Chapter 17

"What, you're not planning to fulfill our agreement? Then as punishment for breaking it, this month's protection fee for the village will be doubled!"

Nami's hands clenched into fists,

with such force

that her fingernails dug into her flesh,

her palms gradually soaked red with fresh blood!

At this moment, the anger in her heart had already reached its peak,

wishing she could punch that dragon right in the face!

But she couldn't do that!

Over these years,

to scrape together that one hundred million Berries,

she had exhausted every scheme and means,

and now, after finally getting her hands on a Devil Fruit worth one hundred million Berries,

she had thought she could finally trade it for the villagers' freedom and Cocosia Village's peace,

only for it to vanish in an instant.

This enormous psychological gap

nearly drove her to despair!

Nami really wanted to throw her life at Arlong right now,

but she also knew deep down she couldn't!

Because the gap in strength was truly too great!

Before Arlong,

she had absolutely no power to resist;

he could kill her with ease,

even slaughter the entire Cocosia Village!

Only by continuing to uphold that agreement

was there the faintest sliver of hope,

at the very least enough to protect the lives of Cocosia Village's villagers.

After a long silence,

Nami's tightly clenched hands slowly loosened,

and she lowered her head and said slowly:

"Alright... alright, I understand. I'll go earn another hundred million Berries."

Seeing this,

Arlong couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"Hahahahaha!"

Group Zero: "Hahahahaha!"

Just at this moment,

the wall on one side of the room suddenly burst open,

and a blue longsword glinting with cold light shot out through the smoke and dust,

slashing straight at the laughing Arlong!

Arlong's expression changed instantly,

and in his haste,

he only just managed to raise both arms in front of him.

The next second,

the blue longsword struck his forearms,

and his whole body was sent flying backward,

smashing through the wall and plunging straight into the sea behind the castle.

"Have you got any idea how awful your laugh sounds?"

Li Xiao scratched his ear,

turned to look at Nami, still sitting at the table,

shook his head with some helplessness, and said:

"You actually believed a pirate's promise?"

The moment she saw Li Xiao,

Nami finally couldn't hold it in anymore.

She bit her lip tightly,

letting tears stream freely down her cheeks.

In fact,

when Nami first went out,

Li Xiao really hadn't paid much attention.

It was only later that he suddenly remembered

she had taken the Devil Fruit,

most likely to go find Arlong and complete the agreement.

Li Xiao was well aware

that this agreement was utterly meaningless,

and that Arlong would never let Nami go in the first place.

The two sides would most likely erupt into conflict,

so he had followed along.

But that was only part of the reason;

besides that,

Li Xiao had another purpose.

The burly captain of the Shark Pirates earlier had honestly been far too weak,

and couldn't serve any purpose in judging combat power at all.

Arlong's strength, on the other hand, was undoubtedly considerably stronger,

and should be enough to help him make a preliminary judgment of where his current strength actually stood in the combat-power hierarchy of the Pirate World.

Moreover, Arlong at least had a bounty of twenty million Beri,

so killing him on the way and collecting the bounty from the Marines—

wouldn't that cover the meal expenses for heading to the Baratie next?!