The Man Who Sold Himself to the Auction House Because He Couldn't Afford Wine

"You still have some value." Wude rose to his feet and looked at the densely packed pirates waiting quietly on the beach.

There were far more pirates gathered here than in Elton's pirate crew. He could never deal with so many pirates by killing them alone.

Xiluo watched the man, silently awaiting his orders.

Would he take in a large number of pirates for his own use and become a great pirate renowned across the seas? Or would he ruthlessly wipe them out, earn fame before joining the Marines, and then enlist?

Xiluo held a faint expectation in his heart. He sincerely hoped this man would be blinded by power and money, if only once.

"Use your Blood Poison to kill every pirate. I can spare your lives," Wude ordered.

"Are you really not interested in money?" Xiluo sighed.

"What a joke. As long as I win, won't the money still be mine?" Wude sneered. Did such a simple truth even need thinking over?

"...I'll do as you say." After saying that, Xiluo stepped off the ship and steadily approached the pirates.

The Blood Poison lurking within the pirates' bodies began to resonate with his own body, stirring restlessly under his control.

Pfft!

One pirate spat out blood and fell backward onto the ground.

Screams rang out without end. One pirate after another collapsed under the effects of the Blood Poison, falling onto the beach like wheat before a scythe.

"What a venomous heart..." A pirate glared furiously at Xiluo and Wude after speaking, then fell dead.

Terror spread through the crowd of pirates. Xiluo began using the Blood Poison to slaughter them, while Wude stood on the beach amid sand stained crimson beneath his feet.

"So beautiful." Daisis stood beside him, squinting as she watched the brilliant red beach.

After a long while, the screams ceased. Only a few ordinary people remained standing in the distance, trembling and shrinking back in fear.

The waves washed over the corpses strewn everywhere, carrying blood-red streaks into the azure sea. It was an utterly horrifying sight.

"All right. Your lives have been spared," Wude said.

"Can I stay by your side now?" Daisis stood beside Wude with narrowed, satisfied eyes, looking at him eagerly.

"No. I'll send you all to prison. Spend the rest of your lives in iron cages." Wude raised his scabbard to block Daisis as she kept drawing closer.

"How heartless." Daisis squatted down in disappointment.

"Despicable bastard. You're still deceiving people." Xiluo gritted his teeth and hissed.

Over the next few days, Wude had the lackeys handle the cleanup, digging pits to bury the large number of corpses.

The valuable pirates were kept to be exchanged for money at a Marine base.

A few days later, beneath the setting sun, a warship approached from afar.

Chaton, draped in a Marine cape, stood at the bow and looked toward the distant beach. He harbored secret expectations for beautiful women, and his smile gradually turned into an uncontrollably lecherous grin.

Not long afterward...

Chaton's smile froze. His imagined one-day sightseeing trip to an island of beauties was gone. Instead, he had taken in two criminals.

And... a massive pile of wanted criminals' heads.

His good mood at the thought of having fun with some cute girls vanished in an instant.

Wude hitched a ride aboard Chaton's warship, leisurely enjoying the sea breeze.

"Did you handle all of these?" Chaton looked at Wude and pointed at the neatly stacked heads of wanted criminals. He had heard that several hundred pirates were also buried on the island.

Then he looked at Wude, as well as the twenty-odd weaklings aboard the ship being towed behind the warship. Just these people had taken out several hundred pirates, including two Devil Fruit users?

He could not help wondering whether young people these days were really this ridiculously formidable.

"No. I just used their desire to keep living to trick those pirates to death," Wude said indifferently.

"Whew." Chaton breathed a sigh of relief. He had thought he had run into a freak.

Pah! That wasn't right!

He immediately stared hard at Wude again. What kind of nonsense could trick several hundred pirates to death?

After learning what had happened, Chaton looked at Xiluo and his sister, then at Wude, and silently said nothing.

The warship sailed over the sea, heading toward the setting sun.

Having captured two Devil Fruit users, Wude sat on the deck, enjoying the sea breeze while mooching a Marine dinner. He bit into some roasted meat and occasionally chatted with Chaton.

Inside the warship's temporary prison.

Daisis leaned against the partition and listened to her brother sighing next door. She smiled faintly as she looked at the sunset beyond the barred window. "It's so beautiful. Being able to spend the rest of my life with my brother is a kind of blessing, isn't it?"

"You..." Xiluo had wanted to call her a foolish little sister, but the words caught in his throat. In the end, he could only say, "Sorry, little sister."

"It's nothing. I never truly blamed you, Brother."

One week later, at the Sabaody Archipelago.

Wude had hitched a ride on Chaton's warship, skipping the many islands along the way to arrive here.

"You'd better think this through, kid. The New World isn't Paradise. It's full of dangers and powerful people. One wrong step can be fatal." Chaton squinted at the ever-shifting sea.

Wude stood with him at the edge of the Sabaody Archipelago, gazing at the deep waters leading to Fish-Man Island, and nodded firmly.

The means to grow stronger was right before him. How could he let it pass him by?

Laboon had already proven his guess. All he needed to do was reach Dressrosa before Kyros achieved his three-thousandth victory and claim the reward.

"I'll go to Dressrosa to meet someone, then come back. See you in the Marines someday, Senior." Wude looked at the man beside him.

"She must be very important to you, huh?" Chaton looked at Wude with a wicked grin.

"?"

"You've got it wrong. I'm only going to the arena to see the legendary Kyros." Wude gripped his sword hilt as he hurriedly corrected Chaton's misunderstanding.

"Then I'll see you in the Marines someday, hahaha." Chaton laughed and patted him on the shoulder. "Fair winds, and make sure you come back safely, my 'junior.'"

"Mm."

Wude nodded, watching Chaton board the warship and seeing him off as he departed.

Only then did he turn and return to the island, beginning his final preparations for heading to the New World.

On the way to the Sabaody Archipelago, he had already exchanged the wanted criminals' heads for Berry.

Wude was not short on money now. He left the lackeys to handle coating the ship, buying supplies, food, alcohol, and the weapons and ammunition they needed.

Though called an archipelago, the Sabaody Archipelago was actually formed from the world's largest Yarukiman Mangrove, whose roots rose above the water to create the islands.

The entire archipelago consisted of seventy-nine trees. Each tree held towns and facilities, and people had divided these areas into separate groves.

Wude was currently at Grove 42, an area for sightseeing and specialty shops.

Dreamlike bubbles formed along the roadside and slowly floated upward until they left the island's climate range, where they burst with a pop.

He stopped by a specialty shop and bought a large box of roasted meat. Then he rented a bubble bike, lay inside the bubble while pedaling, and floated over the houses as he gnawed on roasted meat, heading into the distance.

"Try a bottle of Sabaody Archipelago specialty wine! Once you leave here, you'll never taste such fine wine again!" a wine shop owner shouted from below.

Wude glanced down. He had not planned to buy any alcohol, since he was not some particularly heavy-drinking drunkard.

But he happened to spot someone who greatly interested him, so he pedaled the bubble bike toward the wine shop with a squeak.

"Can I have a taste?" Wude asked the owner, while discreetly glancing at the person beside him.

What a coincidence. He had actually run into such an interesting fellow.

—Who was he? Find out below. ↓↓↓