Chapter 16
"One hundred twenty million beri plus gold coins converted to fifty million beri—total one hundred seventy million beri!"
"Convert all one hundred seventy million beri to system coins!"
"Recharge successful. Current balance: system coins."
"Now that's a balance that looks good! Finally, I'm one of the rich guys! System bro—call me 'Lord' and let me hear it!"
Jepack gloated at the system.
"Sorry, this system does not have that function."
Jepack's face twisted like he'd swallowed a thousand bugs—utterly defeated.
"Fine… fine… I can't beat you…"
"With this many coins, I'm definitely washing my hands and doing a big draw later!!!"
"Job's done. Time to head back and comfort little Nami!"
He used Geppo to step through the air toward Nami's house.
Should've grabbed more oranges for the storage. Nami's oranges are the sweetest!
Jepack flew through the sky, chewing on a blade of grass he'd picked up from Arlong Park, already missing the taste of Nami's oranges.
While mid-air on Geppo, he spotted a lonely figure walking toward Nami's house in the distance.
He descended to hover directly above—looking down, he recognized Genzo's dejected silhouette.
"Genzo! Why are you still here? Isn't the walk that long?"
Jepack's voice came from overhead.
Genzo jumped in fright, looking around wildly.
"Who's talking?! Come out! Don't scare people in broad daylight!"
He asked cautiously, voice trembling.
"Up here! Look up! How are you this jumpy in the middle of the day?"
Jepack mercilessly teased from above.
Genzo looked up—and jumped again. After the shock, he asked seriously:
"How are you floating in the sky? Did Arlong kill you? Are you a ghost now?"
Jepack was stunned by the three-question combo, then rolled his eyes helplessly:
"Sir… take a good look. Do I look dead? I'm clearly alive and well in broad daylight!"
After dramatically explaining the whole situation (leaving out some details), Jepack brought Genzo back to the ruins of Arlong Park.
Jepack: "Take your time sightseeing my masterpiece. I'm heading back for some oranges."
With that, he Geppo'd away!
After Jepack left, Genzo stepped through the rubble, muttering in disbelief:
"Is this really Arlong Park? Where did all the fish-men go? Did that kid really take them all out? He's that strong?!"
While walking, he stepped on something hard and sharp—it tore his shoe!
He dug it out: half of a shark's tooth.
"This… this is Arlong's tooth… broken in half. No way… I have to tell everyone in the village this good news!!!"
Shocked, Genzo clutched the trophy and sprinted toward the village.
Scene shift—back to Nami's house!
By now, Jepack had returned and was happily eating oranges.
Guina, Nami, and Nojiko bombarded him with questions: Did he really defeat Arlong? In such a short time?
"You're serious? You took out Arlong that quickly?"
Jepack: "Of course! How could I lie to you? Arlong-level guys—I could take out four with three punches!!"
"Stop bragging! We know your real strength."
Guina covered her mouth, giggling as she called him out.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?! Looking down on me? Tonight you'll find out exactly how strong I am!!"
Jepack pretended to glare menacingly at Guina.
Nojiko: "Jepack… did you really save our village? I still can't believe Arlong was taken down so easily!"
Jepack: "Of course! If you don't believe me, just wait for Genzo to get back—he saw it himself!"
Jepack figured Genzo's walking speed meant it would take a while for him to return.
But he was wrong.
After accepting the truth, Genzo had sprinted through the village, showing everyone the half-tooth trophy and shouting the news.
By the time Jepack finished his first orange, almost the entire village knew. They all rushed to the ruins of Arlong Park!
An hour later, Nami's house was still quiet.
Guina shot Jepack a sideways glance.
Nami looked worried again.
Only Nojiko seemed calm, casually sharing with Jepack how the oranges were grown and why they tasted so sweet.
Seeing Nami on the verge of tears again, Guina quickly asked:
"Jepack, did you really deal with Arlong? Why hasn't any news reached us yet?"
Jepack: "Ahem… yeah, I'm wondering too. Genzo should've been back by now. Fine—I'll go check. You guys come with me so you can stop doubting me!"
He led the way outside. When they reached the village center, they found Genzo lounging on a chair, cradling Arlong's broken tooth like a trophy.
"Genzo! You lazy jerk—why are you relaxing here instead of coming to Nami's house to tell them everything? Don't you know Nami and Nojiko were worried sick?!"
Jepack's anger flared—they'd waited forever, and Genzo was just chilling!
Genzo took a slow sip of water and drawled:
"Didn't you already go tell them? Why do I need to? My job was to spread the news to the whole village, right?"
Jepack: "Okay… that's technically fair. But right now they still don't believe I defeated Arlong. So tell them what you saw!"
"Me? I didn't see anything! You told me to leave before the fight even started!"
Genzo put on an innocent face, but inside he was smirking.
Jepack realized Genzo was enjoying the show and raised a threatening fist:
"You better talk straight, or I'll show you what a young guy's punch feels like!"
"Ahem… haha, of course I saw! That kid took out Arlong. Arlong Park is rubble now. Look—this is proof!" Genzo held up the broken tooth.
Nojiko: "Then why did it take you so long to tell us?"
Genzo: "I told the village, didn't I? Haven't you noticed how quiet it is? Everyone's at the ruins searching for loot because of this tooth. I told them it was my trophy—Arlong's tooth. They all ran off!"
"So that's why… You jerk! Next time tell us first—we almost blamed Jepack!"
Nojiko said, then bonked Genzo on the head!
"Ouch!"
Genzo yelped, clutching his head. As the group turned to head back to Nami's house, he called out urgently:
"There's a big celebration in the village tonight! You guys are the stars—you have to come!!"
With Genzo's yelp and the girls' laughter, the trust crisis was finally resolved!
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