Who am I?
Where am I?
What am I even doing!?
At the Golden Port, Carina stared blankly as the wealthy nobles and elites she had personally judged to be "high-potential clients" now behaved as if they had all gone insane. One after another, they frantically pulled out their money and valuables, handing them over to the treasure-collecting zombies, then boarded their ships without a single backward glance and fled the Entertainment City...
At that moment, Carina felt as though her entire worldview had ascended to a whole new level.
When would she ever be able to reach a point where, with just a look, she could make others willingly hand over their money—while still looking grateful to have survived the ordeal?
"So in the end, power really is the best tool for creating wealth~"
A faint bitter smile appeared on the lips of the ever-clever Carina as she muttered helplessly, envious and jealous all at once.
What she did not expect, however, was that despite how softly she had spoken, Moria, standing beside her, still heard every word.
"That's right! In this world, only power is real!"
"Those who possess power can obtain everything this world has to offer!"
"So, Miss Carina, still haven't made your decision yet!?"
"Even though the Moonlight Pirates are only one part of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, you should be able to tell that even among the many monsters in the Straw Hat Pirates, we still count as top-tier experts!"
"Your talents definitely won't be wasted with us!"
"Ah... well..."
Carina parted her lips in surprise, flattered beyond expectation.
Although this was not the first time she had heard Moria invite her, the sudden chain of events had still left her mind struggling to properly process the current situation.
At this moment, a short while had already passed since Moria defeated Gild Tesoro.
After Carina agreed to help Moria control the Entertainment City and sail it toward the Pokémon Sea, the two sides had officially entered into a cooperative relationship.
And with the intention of learning more about this friend of Nami's, Moria had also spoken with Carina for a while.
Perhaps because Moria's overwhelming strength had intimidated her, after learning that he was treating her so differently because of Nami, Carina's emotions became strangely complicated.
Though among the bizarre and powerful monsters that made up the Straw Hat Pirates, Nami was not exactly the most dazzling figure, Carina had never once neglected to keep track of news about this old friend.
But now, their identities were worlds apart—one in the heavens, one on the earth.
As a high-ranking officer of the Straw Hat Pirates, Nami was already a great figure capable of influencing the course of the world, while Carina herself was still just a thief drifting between major powers, stealing money wherever she could.
At best, with a nicer way of putting it, she was no more than a beautiful phantom thief.
"I'm sorry, Lord Moria. Everything has happened far too suddenly. Please allow me some time to think it over carefully."
In the end, Carina did not directly reject Moria's invitation.
Having walked the world alone for many years, even making her way to Tesoro's side, she had long since grown used to living alone and doubting everything.
To suddenly choose to join another force—to undergo such an abrupt change in identity—was not something she could decide lightly.
After all, the Moonlight Pirates served under Straw Hat.
If she accepted the invitation, then she could no longer deal with Moria and the others the same way she had dealt with Tesoro.
The stakes were completely different.
More importantly...
From her brief conversation with Moria, the intelligent Carina had also realized that the information Moria and the others had about her did not seem to have come from Nami.
In other words, Nami might have already forgotten someone like her existed.
Especially since during their last collaboration, they had essentially parted without saying goodbye.
Although Carina believed that Nami—whose intelligence was second only to her own—would surely understand why she had betrayed her back then, so many years had passed. Who knew what it would be like when they finally met again?
So in the end, she would make her decision only after she truly entered the Pokémon Sea.
For all the current bustling trade, with countless ships coming and going every day, that was still the territory of the strongest pirate crew in the world—the domain of the Pirate Emperor Sovereign, the Straw Hat crew.
For someone like Carina, whose profession naturally came with ill intent, she simply did not have the courage to approach the Pokémon Sea on her own.
Now that she had this chance, she fully intended to take a good look around.
After all... it was the sea that shared its name with the wildly popular virtual game Pokémon World, and also the birthplace of Pokémon World itself. She had long wanted to travel there.
It was just a pity that her talent as a Trainer was not all that great, and the potential of her first Pokémon was not especially outstanding either, so she had never entertained the idea of participating in the Indigo Conference to fight for the reward of becoming the strongest Trainer.
In the blink of an eye, two days passed.
Under Moria's coercive might, not a single tourist in the Entertainment City escaped. Every last one of them was forced to present a substantial amount of wealth and treasure to the Moonlight Pirates before they were allowed to leave this city that had terrified them for so long.
Only a few who had trade relations with merchant guilds under the Straw Hat Pirates, and who could provide proof or documentation, received leniency from Moria and the others and were allowed to leave without surrendering any wealth.
And because of that, those people connected to Straw Hat felt an overwhelming sense of superiority.
After learning that they did not have to pay "life-buying money," many of them even took the initiative to help the Moonlight Pirates collect other people's wealth.
The enthusiasm they showed for the task far exceeded even that of the zombies Moria had dispatched.
Judging by their expressions, this work seemed even more satisfying than rampaging through the Entertainment City for fun.
Even though just moments ago, they had been victims themselves.
The diversity of human nature was on full display at that moment.
...
...
Across the surging sea.
The ostentatious Entertainment City shone brilliantly, its lights dazzling like neon as it traveled through the dim ocean.
It had to be said—Carina truly was capable.
Relying solely on her own abilities, she had actually managed to control this special ship, comparable in size to a small island, and sail it normally across the sea.
It had to be known that the Entertainment City was different from Moria's former Thriller Bark.
Though Thriller Bark had also been a small island, its method of movement still relied on an old-fashioned sail-driven system, moving with the wind.
Tesoro's Entertainment City, however, thanks to massive investments of money, had long since upgraded its power system and adopted a modern electronic navigation system.
For Carina, in such a short amount of time, not only to locate Tesoro's treasury but also to master an entire ship-control system like this...
Her intelligence was unquestionably top-tier.
And that was precisely why Moria valued her so highly and wanted to recruit her.
Because their pirate crew truly seemed to be lacking someone who could serve as a strategist.
At the moment, Moria had a problem that was giving him an enormous headache.
Originally, Red had sent him to deal with Tesoro because he wanted to test the power of Pluton.
But after obtaining intelligence on Tesoro, his men, and the Entertainment City, Moria had simply brought his subordinates and zombies and steamrolled the entire place with ease.
On top of that, there were so many innocent tourists on the island that there had been no opportunity at all for Pluton to show its might.
So...
Where were they supposed to find a place next where they could fire a shot and properly demonstrate the power of Pluton?
He had been so focused on showing off in front of everyone and swiftly crushing Tesoro—a man whose influence had once surpassed even his own—that he had completely forgotten the true objective of this trip.
And really, this was all Tesoro's fault.
The bastard's methods had truly been no more than what the intelligence reports had described.
With the slightest bit of caution, everything had collapsed straight away. He was just too weak, wasn't he!?
With strength like that, how had he ever managed to control the lifeblood of the world economy!?
Moria clearly remembered that before the Straw Hat Pirates had fully risen to power, this guy supposedly controlled not 12% of the world's wealth, but 20%!
So this brat really had clawed his way up by acting like a dog for the Celestial Dragons, hadn't he!?
"..."
Inside the cabin of Pluton, Moria sat in the captain's room he had chosen for himself. After thinking for a long while, he finally opened the Personal Terminal on his wrist and sent out a voice message.
"Perona, come here for a moment!"
Whoosh!
Less than a minute later, Perona, in ghost form, floated straight through the wall and appeared before Moria.
"Lord Moria, you called for me?"
"Mm." Moria nodded, a rare trace of worry appearing on his arrogant, broad face.
After hesitating for a moment, he finally said:
"From the looks of it, the surrounding sea should be fairly calm for now. Go to the Entertainment City and bring Carina over."
"From the way she looks, she probably still hasn't made up her mind, but sometimes you really do need someone smart at your side."
"Uh~"
Not knowing what exactly Moria was worried about, Perona's face instantly stiffened.
She might not be especially clever, but even she could hear the hidden meaning in Moria's words.
Lord Moria seemed to be saying... that their brains weren't very useful!?
What a joke!
The ones with bad brains were obviously those two idiots who spent all year mixing around with zombies.
Her, Perona's, brain worked perfectly well!
Of course, despite considering herself quite intelligent, Perona had no intention of arguing with Moria over something like this.
After agreeing, her body immediately floated up toward the ceiling as she went to carry out Moria's order.
Not long afterward, Carina, having come over from the Entertainment City, cautiously knocked on the door to Moria's captain's room.
Only after hearing the response, "Come in," did she step inside.
To be honest, having made it as far as she had in life, her experience was far from shallow.
But after boarding Pluton—this Ancient Weapon—she was still deeply shaken.
Over the past two days, reports concerning Moria and Pluton had already spread wildly across the seas.
Naturally, Carina had heard about it as well.
"I never imagined that one day I'd be able to leave my footprints on the deck of the Ancient Weapon Pluton."
Pushing open the door, Carina smiled and joked lightly.
Hearing this, a trace of pride also flashed through Moria's eyes.
"Kishishishi! If you join the Moonlight Pirates, then you could even have your own private room aboard Pluton."
"That does sound rather tempting~" Carina revealed a longing expression, but then immediately asked,
"So, Lord Moria, why did you have Miss Perona bring me here?"
"This..."
Once the conversation turned to business, Moria also put away his smile and turned serious.
Then, without caring about the pride or dignity of the strong, he honestly told Carina everything that had been troubling him.
And after hearing Moria's concerns, Carina was deeply shaken inside.
So this... was the world of the strong!?
Just to make it onto trending headlines once, they were actually considering bombarding an island with cannon fire?
Such an outrageous idea was beyond the comprehension of a mere little thief like her.
But that being said, since Moria had specifically called her over, then regardless of right or wrong, she had to offer some opinion of her own.
"Given the current state of the world, this really is a troublesome problem," Carina said with a slight furrow of her brow. Yet it did nothing to diminish her beauty. If anything, the thoughtful expression added an extra touch of elite feminine charm to her.
"As things stand now, all the territories once controlled by the former Big Mom Pirates and Beasts Pirates in the New World have already submitted to the Straw Hat Pirates. They're all our own people now, so naturally we can't use those places as targets."
"And as you said, Lord Moria, Whitebeard and Red-Haired Shanks both have deep ties with the Straw Hat Pirates, so we obviously can't set our sights on the seas under their control either."
"In that case, the only forces still qualified to be enemies of the Straw Hat Pirates would seem to be the World Government and the few nations under its command."
"But if it's only for the sake of testing Pluton's power, and an entire country's population has to die for it, then that's a bit..."
At that point, Carina raised her head slightly, somewhat worried that Moria might actually choose that path.
After all, Moria was still a pirate. Who knew whether he might disregard civilian lives for the sake of displaying his power?
Fortunately, after hearing her suggestion, Moria simply waved his hand.
"The great people of the Straw Hat Pirates aren't the kind to slaughter indiscriminately. If they ever found out I'd done something like that, I wouldn't even be able to keep my life."
"So there's no need to consider that proposal."
"That makes sense. Otherwise, Lord Moria wouldn't have specifically called me here."
Carina let out a sigh of relief, while at the same time becoming even more stunned by the Straw Hat Pirates' power.
Even someone as strong as Moria held them in such deep awe and fear.
And from what he implied, if the Straw Hat Pirates wanted to deal with him, it would not be difficult at all.
Terrifying.
No wonder they were the pirate crew powerful enough to completely change the world's structure in just over two years.
After hesitating briefly, Carina spoke again:
"If killing innocents is out of the question, then it seems Lord Moria now only has two choices left..."
"One is the Straw Hat Pirates' old enemy—the World Government!"
"The other is a force with tremendous military power, yet one that has never pledged itself to any faction—the giant nation, Elbaf!!!"
(End of Chapter)