73 Backup Plan

"Klee, you're absolutely amazing!"

Sherwin hadn't expected that what was supposed to be a simple journey to find a sword would end with them getting an extra Devil Fruit. Praying to Klee Meow for luck really was the right choice!

After giving Klee Meow, the great contributor, a full-body massage with his own Kato Cat hands, Sherwin finally took a closer look at the Devil Fruit in the treasure chest…

It was a brown fruit shaped somewhat like a pear. Aside from the spiral patterns circling it, it looked almost no different from an ordinary fruit.

First of all, he could rule out a Logia-type. Logia fruits usually had very distinct appearances—you could pretty much guess their powers even without a guidebook. Only the Dark-Dark Fruit had a somewhat "normal" look.

As for whether this one was a Paramecia or a Zoan, Sherwin couldn't tell. Both types could either look completely ordinary or incredibly unique. Even Luffy Sun God Fruit just looked like a round, chubby cantaloupe.

However...

I've got cheats!

If he really needed to, Sherwin could always get a Devil Fruit guide from Morgans, but he already had one built into his Hunter Handbook.

Sherwin pulled out the handbook and flipped to the weapons section first.

Just as he expected, once the info on his first Great Grade sword appeared in the weapon catalog, the page flashed with a white light—and Sherwin received a second silver-gray summon ticket fragment.

As expected, acquiring a Great Grade weapon for the first time came with a bonus reward.

Next, he turned to the Devil Fruit catalog page. Unfortunately, this time he didn't get even a single fragment, let alone a full summon ticket…

Previously, the Flame-Flame Fruit had granted him a full summon ticket, and different weapon grades or monster types all gave extra rewards.

Yet this Devil Fruit—clearly one of the other types—didn't even give a fragment… This stupid handbook rules were way too arbitrary!

"Tch!"

Clicking his tongue in disappointment, Sherwin opened the entry for this fruit—

Zoan-Type · Bull-Bull Fruit · Reindeer Form.

Uh…

Sherwin scratched his head. Didn't this mean that if he ate this fruit, he could cosplay as Chopper?

He tried to imagine himself in Chopper form standing among the Felynes...

Ugh—that image was way too cursed to imagine. Nope, not going there.

"Sanji, are you interested in this Reindeer Fruit?" Sherwin thought for a moment and asked Sanji Meow, "It should boost your kicking skills."

"I don't want it, meow!"

As expected, Sanji Meow turned it down with a disgusted look.

…Alright then.

Sherwin stored away the Devil Fruit, planning to sell it later along with Kentaur. It was worth over a hundred million Berries, after all.

After looting all of the Swak Pirate Crew treasure, Sherwin reopened his Hunter Handbook…

He wanted to check the map and find the nearest Marine base to cash in the pirates for their bounties.

However, just as he opened the map page, he noticed a small change in the progress bar at the bottom—

The bar itself looked the same as before: one section showing actual progress, the other a longer, faint projection of the target. But now, beside the bar, there was a small upward-pointing arrow that hadn't been there before. Below the arrow, there was a horizontal bracket symbol: "[".

Isn't that the icon for uploading?

Before Sherwin could think it through, his finger acted faster than his brain, driven by curiosity, and tapped the icon...

The instant his finger touched the upload icon, Sherwin already regretted it.

Because it looked exactly like one of those mission settlement functions, where rewards are given based on your completion rate. And back when Sherwin first checked the map before arriving on this island, that icon wasn't there yet. Meaning...

He had triggered the settlement function the moment he barely met the "mission requirements."

At this point, regret was meaningless, because the Hunter Handbook reacted incredibly fast. Just as Sherwin finger touched the upload icon, it vanished. There was no usual "Uploading" or "Loading" indicator, not even a confirmation dialog asking "Are you sure you want to upload?"

It was… very unfriendly to users.

With the disappearance of the upload icon, the map page in the handbook began to glow with a white light. Then, a familiar sea-blue summoning ticket fragment appeared between the pages.

Well, that was within my expectations.

Sherwin picked up the fragment without much emotion—it was indeed the second piece related to map progress.

If he had waited until the progress reached one hundred percent before choosing to upload, he might have gotten a complete summoning ticket…

Feeling a bit annoyed, Sherwin put the fragment away and looked back at the now dim map page.

This time, the dynamic map in the handbook didn't show a new progress bar, nor did the old one disappear. It also didn't expand into a world map like Sherwin had speculated earlier. It was still just the map of the West Blue. The areas he hadn't explored remained shrouded in mist, and getting the summoning ticket hadn't unlocked the full map.

Do I have to enter another sea area before the new map activates? Or do I have to push this map progress to one hundred percent?

Sherwin gaze shifted to the progress bar beneath the map. Actual exploration was at 75%, and the virtual exploration rate had finally appeared—91.7%.

The appearance of the upload icon must be related to these two stats.

To be precise, it should be linked to his actual exploration reaching 75%.

But no matter how you looked at it, this change was actually a good thing for Sherwin, because it meant that even without completing 100% of the map, he could still obtain summoning ticket fragments.

He had been worrying about what to do if he couldn't reach full completion for the West Blue map...

After all, despite wandering around West Blue for so long, Sherwin had never found any maps that recorded the locations of God Valley or Ohara.

Ohara might have truly been erased from the map by the Buster Call. Maybe there were still ruins left, but the World Government had wiped out all related information. Sherwin couldn't be sure of the exact situation—because he'd forgotten to ask Robin…

God Valley, however, was a different matter. After all, neither Rocks nor Roger went there with the intent to destroy it.

Of course, knowing the Celestial Dragons nature, it wouldn't be surprising if they directly erased an island that was a stain on their history.

Maybe Morgans would have more accurate intel, but Sherwin had never considered asking him. The truth was, both places were far too complicated in terms of involvement, and his level of trust with Morgans hadn't reached that point yet.

Besides, even if those two islands still existed, they would undoubtedly be under surveillance by the World Government. Even if Sherwin did find them, there was a high chance he wouldn't be able to set foot on them. He probably wouldn't even be able to unlock the map by sailing around their perimeters.

And aside from those two islands, West Blue still had many uncharted islands. Sherwin had already run into several of them during his mapping journey. Even the island beneath their feet—the Suwak Pirate Crew base—wasn't recorded on any map.

Who knew how many more such islands were out there, beyond his planned sailing routes?

Originally, Sherwin had planned to finish sailing through all the "pre-rendered" map areas, then spend a huge amount of time slowly exploring every corner of West Blue. But now, he no longer had to worry about that.

Although he didn't get the highest-tier reward, in terms of fragment acquisition efficiency, the smartest move was to push the virtual progress to 75%, then choose to upload and decisively switch to a new map.

Of course, all of that depended on one assumption—once Sherwin left West Blue, a new map progress would appear. Otherwise, he'd still have to obediently stay in West Blue and fully unlock the map.

Thinking back to the days when he used to madly run around maps just to get full achievements in games, Sherwin instinctively shrank his neck…

Back then, scouring game maps for every hidden or obscure area had made his scalp tingle from frustration. And now, he was actually "running the map" in real life!

Let hope things don't get that bad.

Sherwin thought about it and realized he couldn't count on luck alone, so...

He suddenly scooped up the Klee Meow beside him and took a big sniff of her lucky aura.

"Meow?"

The little plush Felyne looked confused after being suddenly snatched up and sniffed, but soon she happily tilted her head and purred, rubbing back against him affectionately.

Still, after getting his lucky cat fix, Sherwin didn't forget to add one more layer of insurance.

"Klee, once we finish visiting the rest of the islands on this map, let leave West Blue and go adventure in the other seas. Sound good?"

"Yay, yay!" Klee Meow cheered instantly. "Klee can eat new kinds of fish again, meow!"