Chapter 324: It’s Good to Have No Faction
Rui Mengmeng was not the only one who felt it looked familiar. Everyone except Wendy and Xia Lulu felt it looked familiar. They had seen this island before, but it was not in the sea, but in the sky.
This is Melviu, one of the islands brought to the East China Sea by the Golden Lion.
The most distinctive features of the island are the highly poisonous trees called Daft-Green and the IQ plants that can detoxify.
At that time, the Navy commissioned Yixiao to help move the island. The residents of the island were unwilling to return to the dangerous Grand Route, so the island was left in the East China Sea and placed near the town of Shields where the 153rd Navy Branch was located.
Perona asked, "Isn't that right? I remember that uncle returned on the same day when he moved this island. Why did it take us so long to sail here?"
"Because we didn't go in this direction at first, and then we went treasure hunting and sightseeing, so we made a big detour in the East China Sea." Shark Chili explained, "If we want, as long as we sail about 15 degrees east-southeast now, we can return to the originally frozen sea within three days."
"This can be considered as a revisit to an old place. Let's go and take a look. I wonder how the villagers on that island live here, although we are familiar with them but have never met them before." Zhang Da also remembered that although everyone fought a battle with the Golden Lion for these villagers, they had never even seen their faces. The specific situation was learned from the flag monster who was in charge of the investigation at that time.
Perona excitedly told Wendy about the glorious past of parkour on this island. It was so exciting to ride a mammoth and run around the island with a large group of enemies.
Perona said: "We later released the mammoth. I wonder how he is doing now."
"It should be dead." Ye Yan dressed himself up as a big red apple today, with a brown headgear on his head that looked like an apple stem, and a green leaf decorating the side. His limbs were exposed, as if the apple had become a spirit.
Ignoring Perona's dissatisfied expression, Ye Yan explained: "At that time, the navy said that they would help the villagers hunt down the mutated beasts on the island. The mammoth is probably also within the hunting range."
Perona was deflated: "Why is this happening..."
Zhang Da also casually added: "It's a pity. If we had known earlier, we should have roasted it ourselves."
Perona roared, "Are you a devil?"
"No, I really don't know what a mammoth tastes like." Zhang Da also saw that Altria and Tom both had regretful expressions, and wondered if he should try roasting a Drought Jack next time.
As they were talking, everyone sailed towards the side of Melviu on the Amber.
Melville has been connected to the original town of Shields, and looks like a big gourd from the air. The connection is not made by building a bridge, but by reclaiming land to create an open road.
As for the materials for land reclamation... according to Shark Chili's diving observation, it should be some kind of huge sphere that was cut or broken into pieces and then filled into the gap between the two islands. In some places, there are traces of high-temperature rocks cooling rapidly, which means that this thing may have been a meteorite.
Zhang Da also sighed: "Uncle Yixiao's service is really thoughtful. The Navy would be sorry if they didn't pay him tens of millions or even hundreds of millions."
Altria asked, "Was this done by Uncle Yixiao?"
"It should be that he used his super-wide-range Observation Haki to capture the meteorites in the sky, and then used the power of the Gravity Fruit to pull the meteorites down." Zhang Da also said, "Uncle Yixiao is just like those admirals of the navy. He is simply a walking disaster."
"So amazing!" Wendy hugged Xia Lulu with a surprised expression. This was the second time they heard Yixiao's name. He could manipulate gravity, summon meteorites, and move islands. He was really an amazing person, but why did Sister Altria say that he always lost every time he gambled?
"Aren't you afraid of radiation if you use meteorites to pave the road?" Ye Yan, wearing an Apple suit, believes in science.
Zhang Da also said: "This meteorite may not have any harmful radiation."
The space in One Piece is very strange. Enelu can fly directly to the moon on a golden ship, and several small robots can also fly directly to the moon by pulling balloons. There might even be air on the moon. So if the meteorites are cut into pieces and placed here directly, they are probably harmless to the human body.
There is a port in the town of Shields and Melville respectively. Zhang Daye and his crew chose to dock at Melville. At that time, a merchant ship was unloading cargo, and dozens of workers were carrying packages of various sizes back and forth.
As soon as everyone got off the boat, someone came up to ask if they needed to hire a porter. After being rejected by Zhang Da, the man left with some disappointment.
Zhang Da also said: "It seems that although we have gained some fame, we are still far from being a household name."
"No, at least in our village, no one doesn't know our benefactors!" a worker next to him suddenly said.
This is a middle-aged man who does not look strong. His clothes are a bit worn, especially his shoulders which show signs of heavy wear and tear. Although it is still winter, the clothes he wears look like those of summer or autumn. He even has a towel around his neck for wiping sweat.
Zhang Daye and the others looked at him in confusion: "Who are you?"
The man said excitedly but a little awkwardly: "My name is Paul. I am originally a villager of Melviu. I was enslaved by the Golden Lion Shiki for nearly ten years. It was not until my benefactors and the navy defeated him that I regained my freedom!"
It seems that Vice Admiral Stoloberg was quite honest at the time. When he was appeasing the villagers, although he added a little drama to the navy, he did not erase the contributions of Zhang Daye and others.
"The guy just now came from Shields Town, so he didn't know the benefactors, but everyone in our village knows about the Amber Tour Group!" Paul bent down excitedly, "Thank you very much for your help!"
"Oh, don't be so polite. We got a lot of bounties afterwards." Zhang Da also asked, "Are you used to living in the East China Sea?"
"It's already very good. At least we can make a good living by working hard, and our family doesn't have to worry about being attacked by wild animals. This is all thanks to the help of our benefactors!" Paul called them benefactors one after another, and thanked them every three sentences, "Please let us entertain you well this time!"
"You don't have to spend money on this, and you still have a job here." Zhang Da also declined. He didn't care whether he was treated or not. He could just go to the nearby town of Shields and eat a few streets. There was no need to delay others from making money to support their family.
Paul said indifferently: "It doesn't matter. It's almost time to go back today. It's just that my family conditions are average, so please don't despise me, benefactor!"
Everyone looked at each other, and finally felt that they couldn't refuse the invitation, so they went to his house to sit down and learn about the current situation on the island.
A group of about ten people left the port in a mighty manner, attracting a lot of people's attention. Some people were shocked when they saw Brook, but after looking at Ye Yan and Shark Chili, they suddenly realized that it was probably the person wearing a skull mask, which was too realistic and scary.
"This port was only built last month. Many people from the village come here to work because the salary is good. People from the nearby town of Shields also come here." Paul introduced as he walked in response to Zhang Daye's inquiries.
Zhang Daye and his friends looked around and found that a lot of changes seemed to have taken place on the island. A lot of the originally dense jungle had been cut down, and a road was built from the port directly to the village.
A lot of Daft-Green trees have also been cut down, some of them have been stripped of bark and look bare, and now there are still some people working in the woods wearing protective clothing.
"Ouch~ What a terrible smell." Wendy covered her nose. The Dragon Slayer had a sensitive nose and she couldn't stand the smell coming from Daft-Green.
Xia Lulu also covered her nose: "I want to run away when I smell this."
Paul smiled apologetically: "These trees were originally used to prevent wild animals from invading and protect the village. The smell is terrible. It's okay if you walk normally, but inhaling too much will cause poisoning. Animals dare not approach when they smell this smell, so cats are a little uncomfortable, right?"
Maybe because he had seen all kinds of strange animals, he was not surprised that cats could talk.
Tom looked around and thought that he was a cat, an animal, so he would not be able to stand the smell, so he covered his nose in disgust.
Zhang Da also patted Tom's head, reached behind Tom, took out two gas masks and handed them to Wendy and Xia Lulu. Strangely, the size was just right.
Tom suddenly realized what was going on and quickly put one on himself.
"What are they doing?" Zhang Da also asked, pointing at the people wearing protective clothing.
Paul explained: "Because the ferocious beasts were hunted by the navy, these poisonous trees are not only useless but also dangerous, so everyone decided to cut them down. But people in the town said that the bark of this tree can be used as medicine, so we simply sold it to them and divided the money among us."
Rui Mengmeng asked: "After peeling the bark, the tree will die, right? What will happen after we sell all the trees?"
"It's sold out after it's sold out. It's poisonous anyway. The village chief said that if someone is not afraid, then we can mark out a piece of land in the corner for him to plant trees, and then scatter IQ seeds all over the island. That way, we don't have to worry about someone accidentally getting poisoned, and IQ can also be sold as medicine."
Paul's eyes were full of hope as he spoke. The more hardships one has experienced, the more one cherishes the present life.
Paul's home is not far from the entrance of the village. The house looks very new and should have been built recently.
"I'm back!" Paul pushed open the door.
A woman's voice came from inside: "Why did you come back so early today?"
"I brought back a guest, our great benefactor!"
"What do we have..." The woman said halfway, and ran out, looking at the group of people that Paul let in in surprise. Finally, her eyes locked on Tom, and she covered her mouth, "You are really a benefactor, please come in!"
"Excuse me!" *9
"This is my beloved Daya. We have been married for ten years. However, not long after our marriage, all the men in our village were captured by the Golden Lion and forced to do hard labor. During that time, they were hardly allowed to go home."
If the Golden Lion had not been defeated, they didn't know when they would be reunited. After expressing gratitude once again, Paul said with great enthusiasm: "That's why we have never had children. But I have been working hard recently..."
Daya patted Paul with a red face. What nonsense was he talking about in front of the guests? She resisted the urge to splash boiling water on his face and poured tea for others.
Perona looked at Paul as if he were trash, saying such things in front of a child. It seemed that this person must be the same kind of person as that lustful skeleton.
Wendy's face suddenly turned red, even redder than the red apple suit Ye Yan was wearing, and it looked like steam would come out of her head at any moment.
Zhang Da didn't know how to respond to this topic. He held the teacup awkwardly, wondering whether he should say "come on" or something like that.
He glanced at Wendy and Perona. It seemed like kids nowadays knew a lot.
“Yo hoo hoo~” At the critical moment, we still have to rely on an old pervert like Brook. He stared at Daya with his empty eyes and said with a smile, “Ms. Daya, can you please…”
Zhang Daye, Ye Yan, and Shark Chili jumped up almost at the same time and surrounded Brooke and started punching and kicking him.
"It hurts so much...at least let me finish what I'm saying!"
Apple Ye Yan fell down and pressed on Brooke, rolling over and over: "It's not as simple as a beating after all this, you're just a bone that can't change to drink milk!"
Paul and Daya were surprised: "You, you are..."
Zhang Daye used righteous trampling while explaining: "It's okay, he has osteoporosis. I wonder if you can give him a glass of milk so we can help him loosen up his muscles first!"
"Of course... no problem..." Daya went back to the kitchen to get milk in a daze, wondering why he needed to loosen his bones if he already had osteoporosis.
After all this commotion, the awkward atmosphere eased a lot, probably.
Brook drank a glass of milk with all the pain, and then recovered. He was almost used to it. If he didn't get beaten every time he made such a request, it only meant that his companions were not around, which was also good.
During the conversation, Zhang Da also learned that the people in this village are living quite well now. If they want to make a living, they can choose to farm on the island, collect herbs, work at the dock, or find a job in Shields Town.
The initial difficulties were overcome by relying on the money from selling the wild animals killed by the navy. Later, there was income from selling trees. Now as long as you are willing to work hard, you can live a good life. For ordinary people, such a life is already very good.
Especially for those of them who had endured ten years of suffering, it was just like a dream. So they thanked the navy, the Amber Tour Group, and the person in the newspaper who did not want to reveal his name from the bottom of their hearts.
So, when the villagers knew that the Amber Travel Group was visiting Paul's home, they all came to invite them. After a dispute, the village chief simply proposed that the whole village hold a big banquet together, which was agreed by everyone.
Although the development of the matter was somewhat unexpected, Zhang Da still chose to accept it with pleasure. At least he didn't have to worry about eating any company into bankruptcy.
At this time, Zhang Daye's mood was still a little complicated. He had saved a group of people who hated the World Government, and also saved a group of people who supported the navy. It was really... it was good to have no camp.
