He's in One Piece, but he's also part of the Phantom Troupe.

Chapter 73 Paradise? Kuroro's Backyard!

Reverse Mountain – the starting point of the Grand Line.

After passing through the Reverse Mountain, you will arrive at the first half of the Grand Line.

Some call it the graveyard of pirates, while others, the powerful, call it... "paradise".

Because the magnetic field distribution in One Piece is unique.

Seven magnetic lines extend from above Reverse Mountain, connecting to the Sabaody Archipelago.

These are the seven fixed sailing routes of "Paradise", each with a certain number of islands and trials arranged along its route.

Generally, once a pirate crew chooses a route, it cannot change it, and their routes cannot intersect.

This is why Luffy hadn't encountered any other Supernovas before arriving at the Sabaody Archipelago.

Because they all arrived there from different flight routes.

But the Black Whale is different...

With air superiority and the powerful sea charts provided by the Revolutionary Army, the Black Whale became the only pirate crew in Paradise that could freely traverse all seven sea routes.

In other words...

The park... will become the Phantom Troupe's hunting ground, Chrollo's backyard!

To build up their strength for the second half of their journey in the new world!

At this moment, the Black Whale was hovering above a vast expanse of azure sea.

"Everyone come over here, let's distribute the life cards."

Kuroro distributed blank Vivre Cards to the members one by one, instructing them to bind them.

Although Chrollo has the [Fate Echoes Compass] to pinpoint their locations, the members cannot sense each other.

The Grand Line is extremely dangerous, and being separated is a terrible thing. Therefore, the Vivre Card allows them to sense each other's location and status, preventing them from being separated and defeated one by one.

After the distribution was completed, the members excitedly stood on the deck to keep watch.

"Captain, I've seen the same model as the Black Whale!"

Uvogin stared in shock at a colossal black whale in the sea below, its head ramming against the cliffs of the Red Line.

"As expected of a creature from the Dark Continent, it is truly enormous, though it has some scars on its face."

"Is the Black Whale of the Kakin Empire designed by that guy Yang De, based on its design?"

Uvogin had an expression of certainty on his face.

"..." Kuroro was speechless for a moment.

Ah Jin, you're the best at making connections!

That thing is a whale, okay? It's just that the waters here are fertile, so it's grown a bit bigger, but it's still nothing compared to the Black Whale.

Besides, I've already taken Yang De by now.

The Black Whale continued its journey.

"There's a really big cactus over there, Kuroro!" Bonney pointed to a spot below and grinned foolishly, tears streaming down her face.

"......"

"That's a mountain! Look closely! Are you drooling?"

"Besides, you can't eat cacti..." Kuroro couldn't help but complain.

"Commander! Look! There are two things over there!" Uvogin stared in a certain direction, his face bursting with astonishing excitement.

"They...they're enormous! Are they giant ancient statues from the Dark Continent?"

"No! They moved! The two of them started fighting!"

"It's a giant!" Uvogin exclaimed excitedly, rolling up his sleeves.

"I really want to fight them!"

The rest of the group became interested and rushed over to take out their binoculars to observe.

"Seriously, it's at least twenty meters tall!"

"Is this also a creature from the Dark Continent? Is it the legendary giant race?" The swordsman looked surprised.

"How many beatings did Uvogin have to endure to become that huge?" Nobunaga asked, stroking his chin.

"It'll take at least fifty of my spinning spins!" Phinks grinned and replied in perfect unison.

The two of them then looked at Uvogin with ill intent.

"Come on—who's afraid of who!"

Uvogin revealed a belligerent and excited expression.

"Go fight if you want! If the ship breaks down, you fix it!" Nami and Machi roared in unison.

Nami, Machi, and Pike exchanged a glance, all seeing the helplessness in each other's eyes.

"Men whose brains are all muscles..."

Uvogin looked around, then pointed to a snow-covered, uninhabited island below.

"How about we go there? It looks deserted, we can have a proper fight!"

Just as they were about to fight again, peacemaker Franklin stepped in.

"Commander, how about we choose an island to land on first? We're running out of food on the ship—"

"I see signs of human activity on that snow-covered island. Shall we go take a look?"

Uvogin and Bonnie stopped what they were doing, their eyes lighting up, and raised their hands.

"I second that!"

Kuroro took out his binoculars and looked at the island, stroking his chin as he thought:

Hmm, I think I recognize this island. What's it called?

Oh, right! I remember now—

It seems to be called Drum Island, the place where Luffy captured Chopper, his backup food source.

There is a kingdom on the island, and the king is a user of the Gluttony Fruit.

The ability is to eat anything, make it part of the body, or synthesize new things.

For example, one could synthesize scrap steel into a new alloy that doesn't exist, or even eat one's own body to change one's body shape.

Furthermore, Kuroro vaguely remembered that it was mentioned in the movie that this fruit should be able to devour other Devil Fruit users and acquire their abilities.

"What a wonderful fruit!" Kuroro's eyes lit up.

Isn't this a weaker version of the Dark-Dark Fruit?

Adhering to the principle that a thief never leaves empty-handed, Kuroro decided to make a detour along the way!

Anyway, this king's combat strength is extremely low, and his Devil Fruit abilities are only partially developed, so hunting him is a piece of cake.

"Let's go down."

The Black Whale slowly descended. Kuroro put the Black Whale away, and everyone raised their wrists together, imprinting the [Compass of Echoes of Destiny].

He then began assigning tasks:

"Same as always, combat team."

Uvogin, Nobunaga, Phinks, and Feitan all stood up straight at the same time.

"The four of you are responsible for bringing the king of this country to see me."

"I want to fight after that."

"yes--"

"Intelligence Team".

Parker, the knight in shining armor, Franklin, and Lev slowly emerged.

"You are tasked with gathering clues about Baroque Works in the city. We're not far from the Kingdom of Alabasta, so we might be able to get some information about them."

The four nodded.

"Last supplies gathering team, gather enough supplies, most importantly collect as much water as possible. Alabasta is a desert landscape and water is extremely scarce."

Machi, Nami, Shizuku, and Korbi nodded. Nami extended her hand.

"What?" Kuroro asked, puzzled.

"Money!" Nami said irritably.

Kuroro gave all the heavenly gold to the Revolutionary Army, so where would they get any money left?

"Uh..." Kuroro scratched his head with an embarrassed expression.

This is indeed a problem.

Kuroro, quick-witted, turned to Uvogin and the others and gave them instructions:

"When you capture the king, loot his treasure as well."

He remembered that the king here was a tyrannical ruler and not a good person...

However... it would be best if there were a pirate crew or something to rob, that way they could make money!

"Anyway, let's take action!"

Kuroro gazed at the ice cave town nestled in the snow and ice ahead, where people were constantly coming and going, a look of confusion appearing on his face.

"That's strange. I remember there weren't many residents on this island originally."

I feel like I've forgotten something about this island.

........