"Very expensive?"
The two brats exchanged glances, their eyes filled with identical stubbornness.
"How much?" Ace asked in a deep voice, his freckled face taut.
"As long as it makes us stronger, we'll pay any price!"
Luffy also nodded vigorously beside him; though he had no concept of money, he understood the words "get stronger."
"Heh heh."
White Night let out a low, ambiguous chuckle.
He slowly rose from the rocking chair, stretched out a finger, and lazily pointed to the broken wooden sign next to him.
On the sign, written in crooked letters, were the big words—Dungeon Shop.
Below that was another line of smaller text.
Beginner Dungeon: One Million Berries.
White Night pointed at that line of text and gestured with his chin towards the two brats.
"See that?"
"My introductory course, that's the price."
He twitched his lips, revealing a mischievous smile, his eyes like he was teasing two frantic kittens.
"One Million Berries."
"Do you have it?"
"..."
Luffy's mouth instantly formed an "O."
He counted on his rubber fingers for a long time, but eventually gave up.
"One million... how much meat is that?"
His face was full of struggle; clearly, the number had exceeded his calculation abilities.
However.
Ace, standing beside him, froze the moment he heard the number.
His pupils contracted sharply, then suddenly lit up!
It was an incredibly burning gaze, like seeing hope in the darkness!
One million!
This number, like a lightning bolt, cut through the fog in his mind!
He remembered!
He and Sabo, over the years, had saved up a "pirate treasure" for going out to sea to be pirates!
Berries snatched from mountain bandits, dug out of the junkyard, stolen from nobles... accumulated coin by coin!
They had long lost count of how many times!
They definitely had it!
Even... a little more!
"Yes!"
Ace let out a low roar from his throat, suppressing extreme excitement!
His voice trembled slightly with emotion, yet it was incredibly firm!
"We have it!"
Luffy was startled by Ace's sudden reaction and excitedly shouted along: "Oh oh oh! We have money!!"
White Night's eyebrows twitched, and his usually lazy expression finally showed a genuine hint of surprise.
"Oh?"
He really hadn't expected these two brats from a poor, remote place to be able to produce such a sum.
"The money is in our secret base!"
Ace grabbed White Night's pant leg, afraid he would disappear the next second.
He looked up, his black eyes burning with fierce flames, filled with an undeniable plea!
"Sabo! My brother! He should be there right now!"
"You come with us! We'll give it to you right now!"
Looking at this stubborn child, whose eyes were even more determined than an adult's.
And then at the single-celled organism clinging to his leg, constantly shouting, "I want to get stronger, I want to eat meat."
White Night suddenly felt that this was much more interesting than lying in the sun.
"A secret base, huh..."
He drew out his words, the curve of his lips growing wider.
"Alright then."
White Night lazily straightened up, stretched a big yawn, and his bones cracked with a series of pops.
"Lead the way."
He put his hands back in his pockets and looked down at the two brats.
"But I'm warning you."
"If you dare to trick me, or if the money isn't enough..."
White Night's eyes suddenly became playful.
"The tuition, you see, will double."
"It's definitely enough!"
Ace's face bloomed with an unprecedented brilliant smile, a joyous ecstasy of having gambled everything and seen the dawn!
"Follow me!"
He no longer hesitated, turned and ran, pulling the still-dazed Luffy along.
"Let's go! Luffy!"
"We... are going to get stronger!"
"Oh! Get stronger! Eat meat!"
Luffy, being dragged, also shouted excitedly.
Two small figures ran vigorously ahead, as if chasing an unreachable dream.
Mt. Colubo, Styx.
This was a mountain of garbage, a place where putridity and despair bred.
However, deep within this land, which even the sunlight seemed to shun, inside a giant hollow tree trunk, a shimmering dream was hidden.
Splash!
A worn wooden box was opened, filled with gleaming, sparkling Berries, reflecting an intoxicating luster in the dim tree hollow.
A blond brat wearing a black top hat and holding a pipe in his mouth was kneeling before the box, carefully pouring Berries, one by one, from a money bag into it.
His name was Sabo.
"Heh heh..."
Sabo looked at his "haul" for the day, a worldly smile on his face that completely belied his noble origins.
"Adding the money 'borrowed' from those idiotic nobles today..."
He excitedly rummaged through the treasure chest with his dirt-stained fingers, muttering calculations.
"We're only a little bit away from buying that used fishing boat!"
In his eyes, something called "hope" flickered.
"That guy Ace, I wonder what he's doing now."
Sabo mumbled as he counted the money.
"Probably fighting with that single-celled organism, Luffy, again."
"One's impulsive, the other's an idiot."
He pouted, but a warm smile involuntarily appeared on his face.
"They really are two troublesome brothers."
"But..."
Sabo's eyes became incredibly determined.
"It'll be soon."
"It really will be soon."
He looked up, through the cracks in the tree hollow, at the sky fragmented by the garbage mountain.
"Just bear with it a little longer."
"Once we save enough money and buy our own ship, we'll set sail immediately!"
"Then, the world will be our oyster, and no one will be able to control us anymore!"
"No annoying rules, no disgusting nobles, only the boundless sea and absolute freedom!"
Sabo clenched his fists tightly, his whole body trembling slightly from excessive excitement.
Set sail!
Become pirates!
Gain freedom!
This was the unbreakable promise he and Ace had made since the day they met, to be kept until death!
"At most..."
Sabo quickly calculated in his mind.
"At most, one more month!"
"We'll become the freest pirates on this vast sea!"
By then, he would write all their adventures, all the interesting stories they experienced, into a book and spread it throughout the world!
Just as Sabo was immersed in his beautiful fantasy of freedom, almost laughing out loud.
A cold, emotionless male voice, the most familiar and most terrifying voice he had ever known, drifted faintly from outside the tree hollow.
"Sabo."
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