One Piece: Capitalist Brook's Crew Expansion Plan

Chapter 447: Marking the Island-Swallowing Lantern Fish

If the massive lantern on that Lantern Fish contains a ton of pure gold, then he’s about to strike it rich!

That said, pure gold loses its rarity if there’s too much of it around, but for now, the priority is figuring out how to get his hands on it!

Brook knew the Lantern Fish had been drawn in by the pure gold glow from Alchemi Island, which suggested it had probably encountered that light before—likely because it had already swallowed some pure gold.

Two hundred years ago, it was already that enormous, bigger than even the giant Sea Kings. This thing must have devoured pure gold ages ago, letting it live who knows how long and grow to such a massive size!

Even if its huge lantern isn’t entirely made of pure gold now, there should at least be some in there. Otherwise, how could it emit such a powerful light and survive for so damn long?

"Yo ho ho, that pure gold has to be ours!!!"

Golden Lion Shiki’s eyes lit up with intense greed. Immortality—who wouldn’t want that?

With a chance like this right in front of them, letting it slip away would be the biggest regret of his life!

"Eternal youth—we want it too!" x2.

Charlotte Linlin and Stussy chimed in unison, their interest immediately piqued by the news of pure gold. Beauty and staying young forever? That’s every woman’s ultimate dream.

This legendary stuff that supposedly grants eternal life actually exists—it’s enough to drive anyone mad with obsession!

"Then we’re going all out this time. We’ve got to make it ours!"

Brook declared firmly. Right now, he was hoping Den could fire that signal launcher onto the Lantern Fish’s body. Even if they couldn’t get there in time to back him up, they’d at least be able to track it down later!

"Charge ahead—immortality’s waiting for us!!"

Golden Lion Shiki excitedly steered the flying fleet, urging Qilin Lion to push harder and crank the Wind-Wind Fruit’s power to the max. They needed to get there in the shortest time possible!

Brook and his top officers started hashing out a plan to take down the Lantern Fish. In the end, they decided the best approach was to zap it with lightning and knock it out cold!

"This time, Redfield’s thunder and Linlin’s thunderclouds will lead the assault. Then we’ll all hit it with a focused burst of our Conqueror’s Haki to stun it—we’ve got to keep that Island-Swallowing Lantern Fish from getting away!

If we don’t knock it out in time, Shiki, you’ll use islands to block its path, and Newgate, you’ll whip up a tsunami to stop it from escaping!

The second we spot the Island-Swallowing Lantern Fish, unleash your strongest attacks without holding back. We’ve got to take it down in one go, or if it slips away this time, we might never see it again. Got it?!"

Brook laid out the reminders for everyone. When dealing with the Lantern Fish, it was best to go straight for the kill shots—no room for it to react.

"Got it!" xN.

The crew could feel how crucial this operation was. One slip-up, and it could haunt them for life.

After all, it had been over a hundred years since the Lantern Fish last showed up. None of them had the luxury of waiting another century.

No matter how strong they were, they couldn’t escape the fact that humans were short-lived. Living to eighty or ninety was already pushing it!

Seeing the crew get serious fired Brook up with anticipation for the mission!

Lantern Fish, just hold on a bit—we’re coming!

The flying fleet zipped over sea after sea, drawing the attention of pirates on various islands below.

...

Meanwhile, northwest of Alchemi Island, Den and the rest of the Fish-Man Island search team raced to catch up with the Lantern Fish. They climbed onto its gigantic back like ants scrambling up an elephant, not drawing even the slightest notice from the beast.

"Captain Den, this Lantern Fish’s scales are way too thick and huge—we’re having a hell of a time getting the signal harpoon in!"

The fish-man team members were tense as hell. They only had two signal harpoons; screw this up, and they’d be in for some serious punishment.

"Then check the fins or the tail—see if there’s any weak spot where we can stick the signal harpoon without issue!"

Den stared at those house-sized scales, his scalp tingling. This Lantern Fish was bigger than the massive Sea Kings in the Calm Belt, and its scales were insanely tough.

Those two signal harpoons probably wouldn’t pierce through to set properly. If they forced it and broke them, they’d be in deep trouble.

The fish-men spread out, scouting for any fin that looked vulnerable enough to plant the harpoon safely.

Den swam toward the dorsal fin. When he caught sight of the Island-Swallowing Lantern Fish’s enormous glowing lantern, he was mesmerized. If they could install something like that huge lantern on Fish-Man Island...

Then even Fish-Man Street could bask in plenty of sunlight, right?

Right now, the upper levels at Ryugu Palace got sunlight almost as good as the surface world, but down in Fish-Man Street, it was mostly dark and gloomy all the time.

That just made the place even more shady!

But ever since Brook started protecting Fish-Man Island, things had improved a lot. At least fish-men could join the Hell Pirates and move to Brook’s territory, living freely under the sun.

Still, the Hell Pirates only recruited fish-men or mermaids with real talent. Plenty of ordinary folks were still stuck in the sunless depths of Fish-Man Street.

A bunch of regular fish-men were risking their lives to make a living in Brook’s domains. Under his rules, kidnappings and sales of fish-men had dropped way off.

That drew even more fish-men out of Fish-Man Street to live on the surface!

Fish-Man Island’s population of four or five million had seen nearly a hundred thousand fish-men heading to Brook’s turf for work, but most still wouldn’t leave the island.

Centuries of built-up fear made the majority of fish-men wary and suspicious of humans—they’d rather stick it out in the harsh Fish-Man Street than venture up top.

The more Den stared at that massive lantern, the more entranced he became. But remembering the mission, he grabbed one of the signal harpoons and started hunting for a good spot on the dorsal fin!

Every time the Lantern Fish flicked a fin, it was like a mountain swinging at these tiny fish-men—pure danger, and it made planting the harpoon damn near impossible!

Seeing the Lantern Fish starting to head toward the deep sea had Den and his team panicking. Den eyed the fleshy stalk connecting the huge lantern to the fish.

Without a second thought, he charged over and jabbed his trident in. Surprisingly, even that stalk was tough as nails—Den had to go all out just to carve out a hole and slam the signal harpoon in deep!

On the other side, a shark fish-man gave up trying to be precise and just jammed his signal harpoon into a gap between the massive scales. It might fall out easy that way, but what choice did they have?

The Lantern Fish was picking up speed into the deep sea—if they didn’t act now, they’d never keep up!

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