Belial, Tregear, new members of the Straw Hat Pirates

Beria said, "Put those aside for now; the important thing is to find them."

After discussing it, the group used Nami's communicator to locate the others. The four of them then quickly built a small boat and headed towards the others' location.

……

On the ship of the treasure maniac.

The others were assigned to work at the bottom of the ship by the treasure maniac, while Toregia and Olga were taken away by the treasure maniac for questioning about the pure gold.

"I wonder how Belial and Luffy are doing?" Usopp asked.

“Yes, Belial is still missing,” Brooke said worriedly.

Franky looked at the worried Robin and asked, "Robin, what's wrong?"

“I’m worried about Torregia,” Robin said. “He didn’t look well at the time, what if…”

The reason the treasure hunter took Torregia away was twofold: firstly, based on Torregia's characteristics, he judged that Torregia was someone who possessed a lot of information.

Secondly, regarding historical texts and similar items, his target was Robin, but Tregear insisted on doing so, so the treasure hunter took Tregear away.

However, Robin noticed Tregear's condition and worried that the treasure maniac might do something terrible.

kitchen……

"Eh? What's going on?"

"what happened?"

"The milk tea and snacks I made for the adults are gone!"

……

Belial and his companions sailed to a place that resembled a cave, when they suddenly heard the sounds of fighting.

Belial and Luffy stood at the bow of the ship and looked out, discovering two people fighting a group of animals. Those two were none other than Zoro and Sanji.

"Zoro! Sanji!"

"Huh?" The two turned their heads at the same time. "It's you guys."

Upon seeing Nami's outfit, Sanji was so excited that he coughed up blood and collapsed. "Nami is so beautiful!"

"This Sanji."

Luffy and Belial leaped over and, together with Zoro and Sanji, dealt with the animals.

Beria also informed Asie of the matter.

Are you two alright?

"I'm fine, but I don't know about this lecherous kappa," Zoro said, pointing at Sanji who was staring at Nami with hearts in his eyes.

Upon hearing this, Sanji angrily looked at Zoro and asked, "You stinky green-haired moss, what did you say?"

"Alright, alright, stop fooling around," Nami said. "We don't know how the others are doing yet, we have to go find them!"

"it is good."

"Yes, Miss Nami!"

The six people boarded the boat and followed the directions.

……

Meanwhile, with Torregia's translation, the treasure hunter learned the location of the pure gold and arrived at an ancient palace.

All the way, Wayne (the woman who was drinking, whose name I don't know, I just made up) kept cursing, "Who stole the food, or was it you?"

"We've been at the bottom of the ship the whole time," Usopp said fearfully.

"hateful."

The group arrived at the palace entrance, where there were ancient characters. The treasure hunter wanted to capture Robin, but Tregear stepped forward to translate them.

The translation is: Anyone who tries to take the pure gold will pay with their life.

The treasure-hunting maniac naturally scoffed at it; he had experienced this countless times and didn't care at all.

The treasure hunter sent out an advance team, but just seconds later, a terrifying scream erupted. Everyone stared at their men inside the passage, riddled with arrows.

Chopper and Usopp were trembling with fear, but Tregear remained calm and said, "Looks like this part is alright."

"Then let's move on."

With Brooke's help, the group passed through a mechanism and arrived at a cave, where a crocodile head stood in front of them.

Toregia saw a wooden plank that read: "By passing through here, you can find the place where pure gold is located."

Torregia looked at the crocodile head thoughtfully. "It seems we can find pure gold through here."

"Then how do we do this?"

Robin said, "It seems we need to use that key to open the door inside the crocodile's mouth."

"Go, open the door."

“Wait a minute,” Torregia said. “There’s a mechanism on the ground inside that mouth, and there seems to be electricity in the lock.”

"Get there now!" the treasure maniac shouted. "Otherwise, your companions' lives will be..."

“Five,” Torregia said calmly.

"what?"

"Four."

"What exactly are you doing?" the treasure maniac asked.

"three."

"two."

Suddenly, Torregia looked at the treasure maniac and said, "One."

The words had barely left his mouth when a whooshing sound rang out. From the doorway behind, a steaming fist hurtled toward the treasure maniac at breakneck speed.

Tregear rushed towards Robin and Chopper, and with Usopp, Olga, and Franky, retreated away.

The Treasure Maniac was sent flying by a single punch. Looking at the group standing at the door, he gritted his teeth and said, "You...you're still alive?"

Upon seeing those people, Chopper burst into tears and cried out, "Luffy! And Belial!"

"You're all alright!"

The people standing at the door were none other than Belial, Luffy, and Nami.

Beria laughed and said, "Sorry I'm a little late. By the way, my communicator is broken. Could you fix it for me later?"

Torregia smiled and said, "I understand."

Luffy shook his arm, clenching his fist as he looked at the treasure maniac. "You bastard, how dare you hurt my crewmates! I won't let you get away with this!"

After saying that, Luffy suddenly charged towards the treasure maniac.

“Just what I wanted.” The treasure maniac bound his arms with iron chains and began to wrestle with Luffy.

"Let's go all out!" Belial said, and charged forward.

Nami approached Tregear and the others, asking, "How are you? Are you alright?"

"They're mostly alright. What about Zoro and Sanji?"

"Well..." Nami said somewhat awkwardly, "Zoro has disappeared somewhere, and Sanji went to find him."

"..." Torregia smiled. "Well, that's what I expected."

Asie also arrived at the cave entrance, leaning against the wall and panting. Years of eating meat and not exercising had greatly reduced his physical strength.

But when he saw Olga, he froze on the spot, all weariness vanishing from his eyes, replaced by a kind gaze.

Olga felt the gaze and looked at Asie at the cave entrance, slightly taken aback, "You, you are..."

"Olga, I'm so glad you're alright." Asie touched the wall next to him, and a mechanism appeared. Asie pulled the mechanism, smiled, and said, "Asie, you can go with Luffy and the others."

Then, the ground suddenly split open, and Luffy, Belial, Nami, and the others, who had been separated from the treasure maniac, all fell down.

The treasure maniac looked at Toregia and laughed, "You little brat, that's enough."

……

The group landed on the ground, and Nami looked around at her surroundings. "This seems to be a locked room."

Robin also fell. Instead of checking her injuries, she cried out in panic, "Tregear, Tregear didn't come down!"

"what!"

"They're probably still up there."

Nami stood up and looked at the secret room, saying, "Then let's quickly find a way out!"

"Ah."

The group carefully examined the secret room, but it was more like a laboratory than a secret room. It was filled with chemical reagents, metal ores, experimental equipment, experimental reports, and so on.

"This looks like a laboratory."

In the very center of the table was a glowing oval-shaped gold ball encased in glass.

Luffy said, "Could this be... that kind of gold?"

Robin noticed a book, opened it and flipped through it. "This is Mr. Asie's research notes. It says: 'To cure my daughter's incurable disease, I am willing to sell my soul to the devil.'"

"The light of pure gold has the ability to slow down the growth of all things."

"By setting it in a ring, we can alleviate my daughter's condition."

Upon hearing this, Robin roughly understood something. "It seems that Dr. Asie developed pure gold in order to cure your illness. The ring is inlaid with pure gold."

"So that's why Olga has been able to maintain her appearance for two hundred years?"

"Huh? Is she two hundred years old?"

Olga stared at Robin in disbelief, her hand unconsciously touching the spot where she had worn the ring.

I recall my father's advice: never take off your ring.

At this moment, Olga finally understood that everything her father had done was not for fame or fortune, but for her.

For his own sake, his father did so much, even losing his wife, while he himself...

Thinking of this, tears welled up in Olga's eyes.

"Everyone!" Chopper shouted, "I think I've found the exit!"

"Alright, let's go!" With that, everyone left. Nami didn't forget to take the pure gold with her.

The group ran and left through the gate, which was the Crocodile Gate. However, the Crocodile Gate had already been destroyed.

The treasure-hunting maniac, who was torturing Asie, laughed when he saw them appear, saying, "You've come out."

"You bastard father!" Olga cried out in anguish at Asie's state. "Separate him from me!"

Luffy asked, "You bastard, where's Tregear?"

Upon hearing this, the treasure-hunting maniac smiled slyly, "Guess."

At that moment, Nami noticed that Robin's body was trembling and her eyes were filled with fear.

The others followed Robin's gaze and were immediately stunned:

A man covered in wounds and blood lay in a pool of blood.

Upon seeing that man, everyone's eyes were filled with disbelief, shock, fear, and despair.

"To...to..."

The Treasure Maniac laughed, "Your accomplice is really overestimating himself. I wasn't planning on causing him any trouble, but this kid insisted on taking people from me, so I had no choice but to give in to his wish."

"But to be honest, he was quite tough. It took me five iron chains to pierce him. Didn't you hear his screams? It's just a pity."

"boom!"

Luffy's body suddenly erupted with powerful Haki, and his eyes were no longer filled with pain, but with rage, utter rage.

Everyone else's eyes were filled with anger as well.

At that moment, Asie looked at Olga, his eyes filled with happiness. He took a remote control out of his clothes and said, "Seeing you safe and sound makes me have no regrets."

Seeing this, Beria quickly wrapped himself and the others in a protective shield.

Seeing this, Asie smiled and pressed the button.

"Oh!"

A series of explosions rang out, leaving everyone bewildered by the sudden blasts. Belial manipulated the protective shield to pull them away.

Outside, Olga looked at the destroyed research lab and cried out in anguish, "Father!"

The Straw Hat crew cried out in anguish, "Tregear!"