6 Chapter 6

Chapter 6: It Seems the Way the Golden Finger Recharges is Different from What I Thought

"I'm called Adrian Hart, but you can call me Adrian. And this is Tom."

"Oh, so your name is Adrian, young man," Uncle Goodman said, smilingly, looking at Tom. "Seems like this cat means a lot to you. Any other person might have eaten it after being hungry for so long."

"Meow!!!" Tom's fur stood on end, and he seemed terrified that this person might actually eat him!

"Tom is an important companion to me," Adrian replied, gently smoothing down Tom's fur. "Uncle Goodman was just joking."

Tom rubbed against Adrian's face and then hid behind his neck, covertly observing.

"Haha, sorry for scaring you, clever little cat," Uncle Goodman laughed heartily, not showing any surprise at Tom's intelligence.

There were many intelligent animals in this world; a simple example being the diligent delivery seagulls, not only carrying heavy bundles of newspapers across the sea but also calculating and collecting payments based on the number of papers.

"So, Adrian, what are your plans from here on?"

"I... plan to find a restaurant or something and do some work to earn some money for food," Adrian replied, his stomach rumbling audibly.

Tom's belly echoed with a similar noise, as if it was infected, and he seemed to lose his grip on Adrian's clothing all of a sudden, his claws seemingly losing strength. The whole cat flowed down Adrian's shoulder like a liquid and settled into his arms.

"How about you both rest at my place for a bit?" Uncle Goodman offered.

"Is that okay?"

"No problem at all. I might not be wealthy, but providing some food won't be an issue."

"I meant, why would you help us like this? What if I were a bad person?"

"You don't look like a bad person, young man. And besides, don't you worry; even if I look like this, I can take on ten guys like you!" Goodman flexed his muscles, laughing, "If anyone should be worried, it's you!"

Adrian believed him. Goodman's arms were thicker than Adrian's legs, and his height seemed to be over two meters. In front of him, Adrian's 1.8 meters tall stature couldn't even qualify as a little brother.

Tom's belly growled again, and Adrian glanced at him sympathetically. He nodded and said, "Thank you, Uncle Goodman."

"That's the spirit! A man should be decisive, not hesitating like that. Thinking back to when I was young, no matter if it was work or anything else, once I set my mind to it..."

Goodman continued reminiscing about his youthful days, recounting his heroic deeds, as he led Adrian.

So, besides knowing where Goodman lived, Adrian also learned how Goodman had become the most outstanding shipwright among people his age on the whole of Island 59 when he was 24 years old.

He learned how Goodman had become a foreman at 30, and had married a virtuous wife. He even got to know that he had a lively son at 35.

Goodman also mentioned the name of the world's number one shipwright, Tom, who was apparently building a sea train. But because Tom had built ships for the Pirate King, he had been judged guilty by the World Government.

Talking about Pirate King Roger, Goodman complained for quite some time, blaming him for spreading the rumor about the great treasure before he died. In recent years, many young people had been inspired to go to sea, thanks to Roger's words, and who knew how they were doing now.

What angered Goodman most was his 4-year-old son, Beir, who had been talking about becoming a Pirate King after hearing someone boasting about Pirate King Roger's achievements. When Beir got back home, he had shouted about wanting to become a Pirate King himself.

The result, of course, was that Goodman had given Beir a sound beating, and because he had been a bit too harsh, Goodman's wife Molly had complained about him for days.

After struggling to find a chance to interject, Adrian asked how long it had been since Roger's execution.

Goodman thought for a moment, "It's been about twelve years, right? I remember I was 28 at the time, just starting to date Molly. It really makes one nostalgic. Back then, we..."

Yeah, yeah, I already know how handsome and strong you were, and how sweet your relationship was...

Adrian was somewhat helpless. He hadn't expected that the seemingly tough Goodman would actually be so talkative. And every time he recounted his youth, Adrian felt like he was listening to Usopp speak.

Adrian followed Goodman, somewhat helplessly, as he calculated. He remembered that Luffy had set off to sea 22 years after Roger's death. That meant there were still ten years before the Straw Hat Pirates set sail. They were probably still a group of seven- or eight-year-old kids, right?

But that wasn't his concern at the moment. What was more important was whether there had been any significant events near Sabaody Archipelago recently.

He thought for a while and realized that besides Luffy causing a ruckus in the Tenryubito incident ten years later, there didn't seem to be any major trouble, right? So, there shouldn't be a risk of dying in some inexplicable battle with powerful enemies.

Currently, near Sabaody Archipelago, apart from the occasional visit from the World Nobles, there were occasional small-scale pirate disturbances, but most of the time, these happened in lawless zones.

He just needed to be cautious and avoid such places. Seeing how Uncle Goodman was, at least his family seemed to have not been raided by pirates.

And then, there was Silvers Rayleigh, known as the "Right Hand of the Pirate King" and "Dark King." He should be living in seclusion on this island. Going by his personality, he probably wouldn't bother the common folk.

Hopefully, the portrayal of him in the anime was accurate. Adrian could only hope for that.

So, as long as he was careful, there shouldn't be any danger in the short term. And then...

He needed to figure out how this golden finger worked quickly.

Adrian glanced at his left hand, slightly surprised. The energy seemed to have increased a bit after this short while.

[72%]

Although it was just 1% more, it had indeed increased.

Firstly, it couldn't be because of solar energy or wind power. Otherwise, he would have charged up back when he was stranded at sea.

Adrian pondered, considering what he had done from the moment he loaded the language package until now. He had only been walking, talking, and daydreaming.

He also hadn't held back in talking and daydreaming with Tom during the past few days, and he had experienced shock, fear, and happiness. It shouldn't be because of these factors.

So, considering the time before reaching the shore, when his energy had surged, he had been paddling vigorously. It was very likely that this thing was a pedometer. He thought back to the past few days; he had mostly been walking and talking with Tom. He recalled the energy surge he felt before he made it to shore, a time when he had been using a lot of effort to paddle

So, this thing was probably a pedometer, or perhaps a fitness tracker of sorts. It seemed that he needed to be active to recharge it.

Afterwards, he would have to verify this properly!

Adrian made an initial judgment. Uncle Goodman's chattering seemed to have temporarily come to an end.

"We're almost there. The street up ahead, the second house, is mine."

Adrian looked in the direction that Goodman was pointing. They were still within the confines of Island 59.

Goodman's house was a two-story building, with nothing special about the first floor, while the second floor was a spherical structure.

Not just Goodman's house, but many of the buildings around had a spherical structure on top, as if that was the architectural trend of this generation.

Adrian wasn't well-versed in architecture, but he felt that it resembled some country, but he couldn't pin down which one.

As for Tom, his thoughts were purely focused on food. If there was food to eat, even the cat-eating Uncle Goodman didn't seem that scary anymore.