The Buggy Pirates' First Encounter

Central Street's garden was laid out with neatly scattered bushes, providing just the right amount of cover from outside eyes. It was the perfect place for lovers to meet in secret.

The fluttering heart of a young girl and the restless heart of a young boy often made the sparks of love burn even hotter under the faint sense of being watched.

Beneath the shadows of the trees, Simon held hands with a beautiful woman with golden hair as they exchanged sweet nothings.

Duen had picked an inconspicuous rooftop and watched the pair beneath the trees with great interest. Even when they began kissing passionately, his honest gaze did not shift in the slightest.

A pale, delicate hand solemnly covered his eyes, and Nami's voice came from beside him. "Isn't this kind of peeping a little rude?"

"Don't mind it. Do you know about bacteria?"

Duen lay flat on the roof without a care. "If a kiss lasts longer than ten seconds, the eighty million oral bacteria in your mouth will crawl into the other person's mouth."

Nami froze. The more she thought about it, the more horrifying it seemed, and she could not help shuddering. Her face immediately darkened. "Don't tell me about that stuff, you unromantic idiot!!"

"Negative emotion points from Nami: +155..."

Duen looked up at the stars and smiled. "We'll leave this place tomorrow morning. Any objections?"

"Mm..." Nami sounded somewhat hesitant.

"Don't worry. I still have over a million Beli, and as long as there are pirates on the sea, I can trade their heads for bounty money."

"If you promise to give me half the bounty money..."

Before Nami could finish, Duen sighed. "A woman whose appetite can never be satisfied..."

This time, Nami surprisingly did not argue. Instead, she calmly asked, "Do you think I'm greedy for money?"

"Mm..." Duen felt that this was a truly difficult question to answer. If he said she was not greedy, she really was greedy; if he said she was, she had her reasons.

So he gave a completely unrelated reply. "I think you're not that ugly."

Hearing that baffling answer, a trace of a smile could not help appearing on Nami's slightly melancholy face. "You win..."

The night passed without incident. The next day, after checking out of an inn in Border Town, Duen bought ample food and fresh water before heading for Gray Port, intending to find a merchant ship there and leave.

Gray Port was bustling with people. Though it was only early morning, the laborers were already up and moving goods without pause.

As he walked, Duen thoughtfully observed the prosperous port.

In the Age of Great Pirates, whether it was "trade" or "plunder," both were essentially phenomena born from wealth. In a sense, wealth was the rule that maintained order. Even if someone tried to break it, those fragments would eventually gather again into shackles that locked down the lifeline of the world's development.

As long as humanity existed, as long as society continued to develop, the pursuit of wealth would remain an eternal theme. It was simply that, in this world, protecting wealth required absolute force.

As though he had decided to try something, a strange idea suddenly began to sprout in Duen's heart.

If the identities of Marine and pirate were placed before him, he would certainly choose the latter. But in truth, those were not his only two choices.

Just then, the footsteps around the port became chaotic, followed by the panicked cries of the laborers.

"Pirates! Pirates!"

"That ship..."

The thought that had just begun to sprout in his mind was disrupted by the surrounding commotion. Duen could not help raising his head to look into the distance.

A huge pirate ship drew closer. Its aggressively fluttering black flag bore a skull with a red nose, while the deck was packed with pirates carrying swords and wearing headscarves.

"This guy came at just the right time..."

Duen stopped walking. The sailors and laborers around him all retreated, leaving him standing alone at the very front.

Meanwhile, out at sea, aboard the Big Top.

Buggy, captain of the pirate crew, stared at the island before him and sneered. "This is the country, huh? They actually raised my bounty by five million because some noble got killed. Since they say I killed someone, then I'll really kill some people for them to see! Hahaha!"

"Those who offend Captain Buggy have never met a good end," Chief of Staff Cabaji sneered at the side.

"Opposing us? Foolish, truly foolish!" First Mate Mohji stood with his hands on his hips, a contemptuous smile on his face.

Buggy had spent ten years traveling the East Blue, always keeping a low profile while searching for treasure maps. But as his bounty rose, trouble became increasingly frequent. He was furious over this inexplicable increase in his bounty. Anyone who disturbed his beautiful dream of treasure hunting... would die!

"Men..." A cold smile appeared at the corner of Buggy's mouth. "Set up all four cannons. Let's completely destroy this port... Let them witness the might of the Buggy Pirates!!"

"Raaah!!!"

Amid the pirates' murderous cries, four cannons were quickly loaded and moved to the bow.

"Fire!"

At the command, the fuses were lit. With a deep boom as the shells left their barrels, the black cannonballs crossed the sea more than a hundred meters away in the blink of an eye and struck the clustered merchant ships in the harbor. Violent explosions erupted at once, sending up thick black smoke!

"Hahaha!" Buggy laughed smugly. "They're only unfinished Buggy Balls, but don't get cocky. This is more than enough to make fools like you suffer. I am the great Captain Buggy..." As he spoke, his expression suddenly turned grim and he spun around to glare at everyone. "Which bastard mentioned my red nose again?!"

The pirates hurriedly shook their heads in unison.

At the port, the merchants fleeing in panic looked as though they were on the verge of collapse as they watched their merchant ships sway like duckweed amid the surging waves. Yet they had no way to stop it.

The Big Top continued firing cannonballs, and every ship docked in the harbor was more or less caught up in the attack.

"This is bad..."

Duen wanted to rush up there, but he seemingly had no way to deal with those cannonballs. Cut them with his sword? They would probably explode instantly...

And those pirates were at least a hundred meters away out at sea. If he tried to approach with Geppo, he felt he would be shot down while still in the air.

No time to worry about that... If he didn't stop them, he wouldn't be able to leave by ship...

Duen drew the broad sword from his back and charged toward the end of the port road.

One-Sword Style: Leopard Walk.

His body moved like a stalking leopard. With one hand gripping the broad sword, he turned all his strength into a deft burst of force and swung upward, instantly slicing the incoming black cannonball in half.

The cannonball flew only a dozen meters before exploding in midair. The enormous shockwave sent Duen stumbling forward uncontrollably.

His expression did not change as he regained his footing. But when he felt a faint cool breeze against his back and reached behind to touch it, his face darkened.

His clothes had probably been shredded into strips by the blast's shockwave... Cutting cannonballs with a sword really was not going to work...

However, everyone else at the port stared at Duen in shock. This guy had sliced open a cannonball with his sword and actually... survived without a scratch?

Meanwhile, the Buggy Pirates out at sea had no intention of coming ashore. They seemed to be venting their anger as they continuously fired cannonballs toward the port while hurling all sorts of taunts and insults.

Standing at the front, Duen shouted curses at the sea. "Hey, Red Nose over there! You've got the guts to fire cannons, so why don't you come down here?!"

"Negative emotion points from Buggy: +88..."

Though they were far apart, Buggy heard him perfectly clearly. Fury instantly surged through him, and his face darkened. "That hateful brat actually called me Red Nose... Blast him to death with cannonballs!"

"Not bad!" Seeing the words flash through his mind, Duen felt a faint thrill. He dodged an incoming cannonball, then continued shouting after it exploded several dozen meters behind him. "Red Nose, be careful! If I fart and stir up a huge storm, it'll sink your ship straight into the sea!"

"Negative emotion points from Buggy: +..."

"You brat who doesn't know his place... Aaaaahhh!!" Buggy roared furiously. "Don't stop me! I'm going ashore to kill him!"

"Calm down, Captain Buggy! We didn't come here to plunder. There is a Marine branch stationed nearby. If we go ashore, escaping will become very troublesome..." Cabaji, the chief of staff, tried to dissuade him.

The veins on Buggy's forehead throbbed as he gritted his teeth and struggled to suppress his rage. He knew that the Goa Kingdom was a member nation of the World Government, not some ordinary town. The nearby Marine base would soon send warships to surround them. If they got pinned down on land under such circumstances, it would be no different from suicide.

"You Red Nose, come fight me! I'll beat you until your face is covered in rotten tomatoes, so you'll understand why your nose is so red!" Duen continued cursing without fear.

"Negative emotion points from Buggy: +44..."

"I'll kill him... I'll definitely kill him!"

"Stop!"

"No, Captain Buggy!"

"Please stay calm!"

On the Big Top, Mohji and Cabaji each grabbed one of Buggy's arms while the other pirates desperately pleaded with him. The place was a chaotic mess, and even the cannon fire weakened by more than half.

At last, two warships arrived from the distant sea. They were actually not slow at all; from the moment they received word of the pirates, it had likely taken less than ten minutes for them to rush over.

"Captain Buggy, the Marines are here!" the pirate in the crow's nest hurriedly reported.

Buggy stood on the deck and took a deep breath. With no intention of confronting the Marines head-on, he grimly assessed the situation, raised the sails to full, and finally departed at speed.