Departure, Crossing Reverse Mountain!

Wude chose a pirate ship of decent size. The surviving pirates were spared thanks to his "generosity" and became tools to help him sail it.

The boxes full of Berry were carried aboard by the tools. The other pirates followed Wude to his small boat and helped move his belongings onto the pirate ship.

Once aboard the decently sized pirate ship with its clean deck, Wude stood with one hand in his pocket and looked up.

Kuroh was once again in the crow's nest, squatting as though taking a dump and saying strange things.

What a weird repeater.

"Rip down the skull flag," Wude said.

"Okay!" one of the tools hurriedly answered.

But when he looked up, he realized Wude had not been speaking to him at all.

Kuroh tore down the pirate flag in one motion, then Wude dismissed him, and his black body vanished.

"Do you have plain sails?" Wude looked at the skull emblem on the sail.

"Yes," a tool replied.

"Then replace them with the plain sails."

"Understood!"

The tools immediately got to work.

Wude was going to the Grand Line, so he needed a reliable enough ship.

The easiest option was to directly seize a ready-made pirate ship, but he did not want to get accidentally attacked by the Marines along the way, so he replaced the pirate markings.

He had no interest in refusing to be a pirate, only to pull some nonsense that got him mistaken for one and dragged into the pirate camp.

Once the tools had finished everything and loaded the supplies, alcohol, and food aboard, Wude waved a hand to signal that they should set sail.

The bodies of the pirates with bounties on their heads were gathered together on the deck and stuffed into bags.

That was all money. When traveling, the more money you brought, the better.

Wude rested on a bed in one of the ship's cabins while the tools steered the ship toward Branch 144.

Because Wude and Kuroh had acted before, they guessed there was still an "invisible person" aboard watching them. They trembled with fear, not daring to resist or entertain any disloyal thoughts.

In truth, Wude had already put Kuroh away.

Wude lay on the bed with a dagger and flintlock pistol under his pillow, a sword held in his arms.

A crossbow was mounted on the wall opposite the door, its string tied to the doorknob, its bolt aimed at the entrance.

Knock before entering, or you would be dead.

Only then did Wude feel at ease enough to close his eyes and sleep.

Several days later.

A ship docked along the shore of the island where the 144th Marine Branch was located.

Wude stepped off the ship with several tools following behind him, those guys carrying the body bags.

They passed through the town and arrived at the gates of the Marine base.

They happened to run into Bellemere as she walked out the gate.

"What is this?" Bellemere looked at the people behind Wude, surprise on her face.

Good lord, there were quite a few corpses. Anyone unaware of the situation would think they were headed for a crematorium.

"Ah, I just wiped out a large pirate gang. These are all money." Wude spread his hands with a smile, clearly meaning: Hurry up and pay me~

"Impressive." Bellemere counted the bodies. Aside from a few valuable pirates such as Elton and Krieg, there were also plenty with bounties worth hundreds of thousands or several million Berry.

"Come with me."

Bellemere led Wude into the Marine base to collect the bounties.

Several tens of millions of Berry deposited again. That felt good.

Before leaving, he met with Colonel Vincent, who gave him several things, including a Log Pose.

After leaving the Marine base, Wude went into town to buy a few things, then returned to the ship and set out for Reverse Mountain.

There were two ways to reach the Grand Line: one was to force a passage through the Calm Belt, which was not recommended; the other was to use the canal through Reverse Mountain.

With ample supplies aboard, they passed straight by Loguetown and approached Reverse Mountain.

As they drew closer and closer to Reverse Mountain, huge black clouds appeared in the distance.

The tools all looked nervously toward Wude. He took out a blueprint and briefly explained, "It's actually very simple. Going through the canal is much safer than forcing our way through the Calm Belt. Once we pass through, we'll enter the Grand Line."

"Oh, so that's how it is!" Jia, one of the tools, said thoughtfully.

"So where exactly is the Red Line? Why haven't I spotted it yet?" Jia suddenly scratched his head and asked.

"So what exactly did you understand?!" another tool slapped Jia across the forehead.

"It's fine. Nothing will go wrong." Wude encouraged the tools.

Though he would be fine...

After all, Wude could have Kuroh fly him away at any time.

There is still danger... Sitting at the edge of the ship, Wude recalled Nami's analysis in the original story of the four great currents and Reverse Mountain. The conclusion was that near the earthen wall of the Red Line, an extremely powerful downward current would form and affect ships.

If they failed to rush into the canal entrance, the slightest mistake could send the ship crashing into the Red Line, leaving the vessel destroyed and everyone dead.

But since they had come all this way, they had to admire the spectacular scenery.

The ship entered the rain clouds. The rain fell harder and harder, and the weather worsened.

The tools hurriedly stopped chatting. Even after discussing it for ages, they still could not understand why the canal climbed up the mountain.

They quickly got busy preparing to enter Reverse Mountain's canal.

"This is insane. What am I looking at?!" a third tool stared into the distance with his eyes wide open.

In the direction Wude pointed, they actually saw seawater surging into the canal, flowing through one stone gate after another and charging straight toward the heights of Reverse Mountain.

"I've seen water flowing upstream. Even if I die now, my life has been worth it," Jia said, only for the third tool to slap him across the mouth.

"Shut up, you jinx!"

Other than Wude, most of the people aboard were terrified.

"A whirlpool..." a fourth tool stared into the distance. At the boundary between the Red Line and the sea, the whirlpool spun at terrifying speed, as though it could suck out a person's soul. "My legs are weak."

Wude calmly waved a hand, signaling them not to panic.

Only then did the tools settle down.

Wude glanced at Kuroh, whom he had released beside him.

The rain affected IBM, and Kuroh's movements would be hindered.

But Wude had tested it before. There was indeed an effect, but he could still fight and fly.

Affected did not mean afraid of water.

"Look behind us! A pirate ship is coming!" a tool shouted, and Wude quickly looked back.

"Hey, you worthless trash! Move aside for me already!"

Behind them, a burly figure aboard a pirate ship flying a crossed double-snake flag pointed at Wude's ship and roared arrogantly.

Beside the burly figure stood a thin figure holding a gun, looking ready to fire.

"This is bad. At such a critical moment, those guys are up to no good." The tools all looked anxiously at Wude.

"Relax. It's not a big problem." Wude waved a hand and sat to the side, watching the pirates behind them.

"You dare sail out without any strength? You might as well crash into the Red Line and die!"

"Ahahaha!"

The pirates laughed wildly. Their words were fierce, but Wude's ship was about to rush into the canal ahead of them.

Those pirates would be following right after, so they did not dare actually attack.

They feared that the wreckage of a destroyed ship would drag them down as well, so they merely enjoyed their verbal bravado, occasionally firing a couple of arrogant shots into the sky as a threat.

The ship narrowly surged into the canal, and the tools all cheered.