boyutpedia Chapter 196 Deceiving the Little People
Chapter 196 Deceiving the Little People
It took Kaido several days to move all the children, as well as the MADS research team, who were easy targets for attacks, to Onigashima in Wano Country.
"This is the Demon Island you were talking about? It's really desolate."
Vegapunk looked at Oni Island, which was still just a construction site, but his face didn't show much blame.
"However, isn't this island a bit small?"
"It's fine as a research base, but if we're going to use it as a headquarters, I think it would be better to move to a larger island."
Onigashima is indeed not very large.
The total diameter of the entire island is approximately 2 kilometers.
However, the island is surrounded by a ring of mountain ranges.
Therefore, the only truly usable flat terrain on the entire island is the area in the center of the island that resembles a large skull.
The giant skull is only about 1 kilometer in diameter.
(Online experts calculated it to be 600 meters, but I'm giving a slightly higher figure here, considering Luffy ran through it for quite a while in the anime.)
A circular area with a diameter of one kilometer is indeed barely enough for a small military base or research base.
However, trying to achieve both simultaneously is highly unlikely.
"Hmm, hmm, hmm, it's just for temporary use for a few years."
Kaido doesn't have much of an obsession with Onigashima.
Even Wano Country, if it weren't for the world's largest seastone mine, the sleeping Pluton battleship, and the red Poneglyphs that are related to the final island, he wouldn't bother to occupy this place.
"Once Lingling arrives, the Toto Islands will become our new base."
"At that time, I will transform an entire island into your research base, so for now, just bear with it."
Vegapunk nodded slightly.
Actually, he doesn't really need a very large venue right now.
Once Kaido has built the castle, setting up one of the floors as a research floor will be enough for him, Queen, Judge, and Caesar to use.
After a brief visit to Onigashima, Kaido left the construction site to continue, while he led Vegapunk and his crew aboard the King of Beasts, leaping down the great waterfall of Wano Country.
"Kaido, where are we going?" Vegapunk asked.
Kaido replied, "Dressrosa."
"Dresrosa?"
"Yes, there is a legendary race of little people there who can cultivate any plant. I plan to recruit them and have them help us cultivate the raw materials for artificial Devil Fruits."
In fact, Kaido's wood-type abilities should theoretically be able to cultivate the special plant factors needed for artificial Devil Fruits.
However, perhaps for some mystical reason, Kaido is unable to directly create this plant using his abilities.
Of course, it's also possible that Kaido hasn't fully developed his wood-type abilities.
After all, he had previously focused on developing his abilities in the direction of combat, and he hadn't really researched this kind of production-side ability much.
However, just to be on the safe side, the dwarves still need to recruit some.
Anyway, this is a group of innocent people who believe whatever others say. Recruiting them is not difficult at all. If you have the opportunity to recruit them, why not take it?
………………
Dressrosa.
This small country, which is relatively well-known in the New World, recently underwent a change of throne.
King Riku II, citing his advanced age, voluntarily abdicated the throne and handed it over to his son, Riku Dold III.
With the new king's ascension to the throne, everything was renewed, and the entire Dressrosa was filled with a joyous atmosphere.
In particular, the old king abdicated voluntarily before his death, and power was transferred peacefully without causing any turmoil.
However, the joy of the people did not resonate with the new king.
As the ruler of this country, he knew all too well why the old king, who was only in his sixties, had abdicated the throne to him so early.
High land prices, a small land area, and various problems such as slums are all troubling this country.
As a new king, he was happy to have ascended the throne, but he also felt a heavy burden of pressure.
Just as he was racking his brains trying to figure out how to solve these problems, a messenger suddenly rushed in in a panic.
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty! Something terrible has happened!!"
King Riku frowned slightly, pulling himself out of his reverie, and said in a deep voice, "What happened? Calm down!"
The messenger took a couple of breaths, then shouted, "The Beasts Pirates are attacking our country!!"
"All beasts?"
Upon hearing those two words, King Riku instinctively felt doubtful. They were one of the member states of the World Government; what kind of foolish pirate would dare to attack them?!
But the very next second, realizing what the beasts represented, he abruptly stood up from his throne.
"Say it again! Who are the attackers?!"
"Beasts?! Are you sure it's the Beasts Pirates that almost destroyed the Kingdom of Prodines?!"
The messenger nodded emphatically.
"It's the Beasts Pirates! There's no mistake!"
"That distinctive flag and that exceptionally large warship—only the legendary Beasts Pirates fit the bill!!"
Upon hearing this, King Riku slumped back into his throne in dejection.
"It's over... Dressrosa is finished..."
"The Beasts Pirates... they're no match for even the militarily powerful Kingdom of Prodense, let alone our country..."
King Riku, feeling utterly hopeless, closed his eyes.
Then, he sighed helplessly.
"Let's go out and greet them."
"If they're here to rob, let them loot the palace, just don't harm the common people."
With the intention of sacrificing himself, King Riku led a small number of royal troops to the port to welcome the Beasts Pirates who were about to dock.
The title of King of Beasts.
After several days of sailing, they arrived safely in Dressrosa.
The massive ship slowly approached the shore.
The mountains of the Dressrosa roundabout are almost level with the deck of the King of Beasts.
Therefore, Kaido did not specifically sail his ship into a port that was not very large, but instead chose a nearby high ground.
After connecting the mountain to the deck via a gangway, the team was led directly to the summit of the mountain.
Then, by descending the gentle slope inside, you arrive at the town area of Dressrosa.
Therefore, the place where King Riku, who came out to greet him, actually met Kaido was on the main street inside the town.
The two sides faced each other across the street, which was several dozen meters apart.
The people on the street had already taken refuge in their homes after learning that the Beasts Pirates had landed.
"I heard that the Beasts Pirates don't rob civilians; they only plunder wealthy nobles and royalty. That's what my friends on the Toto Islands say."
"But what about the neighboring Kingdom of Prodens? That entire country was almost destroyed."
"That's turned into a battlefield..."
"Forget it, I'm more inclined to believe in the Kingdom of Prodines right next door..."
"So you're planning to flee abroad now?"
"...I feel like I can't leave now even if I want to..."
The people hiding in their homes were whispering among themselves.
on the street.
King Riku saw the tall figure walking at the very front of the pirate crew in the distance and was subconsciously startled by the powerful aura of the other party.
For a moment, he felt that the other person was a real king, while he was just an ordinary commoner.
"Kaido... Kaido..."
Mindset affects the body; King Riku's words trembled unconsciously as he spoke.
After all, he was just a new king who was not even a month old. Before that, he was just a mere prince.
"Urororo, King Riku?"
Kaido was slightly surprised to see King Riku; he hadn't expected that the third king, who had been tormented by Doflamingo, would ascend to the throne so early.
"it's me!"
King Riku nodded first, then composed himself and spoke seriously:
"If you've come here to rob, you may loot the palace at will, but please don't harm our people."
Upon hearing this, Kaido raised an eyebrow. "Hmm, what a wise king."
"Although most of the kings on this sea are scoundrels, there seem to be quite a few wise kings like you."
Alabasta goes without saying, but the same thing happened when Kaido encountered the King of the Blue Country.
They were all good kings who were willing to put their people first.
Unfortunately, sometimes these good kings cannot bring a prosperous life to their people.
After all, in a world where the world government is exploiting its citizens so drastically, people often have to take risks and do foolish things in order to ensure that their citizens can live a good life.
These foolish acts often lead to the downfall of a nation and the destruction of a family.
"You flatter me."
King Riku was somewhat confused about Kaido's true intentions.
If it was robbery, he's already made it so clear, why didn't he take action?
But if it wasn't for robbery, what was his purpose in coming to Dressrosa?!
"Uro ro ro..."
Kaido saw that King Riku was standing there dumbfounded, not knowing what to say.
So I decided to stop being mysterious and just tell him my purpose directly.
"I came to Dressrosa mainly to meet the legendary little people, and also to ask them for a favor."
"Lilliputians? Will you help?"
Be vigilant about key elements.
As a member of the Riku royal family, King Riku was naturally aware of the relationship between the dwarfs and his family.
They are allies and secretly help each other.
The Riku royal family allows the Tontatta people to engage in some petty theft in Dressrosa.
The dwarves will also secretly help look after the farmland and flower fields of Dressrosa.
It was precisely because of the secret help of the dwarfs that Dressrosa, an island with a diameter of only 8 kilometers, was able to support 10 people across the country, pay the Heavenly Gold, and still have a little spare money for each household.
It's important to know that before Doflamingo attacked Dressrosa, the country had always been ruled by the Riku royal family.
At that time, Doflamingo demanded that King Riku III pay 100 billion Berries in cash.
Dressrosa can afford this money, even if they pool the resources of the entire nation.
10 billion, averaged over 100 people, means each person has at least 10 peles in savings.
Moreover, considering that they didn't complain much when they paid the money, and that public resentment was only aroused because King Riku was indiscriminately killing people under Doflamingo's control, the 10 Berries certainly wasn't a major blow to them.
Therefore, it can be seen that although Dressrosa was poor under King Riku's rule, it was only relatively poor.
This is also a major reason why, in the original timeline, Doflamingo was unable to win over the hearts of the people of Dressrosa and could only use Sugar's Hobby-Hobby Fruit to carry out oppressive rule.