Just like that, the group quickly disappeared into the vast, snowy landscape.
Standing alone in the snow, a fair youthful maiden silently shed tears.
"Chopper... you shouldn't be bound here. Set sail for the ocean. The sea can wash away all your pain."
With that, she turned around with a hint of sorrow and walked back into the wide, empty living room.
At that moment, she noticed something on the table.
It was a case of Feitian Moutai liquor left behind by Vir.
"That brat! At least he has a conscience. But why does this feel like I'm sending off a daughter for marriage..."
---
"Let's buy some supplies first. Didn't we say we're having a feast? The ship's provisions are running low."
Sanji, with his unusually ugly face (thanks to his current predicament), was finally feeling a little better. He pointed out the issue of food shortages on the ship.
"Alright! We'll buy some on our way back! Hahahaha! Feast! Feast!"
Luffy had already forgotten what had just happened and was back to looking like a starving ghost.
Hearing this, Chopper immediately changed direction and dashed towards the food stalls.
Meanwhile, Vir sat alone at the rear, deep in thought.
Actually, he was checking how many Negative Points he had left.
[Negative Points Balance: 3,570]
Over 3,000! Just from this one trip, he had earned more than 3,000 points.
It turns out that earning these points is closely tied to strength.
Luffy and the others weren't that strong yet, and he had already racked up this many points.
Just Sanji and Nami alone had contributed over 3,000 Negative Points.
Once they grow stronger, wouldn't this mean that earning tens of thousands at a time would be the norm?!
By then, the shop will be mine to raid! That wouldn't just be an empty boast!
Plus, he had gained Sanji's physical abilities and kicking techniques.
Combined with Chopper's leg enhancements and Nami's financial expertise...
That's a total of four new abilities.
This time, he only saved his teammates. He completely forgot about Wapol.
If he had saved that guy too, he could've squeezed even more benefits out of this!
The next destination—Alabasta. He had to go all out there.
Mr. 2 (Bon Clay), Mr. 3, Crocodile, and Robin...
All of them were potential targets for extraction.
Of course, Robin wouldn't be an enemy for long.
If he could steal even one of their abilities, it would be an epic-level power boost.
Even if he couldn't, just obtaining some of their combat strength would be a huge improvement.
And then there were his teammates. They were bound to get injured, right? He could save them again!
Hiss~
Vir couldn't even imagine how strong he would become after this whole ordeal.
Even though the abilities he acquired were random, there was no way his luck would be so bad that he wouldn't get any combat-related skills, right?
Besides, if he remembered correctly, Ace would also be there!
Ace was a major character with immense strength!
If he could heal Ace, that would be a massive, sky-rocketing boost.
Not just in terms of Negative Points, but also in terms of the abilities he could acquire from Ace. It would be pure bliss.
But Ace was so powerful—getting him injured wouldn't be easy.
If he didn't get hurt, Vir wouldn't have a reason to intervene.
He had to figure out a way...
But how do you make someone as overwhelmingly strong as Ace take damage?
In Alabasta, there was practically no one capable of doing that.
Ace was practically untouchable.
Vir racked his brain for a long time but still couldn't come up with an answer.
This was ridiculously difficult.
He was like a Level 10 minion trying to figure out how to get a Level 70 or 80 boss to take damage.
This was completely beyond his capabilities!
Vir eventually gave up thinking about it.
Feeling the cold wind against his face, he instinctively pulled his coat tighter around him.
Gurgle~
A loud stomach growl drew everyone's attention.
If it had been Luffy, no one would have noticed, but this time, the sound came from Vir.
Vir awkwardly rubbed his stomach.
After all this running around, he was actually getting hungry.
It was already late afternoon, and he hadn't had lunch yet.
After being busy for so long, his stomach was finally protesting.
"Are you hungry, Vir? But we don't have any food right now! We'll have to wait until we're back on the ship! I'm telling you, Sanji's cooking is amazing! Just thinking about it is making me drool!"
Luffy, the bottomless pit, was actually starving too, but since there was no food available, he had to endure it.
But at that moment, Vir suddenly remembered that he had put two sandwiches Chopper made into his medical box earlier.
"Oh, right! I have two sandwiches. Chopper made them for me. Do you want one?"
Luffy's eyes instantly lit up!
He stared at Vir with a face full of excitement.
"Really?! Haha, awesome! Let's split them!"
Vir grabbed his medical box, opened it, and pulled out the two sandwiches.
But the moment he lifted the box, the expressions of everyone around him changed slightly.
Just slightly.
But when he actually took out the sandwiches, their faces underwent a drastic change!
Sanji and Zoro, who were closest to him, instinctively took a step forward.
What Vir pulled out was simply horrifying.
First, both sandwiches were covered in thick mold. The layers of fungus made it nearly impossible to recognize the original bread underneath.
Then there were the fillings inside.
One of them contained a delicate, pale hand lying still within the sandwich.
A few slender fingers drooped out from the side.
The nails were painted bright red, and there were even traces of blood in the crevices, as if the hand had been desperately scratching at something.
The other sandwich was slightly better.
Inside, there was only a single frog leg.
That leg twitched occasionally.
Hearing that Chopper had supposedly made these, everyone turned their wide, disbelieving eyes toward the reindeer at the front of the cart.
When Chopper turned around and saw the scene, his face instantly turned pale with panic.
"No! That wasn't me! I swear I didn't make those! I didn't put those things in there!"
But no one believed him.
The way they looked at Chopper suddenly became strange.
Almost as if they were looking at some kind of lunatic.
Vir, noticing their reactions, realized something was off.
Did they see the food differently than he did?
Without thinking too much, Vir picked up the frog-leg sandwich and took a big bite.
The tomato inside burst with juice.
It actually tasted pretty good.
But in front of him, Nami and Usopp were staring in horror at the bubbling, unknown liquid that had just splattered onto them.
After a brief moment of silence, they erupted in deafening screams!
Ignoring their horrified looks, Vir handed the other sandwich to Luffy.
To his surprise, Luffy wasn't afraid at all.
In fact, he looked even more excited, as if eating something like this made him a badass.
Seeing Luffy's eager expression, Vir knew this wouldn't be a problem for the food-obsessed captain.
After confirming it was edible, Luffy took the sandwich and chowed down under everyone's terrified gazes!
As he ate, he even praised it.
"Tasty! Tasty! Sanji, you should try it too!"
Sanji: "Thanks, but no thanks!"
Wait!?
Watching this unfold, a sharp glint flashed in Vir's eyes.
Food?
He might have just figured out how to get Ace injured!