Syrup Village

At the banquet, Luffy was stuffing meat into his mouth at lightning speed, devouring it ravenously. He must have been starving.

Zoro was drinking heavily, and everyone was celebrating. Nami and Rika sat beside Moya, eating their barbecue politely, while Rika's mother, Rim, made rice balls.

Watching it all, Moya felt that he had already exceeded his goal this time.

Not only had he gained Nami and recruited the Buggy Pirates, but he had also learned some of Zoro's insights into swordsmanship and picked up a few sword techniques.

Most importantly, he had obtained the seed of Luffy's Conqueror's Haki. That was a crucial mark of a future king!

Looking at everyone, full to the brim and slumped over, Moya felt for the first time that he was beginning to belong in this world. But in the next instant, he remembered something unpleasant.

He wondered where that pleasure boat had gone. His first enemies since arriving in this world were still out there. He couldn't let the grudge go unsettled without getting revenge.

He had to find a chance to look into it properly. The problem was, he didn't have an intelligence network at all.

A trace of sinister anger slipped across his face.

As if she sensed something, Nami suddenly patted Moya on the shoulder, her eyes full of questions.

A handsome guy was popular anywhere, and this world was no exception.

Moya laid his hand over Nami's slender, pale hand resting on his shoulder.

He still needed to work on keeping his emotions in check, not letting them show on his face.

Moya didn't realize that his personality seemed to have split a little, shifting between the person he had been before transmigrating and the person he became when consumed by hatred.

Blushing, Nami made an excuse. "You looked so unhappy, so I was just comforting you. Don't get any ideas!"

But she didn't pull her hand away.

Moya suddenly clasped Nami's hand tightly. They looked at each other for a moment. Nami's gaze was a little flustered, but neither of them said a word.

Rika piped up adorably, "I want to hold hands with Brother Moya too!"

Everyone burst out laughing. Nami immediately pulled her hand away from Moya and calmly picked up a piece of barbecue, pretending to eat. But her heartbeat seemed a little unsteady.

The next morning, Moya got up early to train. Armament Haki required a strong, resilient body to support it.

Moya hadn't forgotten how powerless he had felt when he first arrived in this world. He wanted to grow stronger.

Drawing on Buggy's memories and combining them with his extensive theoretical knowledge from the modern world, he formed a hypothesis.

Haki was produced by the body's cells. For the cells to generate this kind of Haki, they had to become resilient enough to break through the body's limits.

At that point, the cells could become Haki engines in their own right, producing it constantly like energy. Armament Haki could be used up, just like strength, but it recovered with rest. The stronger the body, the faster it recovered.

Conversely, Haki could also deteriorate. If someone neglected their training and their physique weakened, their cells would return to a normal state and stop producing Haki, much like muscle turning into fat.

That was probably why Buggy, Moria, and the others couldn't use Haki.

Observation Haki was a special energy produced when the cells in the five senses surpassed their limits. It could be used to detect and predict an enemy's movements.

With advanced Observation Haki, the eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and skin formed an analysis system of their own, automatically processing the information gathered by each organ. It could even predict what would happen in the immediate future and allow the user to hear the Voice of All Things.

Conqueror's Haki required a seed of Conqueror's Haki in the first place. Most people inherited it, while others developed it through mutation.

Then, after enduring countless dangers and climbing to the heights of the world, they gradually strengthened their force of will. That was why most Conqueror's Haki users were born with it. They were one in ten thousand!

Being too weak really held him back at every turn. He had to carefully plan everything. Moya longed for the thrill of overwhelming his opponents, like the protagonist in some mindless power-fantasy system novel.

But Moya didn't have as many people protecting him as Luffy did, nor did he have a transmigration cheat to watch his back. He could only plan for every opportunity to grow stronger and train himself relentlessly.

Luffy and Zoro turned down the invitation to sail with Moya and his crew. They set off in a small boat to begin their own adventure.

Moya stayed in Orange Town for another day to keep training and wait for the crew uniforms and ship modifications to be finished.

He looked at the two majestic, blood-red ships, the Yanhuang and the Yanhuang No. 2, and at the crew dressed in matching black. Those with bounties, like Buggy, wore masks and changed their outfits, while the officers could wear whatever they liked.

For now, Buggy was the only combat officer in the Moya Adventure Group. Nami was the navigator, and Rika was Moya's maid and little chef. Rika's mother, Rim, was temporarily serving as head chef. She was a cook.

Richie was Moya's pet and mount. Dis, Cabaji, and Mohji were squad leaders under him, each commanding dozens of crew members. The entire adventure group had over a hundred people aboard its two ships...

In the end, Moya hadn't adopted Chouchou. He decided to let the little dog stay with its owner.

At Moya's command, the two well-stocked ships left Orange Town and headed for Syrup Village.

Moya trained as usual. The only person aboard who could spar with him was Buggy.

So Moya kept dragging Buggy into training matches. Perhaps getting Buggy to train again after he had lost his memories had made him stronger—or perhaps it had simply restored some of his youthful strength.

Moya had dabbled in everything: Devil Fruit abilities, Haki, and swordsmanship. But his main focus was developing his Devil Fruit powers.

Devil Fruit abilities left room for all kinds of wild ideas and experiments. Haki and swordsmanship, on the other hand, required steady practice and gradual, continual improvement.

"Captain Moya, Syrup Village is in sight!" the navigator called.

Nami was also studying the sea chart.

Luffy and the others, who had set off earlier, had still drifted to Syrup Village, where they met Usopp, who loved to lie.

After Usopp accidentally uncovered Captain Kuro's plot, no one believed him.

But thanks to the protagonist's knack for telling good from evil, Luffy and the others resolutely decided to help Usopp defeat Kuro and save the young lady, Kaya.

The pirate Kuro had spent three years posing as Klahadore, a butler, and earning the trust of the wealthy young lady Kaya. He planned to steal her fortune and retire to a comfortable life.

Seeing Usopp with Luffy and the others, Kuro guessed that his plot had been exposed. He began summoning his former crewmates, the Black Cat Pirates, and the two sides clashed.

Zoro's battle against the Cat Brothers was a struggle from start to finish. He had been careless at the beginning, letting Sham, the Siamese cat, steal two of his swords. Sham's speed and Buchi, the spotted cat's, strength both proved hard for Zoro to handle.

Without Nami's help, Zoro had to take injuries to get his two swords back. Then he gave it everything he had and took down the Cat Brothers in one blow.

Their vice-captain Jango, a hypnotist, had also somehow lost to Usopp's Gunpowder Star.

In his battle with Luffy, Kuro used Silent Step to leave him covered in injuries. Frustrated by his inability to defeat Luffy after a prolonged fight, and in the wake of the Cat Brothers' betrayal, the cold-blooded Kuro unleashed his ultimate move, "Shakushi," attacking everyone indiscriminately. He killed most of the Black Cat Pirates' crew.

After a difficult battle, Luffy finally defeated him with "Gum-Gum Bell."

On the other side, Moya's Adventure Group came ashore and looked at the Black Cat Pirates' ship, the Bezan Black, which was shaped like a black cat.

As usual, they captured the Black Cat Pirates' lookout, seized their pirate ship, and left more than thirty crew members behind to guard it.

Moya brought Nami, Buggy, Mohji, Cabaji, and Dis ashore. Rika rode on Richie, with more than ten crew members following them into Syrup Village...

At the village entrance, they happened to see the Cat Brothers lying on the ground, defeated by Zoro. Moya waved, and several members of the adventure group hurried over with ropes to tie them up.

He didn't see Zoro. He had probably gotten lost again, though he might have made it to the center of the village. Moya's Adventure Group continued onward.

Outside Kaya's mansion, Usopp had just managed to defeat Jango and was about to go help Luffy when he suddenly spotted an enormous lion with a little girl on its back, a young man and woman, and a group of people following them as they approached.

Usopp's legs began shaking violently. Judging by the leading man's presence and the masked figure, his sniper's instincts told him—

These were two people even more terrifying than Kuro. Beneath the handsome face of the man in the middle lurked demonic powers.

"Usopp?" Moya asked when he saw him.

"Has Kuro been defeated?"

"H-How do you know about Kuro? Don't come any closer! I'm Captain Usopp, with eight thousand men under my command!"

Usopp was lying through his teeth, nearly as bad as Moya, but his legs were trembling violently.

Moya ignored the lying Usopp and led his people into Kaya's mansion. Usopp wanted to stop them, but he didn't dare move.

Inside the mansion, the unconscious Jango was also captured by Moya's Adventure Group.

Looking at the delicate Kaya, Moya's girlish instincts inexplicably flared up again. He easily dodged Merry, who was standing guard, then went over and patted her on the head.

"How about coming with me and studying medicine? I'll take you to meet the world's best doctors someday."

After a short conversation, Kaya learned that the handsome man in front of her was an adventurer, not a pirate. She relaxed considerably and happily began chatting with Moya.

Nearby, Nami kept twisting Moya's waist, but the Slip-Slip Fruit's powers meant her grip kept sliding off. She could only stew in jealousy.

The crew members Moya had sent out had returned. They brought back an injured Luffy, a lost Zoro, and a bound Kuro to the mansion.

As Moya listened to his men's report, he learned that when they had reached the battlefield between Luffy and Kuro, they had almost vomited at the sight. The ground was littered with the dismembered corpses of Black Cat Pirates crew members, slaughtered indiscriminately by Kuro.

They fought back their nausea and hauled the cold-blooded man Kuro back, following their captain's orders.

After the banquet was arranged, Moya looked at Kuro of a Hundred Plans, a man guilty of monstrous crimes. Years ago, he had slaughtered the Marine ship Morgan had served on, then tricked everyone by faking his death and escaping, causing the Marines to cancel his wanted poster.

Now he had slaughtered his former pirate crew as well. He really was cold-blooded and merciless.

Moya urgently needed anything he could use. He didn't have the Six Powers yet, so for now, he would make do with Kuro's Silent Step.

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