Pirate: My Piltover technology is far ahead!

Chapter 124 Garp: Why didn't you ask me to capture Roger?

Oran's decision was simple: he was a "law-abiding citizen," and at least he followed the rules before he flipped the table.

Whatever trouble Roger may cause in the future, that's a matter for the future.

At this point in time, he is a pirate with a relatively high bounty, just like Whitebeard and his crew in the New World. He is strong, but he cannot touch the foundation of the World Government.

Legally speaking, the navy has no obligation to protect non-member states, but there are always exceptions, and that's when the network of connections you've built up comes in handy.

To be precise, it doesn't matter whether the Navy comes to arrest Roger or not. The nearest Navy branch simply doesn't have anyone capable of dealing with Roger. By the time the Navy sends people from a more distant location, Roger will have already left.

This is mainly to show that they have done what they were supposed to do, so that if the world government investigates later, they won't have much to say.

The location information has been given to them; whether or not Roger can be caught is no longer Oran's concern.

"Roger? Gol D. Roger? What's that guy doing in your spot?"

Zephyr's tone changed slightly, sounding somewhat impatient. He knew that Oran himself was quite capable, and with the people around him, the pirates of Paradise couldn't do anything to him.

Most of the pirates who could pose a threat to him were in the New World, and apart from the occasional Supernova, he never expected that a BOSS would suddenly appear on Firefly Island, a place close to the beginner village of the Grand Line.

"I don't know about that. Maybe they came to see a doctor. I'm just an innocent and concerned citizen who saw this big pirate and reported it to you. You can handle the rest."

"Roger doesn't usually target civilians, but be careful, I'm about to..."

[What? News of Roger? Leave that to me, I'm going right now!]

Oran heard a jumble of noises; it seemed someone on Zephyr's side was quite interested in Roger.

"Ahem, it's Garp. You know he's Roger's nemesis. But it'll take some time for him to get from Marine Headquarters to your location. During that time..."

"Don't worry, I just wanted to let you know. I'll handle the rest."

With that, Oran hung up the communication with Zephyr and walked outside.

"Brother Oran, what are you going to do?"

"Isn't he here for treatment? Go and see what's wrong with him."

"But didn't you just report him to the Navy?"

Seeing Oran first report to the Navy and then go to Roger for treatment, Ginny was a little confused.

"These two points are not contradictory. Notifying the navy is just to reduce future troubles. We still need to see what we need to see."

If I really wanted to help the navy capture him, I should find a reason to keep him here for a while, but that wouldn't make any sense for us. If this place becomes a battlefield, all the construction we've done in the past few years would be wasted.

According to Zephyr, the person who came here was Garp, and he was even younger, more than twenty years younger, without Koby holding him back.

Given Garp and Roger's fighting prowess, if they were to fight to their hearts' content, the destruction of most of the surface buildings would be the least of their worries. Oran doesn't need to take sides now, or rather, his team has always been very clear – his own team.

Whether it's the navy or pirates, they're just a part that can be used.

Oran remembered clearly that when Roger set sail again, he was already suffering from an incurable serious illness. He wanted to see what kind of illness was so serious that even the body of a monster like Roger could not heal itself under the treatment of top doctors.

"That's true. Garp and Roger were both in God Valley back then, right? Let them fight amongst themselves."

"By the way, Brother Oran, do you have that kind of medicine?"

"Medicine? What medicine?"

Just as Oran was about to go check on Roger's situation, Ginny stopped him and brought up a special idea.

"It's like... the kind where you have to take the initiative. Bear Cub is too indecisive in this regard; he might need some forceful external intervention."

"Yes, but you should take it slow. Xiong probably has the same idea, he's just worried about too many things."

"That's true, let's keep this as an alternative and talk about it later."

Perhaps feeling that the plan was too radical, Ginny temporarily shelved it, while Oran headed towards the second district.

Wangcheng District was designated as District One. It had the fewest residents and the most hidden things. Apart from Oran's original team and laboratories, no outsiders lived here, making it seem deserted.

The second district he visited is now the island's economic center, where most of the island's major transactions are completed. Its infrastructure is more complete than in other areas, and hospitals and schools are also located within this area.

Meanwhile, at Marine Headquarters, Garp, upon hearing the news of Roger, seemed excited and hurriedly headed towards the dock.

"Bogart, get the men ready! We've spotted Roger! He's finally back!"

"yes!"

One of the marines, wearing a cowboy hat, walked toward the other. He was Garp's second-in-command, Bogart. Although he looked young, he was actually only a few years younger than Garp. He had been serving as Garp's second-in-command since the God Valley Incident.

In fact, this is the only pair in the entire navy, a vice admiral's second-in-command, a unique combination. If Bogart had any ideas, he could have led the warships on his own long ago, but he chose to stay by Garp's side.

"Firefly Island, right? It's really unexpected that Roger would show up there. Coming here this time was definitely the right decision."

"Hmph, you just came here to spout nonsense after refusing the promotion to general, and you just happened to overhear this news."

"Hahaha, the position of general has too many restrictions. Let Sengoku have the headache alone. I don't want that position."

"You'd better say that to his face."

"I already said that I was just kicked out by him. It's fate. But I've always been in charge of Roger, right? How come the news got to you first?"

As Zephyr and Garp walked, they talked about what happened on Firefly Island. According to the Navy's classification, many pirates have specialists in charge. For example, Sengoku deals with Shiki. If Shiki makes any moves, Sengoku is usually sent to deal with him.

"Nonsense, where in Oran would I get your number?"

"Hahaha, you're right! I'll be off then. Leave it to me, I'll bring Roger back!"

Bogart acted quickly. After finding the corresponding Eternity Pointer, Garp's dog-headed warship sailed out of the Marine Headquarters and headed towards Firefly Island.

On Firefly Island, Roger and his group had not yet reached the hospital.

"This island is really big; we still haven't reached our destination after all this time."

Shanks took off his straw hat and fanned himself. They were now in the wilderness, with endless wheat fields on both sides and numerous giant windmills scattered intermittently.

A straight brick road leads into the distance; this is the island ring road. Adhering to the principle that "to get rich, build roads first," although the economic development of different regions varies, their transportation conditions are the same.

At the end of the road, the silhouette of a town could be seen, which was Roger and his companions' destination.

"This island was once a great power, but it declined later. I never expected it to develop so well now. It's much better than the former Kingdom of Fafler."

"Captain Roger, have you been here before?"

"I passed by it once during a previous voyage, and it's very different now; there's no resemblance whatsoever."

This wasn't the first time the Roger Pirates had sailed the Grand Line; they had completed the voyage before, but hadn't found Laugh Tale.

"I see. But I have a question. What does this brand mean?"

[Underground construction is underway; please watch your step.]

Bucky looked at the sign in front of him with some confusion. Although it was a construction site, there were no workers to be seen around, not even passersby.

After years of exploitation, Firefly Island is now sparsely populated, which is actually a normal phenomenon. They didn't pay much attention to it, as this kind of thing is not uncommon on the Grand Line.

Alabasta has a total population of over ten million, but some of the smaller countries combined may only have a few thousand people. They are more like tribes than countries, and uninhabited areas are common.

"Underground construction? It must be underground, we shouldn't be able to see it, right? Bucky, what are you thinking?"

"That's strange, it's underground. What could be in the soil? Wait, could it be that someone is secretly digging for treasure!"

Bucky suddenly thought of something and then pressed his ear directly to the ground.

He was obsessed with treasure and was the most money-loving person on the entire ship.

"Idiot, how could anyone possibly dig for treasure in a place like this?"

"Shh, be quiet, I can hear you, it's getting closer."

rumble

An unknown sound came from underground. Not only Bucky, but Shanks and the others heard the noise and could even feel the ground shaking.

"What happened? Was it an earthquake?"

"No, something's coming up!"

Wow!

Suddenly, the bricks and stones in front of them fell downwards, and a sinkhole appeared on the ground a dozen meters away. Then, a huge dragon head emerged from it.

"Terra, you've dug in the wrong place! How did you end up digging on the highway?!"

Behind the dragon was a little girl carrying an oxygen tank. Well, the older girl looked around and then patted the dragon's head in dissatisfaction.

There is only one dragon here, Terra. After turning the Advance Fruit into a potion, Terra would occasionally take the potion to transform himself into a young dragon and experience the feeling of having power.

Oran didn't stop it. First of all, that batch of medicine could only be taken by Terra herself. For others to take that medicine was no different from suicide. If they accidentally took one too many pills, they would die of old age, and there would be no turning back.

Moreover, even if Terra eats those drugs like candy, it can last for quite a long time. Now it has become a reverse Conan, and it might develop drug resistance someday.

If we're lucky, we might be able to reverse the drug resistance and prevent it from ever reverting to its original state.

It is for this reason that the drug developed through research on the lineage factor of the Advance Fruit was named APTX-4869.

Terra is now contributing to the development of Piltover, such as by digging underground tunnels.

As a mountain dragon of the earth element, Terra, upon entering its youth, can control earth elemental magic, so there's no need to worry about collapses when it digs tunnels.

While excavating, Terra can manipulate the surrounding soil to change its structure and composition, turning underground caves into natural rock caves. After reinforcement, it can even turn the area below into a civil defense project.

Based on the average firepower level at sea, even if a Buster Call were to bombard the tunnel, it wouldn't collapse. This is also Terra's main task now.

It is also its own feeding time. The underground soil and rocks will not disappear out of thin air. Although some of them were reinforced by Terra's power, the rest were eaten up by it.

This is also one of the ways elemental dragons grow; if they want to grow up quickly, they need to consume more energy.

"roar"

"Let's stop digging here for today. Remember to fix this place up."

Terra was carrying Lyriana on her back. After entering adolescence through drug use, even if Lyriana grew another meter taller in two years, Terra could still support her.

[There's a dragon underground! Legend says treasures are guarded by evil dragons, there must be a huge treasure hidden beneath this country!]

Bucky's mouth gaped open, but his brain was working at lightning speed. However, by then, Terra had already used its power to fill the tunnel back into the earth and rocks.

But Bucky kept glancing at the wrongly dug tunnel exit, as if he had some particular idea in mind.

"Sorry, there was a slight deviation in the drawings. Hope you weren't scared."

"I never imagined that this country would have dragons. The sea is truly amazing. It seems I missed quite a lot on my last voyage."

The group that saw the dragon were more surprised than panicked, after all, Roger was still there.

Bucky is an exception; he is rather timid, and his current psychological fluctuations are quite complex.

"Young lady, could you tell me how far it is from here to the hospital? We've been walking for a while, but we still haven't found it."

"The hospital? You've gone the wrong way. The hospital is over there, but I can take you there. It'll only cost 10,000 Berries per person to experience what it's like to fly there. How about it, want to give it a try?"

Nowadays, there is no one on Firefly Island who doesn't recognize her. Even if someone has face blindness, there is no one on the island with a similar body size to her. When they see her, they will only call her Princess Lyliana.

Adhering to the principle of self-improvement, Leliana also earns some extra pocket money through various means, mainly targeting outsiders.

She doesn't ask just anyone; she usually asks based on first impressions. As she gets older, Lyriana has also begun to master Observation Haki, but her Observation Haki seems to be a little special.

She is very sensitive to whether the other party has malicious intent; she will only think about making money from people who have no malicious intent.

In fact, she can earn more if she's full of malice, since she doesn't have to consider matters of principle.

"Flying? Is it riding a dragon? I've never experienced anything like that before."

"No, Terra doesn't like strangers riding it, but there's a special seat available. Would you like to consider it? If we walk, it'll probably take a whole day."

"Then I'll trouble you to take us to the hospital."

Roger handed over 40,000 Berries, and Lyriana skillfully took out several ropes for Terra to hold onto, eventually forming several swing-like objects.

"Sit tight and hold on, it's time to get ready to go."

(End of this chapter)