"What's going on?" Ronglin felt a faint sense of foreboding. Caesar and Jazz stayed behind on the ship while he boarded the unfamiliar vessel.
The moment Ronglin stepped aboard, a foul, rotten stench assaulted him. Covering his nose and mouth with a hand, he looked around and saw that the deck was littered with decaying corpses. The weapons and other iron objects were covered in rust. These people had clearly been dead for a long time.
"No survivors?" Ronglin asked. "Did you find anything?"
Jinbe shook his head and handed him a strip of glaring crimson cloth. "I checked everywhere. There wasn't a single one. I only found this..."
Ronglin took it and saw several crooked lines of what looked like blood writing: Encountered a powerful enemy. Eight out of ten dead. Ashil's mission failed. The Third Fleet's whereabouts unknown. Whoever finds this letter, please hurry back to Erebus Island and report this...
"Erebus Island?" Ronglin looked at the bloody letter, which seemed unfinished, and asked in confusion, "Isn't Erebus Island where this year's Dark Exchange was being held? How..."
Suddenly, a flash of insight struck Ronglin, and he understood. "They must be from the Pirate Alliance! Judging by the time of death, it was right before we went to Erebus Island. They ran into CP0's main force and were defeated. After these people escaped, they all died? They didn't even make it back to report the news."
Jinbe blinked and said, "Why not let Caesar handle the thinking? Besides, he might be able to spot some things about this ship."
Ronglin nodded in agreement, turned around, and went back. Before long, he had dragged Caesar over.
Caesar looked displeased, but the instant he saw the ship full of corpses, his eyes lit up. His perverse nature returned at once,