One Piece Gunslinger

Chapter 122 Trap

When Li Ang found Long that night, Long was a little surprised: "Why did you come all this way?"

"If I hadn't come, our revolutionary army would have been exposed to the world just as it was beginning to make progress," Li Ang said, pursing his lips.

“You didn’t even tell me about this whole thing. It’s not like when we were just starting out, where you were the only one working on it. Now we’re all comrades, and we have to solve problems together.” Li Ang decisively took the opportunity to give Long a good talking-to.

"This is not me..."

"There are so many reasons!"

Dragon, you are the founder of our revolutionary army, and now you are our leader. Everything must be done with the big picture in mind. Don't act recklessly by yourself. You have so many people behind you. If you could do it all by yourself, what would be the point of having us?

Sometimes you have to think about it: the power of the masses is always greater than the power of one person. Right now, we can't even compare to the World Government, let alone some big pirate groups, underground mafias, or mercenary organizations. Our only advantage is unity, the ability of everyone to work together and fight for our goals and ideals.

So you see, this is a lesson learned. If not handled properly, it could bring utter disaster to our comrades. We must be more careful in the future; this kind of mistake must never be repeated.”

After saying this, he gave Sabo, who was standing to the side, a wink, as if to say, "You little brat, I can not only deal with you, but also with your master."

Of course, no one on the field could understand such a profound and meaningful look, let alone the young Sabo, including his eldest disciple Kerla.

So, without really understanding what was going on, Li Ang gave them a verbal reprimand, and everyone thought Li Ang made sense... except for Kela.

"But Master, didn't you decide to take over the Kingdom of Yutakana all by yourself without saying a word or informing anyone?"

"Oh my god, oh my god!" Li Ang exclaimed inwardly, "They've already sold me out? And they're undermining me? Looks like I'll have to prepare a book on the Five-Year Revolution and the Three-Year Uprising for you to study later, otherwise you won't behave."

Although he thought this to himself, he still said calmly, "How can they be the same? I used strategy to outwit them, and even if I failed, I wouldn't lose anything. This one requires a direct assault; we can only succeed, we can't afford to fail."

Li Ang then gave several lengthy explanations to calm the matter down.

"So, can you tell me now what exactly happened? Why are you staying in this area, neither attacking nor retreating?"

Long frowned and said, "It's not that we're unwilling to act, but we imagine ourselves trapped in this small area of ​​the sea. Outside, there are turbulent undercurrents, and only here is it relatively calm. That's why we dropped anchor here to seek a way out."

"Oh? And what was the result?"

"The results were not optimistic. Although I had sent many people who were good swimmers to go into the sea with ropes to explore the direction of the various undercurrents and to start drawing up maps of the surrounding area, the undercurrents were too dangerous, making the whole work very difficult and the progress was very slow."

Yesterday, someone was swept away by a strong undercurrent while going into the sea and his rope broke. He couldn't be saved and his body sank to the bottom of the ocean.

Our initial estimate is that it will take about four or five days to figure out the situation in this area and find a safe route for attack or retreat, but our food supplies can only last for about three days. Fishing in these currents is also virtually impossible.

Therefore, I have ordered everyone to reduce activity and cut food supplies, hoping to hold out until that day.

After listening to Long's description, Li Ang first marveled at how capable the revolutionary army was. They had managed to figure out the undercurrents of a complex sea area in just one week, even though they only needed to find a safe route and didn't need to go into too much detail.

He then shook his head and sighed, "If you continue like this, our revolutionary soldiers will only become so hungry that they lose their fighting ability when the final battle arrives. Even if we finally figure out the ocean currents and want to retreat, the other side will take the opportunity to intercept us, and then we will be in real danger."

And most importantly, even if you figure out the ocean currents, you can't use that to get out, because we're already trapped. And this trap isn't just a simple pit; Bloodsail definitely has more tricks up its sleeve.

"A trap?" the dragon asked. "What do you mean?"

Although the others didn't speak, their expressions clearly showed their astonishment. How could they have unknowingly fallen into a trap?

Li Ang cleared his throat before slowly beginning to speak: "First of all, I've heard about the general situation on this Chaotic Magnet Island before. Let's not worry about the rest for now, and just talk about the ocean currents. Every year there are more than ten days when the currents are calm, and we happen to come here during that time to avoid the influence of the undercurrents."

However, what I see now is that the undercurrents in this sea area are still turbulent, and the hidden stability mentioned in the intelligence has not materialized.

Of course, things can't be perfectly precise. It's also possible that we were just unlucky, and the calm period this year was shorter or earlier than in previous years, which just happened to happen to happen to us.

But the current situation is too coincidental, so coincidental that we find ourselves surrounded by undercurrents. We can neither advance nor retreat.

This means that when we first entered, the waters were calm, and we didn't encounter any strong currents. When I arrived, I saw that one of the ships was clearly damaged, so it seems the currents have been calm enough for a naval battle to take place.

But just as the ceasefire began, a powerful ocean current came, trapping us all inside. Tell me, is what I'm telling you accurate?

At this point, Long also became somewhat doubtful: "All of your guesses were actually correct. Now that I think about it, just as that group of people were about to escape, a large number of undercurrents suddenly appeared in the sea, causing our ship to rock violently and making it impossible to pursue them. If we hadn't been lucky enough to find such a relatively calm place, we would have suffered heavy losses even if we had escaped."

"That's right. This proves that even if we can figure out the situation of the undercurrents nearby, it will be of little use in the end. Because the enemy obviously has a way to make the undercurrents come and go as they please. They can even control the undercurrents to a certain extent, but they can't completely control them, otherwise they would have used the undercurrents to attack us long ago."

Li Ang paused here, then said, "So our goal now is to peel back the layers of this trap and see what's inside. Only by finding out how Bloodsail controls the undercurrents can we find the right solution and take down Bloodsail."

Chapter 123 The Cave

Bloodsail's control over the ocean currents sounded almost impossible, which led to no one even considering it.

Those involved are often confused, while bystanders see things clearly. Jack's perspective as an outsider allowed him to discover the possible situation.

Although the probability is high, it is still only at the stage of speculation and has not been strongly confirmed.

Now that someone has thought of this and has this idea, does that make things easier? Of course it's not that simple, but for the revolutionary army, it is incredibly simple.

because……

"Alright, after all that talk, it means it's my turn to step in again, right?" Haku, having spent so much time with Li Ang, knew from just one look that this underwater job was his again.

"Haha." Li Ang laughed without a care in the world, "Isn't it true that the capable should do more? When we have submarines or other underwater equipment in the future, we can help you share some of the burden."

Indeed, after considering that these ocean currents might be manipulated, the most direct solution Li Ang could think of was to follow the currents to see what was causing them, and the person he would choose was none other than Haku of the fish-men.

Humans who go into the water will quickly be swept away by the undercurrents, and there will be no way to save them. Even ordinary fish-men are not much better off, but if it is a fighter among fish-men like Haku, then he can resist the effects of these ocean currents.

Therefore, Li Ang's simple and crude method can only be used by a few people, since fishmen or mermaids are not common in this world and few of them venture out into the world.

Furthermore, after the deaths of the fishman hero Tiger Fisher and the mermaid queen Otohime, the hatred between the two races for humans has greatly intensified, and very few are like Haku who can coexist peacefully with humans and cooperate on official business.

So how can Li Ang's approach be described as simple and crude? To have resources and not utilize them would be tantamount to divine retribution; this is simply making the best use of resources and leveraging everyone's strengths. Others would try to replicate this, but they can't. Where else can anyone find such a master fishman?

So, amidst everyone's expectant gazes, Haku leaped into the water.

"Tsk tsk." Looking at the small splash of water on the surface, he clicked his tongue and thought to himself, "Don't underestimate us just because we're only just getting started and still have to borrow food from Koushirou in the East Sea from time to time. But even though we're small, we have all the essential parts. We can do anything, from flying to diving. Everyone in the group, oh no, everyone in the comrades is a talent."

Perhaps due to the strong undercurrents and complicated situation, everyone waited for a full hour before Haku finally returned.

After jumping onto the boat, Haku, ignoring his soaked clothes, said with a serious expression, "Leon's guess was right, the enemy can indeed control the switch of the undercurrent."

Then, Haku told everyone what he had seen and heard in the water.

After Haku entered the water, following Leon's previous instructions, he found an undercurrent leading towards the island and swam along it.

Before long, they arrived at the bottom of the island and saw the project built by Bloodsail, consisting of a series of controllable metal "caps".

Unless an island is without a foundation and floats on the sea surface, it must be connected to the seabed.

Imagine that without the ocean, Luanci Island would be a mountain. After seawater was poured in, the lower part of the "mountain" was submerged, leaving only the "summit" exposed, which is the island.

There are actually a lot of mountains beneath the sea, but most people don't pay attention to them, nor do they need to. They only need to pay attention to the part above the sea.

However, this approach does not apply to Luanci Island. The unique turbulence near Luanci Island is caused by the peculiar structure of the mountains beneath the sea surface.

The mountainside is riddled with holes, and Haku even crawled into some of them to investigate. These holes connect the entire mountainside, creating passages to the other side of the island. This is why so much time was spent underwater.

One can imagine that the mountain below this island is now like a honeycomb briquette, riddled with holes all over its body, both vertically and horizontally, diagonally, with numerous cavities in every direction.

So, the entire mountain felt like it had been hollowed out. On land, such a mountain would never exist; it would collapse from the lack of support.

However, in the water, due to buoyancy, this amazing tofu-like structure can still be supported, which is incredibly lucky for this mountain.

As for the cause of this situation, of course no one has investigated it yet. The result is that a large number of strange and turbulent undercurrents have appeared near the Chaotic Magnet Island.

There's no smoke without fire. Mountain caves don't blow wind out of nowhere; there must be some connection between them. Even a tiny airflow at one end can be amplified within the cave, resulting in a strong gust of wind at the other end.

The same principle applies now, except that airflow has been replaced by water flow, and the mountain has been submerged by seawater.

The lids created by Bloodsail are switches that can control the water flow to a certain extent. To let the water flow out, open the lid; to stop the water flow, close the lid.

To build such a massive project underwater in such turbulent conditions, Bloodsail must have spent a considerable amount of manpower and financial resources.

The current situation is that most of the lids are open, but some are still closed. This is to make the revolutionaries think they have found a safe route and start moving before opening the lids.

"Well, now we understand. It turns out that Bloodsail spent all the money they plundered on this base. Those two must be so insecure. I bet they're the ones who spread the rumors about a period of relative peace every year, just to lure those with ill intentions into this trap."

Li Ang figured out how Bloodsail controlled the ocean currents, and couldn't help but make a couple of sarcastic remarks.

"Sigh, it seems I was too hasty. If I had spent more time figuring out the source and credibility of this information, I might not have fallen into this trap."

“Well, it’s no use anyway. We’ll have to fight sooner or later. Since these ocean currents are under the control of Bloodsail all year round, we might as well fight sooner rather than later,” Li Ang comforted him. “At least we still have time to figure out how to break this trap.”

"Oh, right, I haven't eaten all afternoon while floating in the sky. Then I swam in the water for an hour. When can we eat? I'm starving."

"Well, well," Li Ang said, scratching his head, "we actually ate while you were in the water."

"What?! I was exhausted underwater, and this is what you tell me when I get back?"

"Otherwise?" Li Ang spread his hands and said, "While you're gone, what else can we do if we don't eat? We can't exactly play cards, can we?"

Chapter 124 The Shift in Thinking

Of course, jokes aside, Li Ang still personally cooked a meal for Haku as a reward.

After the meal, everyone sat around the meeting room to discuss countermeasures.

Long spoke first: "Since the enemy is using metal caps to cover the entrance, is it possible to destroy them or disable them?"

Haku hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and sighed, "Difficult, this is too difficult. Although I call them 'lids,' since they can withstand the impact of the ocean currents, their material must be extremely hard and their structure must be extremely stable. Moreover, each lid and the parts connected to it are extremely huge and thick. It would be almost impossible for me to destroy these lids by myself."

Li Ang shook his head as well: "Moreover, we can't destroy these covers. Although doing so would cause Bloodsail to lose its ability to control the ocean currents, it would also place us in a completely out-of-control sea area, which would lead us down the same path as those sunken ships."

The best course of action now is to control these traps, turning the enemy's snares into our own, and making this area of ​​the sea work for us. However, given the current situation, achieving this seems extremely difficult.

“That’s true,” Fujitora chimed in. “While this is the ideal method, it’s also the most difficult. Not only do we not know where their control room is right now, but even if we did, Bloodsail would definitely not let its guard down.”

After all, this is their trump card, and they definitely need to protect it. Even if all of this is resolved, they still need to know how to operate it. If the internal controls are complex, and we don't know which switch will respond to which ocean current, then we'll be completely lost when faced with such a complex control system.

Therefore, its difficulty is no less than directly assassinating two leaders; it's extremely difficult to accomplish.

Just as Fujitora said, although we now know how the enemy controls the ocean currents and have figured out their tricks in setting traps, we still have to operate blindly. It's like if I openly tell someone who has fallen into a pit that I'll throw two poisonous snakes down in two minutes, they still won't know what to do.

So, it seems that Li Ang saw through the enemy's trickery and figured out their secret of controlling the ocean currents as soon as he arrived. However, it was all for naught; even if he saw those large caps now, he wouldn't have any good solutions.

For a moment, everyone fell silent, at a loss for what to do.

"Sir 8," Li Ang thought to himself, "If Sergei were here, with his abilities, as long as we could escort him into the water, these holes would be open and sealed at will. We could even customize our own exclusive caves and currents, which would be wonderful. It's a pity he's not here, and we lack a way to get him underwater. But I can write this down for now; it might come in handy later."

While everyone was still figuring out how to get through this difficult situation, Li Ang's mind was already racing, and he was already thinking about the future. If he hadn't stopped in time, he probably would have gone straight to the future after the founding of the People's Republic of China.

“Then let’s settle for second best and just put all the covers on. Then there will be no obstruction, and we can attack directly.” Long continued to suggest, “We don’t need to worry about which switch corresponds to which ocean current. We just need to close everything that can be closed inside, pull down all the gates, and we can attack unimpeded.”

Seeing Long's matter-of-fact attitude, Li Ang was about to say something when someone beat him to it.

“That’s true. No need to overthink it, let’s just charge in,” Haku nodded.

“Even if we don’t understand anything by then, we can still solve the problem by turning the place upside down,” Fujitora agreed.