Shanks couldn't help it.

Two flowers bloom, each showing its own beauty.

Merry coiled around Shanks' straw hat, her big, lively eyes rolling around as she looked around curiously.

The group climbed over the rolling hills and went deeper and deeper. When they reached the top of the last hill, the scenery in front of them suddenly opened up. What appeared before them was a vast, endless plain.

There are houses scattered in an orderly manner on the plain, with red tiles on the roofs and curls of smoke rising from the chimneys. It is a village of considerable size.

Shanks' eyes lit up and he smiled in surprise: "This island is actually inhabited."

Beckman bit down on an unlit cigarette and took in the layout of the town. "It looks like there are quite a few islanders living here."

Laqi Lu touched his belly and said excitedly, "It's good that there are people around. Let's go find a market quickly."

Gob laughed: "After walking so far, Lu must be hungry."

"Hahaha, that's right. I didn't expect to go this far at first."

The gravity here was weird. Shanks, Beckman and the others walked as if they were walking on cotton. They found it extremely easy and walked quite far without realizing it.

They walked along the unclear path covered with weeds, chatting and laughing, and soon arrived at the town.

"There seems to be no one here." Meli looked around. There was clearly smoke from cooking, but the streets were empty and there was no one in sight.

"That shouldn't be the case. Let's split up and look for it."

Before Shanks and his companions could split up, they heard a shrill noise coming from not far away.

"Let's go and take a look."

They looked at each other and ran towards the source of the noise in two steps.

The noise became clearer and clearer, but the scene before their eyes was extremely horrifying.

Meli couldn't help but widen his eyes, a look of surprise and doubt flashed in his eyes.

Shanks and the others gradually slowed down their pace, the smiles on their faces disappeared, and they looked at everything in front of them expressionlessly.

I saw some people in uniform, who seemed to be soldiers, sitting on strange-looking mechanical horses.

Behind the mechanical horse, many people were tied with ropes and dragged directly on the street.

Those people were pressed down by something heavy and could not float in the air as easily as usual. They could only rub against the rough ground.

The sandy ground quickly scratched their bodies with scars, and blood stained the ground. The long bloodstains were shocking to see.

The residents on both sides of the street looked at the tortured people with pity in their eyes, feeling both angry and unwilling.

They clenched their fists tightly, but because of the weapons in the hands of the soldiers, they dared not act rashly.

Meli and his group hid in the dark, observing the situation on the street.

Shanks's face turned pale, his usual bright smile now gone: "What are they doing?"

"Calm down. We don't know who's right or wrong on either side." Beckman put his hand on Shanks' shoulder, his eyes calm and serious. "It's best not to act rashly before we find out the truth."

However, the scene before him made it increasingly difficult to remain calm.

The people who were dragged seemed to have been beaten before being dragged. Their clothes were torn and soaked with blood. Their faces were covered with dust and blood, and they looked in a miserable state.

The man in the front struggled to raise his head, his eyes filled with anger and indomitable will. He gritted his teeth and shouted with all his strength, "You demons! Die a horrible death!"

"Shut up!"

The soldier next to him cursed angrily, raised the electric baton in his hand and hit the man hard.

Sizzle————

The electric current instantly penetrated the man's body. He was shaking and twitching wildly on the ground, his body twisted into a ball.

Soon, the man fell to the ground powerlessly, motionless, blood still oozing out, a pool of blood gathered under his body, staining the surrounding land red.

The other residents watched their compatriots being tortured, their eyes bloodshot and anger burning in their hearts, almost burning away their sanity.

"You really don't know your own limitations. This is the fate of those who dare to resist!"

The soldier kicked the man mercilessly, a cruel glee in his voice.

He glanced fiercely at the crowd around him, "Struggling and resisting is useless, you foolish islanders, if you don't want to die, just obey our arrangements, otherwise..."

"Ah! You bastards!" An angry voice suddenly rang out in the crowd, breaking the oppressive silence.

A child in his early teens could no longer control his emotions. He rushed out of the crowd, holding a wooden stick, and pounced on the soldier.

"Little devil, are you rushing here to die? I'll grant you your wish."

The soldier snorted coldly, a cruel smile appearing on the corner of his mouth. Instead of using the electric baton as punishment, he raised a pistol and pointed the cold muzzle at the child rushing towards him.

"Oh my God! No!"

The islanders screamed and finally couldn't help but rushed forward desperately to try to stop this tragedy from happening.

The other soldiers around were not to be trifled with. They pointed their weapons at the islanders, shouted at them, and forced them back.

Seeing that the child was about to be shot, Shanks could no longer bear it.

His anger erupted like a volcano. He flashed and rushed out from the darkness. In an instant, he drew out the Griffin and stood in front of the child.

“Dangdangdang!”

The incoming bullets were chopped off one by one by Griffin, who was imbued with domineering power.

Sparks flew as the metal collided with the bullet.

While Shanks was chopping the bullets, Merry shot water arrows at the surrounding soldiers to prevent them from hurting the islanders any further.

Gob also rushed out from hiding and hit a soldier in the face with his hammer-like fist, knocking the soldier back.

Beckman and Lachi Lu followed closely behind, raised their guns, and quickly pulled the trigger at the surrounding soldiers.

However, both Meli's water arrows and Beckman and his men's bullets were affected by gravity and failed to hit the soldiers as expected. Instead, they floated into the air.

"Damn it! The gravity here is so troublesome!" Laqi Lu cursed, but he was not at all panicked. He decisively chose to engage in close combat with the soldiers like Gob did.

Beckman's reaction was also extremely quick. After realizing the gravity problem, he directly used the flintlock rifle as a long stick and launched a close-range attack.

What they didn't expect was that the soldiers' guns seemed to be specially made and could still function normally in the strange gravity environment.

Dense bullets flew straight towards Beckman and his companions, hitting their vital points.

While the soldiers' attention was drawn to Shanks and his men, the residents of the surrounding islands rushed towards the soldiers, trying to snatch the weapons from their hands.

"Everyone, come together!"

"We have more people, and these bastards must pay."

"For our home! Everyone, attack!"

The two sides quickly engaged in a fight, and the streets became even more chaotic.

Under the influence of the strange gravity, the bodies of Shanks, Beckman and others were not able to adapt at first, which greatly reduced their combat effectiveness and they were almost hit by bullets several times.

Merry's water arrow was also affected by gravity at the beginning, but it soon discovered that this state was a bit like the water pressure in the deep sea.

The little octopus thought for a moment and quickly figured out the control method. The water arrow he ejected again seemed to be tilted, but it hit the target accurately.

Yay! That worked!

Merry's whole octopus was excited. It coiled on Shanks' straw hat, looked down from above, and started spraying water arrows at the soldiers.

Shanks raised the corner of his mouth, with stars flashing in his eyes: "Merry! You performed very well!"

"Hehe~ I'll try my best!" Meli attacked even harder after hearing the praise.

Although the soldiers were well-equipped, their attack accuracy was average. In the chaos, they could only shoot blindly and hastily. They were also attacked by Merry's water arrows from time to time, and faced strong resistance from the crowd, so they could only retreat step by step.

One soldier was kicked by Beckman and the gun in his hand flew out of his hand and flew into the air.

When Meli saw the gun flying towards him, his eyes suddenly lit up. He grabbed the straw hat with two tentacles and his body suddenly bounced up. The other two tentacles stretched out as long as possible like rubber bands, wrapped around the gun and grabbed it.

"Haha, it worked." Meli shouted happily. It used its tentacles to control the anti-gravity gun and began to pull the trigger frantically.

"Bang bang bang~~~" The soldiers fell one after another.

Oh! Oh! Oh!

Meli became excited. Using the weapon did not require any spraying momentum, nor did it require consuming its own stored water. It was more interesting than attacking with water arrows!

What a great thing!

Shanks kicked the leading soldier to the ground and then put the tip of his sword to his throat.

The residents of Qingpiaopiao Island also successfully snatched all the weapons from the soldiers, pinned them to the ground one by one, and tied them up with ropes.

The chaos in the streets finally came to a halt.

However, Merry noticed that there was no joy on the faces of these townspeople. Instead, they stared at Shanks and his companions warily, keeping a certain safe distance from them, full of vigilance and uneasiness.

The little octopus tilted its head in confusion, its big eyes full of puzzlement. It really couldn't understand why it and Shanks were the ones who helped resolve the chaos.

Why are these small town residents still so wary?

"Thank you all very much for your help just now." An elderly islander stepped out from the crowd. He carefully looked at the stranger before him and asked politely, "I'm Charles, the mayor here. May I ask who you are?"

Shanks sheathed Griffin and gave a bright, kind smile. "Hello, Mayor Charles. We are pirates passing through here, hoping to buy some supplies on the island."

"Pirate?" Charles couldn't help but frown.

In recent years, we have indeed encountered many pirates. Every time pirates land on the island, it is not a good thing. Charles does not have any good feelings towards pirates because of Shanks' politeness.

After hearing the word "pirate", the surrounding islanders began to whisper, and the tense atmosphere became even more severe.

"Pirates are not good people. Are they coming to our island to steal things?"

"Even if they want to rob us, there's nothing we can do. All the supplies on the island are now under the control of those bastards."

"We have nothing left to be robbed."

......