Infiltration Operation

A week after the plan began, Rogge, Jelly, and Ham met again.

"The whole West Blue practically knows already," Jelly said with a smile.

"Nicely done. I've mostly taken care of things on my end too. I contacted a Fish-Man; he'll cooperate with you when the time comes," Ham said.

"There really are Fish-Men in West Blue. Since there's a Fish-Man, things will be much easier. He doesn't need to do much—just create an opening when necessary," Rogge said.

"As long as you spend money, who can't you find? But finding this Fish-Man still took quite a bit of effort. I only managed to track him down after a lot of trouble," Ham said.

"Finding him is enough. We'll play it by ear when the time comes. If I die, you two won't need to bother with anything. You can disband directly," Rogge said.

"You don't need to give us your last words. If it fails, you'll be the one who dies. At most, we'll lose some money," Jelly said with a shrug.

"That may not be a nice thing to say, but I'm the captain. For our pirate crew to go farther, I think this is an opportunity. We have to take a gamble. Whether they call me Brother Rogge or just Rogge afterward depends on this one move," Rogge said with a laugh.

After the Reverie ended, the West Blue Navy fleet escorting the kings home consisted of only five ships. The Navy had not yet gained the ability to cross the Calm Belt, so they took the normal sea route back from the Grand Line.

Once the warships had escorted the kings of those nations home, they would transport the Heavenly Tribute collected from the various countries back to Mary Geoise.

Since the warships had come from the Grand Line, they had no idea that the entire pirate world of West Blue already knew the route the Heavenly Tribute would take.

West Blue appeared calm on the surface. There had been no recent news of any pirates, yet everyone could tell something was wrong beneath the surface. A storm seemed to be brewing at sea.

Meanwhile, at a Navy fortress—the final fortress at the West Blue entrance to the Grand Line—every West Blue Navy fleet heading into the New World would stop here for final resupplies and ship repairs before entering the Grand Line.

In the kitchen, Rogge wore a white work uniform. He had started working there two days earlier. With no criminal record, it had been easy for him to blend into the Navy fortress. After all, the Navy recruited soldiers every year.

Rogge was also just an ordinary grunt. Not many people competed for such a position, so he had smoothly infiltrated the fortress.

In the storeroom, Rogge lifted a huge sack of potatoes and slung it over his shoulder. Since coming to this world, he had discovered that his body had improved tremendously. Both his strength and reflexes were far beyond what they had once been. He could carry a sack of over two hundred catties of potatoes on one shoulder and still break into a run.

He carried the potatoes into the kitchen and set them down, then began peeling them. This was the task assigned to him after joining the kitchen staff.

"The amount we're preparing today suddenly increased. Looks like today's the day." Rogge noticed that his workload had doubled, and the other ingredients in the kitchen had increased as well. Clearly, they were not preparing food for the fortress soldiers, but for others, which was why the ingredients had doubled.

After quickly cutting the potatoes, he saw that the kitchen was preparing curry today to feed several thousand people. A one-pot stew was fast and did not require them to stir-fry dishes one by one.

This gave Rogge an opportunity to make his move. He had long since made preparations, but he had not expected things to go so smoothly.

"Hey, newbie, what are you doing?" a burly chef shouted at Rogge.

"Head Chef Tom, I've already peeled all the potatoes." Rogge held a large basin filled with potatoes soaking in water.

"Put them over there, then go wash the onions for me." Seeing that Rogge had finished his task, Head Chef Tom decided not to let him sit idle and sent him to wash onions.

"Yes, Head Chef Tom. We're preparing quite a lot of ingredients today," Rogge said casually.

"Yeah. A fleet is arriving today. The officer ordered us to prepare twice as much food. We originally wanted to give them a proper welcome, but I heard they won't be staying long, only stopping to inspect and repair their ships. So we were told to make them a simple meal. After thinking it over, I decided on curry. Haha, I really am clever," Head Chef Tom said with a loud laugh.

"Yes, yes. Head Chef Tom is wise and mighty," Rogge said with a smile.

From that conversation, Rogge was already certain. After washing the onions, he saw that making curry required no particular skill. Tom could not even be bothered to do it himself, handing the task to five chefs and having them make five huge pots.

Once the curry was ready, Rogge volunteered to deliver it. Out of sight of the others, he took out the laxative he had hidden in the kitchen. Even with the combined strength of most of West Blue's pirates, dealing with a fleet from Headquarters would be difficult. To be safe, Rogge decided to drug them with laxatives.

After finishing that, he pushed all the curry toward the docks, where the ships bound for Headquarters were being inspected and repaired.

After pushing the curry to the docks, Rogge left. A fortress major happily called out to the soldiers from Headquarters, telling them to eat their fill before setting off.

The soldiers had long been hungry. Each of them took a plate, served themselves rice, poured fragrant curry over it, then squatted to the side and began wolfing it down.

Once he confirmed that the soldiers had eaten, Rogge turned his attention to the five warships. One of them carried three Devil Fruits. It was said that a certain country had suffered consecutive disasters in recent years and could not afford its Heavenly Tribute. After negotiating with the Celestial Dragons, they decided to offer the three Devil Fruits their nation had kept in reserve in exchange for retaining their seat in the World Government.

Those who did not pay the Heavenly Tribute were not members of the World Government. Those were the World Government's rules. In order to receive the Navy's protection, they had no choice but to do everything they could to keep that position.

With five warships, Rogge was not sure which one held them. The flagship was the most likely possibility. Such valuable items were usually kept by the fleet's highest-ranking officer, so they were most likely aboard that ship.

Rogge watched secretly from the shadows. When he saw a group of people in black clothes disembark from the flagship, cold sweat broke out across his back. So this transport involved not only the Navy, but World Government spies as well.

That made sense. Although the Navy was an organization subordinate to the World Government, not all Navy soldiers were loyal to it. The World Government had arranged intelligence agents aboard the warships to maintain balance and ensure the safety of the Heavenly Tribute.

Rogge was now immensely grateful that he had prepared the laxatives. Otherwise, relying only on West Blue's pirates to take down these five warships would have been far too difficult. It would have been like snatching food from a tiger's mouth.

But now, these people had all eaten the specially prepared curry.

At the same time, the sky outside had grown somewhat dim. Dozens of ships of varying sizes, flying different flags, appeared around the Navy fortress.