Neither the Bounty Hunters nor the pirates on the battlefield noticed that the pet Duck Karu was weaving through the battlefield with an unwavering stride.
The battle between the woman and the burly man was just a microcosm; the entire town was engulfed in slaughter.
Having fought their way from the four seas into the Grand Line, these pirates, even if knocked down by the Bounty Hunters’ fine wine and delicacies, still had some fight left in them at the brink of life and death.
The bright Moonlight shone upon the land, and in the faint mist, the pirates unleashed all their potential for a final resistance.
Duck Karu, wearing a blue-striped cotton hat, moved with incredible speed.
Standing at one and a half meters tall, it was like a bolt of lightning, its long legs carrying it from east to west, north to south.
Many Bounty Hunters and pirates caught sight of it, but the Bounty Hunters knew it was the pet of the town’s four giants and paid it no mind, while the pirates were too preoccupied with their own survival—in a life-or-death situation, staying alive was the priority, with no time to spare for such trivial matters.
The Duck’s expression was remarkably human-like: fear at the sight of clashing swords, panic at the exchange of gunfire, relief when escaping the combatants, and a look of utter despair when charging back into the fray.
From a bird’s-eye view above the town, the forces within automatically divided into three groups: the Bounty Hunters holding an overwhelming advantage, the pirates fighting desperately, and a single Duck running around everywhere.
The Duck seemed to be running aimlessly, but that wasn’t the case.
If its running path were marked, one would find its route extremely methodical, with no backtracking whatsoever.
Whenever the fighting intensified to a certain point, it would appear like a golden flash, pick something up, and then leave with a peculiar expression.
With four hours left until dawn, all the pirates who had come to Whiskey Peak were knocked out.
From the Captain, second mate, boatswain, and vanguard leader to the ship’s laborers, not a single one escaped.
They lay scattered all over the ground.
Many Bounty Hunters, including Princess Vivi and the middle-aged man Igaram, gathered in a circle to share the spoils of battle.
The supplies the pirates had previously purchased from the “Prince’s Magical Items and Special Goods Shop” were all stored away, ready to be used again when the next batch of pirates arrived.
The pirates’ own belongings were completely cleared out—swords, ammunition, gold, silver, treasures, including their pirate ships—all of which needed to be handed over to the headquarters of Baroque Works.
Of course, the integrity of Bounty Hunters was completely unreliable.
It was only natural for everyone to pocket some items while looting the bodies.
Not to mention others, Vivi herself secretly kept over 150,000 Berries in coins.
Skimming off twenty to thirty percent from the total reported value of the surrendered goods was also considered reasonable.
This issue wouldn’t change even if Nico Robin, Crocodile, or even the Gorosei were called to lead Whiskey Peak—what was gone would still be gone…
The only pity was the pirate ships; they were simply too large to hide anywhere.
Sneaking out at night to saw off a couple of planks wasn’t worth it, so they had to be handed over as is.
The corpses were carefully examined one by one.
Those with bounties were kept, while the pirates without bounties were cremated, their ashes buried at the summit of Whiskey Peak.
The surviving pirates were all taken away by Vivi.
She planned to teach these pirates how to play the Paper Slap Game to contribute to her attributes and, in the process, help the Duck achieve a hundred-win milestone.
In any other world, her behavior would be considered a peculiar quirk, the kind that needs treatment.
But in the world of pirates, it was perfectly ordinary—there were plenty of people even stranger than her.
Killing, looting, cremating, scattering ashes—the Bounty Hunters of Whiskey Peak were extremely proficient in this entire process.
Within less than an hour after the slaughter ended, they had taken care of the pirates who had come from afar.
Under the Moonlight, everyone returned to their homes, storing away blood-stained swords and clothes, waiting for the next batch of fat sheep to arrive…
The arrival of the pirates caused Vivi’s skill attributes to skyrocket.
To master these skills, she secretly trained with her old retainer Igaram at the other end of the town, away from the island’s Bounty Hunters.
She had picked up quite a few combat skills, and now she needed to turn this knowledge into instinct through training and battle.
One after another, two figures darted through the dense forest like ninjas.
Vivi, in front, kept glancing around, but her glances yielded no results—her running could only be described as aimless.
The young girl moved with agility, her water-blue hair flowing in the wind.
Her expression was focused, her eyes fixed straight ahead as if facing a mortal enemy.
An abrupt cough broke the silence.
Mr.
8 Igaram, with his peculiar curly hair and standing two meters tall, pointed helplessly at a direction ninety degrees to the girl’s left and said, “Your Highness!
That’s west?
Is that west?
My direction is west!
Cough, cough—ma—ma—ma—”
The girl’s expression shifted from seriousness to realization, then from realization to embarrassment.
She scratched her head sheepishly and pointed ahead, “Igaram, then…
then this must be south, right?”
Igaram covered his face with his hands, his tone dejected, “Princess Vivi, that’s north.
We ran over from the north for tonight’s training…
Don’t you remember?”
Vivi was speechless for a few seconds before lowering her head in disappointment.
How could she, an experienced traveler, have become directionally challenged after transmigrating?
But there was nothing she could do.
Much of her previous life’s knowledge was useless here.
The nights showed no North Star, the climate was abnormal, sparse trees didn’t necessarily indicate north, temperature changes followed no pattern, and the direction where snow melted first wasn’t necessarily south either.
Igaram possessed a whole set of skills for judging direction based on rich life experience.
He would incorporate a multitude of data—rivers, ridges, time, his own position—into his deductions, ultimately arriving at a relatively accurate direction.
Locals who were “born here, die here” never got lost.
Pirates and Marines who traveled far and wide had specialized navigators, so they didn’t get lost either.
As for heroes like Monkey D.
Luffy and Roronoa Zoro, whether they got lost or not didn’t matter—they relied on sheer recklessness.
Everyone else was fine; it was the newly arrived transmigrator who was left in the dark.
The climate of this pirate world was already bizarre, like the equator.
The Grand Line, situated between the East Blue and South Blue, was the strangest of all—geomagnetism, celestial phenomena, and ocean currents were all in chaos.
The little geography Vivi had learned in her previous life was completely useless.
She adapted quickly to the language, customs, and lifestyle, but when it came to geography, she had been muddling through for over half a month.
“Sigh…” she sighed softly.
She currently lacked the skill to judge direction through experience; it was too complex and made her dizzy.
It seemed her directionally challenged state would need to persist for quite some time.