Mission Hall

East Blue, Sherlock Village

A group of pirates had surrounded the village. On the sea, pirates were synonymous with freedom, but they were lazy and idle, producing nothing. Gold and silver would not magically appear on their ships, so where did they get the money for their daily expenses?

Naturally, they extorted it from ordinary civilians!

Only a minority searched for treasure. Where in the world were there so many treasures for you to find? If you had money and did not squander it but hid it away instead, wouldn't that mean you were sick?

The Cannon Pirates naturally had no intention of searching for treasure. They had chosen a more convenient and profitable method: robbing!

The so-called freedom and dreams were merely a fig leaf. To live without restraint, they left their hometowns and came to the boundless sea, relying on wealth plundered from others to enrich themselves. They spent money recklessly, gorged themselves, indulged their desires, and acted brutally. That was the reality for most pirates.

"Come on, come on! Make a contribution to our Cannon Pirates. Once our captain becomes the Pirate King, we'll repay your village handsomely." The tall, skinny man, who looked like a bamboo pole, chuckled as his unrestrained gaze swept over the terrified villagers.

Anyone could tell from their faces that the men around him were vicious criminals. Their eyes were just as brazen as they looked through the crowd for any women they fancied, hoping to alleviate the unbearable loneliness they had suffered aboard the ship.

The young girls were so frightened that they shrank back, terrified of being noticed.

The village chief of Sherlock Village was an old man. He trembled and tottered as if he might ascend to heaven on a crane at any moment. Shaking all over, he said, "Sir, our village... really has no money left. Please show mercy."

Sherlock Village was not wealthy. If it had not been in such a remote location, the village would have been wiped out long ago. Pirates occasionally came to extort them, and everyone could scrape together some money. But they would have to tighten their belts for the rest of the year. A pirate crew had just taken most of the village's money not long ago, and now another had arrived. How were they supposed to live like this?

"What? No money?! Old man, are you looking to die?" one of the men, who looked like a bear, roared. He immediately grabbed the old village chief with an arm as thick as an ordinary person's thigh, as if he were about to crush him to death.

Blinding flashes of sword light flickered across the villagers' faces. The adults of the village all showed fear. It was not that they did not want to resist; they simply had no power to do so. In this age of pirates rampaging across the seas, only ordinary people suffered.

"Who is Clive Shazzo?" A sudden voice rang out from behind them. The pirates turned around and saw Rodney slowly walking over, dragging two large men behind him.

When the pirates got a clear look at the men he was dragging, they realized that they were the ones who had stayed behind on the ship.

"Brat, who are you?" The burly man as large as a bear casually threw the village chief aside. Some young villagers caught him, while the burly man strode toward Rodney and reached for him with a hand as broad as a fan.

Looking at the burly man who was half a body taller than him, Rodney helplessly shook his head. The people of the One Piece World were so well nourished that they were truly sturdy. He drove a punch straight into the man's exposed stomach. The entire man flew backward, smashed through a large tree, and lost consciousness.

The pirates present were all stunned. That man was among the top ten fighters in their crew, yet this fellow had defeated him so effortlessly.

"What are you waiting for? Attack! He's only one man, while there are so many of us! Everyone, get him together!" The bamboo-pole man seemed to hold a fairly high position. Spurred on by him, a group of men charged at Rodney.

"Shadow Leaf Dance!"

"Konoha Whirlwind!"

"Konoha Great Whirlwind!"

"Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique!"

Fireballs exploded among the pirates, sending them scattering in disarray. The bamboo-pole man charged over with his sword in hand. His movements were fast, far beyond those of the cannon fodder, though he was still nowhere near Kuro the Hundred Plans in speed.

Rodney drew the Chakra short blade White Fang from his leg and easily tore through the bamboo-pole man's skin, muscles, and windpipe.

"Ghk... ghk..."

The bamboo-pole man could no longer speak. He made a sound like air leaking from a broken bellows as blood flooded his windpipe and his life force rapidly ebbed away before his eyes.

Boom!

An explosion rang out, and the place where Rodney had just been standing was blasted apart. The bamboo-pole man, who had been caught in the blast as well, was also affected.

He vanished completely in the cannon blast. The one who had fired it was a massive man standing two and a half meters tall. He smoked a cigar and held a fairly thick cannon in his hands.

He tossed that cannon to a subordinate, then took another one from him. The earlier cannon was loaded with a new shell by the subordinate.

Cannon Clive Shazzo was a pirate with a bounty of eleven million Berries. He was extremely arrogant and was already preparing to head to the Grand Line. He would probably sink not long after entering it...

"Hahaha! You insignificant little thing, how dare you come looking for trouble with your Uncle Clive! Hahaha! That idiot Shazzo actually got killed by someone like you!" Clive laughed disdainfully. Surrounded by smoke, he looked even more sinister.

A chill ran down his back. He seemed to hear the sound of flesh tearing.

"Ninjas all know Shunpo, Mr. Clive." Rodney appeared behind him with a pleasant smile. White Fang had already pierced Clive's heart from behind. The forty-centimeter blade had sunk completely into Clive Shazzo's body. Clearly, there was no chance of saving him.

"You... how could you?!"

"You can still talk? Oh, I forgot to pull out the blade."

Rodney smiled as he pulled out the blade, bringing forth a fountain of blood. Mm, it was red—not some other strange color.

"Captain!"

"Captain! How could this happen?!"

"Captain, what are you doing, Captain?!"

The pirates stared at their ambushed captain, their faces filled with disbelief. This was a "great pirate" with a bounty of eleven million Berries. How could he have been taken down by an unknown nobody?

Impossible!

This was absolutely impossible!

"Are you still dreaming? You're next!" Rodney kicked Clive, who was clinging to life, then charged toward the pirates.

He killed anyone who resisted and knocked down those who fled. Then he made them hand over the remaining money aboard the ship as compensation for the villagers' emotional distress.

The villagers of Sherlock Village accepted it with immense gratitude.

Rodney had originally intended to stay for a meal, but he refused. When he left, he took several strips of dried meat as snacks for the road. Afterward, he had the remaining pirates bury the crew's bodies.

Only Clive Shazzo and the bamboo-pole man had bounties. As the vice-captain, the bamboo-pole man had a bounty of three million Berries, so Rodney cut off his head and took it along as well.

The pirate ship left with the remaining pirates aboard. Rodney was on it too, and he would take them to the nearest Marine branch to be imprisoned.

"Don't even think about escaping. If you do, prepare to feed the Sea Kings." Rodney wore a devilish smile. The ship was already drifting across the open sea, so it was too late for them to run.

The pirates all showed despair as they waited to be taken into custody aboard the ship. Neither being arrested nor jumping overboard to be eaten by Sea Kings was a good choice, but being arrested was still somewhat better. At least they could stay alive.

Better to live poorly than die well.

Rodney snorted. "If none of you had bounties, I wouldn't have bothered. Otherwise, I definitely would have dealt with all of you to eliminate future trouble. What goes around comes around." These men were too weak for him to even consider killing them.

As for his mission, it had already been completed, and he would not receive another one for a short while...

Suddenly, a "ding" sounded beside his ear.

"Ding! The host has completed twenty missions. The Mission Hall is now officially unlocked."

The Mission Hall?

There was a Mission Hall?!

He opened the so-called Mission Hall and discovered that it was simply a place to accept missions. However, they did not appear one after another. He could choose his missions.

And they were not limited to kill missions.

There were escort missions, such as escorting a merchant ship; reconnaissance missions, such as investigating a certain kingdom's king's private life; and even missions to help a tavern sell alcohol.

However, all of these were D-Rank Missions. They awarded between ten and one hundred Mission Points and had no special rewards.

There were no C-Rank Missions yet.

The system said, "From now on, the host may freely accept missions, but you cannot evade missions selected by the system."

In other words, he had to accept missions issued by the system itself. He could not evade them. That meant he had more freedom and a wider selection of missions.