Oswaldo Island

Luo Ya moored the ship and headed onto the island, without worrying about what might happen to it.

After all, the Black Pearl had been designed to run on Luo Ya's energy. In other words, he was the key to the ship.

Besides, Adam Wood was considered the ideal material for shipbuilding. Its durability was beyond question, and ordinary thieves couldn't even get into the cabin.

He looked at a crowd of fearsome pirates haggling with merchants. Some wore worried expressions, while others looked delighted.

After asking around, Luo Ya learned that the island was called Oswaldo Island. In addition to producing gunpowder and trading weapons, it was also a base for the Underworld.

Back in West Blue, all the various jobs Luo Ya had taken through Maynard's crew had been carried out on similar islands.

The reason there were so many people on the island, aside from merchants and pirates who'd come to buy weapons, was that a job there was recruiting a large number of hands.

The Sorbet Kingdom's finance minister was recruiting on the island. His country was in the midst of a rebellion.

Luo Ya had some impression of the Sorbet Kingdom. As he recalled, its king, King Berkley, had been a real genius from the start, dividing the country into northern and southern halves to reduce the Heavenly Tribute they had to pay.

The north was where the nobles lived, under the protection of the state, while the south was a lawless region. Later, the king had also learned from the progressive policies of the Goa Kingdom in East Blue, setting fire to the south.

He was imitating the Goa Kingdom by eliminating unnecessary affairs.

As Luo Ya entered the town on Oswaldo Island, he saw a bustling crowd everywhere. It was clearly far more prosperous than West Blue.

Luo Ya wandered around, sampling quite a few of the island's local delicacies. Just then, a man in a black suit walked up beside him.

"Mr. Luo Ya, I'm Vitt, the person in charge of this island. Are you interested in the Sorbet Kingdom's job? Their finance minister wants to hire you to put down a rebellion in their country."

Luo Ya wasn't surprised. Everyone in the Underworld knew he had a perfect record of completing jobs.

He also remembered why the Sorbet Kingdom had sounded familiar. Wasn't it the country of Bartholomew Kuma in the original story?

If the country was in the midst of a rebellion, then this must have been the result of Kuma seeing the south set on fire and reacting in anger.

The thought piqued Luo Ya's interest. In the original story, Kuma had been an extremely mysterious figure who had only appeared a handful of times.

"Show me the way." Luo Ya nodded. Vitt led him to a room in one of the biggest restaurants on the island.

"Hello, hello! You must be Mr. Luo Ya, the Black Flame Swordsman, with a bounty of 210 million Beli. I'm Hafiz, the finance minister of the Sorbet Kingdom."

Hafiz stood up and warmly welcomed Luo Ya.

Luo Ya didn't hesitate to help himself to the table full of local dishes. He nodded in reply to Hafiz, then immediately began to wolf down the food. He even bit the cork off a bottle of wine worth five million Beli and drank straight from it.

Hafiz certainly lived up to his reputation as a finance minister, a job for lackeys. He wasn't embarrassed in the least.

After calmly pouring himself a glass of wine, he stood and raised it to Luo Ya. "With the Black Flame Swordsman on the job, putting down a little band of rebels will be a piece of cake! Hahaha!"

Luo Ya took a sip of wine to wash down his food, then said, "I hear the rebels in your country aren't just some nobodies. Otherwise, the Sorbet Kingdom would've dealt with them already. Why would you need to hire people?"

"Hahaha, they're still no match for the great Black Flame Swordsman! If you help us put down this rebellion, then in addition to the 100 million Beli reward from the Underworld, we'll personally give you a Famous Sword."

"Oh? What's it called?" Luo Ya perked up. Collecting special achievements in games was one of his favorite things to do.

"Kikuichimonji, one of the Twenty-One Great Grade Swords," Hafiz said proudly. After all, a sword among the Twenty-One Great Grade Swords was one of the finest blades.

And although there were many fine swords in the One Piece World, the famous ones were all blades that had passed through the hands of powerful swordsmen. It wasn't possible that there were only a few dozen good swords in the entire world and everyone else had to make do with ordinary sailors' cutlasses.

It was just that only a few had become famous. Before Hawk-Eye became the World's Greatest Swordsman, Yoru hadn't even counted as one of the fifty-one Skillful Grade Swords.

It was the swordsman who made a sword famous, not the other way around. After all, in the One Piece World, famous swords were all turned into Black Blades by Armament Haki and the tempering of a swordsman's spirit.

"Along with the sword, I want two Devil Fruits. Any Zoan or Paramecia will do. Think it over, then have Vitt get in touch with me."

With that, Luo Ya stood, lit a cigarette, and left without a backward glance. Hafiz's face turned ashen at his contemptuous attitude, but he didn't dare lash out, given Luo Ya's strength.

Vitt shrugged, then hurried after Luo Ya.

"Mr. Luo Ya, I've booked you a room at the biggest hotel on the island," Vitt said, leading him toward the hotel.

When they reached the room, Vitt was just about to leave when Luo Ya called out to him.

"Vitt, if I kill the person who posted the job after completing it, that doesn't count as failing the job, does it?" Luo Ya asked.

After all, Luo Ya had a slight touch of obsessive-compulsive disorder. He wanted to protect his perfect completion record at all costs.

At Luo Ya's question, Vitt smiled knowingly. "Mr. Luo Ya, the moment you complete a job, the employment agreement is already over. It won't count against your record."

Vitt had long since realized that Luo Ya wasn't fond of Hafiz. Besides, the Underworld was full of people preying on each other. Here, the only principle was that might made right.

That was why Vitt, despite being the person in charge of an entire island, treated Luo Ya with such deference. If Luo Ya killed him, it was hard to say how many people would step forward to avenge him.

Plenty of people under him were hoping he'd die so they could take his place. And the Underworld had only one rule about that: it didn't matter who took over, as long as the proper tribute was paid and business carried on.

After hearing that, Luo Ya waved Vitt off and headed for the bedroom.

As soon as he entered, Luo Ya froze at the sight before him. A very beautiful woman was sitting on the bed, her long, golden waves falling to her waist. She wore a purple dress and black stockings, and the ample curves of her chest made Luo Ya exclaim, "That's quite a pair."

The specially tailored dress had an extremely high slit, revealing a great deal of smooth, pale skin and making her look all the more mature and alluring.

The beauty smiled at Luo Ya. "Mr. Luo Ya." Then she gave him a playful wink.

Luo Ya felt he could barely hold back. "That brat Vitt's trying to distract me and slow my sword hand," he said, wrapping an arm around the beauty's slender waist.

The next ten thousand words have been omitted.