Crossing the Calm Belt

Time in the Calm Belt was brief. From struggling at first, to being evenly matched later, and finally moving with ease.

When Ling Donglai punched the last Sea King that had provoked him back into the sea, he looked at the rippling waves and felt something stir within him.

It had taken three months to cross the Calm Belt. Current Drive had reached twenty million volts.

By then, even Sea King meat could no longer rapidly boost Ling Donglai's strength. His growth had gone from riding a rocket to walking on foot.

"It's unbelievable. We actually crossed the Calm Belt and reached the beginning of the Grand Line this way!"

Having passed through the stifling Calm Belt, Nami once again sensed changes in humidity and rising and falling air currents. Her mood immediately improved.

There were hardly any climate changes to speak of in the Calm Belt. That had put Nami, the weather forecaster, directly out of work and turned her into a real cook.

"Let's buy supplies in a nearby town first. If we follow the Log Pose directly, I'm afraid we won't see an inhabited island for months."

"Hehe, this time we'll be robbing pirates in the Grand Line!" Nami clenched her fist, and a faint blue arc of electricity flickered out without her even noticing.

Since Ling Donglai's ship had no need for sails, Nami had put the Sea Tiger emblem on both sides of the vessel.

"Robbing pirates and then searching them for money is too troublesome, and it's unreliable. We need to think of a stable source of income." Ling Donglai frowned.

Honestly, the money gained from defeating pirates was an utterly unpredictable amount.

Sometimes it was high, sometimes low. It was entirely a matter of luck.

After all, piracy was a precarious profession. At sea, they not only encountered storms but also faced pursuit by the Marines.

Under such circumstances, they usually spent nearly all their money whenever they reached an island before setting sail again.

After all, money was useless if you died.

As a result, the Beli Ling Donglai obtained each time was completely random, which annoyed him.

For him, he could clearly blast them apart from a distance, yet for the sake of money, he had to hold back and kill the pirates aboard without damaging their ship. It was far from satisfying.

"Head north... There'll be ships passing through there..."

Ling Donglai closed his eyes and made a faint attempt at sensing.

"Huh..." Nami froze as the Sea Tiger had already changed course.

"That's amazing! How did you do that..." Nami could not help crying out.

After sailing for around ten minutes, they spotted a pirate ship wandering across the sea.

"An electric-wave perception... more profound than Observation." Ling Donglai toyed with the Den Den Mushi in his hand.

Even a crude application of electric waves was enough for him to vaguely sense many things.

"Captain, there's a ship heading straight toward us!"

The other pirate ship had noticed Ling Donglai's vessel as well.

"They don't have sails, and there's a Sea King painted on the side. I don't remember any wanted pirate with a symbol like that. Is it a merchant guild ship?" The pirate holding the telescope stared at the Sea Tiger image on the hull.

"How strange. Who would use a Sea King image as their emblem..." The captain of the pirate ship muttered drunkenly as he drank.

"There are so few people on the other side. There are only two of them... They're using a sea beast to pull the ship. No wonder they don't need sails."

"Wait, that man is so huge... He raised his hand... It's electricity! He's a Devil Fruit user! He's a Devil Fruit user!"

The pirate's voice abruptly cut off. Only then did the sound of thunder ring through the air.

Everyone aboard that pirate ship vanished, wiped out completely, leaving behind only faint scorch marks.

Before long, the two ships collided. Ling Donglai jumped onto the other pirate ship and began looting the pirates' treasure, then left the vessel to drift along the Grand Line.

A legend of a "ghost ship" began to spread through the first half of the Grand Line.

The power of ten million volts was enough to leave mere grunts... without even bones remaining. That was called Annihilate to Ashes!

"East... roughly thirty kilometers away, there's a town." Ling Donglai once again used his unrefined electric waves to sense his surroundings.

"Nami, once we reach the island, buy some clothes that fit you properly."

Ling Donglai set down the Beli, then took one of his trench coats from the cabin and draped it over Nami's shoulders.

"Huh?!"

Nami's hands froze as she counted the Beli, heat rising to her face.

"You've grown up." Ling Donglai sat in the nearby deck chair and began reading a book of maritime recipes.

Ever since Nami had joined him, she had essentially never gone hungry. She also had nutrient-rich Sea King meat to supplement her diet. Afterward, Ling Donglai used electric-current massage techniques to help Nami digest the energy and balance her figure.

Now, Nami had grown from one and a half meters to around one sixty, and her body had begun to develop as well. The clothes she had bought before no longer fit her.

"I-I see."

Nami clutched the trench coat, only then realizing the changes in her body. Her once-fitting clothes had become too short, turning into crop tops.

Even she herself had not noticed the change.

The ship gently docked. Ling Donglai put on his baseball cap and stood up. When he turned around, he saw Nami still clutching the trench coat in a daze, her face red as though she had a fever.

"The ship has docked. With your constitution, it's impossible for you to be sick, right?" Ling Donglai walked over, picked up the Beli, and casually pressed the back of his hand to her forehead.

Nami's health had actually been rather poor. She had started working hard to save money from a young age, and she had even fallen seriously ill in the original story. Ling Donglai had always paid attention to improving her physical condition. By now, Nami should not get sick.

Crackling electricity coursed through Nami's body, snapping her back to her senses.

"N-no, I'm fine. Let's go!"

Nami suddenly understood and hurried off the ship.

Ling Donglai casually took his baseball cap and put it on, following Nami off the ship.

The wind lifted the hem of his coat, and his distinctive aura instantly drew the attention of many people.

"That's... the great pirate with a thirty-million Beli bounty, the Martial Artist of the Seas!"

Many people recognized Ling Donglai and cried out in alarm.

On the Grand Line, the Marines' bounties on pirates had become a means of comparison, even a way of measuring combat strength.

Therefore, when Ling Donglai, with a bounty of a full thirty million, appeared at the beginning of the Grand Line, many people could no longer sit still.

There was greed, fear, disgust, and curiosity.

In a corner.

A blue-haired girl's forehead was covered in sweat as she took out the bounty poster and examined it closely.

"A great pirate worth thirty million Beli. Be careful. As long as I kill him, I can quickly gain fame and the company's attention, then rise through the ranks..."

"Thirty million. I can do it. If someone is killed, they die!"

She gripped the dagger in her hand and encouraged herself.