Golden Scales

Minos knew full well what Charlotte Linlin was thinking, but he did not care.

He had understood this back in his previous life: aside from your parents, no one treated you well for no reason.

A boss paid you because you worked for him. If a friend suddenly treated you to a meal, there was an eighty-percent chance they wanted something from you. Put bluntly, every adult was either using others or being used. The difference was whether you had value worth using.

Now that his bloodline gave him tremendous value, Minos was only happy about it—at least it guaranteed his position within the Charlotte Pirates.

After all, Charlotte Linlin only wanted to develop his abilities, not directly use him as a blood sacrifice. Naturally, Minos felt no psychological burden.

After circling around Charlotte Linlin, who was wolfing down food, Minos had not even entered the kitchen when he saw his Oni Clan friend Talon following behind him.

Talon was another member driven half-mad by the sweets aboard the ship. It was not that the Charlotte Family's desserts were bad, but no matter how delicious they were, no one could endure eating them as all three meals every day.

Minos made enough fried rice to be measured by the barrel, while Talon roasted dozens of pounds of sea beast meat. Only after the two of them noisily devoured everything did they rub their stomachs with satisfied expressions.

A moment later, Talon looked at Minos and said, "Minos, have you decided which Sweet Commander you want to serve under?"

Since he had already come to the Charlotte Pirates, refusing to join them was impossible. Minos had no other thoughts—whatever moral scruples he might have, staying alive was more important now.

Picking his teeth, Minos opened his eyes and said, "Of course I'll join Sweet Commander Katakuri. I'm from the Three-Eyed Tribe, after all. That lord, famous for his Observation Haki, should be able to teach me quite a lot."

There was another reason. Katakuri was no good man, but he was certainly not some utterly vile scoundrel either. His moral bottom line was relatively high within the Charlotte Family, and Minos felt that working under him would spare him plenty of headaches.

"Lord Katakuri..." Talon scratched his head. "Looks like we think alike."

Minos was not surprised. The New World was currently stable. Aside from Red-Hair, who was still regarded as a reserve force, the other three Four Emperors rarely had any reason to act personally. Encountering Charlotte Linlin this time could practically be called unimaginably lucky—under normal circumstances, this Four Emperor might not even put to sea once or twice in an entire year.

At times like this, the Yonko Commanders under the Four Emperors became highly sought-after figures. When the Four Emperors did not act, these Yonko Commanders were the ones truly active outside, competing for territory and suppressing the other Supernovas.

Therefore, whether in battle opportunities, merits, or treatment, the subordinates of these Yonko Commanders had the best prospects. It was perfectly normal for Talon to want to join one.

Minos now also knew Talon's identity. He belonged to the extremely rare Oni Clan; those with horns on their heads, like Kaido and Yamato, were members of the Oni Clan.

There were quite a few Oni Clan members in Kaido's Beasts Pirates. Of course, some people merely wore oni horns as ornaments. Talon had originally wanted to join the Beasts Pirates.

The Oni Clan's natural gifts far surpassed those of ordinary humans. Their inborn combat power was second only to the Giant Clan. Thus, although their rarity was roughly comparable to the Longarm Tribe and Longleg Tribe, their treatment was far better than those races. Being free to choose which division of the Charlotte Pirates to join was one such benefit.

"Is that so? Then it looks like we won't have to split up," Minos said. Having just arrived in the Pirate World and joined the brutal Charlotte Pirates, he still felt somewhat lost. He was quite happy that he would not have to part ways with this friend he knew.

That night, Minos returned to his room aboard the ship and slowly closed his eyes.

A strange image gradually appeared in his mind. It was a golden scale, and Minos guessed that it was also the culprit behind his transmigration.

Over the past few days, after much probing, Minos had figured out the true use of the Golden Scales. It was a treasure specifically meant for trading, except its trading range encompassed the Myriad Worlds.

There, Minos saw all sorts of strange and miscellaneous treasures, seemingly covering the entirety of the Myriad Worlds.

They included knowledge, bloodlines, items, even characters, memories, temporary character cards, and all manner of other things.

Among them, knowledge was the easiest thing to exchange for, but whether it was useful was another matter entirely.

For example, Minos had learned some combat techniques unique to the Oni Clan from Talon and exchanged for a cultivation method for the Eight Inner Gates. Yet Minos did not even possess Chakra, let alone the eight gates in his body. It would have been stranger if he could cultivate it.

As for Chakra extraction methods, Internal Energy, Cosmo, magic, Magnetic Field Rotation, Spirit Energy, and similar things, there was no way to learn them in the Pirate World either.

The second relatively easy thing to exchange for was probably memories. At the very least, knowledge and memories did not require a second payment for materialization.

That was right. Other than knowledge and memories, everything exchanged here required a second payment.

According to Minos, that payment was probably so-called luck or Karma Points—put plainly, it was much like the main god space in infinite-flow novels. Stir up enough trouble, and you could obtain luck and Karma Points.

...Well, there was no need to think about that now. With his little arms and legs, he probably could not stir up anything major anyway.

However, Minos's transmigration alone was already a major change to Pirate King, so he had gained a considerable amount of Karma Points and could make one conversion.

The only problem was that he had nothing truly usable to convert—aside from his Three-Eyed Tribe bloodline.

If he really exchanged away his Three-Eyed Tribe bloodline, Charlotte Linlin would probably tear him apart the moment he stepped outside. Damn, daring to deceive even a Four Emperor? He sure had guts!

Moreover, the scales had told him that anything exchanged would automatically undergo certain changes in order to adapt to the Laws of the world.

For example, if he exchanged for a Saiyan, then in the Pirate World, it might retain abilities such as transforming into a giant ape upon seeing the moon, exceptional physical qualities, and growing stronger after recovering from near-death. But it could not retain the Saiyans' unique ki. It could only cultivate the Pirate World's unique Haki.

That alone slashed the value of Saiyan bloodline by ninety-nine percent. Without ki, that supernatural power, even if Sun Wukong were brought here, he would probably only possess the strength of a Marine Vice Admiral.

And that would be Sun Wukong who had trained. Pure Saiyan bloodline provided even less of an immediate combat boost; it merely offered tremendous potential.

For instance, if Minos exchanged for Saiyan bloodline now, he probably could not even defeat Talon. After all, he had barely trained at all, while Talon, as a member of the Oni Clan, had trained since childhood.

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