"Nami, we came to save you!"
"Let's fight Arlong and his crew!"
At that moment, outside Arlong Park.
Villagers arrived in droves, each with fury on their face and crude weapons clenched in their hands.
Hearing the commotion, everyone turned to look.
The man at the front wore a dark brown guard uniform. A pinwheel was attached to his cap, and his body was covered in stitched-up wounds.
"Genzo?"
Nami turned around and looked at him in surprise. "Why is everyone here? Was it Nojiko?"
"That uncle is so weird. He has a pinwheel growing out of his head."
Luffy, wearing his straw hat, said curiously.
Reiner understood at once and roughly guessed why the villagers had come. He turned and slipped into Arlong's tower.
"Nami, handle things here for now. I'm going to see what I can loot."
After quite a while.
Inside Arlong's room, Reiner looked over the scattered cash he had found. After counting it, there were roughly four hundred million Beli.
Scratching his blond hair, he sighed. "Sigh... That's way less than I expected."
It was undoubtedly an enormous sum, but it was indeed less than he had imagined.
Arlong's crew had controlled more than twenty villages here. Aside from the few that had been completely destroyed, the rest had been exploited by him for years.
One hundred thousand Beli per adult and fifty thousand per child every month just to stay alive. Even the smallest village should have had over a hundred people, right?
After all these years, they had only saved this much?
Thinking of that, Reiner could not help cursing under his breath. "Do these bastards spend money that fast?"
"Whatever. At least it's enough to feed one Luffy, right?"
Reiner could not help thinking of Luffy, who could blow through a hundred million at a single banquet.
"Sigh..."
Reiner sighed, packed up all the money, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and left.
The moment he stepped out, he ran into Nami, who was about to enter.
"Nami, what are you doing here?"
"I came to get the sea charts I drew before. What's that on your back?"
Nami stared at Reiner suspiciously, a glint of eagerness flashing in her eyes.
Reiner: "...Heh heh."
"Fifty-fifty?"
"Nope."
"Forty-sixty!"
"Nope!"
Soon, the group followed the villagers back to the village. Reiner and the others went to Nami and Nojiko's home to rest.
"This is dried tangerine peel we made ourselves. Give it a try."
Nojiko brought over several cups of tangerine peel tea and handed them to them with a smile.
When Nami had taken them to Arlong Park earlier, Nojiko had immediately gone to find Genzo. That was why the villagers had come afterward.
"Tastes great!"
"It really is good."
"I'm glad you like it. Our poor little village really has nothing else to repay you with. I'll pack some dried tangerine peel for you to take with you later."
"Why talk about repayment? We've already received the greatest treasure."
"Is that so? Nami must be very happy with you all."
Nojiko left with a relieved smile. She was going to pack some dried tangerine peel as a gift of thanks.
Having just finished fighting, they were all a little hungry, slumped weakly against the sofa.
"Grrr~~"
"Ah, I'm going to die~"
Luffy flopped down listlessly.
The villagers were already cooking, preparing to treat them to a feast.
Reiner lit a cigarette and began considering Arlong's template.
With a wave of his hand, several flickering Azure Flames appeared. Reiner faintly sensed that the flames representing Arlong and Zoro were drawing toward each other.
"Should I fuse them?" Reiner muttered.
That was right. Templates that reached a certain level of compatibility could be fused.
However, their attributes would not stack. Instead, their strengths would complement each other, with the higher value being taken for each attribute.
Both Arlong and Zoro possessed outstanding arm strength.
Arlong also had extremely powerful biting force, while Zoro had specifically trained his bite due to his Three-Sword Style.
That was why the two templates had such high compatibility.
"Forget it. It'd be too wasteful just to add that little bit of attributes."
"With Zoro's rate of improvement, I can update it after a while, and the attributes will go up on their own."
He had another idea for Arlong's template. Compared to Arlong's arm strength, Reiner valued his steel-like nose and sharp teeth that could bite through rock more.
Especially the fact that his teeth could continuously regenerate.
After thinking for a while, Reiner's thoughts stirred, and a void rift opened out of thin air.
"Wahahaha! Reiner, are you making another new monster?"
The moment Luffy saw Reiner's movement, his eyes lit up.
"A robot! Make a robot this time, Reiner."
"...I already told you, I can't make robots."
"Then what are you going to make?"
"A weapon."
"A laser gun?!"
"..."
From within the void rift, a silver-white hilt slowly emerged.
Reiner grabbed the hilt and yanked it out. A double-edged sword, entirely silver-white and lined with sharp serrated teeth on both sides, appeared in his hand.
At its tip was a vicious skull the size of a fist, with something like the point of Arlong's saw-like nose bone extending from it.
"...Emmm, it looks pretty ordinary."
Luffy said with a look of disdain.
Reiner, however, revealed a strange smile. "What if I told you it could extend?"
"Extend? Wouldn't that make it just like me?"
Reiner pointed the Bone Sword at a huge rock outside the door, and his thoughts moved.
The next instant, the Bone Sword's blade abruptly extended, its serrated tip shooting explosively toward the boulder.
Boom!!!
The boulder instantly exploded into pieces.
"Wait, that move is..."
"Yeah, Arlong's Shark something Charge, I think? But it's far from that simple."
As Reiner spoke, the Bone Sword suddenly curved. Its tip abruptly turned around and lunged back, staring straight at Luffy like a snake.
"After all, it's an Undead Creature. You can think of it as a Bone Snake. I just pinched its tail into a sword hilt."
More accurately, this was a chain sword.
It could extend because its blade was made of bone teeth. Using Arlong's teeth, it could continuously regenerate by consuming stamina.
Chain swords were very useful weapons, but their techniques were difficult to master.
But Reiner figured, did Undead Creatures need training?
It could be controlled as easily as an arm, moving with a single thought. It could become a sword, a whip, or even—
The Bone Sword suddenly coiled up, layer after layer fitting together to form a silver-white round shield. The shield's surface was covered in spikes, with the vicious skull at its very center.
If someone thought it was merely a shield and tried to get close, Reiner would show them exactly what "Shoot him dead, Divine Spear" meant.
"Wahaha, it transformed! Reiner, make one for me too!"
Reiner: "..."
Reiner directly tossed the Bone Chain Sword to him to play with and ordered the Undead Creature to obey Luffy.
Luffy happily ran outside with the toy and played to his heart's content. Less than three minutes later, he returned dejectedly.
"I'm so hungry~~"
"..."
"Food's ready, everyone!"
"Oho! Time for a banquet!"
The moment Luffy heard the shout outside, he rushed out, with the others following close behind.
"Reiner, wait a moment. I want to tell you something."
"Hm? What is it?"
Reiner turned back toward Nami, who had called out to him. Why did she look a little shy?
Could it be?
"Um... the money we got from Arlong..."
"...Nope!"
"That's not it! I wanted to ask if we could leave some for the villagers of Cocoyasi Village?"
"Sure. How much should we leave?"
"...Fifty million?"
"Take whatever you want."
"Then one hundred million?"
"That works too."
"Then how about—"
"Wait a second. Are you sure the extra amount you keep adding isn't for lining your own pockets?"
Reiner could not help interrupting her.
Nami's face suddenly turned even redder.
"Ahem... Then one hundred million it is."
"..."
Well, well, well. This little beauty sure had it all figured out. So that was where she was hiding it?
Before you continue