The next morning, at dawn.
Noah and his group, now disguised with new appearances, entered the Cherry Bar in Magic Valley Town.
Noah picked up a cherry pie and took a bite. The taste was mediocre—not bad, but nothing special either.
Ari handed him a newspaper.
"Boss, Kaido and Charlotte Linlin have taken the throne."
Noah sipped his lemon water. "Oh? As expected. Anything else interesting?"
"Admiral Sengoku has been officially confirmed as the new Fleet Admiral. He officially took office in the year 1510."
"1510?" Noah muttered to himself, taking another sip of his lemon water.
BANG! Suddenly, the bar door was kicked open violently.
A group of rowdy pirates swaggered in, walking with exaggerated, wide steps.
"This place is now claimed by the Ferocious Dragon Pirates!"
Noah glanced at them.
The speaker was none other than the first mate of the Ferocious Dragon Pirates, Kate. Standing behind him was their captain, the Raptor Vail.
"Well, what a pleasant surprise."
Ari immediately understood Noah's intentions.
In the blink of an eye, Ari appeared right in front of Kate. His finger, black as pitch, pierced directly through Kate's forehead.
Pop! Kate fell to the ground, eyes wide open in death.
"Bastard!" Vail roared in rage, his shirt tearing as he transformed.
But Ari was faster. He appeared behind Vail, his palm striking the captain's back.
In an instant, a micro-wormhole formed behind Vail, and a high-pressure stream of seawater shot through, piercing Vail. The seawater drastically weakened his Devil Fruit powers, and the high-pressure water blade broke through his defenses.
In the blink of an eye, Vail, a pirate with a bounty of 240 million Berries, collapsed, utterly defeated.
"Gulp…"
"So terrifying…"
"Who are these people?"
"I've never seen them before…"
The remaining patrons in the bar whispered among themselves, their faces filled with dread and fear as they glanced at Noah and his group.
Noah casually finished off the rest of his cherry pie, not wasting a crumb. After wiping his mouth, he left seven thousand Berries on the table. "Let's go."
Ari effortlessly picked up the unconscious, severely injured Vail and followed Noah out of the bar, leaving the patrons in shock.
After slipping past the various onlookers around them, the two disappeared into an abandoned house.
Back on the Nautilus, their submarine, Noah sealed Vail away.
The Nautilus then set course for Drum Island.
Drum Island was relatively close to Jaya Island, and both were on the same route.
With the help of a permanent Log Pose, Noah and his crew reached the waters near Drum Island in less than three days. Disguised once more, they made a secret landing on the island.
Drum Island, covered in ice and snow, had few populated areas aside from a few small ports. Most of the land was desolate, uninhabited tundra.
Noah used his Observation Haki to scan the island discreetly, and then his group ventured into a remote forest.
There, a young reindeer, having been exiled by its herd, was nibbling on moss hidden beneath the snow. This reindeer had a unique blue nose.
At this time, Chopper, who had not yet eaten the Human-Human Fruit, was still an innocent little reindeer. He looked curiously and fearfully at the sudden appearance of humans, before quickly fleeing deeper into the forest.
However, he underestimated the danger humans posed. Ari quickly jumped through a wormhole and blocked Chopper's path.
But Noah paid no attention to the chase between Ari and Chopper. He, along with Weevil and Raqi, was focused on searching the forest.
Before long, Raqi found something hidden beneath a fallen, snow-covered tree—a Devil Fruit.
Noah picked up the fruit, which looked somewhat like a mushroom. Tossing it in his hand, he noted, "For humans, this fruit is rather useless. It's no better than the Carp-Carp Fruit we found earlier—both are equally worthless."
"But for animals, this fruit could change everything."
Meanwhile, the exhausted little reindeer, having been thoroughly toyed with by Ari, was finally caught and brought back.
Ari noticed the Devil Fruit in Noah's hand and asked in surprise, "Boss, is that the Human-Human Fruit?"
"Let's feed it to this reindeer. For humans, this fruit is useless anyway."
Taking the Devil Fruit, Ari grinned mischievously as he looked at Chopper.
Before Chopper could react, something was stuffed into his mouth. A wave of nausea overwhelmed him, but Ari held his mouth shut, giving him no chance to spit it out.
Moments later, Chopper's body began to change, slowly transforming into a humanoid reindeer.
"Alright, enough playing around, Ari. Take him to Lilith. Let him live with Bepo for a while and learn about human society."
"Okay, lucky little guy," Ari said, opening a wormhole and sending Chopper back to the base in the Kingdom of Rum.
Noah and the others continued their exploration of Drum Island.
The island wasn't large, with a diameter of only around seventy kilometers. The harsh natural conditions made it unsuitable for human habitation.
If not for the Drum Kingdom's medical and pharmaceutical industry, the island wouldn't be able to support its nearly 40,000 residents.
In the midst of a snowstorm, Noah's group arrived at a small village.
Seeing the unfamiliar Noah and his group, the villagers immediately became wary. However, after Noah took out hundreds of thousands of Berries and claimed they were patients seeking treatment, the villagers relaxed a little.
While pretending to seek medical help, Noah subtly probed for information about the Drum Kingdom.
Before long, he obtained some useful intel.
For instance, last year, the king of the Drum Kingdom exiled the crown prince, Mushuru, to the neighboring Land of Fire. The reason? Mushuru had abused the power of his Devil Fruit, releasing toxic spores throughout the Drum Kingdom.
Apparently, the Mushroom-Mushroom Fruit had been eaten by this prince.
Noah wasn't disappointed. After all, the fruit being consumed didn't matter. At worst, he could turn the prince into an apostle, or wait until the technology to recover Devil Fruits was perfected and then reclaim the fruit.
Additionally, according to the villagers, the second prince, Wapol, though nasty in personality, had not yet developed his habit of eating everything in sight.
This suggested that Wapol hadn't consumed the Munch-Munch Fruit yet.
Chances were high that the Munch-Munch Fruit was still in the Drum Kingdom, most likely in the royal treasury. After all, the current king wasn't too bad of a ruler, and under his leadership, the Drum Kingdom had accumulated a fair amount of wealth. It was likely the king had sought out the Mushroom-Mushroom Fruit for his son.
When Ari returned, Noah waited until the dead of night and then stealthily infiltrated Drum Castle. With Ari's abilities and electromagnetic sensing, they quickly located the royal treasury.
As expected, the Munch-Munch Fruit was there.
The two took only the Devil Fruit, leaving the rest of the treasures untouched.
Before they left, they carved a wooden replica of the fruit and placed it in the chest. As long as no one ate it, the Drum Kingdom wouldn't realize anything was amiss.
Of course, Noah didn't plan to leave without plundering the kingdom's medical knowledge either.
Over the next month, Noah's group pretended to seek treatment while secretly collecting all the medical books in the Drum Kingdom, including copying the entire royal library's collection.
Other than the witch doctor's private collection, nearly all the medical knowledge in the Drum Kingdom was now in the hands of the Noah family.