[Pick-up items detected. Do you want to collect them?]
"Yes."
[Ding! Successfully collected: Ordinary Physique Crystals ×18, Excellent Physique Crystal ×1, Ordinary Soul Crystals ×18, Excellent Soul Crystal ×1, Ordinary Kendo Crystals ×8, Excellent Kendo Crystal ×1, Ordinary Taijutsu Crystals ×15, Ordinary Talent Crystals ×12, Excellent Talent Crystal ×1. All items have been stored in your portable inventory.]
—
Nineteen pirates in total had yielded this impressive haul.
What astonished Kairos Flint most was that Captain Belluc himself had dropped an excellent-grade talent crystal. That tier corresponded to Lieutenant-level talent—the fifth tier. Clearly, Belluc's potential hadn't been bad at all.
A pity, really. Talent is only potential. Die too soon, and you never get to prove it. With that kind of aptitude, Belluc might one day have reached Captain tier—if he hadn't crossed Kairos's path first.
Nami walked over, sounding half-impressed, half-incredulous. "I didn't think you'd actually wipe out the Great Sword Pirates."
She flashed a quick grin. "You must be swimming in cash now—the bounty on this crew alone tops six million Berries."
Kairos rolled his eyes. "No need to sound me out. I said every last Berry of bounty money and treasure would be yours, and I meant it. I keep my word."
She'd clearly mentioned the figure just to gauge his reaction—testing whether he'd try to claim the reward for himself. After all, he was the one who had single-handedly carved through the pirates; with strength like that, Nami couldn't force the issue if he decided to keep the money.
"Fine, fine—just checking," she said with an awkward smile. Testing was one thing; getting caught doing it was a touch embarrassing.
She headed off to deal with the bodies. The gore made her stomach twist, but eight years of storms and blood on the high seas had hardened her nerves. If enduring a bit of nausea meant pocketing a fortune, she could cope.
A while later—just as Kairos was catching his breath—the captain of the passenger ship hurried over. Someone had untied him and the other hostages, and now he approached their savior.
"Sir, you have our deepest gratitude," Captain Gracie said, bowing. "Everyone aboard chipped in for this—please accept it."
In both hands he offered a fat bundle of Berries.
Kairos glanced at the man, then took the cash.
He'd landed in this world with nothing, and he'd already learned the misery of having an empty wallet. Half a million Berries wasn't a king's ransom, but it was a solid stake. Bel-mer had raised two girls on just a hundred thousand Berries of savings; five times that wasn't small change.
A sudden thought struck him.
How was it that I understand the currency and language here without effort? He, a literal dimensional traveler, hadn't encountered a single language barrier.
There was only one plausible answer.
Must be the golden finger's doing, Kairos mused. Handy little perk.
He didn't dwell on it: if time travel and game-style power-ups could exist, auto-translation didn't seem so outlandish.
Nami took her time sorting the bodies. She kept every corpse that carried an official bounty tag; the rest she ordered tossed overboard for the fish. A few willing passengers helped under her direction, speeding things along.
When she finally rejoined Kairos, she clutched an overstuffed pouch.
"I cleaned out their ship," she announced. "Total take is three million Berries. Here's one-and-a-half million—an even split." She pushed a fat wad into his hand.
Kairos blinked. "What's your angle?"
He'd already promised her all the money. Her sudden generosity didn't fit the Nami he'd come to know. Either she'd hit her goal already or she wanted something else.
"So generous all of a sudden? Did you hit your head?"
"The combined bounty on the bodies is six million Berries," she said airily. "I'm satisfied. So I'm giving you a fair share."
"The more you talk, the less I believe. Out with it. If you've got a request, spit it out now."
Nami sighed. Subtlety clearly wasn't going to work.
"Do you—" she hesitated, then squared her shoulders—"do you have any interest in becoming a bounty hunter?"