Pirate: It’s not a phantom beast, it’s a phantom god!

Chapter 343 Meeting
"No more?"

"What do you mean? Are you going to inspect one of the islands down there?"

"Did they go to Fishman Island again?"

Kaido asked curiously, but Osei shook his head.

"neither."

"Then he..."

"he died."

"..."

Kaido fell silent.

Upon hearing the news of Bourfath's death, he fell into a long silence.

So, the guy who followed him shortly after the Hundred Beasts were founded is dead...

The banquet hall was dark, casting shadows over his face and obscuring his expression. He showed no anger, nor sadness… at least not outwardly.

All that could be heard were the sounds of breathing and heartbeats echoing in the hall, which was so quiet it was almost unbearable.

After a long silence, Kaido spoke.

"Is it."

"Bourfat... he's dead."

"Ah."

"navy?"

"There's another Celestial Dragon."

"Did you kill him?"

"Kill them all."

"he……"

There was no funeral. There was just a tombstone over there in the cemetery, that's all.

"Well, I see."

"That's enough."

Pirates are creatures who live in the moment. They don't need grand funerals or tombstones to record their lives. They don't even need to be remembered.

Kaido was preparing to leave; he no longer cared about the banquet. He was feeling restless and wanted to go out to sea for a while… even though he had just returned from overseas.

Just as he brushed past Ossie, the other man reached out and stopped him.

"Give."

A large barrel was handed to Kaido, with a lifelike silver wolf painted on it.

Snow Wolf, the best wine on Fenrir Island, and one of the best wines in the New World.

Due to the scarcity of raw materials and the complexity of the brewing process, the annual production of Snow Wolf liquor is extremely limited, and each barrel of liquor has strict information registration and a unique number.

As one of the flagship products exported by Bai Shou, it has always been positioned as a high-end luxury item.

Even Kaido himself, as the governor, can't usually have a taste; he can only get a barrel or two when the pirate crew holds a grand banquet.

Kaido took the wine offered by Osei and looked at him.

"This was specially approved by Sister La, and it's the only one available this time, just this one bucket."

"Is it……"

Kaido looked at the barrel of sake in his hand, but instead of eagerly opening the lid and gulping it down as usual, he took the sake and headed out of the banquet hall, towards the southwest of the island.

……

On the other side, a new laboratory is under construction at the site of the former First Laboratory.

After much deliberation, Aubert decided to continue building the laboratory here.

As for Wano Country, we'll build another one exactly the same. That way, if one of them gets blown up, we can seamlessly switch to the other instead of just waiting around like we are now.

In just two short weeks, plus the time spent clearing the rubble, even with the New World's most professional construction team working day and night, the project has only just begun...

“Miss Obey, you are here after all.”

Sitting on a stone slab next to the construction site, Ou Bei was supervising the construction progress while fiddling with the cards in his hand.

At her feet, the autonomous robot Little Watermelon No. 1 was spinning around in place, and judging from the expression displayed on the screen, it seemed to be sleeping.
(~﹃~)~zZ
Hearing someone call his name, Obey turned around...

"Ok?"

She looked at the person who had come, her gaze involuntarily glancing upwards before moving down to the familiar face—Dant, Wright's student, who seemed to be gradually becoming capable of handling things on her own.

"It is you."

"You came here for that thing?"

Without Dante needing to say anything more, Ober's gaze moved upwards again, looking at Quinn, who was looking around behind him.

Wright had already informed them via Den Den Mushi that a new scientist would be joining the team.

"To be honest, sometimes I can't help but marvel at the richness of biodiversity in this world, with all sorts of strange and wonderful races."

"For example, the lump behind you, is he a meatball? Or some kind of pigman?" "Uh..."

"This one……"

Dante was a little unsure how to answer, as he didn't know what kind of creature this blob behind him... uh, no... this 'big signboard' was.

It couldn't possibly be an ordinary human being, could it?

It seems that there have never been any ordinary humans in the core layer of the beasts.

"Oh?"

"Oh, it's you, my little girl! It's been so long!"

Just as Dante was wondering how to respond, Quinn withdrew his gaze from his surroundings. He lit a cigar and greeted the slender girl in front of him in a familiar manner.
Compared to Obey, who didn't recognize him at all, Quinn had a deep impression of Obey.

When they first met, the other party quickly disassembled his newly developed laser emitter into a bunch of parts, and then skillfully put it back together.

You have to understand, that thing isn't some building block toy; its internal structure is both confidential and complex, and even as its designer, it would take me quite a bit of effort to disassemble it...

"I remember your name is Obelisk, right?"

"Tsk tsk tsk~ The last time I saw him, he was still a little kid. I never imagined he would grow up so fast."

"Come on, take me to see the lab. Kaido promised to provide me with a top-of-the-line lab."

Quinn strolled over to Obey, his manner quite casual.

Although the other person was Ra's sister, Quinn couldn't sense any similarity between her and Ra...

This is a normal person, a normal person who wouldn't look at themselves like they would a hamster or a pig.

It's better to interact with normal people.
"..."

"do we know each other?"

Waving away the smoke from his cigar, Ou Bei frowned slightly and asked.

"Eh?!"

"You don't remember me?"

"Hmm...that makes sense. After all, you were quite young back then, so it's normal to forget after all this time."

"No, I won't forget anyone I've ever met, especially someone with such distinctive features as you. I'm pretty sure we haven't met before."

"Obe said confidently. For this body, photographic memory is a basic requirement."

If there's something you can't remember, there's no doubt that either it never happened, or it was deliberately forgotten.

For example, Ossie often doesn't remember that she secretly ate snacks in the middle of the night.

"Whoo~"

"Well, kids just have this inexplicable competitive spirit."

Quinn exhaled a puff of smoke and shook his head.

"Logically speaking, someone as handsome as me shouldn't be able to forget someone after just one meeting. The number of women who were infatuated with my good looks back then could circle the Grand Line!"

"So, she's just a little girl and can't feel my charm, huh?"

"..."

Obe fell silent. This shameless, narcissistic attitude was indeed somewhat familiar to her. In her memory, only two people could be this arrogant…

After carefully examining the other person's face, Obe widened his eyes, somewhat uncertain, and said:
"Are you that blond punk from back then?"

"You, how did you become like this?"

The current Quinn is so different from when Obey first met him. He used to be a fit and muscular punk, how did he become...?

"I had heard that some Devil Fruits would cause certain mutations in the body after being eaten... but I didn't expect it to be this serious."

This condition could be considered a disability, right? It looks like even going to the toilet is difficult for him.

So pitiful~
[Indeed, this kind of genetic modification is still very risky; we need to be more careful when conducting experiments in the future.]
"What are you talking about, little girl? How come my physique is like this...?"

"Alright, alright, I know. No need to say anything more. You're trying your best to live too..."

"I--"

Ou Bei waved his hand, not wanting to say anything more about the other person's sore spot.

"You're here to ask for the lab, aren't you?"

"I'm sorry, we've come at an inopportune time."

"Laboratory 1 was destroyed in an accident not long ago and is currently being rebuilt. You'll have to make do with Laboratory 2 next door for now."

Ou Bei pointed to the bustling construction site behind him and said:

"Although there aren't any high-end instruments there, the infrastructure is still complete, at least enough to handle the toys you had back then."

"Or you can wait a bit. The Beasts are moving to Wano Country soon. You can ask Kaido to build a laboratory there that suits your taste."

"Wano Country? Kaido actually conquered that place?"

"What, you've heard of it?"

"Hmm... I have heard acquaintances mention it before; that country seems to be hiding some incredible secret."

(End of this chapter)