Retreat to the G-2 Branch!

Vidal departed aboard the Oxhead Battleship. Woonan was somewhat excited, constantly stroking the tables and chairs in the captain's cabin. This ship would take him across the Four Blues, searching for treasure after treasure, and transporting batch after batch of riches back to the Forest Palace.

He was truly grateful to Vidal for supporting his dream, and the grudge he held against the Golden Pirates, which had been forced to disband due to threats, was now completely put aside.

Next, he needs to recruit enough crew members, which is not difficult, as long as he has enough Beli. As a vassal of the Forest family, he will naturally not lack this, since he is also on a mission to go to sea.

"A deserted island with a giant and magical carnation." Woonan sat in the captain's chair, pondering the orders Vidal had given him.

This order was similar to the one that had previously tasked him with finding the Boin Archipelago, only more difficult. After all, this time it didn't even have a name. Although the area was limited to the first half of the Grand Line, 'Paradise' was still a sea with seven main shipping routes.

The possibility of finding a completely unremarkable desert island in the vast ocean is almost zero.

Woonan knew this, Vidal was well aware of it as well, which is why he brought the third Devil Fruit from home!

The Devil Fruits he brought from home were all Paramecia: the Door-Door Fruit, the Shove-Shove Fruit, and the one Woonan had just eaten.

Woonan looked at his hands, his eyes gleaming. The information about the fruit in his mind made him very clear about what a terrifying and magical ability he possessed.

"However, with this ability, we should be lucky enough to find that island, and it should also be an extraordinary help in finding the treasure."

In the waters off Alabasta, a Marine warship topped with a giant Oxhead is slowly sailing towards the Sabaody Archipelago.

On the deck, Vidal lay comfortably on a beach chair, closing his eyes to rest, letting the somewhat hot sun shine on him. Upon closer inspection, one could see a faint green glow flowing across his skin.

Major Rogers, Lieutenant Isoka, and the others around him had already gotten used to how much their superior loved sunbathing, so they were all quietly doing their own thing—some reading newspapers, some wiping wooden shields—while Captain Rabani stayed in the training room, engrossed in his training.

He was doing push-ups rapidly using only one finger, switching to the other finger every hundred repetitions!

"Hey, what's that?"

Just as everyone on the ship was enjoying a rare moment of leisure, a marine standing atop the mast was casually scanning the surrounding sea with binoculars when he suddenly spotted a dark shadow on the southeastern horizon.

Having served as a lookout for several years, his awareness in this regard was quite keen. He immediately pointed his camera at the scene, then zoomed in, zoomed in, and zoomed in again until a small vessel appeared relatively clearly in front of him.

"It doesn't seem to be a pirate ship." The lookout relaxed a little because he didn't see any skull patterns on the sails, but when he saw a white-haired man sitting at a table on the deck, elegantly sipping red wine, his brows immediately furrowed.

"Jared, take a look at that man. He looks familiar." He patted his comrade, who liked to study the big shots at sea, and pointed in the direction of the small boat. He felt that the man had the aura of a strong person about him.

That's how the watchtowers on warships are set up; two people work together each time, so they can take turns resting and observe different directions simultaneously.

As for the aura of the strong, before following Vidal, they were all direct marines under Admiral Sengoku, and had seen many top-level strongmen. Having seen so many, they became familiar with this kind of aura.

"Let me see." Jared picked up his binoculars and looked over.

"Hey, that's..." He exclaimed in surprise at first, then after a moment of deep thought, he finally remembered who the other person was!

"Quickly! Go and inform Brigadier General Vidal!" Jared shouted in terror, "He's the 'Red Earl'!"

Soon, Vidal, who was sunbathing, heard a panicked marine rushing in with an urgent report, "Commodore, 'Red Count' Redfield's ship has been spotted to the southeast, and he's heading straight for us!"

"The Red Count? Who is he?"

Lieutenant Isoka asked curiously, but immediately noticed the atmosphere freeze instantly, the source of which was Vidal suddenly opened his eyes.

[Whoosh!]

The next moment, Vidal stood up abruptly, then vanished from the deck chair and reappeared on the Oxhead at the bow of the ship, gazing at the distant horizon.

"It was him."

In truth, Vidal didn't see it clearly either, but the intense sense of crisis he felt made him believe the marine's report.

But how did Redfield end up here, and why is he standing in front of him?

To be honest, although he had thought about finding the other party's whereabouts before, that didn't mean he wanted to go looking for trouble right away. Those are two different things!

He was well aware that the gap in strength between the two sides was currently too great!

"'Red Count' Redfield, with a bounty of 1.34 billion Beli, is a man whose fighting strength rivals that of Marine Admiral." Major Rogers walked over and solemnly stated the man's information.

"What!!"

This horrified the naval personnel of various ranks who were still unaware of the gravity of the situation; some of them nearly dropped their jaws.

Isoka was so shocked that she immediately covered her mouth.

"Withdraw!"

Suddenly, Vidal gave the order: now is not the time to be reckless; run if you can, what are you hesitating for?

Although he didn't know why Redfield had come to him, or even if the other party was there to see him, the other party's terrifying abilities made him not even want to talk to him.

"But Commodore, which direction should we retreat to?" a navy officer asked anxiously.

"Evacuate towards G-2 Branch!"

"At the same time, immediately send an urgent message to headquarters, and have them order Borsalino of the G-2 Branch to come and provide support first!" Vidal shouted the order.

At this point, it was definitely not advisable to continue heading towards Marineford. Although Redfield wasn't directly opposite, moving alongside him from the side was equally dangerous.

As for the rear, there was Alabasta. He had actually considered retreating there because there was a king there, and even hundreds of thousands of the Royal Army!

But in the end, he abandoned this recent option.

First, he didn't want Redfield to destroy the place, after all, there were many things he had set up on Alabasta. Second, he didn't think that joining forces with Yixiao would be of any use, since 'Red Count' was not Bondi Byrnndi World!

As for the hundreds of thousands of the Royal Army?

Hehe.

Believe it or not, Redfield wiped them all out with a single burst of Conqueror's Haki?

Instead of that, we might as well go to the nearest G-2 Branch. The key is that Borsalino is there, and he also has one or two Vice Admirals and several Marine warships.

Actually, the most recent G-series branch is G-8, but G-8 is behind Redfield!

Don't think about fighting right now, try running first.