"I'm Luffy, nice to meet you!" Luffy was very happy to be welcomed by everyone and pointed at the other person with his right hand, "Uncle, your hair is too curly."
The mayor of Igaram, far from minded, laughed along, saying, "This is Whiskey Peak, a town famous for its brewing and music. We are most proud to entertain our guests. We have as many fine wines as the ocean, which we are very proud of. Let's enjoy your adventures so far as our drinks!"
"Come, everyone, please join me in enjoying the feast, shall we?" Mayor Igaram extended another invitation to the crowd.
"I'd be happy to!" *4
Luffy, Naruto, Zoro, Usopp all loudly agreed. Not only did they agree, but they also twisted together and danced a bizarre dance, following behind Mayor Igaram.
"These idiots!" Nami was speechless at the sheer number of these four clowns.
"How long will it take to record the magnetic field on this island?" Nami touched the Log Pose on her left wrist with her right hand, fulfilling her duty as a navigator.
"Records?" Mayor Igaram was clearly taken aback. "Let's put that boring stuff aside for now and relieve our travel fatigue."
Mayor Igaram grabbed Nami's shoulder and gently pulled her to one side. "Alright everyone, let's get started and prepare the banquet. Let's give the adventurers a proper welcome!"
In the town's tavern, a group of townspeople gathered, singing and dancing together in celebration.
"Then I said very coldly, 'You damned Sea King, don't touch my companions!'" Usopp, now drunk, started boasting again.
"Mr. Usopp!" "That's great!" "Oh, come on!" Several girls, captivated by Usopp's stories, showered him with compliments.
"Well, even I get a little shaky when I think about the Calm Belt. This is a demonstration of how excited I am." Usopp thoroughly enjoyed the adulation from the crowd.
"Amazing!" "Cheers to Mr. Usopp!" The male listeners were also very excited.
Mayor Igaram placed two glasses of wine on the table. "Come on, don't be shy, drink up."
"No, let's skip the alcohol," Hinata and Nami, who were sitting together, began to refuse.
"Haha, don't worry, this is a special beverage made from the finest grape juice, the same material used to make fine wine. Although it tastes like wine, it is actually alcohol-free. Ladies, you can drink it without worry." Mayor Igaram cleared his throat in a melodious voice and explained to the two of them.
Nami tried a sip, "Really? It's delicious! Hinata, you should try some too!"
Seeing that Nami also recommended it, Hinata, who wasn't good at refusing, had no choice but to try a bite.
Seeing that the two had already drunk their wine, the mayor of Igaram immediately led the townspeople in cheers, bringing the atmosphere to a climax. "This year's harvest is also excellent. Come on, to celebrate the harvest, let's have a toasting contest as is customary!"
"Yay!" "Great!" "Fantastic!" The villagers immediately responded to Mayor Igaram's call and began to cheer.
Zoro and Sasuke, who didn't talk much, sat on the sofa next to Hinata and the others and carefully took a bite.
"The rules of the competition are simple: keep toasting, and the last one standing wins! Everyone, come and join us!" Mayor Igaram perfectly fulfilled his duty of urging people to drink.
"Let's just forget about it. We can't drink that much, even if it's just a beverage." That was an attempt to politely decline the offer for himself and Hinata.
However, Mayor Igaram was not about to give up easily. He pulled a bag from his pocket. "The champion's prize is... 100,000 Beli!"
???!
In the Hinata lowered her head, Nami had already taken off her coat, stood up, put one foot on the table, and held a cup with the other. "Another cup!"
Nami then looked at the others beside her. " Hinata, Zoro, and Sasuke, you guys should come too, especially Zoro, aren't you dirt poor?"
"Cheers!"
"Wow! That's the tenth cup already!" Many people gathered around Zoro, counting the cups.
"Thump!" A town resident participating in the competition slumped onto the table. "I can't drink anymore..."
Unlike Zoro, who struggled to swallow, Nami drank it down in one gulp, shouting to the surrounding audience, "This lady has already finished her twelfth cup!"
"Another plate, please!" Unlike the others who were drinking during the competition, Luffy and Naruto were eating heartily on the side. "Captain has eaten enough food for twenty people!"
"That's nothing! The gentleman across from him has already eaten enough for twenty-one people!" said another resident serving the food. "Even the chef fainted!"
As for Sanji, he was proposing to twenty girls at once, while Usopp had already succumbed to boasting.
"Hahaha, everyone's having a great time," Mayor Igaram laughed heartily as he looked at the crowd in the tavern. "What a delightful evening! It's wonderful to see everyone so happy."
"That's really great..."
"I can't take it anymore, I'm not drinking anymore..." Zoro pushed his glass forward and slumped onto the table. "This guy finally passed out after his thirteenth drink!"
Seeing that Zoro had already collapsed, Sasuke, who had been pretending to drink a few cups, took the opportunity to spill most of his half-glass of wine on his clothes, lay down on the sofa, and even put one foot on Zoro.
"What?! Zoro and Sasuke, you two are such a disgrace!" Nami, already quite drunk, slurred her words.
"Now there are only two left, and this is the fifteenth cup. The opponent is a nun." The townspeople, always eager for excitement, watched the spectacle unfold.
The nun raised her glass to her lips and said, "It's about time you stopped, for your own good."
"What are you talking about? I absolutely won't stop until I get the prize money, hahaha!" Nami was so drunk that all she could think about was the prize money.
"Bang!" "Bang!"
"Thank you for the treat..." Luffy and Naruto collapsed one after the other, having tied in their previous eating contest.
"Hahaha, I won!" Looking at the nun lying in front of her, Nami touched her mouth with her right hand, then slumped onto the table. "So... happy..."
"What a wonderful town!" "This is Paradise!" Usopp and Sanji were completely absorbed in their enjoyment.
About four hours later, the entire tavern had completely quieted down. Even Hinata, after taking care of her teammates, had fallen asleep on the table.
"Tired from playing? Falling asleep? Then sweet dreams, adventurers."
"Tonight, even the Cactus Rock dancing in the moonlight are beautiful..." Mayor Igaram looked at the moonlight in the sky and was the last to leave the tavern.
"He's just like a poet, Igaram, no, Mr. 8." I never expected that someone would be sitting on the rooftop so late, waiting for Igaram to appear.
Igaram didn't turn around, as if he knew the two people well. "Is it you?"
The visitor asked, "Where are they?"
"They've all fallen," Igaram slowly turned his head, "They've all fallen into hell."
"Honestly, that guy can really hold his liquor, so I mixed a little alcohol into his drink, otherwise, she might still be sober and making a scene." The nun who was clearly drunk earlier came out from behind the house.
The so-called nun, as she walked, removed her monk's robes, revealing a muscular physique. "But really, was it necessary to put on such a complicated show? They're just a few seemingly weak brats; wouldn't it have been easier to just crush them at the port? Besides, our town is struggling to find food; I didn't expect you to bring back any whale meat anyway."
"That's going too far! We've already tried our best!" It turns out that the two people sitting on the rooftop were the same two Luffy and his crew encountered inside the whale Laboon after crossing the Twin Cape. They had intended to kill Laboon to use it as food for the town, but Luffy and his crew had stopped them and brought them to their ship. However, they jumped ship just before reaching the town and ended up swimming here.
"Calm down, look at this, I've already investigated them." Igaram pulled a bounty poster from his pocket.
"Thirty million Beli!" *3
"Them?" The other three were quite surprised.
"Judging pirates' abilities by their appearance is foolish, Miss Monday," Igaram said seriously.
All-black skin, muscular build, pink twin ponytails, and a pink and white checkered jumpsuit with three green flowers on the collar—Miss Monday—said in a high-pitched, childlike voice, "Ah, how shameful."
Igaram turned his head and looked towards the direction of the port. "But never mind, the matter is resolved. Looks like I can report the good news to the boss. Let's hurry up and take all the treasure from their ship."
"So, what about them? What are they going to do?" the other three asked.
"Killing them would reduce the bounty by 30%, because the government wants to publicly execute all the pirates," Igaram said slowly. "Go, capture them alive."
"I'm so sorry, could you please let them get some sleep? Everyone is exhausted from the day's voyage." A sudden voice boomed in their hearts like a thunderclap.
"Mr. 8, Miss Monday, the man with the loincloth wrapped around his waist has escaped from the house!" Several townspeople suddenly rushed out to report.
"You idiot, shouldn't you be fast asleep by now?" Igaram was quite puzzled by the unexpected turn of events.
Sitting on the rooftop, Zoro brandished his longsword in the air. "As a swordsman, you can never let yourself be killed by careless idiots like you. That's the gist of it, isn't it? This is the bounty hunters' lair, isn't it? They plunder those smug pirates who come to the Grand Line, right? There are about a hundred bounty hunters here. I'll be your opponent... Baroque Works!"
"You bastard! How do you know our company's name?!" Upon hearing this, the four people below reacted like cats whose tails had been stepped on, their fur standing on end.
Zoro slowly transferred the long sword from his right hand to his left, then drew another long sword with his right hand and laughed loudly at the crowd below, "Of course it's because when I was doing the same kind of work as you guys, your company tried to poach me, but I refused."
The employees within the company are completely unaware of each other's backgrounds, addressing each other only by code names. Of course, the boss's whereabouts and even his true identity are also a mystery to the employees. The company is a criminal organization that faithfully executes orders—Dalok Works. That's a secret, isn't it?
"This really surprises me. Now that you know our secret, I have no choice but to kill you... Cactus Rock will have another tombstone." Igaram gradually calmed down and looked at Zoro calmly.
The so-called Cactus Rock was originally a mountain made up of a series of round, standing stakes, but it was covered with graves, and these graves formed the sharp thorns of the cacti.
"Charge!?" Igaram had just given the order, wanting everyone to attack, when he suddenly realized that Zoro had disappeared.
"Damn it, where did he go?" It wasn't just Igaram and his group; all the bounty hunters present were searching for him.
To everyone's surprise, Zoro simply stood calmly in the middle of the group, shouting, "Damn it, you underestimated us! Fire!"
" Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!" "Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Claw Crimson!" Two more unexpected voices rang out.
It turned out to be Hinata Hyuga and Sasuke Uchiha. They were also pretending to be asleep. They didn't come out with Zoro immediately because they had to take care of the others. Instead, they hid behind the group after using Shadow Clone Technique.
Hinata's Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm releases a high-density chakra mass from a distance using the palm, attacking distant targets. It is a technique used by the Hyuga Clan to compensate for the limited range of their Eight Trigrams Palm technique. At this moment, it directly knocked down and sent flying everyone within a 20-meter radius in front of her.
Sasuke's Phoenix Flower Claw Crimson is a derivative technique of Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Jutsu. It is Fire Release Ninjutsu formed by adding Shuriken into the Phoenix Flower Fire. Because of the addition of Shuriken, the fire ninjutsu attack is more accurate, and it knocked down about twenty people almost instantly.
As a result, the number of bounty hunters who had surrounded Zoro and were shooting at him was reduced from more than fifty to a dozen, and they were easily cut down by Zoro.