"Captain Vane! Let me join your pirate crew. I'm really good at robbing people—I can always find where they hide their money. I'm a top-notch robber."
"Get lost. Who isn't good at stealing money? If you can't even do that, how can you be a pirate? If you want to board a great pirate's ship, you need real strength! Captain Vane, let me show you a chest-cracking stone!"
As he spoke, he pulled out a big rock on the spot, set it on his chest, and had his friend smash it.
"Chest-cracking stone is nothing. Let me show you what skill is—acrobatics fire-breathing!"
Someone used alcohol to perform a round of fire-breathing. It looked pretty convincing.
"I'm very agile. I can walk a tightrope."
For a moment, the dock was like "eight immortals crossing the sea, each showing their powers."
"Fun, fun. What other fresh tricks does your circus have? Do a few more."
Sugar and Perona sat on the ship's rail, clapping. After a long, boring stretch of sailing, stepping onto the dock and seeing so many wonderful acrobatic performances really made them happy.
A pirate said awkwardly, "Uh… we're pirates, not a circus."
"Chest-cracking stone, tightrope walking… does any of you know animal training?"
A pirate who had pulled out a whip silently put it away again.
If he showed up, this bunch would really become a circus.
"I don't know animal training, but I can ride a unicycle on a tightrope."
The animal trainer didn't appear. The pirate who had run onto the tightrope earlier eagerly performed. He somehow pulled out a small unicycle and started pedaling on the rope—quite nimble and steady.
"Bastard! Where did you get a unicycle? We're pirates!"
"I used to work in a circus. Doesn't stop me from being a pirate."
Alright, they'd run into a professional circus pirate. If Vane knew Buggy the Clown, he'd definitely recommend him to Buggy's crew.
The young man performed very enthusiastically. In the end, Vane still didn't take him in. The crew didn't need someone who could only do tricks… he really could only do tricks.
Still, his energetic performance earned tips from Sugar and Perona—enough for him to drink hard in a tavern for quite a while.
...
"Captain, if you're not planning to recruit subordinates in Mock Town, there's really nothing worth staying for here. The scenery is average, there aren't any beauties, and the cook's skills are just so-so."
Burgess, who had stayed in Mock Town before, didn't recommend this place. Compared to other places on the Grand Line, only the Knock Up Stream counted as a feature here, and that was already over.
So the environment of Mock Town really didn't have much to attract people.
"You stayed here so long—have you heard of any Devil Fruit users around here?"
When Luffy arrived later, there was a hyena named Bellamy here who had eaten the Spring-Spring Fruit and became a spring man. That guy was Doflamingo's loyal fan. Given the time, he probably wasn't very old yet.
Of course, Bellamy might not be from Mock Town—he just made his appearance here.
"I haven't heard of any. Pirates here come and go a lot. It's rare for anyone with a high bounty to stay more than a year."
They moored the ship, left part of the crew to guard it, and the rest were free to move around the island.
As usual, Vane didn't take on the duty of guarding the ship. He went into Mock Town to see if there were any ability users he could farm for drops.
He moved alone. A big group would easily get tangled up by other pirates—this was obvious from his own "foolish" crew, who were so swarmed by fanboy pirates that they could hardly move.
"Ability user, ability user… where on earth is an ability user?"
Before long, Vane had one hand holding a cup of grape juice and the other holding a skewer, strolling like he was on a food street.
His look and aura perfectly turned into that of a buzz-cut young guy.
"Over there, a fight broke out."
"What? A fight? Who's fighting?"
"It's the vice-captain of the Pulverizer and the Rocket Team pirates."
Bonez is fighting someone? Let's go watch.
Vane followed the crowd to check it out. When he got there, it was indeed Bonez.
Opposite him stood a burly man over three meters tall. His weapon was a studded war hammer—terrifying to look at. Forget getting smashed; even getting grazed could be fatal.
"So you're the vice-captain with a higher bounty than mine. Other than being a bit darker than me, you don't seem that special!"
The Pulverizer's bounty was 57 million Belly, and Bonez's was 69 million Belly.
"What do you want?"
Coming from an assassin organization, Bonez didn't like meaningless fights. Maybe the other guy had just stopped him to ask for directions.
"I just came to see what a pirate with a higher bounty than me looks like… what a big disappointment. The wanted poster says you're a Devil Fruit user, that your body can become as hard as iron."
"Hahaha! Useless. My pulverizing hammer can smash through even iron plates."
"I'm here to pick a fight with you!"
The Pulverizer's thick arms bulged with veins. The studded hammer in his hand turned into a blur and slammed heavily onto Bonez's head.
Clang!
Bonez was like a nail, his whole lower leg smashed into the ground.
"Two hits!"
Clang!
"Three hits!"
Three consecutive blows, each stronger than the last. Bonez's entire body was driven into the ground.
"Hahaha! What Devil Fruit user? In front of my pulverizing hammer, you'll be buried in the dirt!"
"Captain is awesome! The other side doesn't even have the ability to fight back."
"Let's ride this momentum and go take down the Rocket Team's captain too."
The Pulverizer Pirates were thrilled. Their captain had taken down a pirate with a bounty 12 million Belly higher than his, so next they could go take down a captain with a bounty 243 million higher!
It was like clearing the newbie tutorial and going straight to face the boss.
"Truly foolish. Do you think that pirate, Bonez, has already lost?"
Vane caught a whiff of jasmine. He glanced sideways and saw a woman with orange-yellow long hair and an impressively full chest.
"Are you talking to me?"
Woman: "…Of course."
"Pretending to be a passerby to strike up a conversation—judging by your age, you should be twenty-seven or twenty-eight or older. I'm at most seventeen… no, maybe only sixteen."
Woman: "???"
"Succubus Lady Captain."
The Succubus Lady—Rasya, a Navy bounty of 61 million Belly, a female pirate who had appeared recently.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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