Loguetown
This was the town where it all began and ended. Pirate King Roger was born here, and he died here as well.
The Marines were stationed here too. The Marine Colonel in charge had come from Marine Headquarters and was immensely powerful. He showed pirates no mercy, allowing the residents to avoid harassment from pirates.
Whenever people asked around, they all said the newcomer was countless times better than the previous branch colonel, who had done nothing but occupy his position and collude with pirates.
A marine ship came over the horizon. At the harbor, the Marine soldiers immediately pulled out their binoculars. If it was a pirate ship, they would have to send someone to report it at once. What he saw, however, was the same scene as always.
Pirate corpses hung from the bow. Behind the clean-cut man stood a group of trembling pirates. The man was clearly handsome, but they were terrified of him.
"It's Rodney. He's here to cash in another bounty." The Marine soldier breathed a sigh of relief. Rodney was a rising pirate hunter who often brought in an entire shipload of pirates at once.
"Call someone over at once. Prepare to receive the pirates."
"Yes, sir."
Not long afterward, the ship belonging to the Saw Pirates came ashore. A group of Marine soldiers dispersed the crowd, each carrying handcuffs and shackles as they waited to take the entire pirate crew away.
Leading them was a beautiful woman wearing glasses, with a long sword at her waist: Marine Ensign Tashigi.
"Mr. Rodney." Tashigi approached and greeted Rodney with great courtesy.
"Hello, Tashigi. The Saw Pirates are all here. How much bounty can I exchange them for?"
Tashigi smiled. "Please wait a moment. We still need to calculate it, but we definitely won't shortchange you." She looked at Rodney with respect. Everything he did contributed to this sea.
"All right." He nodded. Tashigi was a kind person and would not cheat him. He also wasn't worried about Smoker lining his own pockets. If even Smoker did that, the Marines would be finished.
Soon, four stacks of banknotes landed in his hands. One stack was smaller. The entire Saw Pirates crew brought in 5.63 million Beli. Three million Beli went toward buying Explosive Tags, and 100,000 Beli bought Shuriken, kunai, and other bladed weapons. He would spend the rest.
After finding a hotel to rest in, he bought Explosive Tags, Shuriken, senbon, Steel Wire, and kunai from the System Mall.
The System Mall sold more than just those things. It also had ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Kekkei Genkai, and more, but they required Mission Points.
Eight Inner Gates, Chakra Blade White Fang, Chakra Extraction Technique, and his own Chakra had all come from the System Gift Pack.
He could currently open only the First Gate of the Eight Inner Gates. He needed to constantly temper his body before he could use more.
Mission Points and Beli were like Game Coupons and diamonds in a game, standing out in stark contrast and giving him a strong sense of familiarity.
But even spending money wouldn't help this time.
He placed a stack of Explosive Tags into his waist pouch, followed by the small pile of ninja tools.
The waist pouch had one cubic meter of space, similar to a Space Scroll. However, the Space Scrolls in the System Mall were too expensive, and their storage space was also limited.
"I'm poor again."
"Ding! Mission issued."
The moment he said he was poor, a mission appeared. He opened it.
Mission: Kill Kuro the Hundred Plans. Mission Rank: C Reward: Eternal Chakra Fruit, 150 Mission Points.
Chakra Fruit?
That was good stuff. The Chakra Fruit here was not the one Kaguya Otsutsuki had eaten, but a weakened version. It came in two types: permanent and burst.
The Eternal Chakra Fruit could increase the Chakra in his body by a certain amount and expand his Chakra Capacity. The Burst Chakra Fruit, meanwhile, contained more Chakra than the Eternal Chakra Fruit, but it could only grant him Chakra for a short period. Once the time was up, it would disappear.
Kuro the Hundred Plans? He certainly wasn't an easy opponent.
Besides, wasn't raising the target from 4.5 million to 16 million Beli a little too reckless?
Kuro the Hundred Plans had been deemed the smartest man next to Benn Beckman, the second-in-command of the Red-Haired Pirates. He had faked his death to escape and infiltrated Syrup Village, hiding in a wealthy merchant's household while plotting to seize its fortune.
He was a very clever man, but unfortunately, he had run into the Great God Usopp and Straw Hat Luffy.
It was the latter half of the year 1517 of the Sea Prism Calendar. Going by the timeline, he had only entered Kaya's household about half a year ago.
"That treacherous bastard will be a little difficult to deal with." Smart people were troublesome to deal with. Well, not exactly troublesome.
Rodney embarked on his journey once again, traveling with a merchant ship. Without a certain level of navigational knowledge, it was easy to wander into the Calm Belt or encounter natural disasters on the open sea.
Rodney, who knew nothing about such things, naturally followed the merchant ship. The merchant ship was passing by Syrup Village and needed an escort, so he could go along with it and earn another sum of money.
The merchant ship stopped and started along the way, buying and selling goods. The journey was peaceful enough. After accepting 50,000 Beli from the merchant captain, he sailed a small boat to Syrup Village.
The merchant ship was merely passing by rather than stopping there, so he could only take a small boat and anchor north of Syrup Village.
Syrup Village was a peaceful village. It was the hometown of the father-and-son pair of Yasopp, the sniper of the Red-Haired Pirates, and Usopp, the sniper of the Straw Hat Pirates.
"Oh no! Pirates are here! Pirates are here!"
A cry rang out through the village. From the voice, it was a young boy. Had they mistaken him for a pirate?
A cloud of dust rose in the distance. Rodney took a careful look and saw a boy with a headscarf, a Long Nose, and an afro sprinting wildly at the front. A group of adults followed behind him, chasing the boy with brooms and wooden clubs in their hands. Their faces were full of fury.
Usopp?
The future Great God sped past him. The adults continued their relentless pursuit. Rodney grabbed one of them and said, "It's just a child. Is that really necessary?"
"Not necessary?" the man said. "That brat does this every day. Once or twice would be one thing, but he does it every day. It's annoying as hell. No wonder he's the Son of a Pirate—he's just like his father!"
The villagers hated Usopp because he frightened them with such lies every day. A few times would have been one thing, but doing it every day was bound to irritate people. On top of that, they despised the fact that Usopp's father had become a pirate, so his behavior was understandable.
In many people's eyes, pirates were villains.
Usopp's father, Yasopp, had accepted Red-Haired Shanks's invitation to become a pirate. To the villagers, that made him a bastard who had abandoned his wife and child. His wife had especially wanted to see him one last time before she died. To put his mother at ease, Usopp had filled her with hope after she fell ill, telling the lie "Pirates are coming!" every day.
After his mother died, he developed the habit of saying "Pirates are coming!" every day, becoming the Big Talker hated by everyone.
"Oh? Is that so? By the way, where is the wealthiest household in this village?"
The man pointed toward the Villa on the Hilltop. "That's it. Wait, why are you asking?"
He carefully sized up Rodney's outfit. To be honest, Rodney didn't look much like a good person.
"I'm a pirate hunter. A pirate has infiltrated this village."
"Isn't that the brat from just now? His father was a pirate too."
"That brat doesn't count as a pirate. Thanks." He infused his legs with Chakra and sprinted straight toward the Villa on the Hilltop. He moved far faster than an ordinary person, like a gust of wind, and vanished from sight in the blink of an eye.
"Could that guy just now have been a pirate?" The man scratched his cheek. After thinking it over, he called several people to follow.
But how could they possibly keep up with Rodney's speed?
The distance was not far. He reached the villa's backyard and slipped inside.
This was the richest household in Syrup Village—and Kuro the Hundred Plans' hiding place.
That man had realized that becoming a pirate had made him too conspicuous. He had therefore faked his death and escaped, using one of his crewmen as a substitute. He had Hypnotist Jango hypnotize the crewman, making his subordinate believe that he was Kuro the Hundred Plans. He had arranged for the Marines to surround and kill him, murdering all the witnesses at the time while leaving only that subordinate and one Marine Officer alive. In this way, he had removed himself from the incident perfectly.
After arriving in Syrup Village, he had pretended to be a crewman thrown off a ship by his fleet. The household had taken him in, and he had become their butler. Wearing a false mask, he had convinced everyone in the village to trust him.
As the smartest man next to Benn Beckman, he had carried out his plans beautifully. The depth of his scheming was truly terrifying.
Rodney entered the rear garden, where flowers and plants grew, then leaped into a tree and hid among the leaves.
The house of a wealthy family was simply too large, making it troublesome to search. So he chose to wait patiently for his prey to come to him.
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