"Nice to meet you... boss. I don't want to waste your time, so I'll just get to the point. I am looking for a good friend of mine. Her name is Tereza, and she is a strong Devil Fruit user. I need her as my... assistant. With her, I can be more efficient. I think she may be around and even wants to join Baroque Works. I lost contact with her a while ago and don't have specific information about her whereabouts."
"Miss All Sunday?" Mr. 0 asks.
Alex hears Miss All Sunday explain, "According to my information, someone named Tereza with a very strong and unknown Zoan Devil Fruit has indeed appeared. It looks like she joined one of the recruitment camps just moments earlier. During the assessment, she took out ten of the Billions. I got a call from the recruiter, mentioning her Devil Fruit. I planned on making her a Billion with a fast track to a Frontier Agent. Similar to the new Mr. 6, just lagging one step behind. She's stationed at our recruitment camp on Sandy Island, on the outskirts of Alubarna."
"Fine, she can assist you. However, it will take a while before she can arrive, so your request will have to wait," Mr. 0 states coldly.
"Thank you. However, I am sure she can make it to Cactus Island within a few days. Her Devil Fruit ability allows it," Alex responds.
"Oh? Interesting. Fine, you can get used to things there, and once she arrives, your missions start immediately. I am giving her a mobile Den Den Mushi so you can take orders on the fly."
On the fly, huh? Hehe
Alex laughs at Mr 0's little wordplay.
"You are quite the poet. That was funny," Alex comments, still grinning.
"... Is there anything else?" Mr. 0 asks coldly.
Buzzkill....
"No, I am more than willing to work. Just one little detail—I refuse to alter my appearance to showcase the number six... I hope that isn't too much to ask."
"... Accepted. Mr. 8. You will grant whatever Mr. 6 and Miss Judgement Day request, including some funds for their missions," Mr. 0 orders, ending the call.
"Ma—ma—ma," Mr. 8 says, clearing his throat, still sweating heavily. "Future Officer Agent... starting out as Mr. 6... congratulations."
"You heard the boss," Alex says, his expression turning greedy as he stares at Mr. 8. "I need good accommodations and I need resources, along with money. I don't want to call the boss—or the lovely Miss All Sunday—later and tell either of them that you low-balled me and disobeyed the boss's order."
Mr. 8, grinding his teeth, says, "I... I am doing what I can. How about... this building? You can stay on the upper floor—use it as a base. It's an apartment for Frontier agents, and it's all yours! It's the best this town can offer. I'll inform the agents... we don't have much. This island produces nothing on its own. The only little source of resources we have is fishing... aside from our main purpose, which is bounty hunting."
"Now that I think about it..." Alex says, "you people, strictly speaking, are not even doing evil or reprehensible things. You just hunt down pirates with bounties. How bland...."
Mr. 8 nods. "Yes... we are honest bounty hunters!"
"Working for Baroque Works..." Menchi says, finishing his sentence. "I need you people to give me whatever resources you have available. I need to prepare special meals for Jewel! If you refuse, you will become her next meal, and I'm sure you don't want that, do you?"
She then points her finger at Mr. 8
"No! Please..."
Jewel jumps from Alex's head straight onto the table, slowly crawling towards Mr. 8.
Mr. 8, followed by Miss Monday, runs out of the room and yells, "Ma—ma—ma... take the upper floor... I'll bring you everything..." His voice grows fainter with every word.
Alex shakes his head. "Jewel is such a cute and beautiful spider. Really, even the common house spiders are scarier than her."
Princess Jewel's Reputation is very bad, undeserving of someone royal, like her. Princess Jewel thinks this is Soulmate's fault! Even Benezia got a Reputation and Bounty.
"It's my reputation... it changed to Chaotic Neutral after my last mission. I blame the damn corporations!" Alex complains.
"This might also be because of your mission item," Menchi suggests.
"I agree," Benezia says. "Also, a bounty is not really that much of a problem. I'd say in these parts our bounty is extremely high; most common pirates would want to avoid us. Also, since we don't plan on actually sailing the seas, we are pretty safe. You also mentioned a special mask, Alex. Maybe you can use it to stay hidden."
That will be hard with your skin... and tentacle-like scalps... and most importantly, your tits... Everyone will stare at you! I'd better not say that out loud.
"In any case, Alex," Benezia says, looking at him. "You conducted yourself surprisingly adeptly. I am satisfied with your performance. Just enough humour with a little bit of acting, while acting like we discussed things at home. Tereza will make her way towards us. She may need a while, but the first hurdle is already dealt with."
"Menchi and Jewel also did a good job," Alex states. "Hopefully we'll get some money and resources. The real question is... what do we do now? It seems we are stuck on this island for a few days. I'd say it doesn't make sense to leave. We would have to take a ship, which would be possible, but then we could only sail with a Log Pose... without an Eternal Pose, it would be hard to return. Also, we were told to stay here. If Cro—no, Mr. 0 or Miss All Sunday calls again and we're gone, we're at risk of getting thrown out of this world after just a day."
"I agree. Leaving would be a terrible idea. We need to stay on this island. There are several opportunities. I'm open to suggestions. I, of course, have my own ideas, but how about you go first?"
"How about we aim for these tasty cactus fruits in the mountains," Menchi says, winking at the group.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Menchi dear," Benezia says, approaching her and grabbing her chin and lifting it so she's forced to look upwards, directly into her blue eyes. "This isn't the time for playing around."
"I... of course, just a joke," Menchi says, blushing heavily.
As soon as Benezia releases her chin, she drops onto the ground and crawls towards Alex, leans closer, and whispers into his ear, "I... I can understand why you enjoyed mine and Tereza's teasing... I think... I've awoken something."
Visibly annoyed, Alex pushes her face away with one hand.
Not now... maybe never.
Completely ignoring her, Alex says, "I have a couple of ideas. We can loot stuff. It might sound stupid, but there are bound to be some items the system recognizes in the town. Probably low-grade weapons and equipment. Maybe we can also find a side quest? We should also aim to stea—acquire some Belly. Look, these agents here can't be trusted. If they take down pirates, no way would they turn over all the spoils! Surely they would either sell or, more likely, keep them until they leave this island. There's also the possibility of fishing... more accurately, hunting the crazy species in this world. Menchi would earn a ton of FC if she had an endless supply of White or Green Quality meat! I think the only reason she isn't totally rich yet is because of her constant need to buy ingredients."
"Buying ingredients, mostly meat, leaves me with less than 50% of the total profit. Sometimes, especially when working with cheap ingredients, I only profit 10% from the total sale price," Menchi explains.
Princess Jewel does not expect to find any cactus fruit, but she still wants to take a walk around the island. These mountains look interesting!
"Why?" Menchi asks.
Princess Jewel likes to explore different worlds. She is interested in those places that will never be seen in the original stories. Princess Jewel just likes exploring.
"The system creates more or less complete worlds. I'd even argue it rewards exploration, so that isn't a bad idea. I mean... maybe we find some special rocks or some sort of ore? Maybe mountain herbs? Or someone has hidden something in those mountains?" Alex suggests.
"Your ideas are pretty much the correct responses, Alex," Benezia says, looking pleasantly surprised. "If we're stuck here, it makes sense to do the things you mentioned. Anything is better than wasting time, even if we only find a few White items or common fish. Even Gray ingredients can be turned into White Quality dishes if our cook would get her act together and stop fooling around."
She continues, looking at Jewel, "Jewel's idea is also not wrong. Exploration makes sense, especially with your LUK. Your experiences vary largely from other players, which makes me think your high LUK is the deciding difference. This island is not very large. We could probably explore it in less than a day if we split up, though it might make sense to wait for Tereza, since we can explore faster if we can fly. On the other hand, once Tereza arrives, we won't have this much time on our hands."
"Let's get a fishing boat!" Menchi says, clearly excited. "In One Piece, people are constantly getting attacked by huge Sea Monsters! I want to hunt for them!"
"... You can't leave this town, Menchi," Alex says.
"Ah..." Menchi stammers, realizing her limitations.
"Don't worry," Alex says with a grin. "I'll try my best. We'll get you so many ingredients you won't even have time to think about leaving the town!"
The group leaves the small room and walks upstairs, where they indeed find a large, relatively clean apartment with multiple beds, a kitchen, and a surprisingly comfortable living room. It even has a small balcony.
"If we were here on a vacation, I'd be happy with this kind of lounging," Alex comments, looking around the place.
Benezia shakes her head in disappointment. "I need to get used to these unsanitary places. It's a dirty world... I miss Thessia."
"The kitchen looks decent enough! With my system items, I'll be able to work from here just fine," Menchi says as she inspects the kitchen.
"Let's head out then. How about we split up?" Alex suggests.
Princess Jewel will take a walk through the mountains. Soulmate, Benezia, and Menchi can explore the city. Princess Jewel can easily climb even the steepest mountains! She moves faster on her own. Soulmate? Please gather some small fish for Princess Jewel. Princess Jewel has thought of something... a new Ultimate Technique!
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