"Boss, how do you still have the mood to drink cola—that Elbaf has completely disappeared, and Vice Admiral Hamo and the others are anxious to death... aren't you the least bit curious?"
Marine Headquarters, Marineford.
Hans tightly clenched the newspaper in his hand and looked at Roy.
"Curious?"
Roy glanced at him: "What's the use of being curious? Can I figure out the truth just by thinking about it with my brain?"
"No!"
Hearing this, Hans grew anxious: "It's the mission! The mission! To investigate the truth about Elbaf, the Giant Vice Admirals have offered a huge price, and are even willing to teach Giant martial arts and combined attack tactics..."
"That stuff is useless to me."
Roy blinked.
"But to me... cough cough, no, it's very useful to the brothers!"
Hans almost revealed his true thoughts—recently, the vicinity of Elbaf was considered the hottest area in the entire world. It was said that subordinates of major pirates were active around there, and even the subordinates of one of the Four Emperors, 'Red-Haired' Shanks, had been lingering nearby recently. Therefore, missions related to intelligence on Elbaf were extremely valuable.
But at the same time, the various forces maintained restraint and hadn't directly started a war.
Coupled with the Giant Vice Admirals within the Marines, that was a major faction among the Marine Vice Admirals.
Because Giants generally had a longer lifespan than humans, the seniority of these Giant Vice Admirals was actually quite old, and their authority and prestige within the Marines were not low.
One could imagine how anxious they must feel upon hearing the bad news about their homeland, so they also offered extremely generous rewards.
Missions like this, with high merit and low danger levels, were not easy to find.
However, Hans also knew Roy was right—with his boss's current strength, even Giant martial arts didn't hold much significance for him.
But Hans really wanted to advance, so of course he wanted such an excellent mission...
"You seem to have forgotten something, Hans."
But just as Hans was thinking, Roy had already spoken with a smile.
"Even if you accepted the mission now and went to the sea area near Elbaf to investigate, you wouldn't be able to accumulate merit—you are now a member of the 'Star Hunter Unit', and merit for promotion no longer follows the original system within the Marines."
He said cheerfully.
"!!!"
Hans was struck by lightning on the spot—he had really forgotten about this.
As Roy's direct subordinate, he was naturally immediately placed on the member list of the Star Hunter Unit by Roy.
According to the Marines' current plan, due to the special nature of the Star Hunter Unit, it was a special unit directly under the World Government.
The merit he accumulated within the Marines was naturally meaningless.
By the way, it was exactly because of this reason that Smoker, who had similarly joined the Star Hunter Unit recently, was extremely active at Headquarters—he seemed to have reverted to the mad dog mode he had when he first joined the Marines, showing no tolerance whatsoever for any behavior he disliked.
This made many 'traditionalists' within the Marines quite annoyed, but there was nothing they could do—neither of the two commanders of the Star Hunter Unit had any objections to this, and even took pleasure in seeing it.
"Misery! If this goes on, won't this great Hans have to rely entirely on that fellow Roy to raise my military rank?"
While Hans muttered this in his heart and left gloomily.
Roy, sitting in front of his seat, was very calm in his heart.
Yes.
After successfully 'manufacturing' the Aster, Roy naturally used the power of the Slice-Slice Fruit to return to Marineford—of course, according to what Uma told Loki, it was 'the leader has already returned to headquarters'.
Mm...
Marine Headquarters is also headquarters, nothing wrong with that.
Currently, Uma and Loki were in the process of rushing to Fish-Man Island.
But he had to say...
"The reaction is smaller than I thought?"
Roy thought to himself at this moment.
Yes.
After learning of the prophecy from Shirahoshi, Roy could actually roughly determine—if nothing unexpected happened, the World Government should be planning to make a move on Fish-Man Island next.
As for the reason for making a move, Roy could guess it.
"Elbaf disappeared—the reason is Teach, but the World Government clearly couldn't know this..."
"In their view, the disappearance of Elbaf and the withering of the Treasure Tree Adam must be related to 'The Zodiac'."
"And Imu saw me devour His Source Energy of Lineage Factor in Dressrosa, so..."
Roy tried to look at the possibility of Elbaf's disappearance from Imu's perspective.
There was actually only one possibility.
'Star Lord is collecting Source Energy of Lineage Factor, and has highly likely succeeded in taking the Source Energy of Lineage Factor of the Treasure Tree Adam for himself'.
The coincidental thing was that, although the guessing process was wrong.
But in terms of the result, it actually happened to be exactly the case.
Therefore...
"Imu definitely knows the origins of the 'Treasure Tree Adam' and the 'Sunlight Tree Eve'... so after realizing I am collecting Source Energy of Lineage Factor, He will inevitably make a move on the Sunlight Tree Eve."
"And it was this matter that led to the scene in Madam Shyarly's prophecy appearing."
Arriving at this moment, the trajectory of fate was already quite clear to Roy.
However, up until now, the Marines hadn't received any definitive news from the World Government, which made Roy sigh slightly in relief—this way, at least Uma and Loki still had time.
Besides that...
"..."
At this time, Roy slowly raised his hand.
In his hand, he was holding a 'compass'.
That was precisely the 'relic' belonging to Rocks that he had obtained from Loki earlier—the 'Vivre Compass' that could search for Rocks' whereabouts.
While leaving the Aster, Roy naturally brought the compass back with him.
But the problem was... the direction that compass was pointing at this time was shockingly slightly towards the 'downward' direction to the south.
"Judging from the direction, it's actually not too far from Marineford, but the key is that it's actually pointing downwards?"
This was the part that surprised Roy the most right now.
The needle of this compass pointed with a very small arc, which meant Rocks' location was not far from Marineford.
But pointing downwards meant...
"Rocks' location is beneath the sea surface... after he went to Mary Geoise back then, he was sunk to the bottom of the sea?"
Roy muttered in his heart, very curious about this.
But exactly at this moment...
Bang!
The door to his office was abruptly opened.
Roy casually tossed the compass in his hand, and the next moment it vanished into thin air.
Then, Roy saw Garp striding vigorously into the office.
"Old man Garp, I said this before—it's best to knock when entering someone else's office, right?"
Roy looked at Garp in annoyance.
"Ah, sorry."
Then, he heard Garp apologize.
This instead made Roy's expression become somewhat awe-inspiring.
As he had followed Garp to practice advanced applications of Conqueror's Haki coating recently, coupled with the matters of the Star Hunter Unit, his relationship with this Marine Hero had become very close lately.
So he also knew very well that this old man with a carefree personality was absolutely not someone who would directly apologize—if it were normal circumstances, he would probably just laugh "Hahaha" a few times and consider the matter passed.
As if responding to the thoughts in Roy's heart, Garp's expression at this moment clearly carried some anger and seriousness.
"What happened?"
Roy immediately opened his mouth to ask.
In his heart, a guess faintly arose—just as he thought earlier, the World Government had made a move.
And the facts were exactly as Roy thought.
"The Government gave us our first operation order."
Garp said in a deep voice: "Those bastards, actually daring to issue such an order..."
As he spoke, he angrily handed a slip of paper to Roy.
Roy took the slip of paper, and then saw the mission directly issued by the Five Elders on it.
[It has been decided through discussion by the Five Elders that the Government will immediately dispatch an army and powerhouses to sink 'Fish-Man Island' and destroy the 'Sunlight Tree Eve']
[The Star Hunter Unit will coordinate with the operation, and must ensure that 'Fish-Man Island' is completely erased, and the 'Sunlight Tree Eve' thoroughly withers]
The details of the mission on it could be said to be quite simple, even too simple.
But the content within made Roy inwardly note that it was indeed as expected, and at the same time, he understood why Garp would appear so angry.
"Casually erasing an island and destroying the 'Sunlight Tree Eve'... those pieces of trash in the World Government really dare to say it!"
Garp sneered.
"Neptune is considered an old friend of mine, they actually dare to make me do such a thing..."
His fists were tightly clenched, clearly furious to the extreme.
That's right.
Garp and the current King of Fish-Man Island, the 'Knight of the Sea' Neptune, had a relationship in the past, and could barely be considered friends.
And more crucially, Garp knew very well the significance of Fish-Man Island and the Sunlight Tree Eve to the Fish-Men.
That was the foundation for this race's existence in the world.
One must know, due to the Fish-Man race possessing physical attributes and swimming abilities tens of times surpassing humans, coupled with the appearance of the female merfolk, this made the Fish-Man race the most easily coveted 'goods' among all races.
The reason the Fish-Man race could exist to this day largely relied on the 'natural barrier' of Fish-Man Island existing 10,000 meters beneath the sea.
And Fish-Man Island's ability to exist largely relied on the sunlight transmitted by the Sunlight Tree Eve.
In Garp's view, this order was simply tantamount to 'exterminating the Fish-Man race'—that was an order he absolutely could not tolerate.
"Do they think that after I assumed the position of Commander of this so-called 'Star Hunter Unit', I would become their minion?"
Garp sneered: "Bah—if I have to do this kind of dog-shit, disgusting thing, I would rather not have this dog-shit Commander position!"
In fact, he had even made up his mind to find Sengoku and resign from the Commander's duties.
But at this moment...
"Old man Garp, don't get excited."
Roy, however, looked at the contents of the order in his hand, frowning tightly.
"Resigning from the Commander position won't change anything, will it?"
He raised his hand, pointing at the contents of the order in his hand.
"If you look closely, in this mission, we seem to merely be 'auxiliary'—the Government intends to dispatch its own army and powerhouses to destroy Fish-Man Island and the Sunlight Tree Eve."
"Under such circumstances, whether you object to it or not, the Government will probably just push through with it anyway."
Roy had clearly caught some key information hidden within the mission.
First, he had confirmed that Imu's goal was inevitably to prevent The Zodiac from obtaining the 'Source Energy of Lineage Factor' within the Sunlight Tree Eve, which was why He simply decided to make a move against the entirety of Fish-Man Island and the Sunlight Tree Eve.
Under such circumstances, he could understand this order very well.
For Imu, the Star Hunter Unit was the force He established to oppose The Zodiac, so He naturally had to put it to use.
But at the same time, He didn't want Garp, Roy, and the people of the Star Hunter Unit to know about the specialness of the Sunlight Tree Eve and the Source Energy of Lineage Factor.
So in this mission, the Star Hunter Unit was assigned an auxiliary position.
"What He hopes is probably that if 'The Zodiac' attacks at the critical moment, the Star Hunter Unit can act as the first line of defense, right?"
Roy almost guessed the thoughts in Imu's mind.
But the problem was...
"Because Fish-Man Island received the prophecy in advance, coupled with the 'Aster', Uma and Loki are already arriving at Fish-Man Island now..."
Under such circumstances, as thoughts raced through Roy's mind, he already had an idea.
"Old man Garp, I actually think we should accept the mission."
"Otherwise, the Fish-Man race on Fish-Man Island will truly be in danger."
"If we go there—even if Fish-Man Island and the Sunlight Tree Eve are destroyed, we can at least protect them... we can completely clear out the 'Sabaody Archipelago' to serve as a 'refuge' for the Fish-Man refugees."
He looked at Garp and directly stated his conclusion.
"After all, we are the 'Star Hunter Unit'."
He emphasized the last four words heavily.
Garp also instantly understood his meaning.
If the World Government truly had the ability to fight 10,000 meters beneath the sea and was dead set on destroying Fish-Man Island and the Sunlight Tree Eve, Garp knew that even he would be powerless to stop it.
Even if he quit on the spot, it would be useless.
However, they could do one thing.
That was to establish shelters on the Sabaody Archipelago to protect the Fish-Man refugees.
After all, the Star Hunter Unit had a special status, possessing the highest authority among all armies under the World Government—at that time, even the Marines or even the Celestial Dragons, as long as Roy and Garp didn't agree, they wouldn't be able to snatch people from the Star Hunter Unit's hands.
This way, at least they could ensure casualties were minimized to the greatest extent.
And the most crucial part was, Roy could be certain—doing this would absolutely not attract Imu's attention.
After all, if his guess was correct, Imu's target was purely the 'Sunlight Tree Eve'.
As for the life or death of those Fish-Men on Fish-Man Island—whether they were reduced to slaves or protected by someone, He didn't care.
But for Roy, the situation was different.
"..."
Looking at Garp, whose eyes gradually became firm and sharp, Roy didn't say anything more—he knew this Marine Hero had been convinced by him.
And coincidentally.
In Roy's heart, a bold plan had already formed.
(End of Chapter)
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