"I... I don't have enough money."Tsuru's pretty face flushed with embarrassment, her cheeks slightly burning.
Last time, she'd gritted her teeth and forked over 50,000 Berries—that was basically her entire savings.
"No money??"Klein jumped in shock, blurting out on instinct. Who could blame him? Right now, the thing he cared about most was money.
His reaction immediately turned Tsuru's face crimson, her delicate ears glowing like red jade.
Several cadets looked over. One of them, clearly a fan of Tsuru, even stepped up."Tsuru, I'll pay your registration fee!"
"No need." Tsuru wasn't one to accept charity.
Klein came back to his senses. "Write an IOU, then!"
"Pay me back after you join the Marines and get your salary."
"Mhm. I'll definitely repay you," Tsuru nodded firmly.
"Can I write an IOU too?"
"No." ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭·𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦·𝘯𝘦𝘵
"..."Klein knew the moment one person got away with an IOU, others would follow.
But Tsuru?She was the future Chief Strategist of the Marines, a Vice Admiral...
Would she ever not pay back an IOU?
Klein sized up the cadet in front of him. He couldn't match the face to anyone from the anime."Tsuru's got talent. She's definitely officer material in the Marines."
"Most of the cadets here will be officers someday," the cadet shot back.
Klein's face darkened. Talk about not giving up until you hit a wall...
He crossed his arms, a smug look on his face."So what? My money, my rules."
"You're just blinded by Tsuru's looks!" the cadet snapped, shaking with anger.
"If her looks got me, that's still her skill."Klein shut the cadet down, leaving him speechless.
Tsuru, standing off to the side, obviously knew Klein wasn't actually smitten with her. But still... this kind of special treatment—
She had her answer:'The only thing that can charm Klein...'
Getting to sign an IOU with Klein's approval—she couldn't help but feel a little grateful.
Once I have money in the future, I'll pay him back with interest.
After a long day, Master Klein returned to his dorm. The room was empty, just as expected.
The Scrapped Shipyard had already refreshed three fixed NPCs.
"Sigh... Even Garp's injured and still working hard. I can't fall behind either...""Time to launch Genshin Impact!"
You train hard? I swipe hard.Let's see who gets stronger faster!
With nearly 10 million Berries in his bank account, Klein was riding high.
Buying the daily discount packs would make that last a solid three months.
No more financial stress!
He snagged today's special offer and opened the skill pack. The fragments dropped.
"New skill unlock—nice, very nice!"
He opened his inventory.This time, he unlocked Shave, one of the techniques from Rokushiki.
Shave (Soru): Instantly stomp the ground dozens of times to generate explosive reactive force for high-speed movement.
Super fast—appearing like teleportation to the enemy's eye.
In-game, it's a body movement-type skill. It boosts evasion, agility, and comes with added attributes.
As soon as it was unlocked, Klein's mind filled with training sequences and combat visuals of using Shave—
They settled into instinct and experience.
He could use it anytime he wanted!
"No need to grind for years. Just swipe to master Rokushiki? That's the good stuff!"
"As expected, a cheat-style player like me was made for this."
"With my pathetic base talent, I'd need 8 to 10 years of hellish training to master Rokushiki, right?"
Klein knew full well—those CP agents were selected as kids and subjected to inhuman training. Only a few would make it into CP9.
They earned their Rokushiki through blood and tears...
Meanwhile, he just swiped a credit card.
"Being rich is f**king amazing!"Klein grinned."Actually, it's even better than that—cheating for a moment is sweet, cheating forever is divine!"
A hacked life...That's a real life!
No cheats?That's just—
Klein couldn't help feeling greedy."When am I gonna unlock one of those legendary gold skills, huh?"
"Like Divine Evasion or Conqueror's Haki..."
He checked his Luck stat. Only around 50 so far—he still needed more than 100 to hit the purple rare skill threshold.
And for gold-tier legendary? He was still over 900 points short.
Well, it's just a matter of time. No point rushing. Even if he had Divine Evasion now, what good would it do?
Roger was probably still stuck at home dealing with the Sea King.Maybe even getting conked on the head by some "Mountain Bandit King" right now...
After the usual cleanup tasks and gift pack sweeps, Klein arrived at the tavern for recruitment.
Recruitment complete.
For the first time, a red dot appeared next to "Can be Synthesized."
Klein opened his fragment inventory and saw a red-haired woman's portrait.
"Huh? I don't remember this one... She a real character?"
One Piece has been running for decades. The updates are slow, sometimes delayed.
At this point, people joke that they'll have to ask their kids or grandkids to burn the final volume at their graves.
So many characters—forgetting a few was normal.
He glanced at the name below the portrait:
He clicked "Synthesize" and checked her stats and description:
The Fiery Lady—Carmen of the Flame, the East Blue's Most Beautiful Chef.
"Ohhh, now I remember! She's that chef who competed with Sanji in a cooking duel, right?"The memory finally clicked. The art style was so old-school, but with a modern touch-up?
She'd definitely be one of those anime waifus with legions of fans.
"Not bad, not bad. Even if she's just a Blue-tier card, she's got the looks and she's a chef. Makes a decent first crewmate."
After all, in the game, all you had to do was level up the character and gear her up with top-tier equipment to make her battle-ready.
Klein glanced at Nami and Kuina in the recruitment banner."One Gold, one Purple... No idea when I'll pull them."
After a successful recruit, Carmen now showed up under the Cook section of his crew interface.
He equipped her with his old gear and did a quick "Refine (Enhance)."
The lovely chef Carmen now had some combat ability.
Before he could celebrate—
A popup appeared under the Pirate Crew feature:
"You've recruited your first crew member. Would you like to unlock the Crew Quarters?"
Unlocking the Crew Quarters costs 10,000 Gold Coins.
He clicked in. Inside the ship, most rooms were still grayed out—Bathhouse, Crew Quarters, Gym, Kitchen...
All needed to be unlocked.
Unlocking the Crew Quarters would allow crew members to passively gain experience while resting.
He spent 10,000 coins to unlock it. Room level: LV.1.
Just like the Training Room—dump gold in and it levels up fast.
His gold drained fast. He had to buy more with Berries through the shop:
1,000 Berries = 10,000 Gold Coins
Now rich, Klein dumped tens of thousands of Berries to level the Crew Quarters to Level 10.
Then he unlocked other facilities—all to Level 10.
Some rooms came with bonus attributes, like increased Recruitment Chance and recruitment reward boosts!
Critical rolls could drop more fragments.
Or buff the entire crew with stat bonuses.Upgrade the ship far enough, and maybe even Team Battles would unlock!
Total upgrade cost: nearly a million Berries.
In a flash, his pirate ship evolved from a rundown mess to a luxury cruiser.
"Money makes a difference!"
"Being rich is the dream!"
Klein let out a heartfelt sigh.Back in the broke days, upgrading anything...
He'd probably be clutching his bank card, sweating bullets.
When you've got money, even the stray dogs on the street deserve a sausage.
After clearing all the game's red dots, Klein suddenly felt... bored.
He paused, then muttered to himself:"Huh. Come to think of it... this game hasn't had a single event so far."
"Could it be that Earth and the One Piece world are... out of sync?"
"Did the game system crash or something?"