Starting with Kengan beating up the Pirate King

Chapter 25 The Explorers
Naval Headquarters, Marinevando.

"Tsuru, what was the meaning of that last reminder?" Sengoku, sitting in the marshal's seat, couldn't help but ask as he watched Vice Admiral Tsuru put down the Den Den Mushi. "Do you feel the same way I do?"

"I just have a little doubt." Tsuru nodded and said, "Such a big commotion, affecting more than a dozen naval branches, how did that female captain who has only been in the navy for a year manage to collect such a wide range of intelligence without anyone noticing?"
Of course, perhaps I'm just being paranoid; maybe that Captain Xue is indeed incredibly intelligent and meticulous.

“Even so, she must have been preparing for this day from the very beginning when she joined that rat’s crew. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to gather so much evidence. She’s a very cunning marine,” Sengoku said. “Why didn’t you remind Smoker more?”

“Smoker doesn’t need us to remind him.” Tsuru smiled calmly. “If any guy dares to judge him by his appearance, he will pay the price.”

“That’s true, that kid is reliable.” Sengoku nodded, then looked at Garp, who was fast asleep on the other side, and said, “Unlike some people… Garp! Wake up! You should set off for the East Blue!”

*Pop!* The bubble on Garp's nose suddenly burst. He opened his sleepy eyes and mumbled, "Ah, I should go back. I don't know what's wrong with me lately, my right eyelid keeps twitching."

……

Jiang Xue felt like her heart was about to stop beating.

Team leader, you're really going to get me into serious trouble!
A few months ago, she wrote to the team leader to complain because she gradually discovered that Rat was doing increasingly dirty things and becoming more and more corrupt after becoming a colonel. She was worried that one day Rat would be purged and implicate her, his subordinate.

You gave me information about the rat's corruption and tried to get me to join his ranks, what am I going to do now?
As a result, the team leader asked her to secretly collect evidence of the rats' corruption and a list of those who colluded with them.

At the time, she thought this was just a way to find a countermeasure for her, but she never expected that the team leader would actually plan such a big event!
She only gathered information about the rats; the team leader filled in the rest of the information.

She had felt quite accomplished before, which was the trigger for the incident, but when the female lieutenant general on the Den Den Mushi reminded Colonel Smoker to be careful about the safety of the valuables, she was suddenly shocked—the team leader wouldn't really do that, would he!

She didn't know what the others were doing, but the more she thought about it, the more she realized she was right. It was completely unnecessary to make such a fuss just for herself.

Could they really be heading straight for something dirty?
Then I'm in big trouble!
After being stared at by Smoker for a few seconds, she managed to maintain a calm and aggrieved demeanor, worried that she would be questioned and given a clue.

Fortunately, Smoker didn't make things difficult for her. Instead, he turned to the girl who had been chosen as his personal attendant after taking office and asked, "Tashigi, who is the navy officer in charge of escorting that batch of captured goods?"

"Ah, it's Captain Arthur."

"Arthur?" Smoker, who had only been in office for a little over a month and hadn't really gotten to know his subordinates' names before going out to sea to catch mice, didn't immediately recognize him.

“He’s a Marine from my cohort, Captain Arthur,” Tashigi added. “He left recruit camp in just one month and has captured several pirates in the past year. He’s a serious and powerful man. He was almost promoted to major before Colonel Robinson was transferred.”

“Oh, that guy,” Smoker remembered. “Answer his call for me.”

Tashigi hurriedly took the Den Den Mushi and frantically flipped through her notebook to look it up. In her haste, she almost dropped the Den Den Mushi, causing it to emit a series of terrified "bluish" sounds.

Jiang Xue's eyes twitched slightly. Did Colonel Smoker like such a clumsy girl?
The call finally connected, and a steady male voice came from the other end: "Moshi Moshi, this is Captain Arthur."

Jiang Xue almost lost her composure.

She recognized that voice! When she was communicating with the team leader via Den Den Mushi! It was the deputy team leader?!
"Captain Arthur, this is Smoker. What's the transport ship's position? Is everything normal?"

"Yes! Everything is normal! Oh right..." The other side paused for a moment and said, "There was a rain shower in the Anos Sea just now, so the warships took a detour of several dozen nautical miles and will arrive about half an hour later than planned."

“A shower?” Smoker took a drag of his cigarette. “Let the navigator talk to me.”

He had his suspicions! Jiang Xue's heart nearly leaped into her throat, but thankfully there was no stumbling on the other end. After a "yes," the call was quickly switched to a naval officer.

“Colonel Smoker! This is Sergeant Dick, a navigator on the transport ship G17. We encountered…”

The navigator's words were exactly the same as Arthur's. Smoker nodded and said, "It's good that nothing unexpected happened. Be careful, money can be a powerful motivator."

"Yes, I understand!"

The Den Den Mushi ended, and Smoker put it aside, taking a deep drag on his cigarette.

Is everything normal right now?

……

On the other side, a warship.

Zhou Yingxiong hung up the Den Den Mushi and looked at the navigator Dick, who was staring blankly at him, and said, "Luckily we were prepared. This Colonel Smoker is really a rough-around-the-edges guy."

Across from him, a woman said dejectedly, "From a psychological perspective, he might have a 'highly sensitive personality,' making him more prone to empathy. Perhaps he developed that extroverted personality because of certain images he witnessed."

She was around 30 years old, with a slender figure, regular features, and elegant posture, but what was very eye-catching was that she had a mushroom growing on her chin.

Her name is Yu Yaxin, and she is a member of the second exploration team. She is a psychologist on the Fog Star.

But perhaps because she had heard of and seen too many cases of mental illness, she discovered that she was suffering from severe depression and wanted to change her life, so she signed up for the exploration of hidden places.

After arriving in the world of One Piece, she almost starved to death because she couldn't get enough to eat. In her extreme hunger, she ate mushrooms that she didn't know if they were poisonous, which gave her extraordinary power.

She shook the pocket watch on her wrist and said softly, "Go to sleep. When you wake up, all you'll remember is that you were ambushed and knocked unconscious by some attacker."

Dick collapsed to the ground. "Is that all? What a convenient ability," Zhou Yingxiong exclaimed.

"If the price is growing mushrooms, I'd rather not have any." Yu Yaxin touched the mushroom on her chin, feeling that her depression was about to worsen.

"Haha, that's valuable intelligence too. In the Navy's pirate secret realm, it's not just Devil Fruits that can grant special powers; sometimes poisonous mushrooms can too," Zhou Yingxiong laughed.

Yu Yaxin rolled her eyes: "It's hard to say which mushroom I ate was effective. I don't think anyone would try a bunch of hallucinogenic mushrooms just to gain this hypnotic ability."

"what……"

"Enemy attack!"

"Captain! Where is Captain Arthur?!"

As the two were talking, a series of muffled cries of pain came from outside. Zhou Yingxiong clicked his tongue and shook his head, saying, "Playing the role of a mole is really uncomfortable. They are all my trusted subordinates."

"Your men have all fallen unconscious."

A handsome young man climbed in through the side window with flashy movements and teased, "So, are you the one we're going to knock out next?"

"Let me do it, it won't hurt," said a strong man who appeared at the door.

"Hiss." Zhou Yingxiong's teeth ached a little.

In order to continue his infiltration of the navy, he did indeed have to be knocked unconscious and appear to be injured; knocking himself unconscious wouldn't work.

“Hmm… wait a minute.” He said, “The plan has changed. The team leader has finally made contact with another explorer, Ian. He will bring a ship to this area to pick us up and the treasure on this ship. He will also handle the disposal of the stolen goods. We don’t need to risk using the rented cargo ship and those underground forces anymore.”

"I see. That's great."

"So, can we start fighting now?"

Zhou Yingxiong's lips twitched slightly: "Come on, don't hit vital points, be gentle..."

Boom——! !

The two muffled thuds merged instantly; the handsome young man's fist slammed into his cheek, while the strong man's fist struck his abdomen.

"Your mother..." Zhou Yingxiong murmured a greeting from the intense pain before slowly collapsing.

The two who made the move looked at each other and laughed heartily.

"Cool!!"

Yu Yaxin chuckled: "You guys really have a lot of resentment towards the team leader."

The handsome young man laughed and said, "I do have some complaints. They kept it a secret until the operation started, and only then did they tell us that we were going to participate in a dangerous operation like intercepting warships."

Yu Yaxin shook her head. According to Zhou Yingxiong, before this rat extermination operation, the team leader contacted six of the explorers who were doing well, but they couldn't find one of them, who should be Ian, who had just said he would come to pick them up by boat.

Of the other five, two refused to participate, and three agreed to join the operation; these three are the only ones left.

Knowing that the operation was risky, they still participated, which can only be attributed to their restlessness and desire to accomplish something significant in the secret realm.

Now, the danger has exceeded expectations, and I'm starting to regret it. In psychology, this is called... well, let's not keep having these occupational habits in the secret realm.

“Let’s go up to the deck for some fresh air,” she said. “We’ll wait for the ship to pick us up.”

"Okay, Sister Yu."

The three belonged to different exploration teams and did not know each other before. Now that they are working together, they have a good understanding and have laid the foundation for friendship.

Once on deck, they chatted about their experiences in the secret realm while gazing at the horizon, waiting for the appointed ship to arrive.

About an hour later, the sharp-eyed, handsome young man pointed to the five o'clock position: "The ship is here!"

"Ah, it's finally here, it's been so slow..."

The three of them gazed into the distance, watching the ship grow larger and larger from a small black dot, and their expressions changed little by little.

"That looks like..."

"A warship?"

"Oh no, it really is a warship!"

On the distant warship, at the bow of the deck, Smoker stood there, his face grim, his justice cloak fluttering in the sea breeze behind him!
(End of this chapter)