After some tossing and turning, Bastille, with a bitter face, scraped together a little from his few savings and exchanged it for a single-masted sailboat.
Under Smoker's murderous gaze, they sailed away from the dock.
Watching Kai and the others, who had completely disappeared, Smoker finally couldn't hold back and punched the rock beside him with a fist in anger.
Bang!
Under the muffled collision sound, the rock cracked in response, spreading out spiderweb-like cracks, making the surrounding Marine soldiers and coolie merchants show fear and quickly move away.
In their eyes, Smoker had lost to Kai, but for ordinary people like them, Smoker was still the gatekeeper god of Loguetown.
Feeling the reverence that was cast from all around, the frustration in Smoker's heart was slightly calmed. He snorted coldly in disdain and was about to turn around and leave.
"Smoker, you've fallen." Aokiji's lazy voice suddenly rang out and said, "Have you always thought that Laxus was ignoring you?"
"However, you can't blame him for this. After all, you are people from two different worlds."
"He is someone who lives on the edge of death and tempers himself at all times, while you are just willing to stay in the East Blue and be a gatekeeper."
Speaking of this, Aokiji looked at the cracked rock and said, "You can be a local emperor here for the rest of your life, but in his eyes, you are just a local emperor."
"Just as he said, you don't even know Haki, so it's impossible for you to be that kid's opponent."
"I'll give you two choices now. Follow me back to the Marine Headquarters for new training, or stay here and continue to be your local emperor. It's still that sentence, vision determines height!"
The slightly lengthy words seemed to be infused with magic sounds at this moment, striking deep into Smoker's soul.
After graduating from the Marine Headquarters, Smoker had applied to come to Loguetown in the East Blue in order to not be controlled by others.
However, just as Aokiji had said, as the weakest of the four seas, this undoubtedly made Smoker's path forward slower.
After all, in the second half of the Grand Line, it was a world where even small soldiers knew Armament Haki, which was completely not comparable to the East Blue.
Where a bounty of tens of millions was already the ceiling.
Feeling Aokiji's gaze, Smoker's face turned pale all of a sudden.
If it was the evaluation of outsiders, he could laugh it off and abandon it.
But as a Marine, the highest goal was to be a Marine Admiral.
Now, being reprimanded face-to-face by Aokiji, who was an Admiral, was simply unacceptable for Smoker.
However, thinking of Kai's ignoring aloofness and the powerlessness he had tried just now, Smoker's face sank and he gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, I'll go back to the Marine Headquarters with Admiral Aokiji. The next time we meet, I will definitely defeat that guy."
"Well, then pack up and let's set off." Aokiji patted Smoker's shoulder in comfort and said, "I'll contact Fleet Admiral Sengoku first. You'll meet me here later."
Along with Aokiji and Smoker's separate actions, two figures hidden in the dark corners of the dock
quickly flashed onto a merchant ship and sailed straight in the direction that Kai and the others had left.
Three days later, not far from Cocoyasi Village, a single-masted pirate ship was quickly approaching Arlong Park.
When she saw the huge group of buildings, the outline gradually became clear. Nami, who was standing at the bow of the ship and holding a Den Den Mushi to talk, had a face full of inexplicable excitement.
"Sister, you're at home. Wait for me a little longer. As long as I trade with Arlong, I'll be able to buy Cocoyasi Village. Then everyone will be free." Nami clenched the Den Den Mushi in her hand. After quickly dropping this sentence, she hung up the Den Den Mushi.
Then, Nami didn't stay any longer and quickly steered the single-masted sailboat towards Arlong Park.
In Cocoyasi Village, Nojiko, who was Nami's adopted sister, heard the busy tone of the Den Den Mushi, and her face changed drastically in an instant.
She hurriedly pushed open the door and was about to rush out to notify the people in the village. The dense figures she saw in front of her made her face change drastically.
However, Nami didn't know all of this.
She was now just eager to tell Arlong about raising one hundred million Berries and then tell the people in the village about redeeming Cocoyasi Village.
Let the many villagers who had been oppressed completely bid farewell to the life of hanging a sword over their heads.
"We're here. Arlong Park is in front." After Nami parked the single-masted ship, she clenched the black gold card in her hand and flipped over and got off the ship.
She hadn't brought all one hundred million Berries now. Right now, Nami was just eager to get a definite answer from Arlong.
Then she would offer the one hundred million Berries with both hands.
Standing on the shore and looking into the distance, she could clearly see the flag symbolizing the Arlong Pirates, which was inserted on the huge building, fluttering in the wind.
Once upon a time, this was a nightmare for Nami and even the entire Cocoyasi Village.
Thinking that she would soon be able to bid farewell to this nightmare shadow, Nami clenched the black gold card in her hand and hurried towards Arlong Park.
Along the way, Nami, who was one of the Arlong Pirates' executives, wasn't blocked by the fish-men who were on guard along the way because of her identity.
When she finally stood in front of Arlong Park, in front of the tightly closed gate, Nami took a deep breath, mustered her courage, reached out her hands and pressed on the gate, and forcefully pushed open this gate, which was full of fear for her in the past.
At this moment, in her mind, as long as today passed, everything would change.
Creak!
The heavy gate was forcefully pushed open.
It instantly attracted all the fish-men in the park.
Including Arlong, who was lying on the beach chair and laughing wantonly, cast a playful gaze as always.
"What's wrong? Our pirate group's little executive seems to have come back a little early this time." Arlong sat up straight on the beach chair and said with a grin, "Could it be that you've been bullied and plan to let us stand up for you?"
"As a member of the group, this is of course no problem, but letting them take action requires a lot of money. Are you ready?"
As these words fell, a large burst of wanton laughter rang out in the room.
"Nami, our little cat burglar, as long as you give me five million Berries, I can consider it. After drinking this bottle of wine in my hand, as long as I'm not drunk, I'll go and avenge you."
"You stinky octopus, five million is too little. That underestimates our little cat burglar's ability to make money. It should be at least ten million Berries, right? And after you finish drinking, do you still remember what you're going to do?"
In the huge courtyard, wanton laughter rang out one after another.
Nami had long been accustomed to the faces of these so-called companions.
Usually, every time she came back, she would also slam the door and directly ignore them, running back to the top floor to draw nautical charts, so as to avoid the vengeful enemies.
But this time was different. Thinking of Cocoyasi Village and the promise agreement five or six years ago, Nami was determined to face it.
She suddenly raised her head, met Arlong's gaze, and said in a deep voice, "I want to leave the Arlong Pirates. I've earned enough one hundred million Berries to redeem Cocoyasi Village."
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