Before long, the pirates hauled the two barrels aboard.
Alvida was delighted to see the barrels they had hauled up. With her years of sailing experience, she could tell at a glance that they did not contain liquor.
They had sat at a different depth in the water!
And on this sea, if a barrel did not hold liquor...
What was it most likely to hold?
Treasure, of course!
At that thought, Alvida happily walked toward the barrels.
As she went, she said:
"You did well, Koby, you little brat. Keep it up!"
"Yes, Miss Alvida!"
Koby answered shakily.
"Treasure, here I come!"
Alvida slowly reached her fat hands toward a barrel's lid.
Just as she was about to touch it...
A fist shot out from inside, growing larger in Alvida's eyes.
Bam!
Caught completely off guard, Alvida was sent flying.
At the same time, a voice came from where the barrel stood.
"That~ was~ a~ great~ nap!"
The pirates stared dumbstruck at Alvida as she went flying, then turned to Luffy, who was stretching.
The same thought surfaced in all their minds.
This kid is dead!
Meanwhile, the other barrel broke apart as well.
"Yo! Looks like the outcome hasn't changed much!"
Xia Chen spoke as he looked at the pirate grunts before him and Alvida lying over there.
He had not expected his presence as a little butterfly to have so little effect on the plot.
They had still run into Alvida.
Xia Chen thought that was pretty good. At least his arrival would not affect the course of the plot.
Didn't that mean he basically had a foreknowledge cheat?
A system cheat plus a foreknowledge cheat!
Invincible!!!
Except this time, the barrels holding them had not been carried over from a merchant ship.
In that case, did that mean Nami was not aboard this ship right now?
But this was clearly no time for Xia Chen to dwell on that.
Over there, Alvida was practically going mad.
She got up off the ground and shouted at Luffy:
"You bastard! Do you know what you've done?"
"Huh?"
Luffy showed no reaction at all as he looked at the furious Alvida.
He picked his nose, then said:
"Who's this rude old lady?"
"A rude... old lady?"
Every pirate around them paled.
Alvida's face turned livid with rage.
She raised her iron club and swung it at Luffy, saying:
"I'll kill you!"
Luffy dodged Alvida's attack with a light hop.
Then he punched her in the face again.
Unsurprisingly, she went flying once more.
At the sight, the pirate grunts immediately advanced with their swords drawn.
They were ready to gang up on Luffy.
But a figure stepped into their path.
Xia Chen looked at the pirates and said calmly:
"You shall not pass!"
But not one of the pirates paid any attention to what Xia Chen said.
They were pirates who lived on a knife's edge every day. Would they be afraid of a wet-behind-the-ears brat like him?
What a joke!
Then they all swarmed forward.
One pirate wearing a headscarf even sneered:
"When you're six feet under, you'll find out whether we can pass!"
At the sight, Xia Chen sighed softly.
"Ah! Why bother?"
Then Xia Chen's gaze sharpened.
His figure instantly vanished from the spot.
Bam!
Bam!
In just a few breaths, every pirate was lying peacefully on the ground.
It was as though they could see their great-grandmothers beckoning to them!
Xia Chen was not remotely surprised by the scene before him.
Even he did not know how strong he was now.
The Indestructible Diamond Body that came with the Great Sage Equal to Heaven Fruit was seriously badass.
It had greatly strengthened his physique.
He had even inherited Brother Monkey's combat experience.
How ridiculous was that?
Sometimes Xia Chen wondered whether the system had only given him a fruit to make the Great Sage Equaling Heaven's appearance in the Pirate King world plausible.
After all, he had never heard of any fruit that let someone inherit combat experience!
But he did not want to think about that, either.
All he needed to know was that he benefited.
Then Xia Chen turned to look and saw that Luffy and Alvida, who had just been fighting, were now facing off.
Then Koby shouted that line, too.
"This person is the most..."
"The ugliest old hag on this sea!"
Alvida shouted:
"You little brat!"
Then she brought her iron club down at Koby.
Luffy instantly appeared in front of Koby and took the blow directly with his head.
A slight smile appeared on his lips.
"Looks like... that didn't work!"
"Gum-Gum..."
"Pistol!"
Bam!
"Urgh!"
The fist struck Alvida squarely in the belly, making her eyes practically bulge out.
Then, just like Wolffy, she went flying into the sky.
She landed in the sea far away.
Only the classic line was missing.
Xia Chen glanced at the pirate grunts on the ground and nudged them with his foot.
"Hey! Go bring out the food on this ship!"
"If you take too long..."
"You can imagine the consequences yourselves!"
The pirates shuddered at those words.
Forcing their aching bodies upright, they eagerly scurried off to find food.
Luffy walked over and grinned casually.
"Xia Chen, how did you know I was hungry?"
"No! I'm just hungry myself!"
Some time later~
"Whew~"
"Whew~"
Xia Chen and Luffy both lay on the deck, rubbing their stuffed bellies with happy smiles.
Xia Chen wondered whether it was because he had awakened the Indestructible Diamond Body.
He discovered that his appetite was even bigger than Luffy's, and Luffy was a bottomless pit!
That was a little ridiculous!
Looked like Sanji would have his hands full in the future~
After resting for a while...
Xia Chen asked the pirates again:
"Where's all the treasure on your ship?"
Although he was not a money grubber like Nami...
He needed to eat!
He and Luffy really did have pockets cleaner than their faces.
Without some cash in his pocket, he could not feel at ease!
"In the hold!"
One of the pirates answered shakily.
"What are you standing there for? Take me there!"
Seeing the pirate simply staring blankly at him after answering, Xia Chen snapped in irritation.
"Yes!"
"Please follow me!"
When they reached the place where the treasure was stored, Xia Chen was very satisfied with what he saw.
There were five million Beli in cash.
There was also some gold, jewelry, and so on.
Although Xia Chen did not know how much those things were worth...
He figured they could not be worth too little.
"All right, you can leave!"
"Close the door on your way out!"
Xia Chen spoke to the pirate who had brought him in.
"Yes!"
With a thought from Xia Chen, all the treasure before him vanished on the spot.
He had put it into System Space.
System Space could only hold inanimate things.
But time did not flow inside it.
In other words, if Mo Li put a piece of meat inside, whatever state it was in before going in...
It would be in the same state when it came out.
He had already tested that over the past few days.
The space had a volume of one trillion cubic meters.
That sounded enormous.
But it was actually just a cube ten thousand meters long, wide, and tall.
That size actually could not even hold the corpses of some of the larger Sea Kings in Pirate King.
But for storing treasure?
Wouldn't that mean loading up as much as there was!
Everyone in the Straw Hat Pirates had to take their cues from Nami.
And Nami took her cues from treasure.
I had treasure!
So in the end, everyone on the ship would have to take their cues from me.
Hmm...
Exactly right!
From now on, I would be the Face Devil Fruit User of the Straw Hat Pirates!