Bane: I Will Lead You to Invade the Otherworld!

After crossing Reverse Mountain, Bane did not see the giant whale Laboon, and upon visiting the lighthouse at Twin Capes, he found it empty.

He figured that the Pirate King Roger's ship doctor, Crocus, must have ducked inside Laboon to hang out. Considering he had no serious business with the man and no way of knowing when he would return, Bane didn't linger and soon arrived at Whisky Peak, as recorded by his Log Pose.

Whisky Peak is the starting point for those entering the Grand Line. Since the dawn of the Great Pirate Era, the number of pirates has surged; newcomers from the four seas all want to rush into the Grand Line, and this place is almost always their first stop.

Consequently, a large group of bounty hunters has naturally gathered here, using Whisky Peak as their base of operations to hunt down pirates from the four seas by any means necessary.

Their methods might be despicable, and they might not be good people, but in terms of facts, they have indeed made a significant contribution to the safety of the citizens on the various islands within the Grand Line.

At this moment, in a tavern within the bounty hunter town of Whisky Peak, Bane and Zoro were launching a frantic assault on the food spread across the table, with a massive stack of empty plates already piled up in front of them.

Nami, meanwhile, sipped her fruit wine, watching the two men with a look of helplessness.

Because Zoro has a strong competitive spirit, he wants to outdo Bane in everything, but so far, aside from Sword Arts, he has found it difficult to beat Bane in any other area.

Take right now, for example: Bane is eating this food without any pressure, while Zoro is already red in the face.

It is quite obvious that he is nearly at his limit.

Truly worried that Zoro might eat himself to death, Nami reached out and pushed several plates of grilled Sea Beasts from in front of Zoro over to Bane, saying, "That's enough, stop eating. Is this even fun?"

Zoro watched as Bane polished off another plate of grilled meat in mere seconds, then sighed helplessly and said, "You're a monster. How exactly does your stomach digest all that?"

He stopped competing with Bane, picked up the wine on the table, and took a few gulps to steady himself.

Bane swallowed a chunk of meat larger than Nami's head in two bites, reached out to ask the owner for ten more servings of grilled meat, and then replied, "I'm naturally gifted. You can't compare."

Setting that topic aside, Nami pulled out a map of the Grand Line that she had bought in town earlier. Perhaps because this is the first stop on the Grand Line, there were quite a few people selling such charts.

"Originally, at Twin Capes, there were seven routes to choose from, but our Log Pose is set for Whisky Peak, so we came here. From here on out, we can only proceed island by island along this specific route until we eventually reach the Sabaody Archipelago," Nami said, pointing at the map.

"Can't we change the route halfway?" Zoro asked casually.

"No. For instance, we have to stay at Whisky Peak for three days to let the Log Pose store the magnetic field of the next island, which is Little Garden, and then..." Nami explained the basics to Zoro.

After she finished, Bane added, "Actually, it's not impossible to change routes. I know of two ways. One is to buy a permanent Log Pose for an island on another route, which allows you to head in that direction. The second is that many islands have now opened Sea Train lines; we could abandon our ship and take the Sea Train to reach islands on other routes and start over."

"But there's no need for that," Nami interjected. "Didn't you say earlier that you wanted to go to Alabasta? And Little Garden is also one of your destinations. You said there are many creatures there that have existed since ancient times, like dinosaurs, and you want to see if the ingredients there can help you grow faster."

"That's right, I'm going to Little Garden to eat dinosaurs!" Bane nodded in immediate affirmation.

He had even considered that if these ancient creatures were highly beneficial to his physical growth, he would stay there for a while longer, striving to eat the dinosaurs into extinction.

Once his strength improved further, he would head to Alabasta to take down Crocodile. His Sand-Sand Fruit is quite good, and now that he possesses the Dark-Dark Fruit, he could consider snatching the Sand-Sand Fruit as well.

The only question was, who should receive that Devil Fruit ability? His team members were still too few!

They had chatted about it a few times before; Zoro wasn't actually opposed to the power of a Devil Fruit, but he was currently more obsessed with his Sword Arts and had no intention of being distracted. Bane estimated that until the man became the World's Greatest Swordsman, or encountered some irresistible force, he wouldn't consider becoming a fruit user.

As for Nami, she wasn't considering becoming a Devil Fruit user at all, at least not for now. She loved swimming, was quite skilled at it, and was determined to map the world; she felt that if she became a "hammer" who couldn't swim, her dream would be shattered, so she had no plans to become a user.

"What are you thinking about?" Nami asked curiously when she saw Bane suddenly fall silent.

Zoro, drinking his wine, also looked at Bane.

"I'm thinking that we need to recruit some sailors to help us sail the ship and handle chores. That part is easy to solve right here, but later on, we'll need some real talent to expand our team," Bane said.

"The second part is hard. Not everyone is like me or Nami, just drifting with the tide," Zoro said after taking a sip of wine.

The "drifting" he referred to wasn't a lack of ambition; Zoro pursued the throne of the World's Greatest Swordsman, and Nami had her own dreams.

What Zoro meant by "drifting" was a lack of a "shared vision."

It is no exaggeration to say that their current three-person team was a group without a unified direction. Although they each had personal goals, they lacked a collective ambition.

For instance, most pirate crews want to become the Pirate King, the Navy wants to pacify the four seas and uphold justice, and the Revolutionary Army wants to overthrow the World Government and create a new order.

The three of them together lacked these grand directions!

And precisely because they lacked such a grand direction, they didn't even know how to start when it came to recruiting talent. That is the terror of having no manifesto.

You can't just go up to people and say, "Hey, come wander the seas with me!"

"As long as it's not letting pirates join us, I don't mind," Nami said after thinking it over, giving her minimum requirement.

As mentioned before, this girl currently hated all pirates with fair and impartial intensity.

That was why, when Bane previously said he wanted to go to Alabasta to take down one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, the Sand Crocodile Crocodile, Zoro didn't care—he'd do whatever Bane said—but Nami supported it wholeheartedly, even if she was a little scared!

After downing another drink, Zoro said, "So, if you want to expand our core members, you first have to determine a grand direction. Only then can you be more persuasive when inviting others. And all this time, I've never formally asked you: Bane, as our captain, what exactly are your plans for the future?"

"That's right. If even you, the captain, have no direction, then even with me as the best navigator, we'll still get lost on the sea!" Nami also patted her chest and looked at Bane.

Bane was silent for a moment, then looked at Zoro and Nami and said, "To tell you the truth, I want to become the King of the World and lead you all to conquer other worlds!"

Zoro and Nami: "???"

What kind of nonsense are you spouting?

Seeing that these two took him for a fool even when he was telling the truth, Bane felt speechless. He shook his head and said, "My current goal is to become a top-tier powerhouse in this world. My next goal is to grasp power and influence, which is why I need to build a foundation I can trust. You two are the core members of that foundation."

"Is this desire to grasp power and influence something you want to build yourself, or, like you joked before, are you thinking of joining the Navy?" Zoro asked after some thought.

"Joining the Navy wouldn't be so bad, would it? Just thinking about people calling me Colonel Nami makes me feel a bit excited, hahahaha," Nami said, her eyes lighting up at the suggestion.

She hadn't liked the Navy much before, mainly because of scumbags like Colonel Nezumi, but after encountering people like Smoker and Tashigi, she felt the Navy wasn't beyond saving. There were jerks in every group, and she didn't need to be so harsh as to judge an entire group based on one person.