A New Storm Has Appeared

"Holy shit! Awesome!"

Kael, with his limited vocabulary, once again let out the most primitive expression of amazement.

Clearly, his game system had been altered beyond recognition because of his transmigration.

He had never seen a game mechanic where spending Beli could level him up.

Still, all in all, it was a good start.

At the very least, it showed that his system had functioning features.

And that made Kael look forward to his system even more.

"As long as I keep recruiting crew members, I can increase my combat power?"

"Since the [Captain] interface has changed like this, have the other interfaces changed too?"

After closing the [Captain] interface, Kael once again used his mind to select [Inventory].

Unfortunately, there was no novice gift pack he had been hoping for inside. There was only an unlimited storage space capable of holding system items.

"The inventory hasn't changed at all."

Slightly disappointed, Kael continued exploring.

He opened the [Companions] option.

What greeted him was a blank screen.

Even the sole [Cultivate] button was currently grayed out.

That was perfectly normal. After all, he did not have a single companion yet.

Following the usual game progression, he had only just logged in. He had not even started the beginner tutorial.

Leaving the [Companions] window, Kael opened the fourth panel, [Shipyard].

This time, something different finally appeared.

A brand-new pop-up window sprang out.

[Please select the ship to bind...]

Below the text was a sailing ship cruising across the vast ocean.

Kael's pirate flag, which he had just upgraded, fluttered from its mast.

There was no doubt about it.

This was the ship Kael was currently aboard.

He used his mind to tap the model of the sailing ship, and another new window abruptly popped up.

[Please enter the pirate ship's name ______]

"No way! I have to come up with another name!?"

For some reason, perhaps because the earlier interface had traumatized him a little, Kael now developed a headache whenever he saw a screen like this.

More importantly...

He was terrible at naming things!

Whenever he played games, he always used whatever name the system randomly generated for him.

"Let me think..."

He stroked the stubble that he had shaved off that morning but had already started growing back, putting on a thoughtful expression.

If the shipyard function had not mutated and still followed the game mechanics, then once he activated it, his ship should automatically give birth to a ship spirit.

Although in the game, the ship spirit merely guided players through the controls, who knew what it would become in the real world?

So he had to be extremely careful with this name.

Yet for someone bad at naming things, being careful was nothing more than a waste of time.

The first thing Kael thought of was the famous ship girls from his previous life.

A pirate ship transforming into a ship girl to repay the crew for their love sounded far more enduring than some ship spirit.

Unfortunately, those ship girl illustrations were way too kawaii. They simply did not fit Kael's tastes.

So he could not even remember the name of a single ship girl.

After thinking for five minutes, he ultimately gave up on naming his pirate ship after a ship girl.

"A real man should ride the wind and break the waves, doing what men are supposed to do! Women only slow down the speed at which I name things!!!"

After finding himself an excuse, Kael decided to abandon those overly feminine names.

As he remembered, whether it was Roger's ship or Whitebeard's ship, both seemed to have rather masculine names.

He could imitate them.

"A more macho name..."

Kael continued searching through his memories.

But before long, some strange names began endlessly bursting forth from his mind.

Younger Toguro, Yujiro Hanma, Jotaro Kujo...

Just imagining himself spending every day with people like that made Kael's ass clench.

"Hmm... Macho is good, but you can't overdo it."

"I should... think of a slightly more normal name."

Kael subconsciously began examining his ship.

When his gaze settled on the captain's quarters he had just established, he immediately remembered that there was still a valuable Devil Fruit in his inventory that had not been eaten.

"Come to think of it, when sailing at sea, the power of the Storm-Storm Fruit seems pretty important."

"Not only can it control the ship's direction, it can also fend off natural disasters."

"My second uncle really has taken such meticulous care of me."

"Why not just call the pirate ship Storm or Tempest?"

"It's a little cliché, but it actually sounds pretty good."

"Eh, wait..."

A flash of inspiration suddenly crossed Kael's mind.

It was muscle memory.

After thinking of the word "storm," an impassioned lyric suddenly surfaced in his mind.

[A new storm has appeared, how can we stop moving forward!]

[Crossing through time and space.]

[Giving it my all.]

[I will come to your side!]

"Come to think of it, I remember there seems to be an Ultraman card set in the gacha pool..."

"Maybe I really can get an Ultraman crew member in the future!"

"With Ultraman's overwhelming strength that spans the universe, forget tearing through the pirate world with ease—even then, he'd at least be one of the strongest in the world!"

"Then, for a good omen, my pirate ship shall be called Tiga!!!"

With a thought, the words [Tiga] immediately appeared at the top of the pop-up window.

At that moment, Kael's world seemed to turn into a beam of light.

Of course, that did not mean he had actually become light.

Rather, the game's shipyard function had officially activated.

A brand-new, exquisitely designed page suddenly appeared in Kael's mind.

The first thing that caught his eye was the pirate ship's information panel.

[Tiga]

[Level: 0]

[Experience: 0/10]

[Facilities: 0/1(+)]

Just like the captain's information panel, with a thought from Kael, a detailed explanation of the shipyard system immediately popped up.

[Ship Level: The ship's size, hull durability, and number of facilities it can carry will all increase as the ship's level rises. ()]

[Experience: Spend 1,000,000 Beli to gain 1 point of ship experience.]

[Facilities: Rooms with special abilities that can make the pirate crew's adventures go more smoothly.]

"Hmm... The shipyard system's mechanics are no different from when I played the game."

"However..."

Kael pondered aloud.

His eyes immediately fell upon the description for ship experience.

Unlike the captain information panel, where he only needed to spend Beli in the system to gain experience for his captain level...

The ship level required Beli to be consumed directly.

Kael currently had a total of 50 million Beli in cash. That was enough to raise the ship one or two levels, while also raising his captain level a little.

However...

"Money can wait. Let's see what the gacha system has first..."

Good steel had to be used on the blade.

Fifty million Beli was neither a lot nor a little. He had to spend it carefully.

And judging by the usual nature of mobile games, this system would definitely become a bottomless money pit in the future.

With so little starting capital, Kael had to plan carefully.

In the game, the system divided items into six ranks, from E to S.

E-rank was the worst, while S-rank was the strongest.

And all of these items came from the game's gacha function.

Upon opening the [Gacha] option, another familiar interface appeared before Kael.

Three gacha machines of different colors and effects appeared in sequence before him.

From left to right, the first light-blue gacha machine was called the [Normal Gacha Machine].

As its name implied, it was the lowest-tier gacha machine in the system. Most of its prize pool consisted of ordinary E-rank items, with a small chance of obtaining high-quality D-rank to A-rank items.

The second one, orange in color, was called the [Premium Gacha Machine].

Although its prize pool was extremely similar to the Normal Gacha Machine's, its guaranteed reward had become a D-rank item.

Its highest prize had also become top-tier S-rank items.

But this thing was like a lottery ticket.

It merely told you that such a grand prize existed.

As for actually winning it?

Heh...

The final gacha machine had an even more impressive background.

The name [Legendary Gacha Machine] alone was enough to make people yearn for it.

Not to mention the golden light constantly flashing around it.

In the Legendary Gacha Machine, the worst possible reward was a B-rank item, while the odds of obtaining an S-rank item were greatly increased.

And unlike the first two gacha machines, the Legendary Gacha Machine had a pity system.

Every ten pulls guaranteed an S-rank item.

However...

After briefly learning about the three gacha machines, Kael directly shifted his gaze to the first two, as though he had not even seen the Legendary Gacha Machine.

There was only one reason.

—He was broke!

As the highest-tier gacha machine in the game system, a single pull cost a full 100 million Beli!!!

Although for a transmigrator with lofty ambitions, 100 million Beli was not an impossibly huge amount.

At least for the current Kael, though, it was not something he should be considering.

But even the first two gacha machines were not easy to deal with.

The Premium Gacha Machine cost 10 million Beli per pull.

The Normal Gacha Machine cost 1 million Beli per pull!

One million Beli...

In Cocoyasi Village, that was enough to buy ten months of an adult's lifespan!

And according to Kael's memories of the game, the Normal Gacha Machine's prize pool was mostly filled with worthless stuff like Master Roshi's cane, Little Chef's cooking utensils, Demon Slayer Corps uniforms, Hinata's cheongsam, and Bulma's underwear.

In the game, the system could still recycle those items in exchange for some Beli.

But in the real world, who would recycle that junk?

"Sigh... I hope this gacha machine becomes a little more generous after transmigration."

No matter how terrible the game's items had been before, Kael still decided to spend some Beli to explore the prize pools of these post-transmigration gacha machines.

Just as that song said:

A new cash-grab has appeared, how could I not pay up~