After hanging up the call, Gini directly stood up from the chair, picked up the black coat hanging to the side, put on his sunglasses, and grinned as he said to Daz Bonez beside him: "Let's go. It's time to teach those arrogant guys a lesson. They actually dare to cause trouble in the West Blue? Isn't this declaring war on our Grado?"
As the Umbrella Corporation issued its orders, all departments also began to take action.
...
Under the leadership of Umbrella Corporation's instructor and commander-in-chief, Zephyr, countless fleets departed from the dock of Ohara and advanced toward various regions.
At this moment, the slave-hunting groups across the West Blue had not yet received the news and were still happily capturing slaves in various places.
...
On the other side, West Blue's 315th Branch Base.
Smoker was still leading his fleet around on patrol.
However, ever since encountering the Umbrella Corporation's fleet last time, they had not encountered the Umbrella Corporation's fleet again over the next two days.
Instead, they had encountered four waves of slave-hunting groups during these two days.
Each time, they could only watch helplessly and do nothing as those civilians pleaded for help. This filled Smoker with a bellyful of anger, so much so that he angrily cursed the Umbrella Corporation's fleet.
In particular, a certain old fellow was viciously cursed by him in his heart for three straight hours without stopping.
Back at Marine Headquarters, he would start arresting people and training them before dawn every day.
How come, after coming to the West Blue, he had become so lazy?
He had only captured one slave-hunting group and then stopped.
Could it be that that old fellow had evolved from the non-killing Admiral into a lazy Admiral?
Just as Smoker, full of pent-up anger, was about to continue cursing…
Tashigi ran over with a panicked expression. "Captain Smoker, Captain Smoker, ahead—"
"Ahead? What's ahead now?"
Before she could finish, the already impatient Smoker directly interrupted her. "Another slave-hunting group? Didn't I tell you to calm down? What's the use of being so flustered?"
He snorted coldly and angrily removed the cigar from the corner of his mouth. "Don't forget, we don't have the authority to arrest those guys!"
"No, it's not..."
"Not what?"
Hearing Tashigi say it wasn't, Smoker frowned again, then seemed to guess something and directly rolled up his sleeves. "Could it be that we ran into a pirate crew?"
At this, he grinned, revealing a hint of ferocity. "Where are they? I'm in a really bad mood right now. Perfect chance to vent!"
"No, it's not pirates either! It's a slave-hunting group."
Tashigi looked at Smoker with a face full of black lines and shouted angrily: "Can you let me finish speaking!"
"Not pirates? Then why are you in such a hurry?"
But this seemed to suppress the fire in Smoker's heart again. Looking at Tashigi, who now seemed about to lose her temper, he lay back down again and said impatiently: "Speak. What is it?"
"That slave-hunting group is asking us for help."
Smoker: "...?"
Smoker froze for a moment, but only a second later, he jumped up angrily. "What the hell? Those guys actually have the nerve to ask the Marines for help? Are you messing with me?"
"No, no."
Tashigi hurriedly shook her head, her expression strange. "Grado is hunting them down. Those guys seemed unable to defeat Grado, so they asked us for help."
"Grado?"
"Yes, and I heard that... It seems because they caused too much trouble in the West Blue."
Tashigi hesitated for a moment. "The Umbrella Corporation has already issued a capture order. As long as any slave-hunting group dares to enter the West Blue, the Umbrella Corporation will capture them all."
She looked at Captain Smoker. "What should we do now?"
"What should we do? You're actually asking me what to do?"
A trace of coldness appeared on Smoker's face. He flicked the cigar in his hand, his eyes flashing slightly. "Have you forgotten our identity? Hurry up and stop them!"
Smoker: "...?!"
Hearing Captain Smoker's words, Tashigi's whole body shook. She opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but in the end, she let out a disappointed sigh and said, "I understand. I'll have the Marines stop Grado."
As she said this, she was about to turn around and go issue the order when…
"Bang!"
A sharp knock landed on her head.
Before Tashigi, clutching her head, could utter the words in her heart, what are you doing?
Smoker, with a face full of black lines, roared angrily at Tashigi: "Who told you to stop Grado? The ones I told you to stop are the slave-hunting group, the slave-hunting group! Have you forgotten? My ship has a problem again!"
…
"Damn it!"
In the North Blue, within a certain underworld force, at this moment, a tough-looking man dressed in a black suit, with the bearing of a big boss, was angrily smashing things inside the room.
"Just some underworld force from the West Blue actually dares to lay hands on our North Blue's underworld forces. You have to know we possess legal slave-catching rights granted by the World Government. Has Gini really taken the West Blue as his own territory? He actually dares to defy the orders of the World Government?"
Although he was furiously smashing things and continuously cursing Gini, he did not mention the Umbrella Corporation at all.
After smashing things for roughly a quarter of an hour, the boss of the North Blue's underworld forces finally sat back down in his chair.
Annoyed, he took the cigar that a lackey beside him had lit, held it in his hand, and took a hard puff.
With a cold gaze, he swept his eyes over the many subordinates in front of him.
In the end, his gaze fell on his trusted right-hand man beside him, a bald, burly tough guy.
With a cold tone, he said, "Tell Gini that he has gone too far. Don't think that just because Grado is the underworld king of the West Blue, he can challenge the entire underworld. Tell him to hurry up and release our people. Otherwise, don't blame us for being impolite."