Pluton Rayleigh's Big Question Mark!

Bubbles slowly rose from the ground, and the moment they completely detached, they were propelled into the air by the air. They passed through the bustling crowd, then slowly flew over the masts of the ships. When they reached the top of the Yarukiman Mangrove, they would burst open in an instant, releasing high temperatures.

This is Grove 53. Shipyards and coating workshops stretch out along the coast in both directions. Ships of all sizes with their sails down are like wounded whales, allowing humans around them to tap, rub, and touch them.

In comparison, the coating plant is much quieter than the shipbuilding plant.

Experienced craftsmen, accompanied by their young apprentices, carried buckets filled with mangrove sap, meticulously coating the boats under their care while explaining the techniques and techniques involved.

However, recently, an outlier has emerged among them, and this outlier has become an interesting topic of conversation among the coating craftsmen.

Some of the apprentices who were closer to that oddball would occasionally glance at him out of the corner of their eyes.

With his graying hair, Faulkner was an old coating craftsman who had been doing it for nearly forty years. He skillfully flicked the slime out of the bucket.

Then, using air, it expands into bubbles, and then carefully integrates these newly formed small bubbles into the larger bubbles on the boat.

This so-called coating is actually just this: little by little, small bubbles are brought together to create a large bubble that can cover the entire ship.

Therefore, theoretically speaking, the larger the ship, the longer it takes. And although the process may not seem complicated, there are quite a few intricacies involved.

Take the first step, for example. To turn the slime into bubbles, an apprentice needs to practice for one or two years. After that, they have to maintain the bubbles and not let them burst easily, which requires even more skill.

"Don't worry about their opinions. Just study hard, and once you've learned it, you'll have a skill to support yourself."

Such earnest words were naturally addressed to the apprentice standing behind him, except that this apprentice appeared to be much older than the other apprentices around him.

This was a man nearly 1.9 meters tall, with a broad chest, muscular build, and magnificent blond hair. He wore glasses, but the wrinkles around his eyes were quite noticeable, making him look to be in his forties or fifties.

"Don't worry, old man, I don't care about these things." Rayleigh, who was using the alias Old Rayleigh, chuckled happily while carefully observing the old master's movements.

"That's good, that's good." Faulkner nodded happily.

"Um?"

Just as he was about to continue explaining, a commotion suddenly broke out in the distance, attracting the attention of everyone around.

"Get away! Get away!"

"Get out of my way!!"

A middle-aged man wearing a black captain's hat and a black overcoat rushed over with a group of sailors carrying various dangerous weapons.

If they encountered any passersby in their way, they would kick them away, but they did not pursue them further. Instead, they continued to approach this direction quickly.

"Hey, isn't that Captain Gors?" Rayleigh raised an eyebrow. "I remember we agreed to hand over the ship in a week, right?"

"That's right, we'll collect half the deposit first, and then they'll give us the rest when we hand over the ship," Master Faulkner nodded.

Just as they were talking, Gors and his crew arrived. Captain Gors didn't even glance at the two of them before leaping onto the bow of the ship. At this point, the Bubble Coating had only covered about a third of the ship.

"Quickly! Everyone move faster, let's set sail immediately!!"

Seeing this, Master Faulkner made no comment, nor did he show any intention of going forward to negotiate. He had worked here for so many years and had encountered all sorts of situations.

This group of One Piece was clearly being chased by someone, so there was no way to communicate with them. As for asking for additional fees, they had no intention of doing so, since they hadn't even finished coating the Bubble Coating yet, and getting half of the deposit was already a good deal.

If you've already applied the coating yourself, and these One Piece choose to leave without paying, then you need to notify the relevant authorities to handle the situation. It's not like the coating industry is unregulated.

But no matter what, it's not his turn as a coating craftsman.

Rayleigh, standing to the side, didn't react much. He simply watched quietly as they lowered the sails and hurriedly sailed out of the dock. He was more curious about what was happening on the other side and wanted to know what had happened.

Because at this moment, it wasn't just their ship that was escaping; more than a dozen One Piece ships that were being coated were scrambling to get there, plunging the area into chaos and noise.

"Check!"

"Lower all the sails! Seize any ships flying the skull and crossbones flag!" Rear Admiral Ivan shouted the order to the navy behind him.

"Yes!!"

Squads of marines scattered like ants, completely ignoring the obstruction of some shipwrights or coating workers, and forcibly boarded the ship to conduct inspections.

Since Rayleigh's ship had already sailed away, the marines just glared at them and ordered them to stay where they were and not to move.

In an instant, the entire Area 50 was thrown into chaos by the arrival of the navy, and the atmosphere was extremely tense. Gunshots and shouts of killing could be heard from time to time. It was clear that some One Piece who had not yet set sail were being captured by the navy and were trying to resist arrest by force.

"Master, does the navy come here often?"

Rayleigh leaned close to Faulkner's ear and whispered, "If this kind of thing really happens all the time, I'll have to consider changing to a more relaxed career. I don't want to keep facing the Navy's investigations."

"No, this is the first time in all these decades that I've encountered something like this. It's really strange." The latter looked completely puzzled.

"The Navy has its own coating craftsmen and doesn't need to come here. As for catching One Piece, as long as the One Piece don't cause any trouble on this island, they won't interfere too much."

Upon hearing this, Rayleigh immediately suspected that these navy personnel might be targeting him. Otherwise, why would something like this, which hadn't happened in decades, occur so suddenly in just over a year since he arrived?

"That's not right. How would the navy know I'm here? And if they really came to arrest me, what's the point of sending just a Rear Admiral?"

Rayleigh stared at Rear Admiral Ivan, who was dealing with a group of rebellious One Piece in the distance, his mind filled with questions.

"What exactly happened?"

At the same time.

The Gors Pirates' ship had barely sailed three hundred meters from the dock when a series of loud thumping sounds came from the bottom of the ship, giving Captain Gors an immediate sense of foreboding.

"The ship! Captain! Something terrible has happened, Captain!"

"What happened?"

The One Piece who rushed in to report shouted in terror, "The bottom of the ship has been pierced by something like a harpoon, and not just one or two. It's completely riddled with holes now, and seawater is pouring in!"

"Ha?!"

Dozens of meters below them, underwater, a group of the Neptune Army's Fish-Man soldiers, clad in armor and wielding steel forks, were grinning wickedly at the dozens of holes in the hull of the ship.

That was their order: never go up and confront these One Piece head-on.

Because the One Piece who can reach the Sabaody Archipelago generally have high bounties, these Neptune Army might not be able to defeat them. If they encounter a tough opponent with a bounty of over 50 million, they could be wiped out.

So we need to find a way to get them all into the water!

If the opponent is a superhuman, they will be unable to fight back because they cannot swim. If the opponent is not a superhuman, even if they can swim, they will not be a match for them in the water.

It's important to know that Fish-Man are several times more powerful in water than on land, especially in terms of speed, and they can also breathe normally!