Chapter 8: Players prepare to increase their affinity with their opponents.
Violet: "Ah, the boss has disconnected!"
Vera: "What's going on? Is there a bug?"
Storobelli stood up, his tall hair now reaching all the way to the tavern ceiling. The imposing, serious-looking man walked over to Violet, squinted at her for a few seconds, then silently knelt down, placing his hand on the neck of the unconscious tavern owner.
Storoberry: "He fainted from the shock."
Storoberry looked at the culprit: "Do you know that fishman?"
Is this girl a member of the Sun Pirates? No, even if Fisher Tiger didn't specifically distinguish whether the released slaves were fish-men or humans when he destroyed the slave auction house, the complex hatred and estrangement between the two races were not so easy to dispel.
Even the pirate crew that advocates freedom will only accept fellow fish-people on their ship.
So this girl must have heard about Fisher Tiger's story and is an admirer of his.
Strawberry's speculation is not without merit. The slave trade has always been a gray industry in the constituent republics. The world government has enacted laws to prohibit the buying and selling of people on the surface, but due to the needs of the world's nobles and the huge profits generated behind the human trade, the existence of slave auction houses has become an open "secret" for everyone.
Many ordinary people suffered greatly, and Fisher Tiger, who, after liberating the slaves of Mary Geoise, was determined to destroy the various slave auction houses, naturally became a hero in the eyes of many.
Fisher Tiger and his Sun Pirates have thoroughly enraged the World Nobles, and the World Government has even issued a death order to the Navy, demanding that they capture the Sun Pirates as soon as possible.
After all, the Navy's attitude towards capturing the Sun Pirates has always been rather ambiguous. When it comes to capturing the Sun Pirates, they always seem to "accidentally misunderstand the intelligence and are a step too late," "accidentally misjudge the situation and let them go because they couldn't win the battle," or "accidentally fire a cannon at the wrong angle and blow up the slave market."
The CP department was so angry about these reports that they called and questioned Admiral Steelbone Sky directly, but the Admiral was not a good-tempered person and directly questioned them in return.
"You ask why the Navy can't capture Tiger? Then let me ask you, do you think Tiger is easy to capture? Why didn't you capture him when he caused havoc in the Holy Land? Then let me ask you, are you Tiger's accomplices?"
The CP department was so angry that they hung up the phone immediately.
But this time the pressure came from the Holy Land, and even the Air Marshal found it difficult to resist. He diligently and conscientiously dispatched the Navy Headquarters' most formidable information and intelligence analysis departments, as well as…
An armed forces department led by Stoloberg, who wasn't even a lieutenant general.
It's a somewhat strange combination, but soldiers are duty-bound to obey orders, so how could Stroubery question his superior's arrangements?
The marshal must have had a deeper meaning; yes, that must be it.
Having grasped this point, Strawberry meticulously gathered information, carefully analyzed intelligence, and meticulously crafted traps... He did everything to the best of his ability, and to avoid any unforeseen complications, he never attempted to capture a potential "pirate mole."
The stern-faced Storobelli advised expressionlessly, "You'd better not try to find out anything about him outside."
Vera made a thoughtful expression, and quite seriously placed her bent index finger on her chin.
"Was that fishman once quite talented, but went astray and later became known as the strongest and most dangerous black fishman, who divided his soul into seven parts and placed them in different containers in order to achieve immortality?"
Storoberry didn't understand, and even suspected that Violet had confused the novel with the newspaper: "...What is all this?"
Violet pressed her hand to her chest and let out a long sigh: "That's good. I don't want to log into the game one day and only see a 404 error."
Violet: "Then why can't we say it? Are the merfolk here from Innsmouth?"
Strawberry couldn't stand Violet's nagging: "...because he angered the Celestial Dragons, no one will risk telling you about him."
A former slave climbed the Red Line with his bare hands, set fire to the Holy Land, and freed hundreds of slaves. To the Celestial Dragons, who claimed to be descendants of gods, this was nothing short of a slap in the face.
The world government would naturally not allow this matter to circulate among the constituent republics.
Vera narrowed her eyes: "You know him."
“Heh.” Storoberry chuckled and stood up. “Yes, but I won’t tell you.”
"If you're really curious, you can take a look at the wanted poster." The Celestial Dragons forbid the member republics from talking about Fisher Tiger, but they can't control Morgans and his newspaper empire.
Having obtained the clue, Vera quickly ran to the newsstand and exchanged [Roasted Jellyfish*2] with the newsstand owner for the newspapers from the past few days.
The first thing Vera saw when she opened the newspaper was a bold, enlarged headline: [Omens of the End of the World? Rebirth or Destruction? A New World with a Map Reshaped by a Terrifying Earthquake, and the Powers That Have Been Reshuffled and Reconstructed!]
The familiar sensationalist headlines made Vera somewhat nostalgic for real-world online media.
However, Violet wasn't here to learn about the game's lore today. She quickly flipped through the newspaper and finally found the clue she was looking for in the wanted posters section.
[Wanted List: Fisher Tiger, male fish-man, captain of the Sun Pirates, who orchestrated the attack on Mary Geoise, dead or alive, bounty 230 million Berries]
[Wanted List: Jinbe, male fish-man, member of the Sun Pirates, dead or alive, bounty 76 million Berries]
...
This is it, Mr. You-Know-Who Mermaid! So his name is Fisher Tiger?
Violet memorized the tall, red figure, and, just to be safe, also remembered his blue-clad underling, Jinbe, whose bounty was less than half of his own.
She planned to raise her favorability with these two... uh, two murlocs, hoping to find the Murloc King through them and exchange them for gold nuggets. But could the murlocs communicate with her? What did they say? Murloc language?
Seeing that Violet's gaze lingered on the page with the wanted posters of the Sun Pirates members for a long time, the newsstand owner, who was lazily eating grilled jellyfish, glanced at the black-haired, black-eyed girl in front of him.
The food that Violet puts in her pocket backpack is not frozen in time. Instead, it changes from fresh food to stale food and then to rotten food according to the different food's shelf life. The food's properties also decrease as its freshness decreases.
But their deliciousness remains unchanged until they become stale; even if they were made a day ago, they will still be as warm as if they had just come off the stove.
The jellyfish ring the little girl brought in to exchange for newspapers tasted pretty good. The owner is a gourmet and could tell that the grilled jellyfish was made with special pink jellyfish that live in clean, unpolluted shallow seas and only gather near certain seaweed.
Not only are those jellyfish few in number and impossible to raise in captivity, but they also generate electricity and quickly become stale after being taken out of the water, making them a delicacy that even fishermen living along the island coast rarely get to enjoy.
Moreover, the chef who made the jellyfish rings was highly skilled, without adding too many spices to mask the natural freshness of the jellyfish, and the grilling temperature was just right.
Considering the delicious grilled jellyfish she had given him, the newsstand owner decided to give the naive and clueless girl some advice.
"The Sun Pirates are about to become a thing of the past." The newsstand owner stuffed the last piece of grilled jellyfish into his mouth. "Forsythen Island is about to descend into chaos."
"You should go home, young lady. This isn't a good place for tourists."
——
With their high premium and ease of sale, merfolk and mermaids have always been among the most popular "goods" for slave traders.
Fish-men, who are born with strong physiques and are ten times stronger than ordinary humans, are usually bought as laborers or gladiators. Their transaction price is usually two to three times that of human slaves. Mermaids are the favorite of the world's nobles, especially female mermaids, who are the most popular and fetch the highest prices at auctions.
After Fisher Tiger wreaked havoc on the Holy Land of Mary Geoise, he rescued many mermaids and their fellow mermaids. Although they successfully escaped from that hellish place with Tiger's help, they were also placed on the bounty list, and even if they returned to Fish-Man Island, they would only bring disaster to their homeland.
The hoofprints of the Sky Dragon, representing shame and enslavement, branded on them, could not be erased, constantly reminding them of their humiliating past.
To this end, Fisher Tiger designed a new symbol, naming it "Sun," and branded it onto the hoofprint of the Sky Dragon, transforming that shameful mark representing slavery into a symbol of the Sun Pirates' grand ideals. Using this mark as a name, he recruited elite warriors from the Fish-Man race, establishing the Sun Pirates to shelter escaped slaves and fight against the pursuing Marines.
Fisher Tiger looked at the coastline that gradually appeared in the distance; it was Forchart Island, a beautiful, peaceful, and prosperous island.
"Kera, why are you cleaning the floor again? How many times have I told you, you don't need to mop the floor so many times. The ship is about to dock, so go back to your cabin and stay there."
Jinbe's somewhat helpless voice rang out from the cabin, drawing Fisher Tiger's attention back.
Koala stood up, hiding the rag behind her back, and nervously looked at the giant fish-man in front of her: "I'm not tired, Mr. Jinbe. I just... I just ate a little too much at noon and wanted to... yes, wanted to exercise to digest it!"
Koala was once a slave of the Celestial Dragons. When Tiger caused havoc in the Holy Land Mary Geoise, she escaped and lived on a small island for three years. This time, the island's residents asked the Sun Pirates to help send Koala back to her hometown, Forsythia Island.
Not long after Koala boarded the ship, Jinbe noticed that whenever Koala showed signs of tension or fear, she would frantically scrub the floor with a forced, perfect smile. It wasn't until Tiger covered Koala's slave mark with the Sun Pirates' symbol and assigned Hachi, a relatively friendly fish-man on the ship, to take care of her that the girl gradually opened up.
But clearly, as they approached their destination, Kera's mood became somewhat off again.
Jinbe looked at Koala with a somewhat ingratiating smile and felt a little helpless. Oh well, it was much better than when she first boarded the ship, when she was working frantically while wearing a smile that looked worse than crying, begging them not to kill her.
Jinbe ruffled Koala's dry, brittle hair, which was yellow from lack of nutrition: "We'll be going home soon, Koala."
Kera gripped the rag in her hand tightly: "Do you really, absolutely have to go back?"
Jinbe: "That's your home, and your family is still on the island."
Kerla: "...But I don't remember anything anymore." Years of slavery had not only instilled in Kerla a habit of working like a madwoman and smiling and flattering in order to survive, but had also blurred her memories.
Koala looked at Jinbe pleadingly: "Can't I stay on the ship? I can cook, do laundry, clean, and do all the overtime work."
"Ha, don't joke around!" a sarcastic voice rang out. "The Sun Pirates don't welcome any humans, they don't welcome any of them!"
"Get the hell out of here on the island right now!" a fish-man with a sharp, jagged nose sneered. "Hahaha, just thinking about you leaving makes me feel so happy."
"I'll definitely tell my brother to clean the whole boat properly. Honestly, there are fleas lately, and they've bitten me several times."
Jinbe frowned: "Arlong, what are you talking about?"
Kerla quickly searched herself up and down, then explained tremblingly, "I, I don't have any fleas."
"Ha, who else besides you, a filthy human, would have fleas?" The dragon glared at Koala, then looked at Jinbe. "You bastard, do you even know your place? How could you stoop so low as to mingle with humans?"
Jinbe: "Have you forgotten what Queen Otohime told us before we left? Also, the Sun Pirates fight for liberation and freedom, not for personal grudges against any particular group!"
Arlong: "Ha, liberation and freedom? Then Jinbe, tell me, why is it that to this day, the Sun Pirates only have fishman crew members?!"
The dragon said, "That's because humans are a despicable, shameless, and ungrateful race. Even Brother Tiger wouldn't believe them!"
"Enough!" Fisher Tiger walked into the cabin, interrupting the argument. He looked at Koala, who was being protected by Jinbe and was once again showing that heartbreaking smile, and tried to stop the argument with a headache.
Tiger knew that as long as he said, "The Sun Pirates do not only recruit fish-men as crew members," all the disputes would disappear. However, as long as he thought about how humans captured his own kind, put collars on them, locked them in cages, and sent them to auction houses, Tiger could not calm down.
So even though many humans had heard of his deeds and wanted to follow him, Tiger never agreed to let them join the Sun Pirates. In fact, if it weren't for Koala's past as a Celestial Dragon slave, and his request to adopt the escaped residents of Koala Island, Tiger wouldn't have allowed Koala to board the pirate ship.
However, Tiger's identity as the leader of the Sun Pirates made him realize that he could not show any prejudice against humans, otherwise this pirate crew, on which Queen Otohime had placed high hopes, could very well get out of control and become a driving force for hatred between the two races.
Upon seeing Tiger enter, Kera's forced smile froze slightly, and tears welled up in her eyes. It was as if a struggling little beast, seeing its trusted elder appear, finally revealed a rare vulnerability.
That unreserved trust and attachment made Tiger's heart clench.
But even setting aside his grudges with humans, Tiger doesn't think a pirate ship being tracked by the Navy is a suitable place for children to grow up.
Tiger: "You should live with your family."
The light in Kera's eyes dimmed.
Tears finally fell from Kera's eyes, but a smile returned to her face as she solemnly bowed deeply to Tiger.
"I understand, thank you so much for everything during this time!"
Kerla: "I wonder when the ship will dock. During these years of being captured and enslaved, I have always missed my hometown, my parents. Going home has always been my dream!"
The evil dragon sneered, already eager to leave the Sun Pirates. Humans really are a bunch of ungrateful bastards.
Tiger: "...Yes, the ship will be docking soon."
Tiger: "Pack up and go home, Kella."
Tiger and the dragon left the cabin one after the other.
Snap, snap... A salty, astringent smell that was all too familiar to fishmen filled the air. Jinbe didn't turn around, but instead stood with his back to Koala.
"Congratulations on returning home, Kella."
A note from the author:
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To make sense of Tiger's storyline, it seems the only way is to explore the possibility of a Navy conspiracy. Otherwise, it's hard to explain why Tiger could remain the captain of the Sun Pirates for so many years after burning down the Holy Land. When the Navy went to capture him, they even had Strawberry, who wasn't even a Vice Admiral at the time, lead the team. It feels like they didn't want to capture him at all; their apparent inaction is quite obvious. Keep in mind that when Luffy only fought a Celestial Dragon, an Admiral was mobilized. Tiger's actions seem far more serious...
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