Chapter 28 Bane: I will lead you to another world
After crossing the Reverse Mountain, Bane did not see the large whale, Laboon, He went to the lighthouse at Twin Capes, but found it empty.
It seemed that Dr. Crocus, who was the doctor for Pirate King Roger, must have gone inside Laboon's body to play. Since Bane had no important reason to look for him and didn't know when he might return, he decided not to stay there. He quickly made his way to Whiskey Peak, which was marked by the log pose.
Whiskey Peak is the first place you arrive at when entering the Grand Line. Since the Great Pirate Era began, many more pirates have appeared. New pirates from all over the world often choose this place as their first stop to enter the Grand Line.
As a result, many bounty hunters have gathered here. They use Whiskey Peak as their base camp to capture pirates from around the world using various methods.
These methods might be underhanded and the bounty hunters may not be good people. However, they have successfully helped keep the islands in the Grand Line safer.
At that moment, in a tavern in Bounty Town on Whiskey Peak, Bane and Zoro were eagerly devouring the food on their table. A big pile of empty plates was stacked in front of them.
Nami sipped fruit wine and looked at the two men with concern.
Zoro is very competitive and wants to compete with Bane in everything. So far, he has only managed to beat Bane in kendo.
Right now, Bane was eating with ease, while Zoro was starting to look red in the face.
It was clear that he was running out of space in his stomach.
Worried that Zoro might overeat, Nami pushed the plates of sea beast barbecue in front of Zoro toward Bane and said, "Enough already, stop eating. Is this fun? "
Zoro watched as Bane quickly finished another plate of barbecue and sighed helplessly. He said, "You're a monster. How do you digest food like that? "
Then he stopped competing with Bane, picked up his drink, took a few sips, and tried to calm down.
Bane ate a piece of meat bigger than Nami's head in just two bites and asked the boss for ten more servings of barbecue. He then said, "I have special talents. You can't compete with me."
Not wanting to continue that topic, Nami took out a nautical chart of the Grand Line that she had just bought in the town. Since this was the first stop on the Grand Line, there were many vendors selling these nautical charts.
"Originally, we had seven routes to choose from, but our record pointer was set to Whiskey Peak, so we came here. Now, we can only follow the islands on this route one by one, until we finally reach the Sabaody Archipelago," Nami said, pointing at the nautical chart.
"Can't we change the route halfway? " Zoro asked casually.
"No, we have to stay at Whiskey Peak for three days. This allows the log pose to gather the magnetic field data from the next island, which is little garden, and then. . . " Nami explained to Zoro.
After she finished, Bane said, "It's possible to change the route. I know two methods. One way is to buy a permanent log pose for a specific island we've sailed to. Then we can use that pose to navigate there. The second way is that many islands now have sea trains. When the time comes, we can leave the ship and take a sea train to start over at other islands. "
"But that's unnecessary," Nami continued. "Didn't you say before that you wanted to go to Alabasta? Little garden is also on your list. You mentioned that it has many ancient creatures, like dinosaurs. You want to see if the ingredients there can help you grow faster. "
"That's right, I'm going to little garden to eat dinosaurs! " Bane nodded firmly.
He even thought that if dinosaurs and other ancient creatures helped his growth, he might stay there for a while and try to eat them all. Once he got stronger, he would go to Alabasta to defeat Crocodile. Crocodile has the Sand-Sand Fruit, which is quite powerful. Now that he has the Dark-Dark Fruit, he might also try to take the Sand-Sand Fruit then.
But who should he give that fruit's power to? He felt he didn't have enough team members! They had discussed this a few times before. Zoro didn't actually reject the devil fruit's power, but he was more focused on sword fighting and didn't want distractions. Bane guessed that Zoro wouldn't consider using a power until he became the top swordsman in the world or faced some major challenge. As for Nami, she wasn't thinking about becoming a devil fruit user at all, at least for now. She loved swimming and was quite skilled at it. She also wanted to explore and map the sea. She believed if she became unable to swim, her dream would be ruined, so she didn't plan to become a power user.
"What are you thinking about? " Nami asked curiously when she noticed Bane suddenly stop talking.
Zoro took a drink and looked at Bane.
"I'm thinking about getting some sailors to help us run the ship and do some tasks. This part is easy and can be done here. But later, we will need real talents to grow our team," said Bane.
"The second point is hard. Not everyone is like me and Nami, going with the flow." Zoro said after having a sip of wine.
When he said "go with the flow," he didn't mean he had no goals. Zoro was aiming for the title of the world's greatest swordsman, and Nami had her own dreams too.
What Zoro meant by 'going with the flow' is 'having ambition. '
It's fair to say that their current team of three lacks ambition. Even though each of them has personal goals, they do not share a common ambition.
Most pirate groups want to become the Pirate King. The navy aims to bring peace to the world and uphold justice, while the revolutionary army wants to overthrow the world government and create a new order.
Together, the three of them have no clear direction.
Because there is no overall direction, we don't know how to start when we want to recruit talents. This is the difficulty of not having a plan.
You can't just tell others, "Hey, come join me on my ship! "
"As long as we don't let any pirates join us, I'm fine with it," Nami said after thinking about it.
This girl has a fair dislike for all pirates.
So when Bane mentioned wanting to go to Alabasta to kill Crocodile, who is one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, Zoro said it didn't matter. He would do whatever Bane wanted. Nami, on the other hand, fully supported him, even though she felt a bit scared! After taking another sip of wine, Zoro said, "If you want to grow our core group, you first need to decide on a direction. That way, when you invite others, you can persuade them better. And all this time, I have never really asked you, Bane, as our captain, what your plans are for the future? "
"Yes, if you, as our captain, have no direction, then even with a great navigator like me, you will still be lost at sea! " Nami said as she patted her chest.
Bane paused for a moment, then looked at Zoro and Nami and said, "Honestly, I want to become the king of the world and lead you to the other world! "
Zoro and Nami looked surprised. "What are you talking about? " they thought. Since he was being serious, they considered him foolish. Bane shook his head and said, "My current goal is to be the strongest in the world. Next, I want to gain power and influence, so I need to build a team I can trust. You two are the core members of this team. "
"Do you want to gain power and influence by creating your own organization, or, as you joked before, by joining the Navy? " Zoro asked after thinking for a moment.
"Joining the Navy wouldn't be bad, right? Just the thought of people calling me Captain Nami or something like that makes me excited, hahahaha," Nami said, her eyes shining.
She didn't like the Navy much before, mainly because of people like Captain Rat Nezuma. But after meeting Smoker, Tashigi, and others, she felt the Navy wasn't hopeless. There are bad people in every group, and she realized she didn't need to judge an entire group based on one person.
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