Chapter 8: Sword Flight

“My great sword…”
Garen gritted his teeth and muttered, “It’s been stolen!”
At last, clarity returned to him: moments ago, he had been chatting amiably with a thief.
He cast his gaze around—everywhere was bustling crowds, shops and houses pressed together in tight clusters.
Such lively, crowded places were the perfect environment for someone to disappear without a trace.
On Garen’s system interface, there was a game minimap that could display the avatars of humans within a thousand meters.
But there were simply too many people; trying to find Nami this way was futile.
Moreover, given Nami’s agility, she had surely vanished without a trace by now…
“Damn it!”
Garen was so furious his mind reeled.
Without his great sword, he was as helpless as Tahm in the torture hell, as Lee Sin after a spinal injury, as Gragas drinking featherweight liquor…
He was practically a cripple.
“Is this even possible?”
Garen complained bitterly to the crashed system in his mind:
“What happened to the data-driven mode? How could Garen’s great sword get lost?”
Such a thing could never happen in the game…
For a digitized game character, weapons and armor were inseparable parts of the self;
No matter how fierce the battle, it was impossible for a weapon to slip from his grasp and fall to the ground.
Yet the system remained frozen, offering no response.
“Sigh…”
Garen let out a helpless sigh:
“It seems this data-driven mode still has to bow to reality…”
It made sense, after all…
Garen was a real person; he couldn’t expect his sword to be glued to his hand forever, could he?
“If I’ve lost my great sword, how am I supposed to play Garen? Should I switch jobs and become Bluefist?”
He couldn’t help but grumble inwardly:
“Couldn’t you at least give me an equipment retrieval function? This is my exclusive weapon, you know!”
What Garen didn’t realize was:
At the very moment he thought this, something extraordinary was happening on the other side of the town, thousands of meters away.
…
The little cat burglar, Nami, clutched the great sword tightly, weaving swiftly through the crowds.
She knew she’d shaken off the tin can, but still refused to slow her pace.
Her destination was the dock, where her little boat awaited, ready for a quick getaway.
Her victim was still on the island; only by escaping with the loot and sailing out to sea could Nami feel safe.
As she darted through alleys and streets, Nami calculated rapidly in her mind:
Hidden in her boat was the two million Beli in cash she’d recently stolen from the Steel Blade Pirates…
And this extraordinary great sword in her arms, even sold cheaply, would fetch at least twenty million Beli from a weapons merchant in Loguetown…
Her goal of one hundred million was within reach!
…
The trampled Cocoyasi Village, the villagers enslaved by Arlong…
A jubilant yet weighty smile appeared on Nami’s face.
For that brief moment, all her hopes for a beautiful future were condensed into the great sword she held.
But just as she neared the dock, ready to embark on the journey that would save her homeland…
The great sword in her hands suddenly moved—on its own.
“What’s going on?”
Nami stopped abruptly, stunned.
She felt the sword tremble in her arms, then an invisible force pulled it skyward.
The pull was irresistible, as if fate itself had come to claim the sword.
“No! Absolutely not!”
“This is my sword!”
Nami gritted her teeth, tears nearly spilling from her eyes.
She clung to the restless sword like an octopus, refusing to let go.
But the great sword still soared upward, taking Nami along, finally turning into a streak of light across the sky.
Nami didn’t fly for long—the destination wasn’t far…
The great sword returned automatically to Garen’s hand.
“It actually flew back by itself?”
Garen stared in astonishment at the sword’s hilt.
He hadn’t expected his great sword to have a recall function, much like Thor’s hammer.
What surprised him even more was that there was an orange-haired girl stubbornly wrapped around his sword.
Nami clung tightly to the broad blade, dangling from Garen’s hand like a string of candied fruit.
The sword had flown so fast, the sudden acceleration left her organs shaken and her body trembling uncontrollably.
At this moment, Nami resembled a kitten stuck high up a tree, adorable yet pitiable.
“Well now…”
Garen couldn’t help but give her a wicked grin:
“Isn’t this my runaway little girlfriend?”
…
“There’s a girl flying in the sky?!”
“Is she sword-flying?!”
“So cool!”
Even in a world teeming with superhuman pirates, the power of flight was rare.
For residents of the weakest East Blue, such a spectacle was unheard of.
Nami, soaring on the sword, instantly became the center of attention amid the bustling town.
And at that moment, a group of fierce men took notice.
Each man bared his chest, displaying knotted muscles and elaborate tattoos; their gleaming steel blades and menacing demeanor declared they were not to be trifled with.
They were pirates—the Steel Blade Pirates, notorious in East Blue.
Their captain, known as “Steel Blade,” specialized in wielding a steel saber, and had a bounty of ten million Beli.
Such an amount was enough to strike fear in the heart of any East Blue resident.
…
Steel Blade and his crew had terrorized East Blue for years, committing every imaginable crime, and few dared cross them.
Steel Blade himself was powerful but simple-minded; when enraged, he would even take on pirates with higher bounties.
Just recently, Steel Blade and his crew had fought fiercely to snatch a huge haul from another infamous pirate.
That pirate’s bounty was fifteen million Beli—five million more than Steel Blade’s;
Moreover, he was a rare Devil Fruit user in East Blue, far too strong for Steel Blade to face directly.
But with luck and cunning, the Steel Blade Pirates managed to steal valuable treasure from right under his nose.
Defeating the strong with the weak and gaining the upper hand was something to boast about.
If this victory were publicized, Steel Blade’s bounty would surely rise, bringing him closer to the coveted title of East Blue’s ruler.
But then…
They foolishly fell prey to an orange-haired girl…
The treasure Steel Blade had risked his life to steal—worth more than two million Beli—was swiftly pilfered by Miss Nami’s deft tricks.
Such an offense could not be forgiven.
Feeling insulted, Steel Blade pursued Nami’s escape route, tracking her to Samwell Island.
“Is that brat really here?”
Steel Blade, who had invested all his stats in violence and none in intellect, barked impatiently at his crew.
He had no interest in shopping with his men—robbery was more his style.
The navigator wiped the sweat from his brow and replied nervously:
“She’s definitely on this island!”
“The direction she fled points straight here. Plus, this is the largest supply point along the route—perfect for hiding…”
“The thief is here for sure!”
But the hot-tempered Steel Blade couldn’t calm down, waving his saber and cursing:
“So where is she?!”
His blade was itching for action.
Suddenly, the crowd stirred…
“Boss, found her!”
A lackey shouted excitedly: “I see the girl thief!”
“Found her? Hahaha…”
Steel Blade’s face twisted into a savage, cruel grin, his saber flashing coldly in the sun:
“Excellent!”
“Today I’ll show that wretched thief what it means to have nowhere to run…”
He hadn’t even finished his threat when…
The lackey, trembling, pointed to the sky nearby, his tongue twisted:
“T-the thief…”
“Is up in the sky.”