Chapter 139: Who Dares to Fool Lord Buggy?
In the end,
Mihawk chose two items: [Sword Seed] and [Jade Light Sword Technique], deciding to follow the path of a fantasy-style swordsman.
Greedy ambitions lead to wasted effort.
Even if sword paths appear similar at the start, the deeper they go, the more they diverge. Pursuing too many at once would only waste time.
"Thank you very much."
Mihawk removed his feathered hat and gave a slight, respectful bow.
His pride was reserved for weaklings like Don Krieg. Before someone like the Game Merchant, he still carried his pride, but showed sincere recognition and respect.
"A friendly reminder—if your gear and items aren't soul-bound quickly, they'll be locked."
Mihawk thought of something important and asked, "Mr. Fang Yi, are there many more contracts like this one?"
The earlier contract, which looked like a Devil Fruit, had floated to him on the sea.
It would be too much of a coincidence if there were only one in the entire ocean.
Fang Yi nodded with a smile. "Of course. I've scattered tens of thousands of contracts across the East Blue. Not everyone will complete their missions, but the game will soon have several thousand new players."
"Even though you're the strongest swordsman in the real world, if you don't work hard… you might be surpassed by younger generations."
Hearing the implication in Fang Yi's words, Mihawk didn't look worried—in fact, his eyes lit up with interest.
He smirked. "That would be perfect."
"That's the curse of the sword path. The peak is narrow. If someone can surpass my swordsmanship—even if it means stepping over my corpse—I'd bless them for it."
That was his true belief.
The arrival of the Samsara Game would reignite the stagnant seas. Countless new swordmasters would rise.
In the end, who would be the whetstone, and who would be the true swordsman—no one could say.
"Hahahahaha…"
With a deep bow, Mihawk turned and left.
Fang Yi watched his departing figure with a smile, then placed Mihawk's debt note back onto the shelf.
"Master,"
Afu appeared mid-air beside him, reporting, "Two hundred contracts have already been activated. About half of the people who found them failed their missions. Isn't that a bit too hard?"
If one ignored the rice ball she was munching on—made of freshly manifested water meat—and her fluffy white hair and big round eyes, Afu looked exactly like a fairy from a magical world.
"Too hard?"
Fang Yi snatched her snack and took a bite—it really was delicious. "If someone can't even complete a contract quest, then they'd just be a waste of source energy as a player."
The difficulty of contract quests scales with the strength of the person who finds it.
But there is both an upper and lower limit.
Take Koby, for example—his quest required him to defeat Alvida. That was the minimum difficulty to receive a reward.
No matter how weak Koby was, the contract would never assign him a joke quest like "eat a meal," "drink water," or "sweep the deck."
For Mihawk, the upper limit was destroying Don Krieg's fleet. That's as far as the contract would go.
It would never assign him something ridiculous like "defeat the Gorosei."
Fang Yi scoffed, "In the ninja world, there's an uncrossable chasm between civilians and ninjas. Chakra ensures civilians can never challenge them."
"But in the Pirate World, you've got Whitebeard, whose fists can cause tsunamis, and Crocodile, who can destroy countries…"
"But you've also got gaps that can be bridged—like poorly trained Marines, and bounty hunters from Baroque Works."
As long as you have ambition and smarts, even an ordinary person can find a way to complete a contract.
Just like Koby, who managed to defeat a pirate only slightly stronger than the average thug.
If someone can't even manage that, it's better they don't become a player at all.
"Oh…"
Afu nodded vaguely, a little discouraged.
She was supposed to be the will of the world, and yet her role seemed meaningless. Even if she disappeared, it wouldn't slow Fang Yi's progress at all. The feeling of uselessness stung.
"Reality proves it—whether it's the weak Koby or the world's greatest swordsman Mihawk, neither could resist the allure of the Samsara Game."
Fang Yi was very satisfied with the result.
When faced with the power to change fate, the correct response was to charge ahead without hesitation.
Not like those ninja world players, who wasted valuable time trying to gather intel and await orders from their villages.
Now came the waiting game.
Once the contracts spread and their effects grew, some major powers would definitely take action.
Suddenly,
Fang Yi sensed several contracts brushing up against beings with powerful source energy.
He waved a hand, and a dynamic map of the East Blue appeared on the table.
The green dots scattered across the map were all the contracts he had released, acting like radar—pinging nearby lifeforms.
"Orange Town?"
Fang Yi's eyes landed on one corner of the East Blue map.
Several contracts had come into contact with high-source individuals—something interesting was sure to happen.
...
East Blue – Orange Town
"FIRE THE CANNONS!"
A clown-nosed pirate roared in fury.
Buggy, captain of the Buggy Pirates, was livid.
Nearby, his trembling crew loaded cannonballs capable of leveling a town—Buggy Balls—into their weapons as quickly as possible.
BOOM.
A deafening explosion tore a wide trench through the center of Orange Town.
As the smoke cleared—
Four strange-looking fruits lay in the trench left by the Buggy Ball.
"Hurry!"
"Get them to me—NOW!"
Seeing the fruits, Buggy rubbed his eyes in disbelief. As he shouted, one of his arms detached and flew toward the fruits.
No doubt about it.
Devil Fruits. Four of them!
Buggy felt like he was dreaming.
He'd only come to loot Orange Town and hadn't expected much—the villagers had fled long before he arrived.
The town was a ghost town.
He had fully expected to leave empty-handed—only to stumble upon four Devil Fruits by sheer luck.
In truth,
the fruits had floated ashore with fish and nets. Villagers had hauled them home, but before they could even untangle them, they fled from Buggy's arrival.
The fish were blown to mush by the explosion.
Only the fruits, protected by the Samsara Game's rules, remained untouched.
"One Devil Fruit is worth at least 100 million berries… I just made 400 million for free!"
His floating arm clutched all four fruits and returned to Buggy's rooftop perch, reintegrating with his body perfectly.
"Eh...?"
Buggy froze.
One of the fruits in his hands split open, revealing glowing contract text.
He tossed it away—
Only for another fruit to crack open, revealing more text.
One after another.
Buggy's face darkened. He shouted and stomped his foot, "WHO DARES TO FOOL LORD BUGGY!?"
They weren't Devil Fruits. They were fakes!
His gaze turned murderous as he scanned the area, terrifying his crew into bowing their heads.
"Nami! If you want to join the Buggy Pirates, you must kill your former captain!"
Having found a scapegoat,
Buggy turned his fury on someone—pointing at the man locked in a cage.
A straw hat on his head, red vest on his chest, sandals on his feet—he looked like a farm boy.
The cage was solid rock on top and bottom, surrounded by thick iron bars—no normal person could escape.
Inside,
Luffy had his face squished against the bars, arms reaching through the gap.
One hand grabbed one of the discarded fake Devil Fruits. Without hesitation, he shoved it into his mouth.
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