Pirates: It's not a mythical beast, it's a phantom god

"Drinking half a barrel in one breath... Since Captain Kaido likes to drink in such a joking way, it's fine to let him rot like a joke."

"Drinking himself to death... Although it sounds funny, it suits him quite well, doesn't it?"

"..."

Light on the other end of the Den Den Mushi stopped talking. He didn't know what to say, so he could only look at Jin.

"Ah~"

Taking the Den Den Mushi from Light, Jin said helplessly:

"La, this time it's Mr. Kaido's fault. He got a little too proud of himself."

"From now on, I will help keep an eye on him regarding his drinking. I won't let Mr. Kaido indulge in excessive drinking like he did this time."

"So you come and save him this time."

"..."

"I'm busy with my own business now."

"You guys go find Ossi and ask her to give Captain Kaido a simple CPR."

After a long silence, La finally spoke.

After all, we can't really let Kaido die like a joke~

"Don't do it yourself. Physical fire can't protect you from that cold air."

"understood."

Click~

After hanging up the Den Den Mushi, La sighed softly.

[Phew~ I hope this will teach you a lesson, Captain Kaido.]

[Fine wine, delicious food, beautiful women... these are certainly tempting, but 'dreams' are the only desires worth indulging in.]

……

"Uh... So, Boss Kaido is poisoned by fake wine?"

After receiving the call from Den Den Mushi, Oshima rushed to the banquet hall without stopping. As soon as he entered, he saw everyone gathered in a circle as if they were watching a crime scene.

And in the center of the circle was Kaido, who was neither breathing in nor out.

"Ah~ This is too tragic. How come even the soul is frozen into an old popsicle?"

As he walked closer along the path that the pirates had voluntarily made room for, Osi rubbed his arms because he felt so cold.

While others would only get frostbite when touched, Osi, who was extremely sensitive to the soul, could directly feel the chill that permeated the soul.

"Ha~"

After blowing air into his hands and rubbing them together for a few times, Osi stretched out his hands and placed them above Kaido's chest.

Stab ~

Bang!

A weak electric current flashed, and Kaido's body trembled suddenly.

The thick layer of ice was directly blasted open by a thunderbolt from the sky, and then the wind of life forced its way in, and the originally stuck life cycle finally continued.

The long, cold winter finally ended, and the vigor of summer spread from Kaido's body...

boom~

His heart began to beat, and his chest began to rise and fall... Kaido slowly woke up.

"Whoo~"

"This wine is really strong!"

Chapter 272 The Great Kaido

Kaido was brought back to life.

Although he had just mocked Hua Zha for being a sissy after drinking one glass of wine, and then turned around and drank himself to the point of being drunk, requiring his men to beg for mercy before being rescued, looking very embarrassed, he just waved his hand and pretended that what happened just now had never happened. Everyone continued to play music and dance without any shame... Well, he looked really handsome in his carefree manner.

In short, there were no more unexpected problems at the banquet, and it lasted smoothly until the evening, which made both the guests and the hosts have a great time.

As for the remaining half barrel of wine, although Kaido tried his best to stop it, everyone unanimously decided that King take it outside and set it on fire.

Jin really didn't dare to just dump such a dangerous thing anywhere. It would be safer to destroy it with fire.

……

After the banquet, Kaido and Hanazawa, the old acquaintances, fell asleep side by side.

It was not until near noon the next day, when both of them were almost sober, that they began to talk about business.

First, Kaido, chairman of the Beast Group, led everyone from the Hanaza Group to visit the headquarters of Beast Heavy Industry, a key subsidiary of the group, and several of its arsenals located on the island.

Huazha, executive director of Huazha Group, expressed his approval of Baishou's current development and said that he would fully support Baishou Heavy Industry's future capacity expansion and overseas market development plans.

In addition, Hua Zha himself was particularly impressed by the cutting-edge casting technology and efficient production lines demonstrated by the island's arsenal, and believed that this laid the most solid industrial foundation for deepening cooperation between the two sides.

Amid the cordial and friendly exchanges between the two sides, time unknowingly came to noon.

After lunch at the Baishou staff cafeteria, Mr. Wright, the current general manager of Baishou Group, gave the Huazha Group a brief introduction to the dozen or so island properties currently under Baishou's control, as well as its local specialty agricultural and sideline product mining, processing, and export business...

Hua Zha, chairman of Hua Zha Group, expressed his admiration for this and nodded frequently after visiting the Yu Ren Children's Education and Training Experimental Base, expressing his admiration for Baishou's foresight.

……

Three days later, at the east dock of Fenrir.

"Hana Zha, are you really not considering joining my army directly?"

Following behind him were Jin, Light, Ossi and other people who came to see him off. Kaido stood on the shore and extended an invitation to Hanazawa again.

"No."

Faced with Kaido's third invitation, Hanazawa, who had already boarded the ship, still shook his head, which made him feel a little disappointed.

But this time, Hanafuda's shaking of the head was not a rejection of Kaido.

During these three days, he followed Kaido, King and others to carefully examine the Beasts Pirate Group from the inside out.

To be honest, it subverted his imagination.

Whether it was the internal structure and system, the external armed forces, or other things including talent training, scientific research investment, and even disability protection... these were far beyond his understanding of the term "pirate group".

Kaido is serious and has been moving step by step towards the goal he had talked about with himself.

In order to fight against the World Government and the existing order it represents - in order to confront this terrifying monster that is so huge and powerful that it dominates the entire ocean, the newborn beast, the Hundred Beasts, is constantly sharpening its fangs.

Now, "He" has grown in a short period of time to the point where he can stir up trouble in a certain area. Not long ago, even this young beast bit off one of the opponent's claws.

In comparison, he is now just a small sampan, drifting aimlessly.

He asked himself if he were to replace Kaido, he would not be able to do this.

[Compared to me, who's still spinning in circles, you've already come this far...]

Seeing that Kaido was about to speak again, Hanazawa interrupted him with a wave of his hand:

"Compared to joining your team and becoming an affiliated pirate group, I can provide you with more assistance as a Seven Warlord of the Sea."

"Hana Zha, you..."

"Kaido, I said I left the kingdom because I was tired of the endless war, but that's not entirely true."

"After all, whether it's you or me, those of us born in the lower classes seem to have been living with war ever since we can remember."

"War never stops in Woka. Wars with neighboring countries, wars with non-neighboring countries, even wars with countries that are completely unrelated... wars of annihilation, blocking wars, defensive wars... It's always war, war, war. It's as if the reason for our existence is war."

"We have long been accustomed to war, just like we are accustomed to wine that always smells of gunpowder."

"I have no complaints about a life accompanied by war."

Hanafuda took out two bottles of wine from somewhere and threw one of them to Kaido. This seemed to be their Woka Kingdom's special way of saying goodbye.

"Ton ton ton ton~"

After downing the entire bottle of liquor in one gulp, Hanafuda wiped his mouth and said with a mocking and disdainful tone:

"You probably won't guess the real reason why I left the kingdom..."

Thump~

The empty wine bottles were thrown far into the sea.

Hanafuda looked into Kaido's eyes, grinned with a terrifying chin, and said:

"I was actually so scared that I ran away. I even ran away in the middle of the night. I didn't even have time to change my clothes. Haha! Hahahaha!"

Hanafuda pointed to the aristocratic hat on his head.

"Oh?"

Kaido also became interested after hearing this.

"Kaido, remember what I told you? After you left, the kingdom's army never recovered. It suffered repeated defeats in foreign wars, and was even beaten to the gates of the royal city."

"I don't know what conditions the old king promised to the other party to withdraw their troops, but he died shortly after that."

"Then his son took the throne. I don't know if that kid was scared or what, but he actually gave away the noble title that his father had previously held tightly, just to win over the masters in the army."

"You know, for those of us in the military, even if we made great contributions, the most we would get is money or medals. Noble titles are absolutely out of our reach."

"I never thought that one day I would become a noble lord."

“Hahaha!”*2

Kaido and Hanafuda laughed disdainfully at the same time.

"And what happened next? Why did you end up at sea instead of enjoying your noble life?"

Kaido asked knowingly.

"It's simple. After actually hanging out with that group of guys, I realized that those nobles had always treated war like a game."

"They even bet on how many soldiers will die in the next war, and then get angry when fewer die than they bet on."

"We have to kill people every day just to survive, while those nobles hide behind the walls of their fortresses, treating war and human lives as entertainment."

The mockery in Hanafuda's tone disappeared, replaced by a low and serious tone.

"I'm scared. I'm afraid if I continue to hang out with those people, I'll become like that too."

"I don't think I've ever been a good person. I even often kill people randomly because I'm in a bad mood, but at least you can't let me become that kind of person."

"I'd rather fight to the death on the battlefield than rot with those guys, so I ran away."

"..."

After looking into Kaido's sharp, unblinking eyes for a moment, Hanafuda suddenly smiled and asked:

"Kaidou, what did you tell me about your dream?"

"Hey!"

Hearing this question, Kaido also grinned, then drank the bottle of wine in his hand in one gulp and announced loudly:

"I want to build a world where the strong are respected!"

"In that world, the law of the jungle is laid bare and out in the open!"

"The winner takes everything, the strong dominate everything! And the loser loses everything, the weak are at the mercy of others!"

"No more hypocritical fig leaves of the nobles! No more shameless tricks of manipulating fate! Strength—is the only truth!"

"..."

"Haha! What an amazing dream... Much more amazing than a guy like me who has nothing and can only run away with his tail between his legs."

"..."

The two looked at each other for a long time, and Hanafuda spoke:

"So, Kaido, share some of your dreams with me!"