C15 Mission Hall

In the East Sea, near Locke Village.

A band of pirates had encircled the village. At sea, pirates epitomized freedom, yet they were idle and unproductive. Ships wouldn't just magically produce gold and silver, so how did they manage their daily expenses?

Of course, by plundering from the common folk!

Treasure hunters were few and far between. After all, how many treasures could there possibly be hidden in the world? To hoard money instead of spending it seemed utterly foolish.

The Cannon Pirate Group had no interest in treasure hunts. They opted for a more straightforward and profitable approach: robbery!

The so-called freedom and dreams were merely a facade. In pursuit of an unrestrained life, they abandoned their homes and ventured into the vast sea, sustaining themselves with wealth seized from others. They squandered money without a second thought, indulging in gluttony and brutality—such was the reality for most pirates.

"Come now, support our Cannon Pirate Group. Once our captain becomes the Pirate King, we'll reward your village handsomely," cackled the lanky man, resembling a bamboo pole, as his gaze swept over the frightened villagers.

His companions, by their looks alone, were clearly men of malice, their eyes roving without restraint, searching the crowd for women to alleviate the solitude of the sea.

The young girls, terrified, recoiled, dreading being noticed.

The village chief, an elderly man, was shaking as if he might pass away at any moment. With a trembling voice, he pleaded, "Sir, our village... truly has no money left. Please show us mercy."

Locke Village was far from affluent. If not for its remote location, it would have been wiped out long ago. Occasionally, pirates would come to extort them, and the villagers would scrape together whatever they could, subsequently living on a shoestring budget. But a pirate group had recently taken most of the village's funds, and now, another had arrived. How were they to survive under such circumstances?

"What? No money?! Old man, do you have a death wish?" bellowed a bear-like man upon hearing this. He snatched up the frail chief with an arm as thick as an ordinary man's thigh, looking as though he might crush him at any moment.

The glint of a blade flickered across the faces of the villagers, who were gripped by fear. They weren't unwilling to resist; they simply lacked the strength to do so. In the age of rampant piracy, it was the common folk who bore the brunt of the suffering.

"Who is Clyde Shaz?" The abrupt question echoed from behind, causing the pirates to spin around. There was Rodney, leisurely approaching while dragging two burly men behind him.

The pirates recognized the captives as those who had been left to guard the ship.

"Kid, who are you?" bellowed a bear-like man as he flung the village chief aside, where the younger villagers caught him. He advanced towards Rodney, his hand, large as a fan, reaching out to grab him.

Rodney, dwarfed by the man towering half a body's length above him, could only shake his head in resignation. The inhabitants of the One Piece Universe were well-fed and robust. With a swift punch to the man's exposed belly, Rodney sent him soaring through the air, crashing into a large tree and falling unconscious.

The surrounding pirates were dumbfounded. This man had been among their top ten fighters, and yet Rodney had taken him down with such ease.

"What are you standing around for? Attack, now! There's only one of him, and so many of us—let's go!" The slender man, clearly of high rank, rallied the others, who charged at Rodney en masse.

"Shadow Dancer Ye!"

"Konoha Whirlwind!"

"Konoha Great Whirlwind!"

"Fire Escape - Phoenix Immortal Fire Technique!"

Fireballs erupted among the pirates, sending them into a chaotic retreat. The slender man, knife in hand, lunged forward with impressive speed, though not nearly as swift as Kuro.

Rodney drew the Chakra-infused White Fang from his leg and effortlessly sliced through the man's skin, muscles, and trachea.

Gasping for air, the slender man could only emit broken, wheezing sounds as blood filled his windpipe and his life rapidly ebbed away.

Boom!

A cannon blast tore through the spot Rodney had just vacated, also catching the slender man in its wake.

He vanished in the explosion, obliterated by the cannon fire from a hulking man, over two and a half meters tall, puffing on a cigar and manning a cannon of considerable size.

He passed the cannon to his younger brother and then received another from him. The previous one had already been loaded with cannonballs.

Clerve, a pirate boasting a bounty of eleven million Belle, was exceedingly arrogant. He had set his sights on the Great Voyage, but it was predicted that his ship would sink shortly after embarking on that treacherous journey.

"Hahaha, you're in over your head, little one. You dare to cross me, Clerve! Hahaha, that fool Shire was actually taken down by someone like you!" Clerve's scornful laughter was amplified by the swirling smoke, adding to his sinister aura.

A sudden chill ran down his spine, accompanied by what sounded like the rending of flesh.

"All ninjas master the Teleportation Skill, Mr. Clerve," Rodney said, appearing behind him with a grin. The White Fang had already plunged into Clerve's back, the forty-centimeter blade fully embedded in Clerve Shazzo's body, leaving no hope for recovery.

"You... How is this possible?!"

"You're still able to speak? Oh, I forgot to withdraw the blade."

He smiled as he extracted the blade, a gush of blood following, bright red, not some bizarre color.

"Captain!"

"Captain! What's happened?!"

"Captain, what are you doing?!"

The pirates stared in disbelief at their ambushed captain. This was the Great Pirate with a bounty of eleven million Belle. How could he have been taken down by an unknown assailant?

Impossible!

It simply couldn't be!

"Still dreaming? You're next!" He kicked the gasping Clerve, then turned his attention to the rest of the pirates.

Those who resisted were slain, and those who fled were struck down. He then ordered them to hand over all the remaining treasure on the ship as recompense for the villagers' emotional distress.

The villagers of Locke Village gratefully accepted the gesture.

Rodney was invited to stay for a meal, but he declined. As he departed, he took some dried meat for the road. He then instructed the remaining pirates to bury the bodies of their fallen comrades.

Among the dead, only Clerve Shazzo and the bamboo man, the vice-captain with a three million Belle bounty, were of any note. Rodney decapitated them and took their heads with him.

The Pirate Ship set sail with the remaining pirates on board, Rodney among them. He was tasked with taking them to the nearest naval branch for incarceration.

"Don't even think about escaping. If you do, you'll be Sea King Species chow," Rodney said with a sinister grin. The ship was already adrift on the open sea; it was too late to consider fleeing.

The pirates wore looks of utter despair, knowing that being detained on the ship wasn't a good option, but neither was jumping overboard to be devoured by the Sea King Species. Still, capture meant survival, and sometimes clinging to life is preferable to a noble death.

Rodney scoffed, "If you lot had any bounties on your heads, I'd have finished you off to prevent future trouble. What goes around comes around." He found these pirates too weak to even contemplate killing.

His mission was complete, and for the moment, there were no new tasks on the horizon. Then, suddenly, a "ding" resounded in his ears.

"Ding! The host has completed twenty missions. The Mission Hall is now unlocked."

Mission Hall?

There was such a thing as a Mission Hall?

Upon accessing this so-called Mission Hall, Rodney realized it was a place to accept missions, not just sequentially but with the freedom to choose.

The missions varied, from escorting merchant ships and spying on the secret lives of kings to helping taverns sell wine. These, however, were all D-level missions, offering ten to a hundred Mission Points without any special rewards. C-level missions were yet to be seen.

The system announced, "From now on, the host can freely accept missions. However, the host cannot evade missions selected by the system."

This meant that Rodney was obliged to undertake any mission assigned by the system, with no chance of refusal. This arrangement offered him greater autonomy and a wider selection of missions to choose from.