OPTC Chapter 211 Big News
After Brook returned, he followed Zhang Da Ye's advice and took down the Rumbar Pirates' flag to use as a keepsake when he reunited with Laboon. He sealed it inside his skull along with the Tone Dial.
After all, he was now nothing but a skeleton, and aside from his afro, he looked completely different. His biggest worry was that Laboon wouldn't recognize him. The more keepsakes he had, the better.
As for the ship, Brook gave it to the people of the Victims' Association. After a few repairs, it would be enough for them to leave this place.
That afternoon, everyone gathered on the deck of the Amber, enjoying a rare moment of leisure with afternoon tea. After being at sea for so long, they had finally docked—and even fought a big battle—so they decided to rest for a day before sailing again tomorrow morning.
Some played cards, others read books. Only Zhang Da Ye sat at a small table, frowning, pen and paper in hand, scratching his head as he worked on Perona's education plan.
He was serious about reforming her, but it was proving to be mentally exhausting.
Tom and Rui Meng Meng came out of the cabin, each carrying trays and handing everyone a drink.
Perona got hers and poked at the juice with a straw, muttering under her breath, "Why is it juice? I want hot cocoa."
"You can," Zhang Da Ye said, sliding a piece of paper in front of her. "Just memorize this, and I'll give you a cup of hot cocoa."
"What is this?" Perona looked at the title and read aloud, word by word. "Elementary School Rules? Why should I memorize this!"
"This took me a lot of effort to write," Zhang Da Ye replied, leaning back in his chair with relief after sipping his juice. Since such old rules didn't exist anymore, he had to patch them together from memory. It would serve as Perona's first lesson.
If every child could follow these rules, there wouldn't be so many unruly kids in the world.
It was probably unrealistic to expect Perona to do all of it, but at least memorizing them might have some effect.
"In short, memorize it and you can drink hot cocoa every day. If you don't…" Zhang Da Ye paused, realizing scaring a child wasn't the best approach. He then smirked, "Well, if you can't even memorize this little thing, maybe the Ghost Princess is just a dummy?"
Perona puffed her cheeks angrily. "You're the dummy! Fine, I'll memorize it!"
She said that, but her eyes darted about. Lord Moria never made me memorize things like this. Hmph, I'll just run away tonight.
She had already tried to escape once and failed. She hadn't expected a group of strange monsters to be staring at a hole in the deck. The moment she slipped out, she was caught.
She had to pretend she was just out for a walk, but then she saw the adorable cat shove the monsters aside, and with a hammer and saw, quickly repaired the hole.
This was a cat who was not only cute but could cook and fix ships. Tonight, should she take the little cat with her when she ran away?
The thought made Perona giggle to herself as she pictured scooping up Tom while he slept.
Zhang Da Ye tilted his head in confusion. Was memorizing elementary school rules really that amusing?
…
Not everyone was as carefree as Zhang Da Ye's group. After celebrating in the morning, some members of the Victims' Association sailed away in the afternoon.
They used the ships they had owned before being captured. Since Moria encouraged shadowless people to leave, he hadn't destroyed their ships. After all, keeping them on the island only irritated him further.
Most left directly, while a few chose to repair Brook's ship and depart together. An even smaller group stayed behind, hoping to search for Moria's hidden treasure.
For those leaving, Zhang Da Ye asked Jin Erpeng to check whether they raised pirate flags when they set sail. Since they hadn't, he didn't interfere further. He had no way of knowing who was good or evil, and only hoped they would go home peacefully without hurting innocent people again.
With the first group gone, the news of Moria's death began spreading across the seas.
Especially thanks to a man carrying a camera and a few valuable photos who happened to run into a News Bird as he left the Devil's Triangle. By tomorrow, the news of Moria's death would be in print.
But even before that, others had noticed changes—the people whose shadows had been stolen by Moria.
When they prepared to sleep at dawn, they suddenly saw their reflections in the mirror again. Ever since losing their shadows, they hadn't been able to appear in mirrors or sunlight. To avoid the sun, they had shifted to a nocturnal lifestyle, always washing up and going to bed before sunrise.
This morning, they were shocked to see their shadows had returned. Ecstatic, all traces of fatigue vanished. Ignoring the toothpaste still at the corners of their mouths, they rushed outside to bask in the sunlight.
On this day, those who had lost their shadows cheered and celebrated, thanking the unknown heroes who had freed them.
But once the excitement settled, questions arose. Did someone defeat the zombies to release their shadows? Or… was Moria himself defeated?
Still, since Moria hadn't stolen shadows on a wide enough scale, the impact overseas was limited. The news didn't cause an uproar, but the victims and their families celebrated the entire day until exhaustion claimed them at night.
Meanwhile, Morgans, head of the World Economic News, was far from sleepy. Nicknamed "Big News," he had been bored to death with the lack of any real headlines lately.
Now finally, a Warlord of the Sea had died. Morgans clenched his wings into fists and pounded them together. "Good riddance!"
He was the user of the Bird-Bird Fruit, Model: Albatross, and usually appeared in bird form to avoid retaliation for the enemies he made through his reporting.
Excited, Morgans examined the photos and report brought back by the News Bird. With a flap of his wings, he barked orders: "Notify everyone—overtime tonight! Replace the front page with this story, and print it all night long!"
Still, he was a somewhat considerate boss. "Double pay for overtime tonight. And someone bring me two buckets of popcorn."
Morgans loved popcorn most of all. He wanted to enjoy it while going through the thrilling photos and the rough but explosive news draft again and again.
No one really knew Morgans' true face. It always felt like when he revealed it, it would be a shocking surprise.
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