What's in the Beginner's Gift Pack?

Yasopp peered through his binoculars at the pirate ship steadily approaching from the distance. His brows furrowed slightly, and he was clearly on guard.

The ship was heading straight toward them just as they were preparing to start a banquet, and its crew seemed to be bearing down on them menacingly.

It annoyed him greatly.

He took a deep breath, then turned to Shanks beside him and asked, "Boss, want me to fire a warning shot and drive them off?"

Shanks stared at the dark speck at the far end of the horizon, his gaze distant as if he were deep in thought.

After a moment's consideration, he glanced at the other sailboat following alongside them. "Yeah, take the shot. Let them know we're not to be messed with."

If more than two hundred Ganan Remnants weren't traveling with them, Shanks might have ignored the pirate ship.

As long as they didn't provoke him, Shanks would never bother with the pirates who threw their weight around in the East Sea.

But things were different now. The Ganan Remnants with them were fragile, and Shanks didn't want them to be put in danger.

Even though he was absolutely certain he could protect them, making them face danger because of his own whims wouldn't be right.

With Shanks's approval, Yasopp pulled out his firearm and took aim at a lamp aboard the distant pirate ship.

"Bang..." The flintlock roared, its muzzle flash flaring.

The bullet tore through the air, crossed the sea in an instant, and shattered a lamp on the deck with pinpoint accuracy.

Yasopp lowered his gun, then raised his binoculars again.

But before he could get a clear look at the distant pirate ship, Louis raised an eyebrow and turned to look in its direction.

"Yasopp, I don't think that shot had much of a deterrent effect. Looks like you didn't scare them off."

Through his Observation Haki, Louis sensed that the pirate crew had already sprung into action. They were turning the cannons aboard their ship to aim at the Red Force.

At that, Yasopp's expression turned a little more serious. He raised his flintlock again.

"Got it. This time, I'll sink their ship!"

He raised his gun. His eyesight, combined with Observation Haki, helped him lock onto the pirate ship as he slowly squeezed the trigger.

"Bang..."

The gunshot rang out again. A Lead Bullet wrapped in Armament Haki sliced through the air and struck the hull of the pirate ship with pinpoint accuracy.

"BOOM..." A shockwave surged, and flames shot into the sky.

A dark-red fireball erupted. The entire pirate ship exploded as if it had been hit by a broadside from a warship. Shards of wreckage flew into the air and scattered all around.

Louis took it all in, then looked down at the weapon in Yasopp's hands, lost in thought.

In Yasopp's hands, an ordinary rifle had the devastating power of a warship's broadside.

Haki really was amazing.

Louis vaguely remembered that when he was two or three, he'd gotten a gun from the Beginner's Gift Pack the system had left behind before taking off.

Only, Louis had thrown it into the sea.

The gun was a Sten Submachine Gun. It was ugly, sure, but worse than that, it had accidentally discharged in the middle of the night once and woken Louis up with a bullet.

As for the other items in the Beginner's Gift Pack, aside from the submachine gun that kept going off by accident, they were pretty baffling too.

One was a child's edition of a puppeteer's textbook from the Sand Village next door. But it didn't come with a Chakra Seed.

Louis didn't have the bloodline of a plant person from outer space, so he had no Chakra at all. In the end, he decided he'd try making puppets sometime and see if he could use them alongside the Life-Life Fruit's powers.

The other item was the Expansion Jutsu. It hadn't come with a Chakra Seed either, so it was useless for now.

Meanwhile, after confirming there were no signs of life, Yasopp lowered his gun again. He turned to Louis with a grin and asked, "Louis, what did you think of my sniping?"

Louis looked down at him, then smiled and praised him. "Pretty impressive!"

"Keep at it for a few more years, and you might be able to break through my defenses when I'm not lighting the flames on my back!"

"..."

Yasopp looked utterly dejected at that, his face darkening as if someone had dumped a bucket of cold water over him.

The others tried to hold back their laughter. But as they laughed, their smiles gradually faded, and they all fell into thought.

Most of the Red-Haired Pirates were around the same strength. If Yasopp couldn't break through Louis's defenses, the rest of them wouldn't fare much better.

As everyone knew, a smile never disappeared—it merely moved to someone else's face.

Shanks turned to his crewmates with a bright smile. "Looks like you're not training hard enough!"

"Louis is only ten. In a few more years, the gap between you will be enormous!"

The others opened their mouths, but in the end, they fell silent.

"..."

After putting a little pressure on his crew, Shanks flashed a smile that had all the authority of a wet noodle and said, "Time to get the banquet started!"

At that, everyone quickly put their thoughts aside and responded to Shanks with cheerful grins.

Uta giggled and ran to the railing on the other side. After taking a deep breath, she shouted, "Beckman! We're starting the banquet!"

"Okay..." Beckman called back from the other ship. "I'll be right over once I've hung the ropes and chains!"

The decks of both ships grew busy in an instant.

Louis and Yelena watched the others skillfully turn the stage into a barbecue grill, their expressions turning subtly strange.

After a moment's thought, Louis turned to Shanks and asked, "Shanks, is there anything we can help with?"

Louis felt a little awkward standing around on someone else's ship, watching everyone else work while he had nothing to do.

At that, Shanks paused what he was doing and fell into thought. Even after quite a while, he still couldn't think of anything the two of them could help with.

In the end, he scratched his head and said offhandedly, "Why don't you light the fire for us in a bit?"

Louis: "..."

Suddenly, Shanks seemed to think of something. He slapped his fist into his palm. "How about you head into the sea and retrieve the wreckage from that ship we just sank?"

"Good timing, too. We might be a little short on cooking fuel."

Shanks had more or less guessed what Louis was thinking, so he casually found him a job.

Louis nodded. "Sure."

Then he activated his ability.

Specks of golden light appeared around Louis, forming streams of gold that swirled around his body.

The golden light shone brightly, drawing everyone's gaze before they even realized it. Their eyes turned toward Louis.

Then, under everyone's watch, the dazzling light scattered and sank straight into the sea behind him.

The next moment, the blue ocean began to undergo a wondrous change.