[58] : The City of Wine, Ergo
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Because of the bounty—Arthur successfully entered the sights of the top figures.
He had been excited for a long time about his bounty—although the epithet wasn't what he wanted. But the following events were a constant source of irritation.
"That's... Seabury D. Arthur's flag! Kill him, and you can get a 300 million Belly bounty!" On the sea—yet another ship spotted Arthur's trail, charging over recklessly.
Annoyed beyond measure, Arthur directly struck them down with a Divine Judgment—sending this group of bounty hunters who valued money more than their lives to the bottom of the sea.
——
In recent days, almost everyone who spotted Arthur's flag would rush up crazily, giving him no time to sleep.
It was only recently, after he had killed more and more people and his fierce reputation began to spread—that some people regained their senses and didn't dare to approach easily.
"Sigh, it's all because of this flag!" Arthur stood on the deck of the stolen ship—looking up at the pirate flag he had drawn.
Unlike traditional pirate flags, his didn't have a skull. It only had a hand clenched in a fist, with blue Lightning coiling around the fingers, and a blue ball of Lightning in the hand.
If one looked closely, one could see that the blue ball of Lightning bore some resemblance to the One Piece world beneath their feet.
He had only drawn this flag a few days ago, but it was already known to the World Government, and it had even been printed in the newspaper. The ignorant bounty hunters of the Grand Line were swarming to him.
"If this continues, I won't even have time to sleep!" Arthur was quite distressed. To get a good night's sleep, he decided to take down the flag for now, and raise it again when he entered the New World.
——
After taking down the pirate flag, Arthur's ship followed the sea route and entered Reverse Mountain.
After appreciating the miraculous flow of nature, upside down, he finally entered the pirates' dreamland—the Grand Line!
Lying on the ship, Arthur spread out the map of the first half of the Grand Line and the Eternal Pose he had snatched from the bounty hunters, randomly choosing a route.
The first half of the Grand Line had a total of seven magnetic routes, eventually converging at the Sabaody Archipelago.
He naturally couldn't wander through each one.
Arthur chose a sailing route according to the direction indicated by the Log Pose—steering the helm himself, advancing at full speed.
For two whole days, the ship had been sailing on the sea, with no sign of any islands. He had already eaten all the stored food. He had almost eaten the planks of the ship.
"What's going on? Why haven't we arrived yet?"
Arthur stared wide-eyed, carefully looking at the pointer, wanting to confirm if it was broken.
He manipulated magnetism to flick the pointer's direction.
Only then did he realize that the position of the pointer permanently stopped in the direction he flicked it.
"Wasting two days of my time?" Arthur was so angry he smashed it on the spot.
He abandoned the pirate ship and flew into the sky, searching for nearby islands.
If he didn't find a place with people to get some food, he would probably starve to death.
——
Flying at high speed at low altitude, after half an hour, Arthur suddenly sensed that the air seemed to be permeated with the scent of alcohol.
His Observation Haki spread out in all directions, discovering an island twenty or thirty miles ahead.
"What place is this? The smell of alcohol is very strong!" Arthur wrinkled his nose.
He considered himself to have a good tolerance for alcohol, but he almost passed out from this smell.
The docks of this island were packed with pirate ships. From their conversations, it seemed they were here to purchase fine wine.
And the name of this island was Ergo—the City of Wine.
As soon as Arthur landed on the docks, several men dressed in formal attire, looking amiable, approached.
"Welcome, sir, to Ergo, the City of Wine. Are you here to purchase fine wine? I know where the best wine is!"
The leader greeted him, speaking incessantly.
"Purchase fine wine? Sure," Arthur squinted, nodding, looking this group up and down.
"Let me introduce myself. I'm Bard! Let me tell you—the wine of Ergo is very famous throughout the Grand Line. You've come to the right place. Do you need me to take you there?" Bard's eyes lit up when he heard Arthur say he came to purchase wine.
"Sure, lead the way!" Arthur smiled faintly!
"Okay! Okay! Follow me!" Bard seemed very happy.
The people behind him were almost jumping with excitement—but they didn't want to appear too obvious in front of Arthur.
"..."
This group exchanged glances, subtly surrounding Arthur, leading him towards a less crowded place.
Many local residents on the dock saw this scene and shook their heads.
"Isn't that kid a fool? To fall for such an obvious scam!"
"He'll probably be robbed of all his money and then sold to a winery as a slave!"
They shook their heads and sighed, as if feeling sorry for Arthur.
"So they just want to rob me of my money? I thought they were bounty hunters who recognized me and were trying to trick me." Arthur grinned.
——
Bard's group hurriedly led Arthur to a sparsely populated place. The aroma of wine was still strong, but there were very few pedestrians. It seemed to be all wineries.
Arthur's smile grew even wider. He asked casually, "What? Do you have to come to this kind of place to buy wine? There doesn't seem to be anyone here?"
"Haha, buy wine?" Bard and the people behind him all looked up at the sky and laughed. "Are you stupid, kid? Quickly hand over all the valuables on you..."
"Whoosh!"
In an instant, they pulled out steel pipes from somewhere, pointing them at Arthur.
"Captain, this guy is really stupid. We tricked him without any effort. We should take it easy on him later, Hahahaha." Bard's subordinates began to joke, as if Arthur was already in their grasp.
"Hand over all the money and valuables on you, and suffer less."
"I don't have any." Arthur shrugged helplessly, reaching into his pocket, and said playfully, "But, how about Devil Fruits? I have two!"
"Devil Fruits? Hand them over quickly—" Bard and his men stared wide-eyed at the grayish Castle-Castle Fruit and the green Door-Door Fruit in Arthur's hand, their expressions filled with greed.
"Let me remind you, my head is worth more than Devil Fruits. It's worth three hundred million Belly. Do you want to give my head to me as well?" Arthur's smile gradually began to fade.
"Head?" Bard suddenly felt something was wrong, but his subordinates were blinded by the value of the Devil Fruits.
"Captain, hurry up and snatch the Devil Fruits. These are expensive items worth at least 100 million Belly. If we sell them, we'll be rich!"
"Smack!!" Bard slapped him, sending the underling spinning in place three times. He said fearfully, "We don't want them!"
"Don't want them? Are you playing with me?" Arthur's face darkened. His body gradually approached. These people were all forced into a corner.
"N-Noooo... help!"
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