This World Is Too Filthy!

Looking at the panicked people in the prison before him, all dressed in ordinary clothes.

Will frowned, and a few guesses immediately formed in his mind.

After pondering for a few seconds, he directly asked, "All of you here—are you prisoners?"

Sensing that Will didn't seem hostile and didn't look like a Marine either.

From within the crowd in the prison.

A middle-aged man with a stubbly face, mustering his courage, trembled as he replied:

"N-No... we're not prisoners..."

"All of us... are just ordinary townsfolk from a few coastal villages on the Konomi Islands..."

"A while back... those Marines suddenly showed up, didn't say a word, and just grabbed us and threw us onto their warship..."

"Then the Marines brought us all back... and we've been locked up here ever since..."

Seeing that the tall man before him didn't show any harsh attitude after the middle-aged man finished speaking.

People from several nearby cells also started stepping forward to add their own accounts.

Some of them even described what the Marines usually did, as well as bits of chatter they'd overheard among the Marine soldiers.

Clearly, the Marines here had long been used to acting arrogantly.

After capturing these townsfolk, they hadn't shown the slightest bit of caution.

The Marine soldiers guarding the prison didn't care at all if the townsfolk overheard their conversations.

Perhaps those Marines thought that these ordinary people could never escape from here.

So there was no need for any precautions.

And from what these townsfolk said.

Will also picked up a lot of useful key information.

The various guesses he'd made earlier were mostly overturned, and new doubts arose in his mind.

After all, the Marines didn't have any strict requirement to capture a certain number of pirates each month.

So there was no reason for them to go out of their way to grab so many ordinary people for no reason.

But since those Marines had bothered to capture so many townsfolk, there had to be some special need behind it.

Will frowned deeply, unable to figure out the most crucial point for a moment.

After a short silence, he couldn't be bothered to waste time on useless thinking and decided to approach it from another angle.

Clang—!

Seeing that the townsfolk had stopped talking, Will raised his hand and swiped across the iron lock on the cell door, easily cutting through the latch.

Then he repeated the same action on the several cells next to him.

The ordinary townsfolk, witnessing this, all showed expressions of surprise.

After all, the locks on these cells were twice as thick as a grown man's thumb.

Yet he had cut through them with just a light swipe of his finger.

Will paid no attention to their reactions.

Looking at the tense townsfolk around him, he said calmly, "Let's go. I'll take you out of here."

With that, he turned and walked toward the hidden passage he'd come down from.

The villagers exchanged glances but didn't immediately leave their cells to follow, clearly still hesitant.

One of them stepped up to the cell door and, gathering his courage, asked, "Uh... benefactor, what about the Marines up above?"

Will paused mid-step and replied flatly, "Don't worry. There are no Marines up there anymore."

Then he continued walking forward.

Hearing this, the villagers looked uncertain.

After all, that Marine colonel who looked like a rat had been surrounded by a large group of Marine soldiers when they were captured.

But now this man said there were no Marines up there—they couldn't tell if it was true or false.

Having seen the ugly side of the Marines, the townsfolk's caution had greatly increased.

But after a moment of waiting.

The townsfolk's longing for freedom ultimately overcame their fear of the Marines.

So, led by a few braver villagers.

Everyone left their cells and cautiously followed the direction Will had gone.

Will, who had already returned along the path, stood outside the building, lost in thought.

Then, his gaze sharpened, and he turned to look at the tallest building nearby. Without another word, he headed straight for it.

Will figured that a guy like Rat Captain would never allow anyone in his territory to stand taller than him.

So the bastard's office had to be at the highest point in Marine Branch 16.

And as it turned out.

Will's guess was spot on.

He walked into the tallest building, smashed through walls and rubble, climbed several floors to the top, and pushed open the only door there to enter the room.

The moment he stepped inside, his eyes landed on all kinds of rat-themed ornaments and trinkets—different types, various styles.

"How obsessed with rats is that guy..."

Will couldn't help blurting out a complaint, utterly baffled by it.

Then he shook off the thought and got straight to business, carefully searching for something like secret mission files.

Or classified document reports, something along those lines.

A moment later.

After a thorough search, Will actually found several classified documents hidden in a secret compartment.

And he also stumbled upon a floor plan of Marine Branch 16's base.

Without a second thought, he tore open the classified files and read them word by word.

But the further he read, the tighter his brow furrowed.

These documents clearly described a certain secret transport mission, complete with a very clear and precise sea chart.

They also detailed the time, quantity, and destination for shipping those special "cargo."

On such-and-such date, escort 150 prisoners to the Bridge-on-the-Nation, Tequila Wolf, deliver to...

On such-and-such date, escort 200 prisoners to the Bridge-on-the-Nation...

On such-and-such year and month, escort 300 prisoners...

...escort 120 prisoners...

...escort 130 prisoners...

Looking at the records spanning several pages.

Someone who didn't know better might think the pirates around here were running rampant.

But Will, who understood the real situation, immediately connected it to the ordinary townsfolk he'd seen locked up in the dungeon just now.

The things that hadn't made sense before suddenly clicked into place.

After grasping the full story, a cold glint flashed in Will's eyes:

"They really don't treat civilians as people..."

Staring at the documents in his hands.

Will felt like two words were gradually piecing together from between the lines of text—cannibalism.

The Marines' real reason for arresting those innocent townsfolk was to scrape together enough "prisoners."

To fulfill the secret transport mission specifically assigned by the Bridge-on-the-Nation.

And for Rat Captain to secretly capture so many people in the Konomi Islands, he absolutely couldn't bypass the ruler of that area—the Fish-Man Arlong.

Looking at it this way, the relationship between Fish-Man Arlong and Rat Captain was far from a simple monetary transaction.

Between the two, there was clearly a massive, long-running human trafficking operation.

It was even very likely that after Arlong and his Fish-Men destroyed the villages that couldn't pay the "Tribute," he didn't kill all the townsfolk.

Instead, he kept some and sold them to Rat Captain for extra profit—a win-win.

Connecting these details in his mind, Will couldn't help but say in a low voice:

"This world... is too filthy."