Soto's Tears!

At exactly six o'clock in the evening, which was dinner time at the base, Vidal was practicing Fish-Man Karate with the little Zangjing in the parallel space of the Door-Door Fruit, following the scriptures. The canteen delivered the food to Dane and the other Fish-Men's dormitory right on time.

It seems that Isoka had given the canteen instructions in advance, so the Fish-Men's first meal at the Marine Base did not include any fish or seafood; it was mostly ordinary meat.

Actually, she misunderstood this point. Fish-Men not only eat meat but also fish. Only mermaids don't eat fish or meat, only some fruits and vegetables. However, this doesn't seem to be an absolute rule; it's just that the latter don't want to eat them, not that they can't.

Overall, they enjoyed the dinner fairly well. During the meal, a marine brought Dane a naval regulations manual, which listed various precautions for the navy and the base, forcing Dane to study it while eating.

Because he genuinely wanted to follow the arrangements made by King Neptune and Vidal!

At eight o'clock sharp, the cafeteria staff came again to take away the leftover bowls and chopsticks. The Fish-Men seemed to dislike staying in the dormitory building and preferred to stay by the sea, gazing at the starry sky and chatting with each other, sharing their past experiences and observations.

Honestly, these Fish-Man present were a bunch of very dishonest guys.

They were all tired of the overly peaceful life on Fish-Man Island, so they secretly ran away from 10,000 meters underwater, only to unfortunately encounter pirates, be sold to slave traders by greedy pirates, then sold to slave traders at auction, and finally resold to the Celestial Dragons.

Logically speaking, these young and strong Fish-Man are actually quite strong, but unfortunately, Fish-Man Island is in a very awkward location.

On one side is the first half of the Grand Line, a graveyard and Paradise for pirates; on the other side is the second half of the Grand Line, the New World.

The former, although the number of pirates was far less than in the future because the Great Pirate Era had not yet begun, unfortunately, Fish-Man Island was located at the end of the first half of the journey. Therefore, the Fish-Man who chose this side encountered mostly elite pirates who had already crossed a route not long after leaving the Sabaody Archipelago.

The latter, needless to say, any pirate crew would have a bounty of tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions, and be considered somewhat famous figures on the sea. The Fish-Men's so-called ten times the strength of humans is simply not worth mentioning.

Even a skilled Fish-Man like Dane, who had trained in Fish-Man Karate for years, was defeated, captured, and enslaved simply because he ignorantly chose to venture into the New World.

In fact, given his abilities, if he had chosen a different path and entered the first half, perhaps none of the later events would have occurred.

What's most frustrating is that they are also burdened by the Holy Land Mary Geoise, next to Marineford, the Marine Headquarters, and the Sabaody Archipelago, the most concentrated area of the slave trade.

This has led to these restless, extremely ignorant, and even somewhat arrogant Fish-Man Race being targeted almost immediately once they leave Fish-Man Island and surface.

After all, slave traders are human beings too. As long as they are human and it concerns their livelihood, they understand the principle of waiting for a rabbit to run into a tree stump!

There's no way around it; Fish-Men and mermaids are even more curious about the outside world than cats. Every year, a few of them will escape and make a fortune.

Therefore, there are always a few coated ships sailing around the seabed of the Sabaody Archipelago and the deep sea near Fish-Man Island.

Fortunately, the existence of various sea monsters and Sea Kings, along with the difficulty of exploration (since there's no radar), meant that these slave traders' coated ships were essentially just waiting for prey to run into them; whether they encountered Fish-Men who had escaped was purely a matter of luck.

At 10 p. m., it is the lights-out time at the Marine Base. According to the rules, except for patrol and guard personnel, no one is allowed to move around freely within the base.

Therefore, Dane also led his Fish-Man to lie down on the combined bunk beds on time, turn off the lights, and go to sleep.

He just couldn't sleep. Firstly, he was still a bit excited from being a slave and then a sailor. Secondly, he had a lot on his mind, thinking about what mission Vidal would assign him the next day, or about his relatives and friends on Fish-Man Island.

Actually, he also wanted to return to Fish-Man Island as soon as possible.

But Vidal's kindness and King Neptune's orders forced him to suppress these thoughts, especially the former; he didn't want to cause any trouble for the man who had saved him.

However, it is clear that not all Fish-Man value gratitude.

At midnight, when most of the Fish-Man had fallen asleep and were snoring, a door on the first floor was gently opened, and four tall, dark figures walked out.

Using the faint moonlight streaming through the window, they quietly slipped out of the dormitory building and came to the open space in front of it, where they had just been having a meal at the large wooden table.

"Barnes, why don't we go back? We're letting Lord Vidal down by doing this," a Fish-Man whispered hesitantly, his voice barely audible.

"Then don't you want to go home and see your mother?" another deep voice retorted.

The voice hesitated before uttering the word "this."

"Let those who are willing to stay repay our kindness. Those of us who want to go back should take this opportunity tonight to leave; the sea is right in front of us!"

This Fish-Man Barnes had grayish-black skin and a relatively flat head. With just one Fish-Man, he completely dispelled the last hesitation of the other three Fish-Man.

"Let's go!"

But just as the four of them arrived at the beach not far from the dormitory building, a cold, deep voice came from nearby, startling them so much that they stopped in their tracks.

"Where are you going, Barnes! Ramsey! Aguirre! Soto!"

Soto, the Fish-Man Soto (ta3), suddenly turned around, his face filled with panic as he looked at the newcomer. "Dane! Captain Dane! I, we..."

"Hmph, what's there to be afraid of? We've already made it through!"

Barnes glanced at his side—four men compared to Dane's group of only one—and with the ocean right behind them, he immediately snorted and said, "Where to? Back to Fish-Man Island, of course!"

"You've read King Neptune's letter, you should know that if you leave without permission, it will cause trouble for Lord Vidal!" Dane said angrily.

"Hmph, trouble? I think it's just a minor problem. I don't believe the commander of such a large Marine Base would cause any big trouble just because a few of us Fish-Man escaped. Besides, aren't you guys willing to stay here?!"

Barnes' nonchalant attitude infuriated Dane, who suddenly clenched his large, White Fist. "Even a small problem is a problem! Is this how you repay the person who saved you?"

"The ones who captured us are humans, and the ones who saved us are also humans. Doesn't that even things out?"

Barnes sneered. Anyway, he was determined to leave, go back to Fish-Man District, and never come out again. As for the Neptune Army, he didn't care.

"I won't let you go."

Dane suddenly calmed down, but his eyes turned cold in the moonlight, and his aura began to solidify, which alerted Barnes, who was opposite him. He knew a thing or two about the power of Fish-Man Karate.

But there are four of them. When the fight starts, while the other three are holding the other side back, I'll find an opportunity to jump into the sea!

Just as the two sides were about to clash, Soto suddenly knelt down in front of Dane with a thud, tears streaming down his face, his hands gripping the ground tightly as he begged for mercy.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Captain Dane, I know I've wronged Lord Vidal, but I want to go back to see my mother, Lisana, and so many friends. I haven't been back for three years!"

"Please, please let me go! I don't want to be a Marine here, I don't want to be Neptune Army, I just want to go home! Go home!"

This chapter is 2400 words long, which is frustrating because I haven't finished writing some content, but if I continue writing, the word count seems to be too high. I find that 2000 words per chapter can be quite annoying at times; it limits my desire to write.

However, some experienced authors have said that 3000 words per chapter can lead to excessively high chapter counts, which can make readers feel unhappy.

Hey, what do you guys think? Can you accept me occasionally writing 3000 words per chapter? If it's okay, then I'll just write some plot points in one chapter from now on.

Also, I didn't cut the book, I just rested for a little while. You guys are overreacting. My book is still very long, and this is only a small part of it. It must be at least a million words long, right?

However, I discovered that the other Ryokugyu book seems to be truly gone.