One Piece Gunslinger

Although it was Karina who asked the question, judging from Nami's expression, she probably wanted to ask the same question.

But Leon didn't answer them. Instead, he asked Usopp, who was trembling all over, "You finally figured it out?"

Usopp was panting heavily, and after a while he said shakily, "Just as I was about to shoot, I saw the image of myself being shot in the heart and dying. Although it was blurry, it felt so real, as if it was bound to happen. Now I feel exhausted, and I can't even lift my hands."

When Li Ang heard Usopp say that, he was taken aback: "Usopp is too overpowered. He's showing signs of awakening Observation Haki so early? That's a death warning for Observation Haki!"

Indeed, it's far too early for Usopp to experience Haki; even this blurry image left him exhausted. However, this also shows that once his physical abilities improve, awakening Haki is a certainty.

“What you saw is very likely real,” Li Ang nodded. “Because if you had acted rashly at that time, you could indeed have died.”

Before anyone could ponder the implications, Li Ang continued, "You see, no matter how good my shooting skills are, once the bullet leaves the barrel, I can't control it anymore. If you actually hit the bullet and change its trajectory, then it's very likely that you'll be hit by the bullet whose trajectory has changed."

Everyone then realized that it wasn't that the bullet wasn't dangerous. Rather, the danger only became apparent when success was near. If the shooting position wasn't precise enough, and the bullet wasn't deflected in a harmless direction, then that harmless bullet could potentially become a box of deadly bullets.

"In other words, if you continue training, you might die. Do you still want to continue?"

Chapter 163 Playing Dou Dizhu is a Basic Need

Finally, Li Ang ended the day's training, leaving the remaining time for Usopp to think things through and recover from this emotional state.

However, Li Ang estimated that Usopp's belief in becoming a warrior of the sea would definitely overcome his cowardly nature. After all, for Usopp, this was the meaning of his life.

However, the two women were not so optimistic about Usopp. At that moment, they were lighting a fire on the beach and roasting the two fish they had just caught.

"I think with his timid personality, he will definitely give up in the end. Why don't we leave today? I really don't want to stay in this place any longer."

"Yes, I also want to go back to headquarters as soon as possible to see what the outside world calls the Devil's Nest and the Devil's Camp, and what kind of place it really is."

Li Ang could understand their feelings. After all, they were so bored that they were even fishing at sea, but Li Ang restricted them from stealing. Life was incredibly boring, and they didn't know what to do.

However, while he could understand, what Li Ang couldn't tolerate was: "So there were only two fish, and you didn't even help me catch one? Are you really going to let me just watch and go hungry? Are you even teammates? I'm going to take it by force!"

It was midday, and after Usopp left, they lit a campfire on the beach with dry branches and leaves, preparing to grill fish on the spot. But to Li Ang's surprise, after searching for a long time, they couldn't catch a single fish.

"Catching fish is hard work, it's not easy. We finally managed to catch these two fish. If you want to eat them, go catch some yourself." Nami hurriedly looked nervously at the grilled fish in front of her, as if she was afraid that Li Ang would snatch them away.

"Hey, I'm not going to fight you two for it. Watch me go down into the sea and catch a big one, and then I won't share any with you." With that, Li Ang got up and prepared to walk into the sea.

Just then, a villager emerged from the forest and came to the beach. The three of them lit a campfire on the sand and asked, "Hey, have you seen Kro?"

"Crow? You mean the butler? What happened to him?" Li Ang naturally began communicating with the person on the cliff.

"Yes, he's been missing since this morning. At first, we thought he just went out to run some errands, but he still hasn't appeared by noon. This has never happened before, so a lot of people have come out looking for him."

"Oh, is that so? But I haven't seen him here either. If I do, I'll let you know." Li Ang replied to the villager, only to be met with fierce disdain from the two women.

This wasn't just silent contempt in her heart anymore. After that person left, Nami was the first to complain: "He said he hadn't seen him at the beach, but he met the entire Black Cat Pirates at the beach last night."

Karina also said, "What do you mean by 'I'll tell you when I see it'? Kro's body was right next to that person's right foot. Just take two steps to the right and dig with a shovel and you'll see it."

"Well, hehe, I was just thinking about our identities," Li Ang said with an awkward smile.

"Hmph, I don't remember having any shameful identity." Nami made a face.

"Fine, fine, I can't argue with you. I'll go down and catch two fish to make it up to you, okay?"

Seeing that Li Ang had backed down, the two women didn't press their advantage. They simply held their heads high, like proud roosters. Li Ang was speechless. How could they be so smug after defeating him once? Was he really that despicable?

However, when it comes to the skill of catching fish, Li Ang is definitely far superior to the two of them, and soon he came back carrying a few small fish.

After all, big fish are harder to grill, while small fish are easier. Li Ang certainly didn't want to eat grilled fish that was burnt on the outside but still raw on the inside.

Just as the three of them finished their simple grilled fish meal, and Li Ang was pondering whether he should teach the two how to play Dou Dizhu (a card game), Usopp rushed back to the scene in a panic.

"It's still here after all." Usopp exclaimed after seeing the three relaxed individuals. "Everyone has searched the entire island upside down, but we still haven't found Kuro. Did you see him on the beach?"

Although Li Ang was eager to know the reaction after he told him "Kro is right under your feet," he only thought about it for a moment and then said to him, "Someone came before, but I didn't see Kro."

"Alright, I'll look elsewhere." With that, Usopp turned and prepared to leave.

Just before he left, he turned back and said, "Please continue tomorrow. I've made up my mind." This time, Usopp bowed and walked away without looking back.

"Hmm, so fast? I didn't expect it to have this effect. It was worth it for Kuro to die." As Usopp groaned, Leon muttered to himself.

However, the two overheard this: "What use is it? How come it's suddenly worth dying for?"

He stroked his chin before explaining, "Usopp must have done his usual routine today, climbing over the wall to go to Kaya's place. But Kuro's 'disappearance' must have changed Kaya's mood. We don't know exactly what happened there, but it must have made Usopp make up his mind."

Li Ang guessed most likely: Usopp went to see Kaya, but Kaya showed absolutely no interest in the adventure stories Usopp had made up. It was then that Usopp learned of Kuro's 'disappearance'.

Although Usopp usually doesn't give Kuro a friendly look, Kuro is still Kaya's butler.

Wanting to do something for Kaya, Usopp joined the search for Kuro.

However, besides that, Usopp also felt that the stories he had made up had lost their appeal. Judging from Kaya's behavior today, she didn't actually take these stories to heart at all.

Usopp then made a firm decision to become a true sea warrior, and upon his return, he would tell Kaya his firsthand story, which was far better than any fabricated tale.

Usopp has no idea that once he leaves, all these fabricated stories will come true, and he might end up telling the same stories again when he returns to Kaya.

"So we have to stay for another two days. We've already been to all the places in this village that are worth visiting, and there aren't even two shopping malls. It's so boring," Nami complained, sitting on the beach.

“Yeah, I thought he would definitely back down, so we could leave here first thing tomorrow morning.” Karina also looked up at the sky, feigning despair.

Hey, so you guys really don't have any faith in Usopp, huh? He's here to prove his status as a prophet.

Helpless, Li Ang could only silently take out a deck of cards from his bag to make amends: "How about I teach you how to play Dou Dizhu? This activity is very popular in our revolutionary army."

……

On the other side of the world again, this time it's noon where Li Ang is, but it's midnight in Baltigues here.

“You’d better keep your voice down this time. If you yell again, don’t blame us for not including you next time—or rather, for not including you in our revolutionary activities,” Haku threatened.

"I understand, I understand." Sabo nodded quickly. "I'll definitely be careful this time."

Fujitora also said, "Li Ang made three decks of cards for me. One deck was taken away, another was left with Li Ang last time, and this is the last one. We are now underground workers, lurking under the enemy's nose, so we can't be careless."

"Understood. This time, we must defend it as if it were a revolutionary stronghold, and resolutely prevent it from falling into the hands of the reactionaries," Sabo said hastily. It seems that Sabo has not been completely uneducated in recent years; after being exposed to official jargon for so long, he has picked up a bit of bureaucratic jargon.

“Very good, comrade, you have a strong revolutionary consciousness.” Fujitora nodded and said, “Very good, now let me start the revolutionary work.”

After saying that, he began to distribute the cards to everyone.

"Wait a minute." Sabo seemed to have noticed something and exclaimed in a low voice, "You didn't deal the cards properly, did you?"

These decks of cards are specially made; you can touch them to see the pattern and number. If Fujitora deals the cards, touching them one by one, wouldn't he know whose cards they are?

Haku chimed in, "Yeah, let's draw the cards ourselves. Do you want to shuffle them?"

While everyone was secretly playing cards underground, Kella received a message: "I was cooking in the kitchen when I noticed some noise in the storage room. At first, I thought it was mice, but when I pressed my ear to the floor, I heard it was Sabo and..."

"I understand, you can go ahead." Kella slapped her forehead and sighed upon hearing this.

Kerla knew without listening further that they were taking some people and what they were doing.

"It's fortunate that these cards have numbers and patterns that you can touch. I'm impressed that we can still play Landlord in a place with no light at all."

Kerla thought this, but had no intention of setting out to capture the three men.

The reason lies in the last words Li Ang said to Kela before he left.

"If you become the acting chief of staff, and you can't act like me, then you should show your tough side and make others obey. But sometimes you shouldn't be too tough; you still have to turn a blind eye and sometimes you have to pretend you don't know."

"Why is that?" Kella asked, puzzled.

“Silly apprentice, if you’re always tough, everyone will resent it and have grievances, and then you won’t be able to get anything done. If you’re flexible, they’ll feel like they’ve gained something when they’re secretly doing things. This way, you can motivate them to participate in the work without completely cutting off their escape routes, keeping them within a tolerable range.”

Thinking of this, Kerla looked out the window at the starry sky again: "When will we be able to come back? This chief of staff has too many things to consider. I also want to play cards with Sabo and the others."

Suddenly, Li Ang became the most anticipated person in the entire revolutionary army. Everyone hoped he could return quickly, and everyone wanted to play cards.

But he's still leisurely playing landlord in Xiluobu Village, and he has no intention of coming back. If he comes back, there will be no landlord to play with.

It's clear that days when you can play cards are good days, even the gods wouldn't trade them.

Chapter 164 The Final Stage

Sure enough, after teaching Nami and Karina how to play Dou Dizhu (a card game), their backs and legs stopped hurting, and they quickly resolved the problem.

"Why didn't you bring out this breakfast? If you had brought it out earlier, we would have been able to play with it much earlier these past two days."

Looking at the two enthusiastic individuals, Li Ang thought to himself, "I knew you'd react this way. If I'd brought it out earlier, you'd be doomed. I was already dumbfounded once when Dou Dizhu and Mahjong swept through the entire revolutionary army. Just how tempting are these two games? How can everyone be so addicted to them?"

However, playing cards wasn't really a problem; after all, people still needed to do their regular work when necessary. It didn't interfere with people's normal activities, so Li Ang let them be.

The two of them, like children who had received a new toy, stopped complaining and spent their days playing with the deck of cards that Li Ang had brought out.

The next day, the two even devised their own version of village rules for playing Dou Dizhu (a popular Chinese card game), allowing them to enjoy the game together. Li Ang was amazed to find that Dou Dizhu even had village rules.

After a day of searching, with almost everyone in the village mobilized, no trace of Kuro could be found. Finally, it was Li Ang who "kindly" found traces of the pirate ship landing on the beach the night before, leading people to believe that Kuro had quietly left.

To put it another way, Kro was rescued by Kaya's family back then, and worked as their butler for a year, which could be considered paying off his debt. He's probably going home now, right?

It's a bit puzzling that he left without saying goodbye, but if you explain it as not wanting people to try too hard to keep him and not wanting to experience the pain of parting, then it seems plausible.

So in the end, apart from Kaya, who was still sullen, and her few servants, everyone else returned to their normal lives and went about their business.

Usopp arrived as promised; having said he would do it, he couldn't go back on his word.

Li Ang was helpless; these people were indeed the type who never went to sea. If Li Ang hadn't reminded them, they wouldn't have even thought that Kro would go to sea.

Li Ang said to Usopp, who had been standing there motionless all morning, "Why don't you take a break? You must be tired from being so focused all morning."

Ever since Usopp learned of the hidden danger, he hasn't made a move. He remained in the same position almost the entire time, without moving an inch.

Ignorance is bliss. Although Usopp couldn't hit the target the day before, he at least dared to try shooting the iron ball. But now he hasn't made a move at all. People who don't know the situation might think he's back to the first stage.

Indeed, the second stage is the most terrifying when you get closer to success; the more confident you are, the less you dare to act. Especially when you think back to how you dared to test the waters before, now you realize it was practically suicide.

If it were an ordinary person standing there like that all day, Li Ang might have given up, packed up, washed up, and gone to bed. But this was Usopp, and Li Ang didn't believe that Usopp hadn't changed at all and had simply wasted the whole morning.

"No, I think I'm almost there," Usopp said, shaking his head.

In fact, through his observations that morning, Usopp had already mentally rehearsed the scenario countless times, thoroughly familiarizing himself with the various angles, strengths, and timings. His hesitation to act stemmed solely from fear. Indeed, simply from fear; after all, it's innate, and no matter how hard Li Ang tried, he made little progress in this area, finding it difficult to change.

"Oh? Is that so?" Li Ang nodded with satisfaction and said, "Alright, give it a try this time, and I'll see if you've changed at all."

As he spoke, Li Ang, in Usopp's eyes, performed the same action he had observed countless times: raising his gun, aiming, and firing. It was all done in one fluid motion, without a single tremor in his hand.

"Usopp, you can do it."

Usopp said to himself, then pulled back the slingshot for the first time that day, staring intently at the muzzle, waiting for the bullet to leave the barrel.