"William, you cut the meat. And you..." Alistair pointed at the tall and thin man, "What's your name?"
He quickly bent down and bowed respectfully, saying, "My name is Wood, 'Long Arm' Wood."
Alistair glanced at him. His arms were indeed long, much longer than his legs. He might have been called "Long Arm" in his hometown, but in the Grand Line, especially in the latter half, where Longleg Tribe and Longarm Tribe people appeared, his nickname was quite laughable.
Of course, their configuration wouldn't last more than two or three islands. They wouldn't usually reach the latter half of the Grand Line.
"Wood, you saw the bread." Alistair assigned him a task.
"Okay," he replied respectfully and obediently, picking up a small saw and starting to saw the bread.
That's right, saw. These loaves of bread were all made of coarse grains, and the crust was deliberately baked to be harder to prevent spoilage. So, the bread looked black on the outside, and you had to saw it in half to eat it.
And not everyone got a whole loaf of bread. Most people only got half a loaf and a little bit of salted meat.
But this time, Alistair was in charge of distributing the bread.
The only thing he had to do was be fair.
Actually, most people in this world knew that there was no fairness, no absolute fairness. Alistair knew this too.
But in a small environment, especially with so few people now, he could achieve relative fairness.
For example, with food and alcohol.
The pirates lined up in a crooked line. Because the deck wasn't long enough, they even lined up all the way to the stern. But they were all quite excited.
At sea, don't expect hot soup and hot food. The Straw Hat Pirates were an anomaly. They were lucky to have meat to eat. Most of the time, it was dry bread.
This time, because they had entered the Calm Belt, everyone had lost hope of getting out alive. Captain William even implemented a rationing system. They halved their food and water, and the lower-ranking pirates got even less.
Now, they were very satisfied to be able to eat meat and drink rum.
And Alistair stood on the third table, distributing rum to them.
He would pull out the corks of the rum bottles, ensuring that they would drink it immediately, not hide it somewhere or have it stolen by someone.
On a pirate ship with over a hundred people, management was a big deal. Most pirate captains would learn how to manage their crew without a teacher, even inciting them to fight each other so they could benefit. And some stupid captains would get involved themselves, creating conflicts among their crew. When all the conflicts were directed at him, he would have to leave the crew or be killed.
Of course, in the world of One Piece, brutal pirate captains would attract a group of equally brutal pirates. For example, the crew of East Blue Admiral Krieg. This was a process of assimilation from top to bottom, because anyone who didn't agree with their values would be ostracized, either leaving on their own, being killed in battle, or being executed by their own people.
In the end, only a group of like-minded people remained.
Alistair knew what kind of people they were. These scoundrel pirates had tasted violence and it was difficult to eradicate. But discipline was something used to restrain violence.
As they took the rum from Alistair, they didn't express any thanks or gratitude. Their eyes were all fixed on Marguerite behind Alistair.
Marguerite's attire was quite bold, with the wildness typical of female pirates. She wore bright red lipstick, smoked a cigarette, and wore an open jacket, with nothing underneath, as if you could see something you shouldn't if you looked too closely. She wore a small, leather miniskirt that only covered the front and back, and it seemed like she was wearing something underneath, but maybe not. Her long legs were adorned with black stockings, constantly attracting the attention of the pirates who had been driven crazy.
And her height was also unusual for a normal person in the Kuja Pirates. She was about 1.7 meters tall, which was just right for most people's tastes and aesthetics.
Although she was holding a cannon, she hadn't fired it before. She looked nonchalant, smoking a cigarette. If they weren't afraid of the Kuja Pirates' revenge later, they would have probably dragged Marguerite into the cargo hold and done unspeakable things to her.
Marguerite knew what they were thinking, even what they would do to her, but she was still nonchalant. She knew how brutal these pirates could be to the weak, so they were just as brutal to the pirates.
She was still thinking about the management model Alistair had mentioned.
She decided to watch carefully to see if Alistair could really tame this bunch of trash.
If he really could...
Her gaze shifted from the distant horizon to the man distributing rum. Maybe he...
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After they had eaten and drunk their fill, Alistair suddenly stood on the table and said loudly, "Alright, lads, you've all had your fill, anyone want to get some exercise?"
"How do you want to exercise?" The pirates, full and content, lazily hid in the shadows to avoid the scorching sun. Not many were willing to respond, but some bold pirates who were already bored to death started to heckle.
"I've been training recently, and I need a worthy opponent. Among you, the weakest one, come and fight me." Alistair took off his jacket, revealing his well-proportioned upper body, and spoke to them.
He had never slacked off on his training, but as a human from Earth, his physique was simply not as good as the humans in this world. Sometimes, the simplest things could tell you. Among the Celestial Dragons' slaves, the women could easily lift a table, and those men of various races could crush him with a single pinky finger.
But that was at the Celestial Dragons' side. The combat power of those who appeared later in the story, those around the Celestial Dragons, was already considered mid-range.
Later, on Amazon Lily, he encountered all high-end combat power with a Haki foundation. Naturally, he couldn't humiliate himself.
But these ordinary pirates were the most representative of the average level and combat power of pirates.
Now, he was very curious to see how much of a gap there was between himself and these "grunts" among the pirates.
The entire ship was silent for a few seconds, then a burst of laughter erupted.
"He wants to fight the weakest one!"
"Hahaha... Is he that unambitious?"
"This guy, he knows himself well!"
"Hahaha, Todd, go on!"
"Don't, don't joke, I'm not the weakest..."
The pirates instantly erupted. The entire ship was filled with joyous air.
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