Chapter 239 Eve
Today's situation absolutely had someone pulling strings behind the scenes.
With things developing to this point, even if Jinbei were slow, he could confirm this.
The timing of the pirates' attacks was quite coincidental. The locations of the pirates' attacks were quite coincidental. Everything, everything was so coincidental.
But could it really be this coincidental?
If everything was this coincidental, it only proved this wasn't coincidence at all.
Was it the government?
Jinbei gritted his teeth. "Reinforce the Sea Forest immediately! Absolutely cannot let the pirates run wild!"
Who would do such a thing—no matter how you thought about it, in this world there was only the World Government, right?
Besides them, who else would know Fish-Man Island had secrets in these two places?
Besides the government, who else could mobilize such forces so casually?
Did they want to thoroughly investigate Fish-Man Island's actual situation while Brett wasn't there?
If that was the case, then the current situation was very troublesome.
Fish-Man Island's side was fine. If it was just some pirates, dealing with them would be easy.
But what about Brett's side?
Once Fish-Man Island's situation was exposed, the government turning against them was almost inevitable, and they were currently in Mariejois.
He had to stop these pirates' actions.
Jinbei accelerated his advance.
Faster than him were the Immigration Bureau's forces. Using sea beasts for traction and being closer, they quickly converged on the Sea Forest.
The pirates naturally didn't attack the Sea Forest from inside Fish-Man Island—they came from outside.
Several pirate ships aggressively advanced together along the seafloor.
The teams patrolling near the Sea Forest had already gone to intercept.
Deep in the Sea Forest—
"Pirates attacking?" Franky, who was tinkering with new weapons, said excitedly, "Perfect timing! Just right to test my new weapon!"
"Don't act rashly, Franky!" Iceberg immediately stopped him. "If our whereabouts are exposed, it'll cause Mr. Brett a lot of trouble!"
"That's right," Tom-sensei also said with a smile. "Leave such grand matters as resisting pirates to Fish-Man Island's warriors!"
"They're using super weapons we manufactured!"
With even his most respected teacher saying this, Franky could only sigh helplessly and sit back down.
It indeed felt good having weapons he created display their might, but if possible, he naturally still wanted to personally test the weapons.
The master and disciples didn't notice that outside the weapons factory they occupied, in the coral forest, several fish-men were approaching.
Following them were also several humans.
Taking advantage of the chaos, these fellows carefully bypassed security and penetrated all the way here.
"There really is something!" One human lowered his voice. "Then act according to plan!"
"Wait!" One fish-man leading the way grabbed one of them. "We already agreed, right?"
"Relax," that person said gravely. "You don't need to show yourselves at all. Leave everything to us."
"What you need to do, besides bringing us here, is report everything you see afterward to your contact."
"The reward won't be short one penny."
Only then did the fish-men nod excitedly.
Then they slowly retreated into the forest's depths.
The humans remaining here exchanged glances, then all took deep breaths.
What they were about to do had only one-in-ten survival odds.
"Then, let's go!" They charged out of the coral forest with weapons. Though moving in the deep sea relying on bubbles, their speed wasn't slow.
You could tell these were all quite capable people.
"Who are you!" Though most forces had been deployed to resist invading pirates, quite a few warriors still remained here on guard.
"Hahaha! Didn't expect there'd be something here! Charge in!" The leading human completely changed from his previous composed appearance, now laughing arrogantly.
He led his companions directly into the massive bubble surrounding the weapons factory. Then this man breathed a sigh of relief—at least this way they could display some combat power.
The battle thus began.
The attackers all had very ordinary strength. Already many forces had been deployed away, plus now fighting inside the bubble, the warriors remaining here found it very difficult to resist.
For a time, screams and cries of pain were unceasing.
"They actually invaded here?" Inside the weapons factory, Iceberg felt anxious.
"And the fish-men seem unable to hold them off!" Franky's eyes burned as he looked toward his teacher.
"Then let's have a super battle!" Tom laughed loudly.
At this point, there was nothing to hesitate about. They couldn't just watch the fish-men protecting them heroically sacrifice themselves!
The three master and disciples grabbed weapons and charged out of the factory.
As long as they resolved all these invading pirates, their identities wouldn't be exposed, right?
However, not proficient in Observation Haki, none of the three noticed that outside the battlefield, in the coral forest beyond the bubble, several fish-men continuously watched this side.
When Jinbei arrived here, the battle had already ended.
These pirates' strength wasn't too weak, but after the master-disciples trio brought out newly developed weapons and reinforcements arrived, they couldn't hold on long and were soon all captured.
"Who exactly are you?" Jinbei asked gravely.
"Pirates, of course!" The leader, even captured, still maintained a haughty appearance—truly full pirate spirit. "With that Brett guy away, I thought it was my best opportunity!"
Jinbei remained impassive, throwing all these people into prison.
Now there was one most important question.
Jinbei looked at Tom and his two disciples, who still didn't understand the situation.
Had their intelligence been exposed to the World Government?
Brett received Jinbei's call midway through the conference.
Fortunately, everyone at the conference was still arguing heatedly. Even if the Den Den Mushi suddenly rang, it wasn't particularly conspicuous.
Taking the Den Den Mushi out of the conference hall, Brett heard Jinbei completely explain today's events at Fish-Man Island.
Of course, to prevent eavesdropping, Jinbei didn't directly mention keywords like Sea-Prism Stone or Tom. He just explained in detail which places had been invaded.
Naturally, Brett understood everything.
"Really troublesome," Brett sighed somewhat helplessly.
Very helpless indeed.
He clearly wanted to strive for peace, at least at this stage.
"So, Brett, what do you plan to do?"
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