"Alright, another score!"
Fleeing the Refuse Dump, Sabo carried loot two or three times heavier than his own body weight as he ran toward the mountain range.
This mountain range was called Mt. Colbo. It was home to fierce beasts and mountain bandits—dangerous, but also an excellent place to hide. Most of the beasts weren't a match for him, and even the few large ones, he could dodge using his agility.
And the mountain bandits were even less of a threat.
Pirates occasionally docked at the Refuse Dump, but they generally avoided venturing into the mountains.
"Last time, hiding my treasure at the Dump was a mistake. This time I absolutely can't make the same error! I need to find a hidden spot!"
Although he hadn't met Ace, Sabo had still chosen to survive at the Refuse Dump after fleeing his family. These past few years had been much harder than in the original timeline, but correspondingly, his strength had grown significantly.
Still, accumulating enough treasure to buy a boat in this garbage heap was going to take time.
Sabo had taken his lumps along the way. In the beginning, when he couldn't fight back, life was the hardest. Later, as he became one of the Dump's notorious brats, he'd slowly started building up wealth.
But due to inexperience and lack of vigilance, he'd hidden his loot inside the Dump itself—only for it to be stolen while he was away one day.
So this time, he absolutely had to find a hidden place to bury his treasure—just like a real pirate!
"Wait—what if I hide it inside a tree trunk? No one would ever find it!" Sabo, leaping between the tall trees of Mt. Colbo, suddenly hit upon a brilliant idea.
Mt. Colbo had no shortage of towering trees. Almost every trunk was several meters in diameter, and even the branches that split off were about as wide as Sabo's current shoulders.
They said a tree without bark was doomed, but hollowing out part of the inside wouldn't necessarily kill one. Carving out a small cavity in such a massive tree would have almost no impact.
This kid wasted no time. He selected a tree that appealed to him, pulled out a small knife, and carved out a little hole in the trunk. After stuffing the treasure inside, he pressed the bark back into place. With a bit of decoration, you'd never notice the seam unless you looked very carefully.
But in a forest this vast, who was going to be scrutinizing an ordinary old tree?
"That should be foolproof. Oh—I should make a mark too, so I don't forget where it is."
After making the mark, Sabo also sketched out a treasure map.
"Now this really feels like a pirate thing—hehe, Captain Sabo's treasure! Find it, and you'll have the whole world!" The kid gazed happily at his abstract-expressionist treasure map, absolutely delighted.
After basking in self-satisfaction for a moment, he rallied himself again.
"Great—tomorrow, I'll keep at it. For now, let me go find some food."
Meanwhile, in Windmill Village.
At Makino's bar, Luffy—who'd been mooching meals with promises of non-existent treasure—had recently become Ace's biggest fanboy. Though Ace outwardly expressed his disdain for Luffy, deep down, having always been treated as a kid himself, he secretly reveled in Luffy's adoration.
This was evident from how every day he'd sit with Luffy at Makino's bar, bragging about his time aboard Shanks' ship—and every time, the juice bill was on Ace…
He had to pay for his own refreshments while telling stories to someone else. That stung. And on top of it, Luffy was a bottomless pit…
But to feed his ego and earn a little validation, Ace still forked over the money to treat Luffy to meals.
In truth, some of the stories he told were real, while others were completely fabricated. When Ace recounted them, there were all sorts of holes—like initially claiming he'd fought sea monsters single-handedly, then accidentally letting it slip that it was actually someone else. But Luffy ate it all up.
With his level of intelligence, Luffy couldn't spot the inconsistencies. He just thought the outside world was so exciting—so free!
"Pirates really are amazing!" Luffy sighed.
"I want to become a pirate too, then go on adventures however I want—ya-ha-ha!"
"A brat like you? No way." Ace crushed him without mercy. At twelve years old, he naturally looked down on the seven-year-old Luffy.
That feeling of treating someone else as a clueless little kid who only talked big—oh, it was glorious!
No wonder he was always getting teased by Shanks and the others for being a little brat…
"No—I can definitely do it! I'm not just going to be a pirate—I'm going to be the Pirate King!" Luffy declared firmly. "Grandpa told me about the Pirate King, and I decided right then!"
Garp: ???
Shanks, who was drinking nearby, nearly spat out his drink all over Makino's face.
Good lord—so it was you, Garp, who planted the idea of becoming a pirate in this kid!
Shanks could just imagine it. Garp had probably started off trying to impress Luffy with stories about Roger—how he'd chased Roger around, how Roger was executed by the Marines, and so on.
But Garp's ability to redirect his words was questionable at best. Plus, sometimes he was too earnest for his own good. He probably started waxing nostalgic about his rival Roger as he talked, which ended up planting the seed of Luffy's dream to become the Pirate King.
If that seed had been just a sprout before, it had taken root firmly after Shanks and the others arrived.
"Hehe—becoming the Pirate King is just one of my dreams. Because I'm going to find the One Piece, and then… hehe."
He trailed off, lost in thought about the day his dream came true, and burst into happy laughter.
Ace didn't get it: "Weird kid!"
Luffy didn't care. He turned to Shanks and said: "Shanks, take me with you next time you sail! I want to go to sea with you!"
"No way!" Shanks refused without a second thought.
He'd have to be crazy to abduct Luffy and make him a pirate. You think Garp's too old to throw a punch?
A few luring remarks here was already pushing it. If he actually took Luffy to sea, Shanks could guarantee that another person who refused to give him face would soon appear on the seas.
[
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