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"TREASURE!!!"
With an insider leading the way and Nami's uncanny sixth sense for treasure, Buggy's hideout in this town got completely cleaned out—again.
As Nami slung a bag packed with over 6 million Berries over her shoulder, Buggy, who had just woken up from being knocked out, nearly fainted all over again.
But just as Nami was happily counting her beloved money, Bai Ye sneakily reached out with his evil right hand.
"Really appreciate all your help, Miss Nami," he said. "And as a token of gratitude for everything you did during this operation…"
He paused deliberately, watching the eager sparkle in Nami's eyes. After fumbling around in the bag for a second, he finally said:
"…Here's 10,000 Berries as your payment."
And with that, he handed Nami a tiny little stack of cash.
"Ten thousand Berries?!"
Nami practically lunged at him, ready to bite his head off. How could the infamous Cat Burglar Nami tolerate this kind of insult?
Adding the 4 million Berries found on the ship, the total loot from the Buggy Pirates was 10 million Berries, with Nami having secured 6 million of that earlier from the hideout
If she could keep all that for herself, she'd be one step closer to buying back her village—she needed 100 million, after all.
But Nami also knew the truth: without Bai Ye and the others, she wouldn't have gotten even a single Berry, let alone 10 million.
"Hm? Is Miss Nami saying this is too much money?" Bai Ye teased, grinning. "Wow, I didn't expect you to be so honest. You didn't help in the fight, didn't gather intel, and yet you're still holding that bag full of cash. Maybe you're saying you don't deserve this much reward?"
As he spoke, Bai Ye reached toward the bag, pretending to take the money back.
"Don't just make up stuff on your own!!!"
Nami instantly transformed into her demon mode, shouting at Bai Ye with fangs out.
This guy... he wouldn't even give her 10,000 Berries willingly. He had to be the devil!
"Hahahaha, alright, alright, I'm just messing with you."
Seeing Nami's fur standing on end like a pissed-off cat, Bai Ye couldn't help but burst out laughing.
"Nami, why not join us? Be our navigator. Every treasure we get in the Straw Hat Crew, you'll get a cut."
He took the chance to extend the invitation again.
"Like I care!"
Nami rolled her eyes. "I already told you, the thing I hate most in this world is—"
"But we're not those kinds of pirates, are we?"
Bai Ye cut her off, speaking seriously:
"The sea is huge. And not all pirates are evil scumbags."
Then he glanced at her, meaningfully, and added:
"You've seen the dark side of the Marines yourself. You know what I mean, right?"
Somehow, when Nami looked into Bai Ye's deep eyes, she got this weird feeling... like he knew her secret.
The dark side of the Marines...
Of course Nami had seen it. If it weren't for that bastard Captain Nezumi protecting Arlong's crew, her village would've never...
But how would Bai Ye know about that?
Maybe she was just overthinking it.
Nami shook her head, assuming Bai Ye was talking about what she'd witnessed back in Shells Town.
"Even so…"
Just as she was about to say something, Bai Ye interrupted her again:
"By the way," he said, lifting the bundle in his hand, "Luffy already made a decision—he's giving half of the treasure we got from the Buggy Pirates to help rebuild the town."
"Luffy might seem reckless, but when it comes to certain things, he sees them surprisingly clearly."
Half the treasure...
Nami instinctively wanted to argue, but then she remembered it was Luffy, and somehow... it made sense.
Maybe... this pirate crew really is different?
Bai Ye wasn't making it up—Luffy really did do that in the original story.
But it's that same "money-is-whatever" attitude that made the Straw Hats broke all the damn time, even after beating powerful enemies one after another.
Now that Bai Ye had been reincarnated into this world, he wasn't about to let that happen.
Of course, that didn't mean stopping Luffy from spending money.
Luffy was the captain, after all. And helping people out wasn't something Bai Ye ever planned to say no to.
But if you want to build wealth, the key is simple: earn more, spend smart.
Bai Ye's role was to boost income. After taking down Buggy's crew and stealing their treasure, he still had to squeeze every last bit of value out of them.
I mean, come on—Buggy's bounty alone was 15 million Berries!
Over the next few days, word spread that Luffy and the others had defeated Buggy's pirates and were giving five million Berries to help the town rebuild.
The townspeople threw a multi-day celebration in honor of the Straw Hats.
During that time, Bai Ye also handled the handover of Buggy's gang with the arriving Marines from the 153rd Branch—and collected the full 15 million Berries in bounty money.
Thanks to that, Buggy and a captured Alvida—who in the original timeline would later team up and capture Luffy in Loguetown—were now locked up tight in Marine custody thanks to Bai Ye."
That also meant the Straw Hat crew's funds had just skyrocketed. "Between the previous 7 million, the crew's 5 million share from Buggy's treasure, and the 2 million Berries Nami reluctantly conceded from her personal haul..."
They were just about to hit 30 million Berries.
Yep, in Bai Ye's eyes, Nami was already a future crew member—so her money was the crew's money.
Speaking of which, Nami had nearly 100 million Berries stashed back in her hometown, didn't she?
In the original story, that all got stolen by Captain Nezumi. But now that Bai Ye was around, that definitely wasn't happening.
Which meant the crew's funds were about to explode tenfold! Just thinking about it got him kinda hyped.
If Nami could hear Bai Ye's thoughts right now, she'd probably scream:
"You're a devil, you bastard!!"
A few days later, at Orange Town's port, Mayor Boodle and the little dog Chouchou led the villagers to the dock.
They all bowed deeply toward the departing pirate ship with four people aboard.
"Fair winds to you! Straw Hat kid, and all your friends!!"
"Whoa, so this is a map of the Grand Line, huh?"
Luffy sat at the front of the ship, looking at the chart Bai Ye had laid out for everyone, his eyes full of wonder.
"Yeah, it should be. There's nothing like this in the East Blue," Nami added, clearly confident—after all, she was the navigator.
"Alright then, with this, we can finally head for the Grand Line!" Luffy cheered, slapping his palm.
"You know, we really ought to get our own pirate ship soon," Zoro chimed in. He didn't care much either way, but now that he'd officially decided to be a pirate, having their own ship just made sense.
"Totally!!! We're pirates now, of course we need our own pirate ship!" Luffy shouted, clearly the most excited of the bunch.
"No problem, Luffy,"
Bai Ye turned and gave a small, confident smile. "Where we're going next, we just might run into someone who can build us one."
"....."