One Piece: Red Sword - Chapter 6

After walking out of the hall, Luo Ze didn’t leave the Marine base immediately.

Colonel Art had arranged everything perfectly. He had already sent the entire base’s personnel elsewhere, so after Luo Ze killed all the Marines in the hall, there were no living people left in the base.

The outside of the Marine base looked the same as usual—nothing seemed strange.

Luo Ze began checking each room one by one.

After searching through the spacious Marine base for over ten minutes, she finally found the Marines’ treasury.

As soon as she opened the wooden door, a row of large treasure chests appeared before her.

The chests were stacked in the corners of the room, and they were all filled with Berries.

Luo Ze casually swung her sword a few times, cutting off all the locks on the chests and opening them one by one.

Stacks of green-colored Berries came into view.

She grabbed one of the chests, and as her slender fingers touched the Berries, a strange sound echoed.

The money inside the chest disappeared in an instant.

Luo Ze repeated this action until she had absorbed all the Berries, then finally stopped.

“Amount confirmed: 364,001,000 Berries.

The host now has a total balance of 510,002,000 Berries. Would you like to complete the mission?”

At that moment, a slightly mechanical voice spoke.

It sounded stiff and emotionless, but its meaning was clear.

“Complete the mission,” Luo Ze replied calmly.

She had gone through a lot of trouble to gather this much money—this was all to finish the task.

“To complete the mission, a payment of 300 million Berries is required. Would you like to proceed?”

The system’s voice asked again, confirming the next step.

“Proceed.”

Luo Ze agreed without hesitation.

She did feel a bit of heartache. She had worked hard to gather that money, and now more than half of it was gone so fast.

“Mission being completed. Please wait.”

Ding!

“Congratulations, host! Mission complete!”

“The system has deducted 300 million Berries. Remaining balance: 210,002,000 Berries.”

“As a mission reward, host receives: Upgrade Points × 500. Sword Upgrade Feature unlocked.”

The system’s voice echoed in Luo Ze’s ears.

“Open the upgrade panel,” Luo Ze said with excitement.

After working so hard, she was finally going to reap the rewards.

“Upgrade panel opened,” the system said calmly.

Right after, a blue transparent panel appeared in front of her eyes.

The panel was square-shaped, with neat text.

Each stat was clearly shown, and the system read them aloud:

Host: Luo Ze

Sword: Basic Iron Sword

Sword Skill: 200

Strength: 50

Agility: 50

Haki (Observation): Not learned

Haki (Armament): Not learned

Haki (Conqueror’s): Not awakened

Looking at the panel, Luo Ze thought for a moment.

She had 500 upgrade points now. She could use them on sword skill, strength, or agility.

Each of these stats brought clear benefits:

Upgrading sword skill made her sword techniques more refined, and at a certain level, she might unlock powerful new moves.

Upgrading strength increased her physical power and recovery.

Agility affected her speed—reaction time, movement speed, and attack speed all improved with it.

All three were important.

In simple terms: more sword skill meant more damage, more strength meant she could take more hits, and more agility meant she would be faster in movement and attacks.

Luo Ze considered it.

Her sword skill was currently at 200, and she had 500 points.

If she distributed some points to strength and agility, she could become more balanced overall.

But Luo Ze had never been someone who followed the ordinary path.

Rather than having balanced stats, she preferred to go all-in on one strength.

After a moment of thought, she used 150 points on agility.

Ding!

“Congratulations, host! Agility upgraded from 50 → 200.”

Then, she used the remaining 350 points on sword skill.

Soon, her sword skill was upgraded as well.

Now, her updated stats were:

Host: Luo Ze

Sword: Basic Iron Sword

Sword Skill: 550

Strength: 50

Agility: 200

Haki (Observation): Not learned

Haki (Armament): Not learned

Haki (Conqueror’s): Not awakened

Luo Ze nodded in satisfaction.

She could feel a significant improvement in her strength after the upgrade.

Although she hadn’t improved her “strength” stat, she was a swordswoman.

Swordswomen already had high offensive power, so with the boost in agility and sword skill, she was confident she could defeat any opponent ranked below “Commodore” in an instant.

As for someone at the level of a Commodore, it would be a 50-50 fight.

But because her strength stat was still low, she wouldn’t be suited for long battles.

“This Haki…”

Luo Ze glanced at the bottom part of the panel, looking at the three Haki types.

Unlike the top stats, the Haki options were all grayed out.

Each was marked as “Not learned” or “Not awakened,” meaning she couldn’t upgrade them yet.

Luo Ze didn’t know how to unlock Haki.

But with her current strength, she was strong enough to do whatever she wanted in the South Blue.

Even in the Grand Line, before entering the New World, many people still didn’t know Haki.

So Luo Ze wasn’t worried.

Worst case, she could just run if she ever ran into someone with a Logia-type Devil Fruit.

“Oh right, the sword.”

Luo Ze opened the “Sword” tab.

The sword she was using wasn’t anything special—just a basic iron sword.

She figured that the upgrade feature for swords would allow her to improve it step by step until it became a top-grade blade.

And her guess was right.

When she opened the sword upgrade system, lines of tiny text appeared on the blue panel.

The explanation matched her expectations quite well.

However, the cost of upgrading the sword shocked her.

It required 1,000 upgrade points to upgrade the sword even once.

“That’s robbery!”

Luo Ze felt a headache coming on.

She had just spent 300 million Berries to complete a mission, and only got 500 points from it.

And now, just one sword upgrade needed double that amount?

In other words, upgrading the sword once would cost 600 million Berries!

“Life’s not going to be easy…”

Luo Ze smiled bitterly and shook her head.

She finally understood—this system was here to drain her money.