Usopp

The small boat slowly drifted to the shore, and Ronan took the lead, leaping off. His feet sank into the warm, soft sand along the coastline.

He took a deep breath of fresh air. The sea breeze carried the fragrance of vegetation and the scent of earth—a purity and freshness that he could never replicate in the steel-forest-like modern metropolis.

As far as the eye could see, there were lush green mountains and dense jungles.

Ronan's heart stirred, and he secretly calculated, This layout of mountains and water... Could this be the village where Usopp first appeared?

Nearby, Nami unfolded the navigation chart and, after careful comparison, spoke softly, "Mm, that's right. There's a small village marked on this island."

"A village?!"

Upon hearing this, Luffy's eyes instantly lit up. He grabbed Nami's shoulders, trembling with excitement:

"Does that mean there's meat?! There's definitely a restaurant in this village!!"

As he spoke, amidst Nami's expression of utter disgust, drool began to flow uncontrollably from the corner of his mouth.

"Can't you think about something else first for once!" Nami shoved him away hard, a head full of dark lines.

Meanwhile, Zoro had already locked his gaze onto a nearby slope, having sharply noticed the movement in the bushes.

"Careful," Zoro said, his right-hand thumb moving slightly as the scabbard of the Wado Ichimonji was pushed open an inch, revealing a biting, freezing gleam. "There's the presence of people."

"Eh?" Hearing Zoro's words, Luffy immediately stopped his fantasies about meat, looking around curiously: "Where? Where?"

Right at that moment, on the slopes and in the jungle not far away, one crude pirate flag after another suddenly rose up.

Seeing this, far from being nervous, Luffy shouted with excitement: "Whoa! So cool!"

Nami retorted speechlessly: "Is now really the time to be admiring them!"

Seeing this, Ronan understood the situation in his heart.

He knew that Usopp, the sniper of the Straw Hat Pirates, was about to make his entrance.

Sure enough, beneath a large tree on the slope, a long-nosed youth stood with his arms crossed, striking what he believed to be his most majestic pose, looking down at the four people on the coast from his position of superiority.

He cleared his throat and shouted loudly:

"Listen up! I am Usopp, the great captain of the pirate crew that rules this village! People praise me constantly, calling me—'Captain Usopp'!"

Then, he pointed aggressively down the mountain in an attempt to intimidate these uninvited guests:

"If you plan to attack this village, I advise you to give up now! The eighty million subordinates under my command will never let you go!"

Ronan looked at Luffy beside him, who wore an expression of being "truly shocked" and was still shouting "So cool—!", and could not help the corner of his mouth twitching.

He muttered silently in his heart, With lies full of holes like these, no normal person would ever believe them... Well, except for Luffy.

Beside him, Nami helplessly spread her hands. She glanced at Luffy with the look one might give an idiot, then raised her head and lazily shouted toward Usopp on the slope:

"You're lying!"

This shout caused Usopp to instantly switch from "majestic captain" mode to panic mode as he exaggeratedly yelled:

"Wh—it's been seen through?!"

"Look," Nami said with a cunning expression, immediately turning back to tell Luffy and Ronan, "Even he said 'it's been seen through'!"

On the slope, Usopp twisted his body left and right in anxiety, trying to defend himself: "Oh no! I accidentally said 'it's been seen through'!"

Watching this classic, comical scene, Ronan sighed inwardly once again, ...It really does feel like a famous scene from the anime in my past life.

Only then did Luffy belatedly turn his head back, looking at Nami with an expression of astonishment: "What?! It was a lie?"

"Ahem!" Refusing to give up, Usopp forcibly salvaged his dignity and once again struck a majestic pose:

"Eighty million was a bit of an exaggeration, but I do still have outstanding subordinates!"

With that, he gave a signal, and the pirate flags in a certain area of the bushes began to bob violently up and down, as if creating the momentum of a massive army.

Too lazy to even look, Nami confidentially dug into her ear: "It's three people, right?"

No sooner had Nami finished speaking than the figures of three children darted out from those bushes with a shwip.

Their faces were filled with terror as they screamed in unison:

"We—we've been seen through—!"

Before they could finish speaking, they dropped the pirate flags in their hands and ran off without looking back, shouting, "Quick... run away quickly!" In the blink of an eye, they had vanished.

"Hey! You kids, don't run!" Usopp sweated cold drops in anxiety up in the tree, roaring in the direction where the children had disappeared.

Nami completely lost her patience, pointing precisely at the only "weapon" in Usopp's hand and delivering the final mockery:

"I've never heard of pirates using a slingshot!"

Ronan glanced at Nami, praising her silently in his heart.

To be able to analyze the truth from a chaotic scene using just a few clues, she truly lived up to being the most meticulous navigator in the Straw Hat Pirates.

As for Luffy, having gone through the entire process of "shock—confusion—sudden realization," he finally pointed at Usopp up in the tree and burst into hearty laughter:

"You guys sure are interesting!"

"You brat, don't underestimate me!"

Having been laughed at to the point of anger, Usopp forced up his bravado, puffing out his chest even though his legs were still shaking: "I'm a man with extremely high pride!"

Seeing that his intimidation had failed and that he was instead being mocked, Usopp felt his pride suffer a grave "insult."

He abruptly pulled back the slingshot in his hand, the rubber band straining taut, and took aim at Luffy, who was laughing the loudest.

"Stop laughing!"

He roared with a forced composure:

"Since my pride is so high, people call me 'Proud Usopp'! My slingshot skills are way more powerful than any ordinary handgun!"

Yet, the moment Usopp took aim at him, Luffy's laughter abruptly ceased.

The atmosphere instantly froze.

Luffy slowly raised one hand, pressing down on the straw hat resting on the top of his head.

The shadow cast by the brim covered his eyes, making his expression impossible to read.

His voice was low and solemn, devoid of even a shred of joke:

"Once you draw a gun, you'd better put your life on the line!"

This sentence seemed to carry the weight of a thousand jun, pressing down on Usopp so hard that his whole body shuddered and even the hand holding the slingshot began to tremble violently.

Luffy continued, his voice icy: "I'm saying... that thing isn't a toy used to scare people."

No sooner had Luffy finished speaking than Zoro also let out a cold snort, his right-hand thumb moving gently.

Clang—

The scabbard of the Wado Ichimonji was pushed open slightly, and a wisp of bone-chilling killing intent instantly locked onto Usopp.

For a moment, Zoro's aura also turned sharp and fierce.