201. Arm Wrestling

Buggy sees a small arm wrestling competition on the street and gets interested. He joins it without thinking twice because it seems fun. There are many people who join it and they need to pay 100 Belly.

After waiting for 6 minutes, the competition starts. There are 19 contestants here and they'll play with a knock-out system. 16 contestants are Fishmen while the other 3 are humans. The 3 humans are pirates like Buggy but he doesn't know them.

Then it started and Buggy go against one of the human pirates. He defeats the guy easily, their strengths are too far apart. The other matches also finish soon and now there are 10 people left because 1 of them didn't have an opponent before.

Buggy faces a Tuna Merman and wins again, but now he acts as if it's difficult to make the show more interesting. He wins the next matches with 'hard' effort and wins by a 'small' margin. The Fishmen even think that he is lucky.

He finally gets in the final and faces a muscular Orca Fishman. It makes him rather confused though because Orca isn't fish, it's a mammal. But it lives in the water, so maybe it's also a fish. It's too complicated, so he ignores it.

"You are strong, human. I've been doing this kind of competition many times and it's the first time I face a human in the final," says the Orca Fishman.

"Hoo, it seems you've won many times," says Buggy.

"That's right, I am the champion of Fishman Island's arm wrestling. I've won hundreds of arm wrestling competitions in Fishman Island and never get defeated," says the Orca Fishman proudly.

"Is that so? Then, how if we make a bet?" asks Buggy.

"Interesting, what kind of bet?" asks the Orca Fishman.

"If you win, I will do anything you ask. But if I win, you will join my crew and go to New World," says Buggy.

"Fine, let's do it," says the Orca Fishman without hesitation.

"Good, everyone here is the witness. I'm Buggy," says Buggy as he places his hand on the table and gets ready.

"I'm Siman," says the Orca Fishman.

Both of them get ready and then the match starts. They push each other's hands as 'strong' as they can. But they look equal and no one budges from their position. It surprises the Fishmen audiences, but they all are getting excited because this match has gotten more interesting now.

Buggy & Siman push each other but none of them goes down. Every time they get pushed, they will push back, but they still can't push their opponent all the way down. Their hands just go back and forth many times.

They look to do their best to win and it makes the audiences hyped. The audience cheers on both of them regardless of their differences in race. Then after some minutes, Buggy 'finally' wins after Siman gets very tired.

The audiences are very happy by such an exciting match. Even though Siman lost, but the Fishmen audiences aren't disappointed because the match is very exciting. Siman isn't too disappointed too even though he lost because it's been a long time since he has such a match.

"Well then, I'll wait for you on my ship. We will sail in 3 days, so prepare your stuff," says Buggy while acting tired.

"Hahaha, alright, see you in 3 days, Captain," says Siman without raising a fuss.

Buggy takes the prize money and leaves with his group. They return to their ship because it's almost dark now. No one in the group says anything until they get rather far from the crowd.

"Captain, why were you acting as if it was a difficult match?" asks Elen.

"The Fishmen are proud of their strength that is said to be 10 times of humans. If I defeat their champion easily, then they will think that I cheat. They might also think that I wanted to embarrass them. So I acted like that to avoid trouble. Besides, it made the match more exciting and give us more profit, right?" asks Buggy as he looks at Jude.

"Yes, I've won some bets and we get 10 times of what we bet," says Jude while showing the money she gets.

"Sigh, the last one seems to be the real reason," says Dela.

The group reaches their ship in 17 minutes and some crew members also have returned. Mantis has returned earlier and has cooked for them. But they can't eat until everyone returns and they don't need to wait long.

At night, Buggy gathers the executives and tells them that they'll stay for 3 days. He also tells them to try recruiting some people while they spend their time here. Fishmen are naturally strong, so they can be a good addition to their crew.

"Well, having many types of people in our crew is good because that makes things more interesting for us. Anyway, have you found Tom-san's brother, Palu?" asks Buggy.

"Yeah, I've found Den-san and have asked him to coat our ship. He will do it some hours before we left. The coating method here is different from the one in Sabaody. They don't use tree sap but use special corals that produce bubbles, so it will finish fast. For now, he will prepare the floats that will pull us to the surface," says Deon.

Buggy nods and they talk about their plan in New World. It will just be a few months before they attack Kaido on Wano. So they really need to plan it well so they won't lose. They've made the plan, actually, but they need to talk about it once in a while to improve it based on their condition.

"I think our first priority is still raising our strength before the war. That's why we really need to recruit more people. But training the new members in the remaining time might be rather difficult," says Cricket.

"Strength won't be a problem from now on because it's easy to find strong people in New World. The problem is their loyalty, that's the main problem with most pirates in New World," says Buggy.

"Loyalty is not an easy thing to get everywhere, but it's very important. Sigh, I guess we can only do what we can with the recruitment. We need to focus more on strengthening the ones who are in our crew already. It's good if we can get new members, but it's not a problem if we can't," says Cricket.

"You're right. The number isn't a big problem. Anyway, Enel, how's the progress of the thing that I've asked?" asks Buggy.

"It's good, we can start tomorrow. I've adjusted the strength to match each one's level so no one will die," says Enel while smirking.

"What are you talking about?" asks Palu.

"I think it's pant-," says Buggy before a flying ladle hits his skull head.

"It's not panties, but something better. Enel, try to improve it before we depart. We will do this after we leave Fishman Island so I will tell you before that. Please wait for it with anticipation," says Buggy, who doesn't explain it clearly.

The others are curious, but they don't ask again and just wait. Then they talk more about their plan in New World. Their target is not any pirate crew, after all, so they need to be serious.

They might've lost some crewmates, but that's a risk for everyone who becomes a pirate. Still, they want to make the casualties as low as possible. That's why they need a good plan and make their crew stronger.

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