I Have No Interest in Money / You Count as 2 Stars Too?

At first, there had even been only one inventory slot.

Although each system inventory slot had an enormous capacity, the drop rate for slots was far too low. Ruidio had spent two years doing missions and gained only one more slot...

"What are you looking at?"

Ruidio noticed Nami staring intently at the Famous Sword Manual in his hand.

"That book seemed to disappear for a moment just now," Nami said. "Did you do another magic trick?"

Ruidio smiled and was about to say something when the entire passenger ship suddenly shook with a boom.

Panic broke out in the dining room, and shouts soon came from outside the cabin.

Taking advantage of the chaos, the thief bodyguard, whose face had been beaten black and blue by the fat woman, scrambled out. But another boom rang out almost immediately!

With a bang, the dining room door exploded into fragments. The thief bodyguard came flying back, coughing up blood, and crashed through a number of tables and chairs amid screams. No one knew whether he was alive or dead.

Beyond the shattered dining room door lay a deck blasted apart by cannon fire. The passenger ship's crew stared helplessly at something not far ahead—a pirate ship, its cannons still smoking, was slowly approaching.

On its fluttering black pirate flag was a skull with a bright red nose.

"The Buggy Pirates!" Nami's pupils contracted.

Someone in the dining room had already begun sobbing in despair. Their captain, Buggy, was a vicious great pirate with a bounty of 15 million Beli. They were doomed...

Chapter 3: I Have No Interest in Money

"Fire!"

Blue pigtails, but Buggy the Clown. His big, round, red nose was his trademark and also his taboo; not one of the other pirates aboard dared touch that nerve.

"Listen up, boys."

Standing at the bow and looking at the passenger ship across from them, thick smoke rising from it under the cannon fire, Buggy spread his arms and shouted, "That ship is like an unknown island! Do you want to go aboard for an adventure and throw a party?"

"Yeah!"

"Do you want to plunder its treasure?"

"Yeah!!"

The pirates' enthusiasm flared, and they raised their swords and shouted in unison.

"Ha ha!" Buggy roared with laughter and pointed at the passenger ship across from them, where the sounds of panic and commotion had already begun to rise. "Then hurry up and bring us alongside!!"

Bursts of strange laughter came from the pirate ship sailing toward them. The captain and sailors of the passenger ship Kira went pale, despair filling their hearts as they looked at the red-nosed skull on the enormous sail.

A great pirate with a 15-million-Beli bounty—how had they run into him on this route?

"Everyone on that ship, get out here!"

The huge pirate ship drew alongside, and pirates brandishing guns and blades filed aboard over a gangplank.

At their head was a vicious red-nosed pirate wearing a captain's coat. He fired a pistol into the air with a bang and laughed arrogantly at the people gathered on the wrecked deck. "Anyone who dares run, and we'll fire on this ship and sink it immediately! Ha ha ha ha..."

Passengers emerged from all parts of the cabin, one after another. Some were so weak in the knees they couldn't walk and had to be supported by others.

"What do we do? I don't want to die, sob..."

"The pirates probably just want our money, right? Sigh!"

"My money! How am I supposed to live if they steal it?"

"Quick! Hurry and—contact the marines—"

The crying, panicked cries, and anxious whispers in the crowd surrounded Tashigi. She walked among the passengers, gripping her sword tightly and glaring at the pirates threatening the passenger ship's crew at the bow.

Buggy the Clown!

As a marine, Tashigi had a faint feeling she might be outnumbered, but she could never stand by and watch the people on the passenger ship be attacked by pirates.

She intended to step forward.

Nami was looking for a chance to slip away when she suddenly saw, to her surprise, the weirdo who called himself a magician push aside the passengers in the front row and walk forward.

Buggy was about to order his men to loot everyone aboard when he saw something fly high out of the crowd, tossed toward them.

A bomb?

The object was golden yellow. Under everyone's gaze, it traced an arc through the air and landed heavily on the deck with a thud! It was so heavy that it even smashed a cracked crater into the deck.

It was a fist-sized lump of gold!!

The Kira's captain, sailors, and passengers, as well as everyone in the Buggy Pirates, stared in a daze. Everyone watched blankly as a black-haired young man, one hand resting on a white sword at his waist, calmly stepped out of the crowd and faced the captain of the Buggy Pirates—

"You're just here to rob us, right? I'll pay. How about you let the people on this passenger ship go?" Ruidio said.

Buggy glared. "Hey, brat, who are you looking down on? You think that little bit of gold is impressive?!"

"Then why don't you leave it alone?!"

Watching Buggy talk tough while picking up the fist-sized lump of gold embedded in the deck, the pirates and passengers couldn't help shouting their retort.

"Too little?" Ruidio said with a smile. "Fine!"

With that, he pulled another fist-sized lump of gold from inside his clothes and threw it onto the deck with a bang!

"What do you take us for?" Mohji, the Buggy Pirates' vice captain, was a furry beast tamer. He glared at Ruidio, his eyes bloodshot, while his hands wasted no time picking up the second lump of gold. So heavy, heh heh.

Cabaji, the crew's chief of staff, shook his head. He could hardly bear to look.

Bang!

Another lump.

"Mine! Nobody touch it!" Cabaji shouted the other lackeys back and raced over on his unicycle, sparks flying all the way. Good heavens, it was heavy! It was genuine gold!

Bang! Bang! Bang!...

Ruidio still hadn't stopped. He kept pulling more out.

Everyone stared openmouthed as he tossed out one lump of gold after another like a magician. Ten fist-sized lumps of gold lay glittering across the deck, a dazzling sight.

Nami clutched her head in disbelief, wondering if she was dreaming. This guy... is he really that rich, or can he actually use magic?!

Tashigi's eyes were wide with shock. To save everyone on the ship, this man was willing to sacrifice so much of his own wealth! This... where on earth was he hiding all that gold?

"Is that enough?"

Ruidio asked Buggy with a smile, though he actually found it a little dull.

The system he had awakened was in some respects much like the main god of the infinite flow genre, especially in how it valued gold, silver, currency, and the like, as well as things such as fine food.

They! Were! Worth! Nothing!

Gold, banknotes, metal, ore... Things like these, whether the size of a fist or a house, could be freely copied in the [Three-in-One] system for just a few points of essence, or even a single point.

I have no interest in money at all.

Ruidio had, in a way, been forced by this damn system to reach such a lofty state of mind.

Still, tossing gold around like this once in a while and watching everyone stare in astonishment was secretly rather satisfying.

Buggy really was dumbstruck, a strand of snot dripping from his red nose. In over thirty years as a pirate, he had never seen someone throw money around like this.

Ruidio clapped his hands and smiled at the pirates, whose eyes were fixed on the gold. "If it's not enough, I have more. But it's not very convenient here. How about I bring it out on your ship?"

"Ha ha!"

Buggy's expression changed, and he patted Ruidio on the shoulder with a grin. "You know what's good for you! All right, for your sake, I'll let this ship go!"

"Wait a moment. Don't let them go yet."

Ruidio raised a hand to stop him. Question marks appeared over the heads of Buggy, the other pirates, the passenger ship's captain, and the passengers. Ruidio turned around, and everyone on the passenger ship focused on his face. Then he asked:

"Do you need my help? If you do, ask me to help drive these pirates away."

The people on the passenger ship nearly fainted. They had wondered what he was going to say with such a serious expression!

"Hey, brat..." Buggy glared in annoyance, but when Ruidio pulled out another fist-sized lump of gold and held it before his eyes, Buggy immediately accepted it with a beaming smile. He slung an arm around Ruidio's shoulders and grinned. "You want people to know who did the good deed. I get it, brother! Ha ha ha, let these people be grateful to you!"

Buggy's words seemed to explain the logic behind Ruidio's actions at once. The fat woman from before shouted from the crowd, "Me! I'm asking you to drive these pirates away!"

"Yes! I'm asking too. Please help us drive these pirates away!"

"Please..."

"Thank you..."

Everyone, including the passenger ship's captain and sailors, competed to ask Ruidio aloud for help.

[Ha'er'lata has commissioned you: Drive Away the Clown][De Rui has commissioned you: Drive Away the Clown][Ni Ke has commissioned you: Drive Away the Clown][Tashigi has commissioned you: Drive Away the Clown]...

[Estimated difficulty: ★★]

Two stars?

Ruidio was a little surprised.

However, a maximum of three people could commission the same mission; any more would yield nothing. Moreover, when he accepted three identical missions, the second gave only 50% of the reward, and the third dropped to 30%. So in a situation like this, he couldn't farm essence rewards by piling up commissions.

[Mission accepted]

As long as he wasn't working for nothing, that was fine. Ruidio wasn't picky.

He smiled brightly and looked at Buggy's pirate ship. It was big and impressive. As expected of a man who had once served on the Pirate King's ship and seen the world.

"Huh?"

Ruidio was walking arm in arm with Buggy and was about to step onto the gangplank to the pirate ship when he suddenly stopped and called back, "Nami, what are you standing there for? Come along!"

"Huh?"

The orange-haired girl in the crowd stared blankly and pointed at herself. "Me?"

"Don't joke around. I don't know you at all. I don't even know your name!" She waved her hands repeatedly, forcing herself to explain as the passengers and pirates stared at her. "I really don't know this person well."

"Who are you trying to fool, little lady?"

A cold shadow fell across Buggy's face. "If you don't know him, how could he know your name? Is that how you treat your companion?"

I'd like to know that too! Nami thought. Suddenly, her pupils contracted. Buggy the Clown's left hand had detached itself at the wrist and flown toward her, clutching a knife. It floated in front of her pretty face, waving the blade around.

It's a monster! People in the passenger ship's crowd cried out one after another at the sight.

Threatened with a knife by the monster, Nami felt like crying but had no tears. She could only follow Ruidio and the others dejectedly across the gangplank to the pirate ship.

Just as the people on the passenger ship were going through a roller coaster of emotions, and the pirates were preparing to remove the gangplank and leave, a slender figure rushed out of the crowd on the passenger ship.

"Wait!" Tashigi called. With a hand on her sword, she leaped out, stepping successively across the raised gangplank and the pirates' heads before landing on the Buggy Pirates' ship as well.

Chapter 4: You Count as 2 Stars Too?

The passenger ship slowly receded from view. Nami sighed. "I didn't have a choice. Why did you come along?"

Tashigi was clearly a little nervous too, but her tone was firm. "I told you, I'm a marine. That man boarded the pirate ship alone to save everyone. I can't just stand by and do nothing."

Nami had no answer as she walked across the pirate ship's broad deck. The pirates around them were gleefully clutching the dozen or so fist-sized lumps of gold. The hand that had been floating in front of her with a knife had flown back to Buggy the Clown and reattached itself seamlessly at his wrist.