Monster Hunter of the One Piece World

After switching to a new weapon and temporarily parting ways with Cody and Bucks, Sherwin carried the two cats and began wandering aimlessly around the village. At the same time, he kept holding his hunter handbook open, keeping a close eye on any changes inside…

Even with the expanded "field of view," Sherwin still couldn't possibly have revealed the entire island where Colored Paper Town was located. Yet, the map already showed it fully lit up, so there had to be some other rule he hadn't figured out yet.

Sure enough, after Sherwin took the cats on a full lap around the village, the dynamic map on the handbook really did change—

A massive circular area centered on the village was instantly lit up, even part of the surrounding sea was revealed. But the circle wasn't complete—at the northwest edge, a small section remained unlit.

That unlit section was also a circle. More precisely, it was like a circle that had a bite taken out of it by another circle, kind of resembling the Apple logo. Its area was much smaller than the lit-up circle, and at the very center of the smaller circle was a seagull-shaped emblem representing the Navy.

Gamers would find this situation very familiar—it was the lookout tower system seen in many games. Once you occupy or even just reach a landmark, a large surrounding area gets revealed. Games like Heroes of Might and Magic, The Legend of Zelda, and so on all have similar mechanics.

Even when Sherwin previously filled the progress bar of the starter island, the surrounding sea area was also revealed, which clearly fell under the lookout tower system.

So, to light up the remaining bit of the map, Sherwin either had to take a walk through the Navy base or use his expanded field of view to circle around the base.

Sherwin scratched his chin. It felt like neither option would be easy...

The Navy base was obviously not somewhere you could just stroll into. And even circling around the base had its issues—it would look way too much like spying, and would definitely draw attention from the stationed Marines.

Maybe… ask Uncle Cody for help?

Sherwin thought about it for a moment, then gave up on that idea.

Mainly because he didn't have a good enough reason... Although most background characters in One Piece had notoriously low suspicion levels and would easily believe anything—a casual excuse from Sherwin might actually work—he still preferred to try on his own first.

Besides, speaking of low suspicion levels, the Navy wasn't any better.

So Sherwin stashed the newly acquired dual blades into his pack, and with the two cats in tow, headed toward the Navy base.

He originally thought there would at least be a sentry post or some kind of security line at the base, but Sherwin walked all the way to the front gate of the Navy base without a single person stopping him…

There wasn't even a guard at the gate!

Was the gap in quality between headquarters and branch offices really that big? Or was it to make things easier for bounty hunters to come claim their rewards?

But even so, there should at least be someone at the gate, right? Even that "Axe hand" Morgan base had quite a few guards.

Sherwin glanced around, then softly asked the two cats. After confirming that no one was secretly watching nearby, he stopped thinking about it and simply walked straight into the Navy base.

After passing through the gate and walking a little further, Sherwin and the cats finally encountered someone.

"Hey, kid! What are you doing here? This is a Navy base!" a Marine shouted loudly.

So you do know this is a Navy base…

Sherwin tugged at the corner of his mouth and looked speechlessly at the Marine running toward him.

"Huh? I don't think I've seen you around the village... Oh, I get it! Colonel Cody must've brought you here, right? Planning to join the Navy?"

Before Sherwin could even open his mouth, the guy was already babbling nonstop, and in the process, Sherwin also learned that Cody had apparently been a colonel.

Judging from this, Cody must have saved and brought back quite a few people to join the Navy here. No wonder the security was so lax… though it was still ridiculously sloppy.

"Are these two cats yours? You even dressed them up? Man, they're dressed better than I am." This Marine was clearly a chatterbox he hadn't stopped talking since he showed up.

"Such well-behaved cats, just lying on your shoulders without fussing..."

As he spoke, he reached out to pet Klee Meow—only to get kicked away by Sanji Meow from the other side.

"Don't go randomly touching someone little sister! We're not just any kind of cats!"

"It—it talked!" the Marine face was full of shock.

Sherwin finally found a gap to speak, "I'm not here to join the Navy. It just that my cats were curious about the Navy base and wanted to look around."

He had thought up a bunch of excuses beforehand, but given the situation now, Sherwin figured this one would be good enough.

Sure enough, the Marine was still in shock, pointing at Sanji Meow and shouting to Sherwin, "Your cat just talked!"

Sherwin: "..."

So tired... I think I kind of understand Trafalgar Law now.

The commotion here finally drew in other Marines, and in no time, Sherwin was surrounded by a group of Marines.

Hmm, to be precise, it was Klee Meow and Sanji Meow who were surrounded by them.

"Want some dried sardines?"

"You two are from the Furry Tribe, right? I heard a major from headquarters mention it before."

"Interested in joining the Marines? We offer great benefits."

"What are you all doing?! Can't you see Klee is scared by you all? Back off!"

The highest-ranking officer at this base, Marine branch colonel Hillnans, used his authority to drive the others away, but then approached with a smiling face himself.

"You were brought here by Officer Cody, right? Are you sure you're not interested in joining the Marines?"

As he spoke, his gaze remained fixed on Sherwin, clearly having realized that Sherwin was the one calling the shots.

"Sorry, I still have to help Klee and the others find their lost tribesmen." Sherwin shook his head and answered, half true and half false,

"After that, I need to take them to visit the homeland of the Furry Tribe, so I don't have time to join the Marines."

"The homeland of the Furry Tribe? That in the second half of the Grand Line." As a branch colonel, Hillnans obviously knew more and reminded him seriously.

Sherwin smiled without replying.

Seeing the resolute look on his face, Hillnans didn't try to persuade him further.

After all, this is a world where dreams and promises outweigh everything. As long as you label it with something like that, many things go smoothly. Sometimes, with the help of the "rules of the world," you even get a little cheat, like a main character trial card or something…

Of course, there also another possibility—being turned into part of someone else "dream" and "promise." Like Kuina, who died on the "Supreme Slippery Ladder" the Flame Man, who blocked magma for the Sun God or the Emperor who got his arm bitten off by the Sea King.

In short, thanks to the combo effect of the cute appearance of the Felynes and Sherwin "a man promise," which were both almost conceptual buffs, Hillnans easily agreed to let them tour the Marine base.

Well, part of the reason was probably also out of respect for Uncle Cody.

And so, led by the chatty Marine they met at the start, Sherwin and the others not only toured the entire base, but also learned about the full personnel structure and weapon distribution of the base from his nonstop chatter.

The guy even spilled the details on what kind of techniques the top fighters in the base were good at...

Seriously though, isn't the alert level of this base way too low?!