If things went well, Alan thought recruiting Sanji as his right-hand man would be pretty good.
Next was Nami. Although her combat power was ordinary, her navigation skills were undoubtedly top-tier.
Entering the Grand Line, his shallow sailing knowledge alone definitely wasn't enough; he absolutely needed a professional navigator.
Besides, if she got a weather-related Devil Fruit someday, Nami's combat power could still be raised.
If he expanded later and formed a large fleet, it would be necessary to set up a navigation department; after all, marine fleets were equipped like that.
Staring at the endless blue sky, Alan gradually sank into his wonderful fantasies, completely ignoring the premise of whether he could actually recruit them.
Aside from those two, the other person in East Blue that is worth paying attention to…
Kuro had no ambition, so he had no interest in him.
Alvida... A bad-tempered old fat woman, no.
As for Arlong… if he wanted to recruit Nami, Arlong could only be sacrificed.
Thinking carefully, the only person left that he remembered was the man known as the king of luck.
Buggy the Star Clown.
Although weak and cowardly, Buggy actually had some ambition, and he was well-traveled, having sailed the Grand Line with Roger.
However…
As Alan pondered, he realized the benefits of recruiting Buggy were actually few. Luck was just something people talked about; he couldn't really rely on that.
Instead, he felt Buggy would bring him nothing but trouble.
"Someone like that might not be good to bring aboard. Forget it."
Alan shook his head, dismissing the idea of recruiting Buggy.
After checking his heading again and confirming there was no problem, Alan closed his eyes and fell asleep under the sun.
...
At the same time.
On an uninhabited island at the edge of the Gecko Islands, a dark-red pirate ship was anchored near a cliffside.
A man wearing red heart-shaped sunglasses and a blue trench coat jumped down, landing on the small rowboat beside the pirate ship.
"Yo, I'm leaving the ship to you two, Sham, Buchi."
Jango adjusted his hat and shouted upward.
On the pirate ship, a row of pirates leaned against the railing.
The two in front were one fat and one thin, the thin one with eye-catching green hair, while the fat one was wearing a cow hood.
They were Buchi and Sham of the Nyaban Brothers, the guards of the Black Cat Pirates' ship.
"Leave this to us. Just go. Remember to give us the signal quickly."
Sham licked his cat-paw gloves like a cat, cold light flashing in his eyes as he said with a chilling smile: "Everyone can barely hold back anymore..."
"Don't worry, I won't keep you waiting."
Jango lowered his hat brim, a cold smile curling at his lips.
Three whole years, finally, the day had come.
Soon, he rowed away from the shore, heading toward the other side of the Gecko Islands, toward a small island dotted with several villages.
...
Elsewhere.
"1,688... 1,695... 1,700..."
A small boat drifted on the calm sea, the water level rising and falling with the sounds from above.
Alan, bare-chested, was doing one-handed handstand push-ups on the deck.
Sweat slid down his muscle lines, along the supporting arm, then down to the single finger pressed onto the deck.
Sailing alone was incredibly boring. Other than sleeping, the only way to kill time was training.
After finishing 2,000 one-finger handstand push-ups, he switched to the other hand.
A weighted squat with his backpack, then shadowboxing at the stern, then eating… for now, he could only stick to these dull basic workouts.
The boat was small, and he had no equipment, especially no weights.
A hundred-pound backpack meant nothing to his current strength. He even started considering whether it was feasible to tie the boat behind him and swim across the sea while dragging it.
Truly carrying a boat on the road.
...
In the end, he didn't do that obviously stupid thing.
Time flowed on, and Alan experienced two full cycles of day and night on the sea.
Until noon on the third day.
The endlessly unchanged blue horizon finally revealed the shadow of an island!
"Finally, an island!"
Alan grabbed the oars excitedly with blazing eyes and swung both arms wildly, leaving afterimages as he rowed at full force toward the nearest island.
As the small boat raced over the sea surface, dragging a white trail behind it, it reached the shore in just a few blinks.
Alan separated from the boat mid-speed, leaping high into the air, spinning two and a half times under the sun, and landing perfectly with his legs together!
Under a rock, three hermit crabs held up scoreboards, giving him a supreme rating of 10 points!
…
After being a marine for several years, Alan had accumulated some sailing experience, but this was still the first time he tried sailing alone.
There wasn't even a single person he could talk to, and the long-lasting solitude endlessly magnified all kinds of physical and psychological discomfort that came with sailing.
It had only been two days, and he already couldn't bear it anymore.
With both feet stepping onto the ground and sinking slightly into the soft sand, Alan felt an incomparable sense of relief.
The first thing to do after coming ashore was, of course, to have a good meal.
Alan first took some dry rations out of his backpack and gnawed on them to fill his stomach a little. Then he found a rock to secure his boat, grabbed his weapons, and some essential tools.
Naturally, his little shabby boat had no refrigerator, and fresh ingredients were hard to preserve.
Although he had brought enough dry rations, if he wanted to eat something better, he still had to rely on hunting or fishing.
After finishing all this, Alan turned to look toward the interior of the island.
Not far from the beach was a lush forest. It appeared this was an uninhabited island.
"Since that's the case, there should be quite a few wild beasts on this island."
Alan thought to himself, hands in his pockets, as he strode into the forest.
At the same time.
Deep inside the forest, several pirates were working together to carry a wild boar nearly two meters long. As they walked, they argued over who contributed more to the hunt.
Suddenly…