Chapter 1: Can't Say Things are Going Swimmingly, But At Least I'm Utterly Useless
In the East Blue, within the borders of the Oykot Kingdom.
Inside a camp in a mountain forest.
A man, wearing a thin shirt and cloth trousers, held a wanted poster, comparing it to the young woman before him. He asked:
"Is this you?"
The young woman had curly blonde hair, fair skin, and a delicate, pretty appearance. She wore an ornate dress, the sleeves tight against her arms, but the skirt very wide. Lace adorned her delicate neck. Although she wore no gold or silver jewelry, she looked like a noblewoman from a prestigious family.
The kind with big, wavy blonde hair.
The girl's eyes were cold, and her tone even colder: "No."
"This is you," Sag said.
The girl glared at him angrily: "If you know, why are you asking!"
Sag grinned: "I ran into five groups of bandits on the way here. Finally, I've made a catch!"
At this, the girl just glared at Sag fiercely. If looks could kill, she would have already taken this man down with her.
"Don't bother struggling."
Sag patted the ornate, pearl-handled rapier hanging from his cloth belt. "You're my first bounty, so naturally, I have to prevent any unexpected situations."
As he spoke, he tapped the girl's forehead. Her legs automatically started moving, and she began walking in a set direction.
This made the girl's eyes fill with despair. She never imagined there was anyone in the world who could do something like this.
Not only did he instantly disarm her, but with just a tap of his finger, not only could she not move, but she was now being controlled to walk automatically...
"A strong person like you, don't you have any dreams? Why be a slave to money!" the girl shouted.
"Hold on..."
Sag waved his hand. "Money is a good thing. Everyone works for money. I'm earning my living with my own skills. It's what I deserve. What's all this talk about being a slave? As for dreams..."
His expression darkened, and he gritted his teeth: "I actually do have one! My dream... is to have a piece of land, to farm and fish, and to live out this damned life in this damned world in peace and comfort!"
Norton Sag, twenty-two years old, had lived here for twenty-two years as well. And now... he was a bounty hunter who'd been at it for less than two months.
As for "here"... this was the world of One Piece.
An extremely dangerous world, filled with either giant beasts, ferocious Sea Kings, or those ruthless pirates.
It was also an extremely warped world.
It was his bad luck to transmigrate to this kind of world, but since he was here...
Luckily, this place was the East Blue, where the average bounty was less than three million. It was relatively safe.
Even better, when he transmigrated, he also brought along a "Fist of the North Star" cheat.
The "You are already dead." martial art. With this martial art, he could walk sideways in the East Blue without any problems.
Sag had no interest in stirring up the seas, but becoming a wealthy landlord, he thought, was quite promising.
To have a large piece of land, have many people depend on him for their livelihood, hire a few secretaries, and employ a bunch of underlings. Indulge in power and privilege when he had business, and frequent the pleasure quarters to enjoy music when he was free...
Just thinking about it made him a little excited.
At first, Sag wanted to follow in his adoptive father's footsteps and start with farming, enclosing a large piece of land and becoming the farming king!
He got nothing.
Farming didn't work, but maybe fishing would.
The abundant sea, with so many kinds of fish, even a child could easily catch fish with a casual scoop. He could get rich by fishing diligently and become the fishing king!
He always returned with empty-handed.
Perhaps he wasn't suited for a stable, settled life. So he decided to venture out.
The sea was so vast, and there were so many merchants. He could accumulate his initial capital by being a merchant...
His ship sank, and his cargo was destroyed.
The righteous path didn't work, so he'd try something shady!
He tried to be a *yangge* king, but encountered martial law.
He tried to be a bodyguard king, but his employer went bankrupt.
He tried to be a mercenary king, but there was a century of reconciliation!
In short, since his adoptive father, who had lived a stable life farming, died, his life could not be said to be smooth sailing, but at least he was completely useless.
Now, Sag was trying to be a bounty king... a bounty hunter.
In Sea Year 1520, twenty-two years after the death of the Pirate King, it was absolutely the Great Pirate Era!
Encountering pirates was as common as picking up stones on the road. This was an era where you could scoop up pirates from the sea at random. The bounty king title also had potential...
But he couldn't find a single one!
From tens of thousands of Berries to millions of Berries, whether bandits or pirates, he couldn't find a single one!
What the hell!
How could other people run into that eight-million-Berry...
Um... Which one was that again?
He couldn't remember.
Not only could he not find them, but his luck was also particularly bad.
He would catch a pirate, discover they had no bounty, and let them go. Then, a wanted poster for that pirate would be issued, and he'd end up benefiting his colleagues...
What was wrong with this world!
He was so angry he was shivering!
It could be said that, except for being a marine or a pirate, Sag had tried almost every profession. He didn't like pirates, and as for the marines...
Sag scratched his head, which was full of white hair, and pulled out a stack of wanted posters from his back waistband. The top wanted poster showed a long-nosed, purple-skinned monster, with a total bounty of twenty million below it.
If it weren't for this wanted poster, he might have given up on the bounty hunter profession.
The wanted poster was for the highest bounty in the East Blue at the moment, the Fishman Arlong, with a bounty of twenty million Berries!
"Once I take you in for the reward, I'll have money. I'll hire people to go to Cocoyasi Village and take down that whole crew. Then I'll be a rich man," Sag said with a smile.
He couldn't find the pirates drifting around the sea, but he could still find those with lairs, like this Arlong Pirates.
Besides the twenty-million-Berry Arlong, there was also the eight-million-Berry Fishman Hatchan, the nine-million-Berry Fishman Kuroobi, and the five-and-a-half-million-Berry Fishman Chew, totaling over forty million Berries.
They were sitting in their home. Could it be that Sag was so unlucky that he couldn't even catch people who were sitting ducks?
With that money, he could buy several villages in the East Blue, which would fulfill his dream.
"I didn't intend to catch you, originally," Sag said. "But I don't know navigation, and none of the ships I wanted to take were going to Cocoyasi Village. I had no choice but to come to the Oykot Kingdom first, and then I saw you."
Those ships all refused when they heard he wanted to go to Cocoyasi Village. Sag, with no other option, mopped the floors on a ship and managed to sneak his way up to Oykot Kingdom, which was above Cocoyasi Village.
By the way...
The ship he mopped floors on had bad luck when it docked. It hit a reef and half-sank.
He originally wanted to go directly south to Cocoyasi Village, but coincidentally, he saw a wanted poster on a utility pole within the kingdom. It was this woman, with a bounty of... one million Berries.
Actually, Sag didn't have high hopes. He basically didn't expect anything from these roaming wanted criminals. He'd never encountered one. He took the job just on the off chance.
He was killing two birds with one stone. Catching one was better than nothing, right? What if?
He encountered five groups of bandits on the road, all without bounties. But the last group of bandits had actually seen this woman. Sag followed the scent and found her!
A good start!
I, Sag, am not really that unlucky!
Wasn't this the second spring of his career!
"What's your surname?" Sag asked, in high spirits.
The woman's wanted poster had no name, only a photo and the bounty amount.
Her strength was actually not weak. She attacked the moment she saw him. Her swordsmanship was fast, but Sag was faster. He hit her with a pressure point, and she lost her resistance.
The girl didn't speak, just glared at him.
"Don't be so unfeeling. After all, this is a memorable first time. You tell me your name, and I'll collect your body later. I'll burn some paper money for you during festivals..." Sag said.
The girl stared at Sag, but then seemed to remember something, and her gaze dimmed. She lowered her head and, after a moment of silence, said in a low voice: "Biendetta Lily..."
"Biendetta? That sounds familiar, like I've heard it somewhere before."
Sag stroked his chin, deep in thought.
"It's under that wanted poster of yours," the girl said.
Sag took out the girl's wanted poster. Although there was no name, there was a line of small print below the bounty amount. He looked at it for a long time, nodding occasionally, and then turned solemnly to the girl.
"I can't read."
"..."
The atmosphere became very subtly...
Awkward.
A gentle breeze blew, seeming to add another layer of awkwardness to the already awkward situation.
The veins on the girl's forehead popped, and she shouted: "If you can't read, why were you looking at it so seriously!"
Being called out by the girl, Sag also turned bright red, instinctively looking away.
He couldn't be blamed for this.
After a person becomes an adult, their learning ability naturally declines and becomes fixed. He was just an ordinary, old office worker in his previous life. It's not like he could suddenly become smart just by transmigrating.
Besides, the writing in this world was neither English nor Japanese, with some strange Roman letters and completely incomprehensible unfamiliar characters. Apart from a few letters and numbers he could understand, the rest was like scribbles to him.
Who could understand this stuff? He didn't have the opportunity to learn when he transmigrated.
"This, my adoptive father was a vagrant, you know..." Sag said with an awkward smile.
What is a vagrant? Someone who appeared from god knows where.
Lily forced down her anger: "It says below that the wanted poster is from the Oykot royal family, the Biendetta family. Capturing this person will earn you a reward at the royal city."
"Right! Biendetta. I heard it when I came here. It's indeed the royal family here..."
Sag slapped his right fist into his left hand, as if he'd had an epiphany. But then he suddenly reacted, "Huh? You're not a bandit leader?"
The girl's face turned red: "I'm royalty, the princess of the Oykot Kingdom, not some bandit!!"