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Standing on the ice, Jin took a breath and unleashed his power. His fist, hardened with Armament Haki, slammed down.
A sharp cone of Haki formed on his fist, piercing through the ice that was said to be harder than steel.
TING!
Then, the Haki that had penetrated the ice spread out like a spiderweb.
A crack appeared and quickly widened. The entire ice sheet began to tremble violently.
BOOOOOOOOM!
"It... it cracked!" Sai and Boo shouted.
Chinjao watched, a mixture of satisfaction and bitterness on his face. Years ago, it was during his fight with him that Garp had learned the technique to shatter the ice sheet. If it weren't for his now-blunt head, he would have achieved even greater heights.
As the treasure was revealed, tears streamed down his face.
My money... it's all my money!
"There are men in the Kano Country even stronger than me," Chinjao said, after the celebration. "They each have their own ways of using Haki. Piercing Impact and Internal Destruction are just two of them. If you wish to travel there, I can have my grandsons accompany you. But be warned, the country is not stable. There are territorial disputes with a neighboring kingdom, and there is also a rebel army."
"I'm just there to learn," Jin said. "I won't get involved."
"No, what I mean is," Chinjao said, "you should not reveal your status as a king. You will be targeted by the rebels."
"Understood."
And so, Jin entered the Kano Country, a nation modeled after an ancient land, with officials carried in sedan chairs and men with long, braided hair. A nation where people were divided into four classes, where the nobles were idle and the poor were starving.
He was just there to travel, and to learn.
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The historical timeline of the pirate world often mirrors our own—placing it squarely in the late 18th century.
The Great Pirate Era, the rise of piracy, the opening of Wano—they all have their real-world parallels.
The Kano Country is no different, though it remains largely undescribed in the official record.
Still, from what we know of Chinjao's Happo Navy and the king who attended the Levely, we can make some educated guesses.
The country was a land of majestic mountains and beautiful landscapes. Under the guidance of Sai and Boo, Jin spent his time there traveling extensively.
He sampled the local cuisine.
He visited the various masters of martial arts scattered across the land.
He fought in more than a dozen battles.
After two months, Jin finally departed from the Kano Country, his ships laden with silks, porcelain, and tea—the nation's prized specialties.
These goods were incredibly valuable, even in the Grand Line.
Transported to the West Blue, they would be worth a fortune.
The potential for profit was immense.
But the Kano Country was an isolated nation.
All one could do was look on from afar.
Crews like the Kraken's Tongue Pirates didn't come to these shores for adventure—they came to raid, to plunder the country's goods.
Jin, however, struck a deal with the Happo Navy, using them as intermediaries to purchase goods from the Kano Country.
The Happo Navy might have called themselves pirates, but in reality, they were state-sanctioned privateers with official backing.
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"The Winter Blossom Model Kar98k..."
Jin presented the rifle to Chinjao.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The new rifle and its ammunition represented a quantum leap forward from the flintlocks they were used to—superior in power, accuracy, and range.
The ship's sniper fell in love with it instantly. "Boss, we have to buy this! This thing is incredible! A master sniper with a flintlock might be able to hit a target at a thousand meters. But with this Kar98k, any trained soldier with a decent aim could do the same. And a true master? With Haki... could they hit a target at five thousand meters? Ten thousand?"
The sniper's speculation wasn't an exaggeration.
The average person in this world was far more physically capable than those on Earth. With a little training, they could perform at the level of an Olympic athlete. Their eyesight, their senses—everything was sharper.
One only had to look at Van Augur of the Blackbeard Pirates, whose shot at Mock Town had left Usopp speechless.
Chinjao, old and shrewd, was unfazed. "How many of these rifles do you have?"
How many...
In his mind, a weapon like this had to be the masterwork of a single gunsmith, the result of countless hours of painstaking, hand-crafted labor.
This was the standard model of production in the pirate world—everything was done by hand.
In the original story, the Happo Navy had gone to Dressrosa to investigate a new source of black-market weapons that had been flowing into the Kano Country—weapons that had come from Kaido's factories in Wano.
Those factories were so oppressive that they had sparked a worker's revolt. A man named Gaburu had led the laborers in an uprising against the Beasts Pirates. For the famously stoic people of this world to revolt spoke volumes about the conditions in those factories—and their reliance on manual labor.
Even the movies depicted weapons production as a purely manual assembly line.
A masterfully crafted rifle was as prized as a named blade, and its price on the market was astronomical.
Jin held up a single finger.
Chinjao's face fell. "Only one?"
But it made sense. How could there be more than one? In the right hands, a weapon like that could change the course of a war.
Jin shook his head.
The sniper's eyes lit up. "Ten?"
Jin shook his head again.
Chinjao was stunned. "One hundred??"
Jin smiled. "One thousand per month."
A sharp, collective intake of breath.
Chinjao, Sai, and the others couldn't hide the looks of shock and ecstatic joy on their faces.
A thousand rifles a month?
The Happo Navy had just over a thousand men. They could re-arm their entire force. Their overall firepower would be massively increased. They could even arm the forces of the Kano Country, giving them a decisive technological advantage over the neighboring nations and seizing control of the battlefield.
"How much?"
"Three hundred thousand Berries per rifle," Jin said. "One thousand Berries per bullet. Buy a rifle, get five bullets free. And for bulk orders... we can talk about a discount."
Was it expensive?
For a flintlock, yes. A decent flintlock cost about 100,000 Berries.
But for this new rifle, it was a bargain.
The price of weapons in this world could be gauged from the prices Zoro saw in Loguetown. The Sandai Kitetsu was priced at one million Berries. A Marine warship cost three hundred million. The assets of the Germa 66, by Ai's estimation, were over a trillion Berries—though, of course, assets and cash flow were two different things. And while a newspaper might cost 100 Berries, that was for home delivery in the middle of the ocean. There was a premium on that.
All things considered, 300,000 Berries for a Model Kar98k was a steal.
Chinjao was a man of action. He'd recovered his treasure, he had money. He didn't even need to consult with his officers.
"We'll take a thousand," he said, waving his hand. "And three hundred thousand rounds of ammunition. I'll test them out. If they're as good as you say, I'll be back for more."
"Excellent," Jin said with a grin.
They exchanged the goods for the money.
"One thousand rifles for 300 million Berries. I'll throw in an extra ten," Jin said. "And 300,000 rounds for another 300 million. I'll add another ten thousand on top of that."
"A pleasure doing business with you."
"A pleasure."
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