Starting with two Kamui, they raised the flag of rebellion in One Piece.

If I had known it would turn out like this, I really shouldn't have stolen it so casually.

A sense of regret welled up in the sailor's heart.

Striving to maintain a calm expression, he continued to observe the expressions of those around him, making sure that no one, including the captain, was paying attention to him.

"Now!"

Just as the sailor's eyes lit up and he took his first step forward.

boom!!

Suddenly, without warning, a sound like a cannonball exploded in my ears.

The sailors, who were just about to slip away, were startled.

"W-What happened?!"

In the chaos, the sailor lost his balance and fell heavily to the ground.

He looked up in alarm, and before he could even observe the reactions of those around him to his escape, he discovered that the entire ship was shaking violently.

It wasn't just disheveled sailors.

Nearby crew members were also knocked to the ground at almost the same time.

A variety of sounds immediately filled the entire deck.

The lowest level of the ship's cabin.

Just as Li Mingyuan stepped into the cabin, the ship suddenly shook violently, startling Li Mingyuan, who was still searching.

"What happened?"

He suddenly turned around to look behind him, his three-tomoe Sharingan tomoe spinning, and his sharp eyes instantly caught the changes in the vicinity.

Of course, it doesn't mean they caught the thief.

Li Mingyuan noticed that, for some reason, a section of the floor that had been fine just moments before suddenly started leaking. And it wasn't just a simple seepage; it was as if a hole had suddenly been punched in the hull of a ship. Large amounts of seawater were gushing out of the leak like a fountain, submerging his ankles at a visible speed.

What on earth happened?

The thought had barely crossed his mind when Li Mingyuan realized the situation.

next second.

He then noticed something move at the leak.

Immediately afterwards, the entire cargo ship began to shake violently for the second time.

boom!!

With a violent tremor, Li Mingyuan saw that another section of the ground suddenly exploded as if hit by a cannonball, and a large amount of seawater gushed out from the breach.

Unlike last time, this time Li Mingyuan, who witnessed the entire process, clearly saw what was under the water.

That looked somewhat like a human figure.

"What's that moving around inside the ship... sabotaging it?"

Li Mingyuan stared at the hole in the hull.

Despite the unexpected situation, Li Ming quickly calmed down because he was already on guard against the possibility of a thief appearing at any time.

There was no time to think. He began to rapidly increase the amount of chakra in his eyes. The three-tomoe Sharingan in his eyes spun faster and faster, and the tomoe almost connected into a line, forming a blurry Mangekyou Sharingan shape.

He was already using his eye power, which was close to the limit of three tomoe, to observe the shadows beneath the gushing seawater.

Thus, just as the ship was about to shake for the third time.

"Found it!"

Li Mingyuan suddenly opened his eyes wide.

He reached his hand forward.

At the very moment the floor exploded at the third breach, he seized the less than one-second time difference and grabbed the body of the shadowy figure that had pierced through the ship's hull before it could escape!

Li Mingyuan suddenly exerted his strength, slowly straightening up and pulling the dark figure in his hand out of the water.

"...What are you doing? I'm busy here."

"If my Pele gets flooded because of you, can you afford the loss?"

Under the utterly horrified gaze of the other party, Li Mingyuan spoke in a cold voice.

Already frustrated by the failure to catch the thief, Li Mingyuan was further exacerbated by the unexpected interference from some unknown individual. This situation, where misfortunes never come singly, finally pushed Li Mingyuan's patience to its limit.

The thought of his 1500 million Berries possibly disappearing in the chaos with the thief made him grin.

Li Mingyuan was too lazy to ask the other party why they were chiseling the ship.

The moment Li Mingyuan saw the other person, he roughly knew what the situation was.

It's a fish-man.

Wearing an orange short-sleeved shirt and dark trousers, with a pearl necklace around his neck, his body had a strange, bluish-green skin like a zombie. The most striking feature was his mouth, which, unlike normal people, protruded forward in a tubular shape, like the biological characteristics of a gunfish. At first glance, he looked like a bizarre figure born from the fusion of a fish and a human.

Right now, this guy, who looks somewhat familiar from the original story, is being held by the neck and lifted up in his palm.

The fishman's expression was filled with shock and fear.

Clearly, he had not anticipated this situation at all. After all, how could a human not only not run away when the ship was attacked by fishmen, but also manage to pull him out of the hole in the hull?

Humans simply could not do such a thing...

No, not even many fishmen can do that!

The fish-man's bizarre mouth kept opening and closing. Faced with this extremely strange situation, he wanted to say something, but because his throat was being grabbed, he couldn't utter a single word.

Seeing this, Li Mingyuan didn't waste any words.

"You're unlucky to have seen my eyes, and to be a member of the Arlong Pirates who hate humans."

"I'll repent properly in my next life."

He said it calmly.

Without any hesitation, Li Mingyuan exerted force on his hand, and a cracking sound was heard.

The fishman's neck was broken on the spot.

He stared blankly at the scene before him and released his grip.

The fishman who still had a role in the original story collapsed to the ground, completely lifeless.

"Although when I was observing with my Sharingan, there was only one fishman attacking the bottom of the ship, since the Arlong Pirates are attacking this ship, it's only a matter of time before they notice that a fishman has been killed here, since there is suddenly one less fishman."

"We need to speed things up."

Li Mingyuan withdrew his gaze from the other party.

He looked down and glanced again at the seawater that had reached his calves.

Having already recognized the other party as a fish-man, the current situation is self-evident—it's likely that the Arlong Pirates are attacking the ship.

Although this was his first time seeing fishmen, unfortunately, it seemed there was no time to waste anymore. The sinking of the ship was already a foregone conclusion once the first two large holes were created.

The question now is how long it will take for seawater to fill the entire compartment.

Will he be able to recover the lost money before the ship sinks?

Li Mingyuan's muscles were taut. He concentrated a large amount of chakra in his legs. Although he couldn't perform basic techniques like "walking on water" due to the same reason as the Rasengan, it still greatly amplified the strength of his legs.

At that moment, Li Mingyuan was like a speeding train, running wildly through the lowest level of the ship's hold. All the cargo containers he passed were smashed apart, and a large amount of cargo inside was scattered into the water.

Before long, the contents nearly submerged the entire bottom layer.

A few minutes later.

Li Mingyuan stood at the door of the second-to-last deck, looking at the mess before him.

In just a few minutes, after he had smashed open all the cargo boxes, the water completely flooded the bottom layer.

Looking at the seawater still surging up the stairs and the debris floating with the current, Li Mingyuan felt a little devastated, because in the end, he still couldn't find the thief, nor could he find the stolen money in the cargo hold below, which had been almost completely plowed up.

At this point, it can be confirmed.

The real thief must be either the captain or a sailor on deck; there's no other possibility.

As for where the 1500 million Berries that were stolen from him are... they weren't in any obvious places in the cabin, so they were probably hidden in an extremely secluded place by the thief, or perhaps the thief simply carried them on his person for safekeeping.

"They're really good at hiding, but do they really think they can keep hiding forever?"

"Isn't that a bit too naive?"

Perhaps because he had already prepared himself for the worst-case scenario of sacrificing the entire ship to the heavens, Li Mingyuan no longer felt anxious as he had at the beginning, but instead felt a sense of relief and refreshment.

Back on the deck, before he could even step out the door...

Before him came the sound of conversation carried on the wind.

Outside the wide-open hatch, the sailors stood with their backs to him, all looking nervously in one direction.

The situation appears extremely dire, even bordering on the precarious.

Because none of the crew members present noticed that the guy who had been threatening the lives of everyone on board had now come up from under the cabin.

Li Mingyuan raised an eyebrow.

However, at this point, he was not in a hurry to carry out the final execution. Instead, he calmly stood at the back of the crowd, intending to observe the situation and see what had happened.

Putting everything else aside, Li Mingyuan always felt something was amiss about the Arlong Pirates' attack on the cargo ship.

Logically speaking, although their route is very close to Alon Paradise, their final destination is only an island near Alon Paradise. A few days ago, when Li Mingyuan was chatting and playing cards with the sailors, he asked if there were any other ways for him to transfer there. He never expected that they would take the initiative to come to him now.

The answer to this question is probably only known to the captain, those around him, and the fishmen.

Li Mingyuan looked towards the bow of the ship.

He could clearly see that, apart from the captain and several sailors arguing at the bow, there were four fishmen standing not far away, watching the humans quarrel with their arms crossed and a mocking expression on their faces.

Li Mingyuan listened carefully to the argument. Although it was noisy, he could still make out some of the content.

"You bastard... how dare you lie to us!?"

"The flight path was supposed to only pass near Aaron's Paradise, so why are we here now?!"

"Hey! What are you saying, Captain?!"

A sailor grabbed the captain's collar, his voice trembling with emotion, and kept asking him questions.

However, at this moment, the burly captain simply stood calmly in place, looking down at what was in front of him.

"Have you finished speaking? If you have, let go of my hand."

"My clothes aren't as cheap as you think."

To the sailors' astonishment, the burly man pried open the hand gripping his collar, one finger at a time.

After easily breaking free from the sailors, he glanced at the other sailors around him and said frankly, "Yes, since you've all asked this question, you should all know the answer by now."

"Actually, this ship was originally heading towards Aaron's Paradise. Apart from you, all the old sailors knew this. It was just that we didn't have enough manpower, so we tricked you onto the ship to fill in."

"We've arrived at Alon's Paradise now, it's too late for you to leave."

After saying this, as the surrounding sailors turned around in disbelief to look at the other old sailors who remained silent with sullen faces.

The burly captain turned around and faced the fishmen not far away.

"Have you finished talking? What a great farce."

One of the red-skinned mermen chuckled and said, "What a pity. I thought I'd see humans killing each other, but it's over just like that?"

"Sorry, it took a little time."

The burly man took a deep breath and said somewhat nervously, "You gentlemen must have noticed our uninvited intrusion by coming to the ship so suddenly. Actually, we have a reason for coming. We have prepared a lot of things that can be traded in the cargo hold down below."

"My esteemed fishmen must have many needs in their lives, right? I have come here today to exchange some things that you do not need."

"Oh?"

Hearing this, the red-faced fishman was somewhat surprised. He turned around and glanced at another fishman behind him, who had prominent gold markings on his forehead and chest. The other fishman looked down at the Den Den Mushi at his waist and shook his head almost imperceptibly at the fishman.

"That's strange, there shouldn't be any cargo ships booked recently."

The fishman looked at the burly captain again, his brow furrowed, and asked, "Who gave you permission to come here?"

As the conversation progressed, Li Mingyuan, who was observing, also silently asked himself the same question: Yes, what makes this dilapidated cargo ship so capable of barging onto the island and trying to trade with the fish-men? Yes, the fish-men do possess many rare marine treasures or shipwrecked items that are scarce for ordinary people, and they also need what normal people eat and use. But the question is, why should they trade with you?

When Li Mingyuan heard the burly captain say that the destination was Ah Long Paradise from the beginning, he was also a little surprised, just like the other sailors who were surprised when they found out for the first time. However, he had already guessed before going up to the deck, so he did not lose his composure like the other sailors.

Although he wasn't too incredulous about the truth of the situation, Li Mingyuan couldn't help but find it a little funny. Luckily, his initial goal was Ah Long Paradise, and he also had the strength to back him up, which allowed him to stand here so calmly. If he were just an ordinary sailor, even if he wasn't as helpless as the new sailors standing there dumbfounded, he would probably be laughing in anger right now. He figured that the thief had stolen his money, and now the captain was adding to his troubles, with the two groups even launching a combined attack.

Now, turning his attention back to the burly captain, Li Mingyuan watched closely to see what he would do next.

Since the captain has already thought of this, he must be at least confident. Based on his impression of the captain, the man is intelligent enough to have some tricks up his sleeve, even if he's going all in.