Lina's Life in Logistics

Lina stood on the deck and looked around. He stamped his foot, and the wooden planks creaked.

"Looks like my life in logistics is about to begin, too."

He climbed the rope up to the lookout and looked down. Zoro was already sitting off to one side of the deck, dozing against the railing.

When he looked up, the vast blue sea spread out before him.

He turned to look toward the island. Through the forest, he could make out the scattered houses in the village.

"Pretty good view from up here!"

Lina lit a cigarette and leaned one hand on the railing with a grin.

"I'll take this spot, then. You can leave the lookout duty to me from now on!"

"Sure," Luffy replied with a smile.

Lina jumped down from the lookout and opened a huge blue backpack.

It contained supplies Kaya had given them. Aside from food, the rest was daily necessities and a small amount of medicine.

"Even shampoo and body wash? Merry's pretty thoughtful."

After sorting and counting everything, Lina began exploring the Going Merry.

There were hidden doors in the deck and near the mast. Below them was the men's quarters, furnished with two sofas and a few hammocks in the corners.

"Nothing's hidden from view."

Lina looked at the simple quarters and sighed.

The cabin in the bow was where the cannon and cannonballs were stored.

Two levels of cabins sat on the deck. The first floor was a storeroom, with several cannons installed along the sides. Lina put away some of the supplies.

The women's quarters were beneath the storeroom. Lina took a quick look inside and saw that they were clearly much more luxurious than the men's quarters: sofas, tables, bookshelves, wardrobes, and even a bar!

Outside on the deck, stairs on both sides led to the second floor, which was a communal living area made up of a kitchen and dining room, a meeting room, and more.

After exploring for a while, Lina summoned several skeletons to sort and put away the supplies.

"Not bad, Lina."

Nami came aboard and smiled at Lina, who was leaning against the railing outside the second-floor cabins. "Your ability can even help with chores. Looks like things will be a lot easier from now on."

"It's nothing. I'll have them clean the whole ship from top to bottom later."

Lina lit a cigarette and said casually.

At the moment, his combat-ready undead were limited to three templates: Luffy, Zoro, and Kuro. But he still had plenty of cannon fodder at his disposal, including Morgan.

He could use them all for chores without a second thought.

He'd shaped Kuro's template to look like Wolverine. Since he was undead, he still looked a little creepy, but at least he resembled a person.

In battle, they were fine for dealing with small fry. But when facing enemies with any real reputation, Lina never joined the fight himself.

He wanted the outside world to keep him separate from his undead as much as possible. Until he had top-tier undead under his command, he needed to keep a low profile.

It wasn't as if he had no combat ability. Thanks to the boost from his Devil Fruit, his physical abilities were already decent.

But his strength was only average. He couldn't compare to Luffy or Zoro; he was even weaker than his own undead.

He'd only been in this world for a year. No matter how much he trained, there was only so much he could improve.

It wasn't as if he had the Effort-Effort Fruit, letting him defy the heavens through hard work.

He could transform and become the Lich Lord, but that would attract too much attention and make it harder to keep a low profile early on.

In his transformed state, all his physical attributes depended on whichever undead had the highest corresponding attribute.

For example, he could currently get Kuro's speed and Zoro's arm strength. The rest came from Luffy, whose overall attributes were the most balanced.

Put simply, his strength ultimately depended on the undead he had. He hadn't gotten any other bonuses from crossing worlds, so the idea that hard work alone could make him invincible—

That was just a pipe dream.

But his "cheat"—his Devil Fruit—had a very high ceiling. He just needed time.

As for what Teacher Kai had said, that only Haki stood above everything else—

He could take it as a joke. Teacher Kai was an ability user himself, and whoever was stronger got to decide.

Enel had called himself a god, too, but Luffy had still knocked him flat.

By that logic, was it fate that stood above everything else?

In the end, it all came down to what you did.

Lina pulled himself out of his thoughts. His cigarette had burned down to the end.

Usopp carried everything aboard, and they pulled up the anchor, ready to set sail.

"Goodbye, everyone! Goodbye, Usopp!"

"Goodbye, Kaya! When I come back, I'll tell you an even more amazing adventure story than any tall tale!"

Usopp waved goodbye to Kaya. Today, he had finally taken the first step toward becoming a Brave Warrior of the Sea.

Kaya and Merry stood quietly on the shore and watched until the ship disappeared over the horizon.

"Miss Kaya, a few days ago, I heard something about Usopp from some of the villagers."

Merry smiled and began to speak slowly. "Before his mother passed away, Usopp kept running around the village shouting, 'The pirates are here!' Then he rushed home."

"He shouted to his mother that his father had come back to take them away, and that he was going to bring them out to sea."

"Perhaps it was because he was lonely. After his mother died, he kept shouting that the pirates were here every day."

"The villagers say that his lies held a powerful wish—that one day, his father would come back for them..."

Kaya listened quietly to Merry, gazing out at the sea as if lost in thought.

"Merry... I want to study medicine."

"Is that so? You've made a big decision all of a sudden."

Aboard the Going Merry, the group was celebrating.

"Let's drink to the Going Merry and Usopp!"

"Cheers!"

"I don't think you have a pirate flag yet."

Usopp looked up at the empty mast. "A flag is the soul of a pirate crew. Tell me what you have in mind! I'm a first-rate artist!"

"Really?"

Luffy looked excited. "I had no idea you could do that."

"I often drew on the village walls. I've been practicing since I was a kid," Usopp said proudly.

Lina soon brought a length of black cloth, several jars of paint, and a few brushes up from the storeroom.

Usopp began making bold strokes across the cloth. In no time, he had finished a pirate flag.

It showed a white skull wearing a yellow straw hat, with a pair of crossed bones behind it.

"Not bad, Usopp."

Lina took the flag and praised it. "I'll hang it up. You draw an outline on the sail, and I'll use the skeletons to paint it in."

"Leave it to me!"

With Usopp and Lina working together, they soon painted the same huge design on the sail.

The others couldn't help smiling as they looked at it.

The Straw Hat Pirates were officially formed.

"Nami, how long will it take us to reach Cocoyasi Village?"

Lina suddenly spoke up.

"Two days," Nami replied without hesitation. "But..."

"I have to ask again. Are you really sure? Arlong's bounty is twenty million, but I suspect he's far stronger than that."

"Lots of Marines have tried to take down Arlong, and every one of them failed. He has a secret arrangement with a certain branch, so they've buried a lot of his crimes. That's why his bounty hasn't gone up..."

Zoro couldn't help frowning. He used to make a living by cutting down bounty hunters and criminals, so he knew a little about how the Marines set bounties.

Bounties could reflect an opponent's strength to some extent. In the East Blue, a bounty of twenty million was extremely high.

From what Nami said, their opponent was probably far stronger than they had imagined.