Pirates: How Many Divisions Do the Five Elders Have? Contract

Ma Qiao had known since early that morning that two senior agents had visited Whiskey Peak.

After years of operations, Ma Qiao had placed Vision Wards all over the island.

But a single Vision Ward cost as much as 750,000 Beli.

Apart from the Big Bird Spin-Spin Tavern, Vision Wards were relatively sparse across the rest of the island, leaving plenty of blind spots.

As a noble Silver powerhouse, Ma Qiao had far better game sense than the riffraff in Iron and Bronze and understood the importance of vision.

He just rarely remembered to check the wards he placed.

Fortunately, Ma Qiao had a loyal and reliable subordinate. He had given Ashe the Frost Archer access to his vision.

The female leader from the Avarosa tribe was skilled at reconnaissance and always alerted Ma Qiao to unexpected developments in time.

Of course, Garen, commander of the Demacia legion, and Ryze, the veteran mage, were equally capable of handling the job.

But...

After all, protective Vision Wards had also been placed in Vivi's bedroom and bathroom, so it wasn't quite appropriate for them to do it.

In any case, thanks to Ashe's warning, Ma Qiao had seen everything that happened in Igaram's office.

He didn't take it to heart.

After all... he had someone backing him!

As he recalled the past, Ma Qiao took a slightly yellowed master-servant contract from the bottom drawer, a helpless look appearing on his face.

Night fell, and the Big Bird Spin Spin Spin Bar filled with noise once more.

The Pirate Hunters seemed to have forgotten the accident that had occurred in the Ring Finger Cell a few days earlier.

After a few bottles of Short-Lived Ghost whiskey, they started bragging about all manner of things again.

One claimed he had escaped from a notorious pirate with a bounty of tens of millions. Another said a pirate with a bounty of tens of millions had once invited him aboard as a core member, but he had flatly refused for the sake of his dream.

Finally, an older fellow declared that if he hadn't done a kid named Shanks a favor back then, that newly crowned member of the Four Emperors would have been stuffed into an oak barrel and sunk to the bottom of the sea long ago!

Compared with the others, Ma Qiao thought the last old man's story had a little credibility.

He glanced at the clock on the wall. Its hands had reached ten.

Ma Qiao yawned.

Nights in the pirate world were simply too boring.

There wasn't even a television, and Ma Qiao didn't like drinking or gambling...

Come to think of it, the pirate world's tech tree was absurdly lopsided.

At least in Naruto, consumer electronics showed up later on.

But in the pirate world, Impel Down had rooms full of monitors, the World Government had broadcast the Paramount War live to the whole world on electronic screens, and even Caesar could livestream product demonstrations to show customers his newly developed weapons. Yet there wasn't the slightest sign of consumer products like televisions or the internet emerging.

Then again, Ma Qiao had to admit there was a reason televisions hadn't made their way into homes in the pirate world.

After all, this was a world where a few million Beli, equivalent to a few hundred thousand yuan, could buy a female slave on Hancock's level, minus the Devil Fruit. In their place, Ma Qiao wouldn't waste money on a television either...

Yeah, right!

After all, even Principal Wang, who partied every night, had once been an avid internet surfer!

Heh, women!

Ma Qiao shook his head and resolved to summon that little brat Teemo as soon as Twitch's funds arrived and usher in an era of connectivity.

While Ma Qiao yawned and planned his great business venture, Vivi was working alongside Ashe as a drinks server.

Whenever Vivi passed the drunkards, their boasts would suddenly grow even more outlandish and their voices louder.

After all, who didn't like showing off his manly side in front of such a cute girl?

Of course, even if they had ten times the nerve, they wouldn't dare lay a hand on her.

Never mind the big man doing handstand push-ups at the entrance; even Miss Ashe, who served drinks alongside the beautiful girl, was not someone to provoke lightly.

Plenty of lecherous scoundrels had already learned that lesson from her.

"Sister Ashe, I'm going to take a bath."

Perhaps pretty girls were born knowing the "I'm going to take a bath" skill. After delivering the last bottle of whiskey, Vivi made an excuse and sneaked out of the tavern.

A nearly transparent hawk spirit quietly followed her.

Ma Qiao yawned and, through Ashe's vision, watched Vivi make her way down the mountain in the dark with some helplessness.

Sure enough, the clever girl had noticed something amiss.

An idiot like Luffy probably wouldn't have noticed anything in his entire life.

But Vivi was much like Nami and Robin: her intelligence was very much up to par.

The enormous sins on the chests of the pirate world's beauties didn't affect their intelligence.

Of course, Vivi was still a fourteen-year-old girl in the standard impoverished state of someone saving up for a future growth spurt, so hers could hardly be called enormous.

Just as Ma Qiao had expected, Vivi secretly made her way to the Ring Finger Cell, entered the cave with a torch, and carefully inspected the opening at its base that led to the sea.

Vivi had seen Santini's Devil Fruit ability up close and had even experienced the terror of Black Diamond with her Peacock Slashers.

The opening Ma Qiao had smashed through by force was clearly different from one bored by a tungsten-steel drill bit; its cut surface wasn't smooth.

Feeling the broken surface of the rock, Vivi wore an expression that said it was just as she'd thought.

The next day, the sun rose as usual.

As always, Ma Qiao was woken by the tap-tap-tap of a News Coo pecking at his window.

Yawning, Ma Qiao climbed out of bed, opened the window, and fed the News Coo a handful of corn kernels.

Having received its tip, the News Coo left the newspaper and flew away, thoroughly satisfied.

There was no major news in today's paper.

It was nothing more than another newcomer making a name for himself at sea, more ships mysteriously vanishing in the Florian Triangle, or some major star holding a concert on some island.

Ma Qiao had no interest in any of it. He glanced at the headlines, put the paper aside, and picked up a copy of North Blue Girls from the sofa.

"Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle~"

As Ma Qiao brushed his teeth facing the window, he studied just how far the figures of the pirate world's girls could go.

Knock, knock, knock—

Just as Ma Qiao finished brushing his teeth and prepared to go back to sleep, someone knocked on his bedroom door.

Before Ma Qiao could answer, the door creaked open.

A small head with long, sky-blue hair tied up poked through the gap.

Vivi hadn't seemed to expect Ma Qiao to leave his bedroom door unlocked either.

She looked a little surprised at first, then peered curiously inside, only to see Ma Qiao wearing nothing but a pair of red briefs and the red scarf around his neck. His nearly perfect upper body, complete with eight-pack abs, and his sturdy thighs were on display, and he was holding a dirty magazine with a very lewd cover...

As for the red scarf, that was Ma Qiao's penguin trademark, an inseparable part of him.

The red briefs, meanwhile, were a matter of tradition.

This year happened to be Ma Qiao's zodiac year.

As for the dirty magazine, that was just research.

After all, Ma Qiao knew that in another world, a guy who called himself the Toad Sage had become enormously wealthy through research and writing.

As the Penguin Sage, he naturally had a dream of getting rich through writing too...

In short, it was all for art!