One Piece Gunslinger

However, before Li Ang could explain these things, he was interrupted by the crowd.

The first to offer his assistance was the old farmer who had spoken earlier: "Hey, Nami has endured so much humiliation and hardship under Arlong for so many years for our sake. We don't expect to repay Nami in any way, we just hope to make amends. I also think we should act quickly and take action tomorrow."

Before leaving, the village doctor, not forgetting to lend a helping hand, nodded and said, "Well, it seems this old bone of mine will have to stay up all night tonight to finish up. I'll go back and dilute this bottle of tablets into a colorless and odorless solution. Nami is someone I've watched grow up since she was little, and now that I've found her..."

Nagao took the medicine bottle and walked out. Li Ang couldn't even hear the last half of what he said, but he felt that Nagao must have misunderstood something.

Village police officer Kensuke also stood up: "I'm glad Nami met you outside. You're right, Nami sacrificed herself for us, and she's been gone for several years. Now it's finally our turn to sell her, to buy Nami back a few more days."

Although a few days are nothing compared to a few years, this is the last thing I'll do for Nami. I hope you'll treat her well after you take her away, otherwise we'll hunt you down to the ends of the earth.

Li Ang really didn't know what to say. What did he mean by "I'm absolutely right"? What exactly did he say? Also, chasing them all the way to the end of the world—our Revolutionary Army headquarters is in the New World, so calling it the end of the world is almost accurate, but did we really need to go to such lengths? Besides, I treat all Revolutionary Army soldiers equally and won't mistreat anyone, although sometimes conditions might be a bit harsh.

Then Kensuke went out to visit the other strong villagers, since he couldn't fight alone tomorrow.

The group then began to talk amongst themselves, completely ignoring Li Ang's strange expression and his repeated interruptions. Like a bunch of old fathers-in-law, they all said things like "Nami is a pitiful person" and "Nami is a good child" before leading her away, and told Li Ang to treat Nami well in the future.

"What is all this nonsense? Although everyone's points are valid, why does the atmosphere feel so strange?" Li Ang finally had a chance to speak after everyone had left.

Of course, Nojiko saw all of this. After Karina's explanation, Nojiko had already understood that the relationship between Leon and Nami wasn't what everyone thought. But seeing everything Leon did for Nami, and seeing how the strong Nami was willing to show her most vulnerable side to Leon, Nojiko was deeply moved.

Nojiko also felt that things weren't so bad if things continued this way, but judging from Leon's appearance, Nami might have a tough time in the future.

"Well, I'm going home to be with my little Nami too. There's not much room at my house, so you can stay at this inn for the night."

Li Ang quickly replied, "Ah, it's alright. Before the Arlong Pirates are wiped out, it's better to have someone familiar by your side."

After Nojiko left, Karina leaned over and said, "What is your head made of, or is our Revolutionary Army's intelligence capabilities so outstanding? What do you mean, no matter what they ask, you seem to have already anticipated it? And this bottle of laxatives of yours, you bought it back in Syrup Village, didn't you?"

Li Ang simply said matter-of-factly, "I've seen this kind of situation many times. After liberating so many islands and countries, I've observed that most people's mentality and the oppressors' character are basically the same, so I've naturally accumulated some experience."

"So, that's why you incited the villagers instead of sending one person in?"

Chapter 170 The Foolish Li Ang

Karina had this question for a long time, but she only voiced it now after seeing Li Ang do so many things she couldn't understand.

With Li Ang's strength, could he take down the Arlong Pirates all by himself?

It is definitely possible, and based on the part of Leon's strength that Karina saw, it was already enough to take on the Arlong Pirates single-handedly.

When facing Buggy the Clown, Leon displayed his swift and fierce close-combat skills. Later, when facing Kuro, he showed his swordsmanship, which could cut through steel. At the same time, when training Usopp, he also revealed his superb marksmanship.

Based on these points alone, Karina felt that Leon would have no problem clearing the next Arlong Pirates' hellish difficulty dungeon. Besides, no matter which direction he attacked from, charging in alone was the most efficient way to reflect on his actions. Why bother with all that mental and physical exertion, guiding these villagers, inspiring their fighting spirit, and helping them come up with solutions?

Karina found this whole process troublesome; if she had the ability, she wouldn't bother with such a roundabout way.

“Well, after all, you only verbally joined our revolutionary army. You haven’t received any formal training or actually worked, so it’s normal that you didn’t expect this,” Li Ang explained matter-of-factly.

Karina complained, "I feel a little uncomfortable listening to your explanation. It's as if everyone who hasn't been trained and worked in the Revolutionary Army is a bunch of fools."

To her surprise, Li Ang made no attempt to hide it and shamelessly admitted, "Yes, that's right. In my opinion, there are millions of ignorant people in the world, and only a very small number of people, as well as our revolutionary army, can see the world clearly."

Is it appropriate to say that? You're the revolutionary army, you know.

"Drawing a line so quickly? It should be 'us' instead." Li Ang shook his head and said, "No matter what, we have to face the facts. The facts are as they are. If there were many people of ambition in the world, the World Government would have been overthrown long ago. It is precisely because we are few in number that we appear weak and powerless."

“I know you still have questions, so let me use the case of Cocoyasi Village to illustrate. First of all, if I hadn’t come, would Cocoyasi Village have been doomed? The answer is yes. Unless Cocoyasi Village is incredibly lucky and encounters another ‘savior’ who is different from me, defeats Arlong, and saves them.”

What Li Ang said is true. Now you've encountered Li Ang, whereas in the original story you encountered some hot-blooded idiot. Actually, there are many places on the high seas similar to Cocoyasi Village, but only a few lucky ones manage to meet their savior.

Li Ang continued, "Then, secondly, what if Cocoyasi Village encounters another crisis after I leave? Based on the conclusion above, we can easily deduce the following: we will either continue to wait for death, or wait for another savior before we die."

"What if a second savior appears? What if the second demon king is defeated? The devil is always one step ahead of the saint. This phenomenon is already widespread on this sea. The third demon king will have to wait for the third hero, and so on."

Karina then realized what was happening and said, "That's why you did that, instead of using those temporary solutions. Your goal was to enable Cocoyasi Village to save itself in the future and solve the problem at its root?"

Li Ang nodded, then shook his head: "More or less, but you're only half right. This isn't a fundamental solution. To completely eradicate it, we must overthrow the World Government and establish a new order on top of it, making pirates, mafia, local tyrants, and the navy disappear from the world. And this is precisely the ultimate goal for which our Revolutionary Army is willing to sacrifice our lives."

"Yes, they can't stop talking about the revolutionary army. They talk about the essence of the revolutionary army's ideology, the ultimate goal of the revolutionary army, and the action program of the revolutionary army. How can I remember all this? I heard it several times on the way here."

"Ahem, well, it's a habit, I'm used to it." Li Ang knew that in order to brainwash the two women, he had taken every opportunity to say a lot of this kind of thing along the way.

"However, these things don't seem to have much to do with Nami. If you went up there and solved the problem with a few punches and kicks, wouldn't it be easy to capture... cough, and get Nami to join the Revolutionary Army? I don't see what use it would be for Nami to have these villagers fight the Arlong Pirates?" Karina continued to press.

Li Ang shook his finger: "No, I'm helping Nami overcome her childhood trauma. Arlong and the Fish-Man Pirates inflicted indelible psychological damage on Nami, etching an image of power, terror, and invincibility into her mind. Only by letting these 'weak' villagers defeat the Arlong Pirates themselves can their myth of invincibility be broken. If we don't help Nami solve this problem now, she might inevitably feel fear when she encounters Fish-Men or pirates in the future."

There was no other way; Li Ang wasn't a hot-blooded fool. He couldn't win Nami over with youth, dreams, or passion, so he had to take this somewhat troublesome path.

Karina understood this point, and felt sorry for Leon, who had missed an opportunity to establish a Gundam-like image in front of Nami. "But what does time pressure matter? Why does it have to be tomorrow?"

Li Ang could only shrug at this: "I'm also helpless. Actually, my time wasn't that tight, and I really wanted to use a safer method. But plans can't keep up with changes. I didn't expect Nami to have a mental breakdown as soon as she arrived on the island, so I could only try to make her see the destruction of the Arlong Pirates as soon as she opened her eyes."

"So who's to blame for Nami turning out like that? Hey!" Karina exclaimed in dissatisfaction.

Li Ang quickly declared, "I'm not taking the blame for this. It's clearly Arlong's fault. Nami turned out like this because of the Arlong Pirates."

Karina retorted angrily, "You really don't understand anything. It's all because you didn't agree to Nami's request that things turned out this way."

Li Ang retorted without backing down: "That's unreasonable of you. What kind of condition is 'help me defeat Arlong and I'll go with you'? How can I agree to such a condition? If I did, wouldn't I just replace Arlong and become Arlong? That wouldn't help her get over her psychological trauma. On the contrary, it might even allow her hatred for Arlong to be transferred to me and the Revolutionary Army."

Karina, facing the seemingly reasonable Li Ang, flew into a rage and said, "What? Nami had just returned to the vicinity of the Dragon's Domain. After years of fear and anxiety, she just needed a strong... never mind, you wouldn't understand anyway. And you actually refused, ptooey, you big idiot."

As she was talking, Karina made a face and left for her room without giving Li Ang a friendly look.

"You better explain yourself clearly, don't just say half of it. What do you mean by 'I still don't understand even if you explain it'? It's really bothering me. And what do you mean by 'big idiot'? If I'm an idiot, then there are hardly any idiots in the whole world. And don't be angry, what did I do to offend you again?"

No matter how much Leon called out to her, Karina went back to her room at the hotel.

"This is the first time I've ever seen such a stupid person. Nami is the same. I just don't know what's so good about this idiot Li Ang. Well, besides being strong and having a little bit of cleverness, whatever, he's just not good at anything. I don't know what Nami is thinking. Humph, I hope Nami can get over this tomorrow, or I'll make you pay."

Li Ang was still completely bewildered: "They're all like this, it's really incomprehensible. Oh well, don't worry about these details, I'd better get some rest. Tomorrow I might have to teach Ah Long a lesson, oh no, a lesson about fishmen."

This night was destined to be anything but peaceful. The village doctor, Na Gao, was in the room grinding the laxative into powder, and a solvent was being prepared on the table.

Under the cover of night, village police officer Kenji gathered the other young and strong villagers and together they sharpened their weapons for the next day's operation. Some were harpoons, others were woodcutters, shovels, rakes, and the like, which also became weapons.

The farmers returned to their fields to select the larger, less easily spotted vegetables and fruits. Many others went home to rest and prepare for the next day's work.

At this moment, Nami, lying on the bed, was unaware of what was happening outside and was just staring blankly at the ceiling.

Actually, Nami wasn't asleep at all; how could she possibly sleep with her mind preoccupied like that?

A person will not reveal their vulnerable side unless they are forced into a corner. No matter how difficult life is, humans are always good at hiding their pain and greeting others with a smile when they are with others.

Nami was the same. She had been with Karina for so long and they were good friends, but Karina was completely unaware of Nami's plight.

In the original storyline, Nami met Luffy early on, but it wasn't until Luffy and his crew arrived at Cocoyasi Village that Nami could no longer hide her story and they learned about her hardships and pain.

Nami only showed her true feelings once, when she discovered that the 100 million Berries was just a lie told by Arlong. After Colonel Rat destroyed her hopes, her mental defenses finally collapsed, and she begged Luffy for help.

Li Ang had done something heinous along the way, something he himself probably didn't even realize—you'd have to ask Karina about that. It somehow caused Nami's psychological defenses to collapse prematurely.

Li Ang found this unscientific, but how could such a thing be explained by science? It was understandable that Li Ang, being such a fool, hadn't expected it.

But Luffy promised Nami, while Leon didn't. And that's where the problem lies.

A tangled mess, impossible to unravel; the long night stretches on, and who can know my thoughts?

Chapter 171 A Fresh Engine

The next day, Li Ang crawled out of bed early. However, this day was perhaps the most important day for Cocoyasi Village, so everyone else was up even earlier than him. The streets were already bustling with people preparing to send ingredients to the dragon's territory in the coming days.

"Wow, so early? Is it always like this?" Li Ang asked a man who was loading goods onto a truck.

This person was one of the dozen or so people from yesterday, so he naturally recognized Li Ang. Seeing Li Ang come out of the hotel, he smiled and said, "That's right. In the past, we were all worried when we had to send them to the Dragon's Domain this early in the morning, but today everyone understands that this is the last time we'll do this job, so we're all happy."

"Then I still advise you to keep looking gloomy, otherwise it won't be good if these fishmen notice something amiss."

Li Ang nodded. Today was a day the villagers had been eagerly anticipating. Everything was ready; they were just waiting for A Long and the others to eat the drugged food. So everyone was happy.

Hey, Li Ang thinks they've been suppressing their emotions for too long. The sun has only just risen from the sea, and things are still far from settled, yet they're already practically dancing with joy. If they wait until the Arlong Pirates are wiped out, they'll be on cloud nine.

However, Li Ang didn't want to dampen other people's enthusiasm. As long as nothing went wrong during the process, he would let them be. Let the dwarfs be happy.

A moment later, Karina came out from inside, yawning: "I was wondering why it was so noisy. So they're all ready to take action."

"Hmph, if all goes well, Nami will probably see the Arlong Domain collapse the moment she opens her eyes." At this moment, Kensuke also noticed the two people coming out of the inn and went up to talk to them.

Since everyone was happy, Li Ang joined in the celebration: "It seems that it's a good thing that the fishmen eat early; this breakfast will be their last meal."

"Yeah, we'd like to eat something too, otherwise we won't have the energy for the big battle later." Wow, the person who said that came pushing a cart with two big pots on it, you can imagine what was inside.

"Did you sleep well last night? Ever since the Arlong Pirates came here, my inn hasn't received any outsiders. You two are the first batch. Come on, have some food."

It turned out that the person pushing the food out was the owner of the inn behind Li Ang. Li Ang naturally didn't stand on ceremony, picked up a bowl and started drinking the hot porridge, and kindly got a bowl for Karina as well.

"Look at these two big pots of porridge, I bet you got up in the middle of the night to prepare them, boss," Li Ang asked while drinking his porridge.

After all, Li Ang was in the same industry as the boss in front of him many years ago, and he could tell at a glance that these two big pots could not be made in a short time.

"I got up before dawn, and I haven't slept a wink since last night. After finalizing the cancellations, I've been in the kitchen the whole time." The boss laughed heartily, his energy making it impossible to tell that he had been up all night cooking porridge.

An army marches on its stomach. Indeed, on the eve of such a major battle, while others were still conserving their strength, this fellow also had his own battlefield.

Watching everyone enthusiastically and happily drinking the hot porridge, Li Ang asked Karina, who was standing to the side, "See? This is the power of hope. If I had rushed in and solved all the problems by myself, these people would still be as lifeless as before."

Karina also remarked with emotion: "Indeed, in all the places I've traveled to, I've never seen anything like this. Whether it's bustling or desolate, lively or tranquil, none of them have given me this feeling of being bathed in warm sunshine."

"Yes, it's precisely because such a beautiful sight is so rare that..."

"That's why we strive for it, so that the whole world can be bathed in this warm sunshine. Oh, I can answer that right now."

Li Ang now thinks Karina is incredibly clever. Having spent so much time with him, she's mastered these little tricks. It's left Li Ang with no room to maneuver.

"Ahem, well, you are indeed exceptionally talented, heroine. I admire you and would like to add another spoonful of porridge for you." After Karina answered first, Li Ang immediately pretended to be sincerely convinced.

"So this so-called admiration is only worth a bowl of porridge, and someone else's porridge at that. Well, thank you anyway." Karina couldn't help but complain, "But I'm not one of you big eaters, this is enough for me. Leave the rest for those who need it."

He put down the empty bowl, turned around, and left. Looking in that direction, Li Ang figured there was no other possibility besides Nami.

"Alright then, you and Nami can wait for our good news together." Li Ang waved goodbye.

"Okay, I've had a good night's rest and breakfast is ready. I reckon it's about time," Li Ang muttered to himself as he walked to the side.

Then he pulled a Den Den Mushi (snail phone) out of his pocket. (This time it really was in his pocket; he couldn't put any living creatures in his storage bag.)

I have no idea how resilient this Den Den Mushi is. It's suffered a lot following Li Ang all this way. It's amazing that it's still alive. I have to say, Den Den Mushi have a strong survival ability. When they don't need to move, they can retract into their shells.

"Come, come, little guy, this is today's food." Li Ang said, handing the leftover porridge from his bowl to the Den Den Mushi.

Oh my god, do Den Den Mushi eat porridge? Is it really okay to feed Den Den Mushi porridge?

If you asked Li Ang this question, he would definitely tell you, "It's a big deal, don't be shy. I've always fed him this way. As long as I have food to eat, my son won't go hungry." In other words, whatever Li Ang eats, the Den Den Mushi eats too. If Li Ang eats Mapo Tofu Rice Bowl today, then the Den Den Mushi will also eat Mapo Tofu Rice Bowl.