"One Piece: I, the Strongest Intern of the Roger Pirates"

"God Valley… a place said to be the dwelling of gods!" Fang Yi's face darkened slightly as he spoke.

"I only heard about it when I was investigating the ancient language. It's a playground for a bunch of people who claim to be gods!"

"People claiming to be gods? Who the hell are they? That's some serious arrogance." Shanks asked, full of curiosity.

"In this world… who else but them would dare to call themselves gods? Just a bunch of parasites." Fang Yi shook his head.

"Parasites? Wait a minute… Yi-ge, you're not talking about the Celestial Dragons, are you?" Shanks was so shocked that his jaw nearly dropped.

"That's right," Rayleigh nodded. "What Xiao Yi said is spot on—but not the whole picture. God Valley is a resort island developed by the World Government exclusively for the Celestial Dragons. It's paradise for the rich… and hell for commoners and slaves. The world's largest slave trading market is located there. That pirate crew I mentioned earlier? They're planning to attack God Valley after rallying other pirate groups who've suffered under the Celestial Dragons."

"Are they insane? If the Celestial Dragons are there, there's no way the World Government would leave them unguarded! The Marines must've deployed massive forces there. Why would they think they could take God Valley by force?" Fang Yi asked in disbelief.

Shanks turned to Roger, clearly seeking his thoughts.

"Which is exactly why this is tricky…" Rayleigh shook his head.

"In any case… let's go check it out first and see what's going on."

In the end, it was Roger who made the call.

Honestly, pirates typically avoid confrontation with the Marines—it's rarely worth it.

The Marines, as the dominant force on the seas, possess overwhelming power. Even though the Roger Pirates had many powerful individuals, facing off against the full might of the Navy meant their only option would be to run.

Still, those pirates planning the attack on God Valley had ties with them. Now that they knew what was going on, doing nothing just wasn't their style.

Meanwhile, at Devil's Island Port, a massive number of pirate ships had gathered.

"Captain Rocks, that's all the intel we've got. But we of Devil's Island… won't be participating this time. You know how it is—the Celestial Dragons are our biggest clients," said a thin man in flamboyant clothes, speaking to a fierce-looking man inside a conference room.

"Tsk tsk tsk… You mutts are useless. Your master's in danger, and you just sit there doing nothing?" sneered Rocks.

His words sparked anger among the Devil's Island delegation, but the leader—the slender man—only shook his head.

"Hahaha… You're not wrong. But who would've thought that the world's number one underground force was just a lapdog for the Celestial Dragons? That said… this dog wants to be free."

"I don't care what your motives are," Rocks stood up, brushing them off, "Just make sure you supply enough weapons and food. Oh, and feel free to report this to your bosses—I don't care."

"My lord, that guy's way too arrogant!" one of the Devil's Island officers grumbled after Rocks had left.

"Idiot! Do you even know who that is? He's the captain of the world's most powerful pirate crew! A man who can shake the entire world!" the leader said coldly.

"You think those fools dared to attack the Celestial Dragons on their own? Without his push behind the scenes, they wouldn't have had the guts to go near God Valley."

"Huh?" The subordinate looked stunned.

"What's he planning?"

"Planning? He intends… to change the world. The people of the 'D' Clan… they're all lunatics. But this might be the chance we need to break free from the Celestial Dragons' grip. Have you identified all the World Government agents on the island?"

"Yes, sir. We've tracked all the CP agents. We're ready to strike."

"Good. Don't get careless. Now go prepare everything Captain Rocks asked for—don't mess anything up," the leader instructed.

On the other side, Rocks had left the meeting room and returned to the biggest hotel in town, where he summoned his crew.

"Captain, why'd you call us over now? This place is awesome…" One of the senior officers, John, yawned sleepily, looking exhausted.

He had just crawled out of bed after a night with a beauty. For a pirate, this was paradise—as long as you had money, anything was possible. The lifestyle here was like that of a king.

"Wahahaha! Relax, boys—we'll be staying here a few more days!" Rocks laughed heartily.

"Once the weapons and food arrive, we set sail!"

"Mama~ Captain, you didn't just call us here to say that, did you?" Charlotte Linlin chuckled with a strange laugh.

Even though she already had several children, her figure was still rather striking.

"Of course not." Rocks gradually dropped his smile.

"Our next destination… is God Valley."

"God Valley?!" Everyone turned to look at him in shock.

"That's right. God Valley," Rocks grinned.

"Those idiots attacking first will serve as a test for the Navy's defenses. And with Devil's Island supplying us, our real goal this time… is to kidnap all the Celestial Dragons there!"

"Kehahahaha! Captain, are you going all-out this time?" Golden Lion Shiki asked, puffing on his cigar.

He figured Rocks just wanted to kidnap the Celestial Dragons and demand ransom from the World Government.

"So what's the attack plan?" asked Edward Newgate, expressionless.

Other than Rocks himself, he was the strongest fighter on the crew. Even Rocks had to consider his opinion seriously.

"It's simple. Once those pirates begin their assault, Newgate, Linlin, Shiki, and Silver Axe—you four will attack God Valley from four directions. John, Wang Zhi—you two come with me. We're going straight for the Celestial Dragons."

"A straightforward plan," Wang Zhi nodded, having remained silent until now.

He was also one of the senior officers and one of Rock's closest aides, alongside John.

Unlike Newgate or Linlin, who were recruited later, they had followed Rocks from the very beginning.

"Captain, isn't that spreading our forces too thin?" John frowned slightly.

"Too thin? Don't be silly. Do you think the Navy can stop us?" Rocks burst into laughter.

John suddenly understood. He knew how terrifying Newgate and the others were.

To stop them, the Navy would have to dispatch high-tier Vice Admirals—real frontliners like Black Arm Zephyr, Garp, or Sengoku.

But the Navy couldn't possibly station all of them at God Valley just to protect the Celestial Dragons—they still had pirates to chase across the seas.

Even if God Valley had strong defenders, the moment those four attacked, they'd have no choice but to move and defend from all sides.

And that's when Rocks, along with John and Wang Zhi, would break straight through to the Celestial Dragons, with no one left to stop them.

"Any objections?" Rocks swept his gaze around the room with a light smile.

Seeing no one speak, he nodded and said,

"We sail in three days!"

"Got it, Captain. Still, this place is great—we should come back for fun sometime." John said with a grin.

"No problem… next time, it'll belong to us! Wahahaha!" Rocks laughed wildly.

Everyone else laughed with him, except one.

Whitebeard, Edward Newgate, future Emperor of the Sea, remained silent.

He couldn't shake the feeling that this battle… wouldn't go as smoothly as Rocks hoped.

Meanwhile, the Roger Pirates, en route to God Valley, ran into trouble.

"Damn it, why'd we have to run into that bastard Garp here?!" Jaba groaned, staring at the Marine warship chasing them.

Last time, they had the misfortune of bumping into Vice Admiral Zephyr while he was on vacation. They had to flee before even finishing their resupply.

This time was worse—he was just fishing and ended up running into Garp.

Ever since Fang Yi used that strange fishing bait and caught "Wangzai" and a sea beast, he knew the bait could pull up all kinds of weird things.

Sometimes, when bored during their voyage, he'd fish with the "Mystery Bait," like a blind box—you never knew what you'd get, but it was oddly exciting.

But after repeated use, the other crew members got curious. The bait always seemed to pull up something odd.

So Fang Yi explained he made the bait from many rare materials, and it was hard to replicate. But every time he used it, he'd reel in something unusual.

Since Fang Yi had all sorts of random skills—music, medicine, painting, navigation—they weren't too surprised. They just asked him to make more of it when possible.

This time, Jaba had gotten bored and used the bait—he caught a bizarre, golden-glowing fish.

Just when they were about to reel it in, the fish escaped.

And as they were chasing it down, they ran straight into a Marine warship—of all ships, it was Garp's dog-head ship.

They instantly gave up the fish and turned tail to flee.

"What a damn shame… I bet that fish would've tasted amazing," Roger said wistfully, watching the fish disappear into the distance.

"Forget it! We'd better worry about losing Garp first! That guy's like sticky glue—once he's on your tail, you're not shaking him off!" Jaba cursed, feeling like the unluckiest man alive.

Just fishing… and he runs into Garp.