The next day, Kurogane Ren was standing by the dock, watching Martha repair the dent in the stern from the night before.
Just then, a group of Marines approached.
"Are you Mr. Kurogane Ren?"
Looking at the unbelievably long-headed Marine officer in front of him, Ren finally remembered who he was.
Stoloberry.
He seemed to be Kizaru's subordinate.
Ren's heart instantly tightened.
Don't tell me the Marines figured out who I am and came to settle accounts... No, that shouldn't be it. If they had, they wouldn't be acting this polite.
"Yes, that's me. Is there something the Marines need from me?"
His face remained perfectly calm.
Inside, however, his heartbeat had already shot up to one hundred and fifty.
Stoloberry said, "We heard that you defeated Giant Strength Monk last night, so we came specifically to deliver the bounty."
As he spoke, he took out a thick stack of beli and handed it over.
Ren stared blankly at the money for a second, then immediately snapped out of it, took it, and said with a bright smile, "Ah, it was nothing. Nothing at all. Fighting pirates is what we should all be doing. You Marines are far too polite."
The Marines behind Stoloberry all twitched inwardly.
You sure aren't being polite about taking the money.
Stoloberry continued, "I also heard that you killed Skunk Jerry?"
"That's right."
"In that case, would you have any interest in joining the Marines? Talented people like you are exactly the kind of men we'd fully cultivate."
"I refuse."
Stoloberry was caught off guard for a moment.
Not because refusing the Marines was strange. Not everyone wanted to become a Marine.
What surprised him was how decisively Ren turned it down.
Still, he didn't press the matter.
"I'll be leaving today," Stoloberry said. "If you ever decide you want to join the Marines in the future, you can go to the base on this island and sign up. I've already spoken to them. They'll accept you."
"Alright. If I ever want to become a Marine, I'll go."
"Then I'll take my leave."
"And you too."
Ren rejected the invitation without the slightest hesitation.
What a joke.
He was the man who had killed a Celestial Dragon.
If that ever came out, then being out at sea at least meant the sky was wide and the emperor was far away. The Marines wouldn't find it easy to catch him.
But if he actually joined the Marines, who knew what day they'd sell him out?
And since Stoloberry had said they were leaving today, that also meant Kizaru would be leaving too.
That was a good thing.
Although Ren had worn a mask the previous night, who knew whether Kizaru might still recognize him from his build or general appearance?
Still, now that he had another pile of money in hand, Ren immediately spread out his Observation Haki and checked it.
Twenty-two million beli.
Which meant the Marines hadn't taken even a single beli in taxes this time.
Ah, Observation Haki really was convenient.
He didn't even need to count his money anymore.
At that moment, a hand reached over and took part of the stack from his grip.
Ren turned and saw Xu Nian casually pocketing the money.
"I'm going to buy tobacco and wine," she said.
Watching her walk away, Ren called out helplessly, "You smoke and drink all day. What about your health?"
Right after that, another hand reached over and pulled away another stack.
Ren looked at Martha in disbelief.
"Xu Nian's taking money for tobacco and alcohol, but Martha, you're a robot. What do you need money for?"
Martha replied in her usual serious tone, "Based on the captain's failed operation last night, I have decided to personally purchase materials and manufacture artillery. Therefore, I require this money."
Ren blinked.
"Then just tell me what materials you need. I'll go buy them."
"No," Martha said. "Based on the captain's previous purchasing behavior, I ran an analysis. I determined that the captain was overcharged. The steel prices on this island are indeed higher than on other islands, but only by around thirty percent, not one hundred percent."
Ren stared at her, dumbfounded.
"Why are you only telling me something this important now?"
Martha looked at him and answered flatly,
"You didn't ask."
Ren waved her off.
Robots really were stiff.
Then he used his Haki to check how much money remained.
Not even three hundred thousand beli.
He could only sigh.
Money really did vanish fast.
Still, today was a good day for him.
Because today was also the monthly ten-draw.
Ren returned to his cabin, shut the door, and prepared to draw.
"Start the lottery."
"Congratulations, Host. You have obtained one dozen packs of tissues."
"Congratulations, Host. You have obtained one Chauchat machine gun (.30-06 caliber)."
"Congratulations, Host. You have obtained a transcendent item: the Ship Spirit of the warship Yukikaze."
...
There were only two things worth mentioning in this ten-draw.
The rest were mostly nothing special.
One of them was the machine gun.
The Chauchat.
Anyone even slightly familiar with World War I weapon history knew its infamous name.
The Chauchat light machine gun.
The so-called self-loading rifle that could fire continuously.
Of course, the original French version wasn't actually as terrible as people made it out to be. Its biggest problems were heavy recoil, magazines that easily let dust in, and shell ejection issues.
The truly catastrophic version was the American-caliber one.
To fit American ammunition standards, the French had been forced to redesign the Chauchat's chambering. But changing a weapon's caliber wasn't as simple as swapping out the barrel. It involved a whole chain of related design issues.
And at the time, the Americans were in too much of a hurry to wait.
So they simply changed the barrel and called it a day.
The result was that a gun already full of problems became even worse, with the biggest issue being reliability. It often jammed after just a few shots.
Looking at the bright, gleaming image of the Chauchat, Ren almost would've mistaken it for some kind of golden-tier reward if he hadn't known better.
The other item was the only transcendent reward of the draw—
the Ship Spirit of the warship Yukikaze.
"System, what exactly is a ship spirit?"
"Everything in existence has a spirit," the system replied. "Ships are no exception. However, the conditions required for a ship to develop one naturally are extremely harsh. This item allows any ship to easily awaken its own spirit."
Ren thought about that, then asked, "Then what are the benefits? What does a ship gain after it gets a spirit?"
"Of course there are benefits. Once a ship possesses a spirit, even if no crew are aboard, it can perform basic repairs on itself if damaged. And when its crew are in danger, it can act on its own and appear by their side."
The moment he heard that, Ren immediately understood.
Wasn't this basically the ship spirit of the Going Merry?
His eyes lit up.
"This is a good one!"
Without hesitation, he took the ship spirit out.
What appeared was a tiny ball of light about the size of a ping-pong ball, flying around in the air.
"Fuse with the ship spirit."
The light immediately merged into Ren's ship.
A moment later, a voice sounded beside his ear.
"Yukikaze will protect everyone."
The second he heard that line, Ren felt a sudden chill.
Only now did he notice the name.
Yukikaze.
His face stiffened as he turned to the system.
"System... there won't be any problem with this ship spirit being called Yukikaze, right?"
"No. A ship spirit's name does not only bring drawbacks. It also brings benefits. The name can grant special effects tied to it."
Ren swallowed.
Special effects tied to the name?
Looking at the name Yukikaze, he immediately remembered a certain legendary story from another world.
A destroyer from World War II that somehow survived absurd situations again and again.
It hit mines that turned out to be duds.
It was struck by artillery shells that failed to detonate.
It got hit by torpedoes that either misfired or passed harmlessly underneath because their depth settings were wrong.
A warship whose escorts and companions were destroyed time and time again—
while it alone somehow survived.
Ren slowly turned back to the ship spirit and asked with great caution,
"So... what special effect do you have?"
The answer came cheerfully.
"I can protect all crew members so that they remain completely safe in naval battles."
Ren froze.
Then, after a brief silence, he asked one more question.
"And if allied ships are fighting alongside us?"
The answer came instantly.
"Then of course they'll all be wiped out."
Ren closed his eyes.
Then nodded slowly.
"Good."
"That's very Yukikaze."