Korf's capital, Stone City.

The city was in ruins, and in a castle at the highest point, a young man looked out from the balcony with worry.

"king..."

A servant bowed behind him and said, "We have intelligence that our army was ambushed by pirates while advancing on Bom Village, and it seems that the entire army has been wiped out."

Bang!

The young man slammed his fist on the stone edge of the balcony, his fist clenched tightly. "That's a mine with explosive rocks! How dare those pirates do this? Our people are still there!"

The servant dared not speak, but simply bowed his head.

The young man took a few deep breaths, turned around and asked, "Where is my father? How is he?"

The attendant paused, then shook his head, saying, "King Noadi's condition is very bad; his arm is already..."

These words made the young man clench his fists even tighter, as if he were about to draw blood. "That straw hat!!"

"But Father went too far. If he hadn't been so violent, things wouldn't have turned out this way. However, I will definitely avenge the Straw Hats! Where are the World Government's people? Haven't they arrived yet?"

"Yes, we haven't received any news yet. If it's an inspection, they probably wouldn't have notified us..." the attendant said.

The young man's eyes showed worry as he murmured, "Will this country really be of any interest to the world government?"

...

In the stone village, Kuro led his men inside and stopped in front of a stone house that resembled an earthen furnace. The door to the house was also a stone door, but it was half-open at the moment. Kuro pushed the door open and went in.

The interior was simply furnished with stone tables, stone beds, and stone furniture, all made of stone. However, on one wall, there was a soldier-like figure nailed to the wall.

His hands were clasped together above, and a large nail pierced through his palms, firmly wedging him to the wall.

His feet were the same; nails pierced both heels, and he was covered in blood. There were whips and clamps nearby, all stained with blood.

"I will not give in..."

Seemingly having heard the noise, the soldier didn't even raise his head, muttering weakly.

"Were you mistreated...?"

Kuro frowned slightly, flicked his finger, and the nail embedded in it was pulled out.

The soldier cried out in pain and fell to the ground.

"Lida."

"knew."

Lida stepped forward and touched the soldier's back with her palm. "Energy feedback!"

Under the powerful infusion of vital energy, the soldier's wounds gradually healed, and flesh began to grow back from the pierced palms and heels.

"This, this is..."

The soldiers, now fully recovered, looked up at Kuro and the others with a blank expression.

"navy?"

After a long while, the soldier finally reacted, looking at the people in naval uniforms, and said, "Navy...you were sent by the World Government?!"

"It's very clear."

Kuro lit a cigar and said, "You're a soldier of this country? I need to find out what's going on with you. What's wrong with this country? This is the land of pirates, right? Why are there soldiers like you here?"

A pirate country must be full of pirates.

But if soldiers come to wipe out the pirates, then the situation changes.

"Finally, has it finally arrived?!"

The soldier cried out excitedly, "Please save us! The pirates have completely rioted! Everything has been in chaos ever since that Straw Hat kid came and defeated our late king!"

"Tell me about your situation first. Why did you come here? And what is the specific situation in your country?" Kuro said, biting his cigar.

The Kingdom of Korf was once a pirate kingdom, but after their former king, Korf Noadi, came to power, he enslaved the pirates and made them work in the mines, so that no one in the country dared to be a pirate.

Because any pirate who comes to this place will be treated as a slave, regardless of whether they are a great pirate or a small pirate.

Noadi's military might alone, along with his specialty bomb rocks, could accomplish this.

His reign has lasted for over twenty years.

But everything changed after the Straw Hat Pirates arrived. He defeated the king and released the pirates. Although a group of pirates set sail, many more remained on the island to vent their anger and seek revenge.

The village called 'Bom' was destroyed in retaliation by pirates. It used to have a population, but after the pirates arrived, there were hardly any people left.

Upon hearing this news, the current king allocated a portion of his limited forces to try and wipe out the pirates, but they were ambushed before they could even get close, and only a few managed to escape.

Besides civilians, this village also has the 'Bomb Rock' mine. If it falls into the hands of pirates, the trouble will be far more than just a little bit.

However, they didn't know the location of the mine, so they wanted to get the exact location of the mine out of the soldier who was still alive.

The mining of bomb rocks involves finding them hidden within stone quarries. This island has them everywhere, but the quantity varies. The areas with a higher concentration are where the mineral veins are located, but not many people know about these places.

The former slave miners knew this, but the slaves in this area had already set sail long ago.

Gevas and his group came from elsewhere and didn't know about the mineral vein, so they naturally couldn't mine the bomb rock on a large scale.

"Isn't that normal?"

After listening to the soldier's words, Kuro said, "Treating people as slaves always has consequences. I just didn't expect that after the Fisher Tiger incident, there would still be people who dare to openly keep slaves."

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