One Piece Gunslinger

"Ahem." To ease the awkward atmosphere and prevent things from escalating in an unexpected direction, Li Ang quickly changed the subject. "Um, I wonder if Miss Nuoqi Gao could help me arrange a meeting with some people from the village?"

"Hehe, no need to be so formal, just call me sister," Nuoqi said with a slight smile.

What the heck? I'm clearly older than you, okay? No matter how you look at it, I'm the older one, so how come I'm the older sister?

Hearing this, Karina couldn't help but chuckle. She hadn't expected that the man with the long string of adjectives, one of the devil's dice described in the newspaper, would suffer repeated defeats at the hands of the Nami sisters today.

Karina then stepped in and explained things to Nojiko, which cleared up Nojiko's misunderstanding.

"You mean you're here to deal with the Arlong Pirates?"

Faced with Nokiko's questions, Li Ang was finally able to get down to business.

"The Arlong Pirates have been causing chaos and misery to the people of 20 islands in this area for the past few years, and they deserve to be executed."

Chapter 168 Conspiracy

In the end, Li Ang didn't waste this precious night. Under the cover of darkness, and led by Nokiko, he gradually gathered more than a dozen villagers. Among them were the doctor Naga and the village policeman Kensuke with the windmill on his head.

Although he was called a village policeman, ever since Ah Long and his gang of henchmen arrived in the village, Kensuke's title as village policeman had become undeserved.

“Alright, we’re pressed for time, so let’s get straight to the point.” Seeing that Noki had already gathered quite a few villagers, including Nagao and Kenji, two somewhat well-known figures in the village, Li Ang ignored the remaining villagers and began the meeting directly.

"Wait, who are you? Didn't Nojiko gather us together?"

But Li Ang had barely opened his mouth when he was interrupted by an unfamiliar villager with an ordinary face.

"Who I am is not important. Just consider me as A, the ally of justice. And also Nami's friend." Li Ang didn't dwell on the question and directly stated his purpose, "The important thing is that I came to Cocoyasi Village to deal with the Arlong Pirates here."

Although the term "Partner of Justice A" left many villagers somewhat confused, at least everyone understood Li Ang's purpose: the Arlong Pirates had been a knife hanging over everyone's heads for the past few years.

"But...but...how could we possibly be a match for the Arlong Pirates? You don't have some other purpose, do you?"

But Li Ang also felt helpless about these villagers with their generic faces, lamenting their misfortune and angering at their lack of ambition. Even when someone proposed to solve this major problem, the first thing they did was to question it.

“First of all, I want to make one thing clear: you are not acting alone. Believe it or not, I have traveled thousands of miles, across half a planet, to bring you here to solve the problem of the Arlong Pirates. Since I dared to come, I must have some confidence,” Li Ang explained calmly.

However, these days, there's a shortage of everything, but not of this kind of ignorance, lack of self-confidence, and villagers who have become accustomed to oppression due to their deep-seated oppression. Immediately, another villager asked, "Then how can we be sure you don't have bad intentions, and whether you can defeat the Arlong Pirates?"

When asked about this, Li Ang replied calmly: "People always think about what benefits others might gain from them, or what their motives are. This is so sad. It's not just a personal problem; it has become a global issue. We not only don't want to give, but we even question the efforts of others."

After Li Ang finished speaking, the room fell silent. Although Li Ang's tone was devoid of emotion, simply stating a principle in a calm and straightforward manner, anyone could hear a hint of anger mixed in with his words.

Yes, deep down everyone believes in the principle that "unsolicited kindness is either a treacherous act or a theft."

That's right, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Anyone who tries to get close to you on the street or pulls you into a free product trial is 100% after your money.

However, this only applies to individuals. If we elevate the issue to the level of nations, ethnicities, or even the entire world, then it is no longer impossible. Just because you can't do it doesn't mean others can't.

Countless revolutionary martyrs fell under the enemy's butcher's knife. They sacrificed their lives for the entire nation, country, and world. What did they ask of others?

No, they just gave their all quietly. Now, as the Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Army, Li Ang has arranged funerals for countless revolutionary martyrs. Sometimes a funeral involves burying only one person, and sometimes it involves burying hundreds or even thousands. Each time, he leads a large group of revolutionary soldiers to pay tribute to those who sacrificed their lives.

Therefore, you can question Li Ang's abilities, but you cannot insult the revolutionary spirit of Li Ang and the many revolutionary soldiers.

After saying that, he ignored the villager and continued, "I am all alone, and it is unrealistic for me to defeat the Arlong Pirates by myself. So I hope you can actively save yourselves and not all rely on me."

"So he's a fraud. He has no skills but talks big." After being scolded by Li Ang, the villager not only didn't back down but started mocking Li Ang.

Hearing this, the others also wavered: "Yeah, if we can save ourselves, what do we need you for? Sigh, just waste your time and go home to sleep."

Karina, who had been watching Li Ang perform consistently, was getting anxious. It had only just begun, and there were already signs of the team falling apart. Although Li Ang had always been confident about this, Karina couldn't help but feel uneasy.

However, when it comes to the power of verbal sparring, if Li Ang is second, then probably only the users of the Mouth-Mouth Fruit on this planet can be number one, provided they have the Mouth-Mouth Fruit.

"Hmph, at least I thought of a way to deal with it, at least I made some efforts, didn't I?" Li Ang sneered.

After Li Ang finished speaking, the villagers were all somewhat shocked, with Kensuke, the village policeman, reacting the most. Even Karina, who was not from Cocoyasi Village, was stunned by his words.

It seems that Li Ang is quite capable in other aspects besides not knowing how to charm girls.

Li Ang had long understood that these people were used to oppression, had forgotten what freedom was, and were content to sit comfortably as slaves. Although he lived in constant fear, he had long since grown accustomed to this life of anxiety.

Twenty islands! My goodness. Arlong is just a coward who doesn't even dare to enter the Grand Line, and doesn't even dare to face the Navy. Yet he manages to make twenty islands, with at least several thousand people, obedient.

Li Ang could only say that these people were really lacking a master, and they had to let Ah Long be their master.

Li Ang felt that even Krieg, who was easily defeated by Hawkeye at light speed after entering the Grand Line and then ran all the way back to the East Blue, was far superior to Arlong.

Although Krieg was punished by Luffy's crew before Arlong, and is known for being treacherous, cunning, and ruthless, he was once the ruler of the East Blue, leading the largest pirate crew there.

The first thing that allowed others to enter the Grand Line was breaking through the blockade of Loguetown and Smoker—something Krieg could brag about for a lifetime. Luffy, on the other hand, only survived to enter the Grand Line thanks to the help of his father and Dragon.

Secondly, Krieg unfortunately encountered Hawkeye Mihawk as soon as he entered the Grand Line, suffering heavy losses. But even such a heavily damaged pirate crew, fleeing back to the East Blue in disarray, managed to push Luffy and his crew into perilous situations.

Not to mention that they weren't completely wiped out by Hawkeye. Even if Hawkeye held back, it's quite remarkable that they managed to escape.

In conclusion, in Li Ang's eyes, Ah Long was truly incompetent, so incompetent that he believed that even without his intervention, each of these villagers could easily kill Ah Long with a brick.

However, despite saying that, these villagers clearly lacked the courage to confront them.

"It's easier said than done. With our strength, how could we possibly defeat those few murlocs? If we resist, we might all be killed."

The speaker was no longer an ordinary villager, but Jianzhu, the village police officer whom Li Ang knew.

"Indeed, if we were to fight them head-on, you would be no match for them. Even if you gathered everyone from all 20 islands to fight against A Long, the final result would be a stalemate with heavy casualties."

Li Ang nodded and said, "That's why I didn't abandon those unrealistic ideas, but instead used our wisdom. There are countless creatures in this world. Birds can fly in the sky, cows are stronger than us, horses are faster than us, and fish can swim freely in the sea. But in the end, they were all domesticated and raised by humans. Humans have become the masters of this world, and there is only one reason for this—wisdom."

"Wisdom?" Karina thought to herself, "That's really interesting. This is the first time I've actually heard of such a thing. It seems like I made the right decision to join the Revolutionary Army."

Li Ang couldn't read minds, so he naturally didn't know what Karina was thinking. He continued to explain to the others, "Think about it, when you tame oxen, do you conquer them with force? When you tame horses, do you race them? When you catch birds, do you fly up and snatch them down? No, you use your wisdom."

Therefore, our strategy to deal with the Arlong Pirates is not simply to test our strength, but to use our intelligence to defeat them.

After Li Ang finished speaking, he saw that many people still had some doubts. So he could only continue patiently.

"Actually, in my opinion, you have had every opportunity to eliminate the Arlong Pirates over the past few years. What, you don't believe me? If you don't believe me, I'll explain it to you properly."

First, after the initial period, the Arlong Pirates will definitely lower their guard against you, and that's when your opportunity will arise.

At this point, poisoning is undoubtedly the simplest solution.

No matter how powerful Ah Long and his men are, they still need to eat. Even if they have their own fish-men chefs who can't directly poison the food, the raw materials still come from you. They can't eat fish every day.

I suspect you'll have a hard time obtaining any potent poison. If you poison the raw materials, it's difficult to guarantee how much poison will remain after processing in the kitchen. And if it's a common poison, its effectiveness will be greatly reduced; it certainly won't kill them.

But you could poison them year after year, adding just a little bit each time. Over the years, the toxins would have slowly accumulated in their bodies, and by now they would have long since died from the poisoning, or at the very least, they would be riddled with illness and weakened.

After Li Ang's reminder, everyone realized and exclaimed, "How simple it is! We never thought of that before!"

Looking at the group of people who seemed to have a sudden realization, Li thought to himself, "You've figured it out? How are you going to show off when the protagonist comes? Has the world of Qualification lowered your IQ?"

Chapter 169 Mobilizing the Masses

“If that’s the case, I can think of a way. After all, I’m a doctor, and I can concoct some poisons. I remember reading in a book that there’s a kind of thistlehead fish whose venom sacs contain highly toxic substances. With a little preparation, we can remove the fishy smell of the venom…” Doctor Gao said thoughtfully after listening to Li Ang’s words.

“I know that kind of fish. I saw it when I went fishing last time,” said a man dressed as a fisherman.

“Although the poison applied to the surface of food is easily rendered ineffective, if we use a very fine needle to inject the poison into some vegetables and fruits, no one will notice the tiny needle hole.” Village police officer Kensuke also thought this was feasible.

"I think the tomatoes I grow at home are the most suitable. As long as you inject them through the stem, it's hard to detect," an old man added to the discussion.

Li Ang only raised a possibility, and everyone was already eager to try it. This fully demonstrates that these villagers are not unintelligent, but they just hadn't thought of this aspect before and didn't have this kind of awareness of resistance.

The power and wisdom of the people should not be underestimated. As the saying goes, three cobblers are better than Zhuge Liang. These villagers, taken individually, are far inferior to Li Ang.

However, by pooling their wisdom and expertise, they managed to put together a comprehensive plan, from finding raw materials to make the poison to how to handle the aftermath after administering the poison. They even considered several variables in the plan and prepared countermeasures for them.

Their plan was good; even Leon thought that if things continued this way, there was at least an 80% chance of wiping out the Arlong Pirates. But Leon couldn't wait for them to implement this complicated plan bit by bit.

Li Ang's prelude was merely intended to reignite everyone's will to resist and to motivate them to contribute to the cause.

With most of the villagers now alert, Li Ang had achieved his goal. He asked, "When is the next time we'll deliver ingredients to Ah Long and the others?"

Kensuke answered without hesitation, "Tomorrow, but we definitely can't make the poison tomorrow."

“Then we won’t use any poison. That would be too slow. We shouldn’t get hung up on this one thing.” Li Ang said matter-of-factly. “However, this idea is correct. We’ll be tempted to give them this drug tomorrow.”

After saying that, Li Ang took out a bottle from his pocket (actually his spatial bag).

The village doctor took a look at it and asked doubtfully, "This is a laxative. Although most people would be weak and helpless after taking an overdose of laxatives, would it be effective against a fish-man?"

"Although it seems possible to use laxatives to weaken the fishmen, it seems safer to use poison. Even if the fishmen are weakened, there's no guarantee they won't fight back before they die."

Kensuke had been thoroughly defeated by the fishmen back then, and he was well aware of their extraordinary strength. He nodded and said, "Fishmen are born with superhuman strength. I'm afraid that even if they take laxatives, they will still have some fighting ability."

This was also within Li Ang's expectations. After all, compared to the two plans, as everyone said, although Li Ang's laxative was also useful, it did have some minor flaws compared to poisoning.

Li Ang explained, "Actually, even I have to admit that the method you just discussed and perfected is definitely better. However, we are pressed for time and must eliminate the Arlong Pirates by tomorrow."

"Why is time so urgent? We've made it through these past few years, a few more days won't make a difference." Nojiko hadn't spoken since gathering everyone together, but now she finally couldn't help but ask.

However, judging from the expressions on everyone's faces, Li Ang probably shared the same question. Only Karina seemed to understand something, looking at Li Ang with a strange gaze.

"For no other reason than for one person," Li Ang sighed.

Then Karina gave an "I knew it" look and asked knowingly, "Who is it?"

Although Li Ang looked at Karina's expression and felt that she seemed to have misunderstood something, now was not the time to dwell on it. He simply uttered a name.

"Nami."

As soon as Li Ang finished speaking, all 16 people in the room looked at him with strange expressions.

"Hey, have you all misunderstood something?" Li Ang quickly spoke up to break the eerie silence.

"I was wondering why someone would travel all this way to help our completely unrelated Cocoyasi Village." Kensuke patted Li Ang on the shoulder with a knowing look and said, "So it's for Nami."

Everyone understood immediately. If it was for Nami's sake, then everything seemed to make sense. Moreover, after Nami was mentioned, the others were no longer so resistant to Leon's suggestion.

Most people feel both grateful and guilty towards Nami for making huge sacrifices for the village. In the past few years, the entire village's only hope has been placed on Nami, which is undoubtedly very unfair to her.

Nami, ironically, dedicated almost all of her most vibrant and youthful years to the village. Before Li Ang arrived, they had a fig leaf of "this is all we can do, there's nothing else we can do."

When Li Ang brought this matter to light, everyone was filled with shame. They knew that if they had pooled their wisdom, they could have defeated the Arlong Pirates on their own, but because they lacked the courage to confront them, they had let a little girl suffer for several years.

But if we reverse the order now, and it's for Nami's happiness, to free her from her suffering as soon as possible, then everyone has a perfectly valid reason. A reason to comfort their own conscience.

Nojiko also spoke up and asked, "Do you want to rescue Nami from Arlong and then take her away?"

“Well, it’s not wrong to say it’s for Nami’s sake. I did want to take her away after dealing with Arlong, but…” Li Ang nodded stiffly.

While it's true that Li Ang did take these actions for Nami and genuinely wanted to take her away, it's not what you're thinking. It wasn't that Li Ang needed her; it was that the revolution needed her, and the people needed her.