Chapter 223

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In the blink of an eye, it has been two months since Abel arrived at the Grand Line to assist Trébol.

The Sea Circle Calendar of 1507 has already become the past, and now we are in the brand new year of Sea Circle Calendar 1508.

It also means that it's been almost two years since Abel and Law joined the Donquixote Family.

Thinking about it, time really flies fast.

In these two months, Abel didn't stir up much trouble, just routinely cooperating with Trébol to defend several islands for the family.

His daily tasks consisted of eating, training, randomly picking a short-sighted pirate crew to bully (depending on the opportunity), and then sleeping soundly, feeling refreshed.

He couldn't say if there were many new-rookie pirates who ended up with bounties on their heads because of him, but the number had surpassed twenty.

That's about one every three days!

But in reality, it was more frequent in the early days, and then gradually lessened over time.

So much so that now, the two islands he mainly managed had rumors circulating in the small pirate circles – that there's a handsome young devil who often lurks on these islands, specifically targeting pirate crews who have just arrived at the Grand Line.

Moreover, his methods are extremely vicious, never leaving any survivors.

And some meddlesome people even gave this 'devil' a nickname, calling him the Rookie Killer!

They labeled those two islands the Rookie Graveyard.

When Abel heard this, he almost spat out a mouthful of blood in anger.

Goddamn Rookie Killer and Rookie Graveyard.

Of course, these rumors were only circulating within a certain range. If you put them in context with the entire Grand Line, they were just minute news.

No, you couldn't even consider them news; they were merely indistinguishable rumors.

And such rumors, countless spread across the seas every year, most people just laugh them off and don't take them seriously.

Adding to this were always a few hard-headed kids who didn't believe in curses and wanted to challenge this 'Great Devil' specialized in dealing with 'rookies', so Abel was far from being unemployed.

Probably when the Donquixote Family's flag could protect an entire island as effortlessly as the Four Emperors do, there would be no need for all this hassle.

All Abel needed to do was wait for Doflamingo to come over and take over, which wasn't far off.

Inside the mansion, Abel was standing bare-chested in the snow, swinging an enormous barbell as part of his sword-swinging training.

The custom-made barbell cut through the air, letting out a whooshing sound, quite menacing.

Not far from him, Baby-5, wearing a cute bunny hat, was happily building a snowman.

Perhaps because she was away from Doflamingo, she finally changed out of her unchanging maid outfit into beautiful new clothes befitting her age.

While training, Abel was also busy pondering in his head.

He began to summarize his gains over the past two months.

Firstly, regarding the system.

He had completed 4 more intermediate wish orders, all requesting various odd items.

Luckily, the basic requirements were relatively simple; the real challenge was the optional content.

Leveraging the family's resources, he managed to obtain parts of it, securing 4 three-star ratings and accumulating a total of 6000 trade points.

As for the optional content, he didn't manage to fulfill any.

Abel realized that without completing the optional content, even if he perfectly completed the basic requirements, he wouldn't be able to reach a four-star rating, let alone the fivestar praise he had yet to encounter. (Referring to the intermediate wish orders)

But sometimes, these optional contents could truly only rely on luck.

For example, Edward Elric wanting a Philosopher's Stone.

Where the hell was he supposed to find a Philosopher's Stone?

If he had such a thing, would he really trade it?

He guessed though, that if he could indeed procure one, maybe there would be hope for a five-star rating.

But that was impossible.

After four system store refreshes, he purchased several items, some of which were quite interesting.

Item: [Mini Pull-People Rocket Launcher] (Blue)

One-time use item

Description: A trifle toy made by some great inventor on a whim, nothing noteworthy.

Effect: Strapping it onto one's head allows pulling someone into the sky upon activation; theoretically, it can reach outer space, but it's not recommended to try.

Price: 500 trade points

Amount:

PS: Damn, it feels like my head's gonna pop off! I want a refund!

Item: [Order Clearing Card] (Purple)

One-time use item

Description: System-produced, guaranteed quality!

Effect: Upon use, it sets the content of the current prayer order to default completion status, but the host will not receive optional rewards. Effective only for intermediate prayer orders.

Price: 1000 trade points

Amount:

PS: Do you truly understand the meaning of this card?

Item: [Item Transworld Temporary Access Card] (Purple)

One-time use item

Description: System-produced, guaranteed quality!

Effect: Grants a one-time item transworld transfer privilege, allowing the selection of any item in the system's inventory to be sent to the host's soul consciousness location.

Price: 2000 trade points

Amount:

PS: I can see you really don't understand, huh?

Item: [Venus's False Arm] (Blue)

Special item

Description: This is the arm of a woman, smooth and vital, even warm to the touch; its owner is unknown.

Effect: Never decays

Price: 500 trade points

Amount:

PS: Congratulations, now you truly possess a 'fifth girl'.

The [Mini Pull-People Rocket Launcher] is essentially a metal ring connected to a small rocket.

Before use, place it on your head and then press the launch button to fly.

The principle is simple: you are pulled into the sky by the rocket!

Only those with a tough enough head dare to use it!

Both the [Order Clearing Card] and [Item Transworld Temporary Access Card] are system-produced; Abel would purchase them regardless of the price if they bore this label.

After some analysis, he concluded that the former could be used on prayer orders aiming for five-star reviews.

Without completing the optional content, the highest rating would just be three stars.

But what if the optional content was set to completed by default?

Even without optional rewards, succeeding in a five-star rating would definitely be a huge win!

Of course, it wouldn't be easy, even without the optional content in the way.

Abel immediately used the latter after the purchase.

This meant that whenever his consciousness went to other worlds to fulfill prayer orders, he could transfer any item from his system inventory there.

Despite the high cost of the transfer, Abel was willing to pay it only when necessary. This valuable trump card could potentially help him turn the tables and secure five-star reviews.

The last item, [Venus's False Arm], was bought as potential trade merchandise. If it could be used, it would bring a significant profit; otherwise, it was an investment to be held onto.

These purchases cost Abel a total of 5000 trade points.

Then, looking at his diminishing lifespan, he gritted his teeth and bought 10 [Red Hearts], increasing his remaining life to a two-digit number and alleviating his sense of urgency.

With this spending spree, the 6000 trade points he had painstakingly earned over two months were instantly drained!

Fortunately, he had some savings left, with 4340 trade points remaining, and together with the accumulated number of prayer orders issued over the months, he should be well-prepared for any difficult contingencies.