"Look at these names. Pizarro, Shiryu of the Rain, and Catarina. Aren't they all from the Blackbeard Pirates?"
"Did they enter the New World too?"
"Teach is already dead. I didn't expect them to still be together."
Seeing the names on the list, Sanji and the others frowned and sighed in surprise.
"We have a history with these guys. Who knows what will happen if we run into them."
"Relax. Those guys from Impel Down didn't have much of a bond with Teach. They'd better behave, or I wouldn't mind sending them to reunite with him," Allen said dismissively, his gaze moving further down the list.
Quite a few prisoners had been released from Impel Down. Those from Levels One through Five were now mostly under Buggy's command.
As for the infamous felons from Level Six, aside from the few who survived the slaughter and were taken by Teach, there were a few others who Teach couldn't subjugate and had left on their own.
Those were the truly ruthless characters.
At least in Allen's eyes, Teach definitely didn't have the guts to provoke them.
"Red Count" Baloric Redfield.
"Demon Heir" Douglas Bullet.
"World Destroyer" Byrnndi World.
Among them, Byrnndi World appeared on this list.
However, Allen didn't see Bullet's name on it.
Aside from them, Allen also spotted a few other familiar figures.
Such as the Happo Navy led by Chinjao, and the New Giant Warrior Pirates led by Hajruddin.
"Even in the New World, these are all prominent figures. The scale of this festival is truly beyond imagination," Allen remarked with a sigh. The corners of his mouth curled up, and he couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement.
The good news: Bullet wasn't here.
The bad news: It might have been better if it were Bullet.
Facing a lineup like this, Allen suddenly felt that Bullet wouldn't have been that much of a problem.
"Fighting for the Dark-Dark Fruit doesn't look as simple as I thought. Let's just get on the island first," Allen instructed as he put away the information about the Pirate Expo.
The Freewill continued forward, soon arriving at the edge of the ring-shaped island that looked like a giant wheel of cheese.
Upon closer inspection, they realized the island was completely enclosed by a ring of mountain walls nearly a thousand meters high. It was covered in pale yellow grass, with small white flowers growing sparsely across the fields.
The mountain walls were also dotted with numerous karst caves of various sizes. Some had waterfalls flowing out into the outer sea, while others had long since dried up.
"It's so high..."
"But how are we supposed to get on the island?"
"Are we supposed to fly up there?"
"Do you think those caves might be passages?"
Standing before the island, the crew looked up at the towering mountain wall that pierced the clouds, each of them rubbing their chins in thought.
"Strange. Isn't this supposed to be a famous water park? It doesn't look much like one right now," Robin said, looking around in confusion. She noticed several pirate ships lingering nearby, seemingly just as clueless about how to land.
The Donquixote Family, whom they had just seen earlier, was nowhere to be found.
"Ohohohoho! Visitors from afar, welcome to Vini Vini Water Park!"
At that moment, a woman's voice echoed from one of the upper caves. A figure dressed in colorful amusement park clown attire stepped out.
She wore a name tag on her chest, and her outfit read "Guide Clown." She appeared to be a staff member in charge of the festival.
"Hey! What are you guys playing at? There's nowhere to land on this island!"
"Yeah! Isn't this a water park? Why does it look like a barren wasteland!"
"Hey! Are you a staff member? Hurry up and tell us how to get in! We're going to miss the start of the festival!"
Seeing the staff member appear, pirates immediately began shouting and urging her from below.
The female clown waved at the crowd below and grinned.
"Ohohohoho! Don't be in such a rush, everyone. Let me explain things one by one. First of all, the landing spot isn't out here. It's inside."
"Vini Vini Water Park is located inside the ring island. That's right, that is the true face of this island."
"As for the festival, although the first round of the preliminaries doesn't start until noon, there is a registration phase before that. Which means..."
Snap!
The clown girl snapped her fingers, placed a hand on her hip, and looked down at the pirates with a smile.
"Only the pirate crews who find a way in and successfully enter the interior of the ring island before 12:00 PM will be considered participants in the festival's tournament."
"What!"
"Damn it, I thought our captain's bounty being over a hundred million meant we could skip straight to the second round."
"To think they'd pull such a dirty trick."
Hearing her words, countless pirates gnashed their teeth in anger and cursed.
The clown girl smiled and continued her explanation.
"Of course, you can also choose to enter through our special passage. However, doing so will forfeit your eligibility to compete, and you'll only be allowed in as spectators."
"Those who were invited are basically all great heroes from across the New World. I'm sure none of you will give up so easily."
"So, do your best, everyone!"
The clown girl raised her fist in a cheering pose and shouted. She then turned and walked back into the cave, only to suddenly pop her head back out a moment later with a smile.
"I forgot to remind you all! For the upcoming matches, it's highly recommended that you bring your ships inside!"
With that, the clown girl vanished once more, leaving the group of pirates staring blankly in confusion.
Aboard the Freewill, Sanji and the others rubbed their chins in thought.
"Bring the ship inside... Is that a hint to enter through the waterways in those caves? I have a feeling they're already rigged with all sorts of traps."
"Those waterways look pretty complicated. We might lose our way the moment we go in, and we could still miss the deadline."
"We'll need the ship for the later matches, so anchoring here and climbing over isn't an option either."
Just as Nami and the others were hesitating, Allen suddenly spoke up.
"How about we fly over?"
"Eh? Fly over?"
Nami and the others froze, turning their heads to look at him.
Allen flashed a wide grin.
"It's a bit heavy, but it shouldn't be a problem."
With that, he leaped into the air, kicking off the mast to jump high into the sky. His body rapidly expanded in midair.
A pair of massive pterosaur wings sprouted from his back, unfurling to blot out the sun under the astonished gazes of Nami and the rest of the crew.
In just a few seconds, Allen transformed into a colossal dragon over a hundred meters long, his entire body covered in crimson scales!
"Hey, hey, hey! Don't tell me he's planning to fly the ship up there!"
"Is this guy for real?!"
"Wait a minute, can he actually lift it? If we fall, we'll definitely be smashed to pieces!"
Seeing this, Nami and the others instantly realized Allen's plan and hurriedly ran to the sides, tightly gripping the railings and other fixed objects.
"Hold on tight, everyone! Prepare for takeoff!"
Allen, now in his giant dragon form, roared. The sharp claws on his four limbs clamped down around the edges of the Freewill, digging in deeply as he flapped his massive dragon wings up and down.
Whoosh—!!
Whoosh—!!
The dragon wings whipped up a powerful gale over the sea, blowing the nearby pirate ships backward.
Some of the smaller pirate ships were instantly capsized by the exaggerated winds, sending the pirates aboard tumbling into the ocean with screams of terror.
Splash—!!
As Allen gradually exerted his strength, the massive Freewill was forcefully plucked from the sea, slowly rising into the air.
Scaling a mere thousand-meter mountain wall was nothing more than ten times his body length in his giant dragon form. Even reaching a Sky Island ten thousand meters in the air would be a blink of an eye for him.
"Not bad. The ship is much lighter than I thought," Allen chuckled. With a powerful beat of his wings, he carried the Freewill straight up, soaring into the clouds.
"He actually flew up there with the ship and everyone on it."
"That's absurd. That's practically cheating."
"Even if we manage to enter the tournament, there's no way we can compete with a monster like that."
Down on the sea, the pirates gazed up at Allen and his crew flying into the sky, a profound sense of powerlessness welling up within them.
Meanwhile, inside the island.
The thousand-meter-high ring of mountain walls formed a circle on the sea. Looking down from high above, the entire island resembled a blue gemstone set in a golden rim.
Countless modern buildings and amusement facilities sat at the foot of the mountains, built along the circular coastline, their lights dazzling and magnificent.
The island was already packed with people. Countless pirates, along with bounty hunters who had snuck in with their eyes on the pirates' heads, had arrived early.
The various amusement parks were bustling and crowded, and the diverse commercial streets were a chaotic mix of all sorts of people.
"Hey, hey, look up at the sky!"
A dark shadow cast down from the sky. Countless people on the island looked up, only to see Allen, in his red dragon form, descending from the heavens with the Freewill!
At an open-air restaurant by the shore, the dreadlocked Yasopp looked up, his thick lips curling into a smirk.
"Tsk, what a flashy entrance."
"Hehehehe! Hey, this is the second pirate crew to fly in today, isn't it!"
Beside him, Lucky Roux, wearing his watermelon-striped bandana, laughed heartily as he brought a massive chunk of meat on a bone to his mouth and took a huge bite.
Shanks set down his glass, watching the descending dragon with an amused expression.
"Young people sure are energetic," he chuckled softly. "Unless there's a second giant dragon in the world, that should be the Demon Lion crew."
On the opposite shore, Doffy, Diamante, Baby 5, and his other subordinates were sitting around a swimming pool.
"Fufufufu! That guy's actions are as exaggerated as ever."
"Tch, what a bunch of idiots. Drawing so much attention right off the bat. Aren't they afraid of being targeted later?" Baby 5 scoffed disdainfully, a cigarette dangling from her lips.
Nearby, Buggy and his crew had rented out an entire tavern. Seeing the giant dragon and ship falling from the sky, their eyes widened in shock.
"The Demon Lion Pirates are here too?!"
"How dare they steal Lord Buggy's thunder! We have to teach them a lesson later!"
"Wait a minute, hey! I never said we were going to provoke them! Don't make decisions on your own, you idiots!"
Hearing his subordinates talk about taking on Allen, Buggy waved his hands frantically in terror.
Beside him, Mr. 3 slumped over the table with a look of utter despair, two streams of tears betraying him as they rolled down his cheeks.
"We just came here for a vacation at first, but somehow we ended up joining the tournament. Please, no more trouble."
Splash—!!
The Freewill crashed into the water, kicking up a splash tens of meters high in the middle of the lake.
The massive commotion drew the eyes of everyone nearby. As the water settled, the giant dragon had vanished.
Allen returned to his normal form and landed back on the ship. He swept his gaze across the shore and grinned.
"Lots of familiar faces. To think we'd see a lineup even grander than the Summit War at a single festival. Prepare to disembark, everyone!"
"Yeah!!"
"Let's land! Let's land!"
"Water parks are the best!!"
The crew cheered excitedly. Looking at the bustling and vibrant venues around them, they couldn't wait any longer.
At a castle hotel built into the mountain wall, a round dining table was set up on a balcony.
Currently, six or seven tall figures were seated around the table, their eyes fixed intently on Allen and his crew below.
"It's Allen's crew."
"Should we make a move, Brother Katakuri?"
"There's no rush. Causing a scene right now would draw too much attention, and we'd become targets ourselves later."
Facing the questions from Oven and Daifuku, Katakuri, who sat with his legs propped up on the table, replied in a low voice.
The fluffy collar of his coat obscured half of his face. His expression was calm as he gazed toward the nearby stronghold of the Animal Kingdom Pirates.
Locking eyes with King from a distance, Katakuri spoke in a deep tone.
"There are many experts here today. Don't act rashly. Snatching the Dark-Dark Fruit and presenting it to Mama is our primary objective."