An Unexpected Encounter

Leviathan piloted Marlin 001 away from Camel Island and headed for other regions of the South Blue to explore.

Geographically, Camel Island lay in the waters at the angle between the Grand Line—Paradise—and the Red Line, in the northeastern part of the South Blue.

Before Vegapunk began working for the Navy, the Navy had yet to possess ships capable of safely crossing the Calm Belt. At this time, the northeastern South Blue was not yet a hotspot.

However, one could not judge matters by looking only at what lay before them.

Camel Island's location was neither safe nor concealed. At the very least, Giant Morley knew of this place. If the source of the information leak could not be cut off through Giant Morley, it meant that the Revolutionary Army would learn its secret in the future as well.

Likewise, once the Navy acquired the technology to safely cross the Calm Belt, the waters around Camel Island would become the shortest route for Naval Headquarters to reach the South Blue.

Although Camel Island had a harsh climate and was a typical tropical rainforest, it could not be ruled out that the Navy would come to investigate.

Lucifer had already deployed more than three thousand Recon Seagulls throughout the South Blue and the Grand Line—Paradise. They now had a preliminary understanding of the northeastern South Blue.

According to Wang Gao's plans, the Third Base would be best established in either the southwestern or southeastern South Blue. Both regions backed onto the Red Line and contained a great number of barren, uninhabited islands.

The Marlin 001 submarine piloted by Leviathan headed southeast, searching for an uninhabited island suitable for building the Third Base.

Because it used Sea King genes, the Marlin-class did not need coating to dive to depths of over ten thousand meters beneath the sea.

To avoid unexpected encounters, Leviathan kept the submarine cruising at a depth of five hundred meters. As for large sea beasts and smaller Sea Kings, they were actually relatively uncommon in the ordinary waters of the Four Seas; they were not everywhere.

Besides, the 120-meter-long Marlin-class clearly did not look like something to be trifled with. Those sea beasts were not brainless zombies driven only by appetite; they knew to avoid danger and seek advantage.

Even in a head-on clash, the Marlin-class was no weak combatant. Taking down Sea Kings hundreds of meters long would not pose much of a problem.

As he traveled, Leviathan controlled the Marlin-class and scattered seeds across the seabed.

Once these thumb-sized seeds fell into the mud of the seafloor, they quickly took root and sprouted. Within a few days, a single seed would grow into a patch of "coral."

In truth, this was a new genetically engineered organism developed by Wang Gao—Algae Coral.

The purpose of Algae Coral was to make up for the shortcomings of Drought Algae Vine in the ocean. By disguising itself as coral, it could establish an underwater coral network.

Though the coral grove produced by a single seed covered only a few hundred square meters and stood merely a dozen meters or so tall, the roots of Algae Coral could burrow underground, concealing themselves in the mud several meters, or even more than ten meters, beneath the seabed.

The various corals would then connect through their roots, forming a coral network spread across the ocean floor.

In addition to scattering Algae Coral along the route, Leviathan released large numbers of engineered marine organisms. These creatures would all live within the coral groves.

They included Parasitic Barnacles, Killer Crabs, Venomous Octopuses, and Nutrient Ball Algae.

Each of these four marine organisms had its own purpose.

The Killer Crabs and Venomous Octopuses served as the guardians of the coral groves, preventing large sea beasts from destroying them;

Nutrient Ball Algae was a genetically engineered organism that lived symbiotically with Algae Coral. On the surface, it appeared to be seaweed growing on the ocean floor, but its roots fused with those of the Algae Coral and bore apple-like fruits.

These fruits were called "Sea Apples," and they could replenish vitamins, sugars, minerals, proteins, and fats.

However, these Sea Apples were usually hidden in the rock strata beneath the coral groves. Without instructions, they could not be found.

With Nutrient Ball Algae, these coral groves became supply stations hidden beneath the sea.

Lastly came the Parasitic Barnacles. Their purpose was to latch onto the bottoms of passing ships and blend in with ordinary barnacles.

As for what Parasitic Barnacles were used for, their main functions were surveillance and tracking, making up for the fact that Recon Seagulls could not follow ships at all times.

All along the way, Leviathan scattered these genetically modified organisms everywhere.

On the seventeenth day after leaving Camel Island, he had traveled roughly fifteen thousand kilometers and entered the southeastern South Blue.

Naturally, he had not traveled in a straight line. He had been searching everywhere for suitable islands; otherwise, Leviathan would have reached the southwestern South Blue long ago.

Huh? He pressed the pause button, and Marlin 001 immediately came to a stop.

A patch of Algae Coral planted three days earlier had discovered a Devil Fruit while growing.

Along the way, Leviathan had indeed found many things through planting Algae Coral, such as sunken ships, undersea mineral veins, and all manner of strange marine life.

However, this was the first Devil Fruit he had found. Though he had traveled fifteen thousand kilometers, compared with the oceanic area of this planet, the area covered by the coral network amounted to less than one ten-thousandth of the South Blue.

This Devil Fruit had been locked inside an iron box and buried in the mud of the seabed.

Had it been directly exposed in the ocean, there was a ninety percent chance that a marine creature would have eaten it, immediately lost its ability to swim, and been killed by another predator.

That was the fate of the vast majority of Devil Fruits without protective containers that fell to the ocean floor.

Only the few Devil Fruits stored in boxes or washed ashore by ocean currents had been preserved.

Leviathan analyzed the Devil Fruit's type. It was a dark green banana, and there was a ninety percent chance that it was a Zoan.

After activating a remote-control command, he had the Algae Coral secrete a chitin composite layer to wrap around the Devil Fruit, then conceal it within the lower chamber where the coral grove stored Sea Apples.

After doing all this, Leviathan continued piloting the Marlin-class onward, exploring the unknown waters.

At this time, Marlin 001's storage hold contained mountains of Gold, Silver, and Jewels, rows of test tubes storing cell samples, and items recovered from sunken ships.

These included a Great Grade Sword among the Twenty-One Great Grade Swords, though it seemed to be a Demon Blade.

Other items included an eleven-meter-long Adam Wood keel, likely Adam Wood that had been recycled and repurposed; more than a dozen objects that appeared to be antiques; two incomplete parchment navigation logs; five Grand Line Log Poses; and more than a dozen usable firearms.

Leviathan did not care much about Gold, Silver, and Jewels. With advanced biological submarine technology, the ocean held dozens of times more gold, silver, and gemstone deposits than land, and the overwhelming majority of those veins remained unmined.

If they needed gold or the like, finding a few rich deposits and extracting several hundred tons a year would be more than enough.

Leviathan carefully flipped through those two voyage logs several times.

Suddenly, he frowned, set down the voyage log in his hand, and inserted both hands into the fusion interface in the control console.

At that moment, Marlin 001 had already come to a stop.

About seven nautical miles away, a large sailing ship flying the World Government's flag appeared to be battling a Small Boat.

There was only one man aboard the Small Boat. A harpoon was strapped to his back, and he rowed with both hands as if fighting for his life.

The CP6 agents aboard the large sailing ship watched the Small Boat coldly. A tall man in a suit with a cigar clenched between his teeth waved a hand. "Clear it out quickly."

"Yes."

Boom! Boom boom...

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