Chapter 2: You want me to infiltrate the Rocks Pirates as a mole?
"Th-they… left?"
More than ten minutes later.
Still the same room.
Kong carefully walked in.
He kept his eyes straight ahead, afraid he might see something he was not supposed to.
"They left. They should have gone back to the Holy Land."
Carlo was wearing a pair of beach shorts, sitting on a genuine leather sofa.[1]
He casually picked up a box from the table, took out a thick cigar with stamped gold patterns, and put it in his mouth.
Then he picked up the gold lighter by his hand and lit it with a snap.
He took a deep drag, exhaled a long dragon-like plume of smoke, then tossed the cigar box and the gold lighter over to Kong.
Kong caught them in midair, glanced at the brand, and his eye twitched.
"Douglas cigars?"
"Aren't these sold per stick? I heard it's 100,000 beli each. This box has twenty… just this box is 2,000,000 beli?"
"What salary do you have? What status do you have? And you smoke this?"
Holding a world-class luxury cigar, watching Carlo across from him puffing away, Kong's worldview almost collapsed.
He was a Marine admiral.
A man in his forties or fifties.
And even he had only smoked this kind of high-end cigar a handful of times.
Yet this brat Carlo…
Not even twenty.
Just a Marine Headquarters major.
And he was extravagant enough to smoke a 2,000,000-beli box of cigars?
You had to understand, even the royals of the Kingdom of Douglas were reluctant to enjoy something like this.
This was a top-tier luxury item that member nation painstakingly crafted to serve as Heavenly Tribute, offered up to the World Government!
Was his eyesight failing…
Or had Carlo gone insane?
"Are you smoking it or not? If not, give it back."
Seeing Kong muttering in shock, Carlo could not take it anymore.
"Of course I'm smoking it!"
"Damn it… if it's free, I'd be a fool not to!"
Kong gritted his teeth and pulled one out of the gold-foil box.
He first admired the intricate, gorgeous gold patterns on the cigar's surface.
Then he brought it under his nose and took a deep breath.
Only then did he bite it between his teeth, take Carlo's lighter, and light it.
He inhaled hard like a whale drinking water, kept his mouth closed as he savored it for several seconds, then exhaled that long plume of smoke.
Then he collapsed into the sofa with a blissful expression.
"Hiss…"
"So good!"
"This is what good tobacco is. Everything I used to smoke was trash…"
After that one drag, Kong nearly teared up.
He looked at Carlo across from him, indignant.
"Damn it! Why does a Marine major like you get to smoke something this high-end? This isn't fair!"
But soon, the indignation on his face vanished when he noticed the decor in the room.
And when he remembered the women he had just seen.
In its place came sudden realization.
"Oh, I get it now."
"Get what, exactly?"
Carlo's face twitched. He really wanted to kick Kong in the face.
"I get it. No need to explain."
A bit of envy and jealousy appeared in Kong's eyes as he lowered his voice.
"Carlo, how did you… get in with… those ladies?"
Seeing Kong's gossiping expression, Carlo folded his arms and sneered.
"You really want to know? In that case…"
"Forget it, forget it. I don't want to know. Don't say it. It has nothing to do with me!"
Kong hurriedly waved his hands.
What a joke.
The fact that he barged in and saw those women was already making him uneasy even now.
In his eyes, they were all weaklings he could crush whenever he wanted.
But their status as Celestial Dragons, and members of core Celestial Dragon families at that, meant Kong could only keep his distance.
Let alone dig deeper into their relationship with Carlo.
Even as a Marine admiral, he did not want to get tangled up in that mess.
Anyway, the one fooling around with them was Carlo, not him.
If something blew up later, the one in trouble would be Carlo.
When Carlo saw Kong quietly slipping the lighter toward his pocket, Carlo's face darkened.
Annoyed, he propped his feet on the table.
"So what exactly are you doing here? Are Marine admirals that bored that you personally investigate a subordinate officer visiting a pleasure district?"
Kong's old face reddened from Carlo's words.
"How could that be? I came to find you for something important."
"What could be so important that it makes a dignified admiral come looking for a tiny Marine major like me?"
For some reason, a bad feeling rose in Carlo's heart.
"Heh heh, it's like this…"
Once it came to serious business, Kong's expression immediately turned solemn.
"Carlo, you know the world situation is changing fast. The seas are in turmoil. Pirates run rampant, civilians live in hardship, forced to struggle for survival in the cracks while those thugs wreak havoc, their days miserable beyond endurance…"
"Speak like a normal person!"
The veins on Carlo's forehead bulged.
He truly could not take it anymore.
Carlo finally understood why Garp was always so impatient around Kong.
This was unbearably long-winded.
Kong coughed once.
"Ahem… I want you to go undercover in the Rocks Pirates."
"What?!"
Carlo, who was smoking his cigar, sprang up from the sofa and looked at Kong, who was forcing an awkward smile.
"Me?"
"Undercover in the Rocks Pirates? As a mole?!"
"Kong, are you kidding me?"
Kong wiped the smile off his face, stood up, and pressed Carlo back down onto the sofa with an apologetic look, speaking seriously.
"Sorry, Carlo. I'm not kidding. I'm serious."
"Serious?"
Carlo crossed his arms and stared at Kong, whose eyes were full of guilt.
"Are you serious… or are you trying to send me to my death?"
"You know how dangerous the Rocks Pirates are, don't you?"
Kong nodded.
"I know. The Rocks Pirates are very dangerous. You could say they are the most dangerous pirate crew in the New World right now. Hachinosu truly is one of the most dangerous places in the world, at least for us Marines."
"Then why send me?"
Carlo's eyes turned colder.
"By seniority, I'm just a Headquarters major."
"By strength, my strength doesn't rank anywhere in Headquarters."
"No matter how you look at it, it shouldn't be my turn to go somewhere that dangerous as an undercover agent."
"Did you forget how my unlucky old man died?"
"Or is it that…"
Carlo stared at Kong, whose expression grew even more apologetic.
"You want to use my hatred for Rocks to make me willingly go undercover by his side?"
"If that's the case, then sorry. I'm not going to joke around with my life."
"Forget everyone else in the Rocks Pirates. Just how strong Rocks is… you know better than I do."
"Even my father, a Marine admiral, was treated by him like some stray dog on the roadside and slaughtered with a casual swing!!!"