บท 48: 48. Intelligence

The first half of the Grand Line is a place called paradise.

A somewhat 'awkward' pirate ship was swaying on the sea. The broken hull seemed to tell the story of the fierce battles it had experienced before. Only the pirate flag hanging on the thick mast was left, which is lingering...

"Captain! Galil and the others...their life cards have been burned out!" A guy with a white gauze on his head and a bandage on his arm shouted in horror.

As soon as the words fell, the somewhat silent atmosphere on the boat was suddenly broken, like a stone thrown into a calm lake, stirring up thousands of waves. Finally, everyone couldn't stand the despair in their hearts and cried loudly.

"Woooooooo..."

"We shouldn't go to the New World, what kind of monsters are they!"

"Enough! I get it, stop yelling." A bald man with rough and dark skin shouted impatiently to quiet down some noisy pirates. He seemed to be the captain of this pirate ship, but he didn't show any sorrow on his face when he heard that his comrade who stayed behind had died. His face was emotionless, except for a hint of fear in his small eyes.

Or else, he could just find a place to live as a wealthy and peaceful man. The captain felt exhausted, and even considered retiring. The reason for this was not only the heavy loss of his crew and his fleet, but also the fear of that man, that man who was like a demon…

Everyone on the ship was still immersed in fear and sorrow, unaware that their captain planned to take away the only treasure left on the ship and become a rich man. Of course, even knowing it is of no use.

Because this is the sorrow of the weak.

…

Knock..knock..knock

Atlas arrived at the staff office early the next morning. Maybe it was too early. Major Drake was the only one in the office at that time, but the door of the office was open. Still, Atlas was polite and knocked on the door.

"Is something wrong? Captain Atlas!"

Drake was a little surprised to see Atlas standing at the door. He quickly stopped what he was doing and asked Atlas's purpose in confusion.

"Major Drake, Vice Admiral Jonathan called me here."

"Vice Admiral Johnathan?" Drake asked in confusion. You just arrived at the base yesterday, and you only met Vice Admiral Jonathan?

Immediately, Atlas briefly explained his purpose to Major Drake.

"You want to go out of the fortress to participate in the mission?" Drake looked a little surprised. "Didn't you just settle down yesterday? Don't you need to rest in the base for a few days before going on the mission?"

"It's okay, Major Drake. I'm in good condition now and can participate in the mission of catching pirates at any time."

"Okay then..." Major Drake hesitated for a moment, then immediately started rummaging through the desk full of official documents.

"Sorry, our fortress is in a relatively peaceful position in the first half of the Grand Line, so we don't have much information about pirates and battleship operations. But there is a group of pirates who came back from the New World that will pass near the fortress tomorrow…" Drake said apologetically, shaking his head.

Drake hesitated again and said: "However, I personally do not recommend that you pursue this pirate group. There is a group of new pirates here who have just entered the Grand Line from the Blue Sea. With your strength, it should be more than enough to chase them."

Obviously, Drake somewhat discounted Zephyr's evaluation of Atlas's strength that he heard from Jonathan, thinking that it was just a teacher's habitual exaggeration of his favorite disciple.

"I want to know the information about the pirates who came back from New World." Atlas didn't bother to care about what Drake was thinking. Anyway, he was too lazy to spend time dealing with that little miscellaneous fish.

"But..."

Seeing that Drake wanted to say something else, Atlas took the information in his hand, politely thanked Drake and left.

What an arrogant brat!

Drake looked at Atlas' retreating back, slightly annoyed. But he turned around and hurriedly ran out of the staff office and walked to the base commander's office...

Atlas, who left the office, naturally did not notice Drake's behavior. He picked up the still piece of information in his hand and read it.

The Ekrum Pirates, led by Captain Ekrum, who has a bounty of 200 million Berries, were badly beaten by Katakuri from the Big Mom Pirates in the New World. They barely escaped with one of their three fleets, but most of their crew members were either killed or wounded. Their vice-captain Wirtz, who had a bounty of 160 million Berries, was missing. Their officers Galil, Ibe, and Duarte, who each had a bounty of 50 million Berries, stayed behind in the New World.

"Hey, I thought it was some kind of big pirate, but it turned out to be just a lost dog." Atlas curled his lips and said with some disdain. It is estimated that this group of pirates wanted to challenge Big Mom in a pretentious manner, but the whole army was wiped out before they even saw him. There is no shortage of such self-righteous guys in this sea.

According to the route of this group of pirates, it is expected that they will pass through the waters near G8 tomorrow, so Atlas now plans to visit the training ground of the fortress.

The training ground of G8 Fortress is very large. Whether it is the walls, floor, or ceiling, they are all wrapped in thick iron sheets, which is just enough for people to show off their skills without fear of damaging the venue.

With Atlas's current physical strength, ordinary training can no longer meet his needs, and there are no sparring partners like Zephyr and Shuzo here.

As for Vice Admiral Jonathan, he and Sakazuki came from the same training camp and seemed to get along well, so he was probably very strong. But he was the top officer of the fortress, so he couldn't neglect his duties and come to hang out with him, a lowly captain, who was just punching and kicking.

So Atlas chose the simplest training method and asked someone from the logistics department for a huge piece of hardened steel. He could only use his fists to deal with it first.

The time for training always passed quickly, and it was night again in the blink of an eye. Atlas looked at the pitted iron wall in front of him and the blood dripping from it and let out a long breath.

He did not cover his fists with haki, but struck with pure bare fists, so his fists were always stuck in a cycle of injury-healing-injury, but the effect was quite remarkable.

Atlas glanced at the sky outside the window, cleaned up the traces after training, and walked towards the cafeteria, but he did not see Vice Admiral Jonathan today.

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