The Shelf

The next morning.

Maud opened his eyes, his face full of fatigue.

He had been sorting through information last night and hadn't realized it was already past midnight.

He had fallen asleep exhausted, only to wake up less than two hours later.

Fortunately, he had completed a hunt yesterday; otherwise, his body wouldn't have been able to handle this strain.

Now that he was awake, Maud couldn't fall back asleep.

He threw off the thin blanket and got out of bed.

He wondered what kind of work Saul would assign him.

In any case, to settle down as quickly as possible, he had already taken on the role of a laborer.

Rubbing his cheeks, Maud opened the door and walked out.

The hallway was deathly silent, making the slight creaks of his footsteps on the wooden floor unusually noticeable.

At the dead end of the corridor, a window was boarded up on the wall. Early morning sunlight filtered through the cracks, casting dappled columns of light onto the floor.

Maud glanced at the other closed doors without lingering, heading towards the stairwell.

He descended the stairs to the first floor.

The corridor to the right led directly to the shop, while the one to the left led to the living room and kitchen.

It was probably still early, as the shop door wasn't open yet.

However, Sunny was already awake and sitting at the dining table eating breakfast.

Maud went to wash up briefly first, then came to the dining room connected to the kitchen.

He was starving.

He could tolerate it yesterday, but not today. He wondered if it was a reaction to his body recovering well.

Sunny looked up at Maud, who appeared ravenous, and pushed a glass of milk towards his seat, gesturing for him to sit down and eat.

Maud didn't stand on ceremony, pulled out a chair, and sat down.

His peripheral vision caught a set of bowls and plates with a few leftover scraps in front of another empty seat, presumably left by Saul after he had eaten.

Maud raised the wooden cup and took a sip of milk, his brow furrowing slightly. He found the mouth full of the unique gamey smell of raw milk.

He endured the discomfort and finished the raw milk, then picked up a piece of steak. After a few bites, he felt a sense of rebirth.

He had to admit, the shop looked shabby, but the food was genuinely good.

But what made Maud most comfortable was the casualness displayed by Saul and Sunny, which was quite different from his expectations of pirates.

Moreover, in a sense, Saul was his savior.

After swallowing several more pieces of steak, Maud finally slowed down.

He glanced at Sunny, who was already finishing her meal, and thought of the notice on the paper from yesterday stating he couldn't go out day or night. An idea struck him.

"Sunny, what kind of place is Mad Hatter Town, exactly?"

"Why don't you go out and see for yourself?"

"???"

Maud was utterly confused.

The contents of the paper given to him yesterday were still vivid in his mind.

Seeing Sunny's expressionless face, Maud thought that perhaps she was getting back at him for being so perfunctory yesterday.

Clatter—

Just as he was thinking this, he heard the sound of Sunny pushing her chair away.

"Clean these up after you finish eating, and then sweep the shop. You have half an hour."

With that, Sunny went upstairs without looking back.

Maud shook his head, devoured the rest of his breakfast, and then began to clean up.

If his only job was to clean, then his work as a laborer was far too easy.

After clearing the dining table, Maud took the cleaning tools to the shop.

While cleaning the shelves, Maud was extremely cautious.

After all, one of the warnings Sunny had given him was not to touch the weapons on sale.

He couldn't touch them, but he could look.

There were three shelves in the shop. The first shelf displayed various styles of swords, the second displayed flintlock pistols of varying lengths, and the third shelf had a mix of swords and firearms.

If he remembered correctly, the blood-stained longsword that Watt had yesterday was wiped clean by Saul and placed on the third shelf.

Looking at the third shelf, which clearly had an overwhelming number of items, Maud recalled Saul's practiced movements from yesterday and fell into thought: "..."

A shelf specifically for used goods?

And the source of the goods goes without saying.

However, strictly speaking, for cold weapons like swords, as long as there is no substantial damage, it doesn't matter if they are second-hand.

His gaze shifted from the third shelf to the one displaying over a dozen guns.

The small quantity made the shelf look rather empty.

Maud looked at the guns.

Whether on Earth or in the Hunter x Hunter world, guns always had a stronger presence than melee weapons.

Compared to cold weapons like swords, Maud was more familiar with guns.

When he was in the Hunter x Hunter world, although his cultivation had reached a point where he no longer needed to rely on guns, he still carried a handgun with him.

When it came to marksmanship, he wouldn't claim to be a master, but he could guarantee basic shooting accuracy.

However, he also knew that in the One Piece world, cold weapons like swords had a much stronger presence than firearms.

Among those ruthless individuals who had cultivated to a certain level, most of them also used cold weapons, not firearms.

But this didn't mean firearms had no potential; it was just that the number of people who could fully exploit the "range advantage" of firearms was extremely few, barely making an appearance in the original story.

"Are Keanu's custom guns among these?"

Maud suddenly thought of Kid, who had visited the shop yesterday.

The so-called Keanu custom guns must be of high quality for Kid to be so fixated on them.

He leaned closer to examine the few guns on the shelf. Maud, only familiar with modern firearms, couldn't make heads or tails of them.

With his current knowledge of flintlock pistols, he couldn't distinguish the quality of these dozen or so flintlock pistols, let alone find Keanu's custom guns.

"I need to get one to use as soon as possible."

Although the power of flintlock guns was inferior to modern firearms, it didn't stop Maud from valuing them.

He scanned the flintlock pistols on the shelf with a covetous eye, his mind racing.

In the early stages of hunting, what was most lacking were simple and brutal killing tools like firearms.

Suppressing the urge to pocket a second-hand flintlock pistol from the third shelf, Maud quickly tidied up the shelf.

After finishing the cleaning, he tossed the cleaning tools back into the storage room. Exactly half an hour had passed.

Then, Sunny came downstairs on time and entered the shop.

Maud keenly noticed that Sunny seemed to be in a good mood.

Little did he know, Sunny was in a good mood because she realized she wouldn't have to do any more dirty and tiring work for the foreseeable future.

If Maud didn't die prematurely, this period would be extended indefinitely.

Under Maud's gaze, Sunny pulled out a thin ruler from the counter and walked over to the shelf, carefully measuring the items on it.

The action made Maud's scalp tingle.

Damn, they're really going all out?

He thought Sunny was using the thin ruler to measure the merchandise on the shelf to check if he had touched anything casually.

But as he watched, he realized that wasn't the case.

Silently watching Sunny adjust and straighten the items one by one after measuring them, Maud felt his scalp tingle even more.

Not daring to disturb Sunny, Maud waited patiently by the side.

An hour later, Sunny finally finished, and only then did she officially begin the day's business.

"Where's Saul?"

Seeing that Saul was still not down, Maud found it a bit strange.

Sunny, sitting behind the counter, glanced at him and said expressionlessly, "Saul went to the pleasure district for morning practice. He usually returns before lunch."

"Oh, he went for morning practice."

Maud suddenly understood. No wonder Saul, despite his age, could still maintain considerable strength.

Wait a minute.

Something doesn't seem right?

Thanks to O小白面包O for the 2000 reward, book friend 20180915134539062 for the 1000 reward, 104003 for the 500 reward, 祁落叶 for the 200 reward, and 大西崖 for the 100 reward~~