Smoker personally escorted the Buggy Balls and M.H.5 gas bombs recovered from the pirate ship back to Kalmar City, recognizing the importance of the intelligence he had obtained.
Disembarking at the port in the civilian district, Smoker and his team made their way toward the noble district. However, what he observed along the way caused his brow to furrow in displeasure.
He had only been gone for three days, but in the short time since the Marines had relinquished control of the city, chaos had escalated to a disturbing degree.
Trash and empty liquor bottles littered the streets, while the walls were covered in graffiti bearing radical slogans:
"The East Blue belongs to the people of the East Blue!""Get out of Kalmar City, dogs of the Celestial Dragons!""Give us back the hero of the East Blue!"
Amid these slogans, some walls were also marked with crude pirate-like skull symbols. Among the strange graffiti, one particular drawing caught Smoker's attention: a simple sketch of what might have been a weasel or some other small animal. The dark red, almost black hue of the markings didn't resemble paint or chalk—it looked more like dried blood.
At that moment, a squad of city guards rushed out from the noble district. The commanding officer barked orders for his men to erase the animal drawing from the wall.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out, echoing through the streets. Smoker's expression hardened, and he turned toward the direction of the sound, a narrow alleyway. The Marines accompanying him tensed up as well, their unease palpable. The hostility toward outsiders in this city was blatantly clear, as evidenced by the words and images scrawled on the walls.
The city guards carrying buckets and rags also froze upon hearing the gunshot. After a brief moment of hesitation, they grabbed their weapons with a resigned air and ran toward the source of the noise.
Smoker watched their retreating figures. The squad moved with the discipline of well-trained soldiers, their actions still guided by ingrained habits from their past training. Yet, their expressions betrayed a sense of weariness and defeat. They were no longer the cohesive force they once were.
"Commander, should we follow them?" one of the Marines asked.
"No, leave it to the city's own forces. We have more pressing matters to attend to," Smoker replied.
Despite his words, Smoker couldn't help but wonder what the situation in the slums might be like if the civilian district was already in such disarray.
When Smoker and his team finally reached the noble district, the environment appeared largely unchanged from when he had left. This was likely due to the constant patrols of soldiers in the area.
Upon arriving at the temporary command center, Smoker was directed to the conference room where the four Vice Admirals were gathered. To his surprise, two other Marine officers of similar rank were also present.
Hanging on the wall opposite the entrance was a large map of the East Blue.
"Commander Smoker, you're here. Take a seat. Commander Penn, give Smoker a brief summary of your findings," Vice Admiral Strawberry instructed.
A pale, skeletal-looking officer named T. Penn approached Smoker after he sat down and began to relay his report in a low voice.
It turned out that Smoker's actions, while swift, were not the fastest. When Vice Admirals Garp, Strawberry, Dalmatian, and Doberman decided to disperse the elite Headquarters Marines stationed in Kalmar City, the results were as expected. The third-rate pirate crews of the East Blue were no match for these Marines, who had honed their skills in the Grand Line. One by one, the pirates were captured or killed, and their captains either executed on the spot or taken prisoner.
Many of the captured pirate captains provided valuable intelligence during interrogation. Commander T. Penn was one of the officers who extracted such information and was now returning to Kalmar City with his findings, alongside several other Headquarters officers.
However, the intelligence T. Penn uncovered was far more alarming than anything Smoker had learned.
Vice Admiral Doberman, his face twitching with anger, glared at the map of the East Blue on the wall. His gaze fell on a long gray line marking a specific route, and he growled through gritted teeth, "Tequila Wolf... Those damned pirates are actually targeting the 'Bridge Kingdom.' We were almost completely fooled into spreading our forces too thin."
The intelligence T. Penn had obtained revealed the pirates' next move. Ten days after initiating the first wave of chaos, the pirate crews planned to regroup on an island for a coordinated attack.
When this information reached the temporary command center, the Vice Admirals quickly located the island on the map. Nearby, they noticed a massive structure: the Bridge Kingdom, also known as Tequila Wolf.
In this world, where countless races coexist, one group undeniably stands at the pinnacle of power and privilege: the Celestial Dragons. These so-called "gods" consider themselves superior to all other beings, refusing to even breathe the same air as commoners. Their privileges place them above the law, allowing them to enslave other races at will. Even the Admirals, the strongest individual fighters in the Marines, are essentially their personal enforcers. The Celestial Dragons' status and authority are unparalleled.
Tequila Wolf, the Bridge Kingdom, is a monumental project ordered by the Celestial Dragons over 700 years ago.
The mere mention of the terms "Celestial Dragons" and "700 years" carried immense weight. No Marine in the East Blue, not even the Vice Admirals like Garp, dared to risk any incident involving this project. The political ramifications alone were overwhelming.
Moreover, the residents of the Bridge Kingdom were former laborers enslaved by the World Government, harboring deep resentment toward their oppressors. If they were to escape, the chaos they could unleash on the World Government and the Marines would be catastrophic.
Smoker's intelligence further confirmed that Morgan William's high-ranking subordinates had not been aimlessly running around with the pirates. Instead, they appeared to be planning a direct assault on the Bridge Kingdom.
Doberman's anger was understandable. In hindsight, the entire series of pirate attacks and disturbances seemed to have been nothing more than a smokescreen.
Had the Headquarters Marines not interrogated the pirate captains and uncovered this information, they might have been completely misled. After dispersing their forces to quell the local unrest and alleviate political pressure from above, the pirates could have ceased their harassment and converged near the Bridge Kingdom, resulting in catastrophic consequences.
With dozens of pirate crews and Morgan William's remaining forces launching a coordinated attack, the Bridge Kingdom's fall would have been inevitable. Even if the pirates' movements were detected during their assembly, it would have been too late for the Marines to redeploy reinforcements across the East Blue.
What made this situation even more perplexing was that the plan seemed to offer no direct benefit to Morgan William himself, who remained imprisoned. The operation didn't even appear to be an attempt to rescue him. Instead, it seemed to be a pure act of vengeance, aimed at retaliating against the Headquarters Marines who had captured William.
Fortunately, the decisive actions of the four Vice Admirals had paid off. By deploying their elite forces early, they had captured numerous pirates before the chaos could escalate further, extracting critical intelligence in the process.
"Vice Admiral Garp, Vice Admiral Dalmatian," Strawberry said thoughtfully, "I'm afraid the two of you will need to act immediately. The Bridge Kingdom cannot afford any incidents, especially with four Headquarters Vice Admirals stationed in the East Blue."
Dalmatian nodded in agreement, and Garp offered no objection.
Although Garp was the most respected and powerful of the four Vice Admirals, he was not known for his strategic acumen. On the contrary, his reputation often leaned toward brute force and impulsiveness. As such, the command authority naturally fell to the more composed and intelligent Vice Admiral Strawberry.
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