One Piece: A Guide for Ordinary Players

There were three people on the small boat: an old man dressed in the style of the Sky Island, a young blonde woman, and a local child with a displeased expression.

Normally, the three of them should be here, but the current situation is clearly not normal.

The old man from the sky island waved and said, "Are you Luffy's friends? He described this ship to us!"

Although Nami was puzzled, the three people in front of her didn't seem like bad guys with any fighting ability, so she frowned and stepped forward to answer:

"We are indeed Luffy's crew. And you are?"

The old man let out a long sigh of relief: "Brother Luffy once bought some ship repair materials from our store, but he told me that his crew and ship were taken away by the Express Shrimp, so I pointed him here. Are they still safe?"

Upon hearing that it was someone who had helped her captain, Nami quickly expressed her gratitude, saying, "We met last night, and they are still in the woods. We are on our way to meet up with them."

The old man breathed a sigh of relief and said, "That's good. I used cloud shells to open a road that leads directly to the end of the Western Paradise. You can leave the Sky Island by following this canal."

Nami shook her head and said, "No, I have to go pick them up first."

Robert stood on the ship's railing watching the show, silently waiting for the right opportunity, but Blackbeard behind him urged him on.

"Hurry and grab the boat! Let's follow that route out!"

Robert frowned. "Captain, shall we try to find the Poneglyphs? I see on the map that we're quite close to Shandora."

Blackbeard said coldly, "Kid, the experience I've gained over the years at sea is this: life is more important than anything else! Now do as I say right now!"

Robert was breathing heavily. He was so close to achieving his goal, and he was absolutely unwilling to give up now!

Hey! What are you doing!

A gasp interrupted Robert's thoughts. The native child who had come here with Cornish and his daughter suddenly jumped into the Cloud River and was swimming vigorously toward the shore.

Robert's eyes lit up! The opportunity had arrived!

Nami instinctively jumped into the river and quickly chased after the child.

Robert jumped off the Merry and landed heavily on the small boat that Cornish and his daughter were on.

Cornish exclaimed in surprise, and Robert whispered, "Let's borrow your Wiba for a bit."

Without waiting for their agreement, he pushed their Wei Ba into the Cloud River.

Nami, being tall and long-armed, quickly caught up with the child and pulled him into her arms.

Robert glanced at the still calm sea of ​​clouds and deliberately shouted, "Nami! Quick, climb into this little boat! I see something swimming towards us in the river!"

Nami, of course, didn't think Robert was lying, and quickly pulled the child towards Waver.

Cornish and his daughter looked puzzled, wondering what Robert had seen. Just as they were about to ask, Robert quickly interrupted, "Get on the boat and help us get started. I think that thing underwater is huge!"

Cornish and his companion were intimidated by Robert's imposing presence, so they quickly attached their small boat to the back of the Merry and followed Robert aboard.

Nami carried the child aboard the Waver, quickly got used to the controls after a couple of tries, and then followed the Going Merry alongside the ship.

Blackbeard probably thought Robert was lying to get him to sail the ship, so he stopped urging him.

Nami, having recovered from the novelty of piloting the Waver, began to wonder, "Hey, Robert, what did you just see?"

Robert was filled with anxiety, fearing that his involvement would cause him to miss a crucial juncture.

Just as I was considering how to answer, I heard a splashing sound on the other side of the Merry.

Robert grabbed the gunwale to steady himself, and saw a giant snake, the size of the entire Merry, with its head alone emerging from the water.

Nami screamed and instinctively tried to turn around and run away from Waver.

Robert's eyes gleamed with excitement; this snake was the express train he had been longing for to speed through the Sky Island storyline!

"Watch out! Don't let this strange snake capsize the boat!"

Robert shouted, but his body moved towards the snake on its own.

Nami genuinely believed that Robert was protecting the Going Merry and was deeply moved. However, she then saw the strange snake suddenly writhe as if it had eaten something bad, open its mouth wide, and begin to howl towards the sky.

Although snakes do not have vocal cords, some snakes, such as the king cobra, can produce a roar-like sound by exhaling and inflating the air sacs in their throats.

The snake in front of us was enormous; even its low growls were terrifying.

Robert kept issuing short, urgent commands: "Start the ship!" "Get out of its way!" "Protect the Merry!"

Then, under the gazes of the Conis father and daughter as if they were looking at idiots, a gust of wind shot out from under his feet, and he crawled into the mouth of the giant snake as if he were willingly feeding wild animals.

His deliberate act was so obvious that anyone could tell it was intentional, because he even had the leisure to take a kerosene lamp off the mast.

But what Nami saw from below the ship was Robert desperately protecting the Merry, leaping up to stop the giant snake, only to be swallowed whole by it.

The giant snake began to struggle and writhe again, and Nami could no longer suppress her fear as she piloted the Waver into the dense forest.

After struggling for a while, the giant snake also plunged into the woods, leaving the Merry and the father and daughter Cornish bewildered on the quiet canal.

As soon as he entered the giant serpent's mouth, Robert pulled out a harpoon from his spatial storage. He had originally planned to use it to anchor the Going Merry to the iron barrel and get to the sky island if Blackbeard's crew couldn't use it. Now, he used it to secure himself.

Even though he had three times the stamina of an ordinary person, he didn't think he could survive inside the giant snake's belly like Nami.

The harpoon shot out and pierced the inner wall of the giant snake's abdomen. Robert quickly grabbed the rope and was suspended in mid-air.

This giant serpent on the floating island even ate a lot of ancient stone bricks in its belly. Every time it raised its head and rolled around, the undigested food in its belly was like a washing machine.

Aside from freaks like Luffy, it's really hard for the average person to survive here.

Blackbeard asked urgently, "What happened?"

Robert gripped the rope behind his harpoon tightly and answered with difficulty, "A giant snake bigger than the ship attacked the Straw Hat crew's ship, and now we've all been swallowed by it!"

Blackbeard was furious: "Useless!"

Robert felt his backpack start to vibrate, clearly indicating that Blackbeard was about to emerge from the iron ball.

With a fierce look on his face, Robert gritted his teeth, loosened the rope in his hand, and threw himself into the belly of the giant snake.

Even though Robert tried his best to protect himself, he was still hit hard several times in this dark and weightless environment before finally falling heavily into the soft-touch belly of the giant snake.

Huge rocks kept falling from all sides, so Robert simply raised his backpack to shield his head.

The iron bucket stretched wider and wider, and darkness poured out of the opening. Blackbeard's figure materialized from the darkness and was hit on the head by a brick.

Blackbeard: "You're saying this is inside a snake's belly? What? There's a house inside a snake's belly?!"

Robert: Snake...

Chapter 14 From the Bucket, Back to the Bucket

Before Blackbeard could even start cursing, his foot slipped, and as the giant snake began to move, his body naturally began to writhe.

Robert, carrying the oil lamp, considered throwing away the backpack and the broken tin inside, but after thinking about it, he silently slung it over his shoulder.

Blackbeard was hit by a collapsing stone wall, which made him so angry that he yelled and punched the stone wall to pieces.

After adjusting for a moment, Blackbeard glared fiercely at Robert, who was carrying an oil lamp: "You can't even handle taking a ship properly!"

Robert said aggrievedly, "Captain, even a single-masted sailboat can't be sailed by myself. I've been trying to figure out how to get the Straw Hat crew to help me sail. If that guy who can use lightning hadn't suddenly appeared, I would have escaped by now."

Although Blackbeard was furious, upon closer reflection, it was indeed true. No one could control a ship alone unless they ate some strange Devil Fruit or, like Hawkeye, made a small boat and rowed it with a knife.

"Captain, are you alright coming out now? Won't this attract that man's attack again?"

Blackbeard, leaning against a nearby building, said, "This snake is indeed very large. Its body blocks the detection of Observation Haki, so the enemy should not be able to find me."

Robert asked with concern, "Is your injury any better?"

Blackbeard gripped Robert's arm, his face sinister, and said, "You won't die anytime soon, but I haven't been able to eat, so my recovery is a bit slow. Can't you conjure up food? Quickly conjure some for me!"

Robert thought to himself: It's good that you're recovering slowly. If you were to recover to your peak condition, I'd be in trouble.

He reached into his spatial storage and took out a piece of beast meat: "I can only conjure up ingredients, not ready-made food. Please wait while I process it."

Using the newly acquired Flame Shell Gloves, Robert breathed out flames and roasted the piece of beast meat over the fire.

"Who's going to eat this much? Conjure up some more!"

Robert turned the meat in his hand and said with difficulty, "I can only conjure up a limited amount of ingredients in a short time, so this is all I can make."

Blackbeard's anger was reaching its peak, and Robert felt that the good impression he had left on him was about to be completely wiped out.

That's the downside of being with such a capricious and wicked person; you have to always maintain your usefulness, otherwise they might turn on you at any moment.

The meat was just cooked to about four or five tenths done when suddenly an arm reached out from the darkness and grabbed the meat as if it weren't afraid of burning its hand.

Robert and Blackbeard were both taken aback when they saw the hand retract with a whoosh.

"good to eat!"

It wasn't until that shout came that Robert suddenly realized, "Damn, Luffy's here!"

Blackbeard's anger was completely ignited. Even with his Observation Haki, he could hardly defend against this strange tactic of attacking from the darkness, with no one else in sight.

With a loud shout, Blackbeard lunged towards Luffy.

When Luffy saw someone flying towards him, he instinctively stretched out his arm and grabbed a nearby building, pulling himself away to avoid the attack.

Blackbeard recognized Luffy's appearance and felt an intense hatred for him. Since it was already difficult to obtain information about the Poneglyphs, capturing Luffy and exchanging him for great fame was the best option.

Having figured this out, Blackbeard no longer concealed his intentions, conjuring darkness in his hands and forcefully sucking the surrounding bricks and stones into it.

Robert retreated swiftly the moment Blackbeard made his move, knowing that even a slight brush against him in such a fight could cost him his life.

Luffy then saw who had attacked him: "Oh, it's you, strange old man. I haven't eaten all day. Do you still have that delicious meat from earlier?"

When Blackbeard heard Luffy asking him for food, he was furious. "You've been hungry all day, but haven't I been hungry for even longer?"

I finally found a place where the enemy couldn't detect me and could get some fresh air. I was just about to grab a bite to eat when you stole it from me. And now you dare ask me if I have anything to eat!

With both old and new grudges combined, Blackbeard wished he could roast Luffy on the spot to satisfy his hunger.

He roared, and the bricks that had been sucked into the shadows were instantly ejected, hurtling towards Luffy like shooting stars.

When Luffy saw Blackbeard hitting him, he thought it was because he had stolen Blackbeard's food and made him angry. He quickly inflated himself into a balloon and deflected all the bricks and stones that were being shot at him.

At this time, Luffy's Devil Fruit is still the Paramecia-type Gum-Gum Fruit, which makes him least afraid of blunt weapon attacks.

The flying stones were deflected in all directions, causing the giant snake great pain. After a brief respite, the giant snake began to writhe and twist again.

Even powerful figures like Blackbeard and Luffy were helpless against this giant snake. The dark acupoints they used earlier could only absorb the surrounding bricks and stones, but the giant snake's abdominal cavity remained completely unaffected.

After all that writhing, Blackbeard finally calmed down. He wasn't like Luffy, who was completely brainless and knew that taking action would anger the giant snake, yet still recklessly caused trouble.

Robert crawled out of the rubble and, seeing that the two had stopped fighting, stepped forward to smooth things over.