching sunlight at noon, early morning and dusk were the best times to move through the desert. They had originally intended to plunder some traveling merchants in the desert, but unexpectedly discovered Barro instead.
White hair, black wings, brown skin—if this classic appearance was not disguised, quite a few people on the sea could recognize them.
This was especially true of pirates driven by profit. To obtain the bounty on ordinary pirates, killing or capturing them alive was the only option, but Lunarians were different. Even merely providing accurate information could earn a bounty as high as one hundred million Berry.
“Aren’t those two Lunarians both Kaido’s officers? I’ve never seen this guy before, so he’s wild. No problem with that, right?”
“It’s a little weird… Anyway, I understand what you mean, boss.”
After King and Shayna stopped disguising themselves, not many people dared to cause trouble for them either. Aside from their own strength, the Beasts Pirates were already terrifying enough. Apart from those reckless fools, the Beasts Pirates’ flag was enough to let them swagger through the New World.
It even brought the World Government a little trouble. Not daring to fight King and Shayna did not mean people did not dare secretly reveal information. When King and Shayna went out on missions, the World Government received countless tip-off calls.
If they paid for every single one, their finances would probably go bankrupt on the spot. The final tip-off call even directly broke the World Government’s composure.
Because that report came from Delia. She said that she had King’s exact whereabouts. King himself was in Wano Country at the time, and she even pinpointed his location to a specific building, trying to fleece the World Government with it.
The original purpose of this bounty was to find the Lunarians who had hidden themselves away. But once King and Shayna stopped hiding, even if they knew their locations, there was nothing they could do about them.
Especially Delia’s bizarre report. It was not as if they could not find any trace of them before. If there had not been a group of monsters like Kaido behind them, they would have charged into Wano Country long ago. What need was there for her to report it?
In the end, the World Government even published an announcement, stating that they had long since known the locations of those two and would take action at the appropriate time. Bounties would no longer be paid for the locations of those two.
Of course, aside from failing to fleece them, Delia herself suffered no loss. After all, when she reported it, King was sitting right in front of her. If Delia really could have used this method to earn a sum from the World Government, King would even have praised her for it.
At the very beginning, for the sake of its own credibility, the World Government had still paid out several hundred million Berry. To them, this was not a large amount of money. At worst, they could just squeeze people a little harder and shift the economic problem elsewhere.
Compared to fighting wanted criminals, merely reporting some information was about as difficult as picking up money. After this route disappeared, some people even felt a little regretful. In their eyes, Barro had already taken on the shape of Berry.
“But… why would a Lunarian suddenly appear in a place like this?”
“Maybe he heard that the Beasts Pirates have others of his kind and wants to go seek shelter. Who remembers that number? Once we confirm it, that’s one hundred million Berry.”
“Boss, aren’t we going to try capturing him alive? If just information is worth one hundred million Berry, then if we can capture him alive…”
“Idiot. That’s too risky. How could any Lunarian who has survived the World Government’s pursuit until today be simple? Besides, even if he’s very weak, capturing him personally might offend those monsters in the Beasts Pirates.
“The reason I, Three-Handed Dernby, have lived until today is because I’m cautious.”
Dernby felt that he was very wise. There were now quite a few pirates within Alabasta’s borders, and some pirates’ ambitions had even swollen to the point where they were targeting the entire Kingdom of Alabasta.
Dernby thought such people were extremely stupid. This place was an affiliated nation. If pirates openly did something like that while the king here was missing, they would be settled sooner or later.
He had only brought his crew here because he felt that Alabasta was currently in internal chaos, and he wanted to take the opportunity to make a profit before running away.
“Boss, that person disappeared…”
“Disappeared?!”
Dernby felt that he was cautious enough. Unfortunately, this caution might have been sufficient against rookies who had just entered the Grand Line, or in the Four Seas, but being watched from this distance was more than enough for Barro to notice.
While Dernby was holding up his binoculars and searching for Barro, Barro had already arrived beside them.
“Are you looking for me?”
Several more footprints appeared in the sand, and Barro walked over to them very casually.
“I wanted to ask, do you know the location of this ruin?”
Barro did not even regard them as enemies, merely treating them as a group of passersby. But these pirates did not think the same way.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Dernby had not given an order, nor did he have time to stop them, before these pirates poured their firepower toward Barro. A moment later, countless bullets fell onto the yellow sand.
“I see. It seems you have confirmed your status as enemies.”
“Wait! I—”
Whoosh—
Barro flapped the wings on his back, and rolling waves of flame instantly swept across the entire sand dune. When he walked out of the flames, countless more grains of sand had been added to the yellow sands, becoming part of Alabasta’s history together with the things buried beneath them.
The gunpowder they carried was also ignited by the flames, creating no small disturbance in the desert.
Barro had not been too unrestrained along the way, but once he identified someone as an enemy, he would not hold back. The bullets just now could not hurt him, but those pirates had clearly carried killing intent.
The scorching heat of the blazing sun could not affect a Lunarian. Barro continued advancing across the yellow sand along his planned route. However, the explosion just now attracted the attention of some people.
Not long after Barro left, several mummies came over with staggering steps. A strong wind had just blown through this place, and the swirling yellow sand had already covered most of the traces, but they still dug out some charred bone fragments from beneath the sand.
“Only bones…”
“Let’s go back and report to Master Moria. No human figure was found.”
These inexplicably revived mummies were none other than zombies controlled by Moria’s ability. The zombies he created were not afraid of sunlight themselves.
It was only the owners of the shadows who, after losing their shadows, could not be exposed to the sun. If the shadow’s owner died because of that, the shadow inside the zombie would also disappear along with them.
Not far beneath the yellow sand, an underground palace bearing traces of a long history was located here. Moria himself was also staying here together with a group of people who had lost their shadows. As for the original owners of the tomb…
They were the mummies outside earlier.
In a dark corner, Moria was listening to Absalom report on the recent situation.
“Tch, Crocodile said there was some secret here, but aside from sand, there’s still only sand. Just what is there in this country worth searching for?
“That guy schemed here for so many years. He really is stupid, isn’t he, Absalom?”
Previously, based on the results of the Levely, Crocodile had inferred that there was something wrong here and had sent Moria here. But aside from making some contributions to the grave-robbing business, Moria had not found anything of value at all.
However, having long since turned into a shut-in, he had already adapted to this environment, and life in the cool tomb was rather pleasant.
“You are right, Lord Moria. However, the mummies you sent out earlier have already returned. They discovered corpses that had died not long ago. They should have died by fire.”
“Is that so? It probably isn’t anything major. Send those guys some water and food. If they die, the zombies won’t be able to move either. It’s not easy to find shadows in this desert.
“An enemy who uses fire… that Fire Fist?”
“I’ve already brought back food and water. I discovered an oasis nearby, so there should be no need to worry about water and food.
“But it probably isn’t him. The guild sent news that Crocodile has already formed an alliance with Whitebeard’s remnants. If it were that Fire Fist, we should have received information.”
Absalom reported the intelligence he had just received to Moria in meticulous detail, and also gave his own view.
“There are too many opponents who use fire. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the Flame-Flame Fruit.”
“That’s true…”
Rumble! Rumble!
Just as Moria finished speaking, the underground palace suddenly shook several times, and quite a bit of yellow sand fell through the cracks.
“Lord Moria, I’ll go check the situation right away.”
“Be careful, Absalom. If it doesn’t work, hurry back.”
“Please leave it to me, Lord Moria.”
Notice: 50% Discount for T5-T7 tier. Available till 1/10. Code: 5DB4A
You can read ahead upto 75 chapters on my patreon and I’ve also activated (date to date) subscription model on my patreon.
Become a Patron!