Pirates, Start with the vampire fruit and rescue the empress

Haiyuan calendar year 1518.

The first half of the Great Line, St. Din.

This is a very large island with an area of ​​hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, a rare sight on the great waterways. There is a kingdom called Alabasta on it, with a population of tens of millions and a standing army of 600,000.

This country is in the first half of the Great Waterway and belongs to the ranks of superpowers. Simply based on population, few countries can match it.

Kingdom of Alabasta, capital Albana.

In the meeting hall of the palace, sitting on a large throne, was a middle-aged man wearing a purple robe and with medium-long black hair.

His name is Neferutari Kobra. He is the current king of the Kingdom of Alabasta. He is diligent and caring for the people, and is known for his wisdom.

For many years, the entire country has been under his governance. Although it cannot be said to be prosperous, it can be regarded as peaceful and peaceful.

Since Kobra never levied exorbitant taxes, even though the Kingdom of Alabasta was a desert country, its citizens could still maintain a living standard above the subsistence line after paying the heavenly gold and taxes necessary to maintain the country’s operations.

Therefore, the citizens of Alabasta respect this wise king from the bottom of their hearts and have full trust in him.

However……

At this moment, Kobra was sitting on the throne, his brows were furrowed, his eyes were full of worry, and even his face showed a trace of sadness that could not be concealed.

Except for the capital Albana, in the Kingdom of Alabasta, there has been no rain for a whole year, which triggered a severe drought, causing all the food crops grown in the country to wither and causing many citizens to fall into famine.

In the face of such drought and famine, with Kobra’s means and ability in power for many years, even if it caused some trouble, it would not actually cause him such distress.

The main reason why Cobra looked sad was because of the dancing fan incident that occurred in the capital Albana some time ago, which caused public resentment. Rebels even appeared in some places and clashed with the king’s army. , there were casualties…

Dancing powder is a product invented a long time ago in a country where it doesn’t rain. After burning, it can produce mist-like smoke, which floats into the air and absorbs water vapor in the sky, creating the so-called “artificial rain clouds” , resulting in rainfall.

The origin of the name “Dancing Fans” was originally to hope that people would happily dance and celebrate because of the rain. The intention was good.

However……

Once dancing powder is used, due to the loss of water vapor in the air, drought will occur in neighboring countries living downwind. As a result, large-scale wars broke out in the countries that discovered this. From then on, the world government banned the production of and Hold dancing powder.

but……

Some time ago, without Kobra’s complete knowledge, a large amount of dancing powder was transported into the palace’s warehouse. Even the soldiers who transported the dancing powder had some problems on the way to the palace. The “accident” caused a large amount of dancing powder to be poured on the ground, which was witnessed by many citizens.

Immediately afterwards, the story of King Kobra disregarding the lives and deaths of citizens in other places and abusing dancing powder to make rain in the capital Albana began to spread widely. Many citizens from drought-stricken areas began to come to the gate of the palace to question him. Why do this.

In this regard, Kobra could only stand up and face the citizens who came to question him, saying that he would never do anything that disregarded the life and death of the people, and hoped that everyone could calm down. He would definitely give a solution to the people. They explained with satisfaction.

However……

The problem in this matter is that the palace of the Kingdom of Alabasta, the residence of the king of the country, has now been infiltrated to the extent that people don’t even know about the large amount of dancing fans being imported…! ?

This means that the enemy has probably completely infiltrated the entire palace, and is likely to be paying close attention to his every move.

Thinking of this, Cobra suddenly had a headache and even felt a little chilly. It was really hard for him to imagine which force could actually do this!

Click-!

The heavy door of the meeting hall was opened from the outside and quickly closed again.

Peru, the falcon, who was wearing a white Arab headscarf and a white robe, and Gaka, the jackal, who was wearing a cyan robe, walked along the long red carpet with Baccarat, who was wearing a black dress. Not far from Kobra.

Baccarat smiled, nodded slightly and bowed:

“Hello, King Kobra!

I’m the secretary of the umbrella company

Changbakara, it is an honor to be received by you. ”

“Miss Baccarat, as a senior executive of the Umbrella Company, why do you come to visit me?”

Cobra carefully looked at the voluptuous red-haired woman in front of him, and he couldn’t help showing a slightly confused expression on his face.

“The reason why I came to visit you this time is to discuss with you whether we can cooperate on some commercial projects.”

“Business collaboration with umbrella companies…?

Can you tell me specifically what it is about? “Cobra said in surprise.

“Our umbrella company wants to obtain the mineral mining rights of a certain mountain in the Kingdom of Alabasta.

In addition, there are also mining rights for certain mineral locations near these three cities, Cattleya, Rapeseed, and Eluma. ”

Hearing this, Cobra couldn’t help but frown slightly and said in a deep voice:

“Can you tell me what minerals you want to mine in these four places in the Kingdom of Alabasta?”

“The former is metal minerals, and the latter is three oil fields.” Baccarat explained with a smile.

“Huh!? We in the Kingdom of Alabasta actually have oil fields.”

An expression of joy and surprise appeared on Kobra’s face.

In the world of One Piece, people have already provided oil to extract gasoline, diesel, paraffin and other items, so the oil fields themselves have high industrial value, even if internal combustion engines have not been widely promoted.

Baccarat undoubtedly brought good news to Kobra, allowing him to develop a new source of additional income for the country.

“Yes! Our Umbrella Company has very good mineral exploration technology, so we can accurately detect the mineral resources under the ground.

Ordinary people can’t do what our company does! “Bakala pointed out with intention.

Hearing this, Cobra suddenly fell silent. He knew that Baccarat was not lying.

If the mineral resources in those four places were really so easy to discover, it would have been impossible for the Neferutali family, which had ruled the Kingdom of Alabasta for hundreds of years, not to exploit them.

Although Kobra now knows that there are these mineral resources underground in his country, if he cannot find them, he will naturally not be able to mine them.

However……

If the mineral mining rights are sold to the umbrella company, although the Kingdom of Alabasta should be able to obtain some benefits, the lost benefits are also not small.

Now, two choices are before Cobra. One is to cooperate with the umbrella company to reduce the profits he gets, and the other is to send people to spend time to survey and investigate, find those mineral resources, and let Alabasta The kingdom receives all the proceeds.

Cobra looked at Baccarat in front of him. He pondered for a while before speaking:

“I’m very sorry! Miss Baccarat, I have no intention of selling mineral mining rights to your company for the time being…”