The Scourge of One Piece - Chapter 7
The next morning.
Maude woke up, his face full of fatigue.
Last night, while organizing information, he stayed up until the early hours without realizing it.
Falling asleep exhausted, he woke up after less than two hours.
Fortunately, he completed a hunt yesterday; otherwise, his body wouldn’t be able to handle it.
Now that he was awake, Maude couldn’t go back to sleep.
He lifted the thin blanket and got out of bed.
He wondered what kind of work Thor would assign him.
Regardless, to settle down quickly, he had already mentally accepted his role as a laborer.
Rubbing his cheeks, Maude opened the door and walked out.
The corridor was silent, making the slight creaking of the wooden floorboards unusually loud.
At the end of the hallway, a window boarded up with planks allowed morning sunlight to filter through the gaps, creating dotted beams on the floor.
Maude glanced at the other closed doors but didn’t linger. He headed downstairs.
The stairs led him to the first floor.
To the right was a corridor leading to the shop; to the left was one leading to the living room and kitchen.
Perhaps it was still early, as the shop door was not open yet.
However, Sunny was already awake, sitting at the dining table and having breakfast.
Maude went to wash up quickly, then joined Sunny in the dining room connected to the kitchen.
He was starving.
Yesterday he could endure it, but today he couldn’t. Perhaps it was a sign of his body recovering well.
Sunny glanced at Maude, who looked ravenous and pushed a cup of milk toward him, gesturing for him to sit and eat.
Maude didn’t hesitate, pulling out a chair and sitting down.
Noticing another place setting with a bowl and plate showing some food remnants, he figured Thor had already eaten.
Maude picked up the wooden cup and took a sip of milk, his brow furrowing at the strong, raw taste of fresh milk.
Enduring the unpleasant taste, he drank it all, then grabbed a piece of meat and devoured it, feeling almost reborn.
Despite the shop’s shabby appearance, the food was quite good.
What Maude appreciated most was Thor and Sunny’s laid-back attitude, which was quite different from his expectations of pirates.
Moreover, in some sense, Thor was his savior.
After eating several pieces of meat, Maude slowed down.
He glanced at Sunny, who was almost done eating and thought about the note from yesterday that said not to go out during the day or night. He had an idea.
“Sunny, what kind of place is Mad Hat Town exactly?”
“Why don’t you go out and see for yourself?”
“???”
Maude was baffled.
The note’s content from yesterday was still fresh in his mind.
Seeing Sunny’s expressionless face, Maude wondered if she was getting back at him for brushing her off yesterday.
Clatter—
Just as he was thinking this, Sunny pushed her chair back.
“After you finish eating, clean up here and then tidy up the shop. You have half an hour.”
With that, Sunny headed upstairs without looking back.
Maude shook his head, finished his breakfast, and started cleaning up.
If all he had to do was clean, his laborer job would be too easy.
After tidying the dining table, Maude grabbed some cleaning supplies and headed to the shop.
While cleaning the shelves, he was extra careful.
After all, one of Sunny’s rules was not to touch the items for sale.
He couldn’t touch, but he could look.
The shop had three shelves: the first held various swords and blades, the second had different lengths of flintlock pistols, and the third was a mix of swords and guns.
If he remembered correctly, Watt’s bloodstained long knife was cleaned by Thor and placed on the third shelf yesterday.
Looking at the overwhelmingly numerous third shelf, Maude recalled Thor’s familiar actions, lost in thought.
A shelf for second-hand goods?
And no need to mention where the stock came from.
However, strictly speaking, cold weapons like swords, as long as they aren’t damaged, don’t matter if they’re second-hand.
Shifting his gaze from the third shelf, he looked at the shelf with a dozen guns.
The sparse guns made the shelf look empty.
Maude stared at the guns.
On both Earth and the Hunter world, guns always had a stronger presence than cold weapons.
Compared to swords and other cold weapons, Maude was more familiar with guns.
Even though he reached a level in the Hunter world where he didn’t need to rely on guns, he still carried a handgun with him.
In terms of marksmanship, he wouldn’t claim to be an expert, but he could ensure basic shooting accuracy.
However, he also knew that in the One Piece world, the presence of cold weapons like swords was much stronger than firearms.
Most powerful individuals who reached a certain level used cold weapons rather than guns.
It wasn’t that firearms were limited; it’s just that very few people in the original series fully utilized guns’ range advantage.
“Is Keenu’s gun among these?”
Maude suddenly thought of Kid, who had come to the shop the previous day.
For Kid to be so obsessed with Keenu’s gun, it must be of high quality.
Leaning in to closely examine the few guns on the shelf, Maude, familiar only with modern firearms, couldn’t make much sense of them.
With his current understanding of flintlock pistols, he couldn’t distinguish the quality of these dozen or so guns, let alone identify Keenu’s gun.
“I need to get one of these soon.”
Although flintlock pistols weren’t as powerful as modern guns, Maude still valued them.
Looking longingly at the flintlock pistols, Maude’s thoughts swirled.
In the early stages of his hunting, he desperately needed a simple yet powerful tool like a firearm.
Resisting the urge to take a second-hand flintlock pistol from the third shelf, Maude quickly finished cleaning the shelves.
After cleaning, he put the supplies back in the storage room exactly half an hour later.
Then, Sunny came downstairs, heading to the shop.
Maude keenly noticed Sunny seemed to be in a good mood.
What he didn’t know was that Sunny was happy because she wouldn’t have to do the dirty work for a while now.
If Maude didn’t die early, this period could have been indefinitely extended.
Under Maude’s watchful eyes, Sunny took out a fine ruler from the counter and walked to the shelves, measuring the items precisely.
Watching her actions made Maude’s scalp tingle.
Damn, is this serious?
He thought Sunny was measuring the items to check if he had touched them.
But after a while, he realized it wasn’t the case.
Watching Sunny silently adjust the placement of each item after measuring them, Maude felt even more uneasy.
Not daring to disturb her, he waited patiently on the side.
An hour later, Sunny finally finished, and the shop opened for business.
“Where’s Thor?”
Seeing that Thor hadn’t come down yet, Maude was curious.
Sitting behind the counter, Sunny glanced at him and said expressionlessly, “Thor went to the red-light district for his morning workout. He usually comes back before lunch.”
“Oh, went for a morning workout.”
Maude understood. It was no wonder Thor maintained his strength despite his age.
Wait.
Something didn’t seem right.
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