Awakened the System, with Nothing but Gratitude in His Heart

[Task completed]

[Reward settled: 7 Essence]

Ruidio had first helped the fat woman subdue Nami, then helped Nami by pushing the fat woman away and making her let go... The whole back-and-forth was utterly baffling. The diners in the restaurant and the crew members who had rushed over all stared in dumbfounded silence.

"What was that about?"

Nami was finally free. Thoroughly annoyed, she rubbed her aching wrist and sighed. "The one who stole from you was your bodyguard. The look in his eyes when he lunged at me just now... Huh? Where did he go?"

The fat woman had still been glaring at Ruidio, but at those words, she froze and looked back. Only one bodyguard was pinned beneath her, while the other... Someone in the crowd pointed toward the restaurant exit leading to the outer deck, where the other bodyguard was sneaking around.

"He's trying to escape in the chaos!"

"We're at sea. Where does he think he can go?"

"Who cares? Catch him!"

Whoosh!

A streak of cold light spun past the bodyguard's eyes.

Clang~~! He nearly ran face-first into an icy blade, making his hair stand on end. It was a long sword with a white hilt that had come flying through the air. It quivered slightly where it had embedded itself in the wall of the restaurant cabin, blocking his path.

In the crowd, Ruidio's hand was still extended from throwing the sword. He muttered to himself, "That's strange. I was clearly aiming at his leg."

The thieving bodyguard tried to run around the sword, only for a sword hilt to come smashing toward his face.

Bang!

Blood sprayed from his nose as he fell.

The woman with glasses raised the sword and pointed it at Ruidio in the crowd. "Liar! And you said you didn't have this sword?"

Nami murmured, "Could he really know magic?"

Chapter 2: Awakened the System, with Nothing but Gratitude in His Heart

Ruidio had awakened his system two years ago, and his heart held nothing but gratitude (palms pressed together).

Here in the weakest of the seas, the East Blue, he was an orphan with no Marine hero for a grandfather, no Devil Fruit delivered to his door, and certainly no extraordinary talent passed down through generations...

If he hadn't awakened this so-called task system, Ruidio, a transmigrator who knew just how deep the waters of this world ran, had already planned to row to the peaceful Foosha Village and enjoy an early retirement.

In the One Piece story before he transmigrated, there was not only the Sun God Nika, but also the super-devil Imu, as well as a Rain God, a War God, Loki carrying "Thor's hammer"... With all those gods fighting, our teacher Kaido, the Strongest Creature, looked like a raw recruit by comparison.

But since he had awakened a system, that changed things...

If Straw Hat could venture across this sea, why couldn't he?

Hmph!

Ruidio made up his mind and found a small place right away. He devoted himself to training and building his strength while familiarizing himself with his system cheat.

Just like that, two years passed in the blink of an eye.

[Name: Ruidio]

[Overall strength: ★★]

[Mastered: running (mastered), swimming (proficient), Basic Physical Techniques (beginner), Shimotsuki Swordsmanship (first glimpse)]

In just two years, Ruidio had gone from having no foundation at all to training hard enough for the system to rate his combat power at two stars.

Ruidio was both satisfied and dissatisfied with those results.

Though he didn't dare compare himself to the king of two-hundredfold effort, he had gone from being casually sent flying by Moss Head with a single swing of a wooden sword, to slowly being able to trade a few moves with him, and then gradually reaching an even match with him and often beating him to the ground. That sense of accomplishment was a delight.

But lately, he had always felt uncomfortable in every way.

For example, he knew for certain that he could now carry around five tons and move as swiftly as ever, but when he threw a punch himself, he struggled to deliver the force he should have been capable of.

It was as though his nervous system, that of an ordinary Earthling in his previous life, still hadn't adapted to the beastlike body he had trained in this life. He couldn't fully recruit the several tons of force now stored in his body from his muscles.

It was stifling and frustrating!

After asking Moss Head and his master for advice to no avail, Ruidio turned his eyes to the sea.

Find an opponent of suitable difficulty and have a real fight with real weapons!

Perhaps his understanding of how to use his strength would improve.

Ruidio casually procured a small fishing boat and put out to sea, heading for his destination. He also did some system tasks along the way.

One of the most basic functions of his task system was a [task radar], which had three chances each day to search for random tasks.

What kind of task it found, how far away it was, and how difficult it was were entirely up to chance.

If a task was suitable, Ruidio would take care of it along the way.

The clients of tasks found by the radar couldn't unilaterally abandon them, which was very convenient. But for this kind of task, he had to find the client matched by the system before he could accept it, which was a bit of a hassle.

Over the past year or two, quite a few radar tasks had accumulated on Ruidio's system task list that he had yet to complete, or even successfully accept.

By comparison, tasks triggered on the spot when someone gave him a verbal commission or hired him with money were more straightforward.

[Task in progress, client: Tony Tony Chopper]

[Task in progress, client: Bonney]

[Task in progress, client: Yurika]

[Task in progress...]

[Unaccepted task, client: Nico Robin]

[Unaccepted task...]

[Completed task, client: Hiriluk]

[Completed task, client: Shimotsuki Koshiro]

[Completed task, client: Roronoa Zoro]

[Completed task...]

At the port a few hours ago, Ruidio had been looking at his system task list just like this as he followed the orange-haired girl in the crowd from a distance and boarded the passenger ship Kira.

Now, a few hours later, his task list had gained two more insignificant entries, with the fat woman and Nami as their respective clients, along with a reproach from the bespectacled swordswoman:

"Liar! And you said you didn't have this sword?"

"Why don't you take a closer look?" Ruidio was speechless.

"Still trying to lie? Look at this tachi mounting with its white-lacquered scabbard, and this beautiful straight temper line... Huh?" The bespectacled swordswoman leaned closer to examine the sword embedded in the cabin wall. "Why does it have an irregular temper line?"

She hurriedly took a booklet from inside her clothes and flipped rapidly through the pages, muttering, "Wado Ichimonji should have a straight temper line..."

"Is that your illustrated guide to Famous Swords?" Ruidio asked curiously. "May I have a look?"

Nami came over too. She glanced at the furious rich woman beating up the thieving bodyguard, whose face was covered in blood from his nose, and asked casually, "Are you a swordswoman? That's rare!"

The woman with glasses answered, "Yes. My name is Tashigi, and I'm a Marine. I love the swords made by these master smiths, so... I've been terribly rude!"

She apologized to Ruidio and handed him her booklet of Famous Swords, then couldn't resist asking, "May I take a closer look at your..."

"It's called 'Malevolent Shrine.' Go ahead."

Ruidio took the booklet.

His system was roughly divided into three modules.

The [personal information] module contained information such as his current overall strength, mastered abilities, system inventory, and task list, as well as some related applications.

The [tasks] module was the simplest. It was just a [radar] icon that could search three times a day for random tasks at near, medium, far, and extremely far ranges.

As for verbal commissions and paid employment, those were hidden mechanisms of this module. After Ruidio figured out those two functions, he had taken plenty of initiative during his two years in Shimotsuki Village, finding ways to create tasks even when there were none.

The third module was a [Three-in-One] interface.

Basically, any item could be put into this Three-in-One system.

It was called Three-in-One, but in fact, either two or three items could be fused into a new one.

If he put in just one item and added some [Essence], the item could be repaired to varying degrees.

When the Essence added equaled the system's assessed value of the item, it would directly [duplicate] an identical item.

The system had no shop, no lottery, and certainly no Deep Blue for adding points.

The only means of recovering Essence seemed to be this Three-in-One function.

That raised a question: could Devil Fruits be duplicated?

If he threw in two or three Devil Fruits, could they be fused into a brand-new one?

Ruidio had yet to encounter a Devil Fruit, but he was very curious about the answer.

As for Tashigi mistaking his sword for Wado Ichimonji, that was only natural.

His Malevolent Shrine had originally been created in Shimotsuki Village by repeatedly using Three-in-One to fuse various swords forged by the Shimotsuki Family. Naturally, its style bore some resemblance to the Great Grade Sword Wado Ichimonji.

The 12 Supreme Grade Swords: Ace, Yoru, Shodai Kitetsu, Murakumogiri, Black Sword Fire Line...

The 21 Great Grade Swords: Wado Ichimonji, Nidai Kitetsu, Shusui, Enma...

The 50 Skillful Grade Swords: ...

Skillful Swords...

Ruidio briefly leafed through Tashigi's booklet and couldn't help laughing.

The makers of all the Famous Swords in this "Famous Sword Manual" were either members of the Fugetsu, Uzuki, Amatsuki, or Shimotsuki families, or Tenguyama, the alias of a Kozuki Family swordsmith.

Everything really did originate in Wano Country.

"This sword is better than any I saw in Loguetown... It certainly isn't inferior to any of the Great Grade Swords, and it's no worse than Wado Ichimonji..." Tashigi handled Malevolent Shrine fondly, unable to put it down.

While she wasn't looking, Ruidio tossed the "Famous Sword Manual" in his hand straight into slot 1 of the system's Three-in-One module. A number immediately appeared in slot 2: 2.

The book was only worth 2 Essence.

Ruidio casually put 2 Essence into slot 2 and immediately duplicated the book, slipping the copy into his system inventory without a hitch.

[Remaining Essence: 720]

[System inventory (2/2): small fishing boat; one copy of the "Famous Sword Manual"]

Yes, this damned system's inventory was divided by the number of slots.