Arlong Park and Nami

A few hours later.

After stuffing himself at the banquet, Li Mingyuan walked back with a toothpick in his mouth and the smell of alcohol all over him.

Just as he neared the ranch.

He suddenly noticed a figure standing in front of his temporary residence.

With his exceptional eyesight, Li Mingyuan recognized at a glance that the figure in the distance was the village chief he had met that morning.

"Village chief?"

"Why did you come looking for me instead of staying at the banquet?"

Li Mingyuan was puzzled.

But after thinking it over and deciding it probably was not anything serious, he still called out to the figure.

Hearing Li Mingyuan's voice, the figure at the door turned around.

"Why did you come back so early? The banquet shouldn't be over yet, should it?"

Looking at Li Mingyuan walking toward him, the village chief wore a slightly nervous expression as he carefully asked, "Could it be that... there was something you weren't satisfied with?"

"It was nothing. Everything was great. Everyone was too enthusiastic and kept piling food into my bowl. I couldn't eat anymore after a while, and some of the people around me had gotten pretty drunk too. So after saying a few words to the people nearby, I left."

Li Mingyuan replied casually, "More importantly, what are you doing here, Village Chief? Come to think of it, I didn't see you at the banquet either."

Hearing Li Mingyuan's explanation, the village chief immediately let out a sigh of relief.

He looked at Li Mingyuan, then suddenly turned around and began feeling around by his feet. Not long after, he pulled out a rather weighty little bag and held it out to Li Mingyuan.

What was this for?

Seeing Li Mingyuan's puzzled gaze, the village chief explained with a smile, "This is your bounty. I wasn't comfortable leaving this matter to someone else, so I wanted to deliver it to you personally."

"Bounty?"

Li Mingyuan took the bag and opened it.

It really was.

Inside were stack upon stack of large-denomination Beli bills, piled high in the cloth bag. There was clearly quite a lot of money.

"The Marines work pretty fast. I thought I'd have to wait a few days."

Li Mingyuan sounded somewhat surprised.

"I counted the exact amount of the bounty once. There shouldn't be any discrepancy, but you can check it again yourself."

"Originally, I wanted to bring it over tomorrow morning. But then I thought you might have places where you needed money, so I figured it would be better to bring it sooner."

At this point, the village chief hesitated as if he wanted to say more.

His mention of places where money might be needed was vague, but even without him finishing his sentence, Li Mingyuan understood the implication—of course there were places he needed money.

Others might not know, but how could the village chief not know? Li Mingyuan had been found on the shore completely naked. Forget having money problems—he had not possessed a single coin.

If the bandits had carried any cash besides the stolen goods, or if the villagers had been willing to make a token contribution, they would not have spent the entire afternoon staring at the sun alongside two bounty hunters.

Hearing the village chief's indirect words, Li Mingyuan did not react much. His expression remained utterly calm.

He tied the money bag around his waist and nodded to the village chief.

"Then thank you for being so considerate, Village Chief."

Seeing Li Mingyuan accept the money, the village chief relaxed as well.

"I heard there are still some bandits at their hideout. I've already reported that to the Marines, so you don't need to worry about the follow-up. You're this village's benefactor. If you have any other problems, just speak up. We'll find a way to help."

He stroked his beard and chuckled at Li Mingyuan. "Before coming here, I already spoke to the ranch owner about this house. You can stay as long as you like. Tomorrow, I'll have someone replace the window. You can also see whether there's any furniture you need."

Having said everything he wanted to say, the village chief turned to leave.

But just then, as if he had expected this all along, Li Mingyuan suddenly stopped him.

"Wait, Village Chief."

The village chief turned back in confusion. Li Mingyuan's expression was calm as he said, "You don't need to repair the window tomorrow. Instead, there's something I'd like to ask of you."

"I should be leaving this place in a few days. There's an island I want to go to, but I don't know the island's exact name. I only know the name of one place on it."

"If possible, could you help me find out whether there are any merchant ships headed to that island or nearby? Or help me find some information about the island itself."

"Huh? You're leaving?"

The village chief widened his eyes in astonishment. "So soon?"

"Actually, I'd like to stay on this island a little longer too. After all, I'm being treated like a benefactor here. But there are things I have to do waiting for me, and I need to get to them quickly."

Li Mingyuan shook his head as he replied.

"...Hmm, all right."

Listening to Li Mingyuan, the village chief initially looked troubled, but eventually nodded.

"If that's the case, I'll help you look. Where do you want to go?"

"That would be Arlong Park."

Li Mingyuan said.

"Arlong Park... Huh? Ar-Arlong Park!?"

The village chief's eyes instantly went wide as he said in shock, "What are you going there for?"

"Do you know that's the base established by the Arlong Pirates? They control several islands and dozens of villages, and Arlong, the captain of the Arlong Pirates, has a bounty of twenty million Beli! He's the highest-bounty pirate in the East Blue right now!"

"Even Dick, the bandit you just defeated, is nothing compared to Arlong!"

"You sure know a lot, Village Chief."

Li Mingyuan smiled. "That's right. That's where I'm going."

"Since you know all that, this is simple. You should know whether there are merchant ships or something headed for islands near there, right?"

"You..."

For a moment, the village chief was speechless. His plump, wrinkled face nearly scrunched into a ball.

It was obvious that he was truly conflicted.

But after this went on for a while, the village chief carefully looked up at Li Mingyuan's expression again. When he saw that Li Mingyuan was as calm as ever, he had no choice but to sigh and scratch his head in frustration.

"Fine, I understand. I'll look into it first... But there are very few merchant ships traveling around those islands, and I don't know whether there are any ships on this island that run that route. Give me a couple of days, and I'll let you know."

"Thank you again, Village Chief."

After entrusting the matter to the village chief, Li Mingyuan felt as though a burden had been lifted from his heart.

After agreeing to Li Mingyuan's request, the village chief confirmed once more that Li Mingyuan had no other requests.

This time, he truly left.

Li Mingyuan watched the village chief's receding back with an amused look in his eyes.

He had not expected the village chief to really ask nothing and simply accept the request. Even at the earlier banquet, once the villagers had grown more familiar with him, they had kept asking questions—where he came from, what his name was, why he was so strong, how he had defeated the bandits, and so on.

He simply had not answered any of their questions.

Mainly because he had not yet come up with a backstory.

Yet now, after hearing that he intended to leave the village and go to Arlong Park, the village chief could still hold himself back from asking anything. That was some real shrewdness.

After all, someone who could take down a criminal with a ten-million-Beli bounty ought to be quite important to the village's safety. From how busy the village chief had been earlier, it was clear that he wanted Li Mingyuan to stay here permanently. Yet even now, he could restrain himself from trying to persuade him to stay.

No wonder he was the village chief.

Of course, even if the man had tried to keep him, it would have been useless.

After watching the village chief return to the street where the banquet still blazed with light, Li Mingyuan turned around and went back inside with his fifteen-million-Beli bounty.

After entering the small house, Li Mingyuan collapsed onto the bed.

His stomach still felt a little bloated.

After drinking too much, his head seemed a little dizzy, and his thoughts were not especially clear.

"That was really something."

Recalling the banquet just now, Li Mingyuan rubbed his temples and muttered to himself.

From the conversations at the banquet, he had obtained quite a bit of useful information. Not only had he figured out what happened before he woke up—he had been found unconscious by the shore and brought back by the villagers—but because even people robbed by pirates normally would not be stripped of every last piece of clothing, the villagers also saw him as a strange man with a story.

Besides that, he had also figured out the current timeline. It was roughly what he had expected: it was now Sea Circle Calendar 1536, three years before Luffy officially set sail. At this point, the protagonist, Straw Hat Luffy, was still training hard in Windmill Village with his "Gum-Gum Fruit." No story had begun yet, which meant every story could still begin.

The reason he had suddenly asked the village chief to help him get to Arlong Park was also because of the intelligence he had gathered at the banquet.

Because he had suddenly realized that he could defeat Arlong ahead of time, then recruit someone into his crew.

Someone extremely, extremely important.

"Fifteen million Beli sounds like a lot, but holding it in my hands, it doesn't feel like much. No wonder one hundred million Beli in the Water 7 arc was only the size of a suitcase."

Li Mingyuan looked at the bag in his hand.

He did not know how much Nami had saved by this point, but even after the main story of One Piece began, she had still been seven million Beli short of the one hundred million Beli she believed could buy back Cocoyasi Village. In the end, she had only reached the amount by stealing the Straw Hat crew's treasure.

This was three years earlier than the main story, so the shortfall had to be at least thirty million Beli, if not more.

If Nami knew he had fifteen million Beli on him, her eyes would definitely light up.

Nami.

Also known as "Cat Burglar" Nami.

As one of the female leads in One Piece and the Straw Hat Pirates' early navigator, she had a great deal of presence in the story. Not only was she exceptionally beautiful, but despite being human, she possessed navigational talent coveted even by Fish-Men. In the movies, that talent had once even caught the attention of Golden Lion, the legendary pirate and captain of the Flying Pirates. In terms of talent alone, she was someone rarely seen even in the entire series.

Yet in sharp contrast to all that brilliance, her past was filled with extreme misfortune and tragedy.

During her childhood, the kingdom where she was born was attacked by pirates when she was one year old, leaving her an orphan. Bell-mère, a Marine, found the surviving Nami and Nojiko amid the ruins, brought them back to her hometown of Cocoyasi Village, and adopted them as her daughters.

That adopted life had originally been rather happy for Nami. There were occasional bits of daily friction and trouble, but no matter what, she gradually developed her own dream within that life—to draw a map of the world—and had a warm family.

But when Nami was ten, the Fish-Man Arlong and his crew suddenly invaded and occupied Cocoyasi Village, demanding protection money from the villagers: one hundred thousand Beli per adult and fifty thousand per child. Her adoptive mother Bell-mère had only a little over one hundred thousand Beli in savings. Because she chose to pay for her two daughters, Arlong brutally killed her.

That alone was enough to turn Nami's life from heaven to hell overnight. Yet Arlong also keenly noticed Nami's talent for drawing nautical charts. That talent was enough to help him fulfill his dream of having Fish-Men conquer the world, so out of greed, he made Nami become their cartographer in exchange for buying the village for one hundred million Beli, intending to bind her to his side forever.

From then on, in order to buy back her hometown village, Nami had no choice but to endure her hatred while drawing maps for Arlong, all while sailing the seas to steal pirate treasure.

From the age of ten until she met the Straw Hat Pirates at eighteen, she lived that suffocating, painful life for a full eight years.

Only after meeting the Straw Hat Pirates did that life finally change.

Because of Straw Hat Luffy, she was saved. Arlong Park was destroyed, her village was freed, and she fully joined the Straw Hat Pirates. She picked up her original dream once more—to draw a map of the world—and set off with the crew toward adventure and the sea.

Li Mingyuan believed that for a Nami like that, it was not just him. Anyone who had watched One Piece, whether they liked her or not, should have been left with a strong impression of her.

Li Mingyuan not only remembered her deeply, he also loved the shining qualities she displayed. Even Nami's greed for money, her Cat Burglar persona, and her once miserable past—he loved all of it.

"Arlong Park... I never thought I'd get an opportunity like this, to snatch Nami away before the Straw Hat Pirates. If I really deal with Arlong Park three years early and invite Nami aboard, would she refuse?"

Li Mingyuan's lips curled upward, anticipation stirring in his heart.

That was right.

The reason he wanted to head to Arlong Park next was to recruit "Cat Burglar" Nami, a character from the original work.

It was not only because he loved the character. More importantly, just as the Fish-Men and Golden Lion had their reasons, there was a very practical fact: Nami's talent was extremely important to him as well.

To some extent, it could even be said that she would determine how he acted in the future.

Of course, if he really snatched away Nami, the Straw Hat Pirates without her might have a difficult time even entering the Grand Line. They might not even be able to sail at all. The original plot would be directly ruined.

Li Mingyuan had naturally considered that.

As a transmigrator, logically speaking, he should have had some subconscious desire to preserve the inertia of the original plot. After all, the original story's development could give a transmigrator the advantage of foresight.

But Li Mingyuan simply did not care much about that.

His mission was to become the king of the world. Leaving aside the fact that as long as he carried out the main quests, One Piece's future could not possibly remain the same as the original, the current timeline was three years earlier than the original. If he made major moves during those three years, the plot would change no matter what. Was he supposed to wait around for three years just to protect the original plot?

At any rate, Li Mingyuan knew he could not do that.

Since the plot was going to change either way, it would be better for him to start changing it himself now.