Raiden Ei no longer had the attitude she previously showed towards Hades; her expression was icy, and her eyes seemed to stab him like knives. "You open the box!"
The imposing aura that rushed out from Raiden Ei at that moment was stronger than anyone he had ever met. Hades genuinely felt like dying. Why did she suddenly become like this? Didn't he do exactly as she arranged? Now wasn't the time to dwell on that.
He could only follow Raiden Ei's instructions to open the box. The surrounding tension made him feel that something was wrong with the box. He carefully opened it, and the sweat dripping from his forehead landed on the container.
"Click!" The box opened. Inside, it was filled with neatly stacked Berries, not what the two of them had expected. This made both Raiden Ei and Hades breathe a sigh of relief, as they had feared some unexpected accident.
Hades handed the box to Raiden Ei; these Berries were meant for her. "Lady Raiden Ei, here is your one hundred and forty million Berries."
Raiden Ei took the box, counted the contents, and stored them in the system backpack. Her expression softened, but her attitude toward Hades remained poor. "What was that just now?"
Hades dared not tell the truth. "I was just a little nervous."
Raiden Ei looked at the tall, burly man, then decided to let it go, as she probably wouldn't meet him again in the future. "Since the transaction is complete, I will return to town first."
Hades was relieved to see Raiden Ei was no longer angry. He truly feared pirates who operated at sea. He could handle ordinary pirates, and he could kill a great pirate with a bounty in the tens of millions with just a few moves—how could he afford to be arrogant then!
Hades: "Lady Raiden Ei, travel safely."
Raiden Ei put the dream into the system backpack. The backpack felt vast, with no discernible boundary, so she just placed it casually inside; time inside was also stagnant.
She currently did not know how to cook. Logically, she should have stored a large amount of cooked food; she had done so before.
However, after placing a few pirate corpses inside, she no longer wanted to put cooked food in there. The current her was not broad-minded enough to ignore them. She could only buy more fruit to fill her stomach.
Raiden Ei still spoke politely, "Alright, I'm leaving now. Take care." She headed back in the direction she came from.
Hades breathed a sigh of relief after Raiden Ei walked far away. "She's finally gone. She's quite reasonable. I shouldn't use boxes to store Berries next time."
An hour later, as dusk approached, the setting sun shone on Raiden Ei once more. Pedestrians passed by her like passersby, and she remained motionless, like a stranger.
Walking on the street, Raiden Ei was contemplating her next destination: the Sky Island floating above Jaya Island in the Grand Line, where she intended to search for the Goro Goro no Mi.
She currently had no way to restore her Elemental Power, meaning she was like a mage who could run out of mana at any moment. Although she still had physical attacks.
But she was fundamentally a mage. Fighting with only physical attacks, she felt she couldn't defeat a slightly strong Shichibukai.
She needed to find a way to restore her Elemental Power. The natural-type Goro Goro no Mi was the first solution she thought of. Even if it couldn't restore her Elemental Power, having the Goro Goro no Mi wouldn't be a loss.
She wouldn't abandon other ways to become stronger. She aimed for comprehensive development so she could become the strongest in the world. As for what she would do after reaching that goal?
Who knew? Anyway, all fear stemmed from insufficient firepower. In this world, firepower was oneself. As long as one was strong enough, anything could be achieved.
Before heading to the Sky Island, she still had to pass through many places. The East Blue, for instance, posed no great danger and should be passed through quickly.
The Grand Line was different: chaotic currents, extreme weather, and confusing magnetic fields. She hadn't experienced those yet and didn't know how to overcome them.
Raiden Ei thought for a moment and decided to buy more supplies to store in the system backpack. That was better than carrying a pile of paper! She decided to do it immediately.
She was about to act, but her Observation Haki suddenly sensed something unusual, causing her to halt her steps.
In an alley, two muscular men with fierce faces were talking. The subject of their conversation was not something ordinary people would discuss; it didn't resemble the islanders at all.
Gaff chuckled at the large man beside him. "Heh heh, this trip earned more than before. How much will the boss give us, Noli? Do you know?"
The large man called Noli took another swig of his drink and mumbled vaguely, "I heard we each get five hundred thousand Berries. I can buy a few more bottles of good... wine."
Gaff lit his cigarette and said excitedly, "Five hundred thousand is enough for me to have fun at the Thousand Fragrances Pavilion for ten days! What kind of cargo is so valuable to pay us five hundred thousand Berries?"
Noli still looked drunk and vaguely replied to Gaff, "I don't know that... I only heard it from Sifo. He's still helping out over there!"
Gaff: "I wanted to go with him before, but the boss wouldn't let me, saying something about division of labor."
Noli: "Why go there... There's nothing good about it. They do almost the same things we do... Except they do it on shore, and we do it in the sea."
Gaff nodded solemnly. "That's true, but I still want to go see it. When I start working for myself in the future, I'll do things that way too. Stop drinking! It won't kill you to drink less. How else will I find you to help me in the future!"
Noli remained as usual: "Uh... If you could manage everything yourself, I would have quit this life long ago. Having a sword hanging around your neck really feels awful."
Gaff: "Which one of us isn't like that? Just get used to it. Otherwise, how would we have so many Berries? Life is bound to end sooner or later, so why not live it freely and happily?"
In the adjacent alley, Raiden Ei was listening to their conversation. She realized they hadn't mentioned what they actually did, but she gathered from their talk that they worked for a boss at sea and engaged in fighting and killing. It was probably only pirates.
Their secrecy was quite tight. From what she heard, a boss had gathered a group of pirates to work for him, and another group was doing the same thing on shore. It wasn't hard to figure out what they were doing, but she didn't know how many people they had.
Gaff shouted, "Noli... Drunkard, wake up. Really, drinking this much before it's even dark." He dragged Noli toward the deeper part of the alley.
Raiden Ei quickly followed. Although she still didn't know the full size of the gang, since she had overheard them, she naturally had to wipe them out.
If she did, their Berries and gold would all become hers. It wasn't that she was cruel, but this world was too insane. She needed some strength to protect herself.
---------------------------------
I hope you're enjoying the fanfiction so far! If the fanfiction has you hooked and you can't wait to see what happens next, you can unlock 30 or more chapters in advance over on my patreon: patreon.com/FTLGenBen
Also every bit of support means the world to me so if you're loving the ride, don't forget to drop a Power Stone, Thanks.