# Chapter 329: Don't Pick Your Nose in Front of Others
Bora was dressed quite lightly, wearing a floral print suspender dress, and her chest was quite ample. When she had been leaning over the bar just now, she had naturally given Ian a clear view.
As Mr. 1's partner, she was second only to the company's boss in status. And in this remote, godforsaken place, days would go by without a single customer. Running a business here was impossible, but it was extremely suitable as a contact point. So Bora had been maintaining this contact point here. As for the wardrobe malfunction, of course she had done it on purpose. It was rare to have such a young guy come by, so she naturally wanted to tease him a bit for some fun.
But who would have thought that Ian's single sentence would deal her ten thousand points of critical damage?
Bora hurriedly reached out to cover her chest, but when she touched it, she found that nothing like what Ian had said—a pad falling out—had happened. She immediately realized she had been tricked!
"You!" Bora gritted her teeth and glared at Ian, then crossed her arms and sneered, "Not romantic at all, little brother. Acting like this is going to get you into trouble, you know!"
"Ha!" Ian didn't care at all. He was amused by Bora's panicked reaction of checking her chest just now. He had only said it casually, but seeing her reaction, could there actually be padding!?
However, he didn't dwell on the issue. After taking a sip of his coffee, he spoke up: "Actually, I came to Alubarna to find an organization called Baroque Works!"
As he said this, Ian kept his eyes fixed on Bora. But to his surprise, this woman had excellent acting skills. When she heard the name Baroque Works, neither her expression nor her eyes showed any change at all.
She crossed her arms coldly and said, "Want to buy information? Sorry, given your rude behavior just now, little brother, I'm afraid you won't get anything from me."
Taverns, cafes, and such places usually allowed you to pay for information. After all, these service industries dealt with many customers daily, and customers chatting often revealed something worth noting. Bora's café occasionally did this kind of business too, charging a hefty fee. So when Bora heard Ian's words, she immediately thought he wanted to buy information from her.
But forget about Ian's joke just now—what Ian wanted to inquire about was Bora's own company. How could she possibly sell that kind of information to him?
Hearing her say this, Ian wasn't surprised either. He just smiled and said, "Is that so? I was thinking that if I could find out, I might try to join this Baroque Works!"
This was something Ian had suddenly thought of just now. Even if he knew that the real boss behind Baroque Works was Crocodile, just showing up at the casino didn't guarantee he would achieve his goal!
Because Crocodile was naturally suspicious and trusted no one. Even his own senior officers didn't know his true identity as the boss; they only addressed him as Mr. 0. And if he remembered correctly, Crocodile was publicly known as the hero of Alabasta! Before he revealed himself as Mr. 0, no one knew that this Warlord of the Sea was the real boss behind the organization.
So if Ian just showed up, Crocodile would probably only meet him as a Warlord of the Sea, not as the boss of Baroque Works!
There was a difference between the two. Don't forget, Nico Robin was a major wanted criminal of the World Government. Before figuring out Ian's true intentions as a fellow Warlord of the Sea, if Crocodile didn't appear as the boss of Baroque Works, he might hide Robin away and not let her meet Ian.
If he couldn't see Robin, Ian's goal would be unachievable... unless he knew Robin's whereabouts and went directly to her. But did he know Robin's whereabouts? Of course not!
Who knew if Crocodile had sent Robin somewhere on a mission at this time?
So the relationship was quite delicate. Ian felt that he needed to make Crocodile understand that he had already discovered the inside story of Baroque Works, forcing him to come out as the boss to meet him. That way, he could legitimately see Robin.
It was like two people playing hide and seek. Ian was the seeker. Since Crocodile, the one hiding, was well concealed and couldn't be found, the best way was to bluff him out by shouting, "I've already seen you!" or something like that.
So Ian casually said he wanted to join Baroque Works, to see if there was a possibility of finding Crocodile through this internal channel.
Hearing this, Bora finally showed some surprise. She asked, "What did you say? You want to join Baroque Works?"
"Yeah!" Ian nodded very seriously.
"Who are you?" Bora looked Ian up and down. "A bounty hunter?"
"I used to be a pirate hunter, but now... I'm a pirate!" Ian tapped his sword hilt to show Bora.
Bora finally became serious. She took off her black-rimmed glasses, crossed her arms, and coldly asked Ian, "Leave your identity aside for now. First, tell me, how do you know about Baroque Works?"
Baroque Works, well, quite a few people in Alabasta knew about it. After all, such a large organization couldn't leave absolutely no trace. But Bora still wanted to confirm where Ian had learned about Baroque Works' existence. Regardless, they needed to guard against people like Marines infiltrating the organization, so some screening procedures were necessary.
"How do I know?" Ian's eyes darted around as he said, "I killed someone before. Before he died, he threatened me, saying that if I dared to mess with Baroque Works, I would die a horrible death!"
Bora sneered and said, "Indeed. Daring to mess with Baroque Works, you really have some nerve!"
"So!" Ian spread his hands and shrugged. "I'm a coward. Afraid of retaliation, I thought I might as well join Baroque Works. That way, there won't be any trouble, right?"
"..." Bora was speechless. What kind of bizarre reasoning was this?
However, Baroque Works was indeed a large organization. Besides the senior officers, there were also underlings like Million Leaders and Billion Leaders, numbering several thousand people. Pirates who came to join were usually assigned to these underlings. As long as they were under the control of the senior officers, the more such underlings, the better.
So after thinking it over, Bora took out a business card and handed it to Ian, saying, "Then take this card and find the person on it. He'll tell you how to join Baroque Works!"
However, to her surprise, Ian took the card, didn't even look at it, and casually tossed it behind him.
"What are you doing!?" Bora slammed the table angrily.
Ian curled his lip and said, "The person on that card is probably some small fry, right? You want me to start from the bottom? Sorry, I don't have that kind of patience. If I'm joining Baroque Works, I'm definitely starting as a senior officer!"
"Joining and wanting to be a senior officer right away!?" Bora looked at Ian like he was an idiot. "Have you lost your mind?"
"Is that not allowed?" Ian smiled. "I heard that in Baroque Works, the stronger your strength, the higher your position. Is that false?"
"Oh!?" Bora also smiled. "Then what position do you think your strength can get you?"
Ian rubbed his chin thoughtfully and said, "I figure I could at least make it to the boss's position!"
Bora's mouth fell open as she stared blankly at Ian, then suddenly burst out laughing.
She held her stomach, laughing so hard she couldn't straighten up. After a long while, she wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and said to Ian, "Alright then, little brother who can become the boss. Since you're a pirate, can you tell me what your bounty is?"
"No!" Ian shook his head. "I'm afraid it might scare you!"
Just then, the café door creaked open, and a disdainful voice came through: "What could possibly scare anyone?"
Ian turned to look and saw a man and a woman entering the café. The man had messy hair, wore sunglasses and a trench coat, while the woman was dressed quite cutely, holding a beautiful parasol.
Oh, this is... Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine! Looks like this place really is a Baroque Works contact point.
"Bora, two coffees!" Miss Valentine said to Bora as she walked in, while Mr. 5 had a smug look on his face as he stared at Ian.
He walked over, also leaned one hand on the bar, and bent down to say to Ian, "Little brother, were you the one talking just now?"
Bora covered her mouth with a smile, pouring coffee as she chimed in, "Yeah! This little brother just said his bounty might scare me. So scary!"
As she said this, Bora pretended to pat her chest in mock fear...
"A pirate?" Mr. 5 began picking his nose with his pinky finger and said to Ian, "Kid, I don't care what your bounty is. Now get lost. We have things to discuss!"
Ian looked up at him, but happened to catch sight of this guy picking his nose. Feeling disgusted, he waved his hand impatiently and said, "Get lost! I'm trying to drink something here. Do you want to make me sick?"