Chapter 403: Ian’s thoughts

After hearing Crocodile’s words, Ian couldn’t help laughing.

He sat down on a stone beside the street, then raised his hand to signal Crocodile to sit down and talk.

Crocodile was very reluctant, but he had no choice but to obey. Finally, he found a stone and sat face to face with Ian, with his feet spread out and his elbows on both knees. He ignited a cigar and looked at Ian.

“Old bag of sand!” Ian was used to calling him that now, so he opened his mouth and said: “If I give you back your soul, what are you going to do next? Return to Alabasta?”

“Where else would I go?” Crocodile snorted.

“Are you still planning to carry out your plan?” Ian touched his chin and asked him with interest: “Are you still planning to seize Alabasta and look for clues about Pluto?”

Crocodile was no longer surprised about how Ian knew his plan. He squinted at Ian and said, “What? Are you going to stop my plan the same way you stopped Doflamingo? That guy named Sabo is the Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Army, since you are involved with him, do you also want to follow the revolutionary army?”

“No, I’m not that good!” Ian shook his head and said. “Even if there are some things that I don’t like, as long as it doesn’t involve me, I won’t care much. Doflamingo was a special case, because we were hostile to each other, so I had to take care of him, which has nothing to do with the revolutionary army!”

Crocodile coldly snorted, expressing his disbelief in Ian’s words, the emergence of Sabo made Crocodile skeptical of Ian’s true identity, and suspected that he is also a member of the Revolutionary Army. However, out of fear of Ian and the leader of the revolutionary army, Dragon, the world’s biggest criminal, Crocodile intended to bury this matter in his heart.

Ian didn’t care about his cold snort, and continued. “The reason why I mentioned this is that I don’t understand the meaning of what you are doing, even if Alabasta really has clues about Pluto, one of the ancient Weapons, it has been more than 800 years ago since it existed, I am afraid it must have already weathered and decayed, even if you find its whereabout, what’s the use of such a thing?”

“That’s my business!” Crocodile snorted again and said impatiently, “What do you want to say?”

“Come with me, join my pirate group!” Ian stared at him and said, “I still lack a chief of staff on my ship!”

Crocodile was stunned, but then pointed at Ian with his pirate hook and laughed: “Kuahahahaha!”

He laughed so loudly that he felt like he was about to cry. Even though his sloppy look means that he’s mocking Ian, but Ian still looked at him with a smile.

“You, you actually want to recruit me, a fellow Shichibukai, to your ship as the chief of staff?” Crocodile laughed out of breath, and said: “Ian, I admit that you are very powerful, but don’t you think that this idea is too ridiculous? I’m Don Crocodile, we have the same rank, we are equals! Why would I be recruited by you?”

Ian didn’t mind Crocodile’s ridicule. In fact, when he said this, this was anticipated.

In Ian’s view, Crocodile is indeed a target that can be won. Although it seems that Crocodile appears as a villain in the story, but after a deep study of his personality, you will find that there is a fundamental difference between him and Doflamingo’s evil.

Doflamingo’s deeds reflect his arrogant attitude and his despise of everything, regarding every life around him as an ant. He takes his evil deeds for granted. The garbage and the weak have no rights and should die. While Crocodile’s evil is unscrupulous, aiming to achieve his goal with any means.

Ian’s pirate group, now only has him and Fujitora as high-end combat forces, although Ian is trying his best to gather and expand his power, it has to be said that there is still a gap between the strong and high-end combat power. The real strength is tyrannical. In this pirate world, the really powerful ones are the guys who have made a reputation for themselves. How can those be so easily recruited?

And the so-called defeating them and subduing them is just a delusion. Every strong man has his own way of doing things. How can it be possible to make people change what they feel just by suppressing them by force? The reason why Uncle Fujitora accepted joining Ian’s ship was only because he and Ian had similar personalities.

But in any case, in this battle against Doflamingo, Ian found the advantages of having enough high-end combat forces by his side. In the face of the famous Heavenly Yaksha, they almost crushed him, and wiped him from this earth. The only person who caused trouble in this battle for Ian was Doflamingo, none of the senior cadres.

Realizing the benefits of being so strong, Ian is trying to find as many strong people as possible to join his pirate group, and Crocodile is obviously a good candidate.

Even if he lost to him in the previous battle, his strength is unquestionable.

Crocodile’s answer was anticipated from his arrogant character, even if he wasn’t Ian’s opponent, he did not want to be subordinate to others.

However, when he looked at Ian’s smile, his laughter gradually diminished, and he said to Ian, “You ain’t kidding?”

“Are you serious?”

“Let’s put it this way!” Ian tilted his head and thought for a while: “You may think that my proposal is difficult for you to accept now, but my words won’t change in the future, if you change your mind, then in the future will always reserve a place for you!”

Ian’s expression of “I’m very optimistic about you” made Crocodile very depressed.

After that, Ian didn’t talk nonsense… He pretended to take out something from his pocket, while he entered the inventory of his System to bring out the soul ball of Crocodile and then threw it to him.

Crocodile hurriedly caught his soul light ball and then snarled at Ian: “Be careful!”

He was very unhappy with Ian’s indifferent attitude towards his soul.

Ian shrugged.

“How do I put this back?” Crocodile asked him.

“Eat it! Maybe…” Ian scratched his head.

Blue veins on Crocodile’s forehead emerged, what does this uncertain tone mean? He wanted to grab Ian’s collar and ask loudly, have you ever thought about how would I put this part of my soul back!?

But after thinking about it, he had no choice but to swallow this light mass.

Fortunately, this approach was correct. The soul mass dissipated in Crocodile’s mouth and merged with him again.

This is the first time that Crocodile has eaten his own soul. It feels so good… refreshing!

The feeling of suddenly becoming whole again made Crocodile realize that his soul really came back, so he looked at Ian, and his eyes couldn’t help but have a little bit of eagerness in his eyes.

Now that he’s freed of Ian’s hands, Crocodile wanted to get going.

However, Ian was not worried at all. After he saw Crocodile’s decision, he casually plucked his ears and said: “You should think clearly. If I can pull out your soul once, I can do it a second time! If that happens, I can not guarantee that I won’t crush it by mistake!”

“Humph!” After hearing this, Crocodile finally restrained his mind. He knew that Ian’s ability restrained him in all aspects. If he fought Ian again, he would probably lose. So he stopped thinking about it and said: “Do you really want Nicole Robin to stay in your pirate group?”

“Well, with you, she is just a person who is being used!” Ian said: “But she is very important to some people.”

What Ian said was naturally referring to the revolutionary army. He thought, maybe he could meet the revolutionary army leader Dragon, if Nico Robin was by his side?

If he could see Dragon, he would definitely ask, what’s going to happen next to Uncle Kuma?

In Ian’s life, there are only a few people who he deeply cares about, first is Kuina and her father, then Zoro as his younger brother, he also has Ace, as a blood brother, and finally Uncle Kuma.

For Ian, Uncle Kuma is a person who has helped him a lot, but he has never asked him for anything in return. Ian is very grateful to him and respects him a lot. He is like a selfless elder brother. Therefore, in the face of his volunteering to become the object of transformation of Vegapunk, Ian has always been very concerned.

But now, the transformation is irretrievable. Ian knows that when the transformation is completed, it is equivalent to losing a dear friend. This kind of thought makes Ian very depressed.

Since there is no way of stopping it, then at least we should understand his real intention. Maybe the revolutionary army are planning for something big? Maybe then he can contribute to his uncle’s wishes?