The Fukushen Conglomerate

Lucas walked into an inn with a rose carved on the front door.

"A ticket to Drum Island, the earliest one."

He slapped a stack of Beli onto the counter.

Drum Island's medical skills were world-famous, and countless patients rushed there from all over the world to seek treatment. It was completely normal for there to be a shipping route leading there.

Getting the ticket, Lucas walked into the waiting room, found a seat in the most secluded corner, and closed his eyes to doze.

Barely a quarter of an hour later, the boarding broadcast sounded.

He followed the stream of people and boarded the white-painted steam passenger ship. Just like last time, the moment he boarded, he walked straight to his single passenger cabin.

The experience of drifting alone on the ocean for forty-one days had left him with quite a bit of psychological trauma.

Now, the mere sight of the endless sea gave him a headache, leaving him with not a shred of inclination to appreciate the ocean scenery.

Toward evening, the dinner bell chimed.

Lucas pushed open the cabin door and arrived at the public dining hall.

The moment he found an empty seat and sat down, before he even had time to pick up the menu, the extraordinary hearing granted by the Vampire-Vampire Fruit captured whispers from the sea surface several thousand meters away.

"Boss, it's this ship! It looks fat and dripping with oil!"

"Brothers, get ready! Rush up and plunder everything! Sell the men, and let's have some fun with the women first!"

Lucas raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised.

He hadn't expected that the moment he reached Paradise and less than three hours out of port, he would be targeted by pirates.

Had the pirates in Paradise already proliferated to this extent?

He put down the menu, leaning back against the chair with a look of growing interest, ready to see what kind of skill the ship's onboard guards possessed.

A few minutes later, a dilapidated small pirate ship listed awkwardly as it rushed to within a hundred meters of the passenger ship.

Snap--Boom!

A dull sound of machinery operating rang out.

The ship's sides suddenly opened, and two pitch-black cannon barrels jutted out.

A flash of fire. A series of cannonballs roared out, smashing precisely into that pirate ship.

Aside from Lucas, whose hearing was peerless and who vaguely caught the frantic and foul-mouthed curse of the enemy pirate captain right before death, the other passengers didn't even know what had happened.

That pirate ship broke right into two sections and sank into the cold sea. Only a few broken wooden planks and a few struggling figures floated on the ocean surface.

Lucas froze.

He instinctively rubbed his chin.

He had always been misled by the Straw Hat Pirates into thinking that cannonballs were utterly useless garbage.

In reality, for ninety-nine percent of trash-tier pirate crews, a single accurate cannonball was fatal.

"Hehe, impressive, right?"

A young fellow wearing a waiter's uniform, seeing Lucas staring in a daze at the ocean surface, sauntered over with a face written full of vicarious pride.

"This is our God of Fortune Financial Group's ship! The boss spent a huge sum of money to buy a decommissioned Navy warship and remodel it! Never mind these small-time pirates, even pirates with bounties in the tens of millions have to think twice when they come!"

"Oh? Your boss is that capable? He can even get his hands on a decommissioned Navy warship?"

Lucas asked, feigning astonishment.

God of Fortune Financial Group.

Of course he had heard of this name.

The boss, Du Feld, was the current richest man in the world, a renowned major philanthropist, advertising in the newspapers every single day about how much money he donated to build schools and hospitals, wearing the benevolent facade of a living Buddha.

But only people in the underworld knew that this fellow had an even more resounding moniker—the Emperor of Usury.

Eighty percent of the entire ocean's underground usury business was in his hands. Countless families had been driven to ruin and death by his high-interest loans.

"Of course!"

The waiter puffed out his chest even higher, spittle flying as he boasted.

"Our boss has extremely wide connections! There are plenty of acquaintances right in Navy Headquarters! Never mind a decommissioned warship, even if he wanted a new one, as long as the money is right, it's not out of the question!"

He vicariously introduced the glorious achievements of the God of Fortune Financial Group, as though these accomplishments were forged by his own hands, until the headwaiter not far away let out a cough. Only then did he resentfully snap his mouth shut and walk away with lingering reluctance.

Lucas picked up the glass of water in front of him, took a light sip, and the corners of his mouth hooked into an amused smile.

This is getting interesting.

He used to think that Du Feld rose to prominence by relying on the protection of the Charlotte Family. Now it seemed he had simplified the matter.

This old fox played both sides of the law.

Who knew how much Beli he had stuffed into the mouths of those parasites at the World Government to trade for such massive privileges.

Money, connections, and armed force.

He was practically a flawless ATM.

Lucas silently noted this name down in his heart.

To forcefully seize a financial conglomerate that engaged in legitimate business might still give him a sliver of psychological burden. But to forcefully seize an Emperor of Usury who grew rich by sucking people's blood?

His conscience was clear.

He now understood why the ship he took from the Dearena Kingdom didn't even have a single cannon.

On one hand, it was because the pirates in the New World were mostly formidable and ordinary cannonballs truly lacked effectiveness.

More importantly, though, not everyone had the kind of pull Du Feld possessed to buy a warship from the hands of the Navy.

The Navy's channels were not so easy to walk.

Lucas even suspected that if the God of Fortune Financial Group's ship were attacked within the jurisdiction of a Navy base, a single phone call would probably bring Navy warships rushing to the scene in ten minutes.

The next few days were calm and peaceful.

A few waves of oblivious pirates occasionally tried to target this ship, only to end up blown into fragments by shipboard cannons without exception.

The capricious climate of Paradise was also easily navigated under the guidance of experienced navigators.

On the morning of the fifth day.

When the first ray of sunlight pierced through the cloud layer, a massive island covered in pristine white snow appeared at the edge of his vision.