Chapter 709: 709 Sherwin: I Have Three Strategies—Top, Middle, and Bottom
"Oh, right, the World Government is also suspected of possessing an Ancient Weapon named ’Uranus, which can erase an entire island from this world with just a single strike..."
Sherwin continued, as if he had just remembered: "The reason Vegapunk is so important to the World Government is because he can create the energy capable of driving ’Uranus."
After a brief pause, he added: "And besides the energy provided by Vegapunk, I’m also not sure if the World Government, or rather Imu, has other ways to drive it. After all, eight hundred years ago, there was no Vegapunk." free𝑤ebnovel.com
One piece of news after another caused the expression on Dragon face to keep changing constantly...
He hadn’t even fully digested the previous matters regarding Imu yet!
"So, after knowing all this, what do you plan to do?"
"Imu and the Ancient Weapon are indeed terrifying, but I don’t intend to just admit defeat like this!"
Dragon replied with a firm face.
However, Sherwin curled his lips, quite speechless.
"Who asked you about that?!"
"Eh?"
The people of the pirate world were all single-minded, and Sherwin was not worried at all that Dragon would waver in his resolve to overthrow the World Government because of the existence of Imu or ’Uranus.
"What I want to ask is, what do you and your Revolutionary Army intend to do next? Will you cope with all changes by remaining unchanged, continuing along your current path to nibble away at the World Government rule step by step, or will you risk everything, finding a way to force Imu to make a move to see what his ability actually is and what other trump cards he has?"
"This..."
Dragon blanked for a moment, then smiled bitterly and said, "Right now, I simply don’t have the spare mind to consider these things. Even the news you just shared will take me some time to digest, and even if a decision is to be made, it has to wait until I discuss it with my companions."
"True, I took things too much for granted."
Sherwin nodded in realization. Having pondered this for so many days himself, he still hadn’t been able to figure out whether to broadcast the news about Imu to the world. Expecting Dragon to make a decision right away now was indeed asking a bit too much.
"Do you have any advice, Mr. Sherwin?"
Dragon, who had maintained a respectful tone toward Sherwin all along, asked in return.
Because he had previously received Sherwin "high-level, big-picture" guidance through Kuma, Dragon naturally viewed Sherwin through a favorable lens.
In Dragon eyes, Sherwin was a wise figure who, after just a few years of traveling, had seen through the true nature of the World Government—something Dragon himself had only realized after serving in the Navy for many years. In fact, Sherwin seemed to see even deeper and further than he did.
But in reality, Sherwin had simply witnessed better social civilizations, and his horizons were merely much broader than those of a native from the pirate world like Dragon.
Although Sherwin wasn’t fully aware of Dragon mental journey, seeing him like this allowed him to guess more or less how the other man perceived him...
He treating me like a strategist!
However, Sherwin, who never really had any desire to claim a throne or dominate but still wanted to overthrow the World Government and the Celestial Dragons, didn’t mind brainstorming and planning for Dragon.
After all, no matter how one looked at it, the Revolutionary Army was still the tallest dwarf among the giant crowd in the pirate world.
Thus, Sherwin laid out all the plans he had racked his brain to come up with over this past period, emptying out everything he had learned in his past life, and handed them over to Dragon for reference.
"If you plan to play it safe, there actually not much to say. Continue at your current pace, slowly infiltrating the affiliated nations, and even the Navy and the World Government.
However, in my view, whether it the Navy, the World Government, or even those Celestial Dragons, they are all disposable to Imu. They are merely tools Imu uses to control this world.
In the end, we will still have to face Imu and the Five Elders under his control... Furthermore, we cannot be certain whether he can create even more ’Five Elder."
Although the World Government had maintained the configuration of the "Five Elders" for so many years, and that strange pentagram array seemed to prove that the upper limit of Imu "servants" was only five, these were, after all, just speculations.
Furthermore, since the Five Elders possess immortality, does Imu themselves have a similar or perhaps even stronger ability?
These were all things they needed to confirm.
Slowly eroding the World Government rule and clipping Imu wings certainly seemed like it could reduce a massive number of casualties, but doing so could very likely lead to one consequence—an isolated and desperate Imu going completely mad and opting for a mutually assured destruction approach.
If they were just an ancient being capable of controlling the Five Elders with impressive personal strength, it wouldn’t be a huge deal at worst, it would just be an "enhanced Yonko Pro-Max." But if, in addition to Uranuss, they possessed some other hidden trump card, then the situation would be entirely different.
Zou Zunesha had once mentioned that the war eight hundred years ago caused the entire sea level to rise frantically, submerging vast areas of land and creating the current peculiar geographical environment dominated by oceans and islands.
Therefore, the steady and safe path was, to some extent, the most unstable one. It was a gamble that Imu had no other means to drag the entire world down with them besides Uranuss.
As for risking everything on a single throw, it was easy to say, but what kind of price would have to be paid to do so? ƒrēewebnovel.com
The people of the Revolutionary Army were certainly not afraid of sacrifice, but the countries that had been turned to their side might not necessarily be willing to follow them in doing this.
Even if they used the puppet kingdoms controlled by the Revolutionary Army to launch an attack on Pangaea Castle, they might not necessarily be able to break through the defensive line of the Navy and the Five Elders.
If a massive amount of combat power was sacrificed, and the Revolutionary Army hidden forces were exposed as a result, yet the goal was not achieved, such a sacrifice would become entirely meaningless.
"...Therefore, I have actually been considering whether to secretly spread the news about Imu. Whether using the hands of pirates and ambitious people to test Imu, or because Imu can no longer sit still and actively leaps out themselves, as long as they step out from the shadows, finding out their trump cards will be much easier. It just..."
Sherwin shifted the conversation, voicing the worry he had harbored all along: "Doing this is equally likely to provoke an even stronger reaction from Imu. They have always been hiding their existence, so it is highly possible they would do something like ’killing everyone who knows the truth,’ just like how the World Government treated those historians of Ohara."
Recalling the Celestial Dragons he had seen before, as well as the tragic state of Ohara after being bombarded by the Buster Call, Dragon nodded in silence, also believing that Sherwin worry was highly likely to happen.
"Furthermore, if Imu ability to grant immortality comes with no cost or conditions, it highly likely that many people would defect to his side."
After all, it is immortality, and it might even come with the effect of longevity. Not everyone can remain indifferent to that.
"It really is a very difficult choice..."
After listening to Sherwin analysis, Dragon couldn’t help but fall into a dilemma. "And no matter which choice is made, it could ultimately result in a large number of innocent casualties."
"Actually... there is one more way." Sherwin looked at Dragon with a somewhat complicated expression. "Have you ever heard of ’Nika’?"