The Pirate Princess Becomes Queen

The chaotic battle in Dressrosa, which began to subside around noon the following day, continued until the next day. (Chapter 224 of the novel "The Pirate Princess Becomes Queen")

King Riku and Princess Violet occupied the palace and publicly declared that Doflamingo was no longer the king of Dressrosa, and that the throne had now returned to the Riku family.

The Revolutionary Army seized the port, cutting off most of Dressrosa's communication channels with the outside world. They did not use the Revolutionary Army's banner, but instead claimed that they were allies with King Riku. King Riku, extremely disappointed with the World Government, tacitly accepted this.

Doflamingo was afraid that his artificial Devil Fruit factory would be attacked, so he guarded the factory after the chaos began.

This factory was a crucial bargaining chip in his dealings with Kaido and the Celestial Dragons. It was far more important to him than the throne of Dressrosa. He was terrified of losing the factory, and despite his formidable strength, he dared not touch it, fearing it might be destroyed by the enemy.

The turmoil in Dressrosa was so intense that even the Expo next door had to be suspended for two days as a result.

Although Crocodile wouldn't actually shout "Where are my trusted men?", he still learned about what happened in Dressrosa through the newspapers.

The revolutionary army underestimated the power of the World News and its owner, the intelligence king Morgans.

If they weren't truly outmatched, they'd dare to report on the Five Elders' underwear color; the lockdown in Dressrosa is nothing.

There were already reporters in Dressrosa who wrote articles that day and published them in the newspaper the next day.

Crocodile finished reading the newspaper in the morning, and reporters came to interview him in the afternoon.

"Mr. Crocodile, what are your thoughts on the chaos in Dressrosa? Do you have anything to say to Lord Doflamingo?"

The reporter, seemingly eager to stir up trouble, asked very pointed questions.

Vivi anticipated that Kaido would be making his move soon, and she needed to leave for Wano Country. For the past two days, she had been creating the illusion that she had been stabbed by an assassin from the Donquixote Family. At this moment, her face was pale, and she coughed occasionally. She whispered to Crocodile, "Just say you don't know."

Crocodile glanced at her sideways and snorted disdainfully. This subordinate was good in every way, except that she was too timid. She would be scared by the slightest thing. With such a cowardly attitude, how could you fight for the world with me?!

Who do you think I am? Who do you think you are? You won't let me speak? I'll speak anyway!

Crocodile, puffing on his cigar, said in a condescending tone, "Times have changed. Doflamingo's methods are outdated, but he doesn't even realize it. It's ridiculous! I advise him to leave Dressrosa as soon as possible; it would be good for everyone."

Strictly speaking, his words were quite objective. Crocodile didn't want to fight Doflamingo to the death either. On one side was the Big Mom Pirates, and on the other side was the Beasts Pirates. It was already pathetic enough for the Seven Warlords to be dogs of the World Government, and now they had to be dogs of the Four Emperors as well.

According to his thinking, you should hand over the territory and then go about your business.

The reporter scribbled furiously: "Crocodile said that this was all his plan, and this is just the beginning. Doflamingo is outdated, and if he doesn't leave Dressrosa soon, death awaits him!"

Soon after, reporters came to interview Doflamingo.

Although he wasn't exactly surrounded by enemies, Doflamingo was in a very bad situation and really didn't want to create another formidable foe like the Information King. He could only grit his teeth and accept the reporter's interview.

The reporter then added fuel to the fire with another far-fetched story: "Mr. Crocodile said that your existence tarnishes the reputation of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, and he is deeply ashamed of it. He hopes that you will withdraw from the ranks of the Seven Warlords of the Sea as soon as possible and go home to farm."

Doflamingo struggled to suppress his rage; he was about to explode.

The last person who made him this angry from childhood to adulthood was his own father. His incredibly stupid father gave up his Celestial Dragon status, which led to him being tied to a pillar and paraded by a group of "lowly people" when he was young. He killed his own father with his own hands, and now he wants to tear Crocodile apart with his own hands!

He sneered, his eyes filled with a menacing intensity as he looked at the reporters who were trying to add fuel to the fire: "Tell Morgans behind you, and tell those Celestial Dragons, Crocodile isn't as simple as you think. You think he's a puppet? That just proves you're stupid!"

He pointed at the camera, and the cameraman quickly snapped a photo.

"He has gone very far in the research of Devil Fruits. Let me tell you, those big shots behind you, he is like a demon in the night. As long as you show a weakness, he will rush over and tear your flesh apart! To tell you the truth, my allies and I have already researched it. Crocodile can now enhance his Devil Fruit ability to other Devil Fruit users. I don't know how he did it, but he must have an extremely large research team behind him."

Doflamingo coldly looked at the reporters and cameramen: "You are not allowed to edit my words, not a single word, otherwise... even Morgans can't save you!"

Facts speak louder than words. Doflamingo, a great pirate second only to the Four Emperors, is indeed more intimidating than Crocodile. This time, the reporter dared not make up stories and published his words verbatim in the newspaper.

The public just watched it for fun, what does it have to do with us?

Crocodile himself found it amusing after reading it. He had cyborgs based on Devil Fruit research? What was that? He'd never even heard of it! Having read newspapers in the Sabaody Archipelago for over half a year, he now had a good understanding of how the World News newspaper operated. He assumed the reporter was just talking nonsense and didn't take it seriously at all.

Weiwei volunteered to lead the investigation, pretending to be the thief crying "stop thief!"

Crocodile waved his hand dismissively: "No need! These are all just stories written by those reporters. Miss Wednesday, you're not as good as Miss Sunday in this respect. You need to be able to distinguish between truth and falsehood. If Miss Sunday were here today, she wouldn't have asked this question at all. You're still too young."

Vivi: "......"

Sure! I'm young, you're experienced, whatever makes you happy!

Crocodile didn't take it to heart, but some people did, like... the Five Elders.

The Five Elders personally called Doflamingo to confirm, and Doflamingo didn't flaunt his status as a Shichibukai; he answered all their questions.

Diamanti followed his inner voice and escaped with Lao Fan and the others, but many traces remained at the scene. The sand, the raw flesh he had devoured and torn, and the shell debris could still be found.

On the surface, she is the Queen of the Pleasure District, but in reality, she is Stussy, a CP0 agent of the World Government. She personally went to Dressrosa to collect evidence from the scene, and then returned to the Holy Land of Mary Geoise with a series of residual substances. She handed these things over to the World Government's chief scientist, Vegapunk, who claimed to be 500 years ahead of the current scientific level.

Chapter 225 Reinforcements

In the main text of "The Pirate Princess Becomes King", Chapter 225, "Reinforcing Troops", Vegapunk is indeed a genius and has come a long way on this path. He has reversed the experimental process of Vivi using the Devouring ability as a foundation and then adding sandification ability. He disdains such experiments, thinking they are too bad and cannot be compared with his own research results. However, he still issued a detailed written report and handed it to the Five Elders.

The Five Elders are considered very knowledgeable in this pirate world where illiteracy is rampant, but even they couldn't understand many of the terms in Vegapunk's report.

Fortunately, the report contains a conclusion at the very bottom.

They can understand this conclusion.

"The power of the Sand-Sand Fruit was added to the power of the Gluttony Fruit?"

This was a very unexpected result. Many people know that the Sand-Sand Fruit is Crocodile's ability, but who has the ability of the Gluttony Fruit? It didn't take them long to find the answer: Wapol, the current king of Drum Kingdom, is the user of the Gluttony Fruit.

A memory that wasn't too long ago surfaced in the minds of the five.

Walpo once shouted in the Holy Land of Mary Geoise that the crocodile was going to kill him.

At the time, the Five Elders didn't take it seriously. They believed that Crocodile was under house arrest in the Sabaody Archipelago and couldn't possibly travel all the way to Drum Kingdom to kill someone. Crocodile didn't have the guts or the ability. They thought the two had no prior grudges and were completely unrelated, so how could he possibly commit murder? Someone must have impersonated him. Now, however, they think differently...

This is truly terrifying to think about! What Wapol said is indeed true; the Crocodile deceived everyone and made his move right under their noses!

Now that Wapol has disappeared without a trace, neither alive nor dead, he is a confirmed missing person. The Five Elders are very familiar with this method of making someone "disappear." They often do this and are very skilled at it. It is obvious at a glance that King Wapol is now in grave danger and there is a high probability that he is already lying in some glass container as an experimental subject!

The sand crocodile was acting quietly, but it turned out to have a huge research team behind it?

They reviewed Vegapunk's research report repeatedly and even called to confirm it.

Vegapunk still believes that Bartholomew Kuma is the best experimental subject and that lasers are the strongest attack method. In his field of expertise, Vegapunk does not accept any questioning. This so-called experiment of devouring and turning into sand is not worth mentioning!

The Pacifista he developed, and its more powerful versions, are undoubtedly the strongest weapons, bar none.

The Five Elders exchanged bewildered glances. Although Vegapunk had dismissed Crocodile's creations as worthless, he had mentioned the Devouring ability several times in his speech, indicating a degree of approval. What did this mean? It meant that this path was feasible!

Vegapunk's arrogance is simply unbearable. He considers Caesar Clown, Judge, and Queen to be idiots, even though these three are already top scientists in the eyes of the world. Now, "Crocodile's" team seems to have surpassed them and is closely following Vegapunk.

The Five Elders were completely unsettled. Crocodile's plot to seize Alabasta was now clearly a ruse; his real target was Drum Kingdom, Alabasta's neighbor! And King Wahlbo of Drum Kingdom!

Their first reaction was to capture Crocodile and torture him to force him to reveal all his secrets. But then they thought, "That won't work! Vegapunk created the Pacifistas, so why are you arresting me, Kizaru?" Right?

The research team behind the sand crocodile has reached this point. Whether or not the sand crocodile exists is really not important. Science can be replicated. If you can make one, you can naturally make a hundred.

There's no point in catching sand crocodiles; we might as well leave them there and use the opportunity to find the research team behind them.

The Five Elders immediately issued orders to the Navy: "Isn't Crocodile causing trouble in Dressrosa? Increase your forces and make things even bigger! They want to see what other tricks Crocodile has up his sleeve!"

Compared to the World Government's rule, Dressrosa, the Seven Warlords of the Sea, and the Navy are nothing; in their eyes, they are just a string of numbers that can be sacrificed.

"We need to increase the troop strength?" Marshal Zhan Guo received the order directly from the Five Elders, bypassing the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, "Steel Bone," in his office, and immediately felt that it would be difficult to handle.

The deployment of Akainu and a large number of elite troops to the New World has already created a loophole in the Navy's defenses. The Navy has a large force with many skilled fighters, but when distributed around the world, it becomes stretched thin. Now, the Five Elders want them to send reinforcements to the New World, which is a difficult situation.

With Akainu absent, Fleet Admiral Sengoku could only call Aokiji and Kizaru over to discuss the matter. The Five Elders took a firm stance, and this time he also brought along his old buddies: the gaunt and thin Vice Admiral Tsuru, and Vice Admiral Garp, who was sitting alone in a corner, happily eating senbei, seemingly oblivious to everyone else.

"They're even sending reinforcements? How scary." Kizaru maintained his nonchalant expression.

Aokiji didn't sleep today. He asked seriously, "What's the purpose of the reinforcements? It's definitely not the 100,000 pirates from the Expo. Is it targeting one of the Four Emperors? Are we going to start a direct war with Kaido?"

The Five Elders offered no explanation for their orders, not even a hint of it. Sengoku didn't know why either; he could only offer his own analysis.

"It should be related to the situation in Dressrosa. This is in line with our earlier predictions. There is a high chance that Kaido will personally intervene. At that time, it will be difficult for Akainu to withstand the combined forces of Kaido and Doflamingo alone."

Sengoku believed it was still about capturing Jin. The Five Elders valued this person highly, and he just wanted to curse, "Why didn't you do this sooner?"

He wanted Aokiji to lead the team to provide support, but this time it was extremely unusual, and Kizaru stood up ahead of time.

"I will go and support Sakazuki."

He had already stood up, and Sengoku couldn't say anything. He remained silent for a few seconds and then said, "Okay, thank you for your hard work."

Kizaru led his fleet away from Marineford, secretly leaving along the way to meet Sentomaru, who had been following Vegapunk.

"Old man, I'm the most tight-lipped man in the world. I won't tell you that Vegapunk obtained a very strange experimental sample early this morning. He believes that another research team is also conducting research on Devil Fruit abilities. Their research is still in its early stages, but the direction should be correct. He also cursed the World Government for ignoring the matter of the Gluttony Fruit."

Kizaru was surprised: "How terrifying! There's actually a team like this? Who's behind this team?"

Sentomaru said very seriously, "Grandpa, I am the most tight-lipped man in the world. I can't tell you that person is Crocodile."

Having obtained the answer he wanted, Kizaru immediately caught up with the fleet and headed towards the New World.

Chapter 226 Artificial Devil Fruit Processing Factory (Bonus Chapter for Night Rain and Swallow Moon)

The Pirate Princess Becomes King, Chapter 226: The Artificial Devil Fruit Processing Factory is Beset by Internal and External Troubles. To protect his artificial Devil Fruit factory, Doflamingo racked his brains, but he was overwhelmed. The previous kamikaze bombs had truly frightened him, and he feared that another massive explosion would destroy the artificial Devil Fruit processing factory, which would be the end for him. He had no choice but to ask Kaido for help.

This is his biggest trump card.

He was lucky; Kaido had a little to drink today, but he wasn't drunk and was still fairly clear-headed.

After hearing Doflamingo's request, Kaido put down his sake gourd and cursed, "You're such a piece of trash! A mere Crocodile has made you look so pathetic! Fool! Even the pigs of Wano Country are smarter than you!"

Doflamingo could laugh out loud at anyone else, but not at Kaido? He really didn't dare. Evil people will be punished by other evil people, and Kaido was an even more evil person than him.

"...Your Excellency, I must now guard the artificial Devil Fruit factory. The chaos here has just subsided, but I cannot leave the factory in order to restore production to its previous levels."

He spoke vaguely, but he also wanted to maintain his independence when facing Kaido.

In reality, there's hardly any production! Vivi has reservations about trusting Brook and Perona, and since Doflamingo killed his own father, his trust in ordinary people outside of his family's executives is even lower.

A single artificial Devil Fruit can fetch over 100 million Berries on the black market. With such a huge profit, who wouldn't be tempted?

The factory previously used toy soldiers as workers, and with Sugar's Devil Fruit ability, their individual consciousness was suppressed. These toy soldiers were the best labor force. If it weren't for the need to keep the factory running at full capacity, he would have killed all the opponents long ago. Did they really think that Doflamingo wouldn't dare to kill people?

Now all the opponents have returned to normal, so he killed all the opponents in the factory, but the production of artificial Devil Fruits has still come to a semi-suspension.

In order to keep the factory running, he has hired a large number of pirates to work in the factory these past two days.

He acted like a supervisor, fully activating his Observation Haki, watching everyone and killing anyone he saw hiding.

There's no doubt about the moral character of pirates. On the first day, he hired ten pirates to work at the factory, and by the end of the day, he had killed only two. On the second day, the remaining two would also be killed by him for theft and other issues. Doflamingo was getting increasingly annoyed by the "labor shortage."

After being repeatedly attacked by Crocodile, his reputation is no longer enough to deter the current pirates. At this time, he must find Kaido to put order. As long as Kaido comes, both Crocodile and the Marines can be suppressed, and he will then be able to free up his hands to deal with the rebels in Dressrosa.

When the time comes, I'll return to the palace, seal off the port, send all the pirates away, and force the civilians to work in the factories. The civilians are much more obedient than the pirates. After resting for two days, I'll go find the newly appeared Childhood Fruit.

He has already come up with a general action plan in the past two days, and now he just needs to wait for Kaido.