Desert Country

Following the Log Pose, they sailed for about four or five days before finally catching sight of the island.

The moment Werther saw the island before him, a thought suddenly came to mind—a very interesting thought.

The island ahead was yellow, with yellow sand drifting through the sky above it. That was right. This was the Alabasta Kingdom, the country of the desert.

Seeing the sparse number of ships in the harbor, Werther knew this island was not particularly prosperous. It was no wonder; the climate here was simply too harsh.

After docking the ship, he disembarked with Tuski and set foot on this island covered in yellow sand.

Once they entered the town, they found it unexpectedly prosperous and full of desert charm. Most men wore headscarves, while the women dressed rather provocatively.

When Tuski saw those provocatively dressed women, his eyes went a little blank.

Werther was stunned by Tuski's reaction. A rabbit actually liked women? He immediately smacked the rabbit on the head with a fist.

"If you like beautiful female rabbits, women aren't your type. Watch your image, Tuski."

Tuski was very displeased by those words. He clenched his fist and punched Werther in the stomach, then turned away and pretended to be angry.

Seeing the rabbit's reaction, Werther laughed even more happily.

"Come on, don't be angry. I'll take you to eat something good." With that, he headed toward the center of this town on the edge of the desert.

After searching for quite a while, they finally found a decent restaurant and entered together.

Looking at the menu handed over by the waiter, Werther fell silent.

What was all this? Grilled Sand Crocodile meat, baba cactus salad, desert fried rice?

With the mindset of giving it a try, Werther ordered several dishes. Before long, the waiter brought all the food.

Werther and Tuski started eating. Honestly, the taste was just average, but it had a desert flavor to it and was quite distinctive.

After eating, Werther asked a passerby about Alabasta's capital. He wanted to see what the country was like now.

After asking around, he learned that reaching the capital required crossing the desert. It was quite far away, and riding a camel would take roughly a day.

But there was another way. They could rent an F-Crocodile. These crocodiles ran extremely fast through the desert, second only to Fast Ducks, but they were expensive and not something ordinary people could afford to rent.

When Werther heard there was such an option, he decided to rent an F-Crocodile.

Werther could not remember everything from his past life's memories of watching One Piece. After all, several years had passed. Aside from certain major events, the rest was rather blurry.

Before long, they arrived at a shop that rented F-Crocodiles. After asking, he learned that there were only a few F-Crocodiles here, and each one traveled to a different destination.

When renting an F-Crocodile to travel through the desert, there was no need for a guide, because the F-Crocodile itself was the guide. An F-Crocodile generally remembered only one location. It would be released from the rental point here and collected at the rental point at its destination, repeating the cycle.

Werther directly paid to rent an F-Crocodile. The rental fee was rather high for others, but it was nothing to him.

After all, whenever Werther was short on money, he simply went to rob pirates. That was right—he robbed pirates. That was Werther's main source of income. If he encountered pirates who did not know their place, he would also collect their bounties while he was at it.

Unfortunately, it was impossible for Werther to collect bounties now, because his own head was worth 170 million Beli.

Riding on an F-Crocodile was actually quite enjoyable. There was not only a seatback, but also cold drinks to beat the heat. Though the massive creature ran fast, it was very steady.

Werther thought again of the idea he had when he first saw Alabasta: kill Crocodile and take his place as a Shichibukai.

As for why, Werther could not explain it. Maybe it was because it sounded interesting, and the title of Shichibukai was pretty cool. Werther liked it.

Around noon, Werther arrived at Alabasta's capital, Alubarna.

After arriving in Alubarna, Werther felt somewhat disappointed. This was really a nation's capital?

Although tall buildings stood all around, they could not conceal the capital's decay.

The Nefertari Family had not moved into the holy land of Mary Geoise, but coming to this desert was truly a case of shit for brains.

There were so many islands in this pirate world. Why settle in this desert of all places? As for the claim that they were guarding Pluton, Werther merely smiled.

After wandering around the capital for a while, Werther found himself in a difficult position. Where exactly should he look for Crocodile? Should he go to the palace? Or Rainbase?

Having only just arrived in Alubarna, Werther truly did not want to travel any farther. He might as well check the palace first.

There was no need to ask where the palace was, because it was the tallest building.

After arriving at the palace, Werther did not even glance at the guards by the entrance and walked straight inside.

Just as the guards moved to stop him, Werther drew his sword. After several slashes, several corpses lay on the ground.

Werther had wondered long ago why he, once a law-abiding citizen, had become so violent after coming to the pirate world.

Later, on Tutu Island, Werther figured it out. In his previous life, he had always been bound by many things—morality, laws, and the rights and wrongs of his actions.

But after coming to the pirate world, all of that had suddenly vanished. Werther did not know how other transmigrators felt, but he only felt free. Something in his chest seemed ready to burst out, and it was not until he carried out his first assassination mission that he understood what it was—the demon in his heart.

Werther felt no sympathy for the fallen guards, because he had seen the distinctive emblem of Baroque Works on their arms.

He slowly made his way into the palace. This time, Werther had come specifically to cause trouble for Crocodile.

So whenever he encountered guards bearing the Baroque Works emblem, he killed them with a single slash. Then Intent Blood greedily drank their blood. As for the ordinary palace guards, Werther merely knocked them unconscious. Though they were useless, they were innocent as well.

As he walked and killed, the number of dead grew. Werther now felt that Nefertari Cobra was truly a useless fool. Crocodile had planted so many people here, yet Cobra had allowed himself to be controlled. He deserved it.

Or had Nefertari Cobra already been controlled? Was that why there were so many people from Baroque Works here?

In Werther's eyes, Nefertari Cobra of Alabasta and King Riku of Dressrosa were both useless fools.

They were fools who merely blamed their own incompetence on the strength of their opponents.

They clearly controlled the resources of an entire nation, yet not only did they fail to consider using those resources to protect their countries, they kept shouting about being close to and loving their people.

In this chaotic era, having no strength meant having no safety. If you could not even protect your citizens' safety, what right did you have to speak of peaceful lives and contented work? How laughable.

As he pondered these questions while killing the enemies ahead, Werther discovered that he had already slaughtered all the Baroque Works guards. Baroque Works could no longer worry about being exposed and directly sent out its assassins and pirates.

That did not stop Werther. Instead, he became even more ruthless.

For some reason, Werther suddenly felt as though he was solo-clearing the Alabasta palace.