"Team B! Go to the back mountain! Check all the caves! There might be a hidden treasure vault!"
"Team C! Fish out all those pirates soaking in the water! Interrogate them one by one! If anyone doesn't cooperate, let Billy give them a deep head massage!"
Roger, holding a tin megaphone, directed them in an orderly fashion.
The scene closely resembled a sales team rushing to meet year-end targets.
Leading the charge were still the two rascals, Buck and Billy.
"Get the hell out of the way! Don't block my path to riches!"
Buck, relying on his hard bones, directly activated bulldozer mode, crashing through all the obstructing ruins and broken walls.
Billy was even more devious; he twisted off his own head and threw it like a drone into the relatively intact houses.
"Holy crap! There's a chest here!"
"Holy crap! This jar is full of copper coins!"
Soon, good news came pouring in.
This group of pirates was clearly a thrifty, hoarding bunch; they hid their plundered copper coins everywhere.
Under beds, in rice jars, in latrine pits, and even inside the belly of the Buddha statue in the shrine.
But none of these escaped the scavenging of these pirates, whose eyes were red with the desire to meet their KPIs.
To retrieve a bag of copper coins from a deep well, one pirate unhesitatingly disassembled himself, allowing his companions to lower him piece by piece with a rope.
"I found it! We're rich!"
The pile of bones shouted excitedly from the bottom of the well.
In less than an hour, the entire mountain of Tsushima Island was turned upside down by this professional "archaeological team."
Even the pirates' dried salted fish were confiscated by Hector, citing "an eyesore, affecting the company's image."
When the last copper coin was retrieved from the hidden layer of a pirate's underwear, the operation concluded.
The pirates, carrying bags heavy with copper coins, joyfully returned to the explorer.
Gibbs, clutching his abacus, counted the spoils, so happy he was almost fainting.
"Captain! We're rich! We're rich!"
"Preliminary estimates suggest we've acquired at least... three million copper coins this time!"
Roger's eyes went wide.
A small pirate den, and it was actually this wealthy?
If he had known, why would he have wasted words with Sam? He could have just started a nationwide free shopping spree, and it would have been over?
"Excellent!"
Roger's face showed the most sincere smile of a capitalist seeing a financial report.
"Comrades, you've worked hard!"
"Next, it's time for us to reward merits and share the fruits of victory!"
He waved his hand sharply.
"System! Get out here!"
"Here I am! Here I am! Boss! Three million copper coins, right? Have you decided how to spend them? Our store has just launched the 'Employee Loyalty Gift Pack,' guaranteed to make your employees devoted to you, to the point of sacrificing their lives!"
"Less talk!"
Roger was rich and powerful now, and his words carried more weight.
"Upgrade all our crew members, every single one of them!"
"What was that 'Black Iron Skeleton' thing, how much was it per person again?"
"Reporting, Boss! Black Iron Skeleton, enhances hardness, increases physical resistance by three hundred percent, original price five hundred, friendly price four hundred ninety-eight!"
"Don't give me that useless stuff!"
Roger waved his hand grandly.
"Upgrade everyone! Now! Immediately! Right now!"
"Received! Executing 'All-Staff Kryptonite' service for you! Total consumption this time... uh, Boss, you have quite a lot of people, let me calculate..."
The next second, hundreds of dazzling golden lights descended from the sky, precisely enveloping every skeleton pirate on the deck!
"Holy crap! So warm!"
"I feel... my bones are getting harder!"
Under the astonished gaze of all the pirates, their originally yellowish-white calcium bones began to rapidly transform into a deep black, shimmering with a metallic luster.
The entire process lasted a full minute.
When the golden light dissipated.
Standing on the deck were no longer a group of bone frames that looked like they would shatter at a touch.
But an army of steel, composed of over a hundred black iron skeletons!
"How do you feel?"
Roger asked.
"Captain! I feel great!"
Buck excitedly raised his arm and tried to bend it forcefully.
"Crack!"
A crisp sound.
His arm didn't move an inch.
The wooden stick he used to bend his arm, broke.
Billy, disbelieving, picked up a recently captured Japanese sword and fiercely slashed it at Buck's chest!
"Clang!"
Sparks flew.
A rice-grain-sized chip broke off the blade of the Japanese sword.
On Buck's sternum, only a shallow white mark remained.
"Hahahaha! Is that all the strength you've got? Are you trying to tickle me?"
Buck laughed triumphantly.
On the deck, a chorus of "clang, clang, clang" metal tapping sounds instantly erupted.
The pirates were all testing their brand new steel bodies in various ways.
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