One Piece: Capitalist Brook's Crew Expansion Plan-Chapter 130: - : Sleeping Ancient Town

With the Golden Ark’s lightning system now paired with Golden Lion Shiki’s Float-Float Fruit, its speed was unmatched. The ship departed directly from Baron Island.

No one else knew the Hell Pirates had already left their territory on Elan Island.

"Brook, that old town with the vampire legend—Sleeping Town—is in the New World, somewhere between Dressrosa and Drum Island. There’s an isolated, ancient island right in the middle of that sea zone.

Legend says it was once home to an ancient kingdom that fell for unknown reasons. Lots of myths were left behind, and the island’s usually shrouded in mist."

Antonio flipped through stacks of intel as he explained in detail.

An ancient kingdom? No wonder in the original timeline, Redfield had to rely on Nico Robin to decipher ancient text just to locate the Vampire Fruit.

So that means... the Vampire Devil Fruit was discovered ages ago? And just left there, buried in myth?

Were people back then brain-dead or what? Who finds a rare Mythical Zoan-type Devil Fruit and doesn’t eat it? They actually treated it like treasure and stored it away?

Or maybe there was some reason the original owner didn’t—or couldn’t—eat it. Some kind of fear?

Did they discover the "devil" inside the fruit? Could the Vampire Fruit, like the Nika Fruit, have a will of its own?

...

Using nautical charts, Shakky led the way. With no Eternal Pose to guide them, they had no choice but to rely on rumors and legends, searching island by island for this so-called Sleeping Town.

Ten days passed.

Meanwhile, the Sea Siren Pirates had already clashed with the Ice Demon Pirates, and were locked in an ongoing battle. The Golden Ark had also landed on more than a dozen islands along the way.

"Found it! That’s where Sleeping Town is!"

With her future on the line, Shakky was all in—ten days of failure hadn’t dulled her enthusiasm one bit.

The island was cloaked in thick fog, eerie and lifeless. Not a sign of civilization in sight. The Golden Ark descended directly in the middle of the abandoned town.

And there it was—dead center in town, a massive, decaying Gothic castle. It stood out like a sore thumb, practically screaming "look at me!"

Brook led the crew off the ship and into the decrepit ruins. The gloomy atmosphere already made everyone uneasy. With the island constantly enveloped in mist, it was even darker inside.

"No biggie!"

Charlotte Linlin’s sun, Prometheus, flared to life, lighting up the castle with blazing fire. A swarm of bats erupted from the ceiling, startling everyone into high alert.

Redfield responded instantly, unleashing an electric net that fried a chunk of the bats mid-air. Silva silently pulled out a few Lamp Dials and handed them to fellow science nerds Crocus and Tom.

The three of them began combing the area. It didn’t take long before they stumbled across some ancient inscriptions—eerily similar to the writing in the ancient blueprints Brook had given them.

"Captain Brook, we don’t know what any of this says. What now?"

No one present could read the text. Translation? Forget it. All eyes turned to Brook, the ’all-knowing and all-capable.’

"I’ve got no clue either," Brook admitted. "So I hereby declare: the Hell Pirates Demolition Division is officially in operation! Start tearing it down from the top floor—we will find that fruit!"

Subtlety? Decoding? Please. Brook was going full brute force.

"Much appreciated, everyone~! I owe you big time!"

Shakky bowed with a grin, hands together in thanks, and started handing out her signature lady’s cigarettes like party favors. Total lady thug energy.

Redfield glanced her way but didn’t accept the smoke. Instead, he transformed into lightning and zipped to a far corner of the castle, launching precise sword slashes to avoid damaging the Devil Fruit.

Golden Lion Shiki, unimpressed with the lady’s smokes, bit down on his cigar, slapped a hand to the castle wall—and half the structure floated into the sky as he began separating its materials by type.

Redfield paused mid-attack. Damn. This guy just one-upped him. He silently drifted back to the ground.

Charlotte Linlin released a flood of souls, turning the castle’s doors, cabinets, and other furniture into Homies. They started interrogating everything in sight about the whereabouts of the Devil Fruit.

Seeing that, Whitebeard let the white glow fade from his hand. The Tremor-Tremor Fruit was too destructive for a scavenger hunt. He stepped back beside Redfield, who still wore his signature deadpan expression.

The rest of the crew started cracking open the separated furnishings Shiki had floated down. Useless debris got launched aside and shaped into a giant stone lion.

The sound of furniture being smashed, pried open, and tossed around filled the air. Even Brook had to admire the convenience of the Float-Float Fruit. Shiki’s application was... inspired.

"Boxes, boxes, boxes..."

A few toy-like Homies carried crates out of the wreckage, chanting like wind-up dolls.

"Found it!! Hell yeah!!"

Shakky clutched a purple Devil Fruit covered in swirling vine-like markings. It gave off an ominous, mysterious aura.

"Brook, is this it?! The Vampire—Mythical Zoan—Devil Fruit?!"

She couldn’t risk it being some useless weakling fruit. Her entire future depended on it.

"That should be the one. Congrats, my Vampire Queen."

Brook hadn’t expected things to go this smoothly. The Hell Pirates’ demolition search squad was just that good. Why even bother decoding ancient text when you could just tear the place down?

What, go kidnap Nico Robin like Redfield? Nah.

No wonder grave robbers always lost to tomb raiders and mountain movers. The latter had teams, tools, and brute force. They didn’t dig careful tunnels—they blasted straight through mountains.

Who wastes time with riddles when you can just steamroll your way to treasure?

...

With Brook’s confirmation, Shakky didn’t hesitate. She took a big bite. Her face scrunched up in disgust, but she powered through and devoured the entire Devil Fruit.

Before their eyes, Shakky began to change.

Her canine teeth extended into vampire fangs. The tips of her ears sharpened, her pupils turned red, and her fingernails grew into claws.

"Shakky, can you pop out wings too? I mean, it is a bat-themed fruit, right?" Brook teased.

He knew the Vampire Fruit let the user turn into a swarm of bats to evade attacks—similar to Moria’s Shadow-Shadow Fruit.

Shakky tried to squeeze out some wings, but no luck—for now. She’d only just eaten the fruit. More power would come with time.

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