Meanwhile, Kuro had finally lost patience with the troublesome bounty hunters.
A humorless smile crossed his face.
Then he vanished.
Silent Step!
Pfft!
By the time Kuro appeared again, he was already standing among the bounty hunters.
Two men who had turned their backs to him froze.
A thin red line appeared across each of their throats.
Then both wounds split open.
Blood sprayed across the deck as the two bounty hunters clutched helplessly at their necks before collapsing.
For a brief moment, the deck fell silent.
Then the Black Cat Pirates erupted.
“Captain Kuro!”
“Captain!”
Their morale soared after seeing their captain effortlessly cut down two enemies.
The bounty hunters reacted very differently.
Fear spread across their faces.
Even Bane stared in shock.
So fast!
But this wasn’t the time to stand around admiring Kuro.
The gunman who had nearly shot Bane moments earlier was also distracted by Kuro’s sudden display of speed.
Bane’s eyes sharpened.
Now!
He burst from cover.
“Take this—Cheap-Shot Thrust!”
The instant Bane deliberately launched an attack, [Stealth] deactivated.
His suppressed presence returned at once.
The gunman heard hurried breathing and approaching footsteps behind him.
His expression changed.
Someone was attacking from behind!
He tried to react.
Too late.
Pfft!
Bane’s blade drove straight through his back and pierced his heart, the bloodstained tip bursting from his chest.
The bounty hunter slowly lowered his gaze.
His eyes fixed on the blade protruding from his body.
Blood poured from his mouth.
He tried to move, but whatever strength remained in his body quickly disappeared.
A moment later, he went limp.
Dead.
“Haa… haa…”
Bane pulled in several heavy breaths.
Now that the tension keeping him alert had finally eased, exhaustion flooded through his body.
Fortunately, the System immediately gave him something else to focus on.
[Quest: First Show of Strength — Overcompleted]
[Bonus Objective Completed]
[Rewards Doubled]
[Reward: 2 Attribute Points]
[Reward: Trust Value +6]
Bane’s fatigue suddenly seemed much less important.
Two Attribute Points!
Without hesitation, he dumped both of them into Physique.
[Physique +2]
[Current Physique: 8]
[Trust Value +6]
[Current Trust Value: 46]
A warm current spread through his body before quickly fading.
Bane flexed his fingers.
The difference wasn’t enormous, but he could clearly feel it.
He had become stronger.
And unlike ordinary training, the improvement from Attribute Points was immediate.
The problem was that quests didn’t appear whenever he wanted them.
They only triggered occasionally.
That meant his daily training couldn’t be neglected.
Quests were valuable.
Training was reliable.
Why choose between them?
He would use both.
Bane looked up from the System interface and surveyed the battlefield.
Then he paused.
While he’d been busy collecting his reward, the battle had nearly ended.
Most of the bounty hunters were already dead.
And almost all of them had fallen to Kuro.
It wasn’t even a battle anymore.
It was a massacre.
Only now did the surviving bounty hunters seem to understand just how badly they had misjudged their target.
They had chased after Kuro because of the sixteen-million-Berry bounty on his head.
Instead, they’d practically sailed over to get themselves killed.
“I surrender!”
The last bounty hunter threw away his weapon and dropped to his knees.
“Please! Don’t kill me!”
Kuro walked toward him without changing expression.
The man barely had time to raise his head.
Slash!
His throat opened.
Thud.
The bounty hunter collapsed onto the deck.
Silence returned.
Kuro flicked the blood from his Cat Claws.
“Throw the bodies into the sea and clean the deck.”
“Yes, Captain!”
The Black Cat Pirates immediately obeyed.
They had just won decisively, yet Kuro showed no satisfaction.
If anything, he looked even more irritated than before.
Bane noticed.
And his heart tightened.
Wait a second…
A memory suddenly surfaced.
In the original story, Kuro eventually became so sick of the pirate life that he devised an elaborate plan to fake his own death, erase his identity as a wanted pirate, and disappear.
Which meant…
Bane’s expression stiffened.
Was his Big Brother going to run away?!
That would be a disaster.
Perhaps Bane’s stare had become a little too obvious, because Kuro soon noticed him.
His gaze settled on the newcomer who had already made a fairly strong impression.
Training hard wasn’t unusual.
Plenty of pirates exercised when they had nothing better to do.
Actually applying that training when blades were swinging and guns were firing was another matter entirely.
If Kuro remembered correctly, Bane had killed more than one bounty hunter during the fight.
That alone separated him from most of the useless rabble aboard the ship.
More importantly, this had apparently been his first real experience killing people.
Yet he hadn’t frozen.
He hadn’t vomited.
He hadn’t fallen apart after seeing blood.
He had simply kept fighting.
Kuro found that interesting.
The kid had the temperament for piracy.
“Your name is Bane, isn’t it?”
Bane snapped out of his thoughts.
“Yeah.”
“How many did you kill?”
“Three.”
“Your first time killing someone?”
“Mhm.”
Kuro studied him.
“How did it feel?”
Bane thought for a moment.
“Didn’t feel like anything.”
Kuro raised an eyebrow.
Then he pushed his glasses up with the heel of his palm.
“Interesting.”
His gaze lingered on Bane for another second.
“I’ll remember you.”
He turned away.
“Later, you can choose something from the loot.”
Bane’s eyes brightened slightly.
Kuro might be ruthless with his subordinates, but he was also straightforward when it came to rewards and punishment.
He had little interest in deliberately suppressing capable crew members.
The Nyaban Brothers were the clearest example.
As long as they obeyed, everything was fine.
Bare their fangs at him, though?
Kuro wouldn’t hesitate to cut them down.
For a while after that, the Black Cat Pirates seemed cursed.
Trouble came one wave after another.
Marines.
Bounty hunters.
Other pirate crews.
One after another, they appeared without giving the Black Cat Pirates much time to breathe.
The Marines wanted Kuro captured so they could earn merit, promotions, and higher pay.
The bounty hunters wanted the sixteen million Berries attached to his head.
Other pirates had their own reasons.
Some simply wanted a notorious rival dead.
Others hoped that defeating “Hundred Plans” Kuro would spread their own names across the East Blue.
Unfortunately for them, Kuro was already in a terrible mood.
Aside from the Marines, the bounty hunters and rival pirates who came after him were slaughtered.
It was during one of those battles that Bane saw Kuro use [Shakushi] for the first time.
And Bane nearly died.
He had noticed something was wrong early enough to activate [Stealth], retreat from the fighting, and hide quietly in a corner.
That decision probably saved his life.
Because once Kuro unleashed [Shakushi], there was no distinction between friend and foe.
Bane couldn’t even tell whether Kuro genuinely couldn’t see who he was attacking or simply didn’t care.
Either way, his Cat Claws cut through everyone within reach.
Enemies.
His own men.
Anyone unfortunate enough to be in the way.
By the time Kuro stopped, every enemy was dead.
Half the Black Cat Pirates were gone too.
Only then did Bane fully understand why the Black Cat Pirates recruited so frequently and seemed willing to accept almost anyone.
Their manpower turnover was horrifying.
Without enough strength—or incredible luck—a crew member would eventually die to an enemy.
And if that didn’t happen, there was always the possibility of getting accidentally carved apart the next time Kuro unleashed [Shakushi].
Bane finally understood why joining this crew had been so easy.
Unfortunately, that realization came with another problem.
His sense of danger was growing stronger by the day.
[Talent: Bane of Existence]
Even if Bane did absolutely nothing, Kuro’s Trust Value continued to rise.
And now—
[Trust Value: 77]
Bane stared at the number.
Dangerous.
Very dangerous.
Once that number reached one hundred, [Bane of Existence] would enter its second stage.
And judging by what he’d just witnessed, Bane could already imagine what might happen afterward.
Maybe the next performance of [Shakushi] wouldn’t be aimed at a crowd.
Maybe Kuro would save the whole thing just for him.
By the end, Bane wouldn’t even qualify as a corpse.
He’d be minced meat.
“No. I need to control this.”
The current Trust Value gave him an absurd training bonus.
He didn’t want to lose that.
But if he allowed the number to keep rising unchecked, eventually the training bonus wouldn’t matter because his head would no longer be attached to his shoulders.
He needed a compromise.
Sacrifice some training efficiency and keep the Trust Value below the danger threshold.
Fortunately, Trust Value could fall just as easily as it could rise.
Bane had already tested that.
Once, while Kuro was walking past, Bane deliberately announced:
“Bananas taste terrible!”
The result came immediately.
[Trust Value -5]
Bane had nearly laughed.
Kuro’s favorite fruit happened to be bananas.
That little experiment proved something extremely important.
The Trust Value wasn’t beyond his control.
As long as Bane carefully managed how much Kuro liked—or disliked—him, he could keep the number within a useful range.
High enough for a massive training bonus.
Low enough that Kuro didn’t develop an overwhelming desire to murder him.
Perfect.
Bane’s expression became serious.
From now on, he would have to master the most dangerous skill of all.
Managing his Big Brother’s friendship meter without getting himself killed.