Chapter 353: A New Journey Begins in Orange Town

“Well, since the pirates have already been driven off, I think it’s time for our next adventure.”

Luffy peeked through the doorway, saw the pirate ship sailing off toward the open sea and tugged his hat down low over his eyes.

Hearing Luffy’s words, Zoro quickly sheathed his sword. “Ah, the fight ended before I could really enjoy myself.”

“You know, I remember hearing there was supposed to be a swordsman around here. Why didn’t we meet him?”

If there was any opponent Zoro wanted to face, it was definitely another swordsman.

But maybe that swordsman just wasn’t around when all this went down, so Zoro never got the chance.

“Oh, right—I already bought all the food we’ll need, but now that the pirates have taken off with their ship, how are we supposed to get out to sea?”

Ye Fan immediately tossed out the real issue.

Their little boat had fallen apart just getting here, and Buggy’s crew had already left.

Did that mean they were stranded without a ship? No way they could just build a new one on the spot.

“You’re all heroes to Orange Town.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll find a way to get you a ship.”

A frail voice spoke up by the door, and everyone turned to find the source.

Outside, a hundred or so residents had gathered. These were the original folks of Orange Town.

After Buggy’s crew took over, their homes had been ransacked. Now, with Buggy chased off by Luffy and the others, they saw them as saviors. After all, the longer the Buggy Pirates stayed, the more destruction they faced.

“Grrrrr!”

Right then, Luffy’s stomach growled at the worst possible time.

A second later, everyone burst out laughing.

“Everybody’s starving, right? Quick! Let’s start a feast!”

The old white-bearded man quickly took charge—he had to be the village chief. Under his orders, food started pouring in from all directions.

Luffy’s eyes lit up the second he spotted piles of grilled meat. He dove in and started devouring everything within reach.

“Slow down! There’s plenty to go around.”

Watching Luffy wolf down his food, the white-bearded chief called out for even more dishes to be sent over.

Ye Fan, Zoro, and the others ate with a little more decorum, sitting quietly on their benches and taking their time.

“I think we’ll need this. It’s a map to the Grand Line.”

Just as Ye Fan popped a piece of roasted meat in his mouth, Nami handed him a map.

“The Grand Line?”

The words struck a chord with Luffy. He clamped onto a skewer and hurried over to check out the map.

“So this is the map to the Grand Line?”

They all leaned in, studying the unfurled map. The next moment, everyone looked up at the same time, equally embarrassed—they couldn’t understand it at all.

“Nami, aren’t you good with maps? I’ll leave it to you.” Luffy knew his limits; once he found out Nami was a navigator, he gladly let her take the helm.

“Aren’t you afraid that I might…”

Ye Fan quickly cut her off. “No, you won’t. And whatever you’re worried about—it’s nothing to me, right?” He tapped his left shoulder as he spoke.

It was clear Ye Fan knew a bit of Nami’s story.

He wanted her to understand that whatever troubles she had, they were nothing to worry about in his eyes.

“Oh, so there’s nothing bothering you?”

Luffy chewed his meat and mumbled the question.

To Luffy, any problem for his crew was a problem for him as captain—and he’d do everything to fix it.

“No, nothing. Really, nothing at all.” Nami waved her hands emphatically.

But right now, she still didn’t fully trust Luffy’s group.

Plus, spending time with them had shown her they were good people—she didn’t want to see them get hurt for nothing.

Only Zoro frowned slightly, feeling like something wasn’t adding up.

…

The reason things went almost exactly like the original story was all because of Karl’s decisions.

The System Karl used could draw energy from every tweak he made to the timeline, affecting generations to come.

But after uncovering how many trump cards the World Government had up its sleeve, Karl took plenty of precautions.

Across these seas, only East Blue and a few islands on the Grand Line had remained mostly unchanged.

North Blue and South Blue had already become a mess of chaos.

The West Blue was no better—in fact, it was practically a playground for the Mafia, with the Navy barely able to hold their own.

Karl operated from the shadows, his influence reaching everywhere. Over the decades, he penetrated every corner of the seas.

Now, the only real armed forces the World Government could rely on were the Army and the Navy. The Air Force had already been wiped out.

Even if the Air Force wasn’t all that strong, they at least had a couple of admiral-level figures. By sheer coincidence, both had died in the chaos of the Clone War.

Looking at the numbers, the World Government went from over 170 member nations to just 70.

That means their official bastion of justice had been slashed by two-thirds.

With the income from Heavenly Gold plummeting, the World Government couldn’t afford to develop the Navy or Army anymore.

In recent years, the Navy barely managed to add two new admirals.

And those were just newbies at the admiral level. They barely made a dent in curbing the pirates plaguing the seas.

Meanwhile, as time ticked by, Karl was already gearing up for a massive, world-shaking war.

The seas seemed unusually calm for now. Even the Navy, World Government, and Im could sense the looming storm.

The last time things felt this tranquil was around Roger’s execution. That disaster left the World Government hurting more than ever in its history.

It took them decades to even begin recovering.

“Report! The technology is ready, sir.”

“Good. Start mass production. Make as many as you possibly can.”

In a hidden laboratory nestled beneath the Red Line at the World Government’s headquarters, Kahwa held up a research report.

He looked up at the giant capsule right in front of him.

This enormous capsule was a leftover from the attack on Mariejois, salvaged and collected afterwards.

Relying on their solid foundations, the World Government had actually managed to reverse engineer genetics and develop their own clones over the decades.

But the clones could only reach admiral-level strength—not vice-admiral.

Even so, such a breakthrough was enough to send them into a frenzy.

Judging by the last battle, they figured producing large waves of vice-admiral clones just wasn’t realistic.

Each clone took a mountain of resources to create.

And no one on the sea had more resources than the World Government.

“Yes, sir.” The researcher hesitated. “But we only have enough materials for ten thousand right now.”

Kahwa just waved it off. “Don’t worry about resources—I’ll take care of that. Your job is to ramp up production as much as you can.” Honestly, this was already a perfect achievement to present to the Five Elders: mass-producing admiral-level clones.

…