One Piece: Nobody knows Devil Fruits better than me.

Chapter 321 Government Order, Garp's Decision!

"Boss, how can you still be drinking Coke? That Elbaf guy has disappeared, and Lieutenant General Hammer and the others are really worried. Aren't you even a little bit curious?"

Naval Headquarters, Marineford.

Hans gripped the newspaper tightly in his hand and looked at Loy.

"curious?"

Roy glanced at him: "What's the use of curiosity? Do you think I can figure out the truth with my brain?"

"no!"

Upon hearing this, Hans became anxious: "It's a mission! A mission! The giant lieutenant generals have offered a hefty sum to investigate the truth about Elbaf, and they're even willing to pass on their giant martial arts and combined attack tactics."

"That thing is useless to me."

Roy blinked.

"But for me, cough cough, no, for my brothers, it's very useful!"

Hans almost revealed his inner thoughts—the area around Elbaf has recently become one of the hottest places in the world, with many powerful pirates' subordinates reportedly active there, and even subordinates of Shanks, one of the Four Emperors, have been lingering in the area recently. Therefore, missions related to intelligence about Elbaf are quite valuable.

However, all parties exercised restraint and did not engage in direct warfare.

In addition, there are the giant vice admirals within the navy, which constitute a major faction among the vice admirals.

Since giants generally live longer than humans, these giant admirals are actually quite senior and have considerable authority and prestige within the navy.

It's easy to imagine how anxious they were upon hearing the devastating news from their hometown, which is why they offered such a generous reward.

Such missions, which are both highly meritorious and low in risk, are hard to find.

However, Hans knew that Roy was right—with his boss's current strength, even the martial arts of the giants wouldn't be of much significance to him.

But Hans really wanted to improve, so of course he wanted this great opportunity.
“You seem to have forgotten something, Hans.”

But while Hans was pondering this, Roy had already spoken with a smile.

"Even if you accept the mission now and go to the waters near Elbaf to conduct an investigation, you will not be able to accumulate merits—you are now a member of the 'Star Hunting Force,' and the merits for promotion no longer follow the original system within the Navy."

He said it with a cheerful smile.

"!!!"

Hans was struck dumb – he had completely forgotten about this.

As Roy's trusted subordinate, he was naturally included in Roy's Starhunter team's membership list immediately.

According to the Navy's current plans, the Star Hunting Force is a special force directly under the World Government due to its unique nature.

His achievements within the navy were, of course, meaningless.

Incidentally, it is precisely for this reason that Smoker, who was recently able to join the Starhunter Force, has been quite active at headquarters—he seems to have reverted to the mad dog mode he was in when he first joined the Navy, showing no tolerance for any behavior he disapproves of.

This infuriated many traditionalists within the Navy, but there was nothing they could do—the two commanders of the Starhunting Force had no objections and were even pleased with it.

"This is terrible. In this way, my Uncle Hans's promotion in the military rank can only rely on that bastard Roy?"

With these thoughts swirling in his mind, Hans left dejectedly.

Roy, sitting in front of his seat, felt very calm.

Yes.

After successfully 'creating' the Esther, Roy naturally returned to Marineford using the power of the Slice-Slice Fruit—or, according to Wu Ma's explanation to Loki, 'the leader has already returned to headquarters.'

Um.
Naval Headquarters is still a headquarters, no problem.

Wu Ma and Loki are currently on their way to Fishman Island.

But it must be said...
"The reaction was smaller than I expected?"

This is what Roy thought to himself at that moment.

Yes.

After learning about the prophecy from Shirahoshi, Roy was fairly certain that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, the World Government would likely take action against Fish-Man Island.

As for the reason for taking action, Roy could guess it.

"Elbaf has disappeared—because of Teach, but the World Government obviously couldn't possibly know that."

"In their view, the disappearance of Elbaf and the withering of the precious tree Adam must be related to the 'twelve constellations'."

"And Im witnessed me devouring his bloodline factor energy in Dressrosa, so..."

Roy tried to see the possibility of Elbaf's disappearance from Im's perspective.

There is actually only one possibility.

'The Star Lord is collecting bloodline factor source energy and has a high probability of successfully appropriating the bloodline factor source energy of the Treasure Tree Adam.'

Coincidentally, although the guessing process was wrong.

But in reality, that's exactly how it is.

so.
“Im must know the origins of ‘Adam the Tree’ and ‘Eve the Sun Tree’, so once he realizes that I am collecting bloodline factor source energy, he will definitely make a move against Eve the Sun Tree.”

"It was this incident that led to the scene that Mrs. Shirley had predicted appearing."

By this point, the trajectory of fate had become quite clear to Roy.

However, so far, the Navy has not received any definite news from the World Government, which made Roy breathe a slight sigh of relief—at least Wu Ma and Loki still have time to arrive.

Besides
"."

At this moment, Roy slowly raised his hand.

In his hand, he was holding a 'compass'.

That was the 'relic' belonging to Rocks that he had previously obtained from Loki—the 'Compass of Life' that could be used to locate Rocks.

When Roy left the Esther, he naturally brought the compass back with him.

The problem is that the compass was pointing slightly south and 'downward'.

"Judging from the direction, it's not too far from Marineford, but the key thing is that it's facing downwards?"

This is what surprised Roy the most.

The compass needle points in a very small arc, indicating that Lox's location is not far from Marineford.

But pointing downwards signifies...
"Lox's location is beneath the sea surface. After he went to Mary Geoise, he was sunk to the bottom of the sea?"

Roy wondered to himself, quite curious about it.

But it is precisely at this moment
"boom!"

His office door was suddenly flung open.

Roy casually tossed the compass in his hand, and it vanished into thin air the next moment.

Then, Roy saw Cap stride confidently into the office.

"Grandpa Garp, didn't I tell you—it's best to knock before entering someone's office?"

Roy glared at Karp with annoyance.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

Then he heard Garp's apology. This, in turn, made Roy's expression turn somewhat stern.

Having previously trained under Garp in advanced applications of Conqueror's Haki, and with the Star Hunting Force incident, he has recently developed a very close relationship with this naval hero.

Therefore, he was well aware that the old man's easygoing personality meant he was definitely not the type to apologize directly—under normal circumstances, he would probably just laugh a few times and let the matter drop.

As if echoing Roy's thoughts, Garp's expression at this moment clearly carried some anger and seriousness.

"What happened?"

Roy immediately asked a question.

A suspicion began to form in his mind—he feared that, just as he had thought, the World Government had taken action.

And indeed, things turned out exactly as Roy had predicted.

"The government gave us our first order to act."

Karp said in a deep voice, "Those bastards, how dare they issue such an order?"

As he spoke, he angrily handed a note to Roy.

Roy took the note and saw the mission personally issued by the Five Elders.

[After deliberation by the Five Elders, it has been decided that the government will soon dispatch troops and powerful individuals to sink 'Fishman Island' and destroy 'Sun Tree Eve'.]

The Star Hunting Force, in coordination with the operation, must ensure the complete erasure of 'Fishman Island' and the utter death of 'Sun Tree Eve'.

The task details on it can be described as quite simple, even excessively so.

But the contents made Roy think to himself, "As expected," and he also understood why Garp was so angry.

"They dare to wipe out an island and destroy 'Eve of the Sun Tree' at the drop of a hat. Those trashy people in the World Government really dare to say such things!"

Karp sneered.

“Neptune is a friend of mine, how dare they make me do such a thing?”

His fists were clenched, clearly indicating that he was extremely angry.

That's right.

Garp and Neptune, the current king of Fishman Island, had a past relationship and could be considered friends.

More importantly, Garp clearly understands the significance of Fishman Island and the Sun Tree Eve to the Fishmen.

That is the foundation upon which this race exists in the world.

It should be noted that due to the fact that the fish-men possess physical strength and swimming ability that are dozens of times greater than those of humans, coupled with the beauty of the female mermaids, the fish-men are the most easily coveted 'goods' among all races.

The reason why the fish-men have been able to exist to this day is largely due to the 'natural barrier' of Fishman Island, which exists 10,000 meters below the sea.

The existence of Fishman Island largely depends on the sunlight transmitted by the Sun Tree Eve.

In Garp's view, this order was tantamount to 'exterminating the Fish-Men'—an order he absolutely could not tolerate.

"Do they think that once I become the commander of this so-called 'Star Hunting Force,' I will become their henchman?"

Garp sneered, "Bah—if I had to do such a damn stupid thing, I'd rather not have this damn commander position!"

In fact, he had even made up his mind to go to Sengoku to resign from his position as commander.

But at this moment
"Grandpa Garp, don't get agitated."

Roy, however, frowned as he looked at the contents of the order in his hand.

"Resigning from the position of commander won't change anything?"

He raised his hand and pointed to the contents of the command in his hand.

"Upon closer inspection, it seems that we are only 'supporting' this mission—the government intends to send its own army and powerful individuals to destroy Fishman Island and Sun Tree Eve."

"Under such circumstances, whether you oppose it or not, the government will likely persist in its course of action."

Roy had clearly grasped some key information hidden within the mission.

First, he had determined that Im's goal was to prevent the Twelve Constellations from obtaining the 'bloodline factor source energy' within the Sun Tree Eve, which is why he simply took direct action against the entire Fishman Island and the Sun Tree Eve.

Under such circumstances, he could understand the order.

For Im, the Starhunting Force was a force he had built to fight against the Twelve Constellations, so naturally he was going to use it.

At the same time, he didn't want Garp, Loy, and the Starhunter troops to know about the special nature of Sun Tree Eve and Bloodline Factor Source Energy.

Therefore, the Starhunting Force plays a supporting role in this mission.

"What he hopes for is that if the 'Twelve Constellations' attack at a critical moment, the Star Hunting Force can serve as the first line of defense, right?"

Roy could almost guess what Im was thinking.

But the problem is
"Thanks to the prophecy that Fishman Island received it in advance, and with the arrival of the 'Ester,' Wu Ma and Loki are now on their way to Fishman Island."

Under these circumstances, Roy had already formed an idea in his mind.

"Grandpa Garp, I think we should accept the mission."

"Otherwise, the fishmen on Fishman Island would really be in danger."

“If we go there—even if Fishman Island and Sun Tree Eve are destroyed, we can at least protect them. We can completely clear out the Sabaody Archipelago as a refuge for the Fishman refugees.”

He looked at Karp and stated his conclusion directly.

“After all, we are the ‘Starhunter Force’.”

He emphasized the last four words.

Garp instantly understood what he meant.

If the World Government truly possesses the capability to fight at a depth of 10,000 meters underwater, and is determined to destroy Fish-Man Island and the Sun Tree Eve, Garp knows that even he would be powerless to stop it.

Even if he quits on the spot, it won't make a difference.

However, there is one thing they can do.

That is to establish shelters in the Sabaody Archipelago to protect the fish-man refugees.

After all, the Star Hunting Force held a special position, possessing the highest authority among all the armies under the World Government. At that time, even the Navy and the Celestial Dragons could not snatch people from the Star Hunting Force unless Roy and Garp gave their approval.

This way, at least to the greatest extent possible, casualties can be minimized.

And most importantly, Roy was certain that doing so would absolutely not attract Im's attention.

After all, if his guess is correct, Im's target is actually purely 'Sun Tree Eve'.

He didn't care about the life or death of the fishmen on Fishman Island—whether they were enslaved or protected.

But for Roy, the situation was different.

"."

Seeing Garp's gaze gradually harden and sharpen, Roy didn't say anything more—he knew that he had convinced the naval hero.

And coincidentally...

In Roy's mind, a bold plan had already been devised.

(End of this chapter)