Golden Lion sat casually on the edge of the ship’s rail, showing no hostility whatsoever.
Impel Down was a magical place. Pirates who were locked inside and later saw the light of day again often underwent earth-shaking changes.
As for whether they achieved enlightenment or became extremists, that depended on the individual.
After spending two years in the Eternal Hell of Level 6, Golden Lion had come to terms with many things. Even someone as powerful as Rocks had ultimately fallen at God Valley. To overturn the world, one still needed to accumulate strength.
“Forget it, that’s not important. In any case, I have an irreconcilable grudge against the World Government too. If you’ve got some kind of plan, how about letting me in on a little of it?”
Golden Lion wore the expression of a merchant, seemingly hoping to strike some sort of deal with Nereus.
Hearing that, Nereus sat up as well and looked at Golden Lion, now sporting an entirely new appearance.
“What plan? How come I don’t know about it?”
“Hmph, stop pretending. We’ve known each other for so many years. I don’t believe for a second that you’d be like Harald and willingly help the World Government.
“I don’t know what kind of idiot is leading those World Government fools, but they actually trust you.”
“Trust? Their attitude isn’t trust. The current situation simply aligns with their interests. As long as the current situation isn’t directly disrupted, they’re willing to give up part of their benefits to maintain it. That’s the World Government.
“If you’re bored, use your ability to carry an island over Mariejois and drop it on top of them. Drop it and run. The World Government might even try to offer you amnesty and recruit you.”
Golden Lion froze for a moment after hearing Nereus’s words. With his Devil Fruit ability, lifting a small island really wasn’t difficult, but he had never thought about doing something like that before.
The main reason was that he had never wanted to compromise with the Marines or the World Government in any way, even temporarily. If he did something like that without showing himself and the other side didn’t even know who was responsible, then it wouldn’t accomplish his goal.
And as for actually doing it…
Mariejois wasn’t incapable of dealing with a thrown island. The key issue was that he didn’t possess Nereus’s strength or his ability to enter the sea at will.
If he really pushed the World Government too far and they focused all their efforts on hunting him down, things could easily become troublesome.
However, to say it’s completely out of the question isn’t right either, as this matter wasn’t entirely impossible.
“Jiehahahahaha! You’ve given me quite a good suggestion. Trying to make me your bait?”
“You think too highly of yourself, Shiki. Even if you volunteered to be bait, you wouldn’t qualify.”
He wasn’t a D, nor Joy Boy, nor someone researching the Ancient Weapons.
No matter how much chaos Golden Lion caused, at most it would attract a Marine campaign against him. The World Government wouldn’t dispatch any members of the Knights of Gods because of him, let alone have the Five Elders personally step in.
Sensing that Nereus had no intention of revealing any of his thoughts, Golden Lion didn’t mind. In fact, he felt as though he had genuinely learned something. Laughing loudly, he flew off into the distance.
“That guy… oh well. If he really goes and drops a couple of islands on Mariejois, that’s fine too. It’d give them something to do. Though given the current situation, Harald will probably end up working off the books again.”
The ways Devil Fruit users applied their abilities could only be described as bizarre and limitless. As for how Devil Fruits were born, it remained a mystery to this sea.
Whether they were products of ancient technology or naturally formed remained a matter of debate. Vegapunk himself had a hypothesis that Devil Fruits were born from people’s wishes and dreams. Whether that would change in the future was similarly unknown.
Even among known abilities, some users employed their powers in the strangest ways imaginable. There was only what people couldn’t think of, not what they couldn’t do.
Bullet was the same. Although he had survived the battlefield thanks to the Clank-Clank Fruit, Nereus felt that as Bullet’s strength increased, the fruit had instead become a burden.
After all, Bullet relied on his large reserves of Haki and constantly enlarged his body through fusion. That tactic wasn’t particularly meaningful in battles against opponents of the same level, though it was excellent for crushing weaker foes.
It seemed he would have to prepare some suitable “materials” for this mercenary.
Different Devil Fruits had different effects. The petrification caused by the Love-Love Fruit was permanent.
Unless the user actively canceled it, the petrification would not be undone, whether the user wore Seastone handcuffs, lost consciousness, fell into a coma, or even died.
The Hobby-Hobby Fruit was considered semi-permanent. As long as the user did not lose consciousness or fall into a coma, its effects would continue indefinitely.
As for the objects shaped and combined through the Clank-Clank Fruit, the user had to continuously maintain them. Moreover, they could only be combined onto the user’s own body. Even without losing consciousness, they will fall apart as soon as the user stops expending stamina to maintain them.
Otherwise, Bullet would have been a professional construction worker.
“But compared to Golden Lion, I’d rather go see how those little brats are doing.”
Not long after Golden Lion departed, however, the fish brought Nereus new information. The people who had left Delta Island were currently sailing not far away.
Although they hadn’t informed Nereus when they first set sail, he had always known their whereabouts. After all, not long after they left, bounties had been placed on their heads.
Even the reason for their bounties was remarkably similar to his own back then, giving Nereus a sense of nostalgia.
Although they had spent the past few years developing in the Four Seas, they had also tempered themselves considerably. The educational system on Delta Island was sufficiently complete; whether physical skills or swordsmanship, there were beginner programs for everything, including methods for training Haki.
Even though they had spent some extra time in the Four Seas, they had continued growing steadily.
With Kuma, the Paw-Paw Fruit user, accompanying them, they had encountered almost no major trouble in the first half of the Grand Line.
Luna, their leader, currently had a bounty of sixty million Berries. In the current Great Pirate Era, that wasn’t particularly eye-catching, but the combat power they could unleash far exceeded what the bounty suggested.
On the night of a full moon, so long as they didn’t run into one of those old monsters, even captains from the New World could suffer defeat at their hands.
Sulong provided an enormous boost to Minks, allowing their combat power to undergo a qualitative leap with ease.
Luna, Nekomamushi, and Inuarashi had all mastered this power, while most people in the first half of the Grand Line and the Four Seas knew little about the Minks.
If enemies encountered them during a full moon, most would die in a very rhythmic fashion.
Even when acting on their own, they would sometimes deliberately wait for the full moon. Luna was even researching how to free the Minks’ Sulong form from this restriction so they could enter that state whenever they wished.
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