“New system functionality”

"Do you know him?" asked Yosano.

" Of course, I do when he was a regular marine in the West Blue, that name caused terror among the pirates. He was a very famous bounty hunter and a very skilled swordsman, however, he made a mistake when he took a pirate he captured to the marine base" replied Lego.

"What mistake did he make?" asked Yosano curious.

"He killed the pirate with bounty, the Marine in most cases prefers the pirate to be alive. If they kill him the bounty hunters can lose up to 30% of the bounty" said Lego.

"Tsch how picky, they do their job and put those terms" said Yosano with disdain.

"Cof... how I was telling them, the thing is that Hiroshi didn't like at all to be discounted money, so he ended up killing several marines and managed to escape from the base miraculously, after that he was taken as a criminal and had a bounty on his head" said Lego finishing telling the whole story.

"He became a wanted criminal and ended up joining the auction house in the underworld" commented Ralph.

"I didn't know that whole story... By the way how much was his bounty?" asked Treasure curious.

"42,000,000 berries, that was a few years ago, so his strength might have increased" replied Lego.

*A little more than Red Dragon...* thought Tesoro, he remembered his fight with Fidelma and it was very easy, even though this pirate had a bounty of 14,000,000 berries it wasn't difficult at all to defeat her. He could even do it with one hand tied.

"That fat girl was very weak, I don't think a bounty of that figure would be a problem" commented Yosano, by fat, she was referring to Fidelma the vice-captain of the Red Dragon pirates.

While Tesoro, Yosano, Lego, and Ralph were talking about their next plans, Ramses together with Bob, Dom, Ed, and Gus were delivering food to the slaves with smiling faces.

In addition to the meat, they were making soup as Lego, and the others came prepared to feed the slaves.

"Come, get your plate there's plenty for everyone!" said Bob with a smile.

A long line formed and they started handing out the food to everyone, all the slaves here were no older than 20 years old. Their ages ranged from 8 to 20 years old.

*They are giving us food...* thought the pink-haired girl who was saved earlier by Yosano.

Next to her were the other 4 girls who belonged to the same village that was attacked and destroyed by the Red Dragon pirates.

She was captured a few weeks ago, it was a normal day in her village when suddenly a pirate attack started. They destroyed and looted the village completely and left only the young ones alive, as she heard that adults and elders were not sold at a good price.

Her home, her parents, her grandparents everything was destroyed by the pirates, the only support she had left were her childhood friends who were also captured to be sold as slaves. Living as a slave made her think it would have been better to have died in the attack.

Her life became hell and it had only just begun, when she thought it would only get worse every day, this group of people saved her and all the slaves the pirates captured.

No one knew who they were, they didn't seem like bad people since they freed them from handcuffs and chains. Besides, they treated them very well and were now giving them food.

*They don't have the marine uniform...* thought the pink-haired girl.

After a few minutes, all the slaves were eating and sitting on the grass, despite being a cold day and having rags of clothes nobody cared and they had much better expressions than before.

Some were eating alone as they didn't know anyone and others were eating with their group as they were captured in the same village.

"Hello everyone! Sorry for interrupting you all while you're eating, but I must tell you something" said a voice in a high tone for everyone to hear, it was Lego.

All the slaves turned their heads and looked cautiously and somewhat afraid at Lego, they still didn't know who the people who saved them were, so they were still afraid.

"Don't be afraid" Lego said noticing the looks on the slaves' faces, "We are not slave traders, or anything like that. I have a proposal for them, they can follow us and start a new life on an island that is starting to develop or they can return to their homes if they wish" Lego added.

The slaves looked at their group and began to whisper, "We are not leaving yet, so they have time to decide. If you decide to follow us approach this man and tell him your names. Another thing stay near the factory area, Red Dragon and his pirates will be back, we will leave once we defeat him" Lego said pointing to Ramses, then returned with Treasure and others.

From a backpack, Lego took out a notebook and a pen and passed it to Ramses.

"Ramses you will stay here, all of us will go to the port where the ship is, we will see which is the best place to make an ambush" said Lego to which Ramses nodded.

After that they started heading to the port, to find out when Red Dragon would arrive and make a surprise attack on him.

"Oh look who woke up" said Yosano looking towards a tree.

They all looked towards the tree, there was tied Fidelma, the vice-captain of the Red Dragon Pirates. She was a fat, short, and very ugly woman. Her eyes were very small and when she saw Yosano she trembled with fear.

"D-don't kill me! I told you everything you wanted to know!" shrieked Fidelma in fear as she saw Yosano approaching and slowly unsheathing her sword.

"You like torturing children you fat bitch!" said Yosano angrily as she slit her throat, although she had not seen it as she was busy torturing the pirates, Tesoro told her what Fidelma was doing before their fight.

Tesoro told her this because Yosano asked him personally before she started torturing Fidelma, as she wanted to feel anger towards the pirate and be able to torture her effectively.

Yosano wiped her sword with the grass, put it away in its scabbard, and turned back to Lego and the others.

"It's a pity we can't claim her reward" commented Tesoro as he walked.

"Yeah, it would be nice to get money out of the marine" nodded Yosano for the first time in agreement with Tesoro.

"Maybe... Can we send someone they don't know to claim it? And then have them deliver it to us" suggested Ralph.

"It would be too dangerous, but I'll tell Yamamoto about it later" said Lego.

If they manage somehow they could steal money from the marine right under his nose.

Many kilometers away, Yamamoto was traveling to Elbaf and was again interrupted by the system, while he was quietly meditating.

*Have they defeated Red Dragon yet?" thought Yamamoto as he opened his eyes.

[Ding! A subordinate just killed an evil pirate with a reward of 10,000,000 to 20,000,000 berries! You are rewarded with 1 skill point and 100 merits!]

*What...?* Yamamoto thought in surprise.

He didn't think he'd come across such a message, he had imagined that they already defeated Red Dragon and it was the reward message for saving the slaves.

1 skill point and 100 merit points were not much, but it was better than nothing.

*Following that logic, if Tesoro or someone else, kills a 20,000,000 to 30,000,000 pirate, will I gain back skill and merit points? And so on?* thought Yamamoto scratching his beard.

If the message had told him the exact reward of the person they killed he wouldn't have had this thought, but it seems he can get ascending rewards as long as his subordinates kill pirates with higher rewards.

*Most likely if they kill a pirate worth between 10,000,000 to 20,000,000 berries now I won't get any bounty* thought Yamamoto.

He knew that the Red Dragon had a reward of 35,000,000 berries, so following this logic, it should be between 30,000,000 to 40,000,000.

*If I killed Red Dragon, will the system reward me?" thought Yamamoto with doubt, all the answers he came up with were "no". He had killed a Marine Counter Admiral who was much more powerful than a 20,000,000 bounty pirate and he only got 2 skill points and 200 merit points.

Even the vice admirals he killed had given him only 3 skill points and 300 merit points. Maybe this is because pirates commit evil acts, whereas marines are supposed to want to do good.

*Everything indicates that the system wants my subordinates to do the job for me...* thought Yamamoto with a strange expression on his face.

Yamamoto put these thoughts aside and closed his eyes to meditate again. When you capture other pirates you will have a better understanding of how this works.