Chapter 9: Reiner's Logistics Life
Reiner stood on the deck, surveying the ship. He stomped his foot, and the wooden planks creaked.
"Looks like my life in logistics is about to begin."
He climbed the rope ladder to the crow's nest and looked down. Zoro was already sitting on the deck to one side, leaning against the railing and starting to doze off.
Looking up, the vast azure sea stretched out before him.
He turned again to look towards the island. His gaze pierced through the forest, and he could vaguely make out the scattered houses of the village.
"The view up here is pretty good!" He leaned on the railing, looking down with a smile.
"Then I'll claim this spot. From now on, lookout duty is mine too!"
"Ah, okay," Luffy replied with a laugh.
Reiner jumped down from the crow's nest and opened a large blue backpack.
It contained some supplies gifted by Kaya – besides food, the rest were daily necessities and a small amount of medicine.
"Even shampoo and shower gel? Merry is quite thoughtful."
After organizing and inventorying the items, Reiner began exploring the Going Merry.
A trapdoor on the deck near the mast opened downwards into the men's dormitory, which held two sofas and several hammocks in the corner.
"Pretty spartan," Reiner sighed, looking at the simple dorm.
The cabin at the bow housed the cannons and ammunition.
The main two-story cabin structure sat mid-deck. The first floor was the storage room, with several cannons mounted on either side. Reiner placed some of the supplies here.
The women's dormitory was located below the storage room. Reiner took a quick peek; its furnishings were clearly much more luxurious than the men's dorm, featuring sofas, tables, bookshelves, wardrobes, etc., and even a bar counter!
Outside on the deck, stairs on either side led to the second floor, which housed the combined living area, comprising the kitchen, dining room, meeting room, and so on.
After exploring for a while, Reiner summoned several skeletons and had them sort and place the supplies.
"Not bad, Reiner."
Nami came aboard, smiling as she looked up at Reiner leaning against the railing outside the second floor. "Your ability can even be used for chores like this? Looks like things will be much easier from now on."
"Piece of cake. I'll have them clean the whole ship inside and out later," Reiner waved dismissively and grinned.
Although his current combat-ready undead were only those made from the Luffy, Zoro, and Kuro templates, he still had plenty of miscellaneous grunts, including Morgan.
These could be used for chores without any concern.
He had modeled Kuro's template after Wolverine. Being undead, it still looked somewhat creepy, but at least it resembled a person.
In regular combat, it was fine against minor foes, but he wouldn't personally engage named enemies.
He wanted to maintain a clear distinction between himself and his undead in the eyes of the world. Until he obtained top-tier combat undead, he needed to hide his own capabilities as much as possible.
It wasn't that he completely lacked combat ability; thanks to his Devil Fruit enhancements, his physical stats weren't bad.
But his own strength was only average, not comparable to Luffy or Zoro, maybe not even his own undead summons.
He had only transmigrated a year ago; no matter how much he trained, the improvement was limited.
He didn't have some hypothetical "Effort-Effort Fruit" that allowed him to defy limits through hard work alone.
Unless he activated his transformation, becoming the Necrolord, but that was too conspicuous and detrimental to his preferred low-key early development strategy.
In his transformed state, his physical attributes would be based on the highest corresponding stats among his undead.
For example, currently, he could gain Kuro's speed, Zoro's wrist strength, and other attributes based on the relatively balanced Luffy template.
Simply put, his strength ultimately depended on the undead he possessed. Transmigration didn't grant other bonuses like automatic invincibility through effort.
That was just wishful thinking.
However, his 'golden finger,' the Devil Fruit itself, had a very high ceiling. What he lacked was time.
As for what Teacher Kaido said about Haki transcending all...
He took it as just one perspective. He himself was a Devil Fruit user; ultimately, strength determines who's right.
Enel also called himself a god, didn't he? And Luffy still kicked his ass.
By that logic, does fate transcend all?
In the end, human effort makes the difference.
Bringing his thoughts back, he realized his cigarette had burned down.
Usopp finished loading his things onto the ship, and they raised the anchor, preparing to set sail.
"Goodbye everyone! Goodbye Usopp!"
"Goodbye Kaya! When I come back, I'll tell you adventure stories even more amazing than my tall tales!"
Usopp waved goodbye to Kaya. Today, he had finally taken the first step towards becoming a brave warrior of the sea.
Kaya and Merry stood quietly on the shore, watching until the small ship disappeared over the horizon.
"Miss Kaya, a few days ago, I heard something about Usopp from the villagers."
Merry smiled gently and began speaking slowly. "Before his mother passed away, Usopp ran through the village shouting 'Pirates are coming!' all the way home."
"He excitedly told his mother that his father had returned to take them with him out to sea."
"Perhaps it was out of loneliness, but even after his mother died, he continued to shout 'Pirates are coming!' in the village every day."
"The villagers say his lies carried a powerful wish, hoping that one day his father really would come back for them..."
Kaya listened quietly to Merry's words, gazing out at the sea as if lost in thought.
"Merry... I want to study medicine."
"Is that so? You've suddenly made quite a big decision."
---
Aboard the Going Merry, the crew was celebrating.
"Let's toast to the Going Merry and to Usopp!"
"Cheers—!"
"I see you don't have a pirate flag yet."
Usopp looked up at the empty mast. "The flag is the soul of a pirate crew! Tell me your ideas; my drawing skills are top-notch!"
"Really!?"
Luffy's face lit up with excitement. "I didn't know you had that talent!"
"This great Usopp often painted on the village walls; it's a skill honed since childhood," Usopp boasted proudly.
Soon, Reiner brought out a bolt of black cloth, several cans of paint, and some brushes from the storage.
Usopp began drawing flamboyantly on the black cloth, and in no time, he completed a pirate flag.
A white skull wearing a yellow straw hat, with a pair of crossed bones behind it.
"Not bad, Usopp."
Reiner took the flag, genuinely impressed. "I'll go hang it up. Can you outline the design on the sail? I'll have my skeletons fill in the paint."
"Leave it to me!"
Soon, with Usopp and Reiner working together, the same large design as the flag was painted onto their mainsail.
The crew looked at it, smiling couldn't help but appear on their faces.
The Straw Hat Pirates were officially formed.
"Nami, how long will it take to reach Cocoyasi Village?"
Reiner suddenly asked.
Nami answered immediately without thinking, "Two days. But..."
"I have to ask again, are you really sure about this? Arlong's bounty is twenty million, but I suspect his strength is far greater than that."
"In the past, many Marines who came to subjugate Arlong failed without exception. He's secretly colluding with a certain Marine branch to suppress many of his crimes, so his bounty hasn't increased..."
Hearing this, Zoro frowned slightly. He used to make a living hunting wanted criminals and knew something about the Navy's bounty rules.
To some extent, a bounty reflected strength, and twenty million was definitely very high in the East Blue.
Based on what Nami said, Arlong's strength was likely far greater than they imagined.
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