Walking along the streets of the Royal Capital, Su Xiao kept an eye on the shops lining both sides until a shop called Dulu Grocery Store appeared in his sights. He stopped.
This was exactly the place he had been looking for. Su Xiao walked into the poorly run grocery store.
"Eh? Guard Captain, the shop paid the security fee three days ago. Why~?"
The grocery store Manager looked at him as if he were a plague god. Apparently, the Guard Corps had squeezed him dry on a regular basis.
"I'm not here to collect the security fee. Do you have a plant like this...?"
Half an hour later, Su Xiao left the grocery store with a smile. The Manager enthusiastically saw him to the door. It seemed Su Xiao had bought quite a lot of things.
Killing the Master of Mt. Colubo would be anything but simple.
Based on Su Xiao's memories, that tiger was at least several times the size of an ordinary tiger. It stood around four or five meters tall and was a complete monster.
Su Xiao did not go straight into the wilderness to search for the Master of Mt. Colubo. Instead, he returned to the Guard Corps Headquarters first.
After wandering around the Guard Corps Headquarters for a while, Su Xiao arrived at the warehouse where supplies were stored.
With Ogre dead, the Guard Corps was now leaderless. In only one morning, the Guard Corps had already begun to show signs of forming factions.
Hank's trusted aides and Oke's two trusted aides had each formed their own faction and were secretly battling for supremacy.
The incineration of Terminal Station would take place tomorrow night, so the higher-ups had to choose a new Guard Captain today. Otherwise, it would affect the bigger plan.
Amid this chaos, Su Xiao easily slipped into the warehouse. After remaining there for some time, he left the Guard Corps and headed toward Mt. Colubo.
Looking at the city gate in the distance, Su Xiao recalled that he had infiltrated through this very gate before. Now, leaving the city was incredibly simple. He only had to walk forward openly.
When those Gate Guard Corps members saw Su Xiao, they nodded at him and let him pass without asking any questions.
After passing through the city gate and going by Terminal Station, Su Xiao saw a vast forest. This was Mt. Colubo, where Luffy, the protagonist of the original story, had grown up.
As Su Xiao entered the forest, he clearly felt that the air here was fresher, carrying the scents of various plants. Some unknown birds kept chirping on the branches, while gentle herbivores occasionally moved through the vegetation, showing little fear of humans.
Although Mt. Colubo was beautiful, it was equally dangerous. Fierce beasts often appeared here, and ordinary people did not dare venture deep inside.
Walking through the deserted forest, Su Xiao kept one hand on the hilt of his sword. He appeared relaxed, but was actually alert to every stir in the surroundings.
The dense forest around him was not suitable as Su Xiao's hunting ground. He needed an open space.
The clearing did not need to be large, but it had to meet two requirements.
First, it needed a water source. The Goa Kingdom was located on an island, and water shortages were common on islands. Thus, Mt. Colubo did not have many water sources either. As long as he found one, his chances of finding that Giant Tiger would increase greatly.
Second, the clearing needed to be covered with vegetation. That would make it more convenient for him to set up traps.
Of course, the trap Su Xiao planned to set was not simply a pit meant to lure the Master of Mt. Colubo into falling inside.
The soil on Mt. Colubo was not especially hard, but for a creature of such enormous size, the pit walls would inevitably collapse unless they were reinforced with cement. Once that happened, it would be a dead end, and there would be no escape.
The location Su Xiao wanted for setting up his trap was not easy to find. However, after searching painstakingly for three hours, he finally found terrain that satisfied him.
It was a clearing surrounded by trees. Green grass grew thickly across the ground, along with wildflowers of various colors that gave off a faint fragrance.
After smelling the flowers, Su Xiao furrowed his brows. The floral scent might affect his plan to some extent, but it had both advantages and disadvantages. It could conceal the smell of certain items he placed.
Taking a shovel from his storage space, Su Xiao removed his shirt and began digging a pit in the clearing~.
Two hours later, Su Xiao hid in a large tree near the clearing. The place looked completely normal, except for a few dried fruits casually scattered across the ground.
Sweat dripped down Su Xiao's cheeks. With his upper body bare, his well-trained muscles were exposed. They were not exaggerated, but instead appeared exceptionally smooth.
In fact, men covered in bulging muscles were not well suited for combat. Powerful muscles did increase strength, but they also affected speed and flexibility, which was highly disadvantageous in battle.
Su Xiao had tested this before. He had gone to a famous boxing gym and sparred with the strongest combat instructor there.
According to Su Xiao's estimate, that combat instructor, whose entire body was knotted with muscle, possessed at least twice his strength and had an extremely fast punch.
Yet after only five minutes, the combat instructor, who was said to have won a city-level free-fighting championship, collapsed on the ground and kept twitching. His miserable groans even aroused the sympathy of some female students.
Su Xiao trained in killing techniques, while that combat instructor practiced how to compete. There was a fundamental difference between the two.
If rules were imposed, Su Xiao might not be his opponent. But if the two fought to the death, Su Xiao could kill him within two minutes.
After seeing Su Xiao's physique—around 1.8 meters tall and not particularly muscular—the combat instructor had said, "There's no need for rules in a spar." Thus, his tragedy had been inevitable...
Su Xiao sat on a thick tree branch, holding the Worn Flintlock in his hand. The gun still had three bullets.
Su Xiao had previously tried to load the gun, but Reincarnation Paradise had warned him that, because the gun was severely worn, reloading it might damage the entire weapon and render it unusable.
This was probably a restriction, because Su Xiao had picked up the gun rather than obtaining it from a Treasure Chest.
After opening two white Treasure Chests, Su Xiao had gained a rough understanding of some of Reincarnation Paradise's rules.
Items obtained through Treasure Chests were basically rule-based items and could be taken out of the One Piece World. Items picked up or acquired during missions, however, only had a certain chance of being taken out of the One Piece World, such as the Dragon Slayer Flash at his waist.
After some preliminary investigation, Su Xiao reached several conclusions.
The partial datafication of living beings only served as a form of guidance. For example, the concept of his strength increasing from six points to seven was a very direct indication that he had grown stronger.
As for things such as health points, they could not be quantified precisely. At most, they could be calculated by percentage. It would not be a situation where he slashed once and the enemy lost a specific number of drops of blood.
The health bars appearing above enemies' heads were mainly used to display their vital signs. The more health the bar lost, the weaker the enemy became.
After suffering a fatal injury, however, an enemy would die directly. Even if they still had 100% of their health remaining, the health bar would be emptied in an instant, followed by death.
The datafication of equipment and items was even more interesting.
For example, Su Xiao could understand the durability and additional attributes of the Dragon Slayer Flash at his waist. As for its attack power of 5–16, that referred to the weapon's sharpness and striking force.
An item's rating was the most important data. Its value could be seen directly from its rating.
After several battles, Su Xiao understood that although the world was partially datafied, that was only to make estimating strength more convenient. Reality still governed everything, and there was no gamification.
Partial datafication existed to display his strength and the value of his items more intuitively.
This was the greatest assistance Reincarnation Paradise had given Su Xiao.
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