Pirates on Rocks' Ship 996

"Hala hala hala..."

"Waaaaah~~~~"

A cold wind blew by, followed by a strange sound.

"What? What's that sound, Pedro? Did you hear that? What is that?" Carrot the little rabbit was very sensitive to sound, so she heard it as soon as it appeared.

"It's alright, it's nothing..."

Ah~~~~~

"A ghost...it's a ghost! Help!"

Frank was about to explain, but before he could speak, he was interrupted by Garrot's scream.

"Wait... Be careful, don't make a move!"

After the scream, the little ghost seemed to want to see who had trespassed on its territory, so it slowly flew over. As a result, Carrot, in a panic, jumped up and swung a claw at the ghost.

A flash of blue lightning streaked across the sky, and Carrot passed through the ghost and landed on the ground.

"Carrot, are you alright?" Pedro and the rest of the Mink immediately stood back to back in a defensive stance. As Minks, the forest was their home ground.

"I'm sorry... I shouldn't have done that. If I could... please let me be a carrot in my next life!" Carrot knelt on the ground and said dejectedly.

"You bastard, what nonsense are you spouting!" Pedro's eyes narrowed as he roared at Carrot.

"Don't worry, there's no danger. She'll be fine in a bit!" Frank finally had a chance to interject, stepping in front of Garrot and saying, "Miss Perona, these are guests invited by First Vice-Captain Reina. They are Mink Tribe members assisting the Doctor's research. Please don't interfere!"

After Frank finished speaking, the little ghost in the air seemed to hesitate for a moment, then floated away while calling out "Hara-hara-hara..."

"What is this?" Pedro asked after the ghost had floated away and Garrot had recovered.

"Ugh~ those things... they're so annoying!" Carrot said, her face flushed and full of dissatisfaction.

She felt ashamed when she thought about what she had just said.

"I'm sorry, Miss Carrot acted too quickly just now, and I didn't have time to stop her. It's my fault! I apologize to everyone again, please forgive me!" Frank quickly bowed and said.

Upon hearing Frank's words, neither Pedro, Garrot, nor the other mink could say anything more.

“These are negative ghosts! Any creature they touch will become extremely negative! As long as you don’t touch them, there won’t be any problems until they attack us!” Frank wiped the sweat from his forehead and explained with a wry smile.

"Huh? It's actually a real ghost? There are actually such beings? That's amazing!" Carrot exclaimed in disbelief, her eyes wide.

"Horo horo horo... Isn't my ghost amazing?" Just then, a Perona, carrying a burgundy parasol and wearing a gothic-style princess dress, floated down from the sky.

At this moment, she is in ghost form, so she can float in the air.

“Miss Perona, these are guests invited by the first mate… so…” Frank immediately stepped forward and said upon seeing them.

"Hmph~ You're the most boring person ever, all you do is try to scare me with Reina! Come on, Olga has already opened the gate, you can go straight over! I'm leaving!" Perona knew she couldn't continue playing around, so she stormed off in a huff.

"She...she...is she a ghost too?" Carrot asked curiously as she watched Perona float away, even passing through tree branches.

"Ah! She is Miss Perona, known as the Ghost Princess, and Miss Olga, known as the two great demon kings of Crescent Moon Island!" Frank said with a wry smile.

"Huh? Why? She must be a Devil Fruit user, right?" Pedro asked, puzzled. "With your pirate crew's strength, a mere Devil Fruit user shouldn't be a problem, right?"

"Miss Olga is Dr. Assie's daughter, and Miss Perona used to be a subordinate of Gecko Moria, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. She was later rescued by the vice-captain, so she was brought back to Crescent Moon Island!" Frank explained with a wry smile.

"I see!" Pedro finally understood why even a powerful figure like Frank was so polite to the little girl earlier; she was practically one of their own!

Chapter 471 The Laboratory in the Forest

The group arrived at the entrance in the middle of the forest, where Olga was already waiting.

"You silly father went to bed late last night and hasn't gotten up yet! I didn't expect you to arrive so early. Come on in! Let me introduce you!" Olga smiled slightly and said to Pedro and the others.

Although Olga no longer uses pure gold, the influence of it on her remains, which is why she still looks like a graceful young woman.

"Thank you for your help!" Pedro felt a surge of relief. Frank had just mentioned that the girl in front of him was known as the Great Demon Queen and loved playing pranks.

Although there was no real danger, no one likes being pranked, so Pedro immediately became wary when he saw how polite the other party was.

"Alright, Olga! I'm entrusting them to you. They're all very important guests to the first mate, so don't do anything rash! Otherwise, we won't be able to explain ourselves when the first mate comes back!" Frank reminded her again, still worried.

"I know~ No need to say it so many times!" Olga rolled her eyes, turned around and walked into the laboratory.

Pedro bowed to Frank in thanks, then followed Olga into the laboratory with his men.

"This is the experimental area, and this is the living area. If you live here, you can only move around in the living area. Don't wander around the experimental area. If you don't have someone to guide you, you'll run into big trouble!" Olga explained the situation inside the laboratory to Pedro and the others as they walked.

"Huh~ It looks like there are still people living here?" Carrot, the little rabbit, poked her head out and looked towards the living area, saying.

Olga turned her head to look when she heard this, and saw Binz drinking in the tavern in the living area. Recently, he had been taken by the doctor to stimulate the growth of the seed of the underwater tree every day, and he looked several years older. Now the doctor is busy studying the Mink Tribe, so he has a chance to rest.

“That’s right, he’s Binz, and there’s another one named Ein, who’s currently a lab assistant! They usually live with us!” Olga nodded and said.

“In that case, since we are here to assist the Doctor, please arrange a place for us too, Miss. We’d like to stay here as well!” Pedro nodded and said.

Olga glanced at Pedro with some surprise. How could this leopard-like man have such courage?

You know, they were scared by Perona when they came over, and I didn't give them a friendly look. Now they actually dare to stay here?

"What...are you here for?" Olga asked Pedro and the others curiously at this moment.

“This…” Pedro paused for a moment, unsure if their arrival was a secret, but considering that the other party was the doctor’s daughter, he figured it wouldn’t hurt to tell her, so he recounted the story.

"Huh? You're the Mink Tribe that Reina mentioned?" Olga looked at Pedro in surprise and asked.

"Miss knows about us?" Pedro asked, surprised.

“I know! When that idiot father made those pills, Reina said they were very similar to your forms. If you got your hands on those pills, your combat power would definitely increase dramatically!” Olga nodded and said, “However, these pills still have a flaw. You can’t eat them; they’ll kill you!”

“So that’s why we came!” Pedro nodded and replied.

“I see… your silly father probably hasn’t gotten up yet, so shall I take you to your lodgings first? You didn’t bring your luggage, did you? After you’ve chosen your lodgings, I’ll have Frank bring them over!” Olga nodded and said.

“No need to trouble yourself, we’ll get it ourselves!” Pedro said politely.

Olga ignored them and led them toward the living area, saying, "There aren't many people here usually, so there are plenty of empty rooms. Feel free to choose any of them. Those are Binz and Ain's rooms over there; you don't have to choose those!"

"By the way, are they scientists too?" Carrot asked curiously, pointing to Binz who was drinking over there.

“No, they are the navy!” Olga said with a laugh.

"The Navy?" Pedro and the others were stunned. Where was this? It was Whitebeard's headquarters.

Moreover, it's obvious at a glance that this laboratory is absolutely the core of the core, so why would the Navy be present there?

“Ah! Their teacher was former Marine Admiral Zephyr, so they are naturally Marines too! But their teacher Zephyr left the Marines before, so I don’t know if they are still Marines now,” Olga shrugged and replied.

Pedro and the others exchanged bewildered glances. A disciple of a former admiral—that's quite an impressive identity!

You should know that the current Fleet Admiral Sengoku was also a former Admiral!

After choosing their rooms, Pedro and the others went to the common areas of the living quarters.

However, when they arrived, the bar area, which originally had only one person, now had two more people.

"Oh, you've arrived? You must be the assistants who came today?" Perona, holding a burgundy parasol, asked with a smile.

Upon seeing her, all the Mink were stunned; they all remembered what Perona looked like.

"Horo horo horo..." Perona immediately laughed when she saw Pedro and the others' expressions.

"Sister...why do you look exactly like the ghost we saw before?" Carrot the little rabbit asked curiously, peeking out from behind Pedro.

"Because...that ghost...is me! Hooray hooray hooray..." Perona was overjoyed to see Carrot the little rabbit so scared.

"Alright, Perona, stop scaring them!" Sitting there, Ain chuckled and patted Perona on the shoulder, then said to Pedro and the others, "You must be guests from the Mink Tribe, right? My name is Ain, this is Perona, and sitting over there is Binz! You'll see once you get to know her that Perona isn't a bad person; she just likes to play pranks!"

"Big sister, you really are the sea..."

"Thank you, we understand! Please take care of us in the days to come!"

Just as Carrot was about to ask something, Pedro grabbed her and interrupted her.

Ai Yin was taken aback for a moment, then smiled and said, "It's not really guidance. Just let me know if you need anything!"

In the afternoon, the doctor finally got up. The first thing he did was to find Pedro and demand the blood of all the Mink Tribe members.

“I analyzed your blood yesterday and found that you actually have some animal genes in your body, which is very strange!” The doctor said to Pedro, pointing to his analysis report.

"What's so strange about this?" Pedro asked, puzzled.

Even just by looking at their appearance, you can tell that the Mink Tribe has animal genes!

“No, you don’t understand. Although you look like animals, you have the same thoughts as humans. Apart from our appearance, what else do you think makes us different?” The doctor shook his head and asked Pedro.

“This…” Pedro was speechless. Indeed, apart from having some animal physical characteristics, they were no different from humans.

"You know about fish-men and mermaids, right?" the doctor said with a smile again. "Through genetic comparison, I discovered that they don't have any of your kind in their blood!"

"What do you mean?" Compared to the fish-men, Pedro felt that they were more like humans, but the doctor told him that, on a genetic level, they were not even as close to the fish-men as humans, which puzzled him greatly.

I don't know the origin of fish-men and mermaids, but I'm sure they are products of natural evolution, just like us humans, they evolved slowly. But you... you might not be!

Pedro's expression changed, and he stared at the doctor, asking, "You mean...we...we're not human?"

The doctor shook his head and said, "No, it could also be my problem. I'm not good at genetic research!"

"Huh?" Pedro was a little dumbfounded. He had been so professional before, but now he was being told that he wasn't good at it?

Dr. Assie nodded and said, "When the full moon comes, I hope you can show your Sulong form and provide me with some new research directions. Reina should have told you about us obtaining the mutated ore, right?"

“Yes, that’s exactly why we came!” Pedro nodded in reply.

"Any mineral is definitely not good for the human body, unless it can be controlled to a very small amount. But even that small amount of mineral contains very little mutated energy, which is not enough to increase strength!"

"So I'd like to learn from your Sulong mode, ideally one that can be transformed under machine detection, so I can see the data more directly. After all, this kind of biology-related aspect isn't really my forte! But I can guarantee it won't cause you any harm!" the doctor said earnestly.

Pedro nodded and said, "We don't know anything about this either, we'll follow the doctor's instructions!"

“Alright, it’s not a full moon yet, so let me start recording your data!” Dr. Assie said with a smile.

While the Mink Tribe was conducting their experiments with Dr. Asie, Reina had already entered the waters around Crescent Moon Island.

"Father, we've spotted the first mate! He's heading towards Xuan Yue Island!" an intelligence officer reported as he arrived at Whitebeard's resting place.

“Very good. Summon all the captains and have Frank wait for him at the port!” Whitebeard nodded and said, squinting his eyes.

"Dad, is something really wrong with Reina?" Joz asked worriedly.

"That should be it... That kid must have discovered something too, otherwise he wouldn't have come back at this time. It seems things are not simple!" Whitebeard nodded and said.