The Terror of the Pirates

The tavern was boisterous and noisy, almost full, and even the seats in front of the half-ringed bar were packed to the gills.

The good business was evident.

After circling around, there were only a few unremarkable seats left in adjoining corners.

Alex was in one of them, a small round table in front of him with a freshly delivered rum punch and a side dish.

He did not touch the food or drink but listened intently to the noisy chatter around him.

"I heard something happened at the auction last night?"

"What, you didn't know?"

"I drank too much last night. If it wasn't for the fact that I heard others talking on the way over, I really didn't know about it. What exactly happened?"

"It is said that several big gangs caused trouble to grab the Devil Fruit. After all, that is the Devil Fruit—who doesn't want it?"

"Oh, was it taken?"

"No, the guy who started the trouble was all butchered by the gangsters, and the Devil Fruit was also eaten by the gangster Becky who paid for it."

"Tsk, what was the amount of the deal again?"

"I heard it was over a billion berries. I don't know if it's true or not."

"Giggle—"

The sound of pouring cool air.

"That much? If I had over a billion berries, where in the world could I not go?"

"Idiot, if you had that much money, I would be the first to rob you."

"What did you say?"

Boom.

The sound of a wooden wine glass slamming hard on the table.

Immediately followed by the dull sound of fists coming and going, striking the face and body.

The exchange of fists at the drop of a hat could be considered a chic romance for men.

Alex withdrew his gaze and silently thought, Bandit Becky? Is he in Mad Hatter's Town too? But there's no information about him in Sunny's book. Did he come from somewhere else specifically to get the Devil Fruit?

"So, he ate the Devil Fruit at this point in time."

In his mind, information about Becky and the ability of the Devil Fruit instantly surfaced.

Listening to the Devil Fruit incident that most of the people around him were talking about, and learning about Bandit Becky's reputation and status, Alex couldn't raise any thoughts about him for a short period of time.

It was hard to imagine that a man with this kind of status and power would choose to go to sea at the end of the day.

One could only say that people had their own aspirations.

"Did that fishman slave run away in the end?"

At the wine table not far from Alex, a few pirates were talking about the fishman slave.

Alex couldn't help but follow the sound and look vaguely at the guests at that table.

"Didn't run away. Died in the alley. I heard it was taken out by an undertaker."

"An undertaker? What, now undertakers are expanding their business targets to include fishman corpses?"

"I'm not sure about that. Besides, when the people from the auction house found the fishman corpse, that corpse wasn't missing any parts."

"Which means...?"

"Hey, don't be serious about something that can be passed around. I also said that the fishman slave was taken out by a whore. Do you believe me?"

"Hahaha, drink, drink, drink."

Listening to the talk at that table, Alex's brow furrowed slightly, and he couldn't help but let out a light sigh in his heart.

Being discovered—he wasn't surprised.

After all, no matter if it was on the street or the building near the alleyway, the last thing that was missing at that time was people.

The reason why he sighed to himself was that at that time, after killing the fishman slaves, his whole mind was immersed in the joy of the rich profit, but he did not consider cutting away a few important "parts" from the fishman corpses to fit the identity of the undertaker in disguise at that time.

I'll have to pay attention next time.

Remembering this experience, Alex subconsciously picked up his glass of wine and took a sip.

He thought about the fact that he was now a drinker, and it was inevitable that it would be a bit weird if he didn't raise his glass to drink for a long time.

What Alex didn't know was that because of the matter of the fishman slaves, the people at the auction house also followed the clues and found Arthur, who was equipped with a similar work mask.

If it wasn't for the fact that Arthur himself was in the auction at the time, he probably would have been invited to the auction house to drink tea for a while and chat for a bit.

However, Arthur also knew that someone was pretending to be him to do some unseemly deeds.

Putting down his wine glass, Alex observed the guests around him without any trace.

With limited intelligence channels, he could only obtain useful information through this means.

And every time the bar door was pushed open, he would subconsciously take a look.

Creak—

The wooden bar door, which still had some years left, was pushed open.

Alex subconsciously looked over and quickly retracted his gaze after seeing that the visitor was Wolf Rat.

"Is it that psycho from last night who seems to be short of friends?"

Looking down at the wine and food on the table, Alex was slightly shocked.

He had clearly shot him last night, but now he was acting as if nothing had happened, and he was still dressed so flirtatiously?

This is the recovery power of the Zoan-type ability...

Alex's heart was slightly on fire.

At that time, because he wasn't sure, he had decisively slipped away.

But now it was different. After getting the proceeds from Fishman Sam, with his current strength, if he made all preparations, he would have at least a fifty percent chance.

Alex was calculating in his heart.

In front of the tavern's main door, Wolf Rat scanned the scene and soon found Alex sitting in the corner.

Compared to the surrounding bare-armed hombres sparring and spitting wine, Alex, who looked young and boyish, was still a bit conspicuous even if he was sitting in the corner.

"Found you... and heaven help me."

Wolf Rat didn't move towards Alex immediately.

There were only a few seats left in the tavern, and Alex's table was small but itself designed for two people to sit at.

In this case, choosing to sit beside Alex would not be so purposeful.

Otherwise, if there were more spacious and comfortable seats around, and he had to squeeze into a table with Alex, then unknown people would probably think he was gay.

"Coming this way?"

Noticing Wolf Rat's movement, Alex subconsciously looked at the empty seat in front of him and couldn't help but feel a bit awkward.

Last night at the tavern, it seemed to be the same situation.

The difference was that at that time, Lafayette's reputation and aura were strong enough to attract the attention of most of the pirates in the tavern.

And now, this Zoan-type ability user with a grim aura at the corners of his eyes and an overall sensibility that was on the lewd side didn't attract that much attention.

"It's a good thing I wore a mask last night and deliberately suppressed my voice. Next time, I'll never come to a nearly full tavern like this."

Alex thought in silence.

The clothes he wore last night weren't undertaker's work clothes, but they were deliberately bulky to hide his figure, so Alex deliberately wore them.

Therefore, Alex felt that the possibility of Wolf Rat recognizing him was very low.

The sound of footsteps approached.

Alex looked up and watched Wolf Rat walk over, then sit down on the opposite seat.

Seeing that there was nothing wrong with the other party's reaction, Alex was even more certain that the other party did not recognize him.

"Yo, little brother, you're quite handsome."

After Wolf Rat sat down as a stranger, he immediately looked at Alex with a stunning gaze, the exaggeration of that look as if he had never seen such a handsome man before.

At the same time, he was thinking in his mind that a compliment would come first at face value, building an impenetrable bridge for the exchange afterward!

Listening to this slightly awkward sentence, Alex smiled politely at Wolf Rat and did not intend to chime in.

This guy... really lacks friends, right?

Alex thought in his heart.

Seeing a good start, Wolf Rat first raised his hand to signal the waiter to come over, after which he once again looked at Alex and squeezed out a specially trained easygoing smile.

He thought to himself that this smile was simply handy to use in winning favor.

Unbeknownst to him, to an outsider, that smile looked as if it was going to cramp up in the next second.

"Little brother, let's get acquainted. My name is Wolf Rat. What's yours?"

"..."

Looking at Wolf Rat's one-dimensional smile, Alex's eyelids flickered a bit, and he simply gave his name.

"Usopp."

"Your name is Usopp? How can I say this name... wonderful, just wonderful."

Wolf Rat immediately stroked his palm with a look of amazement.

"Wonderful in what way?"

"..."

Wolf Rat was momentarily speechless.

At that exact moment, the door of the tavern was pushed open.

Hearing the sound, Wolf Rat used it to turn his head to look at the tavern door.

Only to see a tall, revealingly dressed woman with large red lips walk in.

She was holding a white skunk in her hand and was followed by a dozen or so well-built men...

"Tch, Usopp, look, there's a beautiful woman."

Seeing the woman, Wolf Rat's eyes narrowed slightly, using it to deflect the embarrassment he had just felt.

The corner of Alex's mouth slightly hooked, so he didn't pursue that question just now and smoothly looked at the woman who walked into the tavern.

At the same time, he was keenly aware that the atmosphere within the tavern was changing.

Another notorious pirate like Lafayette? And it's still a woman. Could it be...?

Alex thought back to the information in the [Handbook].