Chapter 354: A Pirate’s Arrival at Syrup Village

Out at sea, Luffy and his crew sailed toward their next island aboard a merchant ship.

Their destination? Syrup Village!

As for Usopp, some people belittle him, while others sing his praises.

Still, Usopp is the son of Yasopp, and as a sniper his skills are nothing to sneeze at.

He does get a little too attached to the Merry, though.

Otherwise, if he can just toughen up his timid heart, most of his flaws could be fixed.

And don’t forget that people call him ‘Desperation Usopp.’

Every time things get truly dire, Usopp manages to rely on his remarkable Observation Haki to spot the enemy’s weakness and snatch victory for the Straw Hat Pirates.

“I’m a great pirate with 8,000 followers!”

“Tch, so where are those 8,000 followers of yours?”

“Yeah! Where are they?”

As usual, Usopp struck a pose on a seaside hill near Syrup Village, boasting to three kids.

“Hmph, someday I really will have 8,000 men under my command!”

“Usopp, tell us about one of your adventures!”

Though Usopp’s never left the village, somehow, maybe just thanks to his protagonist aura, he’s always able to spin tales of things that belong to a new era—like fish as big as islands.

Like when he was five, fighting the giant goldfish from the South Blue—the Island-Eating Goldfish.

He sliced that gigantic goldfish into fillets and sent it to Little People Country, and they still haven’t finished eating it. Since then, he’s been called Captain—of the Tressurosa Little People!

One of these days, he’ll even battle with Sea Kings in the Calm Belt. Or so he claims.

And surely you’ve heard of that legendary medicine! The one rumored to cure any disease… and so on.

The weirdest thing? Most of what Usopp says ends up coming true sooner or later.

Honestly, it’s probably a sign his Observation Haki has awakened, letting him catch glimpses of future events.

“U-Usopp… th-the pirates are coming!”

The kid with the watermelon-shaped head paled and shakily pointed behind Usopp.

“What? This isn’t the time for fibs!”

“No, Usopp—look!”

“Yeah, Usopp, we’re not lying! There’s really a pirate ship on the water!”

“A pirate ship? Really now, you’re just trying to trick me again, aren’t you?”

Usopp turned around, not bothered at all. The next instant his eyes bugged out of his head—then snapped back in.

“What?! There really is a pirate ship! Hurry, go warn everyone in the village! I’ll hold them off here!”

“Take care, Usopp!”

The three little ones nodded to Usopp, then dashed off toward the village, shouting that pirates were coming.

The trouble was, nobody took their warnings seriously. Everyone just thought the kids were playing around.

After all, this ‘pirates are coming’ game played out every few days. The villagers had long since tuned it out.

“Didn’t think pirates would really show up this time…”

Usopp put on his goggles and raised his slingshot, aiming at the ship on the sea.

Sensing someone’s attention, Ye Fan looked up, gazing at Syrup Village up ahead.

In just a blink, he spotted Usopp peeking from the grass.

“Looks like we’re in the right place,” he murmured.

The ship Luffy and the others were riding might have been a merchant vessel, but after Ye Fan’s modifications, it now bore a pirate flag with a skull and crossbones. No hiding who they were.

As for why the skull was only painted black and white? They didn’t have any spare dye on board. Adding color would have to wait until the next island.

“What did you say, Ye Fan?”

Luffy, busy stuffing grilled fish in his mouth, perked up at Ye Fan’s quiet comment.

As for where the fish came from, that was thanks to Ye Fan’s resourcefulness. He’d mixed up a special kind of bait that made fishing a breeze.

The scent was so enticing, even a person would be tempted to take a bite, let alone a fish.

With so much bait on hand, they never had to worry about running short on meat, which kept Luffy’s endless appetite satisfied.

“Looks like we’ve made it to Syrup Village,” Zoro announced, stretching on the deck. The bumpy trip had left his whole body feeling a little sore.

After all, this was a merchant ship—not a real pirate ship—so there weren’t any exercise equipment or training gear to use.

Day after day, his only options were swinging his blade or sitting on deck meditating with his longsword in hand.

Meditation—that was a concept Ye Fan had introduced. He’d told Zoro that all the top swordsmen meditated, and that with meditation, he could deepen his understanding of sword skills and develop even more powerful techniques.

It also let him practice his forms mentally again and again, rooting out any weaknesses and fixing his flaws.

So, after enough persuasion, Zoro started giving meditation a try.

“Ah! There’s Syrup Village, right ahead!”

“Hope we find a real pirate ship here.”

Nami was dressed in a sleeveless vest and ultra-short shorts, stretching to show off every curve of her incredible figure.

She didn’t quite have her full charms yet—it wasn’t two years later after all—but her wealth was already pretty obvious.

The main issue? This merchant ship was just too hard to steer. It was built to hold twenty people.

But now there were only four of them, so every task weighed a little heavier on each.

Ye Fan and the other two managed okay, but Nami—despite some professional training—was still an ordinary human.

She couldn’t keep up with their superhuman stamina. So although it was just a few days at sea, she was already exhausted, body and soul.

“Yosh, let’s enjoy a brand-new adventure!”

“Something exciting is bound to happen on this island!”

No sooner had Luffy said that than Ye Fan stared at him in surprise. “You never said that in the original story. But hey, maybe this really will be an interesting island.”

He remembered that Luffy hadn’t said those exact words in the original, but it didn’t really matter. The crew was about to land at Syrup Village either way.

Thunk!

With a gentle bump, their little boat docked at the harbor.

“Let’s hope we run into a proper pirate ship on this island.”

“Yeah, that ship really is too big for just a handful of us. No way we could handle it alone.”

“…”

“Who are you people?

Don’t you know this is my territory—Usopp’s territory?”

“I’m the great pirate Usopp with 8,000 followers!”

While the group was chatting, a shout echoed from the hill. The grass all around started thrashing wildly.

Ye Fan knew that voice well. It was the legendary sniper of the Straw Hat Pirates—Usopp, also called Sniper King, God of Desperation, King of Lies, and plenty of other nicknames.

“Eh?!”

“Wow! You really have 8,000 men? That’s amazing!”

Shing!

“Luffy, anyone can tell he’s making it up. But if he dares to challenge pirates, that means he’s ready to risk everything!” Zoro unsheathed his blade, pointing it at Usopp up on the hill.

Ye Fan, of course, had made some preparations if the story was heading this way.

On the way here, he’d already taught the crew how to train both Armament and Observation Haki.

He’d even added a pinch of Great Revitalizing Pill powder to their daily drinking water.

That way, their strength would steadily improve without skyrocketing them straight to vice admiral level.

Judging by Ye Fan’s calculations, by the time they reached Alabasta, everyone should be about as strong as a vice admiral.