Pirate: I was just slacking off, do you really think I'm bad?

"You're quite capable."

The old man's attitude remained unchanged.

It seems that in his eyes, no change in the world can affect his heart.

However, he was still somewhat moved when he saw the paper flowers placed in front of the family photo in the living room.

"That's very thoughtful."

The old man took out a tea set from the kitchen and cleaned it thoroughly.

The members of Long and Ziyong Army also sat cross-legged at the square table twice, quietly waiting for the old man.

"We don't have much to offer you, but please have some water."

The old man distributed the cleaned teacups to everyone, and then filled them one by one with the hot water in his hand.

"This water is the old man's treasured possession. It's clean water. Drink some while it's hot, you stranger."

Long raised his teacup; the water inside was slightly cloudy.

He trusted the old man and wouldn't do anything to them, so he tilted his head back and drank it down in one gulp.

The water tasted strange, with a slightly astringent and throat-scratching sensation.

However, the dragon did not show any unusual expression.

On the contrary, some of the members behind him showed a hint of unbearable discomfort after finishing their drinks.

The old man lit a pipe and put it in his mouth, taking a drag.

"The water must taste awful, young man."

Long shook his head and looked down at the teacup in his hand:

"It's not that it tastes bad, but it has a strange flavor."

After hearing the dragon's reply, the old man burst into laughter, revealing his yellowish-brown gap-toothed teeth:

"How could it not taste bad? Even I, an old man, think it tastes bad."

Long didn't reply. Instead, he picked up the kettle and poured himself another cup.

"Sir, my name is Monkey D. Dragon, and I come from the East Blue. I am currently a traveler, traveling the world with my companions."

This was Dragon's official explanation; he didn't believe an old man would know his secret, and besides, the Navy hadn't issued an arrest warrant for him.

After taking a puff of his cigarette, the old man's mind drifted into memories:

"I remember many years ago, there was a navy guy whose head was all muscle and no brains, also surnamed Monkey. What's his connection to you?"

Dragon was taken aback, never expecting that the old man in front of him had met his father, Monkey D. Garp, many years ago.

My attitude became respectful without even realizing it.

"Sir, the person you're talking about must be my father. May I ask your name?"

The old man tapped his pipe on the table and said with a complicated expression:

"Barnett Snow, you can just call me Uncle Snow."

The dragon also obediently followed the old man Snow's words.

"Uncle Snow, I want to know about your Eryokabu Kingdom. Why is the Eryokabu Kingdom completely different from what is written in the book?"

"What's different? Is the pollution much worse than you imagined?"

Old Man Snow wore a mocking expression.

Monkey D. Dragon nodded, took out a notebook from his travel bag, and prepared to start recording the old man's words.

"Before I tell you, answer one question for me: what is your purpose in coming to the Kingdom of Eryokabu?"

The old man's eyes sharpened, staring at the dragon before him like a hawk eyeing a hare.

The dragon did not back down, its eyes resolute, and its expression solemn as it looked at the old man.

"We are a group of people who yearn to change the world. For the first half of our lives, we were upper-middle class, but one day we suddenly realized..."

"This world is very unreasonable. The nobles, who are high and mighty, control everything, including the lives, of the common people. And the common people can only accept it. They have become exploited beings."

"We want to change all of this, which is why I founded Ziyong Army. Now we are traveling the world, trying to find the answer."

After hearing Long's explanation, the old man didn't say anything, but glanced at the family photo displayed in the living room before saying:

"A brilliant idea, but in my opinion you're still too green."

"Before you go to this kingdom to find the answers, this old man can tell you a few things."

Long quickly wrote in his notebook because the old man's words contained so much useful information.

"A long, long time ago, probably in my grandfather's time."

At that time, the Kingdom of Eryokabu was just an agricultural kingdom; the mountains were green and the sky was blue.

My grandfather loved to go into the woods to catch wild rabbits and to the river to catch fish.

When my grandfather grew up, the Kingdom of Eryokabu underwent its first transformation. At that time, an old hunter from the mountains discovered some black stones.

The common people didn't recognize what it was; they only knew it was a good thing for starting a fire, and some even presented it to the king.

At first, no one took it seriously, until a passing merchant revealed the secret.

The black stone is actually called coal in the outside world. It is a very important industrial resource that can be sold at an astronomical price.

After the nobles thought this thing was good and could be sold for a high price, they ordered the commoners to start digging it up extensively.

Soon, the first batch of coal was successfully sold to transport merchants, and the king and nobles made a fortune.

They felt that this yielded more than growing grain, so they simply ordered civilians to reduce farming and send more people to work in the coal mines.

Several years passed like this. My grandfather, because he did well in the mine, rose to the position of foreman, which was later passed down to my father, and then to me.

By the time it was my turn to take over, the kingdom's economic landscape had changed. Outsiders felt that transporting coal was too troublesome, so they chose to move all their industries inside.

The kings and nobles who could collect land rent and taxes were naturally very pleased, so their factories were successfully built.

It was after that that the fate of the Eryokabu Kingdom underwent a second change.

Large quantities of coal were transported directly to steel mills, power plants, and other factories that needed energy.

Each factory has a dozen or so furnaces that work day and night, spitting out coal mined from the mountains and releasing large amounts of black smoke that pollute the air.

The king originally intended to move these factories out of the Kingdom of Eryokabu, but after the merchants gave him a large sum of money, the king chose to move out of the kingdom with the nobles.

A new capital was established on a nearby scenic island, where the people working in the mines were usually controlled by the king's guard and the overseers at the mines.

Having heard this, the dragon roughly understood the history of the Eryokabu Kingdom.

It was still those greedy nobles who didn't treat ordinary people as living beings, using violence to threaten and force them to mine.

As for the pollution caused by mining and large-scale factory production, they didn't care at all, because their hearts and eyes were blinded by the Pele figures.

Hearing this, Long couldn't help but interject:

"Uncle Snow, I have a question."

"If the king and nobles don't value your lives, why don't you revolt and overthrow these wicked nobles?"

Old Snow's face showed a mocking expression, and he said in a bitter tone:

"How do you know we haven't had an uprising?"