Monster Hunter of the One Piece World

"Bulu bulu bulu..."

After finishing mapping out the Conomi Islands, Sherwin bid farewell to Nami and the others. First, he went to Branch 16 to exchange Arlong and the others’ bounties with Nezumi.

Then, he took some time to revise his East Blue Travel Guide: Loguetown Edition, specifically emphasizing the quality of the Marines there.

But less than an hour after sending the article to Morgans, a call came through.

Looks like... the article didn’t pass review.

Sherwin smacked his lips, then answered the call.

Sure enough, as soon as the line connected, the Den Den Mushi, which had already transformed into Morgans’ likeness, began shouting with spittle flying: "Sherwin! Are you trying to declare war on the Marines?!"

"How could that be? I just felt like the Marines in East Blue are kind of useless, so I slipped in a bit of personal opinion. What, even that too much for them to handle?" Sherwin leaned back a little and dug in his ear as he replied.

"I figured as much."

On the other end, Morgans clearly wasn’t as furious as he had just acted—otherwise, his mood wouldn’t have shifted so quickly.

Then he let out a mocking snort before explaining to Sherwin, "If this were in the past, there wouldn’t be a problem with this kind of article.

Even if the Marines got annoyed, they couldn’t do anything about my paper. But not anymore. The Revolutionary Army influence has been growing too fast.

Publishing a piece like this now would draw attention from Mariejois. I don’t care about the Marines, but the Celestial Dragons... I’d rather not cross them—unless it for a story big enough to be worth it."

"I see," Sherwin muttered, speechless for a moment, then said, "I was actually planning to be even harsher in the next piece if this one got published."

"..." This time, it was Morgans’ turn to be speechless. Even though the line was protected by an anti-eavesdropping Den Den Mushi, he still lowered his voice and asked, "Tell me honestly—are you with the Revolutionary Army?"

Morgan suspicion wasn’t just because of Sherwin latest article. Don’t forget—Sherwin had previously tipped him off about the identity of a CP agent.

Normally, even pirates out at sea wouldn’t pay much attention to things like that. So the idea that Sherwin might be part of the Revolutionary Army wasn’t just possible—it was actually quite likely.

And to be honest, I really had considered that idea before.

Unaware of what Morgans was thinking, Sherwin silently muttered to himself, then replied, "I’m not. Though I do admire their ideals quite a bit, I, like you, don’t have any intention of going up against the World Government."

At least, not for now...

Sherwin added silently in his heart.

"I see..." Morgans sounded slightly disappointed.

Sherwin couldn’t be bothered to read too much into it and just directly voiced his confusion.

Morgans explained, "The Revolutionary Army has been stirring up big news these past few years, but their operations are always so secretive. I can only report on them after the fact. If I had an insider feeding me intel, I could send someone on-site and get firsthand scoops!"

"..." Sherwin was once again speechless. This birdman really would do anything for a big story.

After chatting with Morgans for a bit about how to revise the article, the call ended. After all, as the president of the world largest news agency, Morgans had plenty on his plate.

If he hadn’t suspected Sherwin of being part of the Revolutionary Army, he probably wouldn’t have bothered calling in the first place.

"Well, whatever. If I can’t publish it, then I can’t publish it." Sherwin shook his head slightly. He didn’t think it was a big deal.

Restrictions on Earth are just as abundant. He wasn’t even going to bring up the literary inquisition of ancient times—just in modern days alone, there were already tons of words that could get censored.

Some place names even had to be abbreviated with initials. He had long since gotten used to it.

After hanging up the phone, Sherwin took out his Hunter Handbook and opened the fully virtualized progress map to take a look...

"Hmm... among the nearby islands, there don’t seem to be any familiar names..."

Nami nautical chart was extremely detailed. Not only were the islands labeled, but even the countries on those islands were clearly marked.

However, smaller places like towns and villages were only listed if they were notable, like Loguetown.

So familiar names like Shimotsuki Village and Windmill Village couldn’t be found on the map. As for the names of the islands where those villages were located, he didn’t have any clear memory of them...

In the end, does he still have to collect those small-scale, but more detailed, regional maps?

Sherwin scratched his head helplessly.

Oh well, he had to visit all these islands anyway. If he found Shimotsuki Village a bit later, so be it—it wasn’t a big deal.

And considering that Zoro was the first companion Luffy met after setting out to sea, Shimotsuki Village was probably located further along the journey. It would take a while to reach it.

So then...

Who was the next story character closest to his current location?

Just as Sherwin was trying hard to recall the plot of the original story, Klee Meow suddenly burst in from outside.

"Brother Sherwin, Brother Sherwin! Come out and look, meow!"

(=ω=)

The little plushy clung to his clothes and started dragging him outside—only to successfully rip his shirt into shreds...

It was Sherwin first time seeing Klee Meow this excited. Even when she got emotional in the past, she’d only ever clawed a few little holes into her own clothes at most.

"Awuuu... Brother Sherwin, I’m sorry... Klee didn’t mean to, meow..." The little plushy flicked the threads off her claws, scratched the back of her head sheepishly, apologized to Sherwin, and then immediately went back to shouting excitedly,

"A really interesting pirate ship just showed up outside! Let go steal it, meow!"

"Uh... it can’t be that much of a coincidence, right?"

Sherwin had just recalled the part of the story where Luffy dealt with the Krieg Pirates at Baratie, and now a plot character was already appearing?

But wasn’t Kuro supposed to have not faked his death yet? Could it be that the Black Cat Pirates had always been active in this region?

That seemed to be the only explanation. After all, besides the Black Cat Pirates, he couldn’t think of any other pirate crew ship that could get Klee Meow this hyped.

Sure enough, when Sherwin carried Klee Meow up to the deck, he saw it in the distance: a pirate ship with a black cat figurehead and a ridiculously ugly cat-skull flag painted on the sail.

Whether the other party hadn’t noticed Sherwin and the others, or simply thought that the Explorer No.1 was too small and not worth bothering with, or maybe they were just in a hurry—either way, they didn’t pay any attention to this side at all and just continued sailing forward on their own.

"Brother Sherwin, look! Isn’t it super interesting, meow?!" Klee Meow climbed onto Sherwin shoulder, pointing at the Black Cat Pirate ship in the distance while tugging on his ear and pleading,

"Pirates flying that kind of flag must be bad guys, right? So let go steal that ship, okay, meow?!"

Sherwin glanced at the other Felynes. Although they didn’t speak, it was obvious they were also very interested in that black cat ship.

Truth be told, he was quite interested in the Black Cat Pirates too—or rather, specifically in Kuro, who hadn’t faked his death yet.

According to the manga, Kuro self-created "Silent Steps" technique was on par with "Soru" from the Marine Rokushiki in terms of speed.

The only difference was that Kuro own reaction speed and dynamic vision couldn’t keep up. So when he used his "Shakushi" attack, he wasn’t able to accurately target enemies and could only launch indiscriminate wide-range strikes.

"Soru" had detailed descriptions in the manga, and even though it completely contradicted the physics Sherwin had learned before transmigrating, he had still managed to reproduce it.

So he was especially curious about how this "Silent Steps" technique, which rivaled Soru, planned to stomp on Newton laws from across another world.

So, even if the Black Cat Pirates hadn’t come looking for trouble, Sherwin had no intention of letting them go.

That left just one final question...

"Hua Mei, do you have confidence in commanding everyone to handle that ship with ease?"

Sherwin pointed to the three-masted pirate ship several times larger than the Explorer No.1 as he asked.

Hua Mei Meow twitched her ears and lifted her little head confidently. "Shouldn’t be a problem, meow!"

However, she then added, "It might take a bit more effort when sailing against the current, but for you and Sir Seijuro, it shouldn’t be too hard, meow."

Sherwin nodded. "In that case, that ship is now our Explorer No.2!"