Chapter 36: You Could Single-handedly Ruin My Reputation in the Education World
Before Nereus could finish speaking, Nanamo had already opened the sack.
Countless gold coins and various artifacts spilled out, piling up on the nearby beach, glittering brightly even under the dim moonlight.
For someone with a "money-grubber" attribute, even counting money brought a unique joy—with the exception of bank employees.
When a hobby becomes work, over time, that hobby might gradually turn into a burden.
"So... so much treasure..."
"Of course it's a lot. This is the result of contributions from all the affiliated nations of the entire world. Calling it the 'Power of the World' wouldn't be an exaggeration.
Don't forget to count those chests. It's said each one is worth one billion Berries."
"One billion! Don't worry, Papa, I won't miss a single gold coin!"
Nereus wasn't afraid of Nanamo doing anything strange. Although she might add some "creative accounting" in certain situations—like when making Kaido pay for tavern damages—
Right now, this was an internal activity; she wouldn't scam her own people.
"Don't rush to count yet. There's one more thing."
Seeing Nanamo rubbing her hands together, ready to dive into the ocean of gold coins to count the treasure, Nereus pulled her back, focusing her attention on three other boxes.
Compared to those billion-Berry treasure chests, these boxes appeared even more exquisite, immediately catching Nanamo's attention.
Logically speaking, such luxurious boxes couldn't contain anything ordinary.
"What is this?"
"Devil Fruits. This one is the Bird-Bird Fruit, Mythical Zoan Model: Phoenix. The other two are uncertain, but I can confirm they are high-quality Devil Fruits."
Besides the Phoenix fruit with its flaming pineapple appearance, one of the remaining two fruits looked like cherries—two fruits on a single stem, similar in shape to the Mero Mero no Mi (Love-Love Fruit).
However, the colors were black and blue, with ripple-like patterns on the surface.
The other fruit was a strange-colored banana shape. Nereus had a copy of the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, but it was incomplete, and neither of these fruits was recorded in it.
"No thanks. I still want to swim. Papa, you can't expect me to try creating a waterproof film outside my body using acid. Our abilities are different."
Similar to Sebastian's reason for refusal, for a Fish-man, giving up the ability to swim to gain a fruit ability required quite a bit of courage.
"But if you insist on giving me one, Papa, I suppose I could take it..."
"These aren't for auction. You might not be able to buy fruits like these even with money. If you're not interested, just store them for now. We'll bring them out when we find suitable candidates."
"Puh-hee... Princess, your little scheme has been discovered..."
"Big Pan, don't laugh yet. How is your practice going with the technique I told you to learn before I left?"
Hearing this, Big Pan suddenly covered his mouth with both hands, as if trying to pretend he didn't exist. But it was useless.
Nanamo snapped her fingers. Hermes beside her understood exactly what she meant and immediately adjusted the internal spotlight, focusing all the light onto Big Pan.
"Big Bro... it's too hard... I'm still practicing..."
"Keep at it. I've taught you all the techniques. If you still can't learn it, I'll have no choice but to punish you by making you learn to read."
"?!"
Hearing this, Big Pan suddenly shivered all over and immediately ran to the shallow bay to start practicing.
What Nereus wanted him to learn was none other than his own "waterproof film tactic."
Because Big Pan was a Loach Merfolk-Giant hybrid (Wotan), his body surface could also produce mucus. However, it differed significantly from Nereus's.
The mucus produced by Big Pan's body focused more on slipperiness. It could even make attacks slide off his body, like a budget version of the Slip-Slip Fruit (Sube Sube no Mi).
Precisely because of this ability, Nereus made him practice this technique.
As for reading...
Among the executives, Big Pan was the youngest. When Nereus first picked him up in the open sea, Big Pan was just a silly kid. Nereus had taught him many things.
His combat skills were decent, but his academics...
Simply put, Big Pan could never shake Nereus's status as a leader, but he could single-handedly ruin Nereus's reputation in the education world.
For Big Pan, learning to read was more painful than death. Over time, Nereus gave up on it; having one more illiterate crew member didn't matter much.
By now, this had become a specialized punishment method exclusively for Big Pan.
The next day.
After a short rest, Nereus and the others boarded the ships again. Many people from God Valley also boarded the two large ships, planning to head to the island Nereus mentioned.
Dragon and a small number of people stayed behind. Dragon still wanted to return to Headquarters; he had things he wanted to ask face-to-face.
As for the others, they had their own considerations.
The medium-sized warship was left for Dragon. After returning, Nereus's shipwrights checked the vessel; the keel was slightly damaged. Sailing in the Four Blues was fine, but entering the Grand Line would be inappropriate.
Since Nereus and his crew weren't used to handling a medium-sized warship anyway, they simply left it to Dragon. The group then headed in different directions.
Due to geography, traveling from the West Blue to the South Blue required crossing the Red Line. Nereus and his group had to return to the New World, pass through Fish-man Island, and then they could reach the South Blue smoothly.
...
Several days later.
While Nereus was still on his voyage, a News Coo suddenly flew onto the ship.
As birds specialized in delivering newspapers, these birds were widely distributed across all seas except the Calm Belt, usually delivering newspapers to all corners of the world as quickly as possible.
The God Valley Incident had ended days ago, and the aftershocks began to ferment. Various news stories appeared endlessly in the newspapers.
Recently, a newspaper called the World Economy News Paper began to rise abruptly.
Although the name sounded imposing, it was originally just an obscure local tabloid. The president of this newspaper was none other than Morgans.
Earlier, he had received the intelligence sent by Ginny from the Marine transport ship and leaked it to Hachinosu.
News relies on timeliness. By capitalizing on this lead in intelligence, Morgans successfully made a name for his newspaper worldwide.
As for the content of the newspapers... there was a significant fictional component. This was also common; the World Government would often pay a large sum to have newspapers report altered content.
In today's newspaper, Nereus saw a rather interesting report.
" The Return of the Lone Wolf! Nameless Recruit Single-handedly Reclaims Warship! Headquarters Shaken! "
The Marine photographers were as formidable as ever, always managing to capture incredible photos in various places.
For example, the photo in the newspaper showing the war-torn warship and the soldier in tattered clothes formed quite a nice composition—provided one ignored the utterly terrible expression on the subject's face: Dragon.
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