A voice filled with pain, regret, and a hint of disbelief echoed in mid-air, allowing everyone present to feel the despair in its owner's heart.
In the crowd, Uta and Kuina pressed their lips together, turned their faces into the shadows, their shoulders shaking uncontrollably. Yelena saw this, and her eyes glazed over for a mont. Then, she turned to look at Louis, casting him a questioning glance. To this, Louis decisively shook his head, indicating that the color of the artificial Azure Dragon was its original color and had nothing to do with him.
The several giants saw this and all grinned, bursting into laughter.
"Hahahaha—"
"Heh heh—"
At this mont, Hajrudin's giant dragon head was practically spinning like a propeller as his dragon eyes swept over every scale on his body. When he discovered that they were all a lovely, girly pink, Hajrudin's defenses completely broke.
"Pink—"
"As a giant of Elbaf, to think my transformation is pink..."
The giant race, famous for being brave, powerful, and heroic—and their combat form was the pink that human girls liked. Hajrudin could already imagine being mocked in the future. At this mont, he even felt that the joy of obtaining a powerful fruit had been greatly diminished.
In the end, he quickly transford back to his original state and stood behind Avant Heim, lost in thought. But he soon figured it out. Obtaining a powerful Devil Fruit was sothing countless people on the sea dread of. Many people went their whole lives without ever seeing a single Devil Fruit or its user. And those lucky ones who did obtain one, facing the possibility that the fruit they ate could be the Poop-Poop Fruit, would still bite down without hesitation.
And he had already obtained an extrely powerful Devil Fruit. The price was just a small color difference. This already put him ahead of the vast majority of people in the world. If anyone dared to laugh, he would let them experience the wrath of a giant. Hajrudin would use blood to show them that a pink dragon was still a dragon. Even with a girly-pink body, he could still beat them until they cried for their mothers.
Just then, the other giants also put away their playful smiles and gathered around Hajrudin. "Hajrudin," they asked one after another, "why does the fruit the captain had you eat look so much like the one Kaido of the Beasts has? Is the power boost significant? If it is, I'll go find a fruit to eat too!"
To this, Hajrudin looked down at his open palm and answered in a firm tone, "The captain said this is an artificial Devil Fruit created by Vegapunk using Kaido's Lineage Factor, so it has almost the sa abilities as his. The boost to my power is huge. I feel like I could easily defeat my forr self."
Then, in case the others didn't understand, Hajrudin repeated Louis's words, explaining the concept of an artificial Devil Fruit to them. Gerd and the others heard him, and looks of surprise appeared on their faces.
"An artificial Devil Fruit—"
Several days later, in an airspace sowhere in the New World.
Louis leaned back in a specially modified deck chair, flipping through a recent newspaper to catch up on the latest situation on the seas.
Just then, Yelena, holding two cold drinks and Louis's favorite grapes, ca to his side and pulled over another deck chair to sit down. She then handed one of the cold drinks and the grapes to Louis. Louis, in turn, accepted them all without refusal and began to savor them.
Suddenly, Yelena spoke thoughtfully. "Louis."
"What is it?" Louis put down the newspaper and t her eyes.
"Have you chosen a location for our base?" Yelena raised a hand, tucked a strand of white hair behind her ear, and asked softly.
To this, Louis shook his head. "I'm still hesitating. Originally, I wanted to take over Hachinosu, but after thinking about it, I decided against it."
"Hachinosu," Yelena said thoughtfully. After entering the New World, she had heard that there was a very powerful pirate there who seed to have been quite famous before the Great Pirate Era.
While Yelena was thinking, Louis continued, "I feel that if we want to develop into a power that can confront the World Governnt head-on, our base must be difficult to attack. That way, it can accommodate more ard forces, and we can avoid the World Governnt's attacks. Therefore, I have two half-baked ideas."
"Half-baked ideas—" Yelena subconsciously repeated the phrase.
Louis nodded, his gaze gradually becoming profound. "I plan to place our main base in the sky, or in the deep sea. Relying on Avant Heim to build a Kingdom in the Sky, or using the ability of Natural Water to build an unreachable underwater city."
Yelena heard this and imagined Louis's ideas in her mind, a gentle smile subconsciously appearing on her face. "The sky or the deep sea? To achieve that, even you would need to awaken your Devil Fruit, right?"
Hearing this, Louis nodded. "That's right. For that to happen, either Avant Heim or Natural Water must break free from instinct and possess true consciousness. Only then can they separate from my command and independently support the tasks I give them."
"In that case, then we still need to find an island to set up a temporary base first," Yelena added, hitting the nail on the head.
"That's right," Louis did not refute. He couldn't wait until his Devil Fruit awakened to start developing his forces. And to develop a force, one must choose a base to station at, to gather personnel and give them ti to grow. Drifting aimlessly at sea would not build a power.
This was a consensus among everyone on the sea. Just like Big Mom, Kaido, and Whitebeard, they all had their own territories and massive pirate forces. It was the combination of extrely powerful combat strength, vast territory, and a massive force that constituted a powerful pirate crew that gave the World Governnt a headache.
"Where should the temporary base be located—" At this mont, the nas of various islands flashed through Louis's mind.
Soon, a na on the newspaper that Louis found sowhat familiar caught his attention. He plucked a grape and popped it into his mouth, his brow raised slightly.
"Heavenly Yaksha - Doflamingo..."
A mont later, Louis turned to look at Yelena, a brilliant smile on his face. "What do you think of Dressrosa?"
Hearing this, Yelena raised a hand to her chin, a hint of confusion on her face. "Dressrosa? I feel like I've heard that na sowhere."
"It's now the territory of the Warlord of the Sea - Doflamingo." Just then, a voice ca from behind the two of them, answering Yelena's question.
Behind them, Daz Bonez was holding a Den Den Mushi and walking toward them.
"A Warlord of the Sea?"
"So it's a pirate nation?"
"In that case, I'll just kill that Warlord and give the place to you—" Yelena's smile was as gentle as ever, but with a casual air, she had just sentenced a certain Warlord to death. She didn't know where Dressrosa was, nor how many people were in that pirate nation, but as long as Louis wanted it, she would go and get it for him.
"..."
At the sa ti, Daz Bonez also arrived at Louis's side and handed him the Den Den Mushi.
"Captain, soone found through my underworld intelligence network. They say they want to talk to you and hope you can help heal their injuries. After the treatnt, they will owe you a favor—"
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