Chapter 258 Cooperation
“Ms. Ross, long time no see. How are you these days? Hello, little Robin. Here, this is a gift that your uncle prepared for you. Take it.”

Long, who was wearing a green robe and had a tattoo on his face, squatted down and handed a special glass bottle to little Robin who was standing unsteadily beside Rose.

She held Ross’s leg with one hand and stared curiously at the contents of the glass bottle.

This exquisite object has two islands fitted together, with thin feathers resembling snowflakes inside, blown up and down by an invisible wind, as if the sky and the earth are reflecting the same snow island.

This kind of beautiful and magical object is most pleasing to children. Robin stared at it with eyes full of desire.

She was a precocious child. When she was not with her grandfather, she would be carefully educated by Olivia, and she understood the concept of “belonging” at a very young age.

You cannot touch things that do not belong to you. You have to ask your grandparents, parents, and older brothers and sisters for permission. Once they agree, you can play with them as you please.

She tried hard to hide the desire in her eyes, pulled her grandfather’s trouser leg, and muttered, her little face full of desire. Her other hand pointed at the glass bottle, and she almost said “Grandpa, I want this”.

“Here, this is a gift from your Uncle Long, he was Grandpa’s former student.”

Ross said, squatting down and holding Robin’s back with one hand, encouraging her to go and receive the gift by herself.

Robin’s father and mother are not gifted, so she is not much different from ordinary children. Now she has just learned to walk and needs someone to help her stand steadily.

Robin showed joy, and with the help of his grandfather, he took small steps to the dragon. He released his hands that were holding his grandfather’s trouser legs and hugged the exquisite glass bottle with both hands.

She placed the glass bottle in front of her eyes, looked at it, opened it, and shook it again and again. After a few minutes, she turned around, raised the glass bottle with both hands with great effort, and handed it to her grandfather, as if she was showing off and sharing.

“Little Robin is really sensible. I wonder if my future children will be like this too.”

Long sighed.

“That’s quite difficult. You Monkeys are born to be tinkerers. Tell me, Long, why did you come to Cloud Island to see me this time?”

Ross teased with a smile, then asked, picked up Robin with both hands, and sat down after making two cloud chairs with his bare hands.

This is the Cloud Island used for training camps. The surroundings are extremely empty and the visibility at a glance also means safety. This morning, Long sent a message saying that he wanted to visit, so he came here specially to wait.

Long didn’t hesitate and sat down on the cloud chair. The soft and firm feeling was very comfortable. He said slowly:
“I heard that you opened a training camp on your own, so I thought of sending a few good seedlings over to train with you.”

“Not yet. Let’s wait two years until my place is built. If you have good talents, you can send them here directly. But I have to tell you in advance. If you want to learn real things, I will clearly mark the price. It’s not cheap!”

Ross nodded and did not reject Long’s request. After all, it was just a matter of taking care of two more children.

Besides, he didn’t open the academy for charity. In addition to the orphanage and local residents, teaching things like dominance, techniques, and skills all cost a lot of money.

It could be Pele, or it could be knowledge or a devil fruit, depending on the difficulty and time.

As for other facilities, he expected them to be very cheap. The main purpose of opening this academy was to recruit disciples from all over the world and leave a way out for himself.

At the same time, it is also convenient to provide the family with military needs.

It is likely that his grandchildren will grow up in this area, where they will be able to form their own team, making it very convenient for them to do anything in the future.

“Don’t worry, teacher. As you know, I recently triggered an uprising in the Coal Country. The upper class nobles there are extremely wealthy!”

Long said it very easily, but when the upper class of a kingdom is extremely rich, its lower class will be relatively poor, and the disasters caused by poverty are unimaginable. He continued:

“I met a nice guy there. He’s very brave and capable. He’s the leader of the only local resistance organization and a user of the Natural Coal Fruit. I don’t want to waste his talent, so…”

“No problem. Send him here first. I’ll send you the bill after he finishes his studies. But you have to tell him first that his classmates are still a bunch of kids. Tell him not to mind.”

Ross had already guessed the identity of the user of the Coal Fruit, but his memory of the past had almost completely blurred. It was difficult to remember clearly this “supporting role” who rarely appeared. He only knew that he would be the commander of the GM Army in the future.

He accepted Long’s request and made a little joke at the same time, but that was indeed the fact.

Now the trainees in the training camp are almost all children. Suddenly a young man who is almost an adult is coming here… I’m afraid it will be really difficult for him to adapt.

Children don’t mind playing with adults, but few adults can fit in with them. Most of them are perfunctory and resistant, feeling that the two worlds are incompatible.

“Don’t worry. It’s a bit sad to say this, but the resistance group led by Karas is mostly made up of children aged 13 or 14. At this age, they are already able to pick up weapons and fight with armored soldiers.”

There was confusion and anger in Long’s words.

Karas became the leader of the resistance not because of his seniority and abilities, but because he was the oldest and the strongest!
The nobles of the coal country rely on the lower class to dig rich coal mines to maintain their enjoyment, but coal is harmful to the human body! Not to mention soaking in the mines for years.

The local residents basically do not live past the age of 30. If it were not for the nobles’ inhumane pregnancy methods, the place would have long been a silent death place…

When people see no hope, they will not think about reproducing, so 70% of the local people are “orphans”.

What Long said was not just heartache. He actually tortured all the nobles on the island to death and put them in a hurricane to suffer the pain of being cut into pieces.

Only then can the island be truly liberated!
However, the Coal Country has now been taken over by the World Government, and the local residents have been deserted and transported to the temporary base of the GM Army.

It was only after all the matters were dealt with that Long finally had time to come to Cloud Island to find Ross and ask him to help train some talented children.

They are all the sparks of the future GM army. If they can receive good education and training, Long will not be stingy at all.

“That’s it…”

Ross shook his head in silence. The cruelty of this sea is rarely brought to the surface, but it can always be expressed in a few words.

What a hopeless world.

Robin, who was fiddling with a new toy in his arms, could clearly sense his grandfather’s frustration. She smiled and handed the toy over, gently kicking his abdomen, and said in a childish voice:

“Grandpa, don’t be sad, let’s play together!”

“Little Robin is the one who can please Grandpa.”

Ross smiled, accepted Robin’s kindness and played with it in front of her for two minutes before returning the glass bottle to her.

Sometimes a child’s kindness cannot be ignored. It is better to just respond with words and accept the offer than to shake your head and refuse.

After Little Robin had started playing again, he said to Long:
“The New World is a good place. There are two good islands on the nearby route. They are very hidden and not on the nautical charts. There are just some primitive creatures that need to be cleared.

You can tell Sakaski in the North Sea and ask him to introduce you to my son Yatuo. If there are children who cannot fight, you can take them to the East Sea and put them in the orphanage I run.” Ross hinted that he believed that Long could understand what he meant, and this was one of the few things he could do.

Long narrowed his eyes, and after thinking for a while, he understood the meaning of Ross’s words.

It seems that my base camp has been found. The second half of the Grand Line is close to the North Sea and the West Sea. As long as a passage through the calm belt is opened, the seriously injured and children who cannot or do not want to fight will be transported out.

Then, they can arrange a place for them through Yatuo’s trade routes, and cooperate with the navy to do it quietly. Even the CP intelligence organization of the World Government will not be able to find any evidence.

Teacher Ross is willing to take responsibility for the child’s whereabouts, which is undoubtedly the best outcome, but you have to figure out the rest yourself.

“Thank you, teacher. I understand.”

Long nodded and accepted Ross’s kindness.

On the other side, Ross shook his head and said:
“There’s nothing to thank me for. I just can’t bear to see these children being homeless. If you can afford it, you can support them. If you don’t, there’s nothing I can do, right?
They are all poor little creatures. If you are willing to help them, there is no reason for me not to take over.”

“I understand. I’ll leave first, teacher. There are still several places that need to be liberated in the next few years. Otherwise, those comrades will not be able to follow me unwaveringly.”

“Okay, since you’re busy, I won’t keep you for dinner. Don’t come to me unless it’s urgent. Go find Sakaski.”

“See you!”

“Bon Voyage.”

Watching the dragon turn into a gust of wind and disappear, Ross sat on the cloud chair with a melancholy look on his face.

Helping Dragon’s GM Army is very risky, especially when the World Government’s intelligence agencies pay close attention to their movements. If you are not careful, you will easily expose yourself as helping them.

But if he had to turn a blind eye to certain things, he might have just left before, but since he awakened his Conqueror’s Haki…

He found that this thing really has a profound impact on a person’s will and thoughts. It is a deep-rooted “poison” that makes the holder walk on a path unswervingly.

It’s a good thing, but also a bad thing.

When Long said that Karas was leading just a group of children, a nameless anger surged in Ross’s heart, as if what he had always stood for was ruthlessly trampled upon.

He was not angry at Karas’s behavior because he was just a teenager and a child.

What made him angry was that the country could only rely on a group of children to save it!
This world is really rotten!

But as the pillar of a family, a father, a husband, the head of a family, and a leader, he cannot act as those pirates do.

The only thing he could do was to help those who were changing the world. This was one of the few things he could do now.

“hu~hu~”

It was a long time before Ross came out of his inner melancholy and anger until he heard the unconscious sounds made by Robin after falling asleep.

I glanced at the sky and realized it was already noon, which is one of the times when children are most sleepy.

Standing up, he carried little Robin into the depths of the island, ready to see the little guys who were being trained.

……………

“Sakaski, this is your Demon Slayer authorization document, set off immediately!”

“Demon-slaying order?”

Taking the document handed over by the lieutenant general opposite him, Sakaski frowned slightly.

This is because the island written on it is one of the GM army’s bases at the moment!

The Demon-Slaying Order is one of the highest-scale naval orders, second only to the General Mobilization and the Country Annihilation Game.

Its nature can generally be divided into two types, one is the emergency demon-killing order, and the other is the world government transfer order.

The former will dispatch a double combination of a marshal and an admiral depending on the highest level of the situation, usually to completely annihilate or capture a powerful criminal, such as a legendary pirate.

The latter is an order from the World Government, requiring at least five lieutenant generals to arrive at the designated location and indiscriminately destroy an island.

At this moment, Sakaski received a transfer order from the World Government, recommended by Sengoku, which would allow him to be promoted to the position of lieutenant general.

“I see. Thank you for the notification. Thank you for your hard work.”

“It’s okay. General Zhan Guo also asked me to tell you to prepare to go to his office later.”

“Ah.”

Sakaski nodded in agreement, and then the lieutenant general who came to inform him turned and left.

“Long, have you found the right place, or…”

He was guessing uncertainly in his mind, somewhat unconvinced that the World Government could actually find the GM Army’s base. Aren’t all the people in the CP intelligence department experts in civil war?
He also didn’t believe that the dragon would be so careless as to expose its position, unless…

“Blur-blur-blur-blur~ding!”

After taking out a white Den Den Mushi, Sakaski answered the call. A familiar voice came from the other end of the Den Den Mushi:
“Calculating the time, Sakaski, you should have received the transfer order, right? Don’t worry, the only people left on that island are the damn trash I screened out. Teacher Ross helped me find a better position. I wish you a happy promotion!”

“You went to see the master?”

In response to the inquiry, Long on the other end of the phone answered, and then recounted to Sakaski the conversation he had with Ross not long ago.

Sakaski nodded and said:

“Okay, I’ll go find him at Yatuo’s place. As for your base, I promise it will disappear from the map.”

“I trust you to do the job. If anyone wants to be promoted to lieutenant general in the future, please let me know. It shouldn’t be a big problem to cheat the Demon Slayer Order twice.”

“Um……”

(End of this chapter)