Chapter 623: Box It Up and Auto-Attack!
Ian's move was truly a bit too slick, too much of a leap, even Aokiji couldn't react in time, asking, "Rob the Golden City!? What exactly are you thinking!?"
Spreading his hands, Ian shrugged and said, "Come on, Admiral Kuzan, you were the one who just said we need to find a way to stop Dragon from being captured by the World Government. Dragon is the leader of the Revolutionary Army, you know. You can't possibly expect us to directly step in and rescue him, can you? If we did that, even the World Government, no matter how stupid, would label us as Revolutionary accomplices!"
Aokiji couldn't help but slap his forehead, understanding. Indeed, Ian was right!
"Now that this guy Tesoro has sided with the World Government, and this is his turf, you can imagine he'll give the World Government a lot of help in capturing Dragon!" Ian said. "But if we can do something to distract him, maybe we can make them fail! This kind of indirect rescue is much better than showing up directly!"
"So that's why you want to rob the Golden City?" Aokiji said thoughtfully. "It's a good way to get Tesoro's attention. This is his home base; he can't just watch his money get stolen."
"Not me, but *us*!" Ian pointed at Aokiji and said, "You have to help too!"
"Me!?" Aokiji was stunned, pointing at his own nose and saying, "I'm a Marine, you know! You want me to act like a pirate and join in this robbery!?"
"No kidding! You came to me asking for help with this. You didn't think you could just stand by and watch the show without lifting a finger, did you?" Ian snorted. "Besides, you're just an 'ex'-Marine now!"
Hearing this, Reiju and the others who knew the inside story almost burst out laughing!
This Ian was too cunning! He was actually the most anxious one upon learning that Dragon had been discovered by the World Government, but he managed to shift the blame onto Aokiji, putting on a facade of a warm-hearted guy eager to help.
And because Aokiji didn't know about Ian's relationship with the Revolutionary Army, he actually believed it, thinking Ian was really doing this out of respect for him. So when Ian demanded that Aokiji also take action, Aokiji didn't know how to refuse!
Watching Aokiji's conflicted expression, Reiju and the others all wore strange looks, knowing that Aokiji would eventually agree.
This meant Ian had completely tricked Aokiji, scoring a free Marine Admiral as a thug.
Although on the issue of Dragon, Ian and Aokiji shared the same view—that the World Government shouldn't be allowed to capture the Revolutionary leader—being tricked like this by Ian, if Aokiji ever found out the true relationship between Ian and Dragon later, wouldn't he feel as sick as if he'd swallowed a fly!?
But as Ian spoke, everyone understood. Ian wanted to stir up a big commotion to draw a massive amount of attention from Tesoro and the World Government, creating an escape opportunity for Dragon.
This classic "besiege Wei to rescue Zhao" tactic was Ian's real intention behind robbing the Golden City.
After all, insiders knew the truth, but to outsiders, Ian and Dragon seemed to have no connection whatsoever. No one knew Ian's secret identity as a Revolutionary member.
Dragon's appearance in the Golden City was too coincidental. Although Ian suspected that Uncle Dragon might be here for him, since they hadn't made contact yet, he wasn't entirely sure. Maybe Uncle Dragon was here for other reasons. Now that his whereabouts had been accidentally discovered, Ian had to maintain tacit understanding with Dragon on this point and not reveal their connection.
And coincidentally, not only had Aokiji come to him, but also Carina, the treasure thief lurking beside Tesoro, had shown up.
Originally, Ian hadn't planned to rob the Golden City. He wasn't a true pirate and wasn't used to robbery. Besides, the Dragon Hunter Pirates' members rarely got a vacation, and he didn't want to ruin it, just hoping everyone could relax and have fun in the Golden City. But now, plans changed faster than circumstances. Since he had to indirectly help Dragon, he could only sacrifice Tesoro...
As for Ian's robbery plan, Carina's appearance made it a natural progression. The arrival of Perospero and Katakuri was unexpected; he hadn't wanted them involved either. But who knew Katakuri had such a broken ability to foresee the future, actually "seeing" his plan?
Ian reacted quickly. When Katakuri proposed joining in, Ian immediately saw the benefits of having these two involved.
He already had an extra thug in Admiral Aokiji, so the scapegoat naturally fell on the Big Mom Pirates!
Old Tesoro, oh old Tesoro, it's not that our forces are weak, but the enemy is too cunning. Our Dragon Hunter Pirates are upright and righteous—how could we do something as low-class as robbery? It's just that Big Mom's two sons, wanting to give their mom a gift, set their sights on your treasure vault. Seeing that our Dragon Hunter Pirates have enough people, they forced us to help them carry the money...
If you want to blame someone, blame the Big Mom Pirates. We're innocent, really...
If Perospero, Katakuri, Aokiji, and Tesoro could hear Ian's thoughts at this moment, they'd probably jump up and call the cops!
Damn! You're the real mastermind behind the scenes, aren't you!?
Can the scheming not be so deep!?
What happened to trust between people!?
But unfortunately, none of them had mind-reading abilities, so they could only follow Ian's plan in a daze.
After all the Dragon Hunter Pirates members returned, Ian called everyone together to set out. He told Carina to lead the way.
Carina was completely dazed throughout. Heaven knows, she had only heard Tesoro mention Ian and the Dragon Hunter Pirates' names with great caution, so she thought of finding Ian to see if they could cooperate. But she never imagined she'd meet a former Marine Admiral and members of the Big Mom Pirates. These seemingly unrelated people now shared a common goal: to directly rob Tesoro!
A thief, I'm a thief! Carina felt like she was going crazy. I only wanted to stealthily steal that money, not cause such a huge scene!
"What's the plan!?" Carina felt like she was getting involved in something huge and tried to struggle, saying to Ian, "Tesoro's vault is heavily guarded. You don't even have a plan, and you want to rob the Golden City?"
Ian looked at Carina strangely, scratched his head, and pointed at Aokiji and Katakuri standing beside him, saying, "What plan do we need? Do you think with a group like us, we need a plan to rob a vault? We'll just charge straight in! If Tesoro can stop us, I'll write my name backward from now on!"
"So..." Ian lifted Carina's chin, gently shook it, and smiled, "All you need to do now is take us to Tesoro's vault!"
Carina was speechless. She found she had no words to refute Ian. Yeah, with the strength of this group, what plan did they need!
Just go in simple, crude, and all at once!
Even Fujitora chuckled at Ian's impromptu robbery plan. Crocodile muttered, "No technical skill at all!" but got a disdainful glare from Enel, who was rubbing his hands together, eager to reclaim the gold he had lost.
Under Ian's lead, a large group of people swarmed out of the hotel, guided by Carina toward the location of Tesoro's gold vault.
At this moment, Ian had Aokiji on his left and Katakuri on his right, feeling like he was unstoppable!
Meanwhile, Tesoro was chasing Dragon's trail with World Government officials and a group of CP intelligence agents. As a Gold-Gold Fruit awakened ability user, all the gold in the city was within his sensing and control. Dragon didn't know that the gold dust scattered when entering the port had such a function, so his whereabouts had been discovered by Tesoro.
"Hehe! The most heinous criminal in history, Revolutionary Dragon? If you fall into my hands, the whole world will know the name of Gold Emperor Tesoro!"
Just as Tesoro was thinking this, for some reason, he suddenly felt a sense of heart-pounding unease...
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