Prison and the Final Weapon

On the azure sky, a massive island drifted slowly.

This was the Golden Lion Pirate Crew's largest floating island, upon which castle-like structures had been built.

It also served as the entire pirate crew's headquarters. The original misfits under the Golden Lion were mostly confined to this island.

However, with the ongoing IQ experiments, more and more pirates were increasing in size. Pirates four to five meters tall were a common sight, and their appetites grew in proportion.

The consequence of this was a shortage of food.

The Golden Lion didn't concern himself much with these matters. If left to him, he would at most just plunder other islands on the Great Sea.

Mino, the vice-captain, couldn't stand seeing the situation. In reality, the area of the Golden Lion's floating island was more than enough to sustain its inhabitants; they didn't even need a tenth of the land.

Mino directly relocated these pirates to other smaller islands. After strengthening them with IQ Potions, the potent toxins of the IQ Plants no longer affected them. On the contrary, influenced by those plants, the animals in the forests had grown quite large.

With a wave of his hand, Mino declared, "You all go hunt in the forests. It'll serve as good training too."

Simultaneously, since there was no longer a need to manufacture ferocious animals using large quantities of IQ Plants—the IQ required for humans was truly not much—they could uproot a large portion of the IQ Plants and convert the land into farmland. This would further facilitate the self-sufficiency system of the entire floating island.

Honestly, if not for the isolated island effect created by the Golden Lion's Float-Float Fruit, none of the ordinary people on the floating islands would have remained; they would have all fled.

Mino directly established rules to minimize the harm pirates inflicted on ordinary people, also aiming to develop productivity. After the Golden Lion recovered his health, he supported Mino's actions—he clearly understood that Emperors were entirely different from ordinary pirates. A self-sufficient territory was the foundation upon which an Emperor stood.

Previously, his mind was filled with destroying the East Blue, and he could afford to disregard such matters. Now, his focus had shifted to ruling the world, which naturally made everything different.

Mino landed on the ground, stepping on his Jet Boots. Behind him followed Baby5, a young girl. The two quickly arrived at a side entrance of the main island's castle. Pushing the door open and walking a few steps, they soon reached a staircase leading downwards.

Entering a hidden basement, they found a prison where a group of Marines were held captive.

Surprisingly, the one guarding the prison was a young girl named Reiju, who was only 14 years old. Upon seeing Mino enter, Reiju quickly stood up, "Lord Mino!"

"Long time no see, Reiju," Mino said with a grin as he walked in. Among the Vinsmoke Family, Mino only treated Reiju well. While it was partly because Reiju was a beauty, it was also related to her personality.

Although this girl couldn't be considered a good person, she was the most humane one in the Vinsmoke Family. As for the others, Mino didn't even want to bother with them.

Three emotionless combat machines, one who was inwardly cruel and outwardly patient, and an ambitious schemer who was fierce in appearance but timid at heart—it was futile to maintain any good relationship with them.

"Why is it you guarding these guys this time?" Mino asked curiously.

Reiju, now 14 years old, was likely the second strongest fighter in the entire Vinsmoke Family. After all, even her eldest brother, Ichiji, was only 11 years old now.

Ten years later, when Ichiji is 21 and Reiju is 24, Ichiji might be stronger. But currently, 14-year-old Reiju could definitely dominate 11-year-old Ichiji.

As a cyborg, Reiju's combat strength matured quickly. She used to rank fourth in the entire Golden Lion Pirate Crew. Although BABY5, who was the same age, had eaten the powerful Arms-Arms Fruit, she truly wasn't Reiju's opponent back then.

Such a powerful individual was hardly suited for guarding a prison. The Golden Lion Pirate Crew wasn't the World Government, throwing a bunch of monsters from the Great Sea into Impel Down.

"Uh... I couldn't help it. Lord Mino, you know the personalities of those pirates. Even with your orders, it would be too easy for them to cause trouble if they were guarding the prison."

"So in the end, only the clones from Germa 66 could guard the prison. But the clones can only follow the orders of our Vinsmoke Family, so I had to be the prison warden."

The strength of the misfits under the Golden Lion wasn't great, but they had learned the bad habits of pirates perfectly. If Mino hadn't been afraid of his Karma Points increasing and specifically come to check on the situation of these Marines in the prison back then, it would have been normal for half of these Marines to die.

Especially the beautiful Hina and a few other female soldiers. It was fortunate Mino arrived quickly; otherwise, it would have likely been a certain kind of plot.

These pirates had been on the Golden Lion's floating island for nearly ten years. Due to the inconvenient transportation and the scarcity of ordinary residents, looking at an old sow, they probably would have found her attractive. Let alone a beauty like Hina, who was also a Marine.

From then on, Mino improved the prison's supervision system, fearing that these pirates would cause any more trouble.

Now that the clones from Germa 66 were in charge, there were indeed no need to worry about these issues.

"By the way, Lord Mino, what are you here at the prison for?" After a few words, Reiju finally remembered and asked somewhat curiously.

"The injuries of these Marines should have mostly recovered by now, right?" Mino blinked his eyes, not answering Reiju's question, but asking directly instead.

"They've recovered! When you acted, Lord Mino, you had good control. Except for that white-haired guy (Smoker), everyone else only suffered superficial wounds."

Mino nodded. Smoker was just unlucky; his physical body was caught while he was in his smoke form. Mino couldn't tell if he had hit a vital spot at that time. The fact that the guy managed to keep his life was already fortunate.

"Since that's the case," Mino's gaze turned to Baby5 behind him, "it seems you won't be lacking opponents."

Reiju was slightly stunned and looked at Baby5, "Are you planning to use those Marine prisoners as opponents?"

Mino nodded, "That's right. Baby5's Devil Fruit abilities have improved recently, and I want to use these Marines to test how much stronger she's become!"

Baby5's ability improvement was actually greatly related to the Germa 66 group. Using the design blueprints for many weapons and battle suits from Germa 66, Mino also redeemed a powerful weapon design blueprint from the Golden Paradise, which was perfectly suited for Baby5's Arms-Arms Fruit.

Baby5 had spent a considerable amount of time mastering the transformation power of that "Final Weapon."