The Terror of the Pirates

Saving the fishman was to kill the fishman.

This kind of marvelous logical relationship—how could Clara, who was an onlooker, think of it?

Therefore, she purely thought that Alex was out to save the fishman.

While feeling incredulous, what immediately followed was doubt about Alex's identity.

On the long street, the fishman slave, who was bent on escaping back to the sea, also noticed this.

Someone is helping me?

The fishman instantly fell into the same thought as Clara.

Who is it?

How could someone possibly help me in a place like this?

The fishman shook his head violently, not having the time to think that much, and buried his head, running for his life.

However, he was no fool.

Having experienced what it meant to be a living target on the spot, how could he continue to run down the long street?

He suddenly turned a corner and ran towards the alleyway between the buildings.

The surrounding pirates, who came out to have fun, saw that the fishman slave had learned his lesson. While regretting that they couldn't fire a few more shots, they wouldn't be foolish enough to chase after him.

Because they knew very well that the fishman slaves were commodities of the Mad Hatter Town Auction House.

When there were a lot of people, everyone would have fun and fire a few shots each, and if the fishman got killed, everyone would have a share.

In that case, they wouldn't worry about the auction house looking for trouble afterward.

As for helping the auction house capture the fishman slaves alive?

The risks and benefits were not proportional—only those with their heads kicked by donkeys would do it.

Seeing the fishman slaves escaping into the alleyway, the hilarious pirates then turned their attention to the three counterparts who were killed by who knows who, as well as the pandemonium in front of the auction house's main entrance.

On top of the building, Alex saw the fishman turn into the alleyway, and a satisfied smile spread across his face under the mask.

That's more like it...

As soon as he thought that he would be able to verify whether the Hunter's Notes would also work on the fishmen, Alex's heart was on fire.

When the ability was first designed, the original intention was to utilize the traveler's intelligence advantage.

Therefore, subconsciously, the Hunter's Notes, as its name suggests, was intended to be used for [Hunting] and [People].

And in Alex's initial range of expected prey, there was no such type as fishmen or giants.

But no matter if it was a fishman or a giant, it was more or less tied to [Man].

Therefore, Alex felt that the possibility of it being applicable was extremely high.

As long as it was applicable, the prey range would be able to be further expanded.

At that time, fishmen and giants would simply be prey with higher returns.

Only, although the returns were high, compared to the pirates spread across the four seas, fishmen and giants were more like rare-level monsters.

Unless one ran directly to their dens, they were basically unattainable existences.

"The physical quality of the Fishman race is truly amazing. After suffering so many injuries, they can still maintain such speed."

Alex followed closely behind the fishman slave.

"If I hadn't killed those three pirates tonight, I probably wouldn't be able to catch up now."

Seeing that the fishman slave's frantic speed showed no signs of decreasing, Alex was surprised but calm.

It was best to just let the fishman run around more.

First, there was blood loss.

And then a sudden decrease in physical strength.

It would be much easier to strike again after that.

The previous performance of the fishman slaves killing in the crowd was something that Alex had seen with his own eyes.

At this moment, he was like a lone wolf, waiting patiently for its prey to get tired and exhausted, hanging tightly behind the fishman slave.

Considering that there might be people in the way, Alex slowed down his speed and loaded his ammunition while chasing after them.

Even though his physical fitness wasn't that bad now, there was still only firearms that could bring a sense of security.

As long as it wasn't an enemy that could take down bullets the hard way, Alex had the confidence to deal with it.

After letting it go like this for about ten minutes, the side effects of the fishman slave's injuries finally began to erupt.

First, there was the loss of blood, leading to weakness in the limbs.

This was followed by a noticeable sharp decrease in speed.

Beware of the change of heart—Alex felt that it was almost time to strike.

He suddenly increased his speed, and with a few high-speed leaps, he landed in front of the fishman slave.

The fishman slave was abruptly startled and violently stopped his body.

The body that had lost too much blood and caused its limbs to be weak could not support such a futile and sharp braking move, and it could not help but stagger forward.

Crap...!

The fishman slave's heart was beating wildly.

Unexpectedly, the human in front of him did not take advantage of the situation to strike him dead.

Hastily stabilizing his body, the fishman slave gasped heavily in his aftermath and stared warily at the human who had suddenly appeared.

His eyes skimmed over the dagger that the human held in his hand, as well as the muzzle of the long-barreled gun that was exposed from his shoulder, and with a sudden shock, he instantly ignored the issue of his physical strength and charged forward.

Strike first!

Bang—

The fishman slave came to another hard stop.

A lead bullet landed in front of his feet, wisps of smoke rising upward.

"Stupid human."

Seeing that Alex had emptied the only lead bullet of the smoothbore gun, the fishman slave's heart sank.

In this kind of terrain, the thing he was most afraid of was a gun, which was why he took the risk of launching a charge just now when he noticed the smoothbore rifle that Alex was carrying behind his back.

As a result, the other party had deliberately deflected the bullet.

It was unknown why, and there was no need to think much about it.

The fishman slave, in turn, was not in a hurry to strike at this point, silently adjusting his breath.

Stopping the fishman slave's charge with a lead bullet, Alex threw the [Usopp] that had emptied the lead bullet aside.

"Even though you're a fishman, I, Arthur, have never been one to take advantage of people."

Alex tilted his head slightly, his eyes in the holes of his mask locked onto the body of the fishman slave.

"I see that you are quite badly injured and your breath is disorganized from running for your life, so I will give you five minutes of rest."

"..."

The fishman slave's eyes widened at once.

It turned out to be so.

No wonder that shot just now deliberately missed.

Hmph, boring character.

That's what makes humans especially stupid.

Five minutes?

It only takes less than three minutes to adjust.

The fishman slave thought darkly, adjusting his breath along the way.

How could he wait five minutes when his breath returned?

Directly strike, then leave the place of wrongdoing as soon as possible.

Alex looked at the fishman slave who was trying to recover his breath and said with a straight face, "I don't cut down nameless people under my sword. Report your name."

After saying that, he raised his dagger and crossed it in front of him.

The fishman slave glanced at the dagger and couldn't help but sneer.

Even if he was injured, as long as it was close combat, he was confident that he could finish off the human in front of him who was only holding the dagger in a matter of moments.

"Heaton Sam."

The fishman slave coldly gave his name without even thinking about it.

He wanted to add another harsh word but felt it was unnecessary.

He could crush the head of this self-proclaimed righteous and noble human later anyway.

"Heaton Sam, right."

Alex smiled, looking intently at the outline of the fishman slave's bloodstained face.

After half a second, Alex suddenly stepped backward while putting away his dagger.

The fishman named Sam was stunned at the sight, not knowing what kind of medicine Alex was selling.

After Alex put away his dagger, he directly summoned the Hunter's Notebook.

"Eh? Could it be a Devil Fruit ability user?!"

Seeing that Alex turned out the notebook out of thin air, Sam realized the sense of crisis in vain and no longer cared about regulating his breath, decisively pouncing towards Alex.

Alex was calm and unperturbed in the face of danger, like a judge, holding a goose quill and quickly writing down Sam's name in the pages of the book, as well as the amazing grip he had shown earlier in the battle.

"Whatever your ability is, just let me get close...!"

Sam raised his right hand as he sprinted, his open webbed hand poised and ready to crush Alex's cheek with his bare hands when he got close.

Suddenly, his face changed dramatically.

He only saw that the notes Alex held in his hand suddenly disappeared, and instead, Alex pulled out a flintlock pistol from within his clothes.

Bang—

Alex pulled the trigger.

A shot hit Sam's body.

Blood splattered suddenly, and the impact from the lead bullet caused Sam's body to jolt, which in turn stopped him.

"You...!"

Sam crumpled to the ground in disbelief.

Alex then pulled out a second flintlock pistol and fired a supplementary shot towards Sam's body.

"No, shameless Arthur... Arlong... absolutely, absolutely will kill you..."

Before he could finish his words, Sam gulped in his breath.

"Arlong?"

Hearing Sam's cruel words before he died, Alex raised his eyebrows.