The days when I wanted to be a human being

Looking at a sandstorm rising somewhere on the island.

Many thoughts flashed through Zhou Ling's mind.

Regarding Crocodile, in her impression, he was the first Shichibukai defeated by Luffy.

Later, he was arrested and imprisoned in Impel Down for intending to overthrow a country. In Luffy's plan to rescue Ace, he followed Luffy to escape from prison.

Zhou Ling came to the sea and condensed the sea water into a giant, which then walked onto Alabasta.

Taking big strides towards the sandstorm.

Crocodile, in the sandstorm, looked sternly at the sea giant running towards him.

"Damn it, I knew someone was targeting me on purpose."

"Sir, what is the purpose of doing this?"

Crocodile, floating above the sand, showed his head and stared at the giant.

"For what?" The giant who originally had no facial features suddenly appeared with Zhou Ling's facial features and spoke as soon as he opened his mouth.

"I want to... become the god of this country!"

Crocodile sneered at Zhou Ling's words, "Sir, you are so arrogant, why don't you dare to show your true face?"

Faced with Crocodile's provocation, Zhou Ling remained unmoved, she was just too lazy to show up.

And she didn't want to talk nonsense anymore.

"boom!"

He punched Crocodile directly.

"Hmph! Since there's nothing to talk about, come on!" Crocodile sneered. He didn't believe that anyone could defeat him in the desert.

"Wow!"

At this time, the rain that Zhou Ling had been preparing for for a long time finally began to fall.

The huge water fist, carrying a huge momentum, hit the place where Crocodile had just been.

When large chunks of sand meet water, they form clods and are then smashed into pieces and splashed everywhere.

Feeling the cold water drops falling on his face, Crocodile's expression became more serious.

Although it was not sea water this time and would not make him feel weak all over, it was still a great disadvantage to his abilities.

"Sir, do we have to fight today?"

Crocodile now finally realized that he would never be a match for the mysterious man in front of him.

The water giant stood up straight and looked down at Crocodile, who had returned to his human form, expressionlessly.

"... Crocodile, unless... you leave Alabasta... or..."

Zhou Ling fell silent as she spoke. She was wondering if driving Crocodile away would cause uncontrollable changes.

But then I realized, so what!

If we can't stay here, we'll run away.

"Or what?" Crocodile had an extremely unfriendly look on his face, because the opponent was so strong and didn't look like he would negotiate.

Zhou Ling looked at Crocodile on the ground. She left the water giant and floated in front of Crocodile.

Zhou Ling's understatement made Crocodile look very unhappy.

What Zhou Ling did next made Crocodile extremely unhappy, and he even had thoughts of killing someone.

"Or...you submit to me."

"impossible!"

...

Not to mention the detailed process of how Zhou Ling persuaded Crocodile.

Finally, Crocodile entered the desert with a very gloomy face and a handful of yellow pills.

Walking in the rain, he looked at the small yellow pill in his hand, his heart filled with all kinds of emotions.

He really didn't want to submit to a fellow Shichibukai, and a woman at that.

But what Zhou Ling gave was so tempting that people couldn’t stop.

He was so eager to become powerful.

The power brought by the little yellow pill is real and it is one's own power.

It was simply incomparable to any imaginary ancient weapon of Ziwu, so he agreed with Zhou Ling's statement.

Surrender to her.

As long as she kept supplying him with the little yellow pills, he wouldn't go against her.

And she also arranged things for him to do.

That is to secretly sabotage Alabasta's efforts to improve the desert.

Don't let the greening of Alabasta go too smoothly.

Crocodile looked at the continuous drizzle and really couldn't understand Zhou Ling's thoughts. There was actually such a person in this ocean who was causing trouble for himself.

...

In fact, Zhou Ling didn't expect Crocodile to truly submit to her, but she understood the charm of the little yellow pill, and no one could resist it.

However, we cannot be too absolute. Perhaps such a thing really exists in this ocean.

...

Holy Land Marie Gioia.

The Office of the Five Elders.

"What does that woman want to do?!"

Just after receiving the news from CP, the Five Elders gathered in the office for a meeting.

Do they know that the Kingdom of Alabasta was once the home of the Celestial Dragons, and that there is also a Shichibukai there.

"Rain? Improve the environment of Alabasta? What a joke."

"Whatever she is up to, we need to find out as soon as possible. And a CP has spotted her there before."

"Just spread the news that she's in Alabasta, and I think a lot of people will figure this out for us."

"…agree."

"But you'll have to wait for tomorrow's newspaper."

...

The sea area somewhere on the Grand Line.

On the Red Hair Pirates' ship.

The man with a slicked-back hair was smoking a cigarette. After buying a newspaper from the Newsbird Bag, he casually opened the newspaper and took a look at it.

After pausing for a moment on the page about the new Shichibukai, he spoke to the man who was wiping his gun carefully with a cloth.

"Here's today's newspaper, take it to Shanks."

Jesus, who had dreadlocks, didn't even raise his head, "Let Laqilu go, can't you see I'm busy?"

"He's idle anyway, and he's gained so much weight, so he should exercise."

"Huh? Jesus Bu, are you calling me?" The fat Laqilu, wearing green clothes, walked out of the cabin while chewing meat.

"No, it's Beckman." Jesus wiped the gun in his hand, tried to take it in front of his eyes and aimed it, and said seriously, "Beckman wants you to deliver newspapers to the captain."

"Ah? Me?" Laqilu pointed at himself with his greasy fingers and forgot to chew the meat in his mouth.

He glanced at his greasy fingers and looked at Jesus Bu, "You know that the captain doesn't like dirty newspapers, and you lied to me and said that Beckman asked me to deliver newspapers to the captain."

"Click."

At this time, the door of the captain's room was opened, and a man rubbing his red hair walked out.

"No, I'm awake."

Shanks shook his head, spit out the mouthwash, put on the straw hat in his hand, and walked towards the deck with a smile on his face.

Walking and muttering.

"Really? Who gave me wine at the party yesterday?"

"I've told you all, don't think I'll say anything nonsense when I'm drunk."

The crew on the deck pretended they knew nothing and kept their heads down doing their own things.

Shanks glanced around and found no flaws, so he had no choice but to give up. He walked to Beckman and looked at Beckman, "Is that you, Beckman?"

Then, without waiting for Beckman to speak, he took the newspaper from his hand.

Shanks flipped the newspaper twice casually and then rolled it up as he did every day.

However, Beckman noticed that Shanks had a barely noticeable pause when he saw the new Shichibukai.

He looked at Jesus Bu, and Jesus Bu looked at him as well. They both confirmed one thing from each other's eyes.

The captain once mentioned someone vaguely when he was drunk, but then he seemed to have come to his senses and never mentioned it again.

No matter what they did, they couldn't get Shanks to talk.

They were indeed curious about Shanks' past.

Last night, they wanted to take advantage of Shanks being drunk to ask him something, but they failed.

Unexpectedly, a newspaper brought them closer to the answer.