Chapter 9

Mod now needs a Level 1 slime, not a Level 99 red dragon.

But before Mod could go out to play with the former, the latter unexpectedly showed up.

Shanks, the Red-Haired Emperor.

No matter how hard Mod thought, he couldn't figure out why Red-Haired Shanks would come to such a dilapidated shop.

He only wanted to develop stealthily, but in less than two days, various tough characters came one after another.

Caught off guard, he couldn't control his emotions, which showed on his face.

Shock, disbelief.

He even failed to respond to Shanks immediately.

Shanks noticed something from Mod's reaction but didn't pay much attention. Instead, he turned to look at Sunny behind the counter and waved.

"Hey, little Sunny, it's been a while."

"Y-Yes, it has been a while."

"How did you cut your hair?"

"Well, um, Sol said my hair was too long and would waste water when washing, so he made me cut it."

Sunny's gaze dropped, her heart beating a bit faster, and she gave a casual excuse.

[At that moment, Sol was walking slowly down the street with packed leftovers. Suddenly, he sneezed hard. He wiped his nose and thought for a moment, then had a bad feeling and subconsciously quickened his pace.]

Inside the shop, Shanks smiled helplessly and said, "Sol is still as... frugal as ever."

"Um, what brings you here this time?"

Sunny timely changed the subject and asked about Shanks' purpose.

"Same as always, to buy some hometown wine."

Shanks laughed and walked past Mod to the counter.

It was then that Mod finally came to his senses.

The curly-haired man, Jesus, glanced at Mod inconspicuously and then followed Shanks with Laki, who was holding a chicken leg.

Mod silently watched their backs, composed himself, and casually closed the door. He then stepped aside and observed Shanks and Sunny chatting.

From their conversation, it seemed Shanks was a regular customer.

What left Mod speechless was that Shanks came to the shop to buy wine, not weapons.

Speaking of which, does the shop even sell wine?

Mod suddenly thought of the basement entrance downstairs.

Could it be a wine cellar...

Behind the counter, Sunny, who usually wasn't like this, seemed a bit nervous.

However, when the topic turned to Shanks buying wine, she remembered Sol's firm and heartfelt instructions and immediately took a stand as a member of Sol's weapon shop.

She looked up at Shanks seriously and said, "After you emptied the wine last time, Sol specifically instructed us not to sell any more to you."

"What?"

Shanks was surprised, turned his head to Laki, and asked, "Didn't we pay last time?"

"We did pay, but... we took two barrels of wine that the boss had set aside when we were moving the goods."

"..."

Shanks was silent for a moment, then sighed, "So that's what happened."

After sighing, he leaned in toward Sunny, changed the subject, and asked in a low voice, "Is Sol at home?"

Sunny replied straightforwardly, "No."

"That makes things easier."

Shanks looked serious.

"You...!"

Sunny's eyes widened.

Before Sunny could say more, Laki, who understood Shanks' meaning, placed the money for the wine on the counter and walked toward the stairs.

Sunny watched Laki head toward the wine cellar and instinctively wanted to leave the counter to stop him.

Thump—

At that moment, a light sound came from the counter.

Sunny looked and saw that Jesus had taken a smoothbore flintlock and a short-barreled flintlock from the shelf and placed them on the counter.

"Little Sunny, how much for these two guns?"

Jesus leaned forward, his hands resting on the counter.

The timing was awkward, but his expression didn't seem like a joke; he was really planning to buy the guns.

Sunny looked at Laki's back and then at the two guns on the counter. She gritted her teeth and sighed, then quoted the prices with a dead heart: "1.2 million berries for the smoothbore, 3.8 million berries for the short-barreled."

By this time, Laki had already disappeared from sight, presumably heading down to the wine cellar.

"Whew—"

Hearing the prices, Jesus whistled but didn't question the seemingly unreasonable prices. He took out the money directly.

Shanks glanced at the smoothbore flintlock Jesus had on his back and asked, "Are you sure? Maybe Sol can fix it."

Jesus pouted and said, "Boss, do you want to wait for Mr. Sol to come back?"

"Haha."

Shanks laughed carelessly, "No problem, we can take the wine and come back later."

"..."

Jesus was speechless for a moment, then shook his head and said, "Forget it, let it be. As an old partner, it has done its best."

Saying this, he took off the smoothbore flintlock from his back and placed it on the counter.

This gun was his first old partner from the village, but it couldn't withstand the test of time.

Even if he consciously used "Armament Haki" to nurture it, it was too late to make up for the damage.

After all, he was a sniper, specializing in "Observation Haki" rather than "Armament Haki."

Moreover, he only learned "Armament Haki" a few years after setting sail, and by then, it was too late to nurture his beloved gun.

Over time, his first old partner could only become a backup gun.

Now, with its aging becoming more severe, it was even struggling to be a backup gun.

This was something Jesus had deeply experienced during regular maintenance.

With no other choice, he could only take the final step—replace the gun.

Sunny looked at the old smoothbore flintlock Jesus placed on the counter and said calmly, "Sorry, we don't accept second-hand guns, especially broken ones!"

She emphasized the last two words.

"It's not broken, just aged."

Noticing Sunny's attitude, Jesus felt helpless.

"Even if it's aged, we don't accept it!"

"..."

"Haha."

This was Shanks' cheerful laugh.

Jesus shook his head and said, "I won't sell it for money. Just tell Mr. Sol I left it here."

"Can't you just throw it away? It's not useful anyway."

"That's not right!"

Jesus looked serious and said, "Let Mr. Sol keep it. Maybe one day he'll be inspired to transfer the 'mechanism' of the old partner to another gun. Then, at least, it can continue in another way."

"Actually, you have another option."

The speaker was Mod, who had been observing from the side.

Hearing Mod's words, everyone present turned to look at him.

Meeting their gazes, the now calm Mod was not intimidated and spoke with a serious and earnest tone.

"Give it to me, and I'll take it on another journey."