Target: Alabasta, Forward!

The Island-Eating Monster's meat contained far more energy than the dinosaurs on the island, and it was more nourishing than the Sea Kings Bane had eaten before. This left Bane very satisfied.

Unfortunately, the thing was simply too huge. Even with only half its body left, several hundred people, two giants, and Bane the bottomless pit still couldn't finish it. There were no refrigerators here, and even if there had been, they wouldn't have fit it. They could only salt some of the leftovers and store them on the ship, while throwing away the rest.

Maybe I should just become a monster hunter in the future. There are quite a lot of sea monsters around here.

The Kraken, Giant Anglerfish, and all sorts of other creatures—especially around the deep-sea region of Fish-Man Island, where there were even more sea monsters and Sea Kings. Bane felt that he would have to go there someday and eat his fill.

Bane had originally planned to eat every dinosaur on this island into extinction before leaving, but after calculating the time, he found it was getting tight. Crocodile planned to usurp the throne this year. If he took over all of Alabasta, dealing with him would become even more troublesome.

He also had to go to Marine Headquarters later to observe the Summit War, get in touch with a big shot like Zephyr, and lay the groundwork for his future plans. Besides, he had to leave some food for Dorry and Brogy on this island. After weighing it all carefully, Bane decided to leave.

Fortunately, he had grown enough during his nearly two months on Little Garden. In terms of raw strength alone, he had already surpassed Dorry and Brogy, the two hero-class giants.

Even more notably, his physical abilities had improved across the board. His skin was tough and his flesh thick; if Zoro didn't use Haki, he was practically unable to cut Bane anymore.

Alabasta has some rare species too, and Sky Island has some special giant sky beasts. They shouldn't be much worse than the dinosaurs of Little Garden, right? Once I sweep through all of them, maybe I can achieve the same steel-like body as Charlotte Linlin? Bane set another small goal for himself.

He would evolve his physical abilities to Charlotte Linlin's level!

But on second thought, he was probably still far inferior to Charlotte Linlin in strength. That monster had run rampant across Elbaf at the age of five. Sure enough, this sea was full of monsters.

"Boss, our ship is back. They also brought you the new newspapers, the kind you specifically requested with the East Blue section." While Bane leaned against a tree and contemplated these matters, one of his men ran over from afar.

After taking the newspaper, Bane instructed, "All right, unload all the alcohol from the ship and send it over to those two."

Then he opened the newspaper and looked over the recent news.

There were no particularly major events, but some sharp current-affairs observers had noticed something unusual. Marine bases around the world seemed to be drawing in elite forces, though no one knew the exact reason.

The Marines were making moves. Although no one knew their purpose, the big shots of the New World immediately reacted as well.

For example, after noticing the Marines' unusual activity, the Beasts Pirates and the Big Mom Pirates, who had been engaged in a series of conflicts in the New World not long ago, tacitly halted their fighting. Both sides gathered their forces to guard against unforeseen changes.

The Whitebeard Pirates issued a summons, calling for their independent captains scattered across the seas to assemble.

Looking at this piece of news, Bane felt that perhaps Newgate had already sensed it. There was a good chance this Marine move was aimed at him.

Especially since Ace and Teach had been captured for some time now. The two of them had suddenly gone missing in East Blue—there was no way Whitebeard would pretend nothing had happened. He would definitely investigate.

Even if the Marines had done a thorough job covering things up, Newgate would surely notice something off.

"A storm is coming," Bane murmured softly.

For the Summit War, the Marines gathered one hundred thousand elite Marine officers and soldiers from around the world. Anyone without insignia on their shoulders wasn't even qualified to step onto the battlefield. A deployment of that scale clearly couldn't be accomplished in a short time. It might have erupted suddenly in the story, but in reality, there had to have been a prelude.

The Whitebeard Pirates were the same. They had dozens of independent pirate crews under their banner, and Newgate would need time to notify them in advance so they could gather together when war came.

From the looks of things, both sides were already moving.

After turning past the reports on the state of the world, Bane looked at the East Blue section. The East Blue papers were even more bland, almost entirely praising the World Government's achievements and East Blue's peace and stability.

Smoker, the East Blue's Marine commander, appeared in the newspapers many times. They said the anti-corruption work he had carried out among the East Blue Marines had achieved powerful results and so on.

Then one piece of news caught Bane's sharp attention.

Krieg, the pirate Commander of East Blue, had failed in his venture into the Grand Line. After returning to East Blue, he was defeated by a rookie who had just set sail, a brat named "Monkey D. Luffy."

He called himself a pirate. After defeating Krieg and causing havoc at a certain Marine base, he was currently wanted for twelve million Belly.

"Hahahaha!" Bane couldn't help laughing when he read the news.

If he could see this in the newspaper, there was no way Garp didn't know his beloved grandson had gone to sea as a pirate. Bane was really looking forward to seeing news of Garp capturing him.

"What has you so happy?" Dorry and Brogy's figures had appeared at the camp at some point.

Bane casually set down the newspaper, stood up, and said, "Nothing, just saw some interesting news."

After a brief pause, he said with a trace of reluctance, "We're preparing to leave."

"So soon?" Brogy asked in surprise. "Didn't you say you were going to eat all the dinosaurs on the island?"

"I should leave some rations for you two, otherwise you might end up eating nothing but grass in the future. Hahaha!" Bane laughed heartily.

Dorry and Brogy laughed as well. Though they were somewhat reluctant, they had no intention of trying to keep him.

"This time, I had people bring you a lot of alcohol. It should be enough to last you a while, and someone will deliver more regularly afterward. Also, these are new Den Den Mushi. Yours must have died long ago, right? Take them. I've already left my signal wave in them, so you can contact me if anything comes up." Bane handed two Den Den Mushi to them.

Taking the Den Den Mushi, which weren't even as big as their fingernails, Dorry said with emotion, "Thank you, Bane. We will remember your friendship. If you ever need our help, don't hesitate to contact us!"

After another hearty feast, Bane and his group packed up early the next morning, boarded the ship, and officially left Little Garden, where they had stayed for over two months.

Watching Brogy and Dorry wave reluctantly from the shore, Nami, leaning against the mast, suddenly said with feeling, "It seems not all Pirates are so detestable."

Nami hadn't known those two were Pirates at first, but after getting to know them, she naturally learned that a hundred years ago, they had been figures who shook the seas.

"There are bastards among the righteous Marines, so naturally there are some Pirates among the evil ones who aren't that bad. That's normal," Zoro said as he swung his sword on the deck.

"If you judge whether someone is good or bad purely by their identity, that would be far too unreasonable." Bane took a swig of alcohol, then laughed. "Take Nico Robin, for example. The World Government labels her the Devil Child who intends to destroy the world, but in truth, she isn't some evil villain."

They didn't dwell on the matter. After chatting for a few more moments, Bane watched Little Garden gradually disappear from sight.

Then he finally turned his gaze toward the route ahead, grinned, and said, "Next, it's time to deal with my beloved friend and brother, Crocodile."

Nami said excitedly, "If we take him down, we'll become the world's top super-rich!"

Zoro raised Wado Ichimonji in his hand and declared, "Target: Alabasta, forward!"