Starting with two Kamui, they raised the flag of rebellion in One Piece.

Why are you suddenly bringing this up?

Li Mingyuan felt a little strange, but after thinking about it, he replied, "It's just a fight with a fishman gang. What's there to think about? Pirates of this level are not unusual, let alone in the second half of the Grand Line. As for being famous in the East Blue, does anyone really feel proud to be famous in the weakest sea, the East Blue?"

"Compared to such trivial matters, I am more concerned about money right now. Although this large sum of money is a rare occurrence and feels quite good, there won't be another chance to reap such rewards in the East China Sea. I am currently short of money, so rather than retiring, I hope to find an opportunity as soon as possible to exchange the heads of more and larger wanted criminals for bounties."

"Hmph~ What an unsatisfied man."

Upon hearing Li Mingyuan's reply, Karina snorted, "You actually look down on your current reputation? Looking across the entire East China Sea, if word gets out that you said that, I wonder how many bounty hunters will target you."

"But speaking of which, what do you need so much money for?"

"Although it may sound strange, I think that the money you have now would be more than a normal person could spend in a lifetime. And as you said, there is no pirate in the East Blue with a higher bounty than Arlong. The scenario of you exchanging these bounties like this is unlikely to happen again in the East Blue. But you still want an even higher bounty for the heads of criminals. In that case, the only place where your idea can be realized is the Grand Line."

Karina sat on the box, one hand supporting her chin and the other holding a money pouch. She looked at Li Mingyuan with a mixture of probing and curiosity in her eyes and said, "What? Do you really want to go to the Grand Line?"

Upon hearing this, Li Mingyuan paused slightly.

He looked at Karina again, and unlike their previous casual conversation, this time Li Mingyuan began to carefully observe her expression.

Although Karina's seemingly casual conversation would normally make it difficult to detect any flaws, he was, after all, once the nominal leader of a nation. At this moment, he still keenly perceived the girl's disguise and realized that something seemed to be hidden beneath her words.

"At this point in time, asking about my next move and wanting to know whether my goal as a bounty hunter is fame or fortune? While the timing of the question is natural, the content feels a bit too deliberate."

"I see. So you couldn't resist testing the waters and wanted to hear my thoughts."

Li Mingyuan chuckled to himself.

I thought they were very patient, but I didn't expect them to lose their temper so soon after leaving the island.

"I've already told you before, you don't need to beat around the bush when you talk to me, just say what you want to say."

Li Mingyuan stared at Karina's face, and as his mood changed, his tone became somewhat casual as he said, "If you just want to know what my next goal is, then I can tell you that, just as you think, I will go to the Grand Line to continue being a bounty hunter and reap the heads of wanted criminals."

"But I think you're asking this because you want to know more than just my whereabouts, right?"

Karina blinked when she heard Li Mingyuan's words.

"What do you mean?"

Karina's hands clenched slightly, but she remained calm on the surface, looking puzzled as she said, "I'm just wondering why you seem so indifferent when you've achieved both fame and fortune. I was just trying to understand your thoughts, but isn't it a bit of an overreaction to think of me like this?"

"Fine, since you put it that way, I'll take it as me being nosy. But you're really strange. You can have anything you want in the East Blue, yet you insist on going to more dangerous places to make more money. I feel like being a pirate is more suitable for you. But even so, if you continue like this, it wouldn't be surprising if you died one day."

Karina shrugged and sighed, "It's a bit of a waste of all this money you have. If you die, it will definitely end up in the hands of those wanted criminals... If you really just want to die, you might as well just give me the money."

"Here you go! It's all 34.5 million Berries!"

Karina looked at the money bag in her hand with a reluctant expression and a pained expression. Then she glared at Li Mingyuan, threw it casually at his feet.

"If you ever want to enter the Grand Line but can't find anyone to entrust your inheritance to, call me beforehand. After you die, I'll find a way to steal the money back. After all, we've been to Arlong's Paradise together, so I can't just hand over Arlong's bounty to some random pirate."

"Oh? Then should I thank you?"

"Forget it. Instead of chatting, you'd be better off checking the wind direction from the lookout. At this rate, we're still a long way from returning to Cocoyasi Village. If you want to make it to tonight's banquet, get to work!"

Karina said irritably.

Seeing that Karina had veered the conversation around and brought it back to him, Li Mingyuan found it quite interesting. However, he didn't dwell on it on the surface. Some things, once brought into the open, might not be something the other party was psychologically prepared to accept.

Although the so-called life and death are uncertain, the final decision on how to handle the situation has already been made without the other party's knowledge.

Li Mingyuan didn't say anything more. Seeing Karina's tense expression, he shook his head slightly and then followed Karina's instructions, quickly climbing up to the observation platform to check the wind direction.

Seeing Li Mingyuan's performance, Karina, who was trying to remain calm, secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

"This guy's intuition is too sharp! I thought the atmosphere was pretty good just now, and he was probably happy after receiving the bounty, not paying much attention to his surroundings, so I took the opportunity to ask him. I didn't expect him to be able to detect my probing with just one sentence?"

Fortunately, she changed the subject quickly enough, and Li Mingyuan didn't delve into it; otherwise, the situation would have been much more difficult to resolve.

Karina calmly wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and continued to look at the sea view as if nothing had happened.

In reality, he didn't even dare to glance at Li Mingyuan out of the corner of his eye, for fear of discovering some flaw.

"call……"

"What should we do next?"

Karina stared ahead with a troubled expression, muttering incoherently.

Just as Li Mingyuan had figured out, Karina was indeed testing Li Mingyuan's tone, wanting to see if there was any room for her to maneuver in Li Mingyuan's future goals.

After all, you can't wait until you can't pay the ransom to start thinking about alternatives; by then, you'll be completely finished.

In addition, Karina asked the question now because she suddenly realized during the previous voyage that Li Mingyuan really knew nothing about sailing. He did whatever she asked him to do, even if there were some meaningless actions involved. Based on her understanding of Li Mingyuan, if he really knew that those actions were meaningless, he would not have done them, which means he really didn't understand.

Just like now, if she hadn't suddenly asked Li Mingyuan to do some work, and he hadn't done it as usual, she wouldn't have had this time to regroup.

"This guy, though he talks about money all the time, is completely different from me and Nami. When he actually gets the money, he doesn't show any particular joy on his face. And not only that, he's also very indifferent to material things. Although he has a lot of money, he basically just saves it up and doesn't spend it much. Otherwise, he wouldn't have boarded the cargo ship as a guard in the first place, and I wouldn't have been unlucky enough to run into him. With so much money, couldn't he just hire a ship for a solo voyage?"

"He clearly has no shortage of money and isn't interested in it, yet he still keeps working hard to earn it. If it were just about enjoying the thrill of hunting down wanted criminals, that would be one thing, but it doesn't seem to be the case. Most of those kinds of people become pirates, not like him who is still working as a bounty hunter in a roundabout way. On the ship and in Arlong Park, watching him fight with the fishmen, you can't see any enjoyment in his expression at all. When you ask him if he's about to become famous in the East Blue, he has a very bored expression. Neither money nor fame seems to have any appeal to him."

"Something feels off. Why did he even go to sea?"

Karina secretly pondered Li Mingyuan's matter.

She is currently gathering intelligence and has confirmed that even after receiving her ransom, Li Mingyuan will continue to sail the seas to hunt down wanted criminals. In other words, Li Mingyuan still has goals for the future, and he may even enter the Grand Line.

Although Karina found Li Mingyuan's behavior very strange after analysis, even the strangest target is still a target.

Whether they liked it or not, the two of them would have to collect her ransom, and they would inevitably have to sail together for some time, which she saw as a good opportunity to maneuver.

She wanted to see if she could demonstrate her value and make Li Mingyuan think she could be recruited, so that after the ransom situation went wrong, Li Mingyuan would spare her life.

"No matter what, this is the only way to survive."

Karina took a deep breath.

"If he really wants to continue sailing to the Grand Line, he will definitely need to gather a crew. Although there are plenty of people in the East China Sea who dare to go out to sea in a small, broken wooden boat, those kinds of people don't survive long on the Grand Line. Coincidentally, Li Mingyuan just realized that he needed the help of others. He didn't want to drift at sea in complete ignorance. Otherwise, he wouldn't have done whatever I asked him to do before. He has a good understanding of the dangers of sailing."

"However, from my observation, this guy seems to be a bit aloof and doesn't like to have much contact with people. If he didn't know anything about sailing, he could even be a lone wolf. Is it really possible for such a guy to gather a bunch of unknown sailors on board? I can't even imagine that scene. Given his situation, even if he were to continue sailing, he would at most gather a small group of people."

"If I can build a good relationship with him now, making him think that it's better to find familiar crew members than unfamiliar ones, then I can survive!"

She had been thinking about these things even back when she was still at Alon Amusement Park.

Unaware that Nami had already assured her of her safety, and knowing that even without Nami, Li Mingyuan would not have killed her Karina, the result of her desperate thinking was the current plan.

Karina felt that the success rate should be quite high.

Ultimately, even without this plan, she would have tried to please Li Mingyuan during their upcoming voyage. Now, she was simply trying to make that pleasing of him meaningful and valuable to him.

If Li Mingyuan truly shared the same information she had just risked to test, and genuinely had goals and plans for future seafaring, then human nature would not allow him to kill her.

Of course, if that situation were to actually occur, she would choose to accept her fate.

By solving problems on her own without burdening anyone, Phantom Thief Karina has lived a life worthy of her own.

Karina gazed at the sea and made up her mind.

On the other side, Li Mingyuan was on the observation deck, watching Karina's back as she stared blankly, seemingly lost in thought.

"That's really good."

"It's exactly the same as in the animation."

As time goes by, inevitably, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. When the last rays of the setting sun sink below the horizon, the moon hangs in the sky.

Night fell, but Li Mingyuan and Karina's pirate ship still hadn't returned to Cocoyasi Village.

At this moment, under the moonlight, Karina's figure standing on the edge of the boat with her back to him caught Li Mingyuan's eye, and he had been looking at her for quite some time.

Feelings welled up from my heart.

Sure enough, compared to fame and fortune, he is now more interested in the female characters from the original anime.

To be honest, just talking to Karina for a short while made him feel as happy as when he received the bounty, and perhaps even more so.

Every expression and change in demeanor of the other person when they spoke to him involuntarily reminded him of scenes from anime. Every minute he spent with the other person seemed to increase his level of affection for them.

"While it might be considered a bonus of memories to some extent, even putting that aside, she is a beautiful young woman. If you keep her around for a long time, you will naturally develop feelings for her."

"If there were any way to keep Karina on the ship, that would be great."

Li Mingyuan leaned against the observation deck, stroking his chin and muttering to himself.

Even if she does nothing, just being pleasing to the eye is enough to complete her mission.

Not to mention that Karina's nautical knowledge far surpasses his own.