Starting with two Kamui, they raised the flag of rebellion in One Piece.

Li Mingyuan frowned and looked at Karina. Although he had expected this scene in his heart, on the surface he still pretended to be surprised and said in a deep voice, "Is this the result of suddenly retracting your previous statement?"

"I'm very disappointed in you, Karina."

"So the truth is you lied to me. You didn't have that much money, but you claimed to have 20 million Berries to save your life? Only now, knowing that I'm about to set off for the next island, did you hurriedly change your story and reveal the truth."

"You've simply had to confess because you can no longer hide the truth. It's not a withdrawal of your statement. Besides, you can't hide it anymore, so why are you trying to fool me again with your so-called 'base'? How am I supposed to know if your so-called base has any money? Do I look like a fool?"

Li Mingyuan narrowed his eyes, exuding an extremely strong sense of pressure as he stared at Karina. "If you're just trying to stall for time as much as possible, I advise you to give up on that idea. Rather than having your lies exposed again later and making things even bigger, it's better to just be honest about everything now and resolve things once and for all. That's the most swift and decisive choice for you."

Perfectly having her core thoughts exposed, Karina looked at Li Mingyuan and her face turned pale. However, the ruthlessness she had developed over the years, which had been like a wanderer at sea, still made her hold on and not show any signs of wavering.

Solve it all at once? In Ah Long Paradise, she had already witnessed Li Mingyuan's ruthlessness. She had no desire to experience the consequences of not paying the ransom.

"I understand your concerns."

"But if you listen to what I'm about to say, then I think you won't doubt what I'm telling you."

Karina asked with a complicated expression, "Have you heard of 'Golden Island'?"

As Karina finished speaking, the entire captain's cabin fell silent.

Even Nami, who had just learned what the agreement between Li Mingyuan and Karina was, and who had been in a daze about the 20 million Berries to buy her life, suddenly opened her eyes wide and looked up at Karina in shock.

"Golden Island!?"

Nami couldn't help but speak up: "Legend has it that the island where the great pirate Unan's treasure is buried deep, with countless amounts of gold hidden inside, has been gathering information about the island for a long time, but I haven't found it yet..."

"Have you found it? The island!"

Under Nami's astonished gaze, Karina nodded slightly and sighed.

"If I could, I wouldn't want to tell anyone the location of this island."

"I spent a long time searching for treasure on that island, but I didn't have a treasure map and couldn't find where the treasure was, so I treated it as my hideout and would go there to explore whenever I had free time."

"But at this point, there's no point in keeping it a secret anymore."

As Karina spoke, she glanced at Li Mingyuan's expression again out of the corner of her eye.

When she saw that Li Mingyuan also showed a thoughtful expression, a secret joy welled up in her heart.

Sure enough, things are starting to waver!

"Since you have a need for money, whatever your goal may be, you can't ignore what I just said. I'm not afraid of you overthinking, I'm afraid of you not thinking at all."

"Whatever you're thinking right now, even if I'm truly broke, as long as you still have even the slightest doubt about the authenticity of Golden Island, do you really think you can kill me?"

Karina subtly pinched her thigh with her right hand, using considerable force to barely suppress the pain in her expression.

The thought that others might find out about Golden Island made Karina's heart bleed. Only heaven knows how much effort she had put in to find the location of Golden Island.

But there was no other way. At this point, she couldn't prove whether she had deceived Li Mingyuan again. To save her life, she needed a significant piece of information to attract attention.

Even if Li Mingyuan's words just now guessed her thoughts, they were still just speculations. He himself didn't know if they were true. Compared to an uncertain guess, which was more important was self-evident.

That's why she made up her mind to reveal this news last night in the orange grove to attract Li Mingyuan's attention.

After all, Lady Karina already had a deep understanding of human nature.

Karina was very confident in the perfection of this plan.

However, while Karina was still basking in her victory, she was completely unaware of the strange expression on Li Mingyuan's face as he watched her from the side.

Wow, there was an unexpected bonus?

His previous statement was intended to intimidate Karina and force her to pay whatever money she had on the next island before it was over. However, before he could do anything, Karina herself revealed all of this.

Moreover, Karina just said—

Golden Island?

"This is actually a pretty old concept."

Li Mingyuan thought to himself.

East China Sea, Golden Island.

When these two keywords were put together, he almost immediately thought of the first One Piece movie released in 2000, "ONE PIECE: Adventure on the Golden Island".

Because this theatrical version was produced too early, it is not very long and the plot is not very complex. At most, it is like a side story of the One Piece anime. If you don't think about it for a moment, you may just think that you have watched an extended episode of the TV series.

To be honest, Li Mingyuan didn't have a very deep impression of the content of this theatrical version at first.

The reason he still has his memories is mainly because some time before he transmigrated, he happened to see comments on the screen saying that the 13th One Piece movie, "Gold," had many similarities to the "Gold Island" movie. He watched it again out of interest, and as a result, he still remembers the content of that movie vividly to this day.

The first One Piece movie, Gold Island, tells the story of Unan, a legendary pirate in the East Blue who amassed a fortune by defeating countless villains and never harming ordinary people. As a result, his fame spread far and wide across the seas. It is said that his fleet has mountains of gold, enough to illuminate the sea at night as if it were daytime, and that it contains one-third of the world's gold reserves.

The reason why some people say it has the same setting as "The Golden City" is because of this.

Because the Golden Emperor Tesoro, who plays the villainous BOSS in the Golden City, is also designed with gold as a key element, he not only ate the Gold-Gold Fruit and built a golden city, but also buried 20% of the world's circulating Berries, known as the Tesoro Treasure. It is said that there are 500 billion Berries in the huge vault alone. Tesoro uses a portion of this money as tribute to the Celestial Dragons, and in this way, he can even control the direction of the Celestial Dragons. If he wants, he can easily buy a small country and become the king of any country.

To some extent, there are indeed some similarities. Considering the chronological order, if it wasn't plagiarism or a coincidence of inspiration, it's even possible that the production team was inspired by the first theatrical version.

I never expected that Karina would be connected to Golden Island.

Could this be considered a mutual attraction between elements of the theatrical version?

"In terms of plot, this so-called golden pirate, Unan, disappeared a few years before the main story timeline. It is rumored that he committed suicide on a small island with his treasure. After that, it is said that Unan's accomplices drew a treasure map. As long as you find it, you can find the island. Therefore, countless pirates across the sea are searching for Unan's treasure."

"Speaking of which, a few years before the main drama... isn't that now?"

Li Mingyuan stroked his chin, and just as Karina was watching and assuming he was thinking about her, he belatedly realized what was happening.

"I still have three years before the main story begins, which is exactly when the pirates are most enthusiastic about finding the golden treasure left behind by Unan."

"After all, since the timeline of Unan's disappearance is too close to the main story, there are children in the plot who admire Unan and want to join the pirate crew, and Luffy has also considered recruiting Unan. They all think that Unan is still alive. And later it is revealed that Unan's childhood friend is still alive. In fact, the timeline of the story is not that far away."

Thinking of this, Li Mingyuan raised his head again and looked at Nami beside him.

Speaking of which, Nami's shocked reaction when she heard about the Golden Island reminded him of some related plot points. In the movie, Nami had actually been eyeing the so-called treasure of Unan for a long time, only lacking the treasure map. The Straw Hat crew got involved in this part of the movie's plot because Nami led them to the vicinity of the island.

Considering the plot points at that time, the Straw Hat crew had the Going Merry and Usopp, but not Sanji, indicating that the story likely took place before the Arlong Pirates were defeated, so it's not surprising that Nami would try to find this treasure.

However...

After recalling this old theatrical version, I also remembered the truth about the so-called "Golden Island".

Li Mingyuan couldn't help but chuckle softly at that moment.

"What's your decision?"

Seeing Li Mingyuan suddenly smile, Karina also smiled confidently, gradually relaxing, and said to Li Mingyuan, "I think no matter what, going to the hideout with me isn't a bad thing."

"Kalina..."

When Nami heard Karina say this, she hesitated, as if she wanted to say something but couldn't.

Karina waved her hand before Nami could finish speaking, saying, "I know, Nami. Don't say anything. This is my own business."

"Actually, I didn't want you to know about the agreement between him and me, because I was afraid it would put you in a difficult position. But now that things have come to this point, I have no choice but to reveal these things to you."

Karina said firmly, "But I don't need your help to say these things now. I can handle them myself. Don't worry about me. Just continue to be with your benefactor as always."

"Sigh, so that's not the case at all."

Nami sighed and rubbed her forehead, speechless. For a moment, she looked at Karina and didn't know how to react.

While Karina's words were indeed touching, she also found it somewhat amusing when she recalled that she had actually resolved the situation.

However, having finally learned the specific details of the agreement that Karina had been hiding, she was completely relieved. Only 20 million Berries? In that case, the money she gave was more than enough for the ransom. Thinking back, no wonder Li Mingyuan was so agreeable before, and even after she gave the money, he didn't restrict Karina's personal freedom much.

So the so-called ransom money was already enough.

In that case, even if Karina can't give that much money, she can give whatever she can, and Li Mingyuan shouldn't make things difficult for her. Li Mingyuan's current personality makes her believe in this promise.

At this point, there doesn't seem to be much more to say.

Coming to his senses, Li Mingyuan turned his gaze back to Karina and said, "I must say, what you said was indeed very captivating."

"That……?"

Karina looked at Li Mingyuan with a hopeful expression and her eyes shining.

"I've granted your request to retract your statement, but I hope you won't regret not accepting my proposal today."

Under Nami's almost unbearable gaze, Li Mingyuan turned to Karina and said meaningfully, "Who knows, you might regret it so much that you'll cry your eyes out later when you think back on what happened today."

"Regret? How could I, the Phantom Thief Karina, possibly regret anything? You're overthinking it!"

Karina crossed her arms and said confidently, "I just told you about Golden Island. It's nothing really. After all, there are so many pirates looking for the treasure of Unan, but without a treasure map, none of us would be able to find it."

"Heh, you thought I was talking about treasure? Well, let's assume that's the case."

Li Mingyuan chuckled, shook his head, and said, "Seeing how energetic our Phantom Thief is, remember to do a good job supervising this afternoon."

After saying that, Li Mingyuan walked out of the captain's cabin, intending to find a place where no one would disturb him to review the events related to Golden Island.

Once Li Mingyuan's footsteps had completely faded away and disappeared, only Nami and Karina remained in the captain's cabin.

Suddenly.

Karina suddenly collapsed to the ground, her legs so weak she could barely stand.

"Kalina?!"

Caught off guard, Nami instinctively grabbed Karina's arm and cried out.

"I've survived another brush with death..."

Karina's face turned pale, and she said with a wry smile, "You scared me to death."

"Seriously, what are you doing!"

Nami quickly dragged Karina to the corner of the wall. Karina was covered in sweat and couldn't say a word as she leaned against the wall, panting heavily.

Recalling the tension she felt during her confrontation with Li Mingyuan, Karina felt as if she were about to be killed.

She had never felt this tension, not even when she had failed in her previous thefts.

That's absolutely terrifying.

Karina gasped for breath in the fresh air, as if she had survived a disaster, and it took her a long time to recover.

"In this way, we barely managed to extend the opportunity of only one island voyage to two islands."

"But what should I do once I get to Golden Island?"

Karina murmured.

"Wait, Karina, what do you mean by that—"

"That's right, just as you think."

Karina stared blankly at Nami beside her, her voice hoarse as she said, "Although Golden Island is my current stronghold, there's no one there. I can't spend the money there, so how can I possibly put too much in like pirates burying treasure?"

"I only put about a few hundred thousand Berries on that island."

"We're still a long way from 20 million Berries."