Time flew by, and seven days had passed since Oden and Roux went to transport the Materials together.
During this period, the twenty-odd person transport team hired by Oden and Roux had already made two round trips.
Oden and Roux, having just loaded the Materials onto the ship, returned to the ship, ready to report on the special circumstances they encountered.
Pain had already entered a state of Cultivation while Oden and Roux were busy.
Since the last time he had the Preta Path fight Oden, although it seemed like he hadn't lost, Pain knew in his heart that he had been thoroughly defeated.
Although the Preta Path had not used its full strength, Pain knew that Oden was also far from using his full strength.
Given that duel, Pain realized the severe inadequacy of his Chakra reserves.
Insufficient Chakra would affect the abilities of the Six Paths.
Therefore, Pain now refines Chakra whenever he has free time.
After seven days of refining, Pain felt that his current Chakra reserves were at most one-tenth of his Peak.
This body, however, was even more terrifying than his Peak, and it was currently impossible to estimate how much Chakra it could hold.
Pain was also helpless with this result; this body was truly a bottomless pit.
Sensing that Roux and Oden had returned to the ship through the Rain Tiger at Will Technique, Pain stopped his Cultivation, left his room, and met with them.
"Pain... our ship is still too small... only one-third of the Materials have been loaded... our ship is already overloaded..."
"Yes, Pain... we severely underestimated the amount of Materials... and also overestimated the capacity of this pirate ship," Roux interjected.
"So..."
"What solutions do you have?" Pain asked.
"Our ship is already drawing too deep, so we definitely can't load any more.
There are two possible solutions right now..."
"First, hide the remaining Materials in a secret place... and send a ship to retrieve them when needed."
"Second... seize large ships at the port... and control the crew to transport them..." Roux suggested.
As soon as Roux finished speaking, Oden raised a different opinion.
"Both of these methods probably won't work, Roux... The first one... if the Materials are to be hidden, it means all these hired transport teams would have to die... These are all innocent, unfortunate people... Are we to become devils?..."
"Besides..."
"These past few days, when we passed through those towns while transporting Materials, we also heard some news: Crocodile's death has already attracted the attention of the World Government..."
"Now for the second one... seizing large ships... Leaving aside whether there are even suitable large ships... even if there are... they all need people to operate them.
How can just three of us control them?..."
"At sea, if these hijacked people try to escape... we'd have no choice but to open fire and destroy them... and then all these Materials would fall into the sea..."
Oden patiently explained, stroking his distinctive hairstyle.
"Sorry... I didn't think it through enough... Senior... Then what do you think we should do?..." Roux humbly sought Oden's advice, thinking to himself that he still wasn't careful enough in his considerations.
"Well, well..."
"As things stand now... we can only search near other coasts... or wait for a larger ship to seize... just one ship that can hold all these Materials would be good..."
"Heh hahaha..." Oden laughed heartily in response.
Pain gazed at the distant sea, listening to their ideas without saying a word.
Pain was considering that the organization's personnel would gradually increase in the future, and organizational members would gradually be arranged to carry out tasks separately, making real-time information exchange very important.
Although Roux had mentioned the existence of Den Den Mushi in this world, Pain felt that Den Den Mushi had significant drawbacks; once lost, communication would be cut off.
After much consideration, Pain still decided to use the Projecting Image Technique to establish the organization's communication.
Pain previously used the Projecting Image Technique by etching invisible Chakra array patterns onto the bodies of organization members using Chakra.
The personnel on whom the array patterns were etched had to be willing and show no resistance, otherwise the technique would fail.
Through Pain's own Chakra and the connection and sensing of all array patterns via the Illusion Body array, he would enhance the thought waves on the organization members' bodies for remote communication.
Pain was unsure if people in this world had thought waves, and coupled with the fact that there weren't many people before and they weren't separated, he hadn't considered it.
Now, Pain felt it was time to consider the Projecting Image Technique.
Just as he was deep in thought, Oden's hearty laughter pulled his thoughts back.
"Then we'll follow Oden's method... Also... do you know about the existence of thought waves?..."
Pain also thought Oden's idea was the most practical for now, and at the same time, he wanted to see if they had any knowledge of thought waves.
Roux looked bewildered when he heard Pain's question, while Oden seemed thoughtful.
"Thought waves?..."
"Pain, are you referring to abilities related to Mental Energy?" Oden asked, voicing his confusion.
"Thought waves rely on a person's Mental Energy to condense the images in their mind... Once the thought waves are strong enough, one can communicate directly with the images in their mind..." Pain explained, a rare occurrence.
"Let's try it directly... Roux, you go first... Trust me... don't resist with your body..." Pain instructed.
Pain walked to Roux's side, directly formed hand signs, and performed the Projecting Image Technique.
A surge of Chakra quickly merged into Roux's body, automatically constructing the array pattern.
Once the array was formed, the Chakra disappeared.
Roux vaguely felt a strange but small and harmless energy within his body.
After the array was formed, Pain instructed Roux on the specific operation.
"Roux... concentrate your Mental Energy... eliminate distractions... only imagine my figure in your mind..."
Roux followed Pain's instructions.
Initially, he couldn't succeed directly because Roux's mind wasn't focused enough, and there were many distracting thoughts.
After several attempts, an unstable black and red illusory figure finally appeared beside Pain.
Judging by the outline of the illusory figure, it was indeed Roux.
"Your Mental Energy isn't concentrated enough... your Illusion Body will disappear at any moment... Close your eyes, concentrate your energy, and try to make the Illusion Body speak through Mental Energy..."
Pain continued to guide Roux to operate according to his method.
Roux once again concentrated his energy and followed Pain's instructions, and soon the Illusion Body's illusory figure stabilized and opened its eyes on behalf of Roux.
"Haha..."
"This is too amazing, isn't it?" Roux's Illusion Body spoke.
Pain no longer paid attention to the secretly delighted Illusion Body Roux, turning to look at Oden, his meaning self-evident.
Oden walked to Pain's side and formed hand signs again.
A surge of Chakra tried to enter Oden's body, but as soon as it got close, it was bounced back into Pain's body.
Pain knew that Oden might be unsure if this energy would harm him, so he showed resistance.
Pain looked at Oden and began to guide him.
"Don't have doubts in your heart... don't resist... the Projecting Image Technique poses no harm to you... just relax and accept it..."
After Pain finished speaking, he formed hand signs and performed the technique again.
This time it was simpler; Oden had high Comprehension Ability and strong Mental Energy.
Having seen Roux's process, Oden easily created his own Illusion Body.
"Heh hahaha..."
"This is truly an amazing ability... This way... as long as we concentrate our energy to construct your figure... we can contact each other anytime, anywhere, right?..."
Oden's Illusion Body asked with a laugh.
"All organization members who have the Illusion Body array pattern etched can be contacted..."
After Pain finished speaking, he returned to his room to continue Cultivating, leaving the remaining matters for Oden and Roux to handle.
Oden and Roux experimented with contacting each other again, and once they confirmed they had mastered it, they went out to execute the mission again.
This time, the mission included an additional task: seizing a larger ship.
Alabasta.
In the royal palace, three government personnel wearing strange masks were conversing with the King.
Kaku, Blueno, and Kalifa had been in Alabasta for two days.
During these two days, after extensive investigation, they had clarified the general outline of the "evil" incident, but specific details were still missing.
The enemy's movements, how long it took to kill Crocodile, what they were doing now, and their exact location had all been clarified.
The only thing unclear was the strength of this organization.
Kalifa believed it was time to test the opponent's strength...