Leaving Foosha Village

A night of drunken revelry.

Before dawn the next day, Dadan's family quietly left Foosha Village.

Before Duen arrived, he had assumed that, because of Luffy, the villagers of Foosha Village would get along well with Dadan's family. But that was not the case. The villagers were actually quite afraid of the fierce-looking mountain bandits and usually chose to keep their distance.

Duen had casually offered a suggestion. If these mountain bandits wanted to get along with the villagers, helping build the village's water channels might be a good way to start. But the burly old woman rejected it on the spot. "We're mountain bandits! Why would we do something so degrading and stupid? Kid, don't wave your hands around in front of someone older than you!"

After that, Duen stayed in the village for another two days. During that time, he got along very happily with the brothers Ace and Luffy—aside from the part where they nearly wanted to hack Duen to death with knives.

He entered the system to take a look and discovered that the negative emotion points had somehow risen from 800 to an exaggerated 9,000-plus!

Luffy and Ace had contributed no small amount... It had to be said, this was probably what being protagonists meant.

Of course, after the two got to know Duen's personality, they gradually stopped finding his antics surprising. Under Duen's exploitation, the growth curve of negative emotion points began to enter a sluggish phase, rising slowly.

Before leaving the village, Duen spent another 1,000 emotion points on five lottery draws. His luck was fairly decent. Although four of them were thank you for participating, on the fifth draw he got a small Pocket Den Den Mushi. Beside its snail shell was a tiny dial pad.

[Pocket Den Den Mushi]

Note: 001-.

Following the number in the note, Duen dialed the Den Den Mushi. However, all he heard was a "beep beep beep" busy signal. After thinking about it, he realized that this was the Pocket Den Den Mushi's own number.

He had originally planned to give the Den Den Mushi to Luffy as a parting gift so that he could continue collecting negative emotion points regularly in the future. But Ace gave Luffy a reminder. "Luffy, do you really want to talk to this guy all the time?"

Thus, the Straw Hat idiot, who had been delighted just moments ago, was doused as though by a bucket of cold water and immediately refused.

"What a pity..." Duen sighed. "You won't even accept someone else's kindness?"

"It definitely wouldn't be kindness!" Ace and Luffy refused righteously.

"I'm sincerely giving you a gift." Duen spoke with utter sincerity, but seeing the two picking their noses with such slack, careless expressions, he could not help clicking his tongue.

"Then how about this..." Duen walked toward Luffy. "I'll give you something else instead."

As Luffy watched with faint anticipation, Duen took out the Straw Hat wrapped in yellow bands and placed it on his head.

"This hat—I'll leave it with you for now. It's a very good hat. Once you become strong enough, return it to me..."

"Huh?"

Luffy felt as though he had seen this scene somewhere before. By the time he remembered, Duen and Nami had already gone farther and farther down the road outside the village.

At the same time, Uplasp's home became spacious and desolate with Duen and Nami's departure. Not merely in atmosphere, but in the literal sense of being empty...

The elderly village chief could hardly believe his eyes. The battered old sofa that had accompanied him for seventy or eighty years had actually been carried away!!

Although a stack of brand-new Beli and a note had been left where the sofa had stood.

"Old man, thanks for letting us stay these past few days. That sofa was pretty comfortable, so I'll consider this payment for buying it. Also—"

Reading the final word, Uplasp could not help frowning. "Also what? Couldn't he write it clearly?" He scanned the blank space at the bottom of the paper before turning it over. Finally, the remaining words came into view.

"I think you and Dadan are a good match. Just get married."

"You little bastard!!" The furious roar carried from inside the house all the way outdoors.

"Negative emotion points from Uplasp +..."

Feeling the words flicker in his mind, Duen touched the storage pouch at his waist again. It was clearly such a small pouch, yet fitting an entire sofa inside had been no problem at all. He truly had no idea what kind of spatial structure it contained.

Duen did not actually want the sofa. The old man had simply been too stubborn and absolutely refused to accept payment for their lodging and meals, so this could only count as an equal exchange.

It had been about five or six days since they came from the Goa Kingdom to Foosha Village. Although staying here had been quite relaxing, and the negative emotion points accumulated faster...

If he stayed too long, though, he would truly lose all motivation. Besides, he might miss out on many interesting people and events out at sea.

Did he need to stay here just because he had to collect negative emotion points? Duen refused to admit that was his style.

"So, did you have fun these past few days?"

Duen looked at Nami walking beside him. To his surprise, she smiled. "That village was peaceful and quiet. It was a nice place."

"As long as you had fun... Then as your guide, shouldn't I discuss the guide fee with you?"

Nami's expression changed as quickly as June weather. The clear sky instantly turned overcast as she coldly spat out two words, "No way!!"

"Negative emotion points from Nami +111..."

"Stingy."

"I am stingy!"

"Cheap."

"I am cheap! Nyah nyah nyah—"

It was completely illogical bickering, just like children squabbling, yet Duen rather enjoyed the feeling. What did people live for? Wasn't it to watch others get humiliated right in front of them?

Was there a problem with that?

The answer was: perhaps... maybe... probably not.

The two returned to the Goa Kingdom by retracing the mountain path through Mount Colubo. Aside from needing to board a merchant ship at Gray Port when leaving, Duen was still somewhat worried about Simon.

Although no one should come looking for trouble with Simon after Bernal Joshua's death, Duen was not certain whether this disturbance had truly passed. He also felt it was necessary to confirm it.

They hurried all the way back. The streets of Border Town were bustling with people, with no major changes from usual, except that there were considerably more patrol guards on the streets.

A wanted poster for Buggy the Clown had been added to the public notice board by the street, and the bounty had risen from the original ten million Beli to fifteen million Beli.

This was not an internal wanted order from the Goa Kingdom, but the latest bounty poster issued by Marine Headquarters.

Text beneath the wanted poster read: Those who provide clues about Buggy the Clown may go to the [Investigation Office] to receive a one-million-Beli cash reward for information.

Seeing the wanted poster, Duen relaxed slightly. Things had developed as he expected—Buggy the Clown had become the scapegoat.

But even so, he needed to find the information broker, Jordan.