The Terror of the Pirates

Based on the intelligence provided by Sunny, Alex had filtered out ten targets from the numerous neighbors.

The first target, of course, was Reed, whom Alex had sniped. The second target was Gaden, whom he had just assassinated.

However, Alex hadn't expected Gaden to come with a "buy one, get one free" deal, which was a nice bonus.

In terms of physical prowess alone, the two muscular men who had been sleeping together tonight were clearly superior to Watt and Reed. Yet, the gains Alex received from them were not as significant as those from the first two.

Alex had already prepared himself for this. He understood that the reward mechanism of the Hunter's Notebook was similar to experience point accumulation. It was like a new player in a game who could easily level up two or three times by defeating a few slimes in the early stages. But as the level increased, the experience points gained from slimes would decrease accordingly.

After that, one would have to hunt higher-level prey to maintain steady growth in experience points. For example, if Alex could now take down monsters like Kaido or Big Mom, the physical gains from such a feat would undoubtedly propel him to new heights. But such things could only be dreamed of.

Of course, Alex could also choose to continue hunting low-level prey. Although the gains would be lower, he could still achieve a qualitative change through quantity. Alex had done this before. In the Hunter world, he had taken advantage of his position in the penal system to personally execute numerous death row inmates. During that time, he had farmed experience points like crazy until the benefits truly dropped to zero.

While this method allowed him to harvest experience points with zero risk, it also consumed a significant amount of the notebook's blank pages. Using this method in the Hunter world was acceptable, but doing so in the One Piece world would be somewhat self-destructive. In the Hunter world, individuals with extraordinary Nen abilities were rare, while in the One Piece world, strong individuals were everywhere.

This was the fundamental difference between the two worlds. The number of potential "monsters" in the One Piece world far exceeded that in the Hunter world. Therefore, even though Alex had considered buying slaves to farm experience points, he wouldn't rashly implement such a plan.

Returning to the weapons shop, Alex washed up and went to sleep.

Days passed. On the eve of the auction, Alex had successfully taken down the third, fourth, and fifth neighbors. Unfortunately, although the bounties of these neighbors weren't low, the quality of experience they provided wasn't as high as expected. After all, bounty assessments weren't solely based on strength but also on "evil deeds committed" and the "threat posed."

These neighbors, with their average strength, clearly fell into the category of "having committed too many evil deeds." As a result, after several hunts, Alex's physicality had only just broken through from fifteen times that of an ordinary person to twenty times.

Despite this, Alex was quite satisfied. He believed that with his current abilities, he could now join the excitement at the outer circles of the auction.

A new day dawned, with clear skies and not a cloud in sight. The month-long pre-auction hype had attracted all sorts of people—pirates, underground figures, daring bounty hunters in disguise, and even undercover Marines. The spectacle had filled the inner bay port of Mad Hatter Town with ships, their various flags fluttering in the sea breeze.

If any Marines saw this, they might have thought, "If only we could take them all out in one go." Despite the influx of people overwhelming Mad Hatter Town, Thor's weapons shop remained as deserted as ever.

On this day, the shop opened as usual. Sunny sat behind the counter, staring blankly at the door.

"The end of the month is here..." Her mind was filled with thoughts of the Devil Fruits at the auction. However, those were things she could never obtain.

Thor, unusually, hadn't gone to the red-light district for his morning exercise. Perhaps because it was already packed, or maybe because he had suddenly remembered his duties as a mentor. Today, he finally assigned Alex an entry-level training plan.

"Why are we training legs?" Alex's legs were strapped with dark, unidentifiable metal weights. They were quite heavy, and Alex had no idea where Thor had found these. He had thought that snipers would focus more on training the stability of their hands, so he was puzzled as to why Thor wanted him to train his legs first.

"Do you know what the highest realm of a sniper is?" In response to Alex's question, Thor posed one of his own.

"No."

"Listen well. The highest realm is firing a shot without needing to run."

"Huh?"

"Do you know what the next realm below that is?"

"N-no."

"Firing ten shots without needing to run."

"Huh??"

"And do you know what the realm below that is?"

"Just tell me, old man."

"Firing one shot and then running."

"Huh???"

"You think that's it? Let me tell you, there's more!"

"..."

"The lowest realm is running at the first sign of trouble."

"??????"

Alex was utterly bewildered. Was this the sniper realm theory of the One Piece world? No, this had to be something Thor made up himself. But it kind of... made sense.

Thor took a puff of his cigarette and said leisurely, "So, what realm do you think you're in now?"

Alex hesitated for a moment before whispering, "Running at the first sign of trouble?"

"Exactly!" Thor glared at him.

Alex was left speechless. At this point, he began to understand these realm theories. So, he obediently started his leg training. He mused that he might end up training himself into Sanji instead of Usopp.

With the influx of people, the already chaotic Mad Hatter Town was exceptionally lively today. The frequency of gunfire was extremely high, like ceremonial cannons echoing throughout the town. Bloody killings became the norm.

Despite the chaos, it didn't cause any major disturbances. Instead, it sent the pirates into a frenzy. On the gambling street, a group of men in black suits, all tall and burly, marched in formation. At the head of the group was a relatively short middle-aged man. The man wore a black hat, a striped suit, and had a cigar in his mouth. Despite his short stature, he exuded an intimidating aura. The towering men behind him followed his lead.

"Dammit, it's Bege of the Fire Tank Pirates!"

"Are you trying to get yourself killed? Get back here!"

"These guys kill without blinking!"

The crowd on the street, seeing the Fire Tank Pirates approaching, quickly retreated, clearing a wide path.

On the other side, on the drinking street still on the main road, the ground was littered with over a dozen bodies, all bearing fatal knife wounds. In front of these corpses stood a man with a black top hat, a cane in hand, and an unnaturally pale complexion. The man whistled nonchalantly while rhythmically twirling his cane. The people on either side of the road watched in horror as the man walked away.

"What just happened?"

"I-it was over in an instant..."

"I remember now, that man is... the Devil Sheriff, Lafitte!"