"Hello, please pay ten billion Extol."
"What the hell? Ten billion!?"
Smoker stared at the little old lady sitting in the guard booth. A puff of thick smoke burst from his nostrils in shock.
"Wait, what is your country made of, gold or silver!?"
"Oh my, so there are quite a lot of you."
The old lady pushed up her round coil-shaped glasses and stretched out her hand again.
"Each of you must pay ten billion Extol as an entry fee, otherwise you will be treated as illegal entrants…"
"Hold up, don't you think something's a little off here!?"
Half of Smoker's body turned into smoke and floated next to the old lady as he pressed down on her shoulder.
"Ten billion! That's faster than outright robbery!"
"Judging by the way you look… you must be from the Blue Sea beneath the White Sea."
The old gatekeeper smiled and said,
"Such rare guests… But there's no need to panic. Ten billion Extol, when converted to your 'Belly,' is only about a hundred thousand."
Smoker turned his head and counted the people on the ship…
That came to about 1.2 million Belly!
Actually… it sounded kind of cheap.
"Oi, don't get misled by the exchange rate! I've never heard of a country that charges one hundred thousand Belly per person just to enter!"
Michael's voice rang in Smoker's ear, snapping the blockhead back to his senses.
"Tch, you're right!"
Smoker returned to the Seraphim, and the Marines simply ignored the old lady and marched straight into the so-called "Land of the Gods."
After forcing their way through the checkpoint, the Marines couldn't help but feel conflicted.
"We're the Navy… barging in like this doesn't seem right. And the gatekeeper was just an old granny…"
Shu awkwardly rubbed his face cloth and looked at Michael.
Michael just rolled his eyes.
"Hah? She set up a private checkpoint and was extorting illegal entry fees. Strictly speaking, I could have arrested her right on the spot!"
"It's only because of her age that I let her go."
Seeing his subordinates looking a bit dazed, Michael sighed.
Sometimes… intelligence really was a damn handicap.
...
Following the White Sea's current through the Land of the Gods, the Seraphim soon arrived at a rather large island…
"Welcome to Angel Island?"
Looking at the sign planted on the shore, all the Marines instinctively glanced at Michael.
Some even dared to tease him outright…
Of course, it was none other than that airheaded fool, Smoker.
"Ahahahaha, Angel Island, huh? Boss, that means the residents are all angels, right? Just like you!"
"…Let's just say, is it not possible that I'm actually a Devil Fruit user instead… Ah, forget it."
Michael looked at Smoker, shook his head, then turned to Hina.
"Go easy on him. Leave him breathing."
"Yes! Hina guarantees to complete the mission!"
With a vow full of conviction, Hina lunged at Smoker like a tiger pouncing down the mountain…
Pure brutality.
"Tch, you all better watch closely!"
Michael jabbed a finger at the hapless Smoker being beaten down.
"Even if he recovers, he'll still be drooling like an idiot!"
After a round of chaos and scuffling, Hina and Smoker were both sitting on the deck, panting heavily…
"Michael-boss, something's wrong… we only fought for a bit, so why does it feel like… I can't catch my breath?"
"Hina worries the same. Hina feels like Smoker… don't tell me I caught something from him and I'm about to mutate?"
"…Oi! What am I, some kind of germ!?"
Michael stepped forward and flicked both of them on the forehead.
"What nonsense are you spouting… We're ten thousand meters up in the sky. At this altitude, the temperature drops and the air thins out. People from the Blue Sea naturally feel unwell here… though the severity varies from person to person."
In short…
Altitude sickness.
Hearing this, everyone realized the same thing. Even Michael faintly noticed his breathing was drawn out just a little longer.
Only Hancock claimed to feel perfectly fine…
Michael's mouth twitched.
No surprise—she truly was the natural-born Empress of Amazon Lily. With her innate gifts in Haki and her physical body, she was maxed out across the board.
Easily on par with Luffy.
...
Amid the noise and commotion, the Seraphim docked at a place called "Angel Beach."
Everyone disembarked.
Stella pulled out something like a remote control and pressed a button.
"Chiu! Chiu!"
With a sharp sound, the Seraphim locked itself into place.
Michael grimaced at the noise and looked at Stella's remote.
"Seriously… I know the Seraphim has a locking function, but why that sound?"
Anyone hearing it would think someone just locked a tricycle!
"How should I know… Maybe Vegapunk figured this kind of sound would help remind us in time?"
Seeing Stella's slightly confused eyes, Michael couldn't be bothered to pursue the thought any further.
Whatever.
Their feet sank slightly into the cloud-island ground, giving them a peculiar sensation.
The Marines, who had never seen such a thing before, exchanged baffled glances.
"Are we going or not?"
Enel walked calmly to Michael's side.
"Weren't you here to shop?"
"Conveniently enough, of all the sky islands large and small, Angel Island is the one with the most complete selection of specialty goods."
Michael nodded.
So Enel wasn't entirely a battle-obsessed chuuni after all.
When he wasn't acting up, he could actually be useful.
Under Enel's lead, the group headed toward the center of Angel Island.
...
As they went along, the number of people steadily increased.
"Uwaah, Michael, they're all like you, with white wings!"
"But on their heads… what are those antenna-like things?"
Of course, only the brats and Smoker were dumb enough to be surprised.
The others immediately realized the strange wings and antennae… were just decorations.
They weren't organs grown by the natives of the sky islands.
The closer they got to the center, the more stalls and shops appeared along the way.
Various strange items were laid out for sale.
Most of the things on the little stalls were pretty useless trinkets.
"This, is a type of Dial."
Enel suddenly stopped in front of a small stand.
"It can store and release the special clouds of the sky islands, so it's called a Cloud Dial…"
Michael nodded. Before Enel even finished, he crooked a finger at Stella.
"Buy them all."
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