The pirates looked at each other.
Treasures?
"From today onwards, these copper coins will be the explorer's second legal currency!"
Roger spread his arms, announcing a grand decision.
"They will be the sole standard for measuring your worth and determining your future!"
"Whoever works more, whoever performs better, will get more copper coins, and will become stronger!"
"And those good-for-nothings who slack off all day, just waiting to die..."
Roger's gaze swept over a few recently joined island women.
"You will forever be the lowest dregs on this ship!"
Roger's pyramid-scheme-like speech once again ignited these pirates, whose brain capacity was already not large.
Become stronger?
Can they become even stronger?
"Captain, how strong?"
Buck, that simpleton, was the first to raise his bony hand.
"Good question!"
Roger snapped his fingers.
He decided to kill a chicken to scare the monkeys... no, to set an example.
"Buck! Billy! You two, step forward!"
The two most loyal and brainless thugs immediately stepped out, puffing out their bare chests.
"System, give these two guys a 10,000 copper coin package each first!"
Roger silently chanted in his mind.
Received! Performing basic enhancement for crew members 'Buck' and 'Billy'... Copper coins - 20000!
The next second.
Under the horrified gaze of all the pirates, two golden pillars of light descended from the sky, precisely enveloping Buck and Billy.
"Holy crap! So hot! Hotter than my grandma's embrace, I feel like my bones are going to ignite!"
"Ah ah ah! So good! So good! I feel powerful all over!"
The two clowns danced and howled in the light pillars.
The light dissipated.
Buck and Billy stood in place, looking... seemingly unchanged.
"That's it?"
A new pirate muttered softly.
"Captain, were you scammed? We didn't even hear a sound for those ten thousand copper coins."
"Shut up!"
Roger glared at him.
He walked up to Buck, sizing him up and down.
"Buck, how do you feel?"
"Reporting, Captain! I feel great!"
Buck punched his own sternum, emitting a dull clang.
The sound was no longer the crisp clash of bones, but the roar of metal striking metal!
"Come, Hector."
Roger waved to the old pirate watching from the side.
"You try him out."
Hector raised an eyebrow, drew the saber from his waist, and swung it at Buck's forehead.
He used three-tenths of his strength in that swing.
"Clang!"
Sparks flew!
Hector felt a jolt in his tiger's mouth, and the saber in his hand almost flew out.
On Buck's large skull, only a shallow white mark was left.
Hector: "?"
All pirates: "???"
"Hahahahaha! Doesn't hurt! Not at all!"
Buck touched his forehead, then he took a deep breath, and slammed his head into an arm-thick iron stake used to secure cables!
"Thud!!!"
A huge, teeth-grinding sound!
That solid iron stake was forcibly bent into an exaggerated arc, almost breaking!
And Buck just shook his head and burped.
"Damn, that's invigorating!"
On the deck, there was dead silence.
Then, someone, no one knew who, was the first to react.
"Plop!"
He rushed towards the nearest mountain of copper coins, like a dog guarding its food, burying his face in the coins, frantically digging them into his arms.
"Mine! All mine! No one is taking them from me!"
This one action instantly ignited the entire scene!
"All of you, get the hell out of the way! These copper coins are mine!"
"Anyone touch them and see what happens! I'll rip your bones out!"
The pirates went mad!
They looked at those copper coins they once despised, now with eyes hotter than if they had seen Elizabeth stripped naked!
Of course, they had never seen her, they could only imagine.
They fought in a melee, willing to break each other's ribs for one more copper coin.
Inside the Captain's Cabin.
Elizabeth and Yumi looked through the window at the "all-out brawl" caused by the copper coins outside, and both women fell silent.
"Miss Swann, Lord Lin... he... who exactly is he?"
Yumi looked at Roger's god-like back, her voice full of awe and adoration.
Elizabeth did not answer.
She just stared intently at the frenzied pirates, then looked at the man whose face was calm and composed, as if everything was under his control.
For the first time, her heart wavered.
Perhaps... following this devil wasn't such a bad thing after all?
Roger watched with satisfaction as these "excellent employees" frantically competed for KPIs.
He cleared his throat.
"Silence!"
Instantly, all fighting stopped.
"From today onwards, the explorer will officially implement a performance appraisal system!"
"We're going to raze the rest of Sam's territory!"
"All spoils of war will be converted into copper coins according to contribution and distributed to each of you!"
"Want to become stronger?"
"Want to be superior?"
"Then work yourselves to death!"
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