Set Sail, a New Hope!

"Marines?"

Hearing Bullet's question, Xia Luo froze on the spot and could not help glancing at him. That wasn't right. Could it be that he'd finally caught on? To think he'd ask something like that—how rare.

Xia Luo tilted his head back, his tone somewhat wistful. "The Marines, huh~"

"The Marines are a little complicated. In my view, most of the rank-and-file Marines can still be saved, and some of the mid-ranking ones too. As for the Marine higher-ups..."

After a slight pause, Xia Luo smiled. "Heh heh, I'll tell you next time if I get the chance."

"Ah! Why?"

Bullet immediately became unhappy. He had just gotten interested, and what he hated most were people who only said half of what they meant. He wanted nothing more than to grab them all and beat them senseless.

Seeing that, Xia Luo wore a triumphant expression. He raised his chin and motioned for Bullet to look ahead. "The ship's at the dock."

Bullet looked utterly deflated, his answer extremely reluctant. "Fine—then!"

Xia Luo did not care about that at all and continued, "Go on. Don't forget what I told you just now. I'll get off first and take a look around. Make it quick."

"Boss, wait for me!"

Watching Xia Luo's carefree departing figure, Bullet hurried back into the cabin, released the "pirates" inside, and dealt with them according to Xia Luo's instructions.

First, he dug out the pirate flag from the corner and burned it with a single blaze, declaring that from this day onward, they would have nothing to do with pirates again.

He also promised to leave the ship to them and give them a sum of money so they could start their lives over.

After all that, the group first stood stunned, then trembled all over before dropping to their knees with tears streaming down their faces, endlessly voicing their gratitude.

But Bullet ignored them. He strictly carried out Xia Luo's orders and viciously warned them.

After the verbal warning, Bullet felt it lacked enough intimidation, so he transformed directly into a Tyrannosaurus to scare them. In the end, he left beneath their grateful gazes.

"Waaah, I never thought there were such good people in this world, and that we'd actually meet them! This is so moving!"

"Yeah! Not only did they not kill us, they even gave us their ship and left us some money. Am I dreaming?"

"Although he warned us afterward, he wasn't scary at all. You could tell he wasn't very old. If my daughter were still alive, she should have been about his age." A middle-aged man smiled bitterly. As he smiled, tears suddenly rolled down his face, his eyes filled with memories and sorrow.

"This damned world! If the taxes hadn't become heavier every year until we could barely afford food, how would we have ended up going to sea as pirates?!"

"Heh, who would have thought that these days, you even had to pay taxes just to eat!"

"Compared to the terrifying taxes back home, that Tyrannosaurus the boy turned into wasn't scary at all. It was actually kind of cute. We can't let their kindness go to waste, can we?"

"Does that even need saying? A man's promise must be kept!!"

"Then where should we go next?"

"Let's go to Alabasta. I heard the king there is a decent person, and it's a major country too. We won't have to worry about going hungry."

"Then let's go! Raise the sails, set off!"

Very soon, the group set out again with new hope, their faces full of smiles and longing for the future.

Meanwhile,

Bullet muttered under his breath, "Strange. It felt like that intimidation didn't work on them at all. They weren't even scared!"

"Was my Tyrannosaurus not scary enough? That can't be right!"

Just as Bullet was baffled, Xia Luo's voice drifted over.

"Of course not. With your size, ordinary people would be scared half to death at the sight of you. The reason they weren't afraid was because they had gone through even more terrifying things..."

"Besides, who would be afraid of a good person who had helped them?" Xia Luo smiled faintly.

"Huh? But I'm not a good person." Bullet had never considered himself a good person. What kind of good person went to war at only a few years old, with hands stained in blood?

"Besides, I only did that because I was following your orders, Boss. If we're talking about good people, you're the good one. If it were me, killing them would have been much more convenient."

"Heh heh, let's not talk about whether anyone's good or not. Tell me, how did doing a good deed feel?" Xia Luo's lips curled upward as he studied Bullet with interest.

Bullet scratched his head and grinned foolishly. "Heh heh, it wasn't bad. So fighting isn't the only thing that can make people feel good—helping people can too. And this feeling seems to be... ah, I don't know how to describe it. Anyway, it felt pretty good."

"Hahahaha."

Xia Luo laughed heartily. Bullet's change made him very happy.

And so, the two walked along while chatting and laughing. Every so often, Bullet would cry out in surprise or Xia Luo would burst into laughter. They were rather conspicuous, especially with Bullet carrying two large cases.

Just two people carrying large cases—at a glance, they looked like fat sheep.

"Stop right there!"

"Hey, I'm talking to you two! Can't you hear me, you deaf idiots?!"

A group of burly men dressed as pirates, with fierce faces and bodies reeking of alcohol, blocked Xia Luo and Bullet's path. They were aggressive and clearly up to no good.

Xia Luo did not slow down, nor did he spare them a glance. He merely called softly, "Bullet."

Bullet understood at once. He set down the cases in his hands and revealed a savage grin. "Boss, give me one minute."

"One minute? Hahahaha, what a big mouth!"

"Hey, you ignorant little brat, do you know who we are?!"

"No, Captain, I think he's right. One minute really is enough—one minute is just right for us to beat him flat."

"Zehahahaha! Go on, show them what we're made of! I'm very interested in those cases of theirs."

The man called captain stared at the two large cases beside Bullet, greed gleaming in his eyes.

"Oh, oh, looks like there's a show. The Jackal Pirates are bullying newcomers again."

"There are only two of them. Are they really pirates? Don't tell me they just set sail? To get targeted by the Jackal Pirates the moment they go to sea—they're unbelievably unlucky."

"Stop talking. The Jackal Pirates robbed us not long ago, those bastards. Even our captain was injured. We were no match for them at all!"

Listening to the crowd's discussion, Xia Luo pulled out a stack of wanted posters from somewhere and began flipping through them with great interest.

"The Jackal Pirates, right? Found it. Captain Heinrich Böll, from the North Blue, a Zoan-type Jackal Fruit user, bounty of 70 million."

???

Holy shit!

They were bounty hunters?!

Watching Xia Luo's actions, the pirates gathered around could not help widening their eyes.

Under normal circumstances, only two kinds of people carried large numbers of wanted posters with them.

One type was bounty hunters who made a living by killing pirates and occasionally moonlighted as pirates themselves. The other was Marines, those self-proclaimed righteous lackeys of the World Government.

Judging from how the two were dressed, they did not look like Marines. Nor had anyone heard of Marines operating in pairs, and there had been no news of a Marine warship arriving nearby.

So there was an eighty or ninety percent chance they were bounty hunters.

But!

Since when did bounty hunters dare set foot in Mock Town? Did they really have no regard for them? This was the stronghold of pirates and outlaws!

And they had even strutted in so openly. They were absolutely lawless! This was intolerable!

For a moment, everyone around them looked at Xia Luo and Bullet with hostility, as though they might rush forward and tear them apart at any moment.