Carina smiled as she pulled out 500 Berries and handed them to the News Coo.
She took a newspaper and a stack of brand-new bounty posters from its pouch.
She scanned them quickly, and her face instantly lit up with surprise.
She hurriedly shouted toward Moge, “Moge!
Moge!
We all have bounties!
Take a look!”
Hearing this, Moge didn’t look surprised at all.
“Oh?
Really?
That makes sense.
After all, we caused quite a stir in Loguetown by defeating Smoker and so many Marines.
Marine Headquarters couldn’t just sit idly by.”
He took the newspaper and bounty posters Carina handed over and began flipping through them.
The newspaper prominently featured a report about them: The Stellar Pirates from the East Blue caused havoc in Loguetown, defeating Marine Captain Smoker and a large number of Marine elites, causing severe damage.
They are being called the newest rising Supernovas of the East Blue.
The corners of Moge’s mouth quirked up slightly.
The report didn’t mention a word about Marine Vice Admiral Menard’s defeat, nor did it mention that the Six Powers had been leaked.
But that was normal.
A Marine Vice Admiral getting defeated by a rookie pirate from the East Blue was an embarrassing matter.
On top of that, the Six Powers were the core martial arts of the Marines.
Having them forced out and leaked by a pirate was even more of a disgrace.
Marine Headquarters would naturally hide this news to maintain its reputation.
Next, he picked up the stack of bounty posters and looked through them:
Silver Moon Swordsman · Arnos Moge: Bounty 100 million Berries.
Fire Girl · Carina: Bounty 66 million Berries.
Kuro: Bounty 58.7 million Berries.
Pugilist · Toniel: Bounty 18.6 million Berries.
“Wow!
I actually have a 66 million Berry bounty!” Carina leaned in, looking at her own poster and shouting excitedly.
“Kuro has 58.7 million, Toniel has 18.6 million, and Moge, you went straight to 100 million Berries!
That’s amazing!”
Kuro pushed up his glasses, looking at his own bounty.
“I didn’t expect my bounty to increase by so much.”
Toniel scratched his head and laughed.
“Although it’s less than yours, it’s not bad.
From now on, I’m a pirate with a bounty too!”
They didn’t actually care that much about the bounties, as the amount wasn’t that important.
Moge cared even less.
Although a Marine bounty is useful for fame, he really didn’t think much of it right now.
“Alright, everyone go back to your business.” Moge then handed the bounties to Kuro.
“You take these.”
He had also seen another bounty poster just now—it belonged to Ace.
This meant Ace had already set out to sea, so the era of the Great Pirate Era becoming violent was not far off.
He thought to himself, It seems I need to speed up.
I must have the strength to protect myself before the era turns violent.
Otherwise, when that time arrives, I’ll just be meat in someone else’s mouth, and adventuring at sea will be nothing but a dream.
After several days of sailing, Moge and the others finally arrived at Nanohana, a port city in the Alabasta Kingdom.
Carina asked some merchants for information and reported, “Moge, I just asked the nearby merchants.
Alabasta is suffering from a drought, and the water level in parts of the country’s largest river has dropped significantly.
It’s even showing signs of drying up.
Our ship can’t sail directly to Rainbase, so we can only dock here.”
“Hmm, I see,” Moge said decisively without a second thought.
“Then dock the ship at the pier.
We’ll find transportation directly to Rainbase.”
Toniel, standing to the side, was a bit hesitant.
“Captain, should we leave someone to guard the ship?
How about I stay behind?
That way you guys can feel more at ease.”
Moge waved his hand and said, “No need, there’s nothing to leave behind.
As for that batch of treasure we took from Buggy, just bring it along, find a place to sell it, and convert it into Berries.
Besides, I wouldn’t feel at ease leaving you behind either.
This is Crocodile’s territory, after all.
Staying behind alone is too dangerous.”
Hearing this, Toniel nodded and didn’t insist further.
Afterward, the group shouldered bags of treasure and stepped onto the streets of Nanohana.
It was very lively here, with vendors on both sides of the street hawking their goods one after another.
The air was a mix of food and spice scents.
“Delicious apples!
Big, round, and sweet apples!”
“Come taste Alabasta’s unique cactus juice!
It’s thirst-quenching and refreshing, don’t miss out!”
Carina looked around curiously, and before long, her hands were full of various small items.
She said excitedly, “It’s so lively here!
There are so many things I’ve never seen before, I want to buy them all!”
Moge, with a cigarette in his mouth, looked at her helplessly.
“This is a port city, the hub connecting Alabasta to the sea.
With so many people coming and going, it’s naturally lively.
And why are you buying so many useless things?”
“What do you mean useless?
As long as they look good, it’s fine!” Carina rolled her eyes and said, “I’ve never seen these things before.”
Moge sighed helplessly and said, “Fine, I’ll sell the treasure first.
Once we finish our business in Rainbase, you can buy whatever you want, as much as you want.”
He could understand her perspective.
Carina wasn’t even eighteen yet, so she was at the age of a young girl in her prime.
If this were the Blue Planet in his past life, a girl this age would still be a high school student.
It wasn’t like here, where kids followed people out to sea to be pirates at a dozen or so years old, killing or being killed.
Besides, it was normal for girls to like shopping and buying things, so he didn’t say much about it.
“Really?
That’s great!” Hearing this, Carina’s eyes instantly lit up, and she urged, “Then let’s go quickly!
Let’s sell the treasure and finish our business in Rainbase.
I still want to have a good look around!”
Toniel couldn’t help but complain from the side, “Clearly you were the one wasting time shopping just now, and now you’re the one urging us.”
“What did you say?!” Carina instantly turned around, glaring at Toniel.
Toniel was so scared he quickly raised both hands in a gesture of surrender and hurriedly said, “No…
nothing!
I didn’t say anything, let’s go quickly!”
Kuro shook his head helplessly, pushed up his glasses, and followed them.
Before long, the four of them found Nanohana’s largest gray market exchange.
This place specialized in buying illicit gains and treasure looted by pirates.
Transactions were convenient, which was exactly what they needed.
Carina was the first to walk into the exchange.
She slapped the counter and said to the manager inside, “We have a large amount of treasure to sell here.
Calculate the price quickly, don’t waste our time.”
As she spoke, she dumped the treasure from her back onto the counter all at once, sending gold and silver jewelry scattering everywhere.
The manager, with a professional smile on his face, hurriedly said, “Certainly, please wait a moment, guests.
I will estimate the value for you immediately.”
He quickly flipped through and inspected the treasure on the table, calculating the value in his head.
A moment later, he stopped and said to the four of them, “Guests, all the treasure has been converted.
The total value is 230 million Berries.”
“What?!” Carina instantly glared at him, clearly dissatisfied.
“Hey, are you trying to scam us?
I roughly calculated earlier, and the value of this treasure is definitely over 250 million Berries!”
The manager, hearing this, explained patiently, “Guest, you misunderstand.
We would never miscalculate.
What you estimated should be the selling price in a normal store, but this is a gray market transaction.
We need to charge a handling fee, as we also have to bear considerable risks.”
“I don’t care!” Carina said with her hands on her hips.
“You must give us 250 million Berries!
We are…”
“Forget it, Carina.” Moge reached out and interrupted her, saying to the manager, “Just do as you said.
230 million Berries, get it ready as soon as possible.”
“Certainly, guest, please wait a moment.
I’ll go prepare the Berries right now!” The manager breathed a sigh of relief, nodded quickly, and turned to walk toward the back of the exchange.
Carina looked at Moge with some dissatisfaction.
“Moge, why did you agree?
He’s clearly scamming us!”
Moge smiled and said, “It’s just a small amount of money, so there’s no need to argue over it.
They’re running a gray market business, so it’s normal for there to be a price difference.
We have to let them make a profit too.”
He paused, then added, “We sold all the treasure we took from Buggy, and adding the remaining Berries from before, we have almost 500 million Berries in total.
That’s enough, so there’s no need to waste time.”
Hearing this, Carina thought about it and felt it made sense.
She curled her lip and said, “Fine, let it be then.”