Inside the underground corridor, Drake's eyes lit up before his gaze toward Bernice shifted into an even more terrified awe.
This woman is wickedly sharp!
None of the four branch paths had been the real route. The labyrinthine layout was designed to loop intruders endlessly back to the start—not a single one led to the treasury.
The treasury had no actual door!
It was hidden within the hollow interstitial space enclosed by the intersecting corridors. Drake had been skeptical at first; each corridor was over three meters wide, and packing so many winding passages together seemed to leave no room for a large-scale vault.
Yet that was precisely how she had engineered it.
The reality was laid out right before his eyes: near the base of a massive retaining wall sat a narrow aperture just large enough for a single person to crawl through.
After squeezing through the opening and navigating several sharp bends, they stepped into a long, narrow gallery.
The passage was barely two meters wide, but its length was mind-boggling.
What truly stunned Drake was that the entire gallery was piled high with gold, silver, and precious jewels, stretching as far as the eye could see!
"This..."
"Well? What do you think of our Dark Clan's war chest?" Bernice smiled. Whether it was Drake's imagination or not, he could hear a distinct hint of someone seeking praise in her voice.
"To think... there would be this much!!"
Drake could hardly believe his eyes. He had assumed that piling treasure high enough to fill a decently sized chamber was already an extraordinary feat.
The fortune he had "borrowed" from the Big Mom Pirates back then had merely filled a modest room.
Even so, that haul had totaled tens of billions of Berries.
Compared to Bernice's reserve, however, that stash looked like pocket change!
He couldn't begin to fathom what kind of operations Bernice had orchestrated over this period to make the Dark Clan so astronomically wealthy.
As far as his gaze could reach, the path glittered with radiant riches—including countless rare gemstones Drake had never even seen before.
He felt like a wide-eyed country bumpkin stepping into a grand metropolis, swallowing hard several times as his mouth watered.
Internally, he began plotting how to broach the subject with Bernice so she would hand over every single piece of treasure in this vault.
His inner scheming twisted his face into an agonizing grimace. The earlier incident in the bathroom still weighed heavily on his conscience; as thick-skinned as he was, asking for the entire hoard was proving exceptionally awkward to vocalize.
Ptui!
Inside his sea of consciousness, the System spat in utter disgust.
Damn it all!
This guy was truly shameless. Even an entity like the System, which never gave women any undue sympathy, couldn't stomach his behavior.
[Are you even human?! Have you never heard that an honorable man acts openly, and an honest person earns their wealth through proper means?! Where is your baseline?!]
The System had initially been disgruntled. From its perspective, having more money was always better; asking for only fifty billion when one hundred and fifty billion was available had seemed like pure idiocy.
Still, it had grudgingly respected his restraint.
Now it realized it had completely overestimated him. An honorable gentleman?
Bullshit!
The System suddenly felt that mortal women weren't so insufferable after all. No matter how troublesome they were, could they ever compare to this guy?
He was the absolute pinnacle of human shamelessness!
It even began to feel genuine pity for Bernice. Saddled with a boss like this, who knew what cosmic misfortune she had suffered in a past life.
[Hmph!] Drake curled his lip in utter disdain within his mind. [What would a system like you know? Are you the human, or am I? How could a cold, unfeeling collection of code ever comprehend my noble moral character?]
The System stood paralyzed in absolute shock. Its tiny paws pointed straight at Drake, trembling for several long moments without a single coherent syllable coming out.
[Who says I'm not—] Catching itself mid-sentence, the System's eyes bulged, pivoting its wrath instantly: [I might not be human, but you are a real dog!]
[Since becoming a system, I have cycled through ninety-nine hosts and witnessed countless mortals across the multiverse.]
[Yet... yet... yet...]
The System's outstretched paw shook violently, its small face flushing crimson with volcanic rage before it practically screamed at the top of its lungs:
[Yet I have never seen anyone as brazenly shameless as you!!]
Drake: ???
Is this damned System a reincarnator too?
That line was far too familiar—a classic meme from his past life.
[Did you... also go through the nine-year compulsory education system?] Drake asked hesitantly after a moment's pause.
[Huh?] The System blinked in bewilderment, panting heavily from its outburst. [Nine-year compulsory education? What on earth is that?]
They stared at each other in silence. Seeing the genuine confusion on the System's face, Drake chuckled self-deprecatingly. I'm overthinking things.
Of course—how could the universe be that coincidental?
Two reincarnators arriving together, one as the system and the other as the host?
The System, meanwhile, stared back as if looking at a ghost. This lunatic had actually smiled self-deprecatingly.
Since when did he possess this level of self-awareness?!
By now, Drake had already pulled his consciousness out of his mindscape. Turning toward Bernice with what he believed to be an effortlessly charming, gentlemanly smile, he began: "All this treasure..."
"You see..."
Bernice let out a soft laugh. "What? Is Boss Drake suddenly acting polite? You are the true master of the Dark Clan. Everything here belongs to the organization, which naturally means it all belongs to you."
"All of this... is mine?" Drake couldn't help but clarify.
Inside the mindscape, the System watched the unfolding scene in stunned horror, burning with righteous indignation. This guy was utterly vile.
It was already preparing a silent eulogy for Bernice. Drake was already primed to open his System inventory at a moment's notice.
If he were truly allowed to run wild, a single sweep of his hand would suck the entire vault dry—and getting him to spit any of it back out would be harder than scaling the heavens!
"Of course," Bernice replied with absolute certainty.
Between the gemstones, gold, and ten-thousand-Berry banknotes, the hoard totaled roughly one hundred and twenty billion Berries.
It represented the entire accumulated liquid capital of the Dark Clan.
In Bernice's view, everything the Dark Clan possessed belonged to Drake; she was merely managing it on his behalf.
It was only natural that the assets were his. What she didn't realize, however, was that Drake was plotting to pack up every single coin down to the last speck of dust and haul it away.
If Bernice knew his true intentions, she would have frozen solid on the spot.
"If you need fifty billion, taking about forty percent of what's here should be roughly accurate," Bernice pointed toward a section of the treasure pile.
She knew that since Drake had made the trip in person, he had a method to transport the wealth. She had previously seen him manifest and store items out of thin air.
Carrying it away shouldn't pose a problem for him.
Even so, she remained curious. The sheer volume of wealth here was staggering—just what technique would Drake use to carry it all out?
Poised to sweep the entire hoard into his inventory, Drake's hand twitched, freezing mid-motion.
He was suddenly at a loss for words.
Looking at the boundless sea of glittering treasure lying within arm's reach, Drake's eyes hardened. He pressed his lips together, steeled his resolve, and looked Bernice dead in the eye, asking in a tone of absolute, grave solemnity:
"All the treasure in here... can I take it all?"