Pirates: How Many Divisions Do the Five Elders Have? The Grind Begins

Ma Qiao wasn't entirely clear on the principles behind his hero summoning, but after extensive testing, he was fairly certain that a hero's strength depended not only on differences in stats caused by level, equipment, and skill variations, but also on the player's proficiency with the hero.

Simply put, each patch brings a new meta, and Garen is the go-to champion in every patch.

As a Silver-ranked warrior, Ma Qiao is quite skilled with the greatsword Garen.

Therefore, when Garen was summoned, his combat proficiency was quite good, possibly reaching a terrifying level of Gold IV or Gold V.

As one of the first heroes recruited by Ma Qiao, Garen began assisting in capturing pirates early on.

Therefore, Garen's proficiency with the champion is now very high, Ma Qiao is estimated to be at least at the level of a Platinum goalkeeper.

In the parlance of the One Piece world, Garen's combat instincts are almost like those of a wild beast.

In stark contrast to Garen is the champion the Unforgiven, the Happy Wind Man.

Since starting to play in Season 3, Ma Qiao has consistently been a Silver-ranked player, but his Yasuo...

Many people say that there are no bad heroes, only bad summoners, but that statement is somewhat of an overstatement.

The friends in the Dragon Turtle Universe have shed countless tears of sorrow.

However, the Dragon Turtle is weak, but this only applies to competitive matches.

In Silver rank games, Rammus is definitely a much more reliable pick for teammates than Yasuo.

The reason is simple: although Yasuo is a powerful champion, his skill floor is just too ridiculously low.

And Ma Qiao is precisely the man who can perfectly bring out the lower limit of Yasuo's potential.

To put it simply, if Ma Qiao picked Yasuo every game in ranked matches, the phrase "diving into Iron" wouldn't even begin to describe how quickly he would drop in rank.

This resulted in the Yasuo recruited by Ma Qiao being a tiny bit... weak, scratch that, but fun!

Ma Qiao actually regretted not choosing Master Yi as a double agent to infiltrate both Foosha Village and Conical Hat Village.

But there's nothing we can do.

Just like countless ranking matches.

I knew I'd lose if I picked Yasuo, but... I just couldn't control myself!

Fortunately, the concept of "laning" doesn't exist in the real world.

If you give Ma Qiao a fully equipped, max-level Yasuo at the 3-minute mark of the game, even if Faker comes along, Teacher Ma will still go on a rampage and become a god.

So, after making those harsh remarks, Yasuo immediately called Ma Qiao after returning to his shop:

"Boss, I feel like Roronoa Zoro has gotten even stronger. My level nine physique can't handle it!"

On the other end of the phone, Ma Qiao was still inspecting the Momoo brand milk powder factory when he heard Yasuo's complaint, and his face immediately darkened.

"When Garen was level 6, he could tank the hidden boss, Arlong the Fish-Man, in the East Blue with a bunch of random items. You're level 9, equipped with a Zealot and Immortal Shieldbow, plus a stolen Enma. You're telling me you can't handle Liu Zoro who hasn't even left the newbie zone?"

Yasuo quickly replied, "Boss, isn't there also King Luffy? That kid's really weird, we have to go all out!"

"Um..."

Yasuo's words prompted Ma Qiao to nod slightly.

Indeed, that kid King Luffy is very strange.

As the protagonist of a shonen manga, King Luffy not only possesses superb sit-up skills, but also excels at the sudden surge in strength that occurs after doing sit-ups.

Simply put, this guy's sudden burst of power is completely unprincipled; defeating the strong with the weak is as natural as drinking water or eating.

Based on Ma Qiao's many years of experience browsing shonen manga, the biggest mistake in dealing with overpowered protagonists is being unwilling to invest resources.

In particular, we must not employ piecemeal tactics, meticulously planning each move and using what we believe to be sufficient combat power to deal with him.

The result is often that instead of eliminating the protagonist, they become experience points on the protagonist's path to becoming stronger.

I must never repeat this foolish mistake.

Ma Qiao hesitated for a moment, then opened his hero panel to take a look.

Currently, Ma Qiao has four strongest heroes under his command, in order:

[Void Beast Cho’Gath]: Level 11, equipped with: [Boots of Swiftness], [Warmog's Armor], [Dead Man's Plate], [Abyssal Mask].

[Garen, the Might of Demacia]: Level 11, Equipment: [Boots of Swiftness], [Youmuu's Ghostblade], [Winged Moonplate], [The Brutalizer], [Phage].

[The River King Tahm Kench]: Level 11, equipped with: [Plated Steelcaps], [Mikael's Blessing], [Locket of the Iron Solari], [Force of Nature].

[Gangplank, the Terror of the Seas]: Level 11, equipped with: [Ionian Boots of Lucidity], [Lost Chapter], [Trinity Force].

The second tier consists of: Graves, the Virtuoso, Jax, and Xin Zhao — Ma Qiao's four personal bodyguards—as well as the senior internet administrator Ekko.

They are all level 10.

Judging solely from equipment level, Yasuo, like Twitch, Sark, and Ashe, belongs to the third tier.

Ma Qiao glanced at his account balance.

Although the Big Bird Consortium's total assets, even excluding heroes, amount to tens of billions, much of that is fixed assets or working capital used for company operations. Ma Qiao's actual usable cash is still less than five billion Beli.

I swear to God!

Boss Ma really scrimps and saves every penny to build a great business!

According to the Fibonacci sequence, it would take nearly 400 million Beli to upgrade Yasuo from level 9 to level 1.

Ma Qiao had to carefully weigh whether spending so much money on Yasuo, this slacker, was worthwhile.

After all, what Ma Qiao is most looking forward to right now is Ekko's max-level ultimate ability.

Heroes will experience a qualitative change when their skill points are maxed out.

According to the skill description, Ekko's max-level skill has the ability to briefly travel back to a certain point in the past.

This is undoubtedly much more useful than most powerful but ultimately ineffective abilities.

The world of One Piece has far too many tragedies that need to be redressed.

Oda, that old scoundrel, wears the skin of a comedy manga artist, but when he gets vicious, he's more ruthless than anyone else; he's truly inhuman.

Of course, a fully upgraded ultimate skill requires level 16, which is an astronomical amount of money. Saving a few hundred million Beli now is indeed a drop in the ocean.

It's like considering whether to skip a beef bun this morning when you're thinking about buying a house in Shanghai—it's pointless.

You might as well use the money you'd spend on a beef bun to buy a lottery ticket; maybe you'll actually win...

Okay, so it seems even winning the lottery doesn't guarantee you can buy tickets.

In short, after much thought, Ma Qiao decided to level up Yasuo again and, while he was at it, lent him one of the four Warmog's Armor of Warmog's Armor he was wearing.

Yasuo was very happy to have leveled up and acquired a new major item.

That very night, I rode my Sun Dog to their mountain stronghold.

"He smashed a wine bottle with his bare hands against Four Emperors, and trampled the future Pirate King under his feet. If he weren't the near-sea king, the four-episode series of Pirate King would have been replaced by a series of Mountain Bandits."

The story of the bandit king sounds impressive, but Yasuo was greatly disappointed when he saw the actual situation of the bandit's hideout.

First, there's the "sister-in-law" that the Sun Dog lackeys talk about.

Yasuo originally thought she was a femme fatale like Da Yu'er or Chen Yuanyuan, and that by capturing her and presenting her to Boss Ma Qiao, he might be able to improve his skills and become one of the top five Uranus, on par with Tahm Kench.

But the moment Yasuo saw his sister-in- Sun Dog, he was so frightened that he dropped the blade of grass from his mouth.

This woman is even more Dadan, a veritable juicer among tanks.

But when the Sun Dog's underlings saw this sister-in-law, they all looked infatuated. Even the Sun Dog, whose anus was still bleeding, quickly pinched his wound so that the "beauty" wouldn't see his disheveled appearance.

To be honest, that Sun Dog is pretty lucky.

Eight years ago, this guy escaped from the gun of the True Emperor's Deputy Beckman, achieving the Kizaru achievement.

Eight years later, he was stabbed in the buttocks by Kozuki Oden's sword Enma, but he still survived.

According to those mentally unstable people in Wano Country.

Zoro wielding Enma wounds Kaido = Kozuki Oden wounds Kaido.

Therefore, if Yasuo stabbed the Sun Dog in the back with Enma, it would be equivalent to Kozuki Oden stabbing the Sun Dog.

It has to be said, Oden made quite a profit.

Besides Yasuo being greatly disappointed by the Sun Dog's sister-in-law, the Sun Dog's gang's savings also brought tears to the man's eyes.

The bandits' treasury was even cleaner Moria's.

There were even some farm tools like hoes and rakes inside.

The Sun Dog beside Yasuo bowed and scraped, rubbing his hands together with a fawning smile, and said, "Lord Yasuo, we're actually just a bunch of kind farmers..."

"Yes, I've heard my boss mention that."

Yasuo nodded. "Just as kind as those innocent, musical and dance-loving shepherds."

Yasuo ignored the Sun Dog's nonsense, took out Den Den Mushi, and a Nezumi face appeared on the Den Den Mushi, which was applying a face mask and getting a manicure.

Sun Dog saw this face, he gasped.

Because his older brother, Sun Bear, died after offending a powerful figure he couldn't afford to offend, Sun Dog has changed his brother's narrow-minded approach and has gained considerable knowledge of the situation in the East Blue over the years.

The infamous Twitch, the Root of Justice, is Sun Dog that resonates deeply and leaves a lasting impression.

Unexpectedly, this seemingly unreliable purple-haired warrior knew such a high-ranking official, and for a moment, Sun Dog became even more terrified.

"Brother Twitch!"

Yasuo said in a cheeky tone, "Have you finished looking up the information I asked you to look up?"

"Brother?"

Twitch was stunned, and the rotten flesh and swill mask on his face fell off in anger. "Who are you calling 'brother'... wait, you... you got promoted?"

"Haha, that's right!"

Yasuo said smugly, "That gentleman has sharp eyes..."

Yasuo and Twitch were talking back and forth, while Sun Dog, standing to the side, was completely bewildered.

He dared not ask, nor did he dare to think, who the "gentleman" they were referring to was.

Finally, after their casual conversation, the two got down to business.

"Here, this is a record compiled by me and that kid Gangplank —no, I mean our Navy—combining intelligence with the information we seized from the Gangplank Pirates. Take a look for yourself."

With a slight vibration, a form was sent to Twitch.

Yasuo opened it, sighed, and said to the Sun Dog, "See for yourself."

This table, compiled by bigwigs from both the underworld and legitimate society in the East Blue, detailed the criminal activities of the Sun Dog Bandit Group.

"Our boss isn't a morally fastidious person. The world is in turmoil; the gentlemen of Mary Geoise are inhuman, and heroes disregard the law. It's only natural for them to do some chivalrous deeds, but..."

Some rules cannot be broken.

Yasuo pointed to the bandit leaders marked with stars on the form. "These guys commit crimes and are despised by heaven and earth. Are you going to give them some face, or do you want me, Yasuo, to give them some face myself, hmm?"

As he spoke, Yasuo gently lifted the Enma at his waist, causing the Sun Dog's buttocks to twitch violently.

"Don't worry, Lord Yasuo, I... I'll go clean house right now!"

With that, the Sun Dog scrambled away.

"Etc!"

Yasuo called out to the Sun Dog.

The latter turned his head in confusion. "Lord Yasuo, is there anything else you need?"

Take this with you!

Yasuo pulled out a Big Bird Den Den Mushi and stuffed it into the Sun Dog's pocket.

The Sun Dog's face hardened; he thought to himself that this must be the surveillance device that Lord Yasuo used to monitor him.

He dared not ask any more questions, grabbed a large cleaver, and went off to clean up the mess with murderous intent.

To be honest, he, the bandit leader who stayed at home all day with his sister-in-law, was completely unaware of the many things these guys had done. Even Sun Dog has a temper.

Watching the departing Sun Dog, Yasuo yawned and lay down in his chair.

He took out another Big Bird Den Den Mushi, watched the daily step count constantly jumping on it, and smiled with satisfaction.

Next, Yasuo opened WeChat and uploaded a stunning splash art image of his new Yasuo skin to a friend's chat, along with the text. "Another sleepless night of training. Improvement comes from relentless effort and challenging yourself; there are no shortcuts."

Bite!

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