The System: Here I Come!

Other than that precious Devil Fruit, the Navy—or rather, Kizaru—had specially approved 50 million Berries in startup funds for Kael, along with a Sea Prism Stone short gun of the latest model from the Navy's scientific research division and a fine-grade sword named Frost.

It had to be said.

Although Kael's current strength was probably only on par with a pirate worth ten million, with such excellent equipment and the power of a Devil Fruit, it was more than enough for him to dominate the East Blue.

This kind of send-off treatment was something only Kael, Garp's own nephew, could enjoy!

Kael had not wasted these three days either.

Through the Navy's powerful intelligence network, he had carefully studied the regional map of the East Blue.

Not only had he found Goa Kingdom, the hometown of Navy hero Garp, but he had also located the islands and exact positions of Shimotsuki Village, Cocoyasi Village, and Syrup Village.

Unfortunately, Zoro had already left Shimotsuki Village by then, and no one knew which corner of the East Blue he was lost in.

If he could pull that freak onto his ship, Kael's road as a spy would definitely become much easier.

In the original story, Zoro would not appear in Shells Town until a year later.

But now that Kael, this butterfly, had appeared, no one could predict what the future would bring.

Not even Kael himself.

Because even now, he still had no idea what exactly his system was!

"The newbie package from the locals is already this generous. I hope my personal system can pull its weight too!"

Staring at the unchanged system interface before him, Kael muttered quietly.

The merchant ship from Marineford had far more power than an ordinary civilian merchant vessel.

Its massive hull was like a sharp sword, cutting through the waves as it headed toward the Red Line.

Having already bought a ticket to his destination, Kael would disembark at a port beneath the Red Line that had an elevator. He would then take the elevator up the Red Line, ride a vehicle across it, arrive directly at the port on the East Blue side, and transfer again.

Since these were civilian facilities, the whole process would take at least three full days.

Fortunately, Kael did not find it boring.

Just being able to see the Red Line's walls and elevators—things that had only existed in anime setting materials—with his own eyes was enough to leave him awestruck.

"As expected, the impact of the real world is something pictures could never convey!"

Curiosity gleamed in Kael's eyes.

After leaving Marine Headquarters, his true nature had gradually started to show.

All that melancholy and gloom had completely vanished.

If everyone traveling with him had not looked so tense, worried about running into a passing Celestial Dragon, he might have even asked the driver to stop so he could find a spot to carve something like "Kael was here."

But even the most magnificent scenery would eventually grow tiresome.

He drifted at sea for more than twenty days.

After a journey that had lasted nearly a month, Kael finally arrived at the destination of his trip—Aksi Island in the East Blue!

There was a large shipyard on this island.

It was said that over seventy percent of the fifty massive warships belonging to East Blue Commodore Krieg had come from here!

Before setting off, Kael had already used the Navy's covert contacts in the East Blue to order a ship here.

Since the bill had gone through the Navy, Kael did not know how much the ship had cost in total.

More than twenty days had passed since he placed the order, so the ship should have just been completed.

At Aksi Island's port.

Relying on his name, Kael was quickly led by the staff to the ship that belonged to him!

It was a medium-sized sailing ship, slightly larger than the Going Merry from the anime.

Two decorative cannons had also been installed above the ship's deck.

After all, anyone familiar with the pirate world knew how useless cannonballs were.

Anyone who had spent enough time at sea had some move to deal with cannonballs, right?

But...

After personally experiencing the sensation of firing one under the staff's demonstration, Kael still cried out:

"Holy shit! That's awesome!"

After taking a full look around his ship, Kael immediately and impatiently had the staff sail it out of the dock.

Though he fumbled around a little, with his superhuman physical strength and the manual that came with the ship, he still managed to get it out onto the sea.

After briefly exploring it, Kael immediately claimed the room on the highest level of the deck as his captain's cabin. Then he sat down right on the floor and began rubbing his hands excitedly.

"Next comes the exciting part!"

"System daddy, you've been fishing for so many days. Isn't it time to reel in the net today?"

First, he pulled the pirate flag he had prepared long ago from his backpack.

On the pitch-black canvas, a skull with lifeless eyes and an ashen expression fluttered in the wind.

This was the pirate flag Kael had designed based on the appearance of his predecessor, and it had already been registered with Sengoku.

Along with it came the name of his pirate crew!

That was right.

Even before leaving Marineford, Kael had already decided on the name of his pirate crew...

The Dusk Pirates!!!

It sounded fairly ordinary, but the more one thought about it, the more flavor it seemed to have.

What the crew was called was not really important to Kael, who had already spent seven days naming things in the system.

It was just that after learning he was about to become a spy, he suddenly thought of an anime he had watched before transmigrating, called Spy x Family.

So he borrowed the codename of the show's male lead, the greatest spy "Twilight," for the name of his pirate crew.

He hoped the name would bring him some luck.

Now, the pirate crew's name, pirate flag, and pirate ship were all in place!

Everything was ready but the east wind!!!

After hanging the pirate flag from the mast, Kael had not even had time to do anything when the system in his mind suddenly popped up a notification window.

[It has been detected that the host has created his own pirate crew. Would you like to bind the "Dusk Pirates"?]

[Confirm] or [Reject]

"Huh? It's this smart?!"

Kael froze in the middle of pulling the rope, then a delighted smile immediately appeared on his face.

He hurriedly used his thoughts to press the [Confirm] button in his mind.

In an instant!

The naming interface that had plagued him for so long finally turned into gray mist and dispersed to either side.

A brand-new game interface suddenly appeared in Kael's mind.

"It's here! It's here!"

As the familiar yet unfamiliar screen appeared in his mind, Kael's heart instantly began pounding wildly.

He forcefully suppressed the excitement in his heart and carefully examined the system interface to see whether it had changed after his transmigration.

To be fair.

Compared to that third-rate mobile game, the system in his mind was undoubtedly much simpler.

At the very least, all those pop-ups and options that constantly appeared to trick players into spending money had vanished.

But in truth, this was not good news for Kael.

After all, getting an S-rank Tsunade who could both fight and heal with a six-yuan first top-up was the kind of deal one could not find even with a lantern!

"It looks like the game's functions have changed quite a bit after transmigrating."

Kael sighed thoughtfully.

He had an inexplicable premonition...

The system's changes might not be as simple as removing the pay-to-win pop-ups.

At the moment, the interface had five lit basic options: [Captain], [Backpack], [Companions], [Shipyard], and [Gacha].

Following the order, Kael first opened the [Captain] option.

A brand-new pop-up window immediately appeared.

On the left side of the screen was a three-dimensional image of Kael, identical to how he looked at that very moment.

Kael waved his hand, and the "Kael" on the screen immediately made the same movement.

The 3D image could even be rotated a full 360 degrees through thought, with no blind spots.

"Hmm... not bad! I won't need to buy mirrors anymore!"

"I like this feature!"

After curiously examining his 3D image, Kael shifted his gaze to the right side of the screen.

There was a row of information panels about "Captain" Kael.

[Captain: Kael]

[Level: 0]

[Experience: 0/10]

[Total Combat Power: 0]

[Skills: None]

"...That really is a completely bare newbie panel, but..."

Looking at his status panel, Kael frowned in confusion.

"Even if I'm only trash-tier right now, I'm still trash-tier from the Grand Line. My combat power shouldn't be zero."

"And what's with this skill bar? I don't remember captains having skills in the game."

As if it had noticed Kael's doubts, the information panel suddenly flashed. Then several smaller pop-up windows appeared one after another, explaining his questions.

[Experience: For every 1 million Berries spent in the system, the captain gains 1 experience point.]

[Skills: Each time the captain levels up, one skill belonging to a random character from the total card pool will be drawn.]