"You could put it that way."
Robin stood up. "Wait a moment." She turned and walked back to the girls' cabin, returning shortly with a massive tome even thicker than her previous notebook, its cover made of a dark, unidentified metal. The book looked extremely old, its edges worn.
Robin placed the book in front of Luffy with a solid thump, demonstrating its astonishing weight. Luffy stared at this tome, silently gulped, then pointed at it and asked, "Robin, how long did it take you to read this book?"
Robin gently patted the book's spine, her tone calm. "A year. And I've probably read no fewer than a hundred historical texts of similar difficulty and thickness."
"A hundred?!" Luffy's expression instantly turned extremely complicated. He looked at Robin, his eyes filled with shock and an indescribable admiration. He counted on his fingers and asked carefully, "That... Robin, how old exactly are you—"
Before he could finish, he felt his cheeks being gently pinched by two hands that sprouted from his own shoulders. Robin's main body maintained an elegant smile, but her eyes held a hint of danger. "Luffy, speculating about a lady's age is very rude, you know."
"Sowwy." Luffy's face stretched rubberily as he apologized, his words slurred.
Just then, little Merry, who had been in the crow's nest, floated down and reported crisply, "Luffy! Robin! I see an island up ahead!"
According to the Log Pose, that should be Jaya Island.
Everyone's attention was immediately drawn. Nami, checking the chart and Log Pose, confirmed, "That's right, it's Jaya Island. We need to resupply here, and ask about Sky Islands." Though she said she didn't want to go to a Sky Island, this was ultimately the wish of their captain, Luffy, and she was quite indulgent towards him.
The decision was quickly made. The Going Merry sailed towards Jaya's port. After docking, everyone agreed on a meeting time and split into small groups to purchase supplies.
Luffy naturally followed Robin, driven by the ad hoc plan to raise his Archeology level to LV2. Robin intended to gather information; she was quite adept at that.
"Gather information?" Luffy was curious about Robin's methods.
The two walked and talked, mostly with Luffy asking wildly imaginative questions about Poneglyphs and the Ancient Kingdom. Robin patiently answered and taught him some experience about gathering information in unfamiliar towns.
"In chaotic port towns along shipping routes like Jaya, there are often areas that silently welcome pirates to spend their money—specific taverns and markets," Robin explained in a low voice. "In these places, if you listen patiently, you can often hear valuable information from drunken sailors, boasting pirates, or shrewd merchants, including seemingly bizarre legends."
Unknowingly, they entered a rather rundown area. The atmosphere here was also somewhat eerie; shop signs bore skull and crossbones signs, and most pedestrians had menacing looks, weapons at their waists. This was Jaya's notorious Mock Town, a gathering place for outlaws.
A pirate with fairly good hearing caught part of their conversation.
"Talking about Sky Islands again? Ridiculous. There are still idiots who believe in that stuff these days?" The pirate's eyes darted, his face showing greed and gloating. He turned and ran towards the town's largest tavern. He had to report to his boss quickly—the great pirate with a bounty of 55 million Beri, Bellamy the Hyena!
Right now, Bellamy's crew was reveling in the tavern, boasting about their "realistic romance." Looting and wealth, enjoying the present—all those messy dreams were fake. They were the new era's pirates!
The Tavern's clamor was like a thick liquid, engulfing every unrestrained figure. But Bellamy himself wasn't there.
"Hey, Sind, where did you run off to?" someone asked.
The pirate who had passed Luffy and Robin—Sind—hurriedly waved a hand, signaling to let him catch his breath. He took a gush of cheap rum. The spicy liquid burned his throat and ignited his desire to share.
"Hey, hey, hey! Guess what I just heard?" Sind couldn't help but burst into laughter, spraying a bit of wine foam, drawing the attention of his tablemates and those at nearby tables. "A kid with a straw hat and a black-haired woman were discussing Sky Islands! That legendary continent in the sky full of gold!"
His words were met with brief silence, followed by even more violent laughter.
"Sky Islands? Hahaha! What country bumpkin still believes in that old fairy tale?"
"Hey, hey, did they hear too many bedtime stories as kids?"
"City of Gold? Jade City? Dream on! There are still naive guys like that these days?"
A scar-faced pirate slammed the table, laughing so hard he nearly fell over. "If Captain Bellamy and First Mate Sarquiss were here, they'd probably laugh themselves unconscious!"
Amid the laughter, someone seemed to remember something and pulled out a stack of bounty posters. "Sind, is that straw-hat kid you're talking about this guy?"
Someone sobered up a little. "50 million Beri? That kid's bounty is that high?"
"Hey, who's going to buy the latest bounty posters? Maybe that daydreaming kid's bounty went up a bit? Like from 50 million to 50,010,000?"
"How much of that 50 million is water?"
"Who knows? Maybe he defeated some Marine base captain in his dreams and his bounty skyrocketed?"
Just as these unbridled laughs filled the air, the tavern door was roughly pushed open. A figure was silhouetted in the light from the doorway. The commotion subsided slightly as everyone recognized the newcomer, showing expressions of awe or obsequiousness.
"Captain Bellamy!"
"The captain's back!"
The newcomer was indeed Bellamy the Hyena. He had short blonde hair, a defiant gaze, and a cruel smile at the corner of his mouth. He glanced at his noisy underlings and walked straight over to the pirate who first shared the news, snatching the somewhat crumpled bounty poster from his hand. It was Luffy's old 50-million-Beri version.
Bellamy's gaze lingered on Luffy's brightly smiling photo for a moment. He grinned, showing his gleaming white teeth, a predatory smile spreading across his face.
"Fifty million? Interesting."
He crumpled the bounty poster in his hand and walked out.
"Looks like a good show's coming."
"Let's go, let's go."
"How many moves do you think Bellamy will need to deal with this 50-million pirate?"
The Bellamy Pirates immediately became excited, howling as they surrounded their captain. Like hyenas scenting blood, they poured out of the tavern.
***
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