Though I Don't Know What You Were Expecting, This Is Reality

As he spoke, Dick the bandit charged head-on at Li Mingyuan, who was rushing straight toward him.

Compared with Li Mingyuan, who was unarmed and carrying two inexplicable ropes behind him, Dick held a large blade and had the greater reach. At this speed, if they collided head-on, his blade would undoubtedly reach the other man's head first.

No matter what, he had no reason to back down!

That was what Dick the bandit firmly believed.

But just as he raised his blade and charged, he did not know whether it was an illusion, but for an instant, the tomoe in those strange red eyes of his opponent seemed to spin...

Was it an illusion?

"Haaah!"

With a furious roar, Dick swung his great blade at Li Mingyuan's neck.

Everything happened exactly as he had anticipated. His blade's reach was far greater than his opponent's.

Under his unblinking gaze, his blade indeed struck first, solidly chopping into the other man's head.

The sight instantly filled Dick with wild delight.

"I did it!"

Li Mingyuan's head spun continuously through the air, rolled several times after landing, then hit the ground with a thud.

Laughing loudly, Dick lowered his blade and turned to look behind him.

"Ha ha ha ha! Boys, did you see that?!"

"I avenged my brother!"

He looked at the other bandits, ready to say a few more words.

But for some reason, he suddenly realized that every one of them was staring at him in terror.

As if he had done something utterly absurd.

"Y-you... What's wrong with you? Why are you looking at me like that?!"

Before Dick could react any further,

he suddenly heard running footsteps behind him.

He hurriedly turned around, only to discover that the man whose head he had just chopped off was now racing toward him at incredible speed, still holding those ridiculous ropes in both hands.

What was going on?

Had he been dreaming just now?

With no time to think, Dick clenched his teeth and gripped his great blade tightly.

Whether that had been an illusion or something else, since the man was still standing before him, all he needed to do was swing his blade and kill him again.

There was nothing to panic about!

Recalling the sensation of cutting off Li Mingyuan's head moments ago, Dick unconsciously revealed a sinister smile.

"Haaah!"

He roared again, his muscles tensing as he fiercely swung his great blade forward once more.

With the feel from his previous strike still fresh in his mind, Dick even felt that he had performed better this time.

His entire body seemed to have merged with the blade. The weapon was an extension of his arm; wherever his arm swung, the blade cleaved in that direction.

Faster, sharper!

A flash of steel streaked through the air as the blade went straight for Li Mingyuan's neck.

"Ha ha ha ha! Idiot, I told you, anyone who sets their sights on my head—"

"What?!"

Before Dick could finish speaking, a shocking scene unfolded.

His great blade actually passed straight through the man before him, striking nothing but air!

"—That's impossible!"

Dick blurted out.

Yet just like his younger brother before him, the unexpected miss threw Dick off balance, and he staggered violently.

Because he had put his entire body into the swing, he was in an even worse state than his brother. The great blade flew from his hand and chopped into a nearby fence.

Even so, Dick could not stop himself from stumbling forward.

But while his blade had missed, the ropes in his opponent's hands were still held tight!

As he passed Li Mingyuan, Li Mingyuan raised both hands and forcefully pulled the ropes taut.

"Ugh!"

The crossed ropes instantly bound the burly man, who was still moving forward from inertia.

Caught off guard by the impact, Dick was even cinched so tightly that the ropes bit into his body, producing an explosive crack.

Boom!!

Dick dropped to his knees, unable to breathe for a moment as his eyes rolled back.

Only then did Li Mingyuan turn back to look at Dick.

He slowly walked over, tightening the ropes further and securely binding the bandit with a bounty of ten million Beli.

"And with that, it's over."

Looking down at the bandit sprawled at his feet, Li Mingyuan wore an appreciative expression.

"For a mere bandit, you actually dared to charge straight at me. That courage is worthy of praise."

"...Though all your efforts were futile before these eyes of mine."

As Li Mingyuan spoke, the great blade that had been flung away and embedded in the fence gradually turned into a phantom and vanished.

In its place, a great blade gradually emerged from the dirt near where Dick had been standing when he turned to look at the other bandits.

Of everyone present, no one besides Li Mingyuan knew what the bandit leader had actually done just now.

To everyone else, when Li Mingyuan launched his surprise attack, Dick had thrown away his own blade in full view of everyone. Then, while unarmed, he had charged headlong forward in the posture of swinging a blade, only to crash directly into his enemy's ropes.

It was all utterly unbelievable.

And this was the Sharingan's second ability besides perception.

—Genjutsu.

"I didn't expect it to work on the first try."

"Not bad."

Li Mingyuan savored the battle he had just fought.

So far, aside from the Mangekyō Sharingan, he had tested every basic accompanying reward provided by the system. The Sharingan's perception and Genjutsu, as well as the chakra and taijutsu enhancements, had all worked well.

Even he had not expected his attempt at using the Sharingan's Genjutsu to succeed on the first try.

He had originally thought it would fail like the Rasengan had.

After all, Genjutsu essentially worked by disrupting the opponent's chakra. In theory, it was ineffective against creatures without chakra, much less natives of One Piece, a world with no concept of chakra.

But in the Naruto world, so-called chakra was a product refined by mixing physical energy and spiritual energy.

In the manga, there had also been many instances of Genjutsu affecting ordinary civilians, animals, and other creatures incapable of refining chakra. So theoretically, as long as a target possessed a mind and body, Genjutsu could potentially work on it.

Now that Li Mingyuan had tested it in One Piece, he had successfully confirmed that it really was effective.

The effect was simply much weaker than it had been in the Naruto world.

"Whether it worked because the Sharingan was a system reward, or because Genjutsu itself can affect creatures with spiritual and physical energy, it doesn't matter. The fact that I successfully used Genjutsu in another world alone is enough to be exciting."

"Still, while I succeeded in casting it, using nearly four-fifths of my chakra only let this common fodder fall into an illusion for an instant. With that kind of consumption, I could use Mangekyō Sharingan ocular techniques until I was nearly blind. That's a serious problem at this stage."

"Until I find a solution, I need to be cautious when using Genjutsu."

At that thought, Li Mingyuan frowned slightly.

All sorts of methods to reduce Genjutsu consumption or increase his chakra reserves surfaced in his mind, but none of them seemed achievable in the short term.

While Li Mingyuan stood there amid the bandits' terrified gazes, seemingly lost in thought without a care in the world,

"You... Could you be a Devil Fruit user...?"

Dick, who was being dragged along by Li Mingyuan's ropes, somehow managed to raise his head and gasp at him. "A man like you is actually keeping company with these insignificant bounty hunters in the East Blue..."

"Hm?"

His thoughts interrupted, Li Mingyuan instinctively turned to look at his feet.

When he saw that the tightly bound bandit was the one speaking, surprise immediately appeared on his face.

"That's surprising. You still have the strength to talk?"

Seeing the bandit's muscular body, Li Mingyuan had guessed that he probably possessed the standard sturdy physique of someone from One Piece.

But during their clash just now, Li Mingyuan had prepared himself mentally and refined chakra to pull the ropes as tightly as he could. The bandit himself had also been charging full speed ahead, crashing head-on into the ropes.

Against an ordinary opponent, that move would have been enough to rupture their internal organs. Yet this was only a small-time bandit, and he could still speak?

Even trash with a bounty of only ten million Beli was this hard to kill.

No wonder those monsters on the Grand Line could keep getting back up and refuse to die.

"But you're wrong about that."

"First, I'm not a Devil Fruit user. Second, when did I ever say I was with those two young men lying on the ground?"

Li Mingyuan shook his head and said calmly to Dick, "Let me make this clear: when you asked who I was earlier, I hadn't even had time to answer. You were the one who decided on your own that I was their companion, then launched a sneak attack."

"From the very beginning, I stepped forward to help the villagers out of their predicament. I only saw those two young men stand up for the villagers and get beaten badly, so I decided to lend them a hand."

"Of course I don't know them at all. You could even say that I don't know a single person here."

Hearing that, Dick's eyes widened in disbelief.

"What? Villagers...? You did all this just for some villagers...?"

"I thought you were definitely a bounty hunter after my head, so I fought back with everything I had... Ha... ha ha ha ha!!"

Suddenly, Dick could not help laughing, and his laughter grew louder and louder.

"I was defeated over something so stupid?! ...If I'd known your target was only the villagers, then this little bit of property, I would have—"

Before Dick could finish, his neck tilted to one side as if all strength had left him, and he collapsed to the ground without making another sound.

It was unclear whether he had fainted from anger, or whether the damage to his internal organs was only now taking effect.

Perhaps it was both.

Seeing this, Li Mingyuan stepped forward and checked the bandit's breathing. After confirming that he had merely fallen completely unconscious, he could only laugh softly and say no more.

At the same time,

not far away, the villagers still standing outside the fence

were completely different from Li Mingyuan, who took the battle's outcome for granted. Not only was he unsurprised by defeating a ten-million-Beli bandit, he even had the leisure to chat with him.

After witnessing the entire battle, the villagers had long since been thoroughly stunned.

Another instant victory!

And this time, he had captured him alive! He had captured a ten-million-Beli bandit alive in a single move!

In the East Blue, let alone seeing something like that, they had never even heard of it.

What was more, Dick's bizarre behavior in the battle, as though he had been possessed, chilled the villagers to the bone. They had no idea what had happened.

At that moment, hearing Dick mention a "Devil Fruit user" and Li Mingyuan deny it, the villagers finally snapped back to their senses.

"H-he beat him!"

"Dick the bandit was defeated!!!"

Cheers instantly filled the entire area.

Some of the villagers, overwhelmed with excitement, had already grabbed nearby weapons and rushed at the remaining bandits, who were still standing there in a daze.

After all, with the bandit leader defeated in an instant, the rest of the bandits were nothing to fear.

Did they really dare to resist?

Unlike the two bounty hunters who had been knocked to the ground earlier, this newly appeared man was monstrously strong. Even if they resisted, they would only be beaten down.

At this moment, the village could essentially be considered free of the bandit crisis.

At the same time, aside from the villagers who had begun settling scores with the bandits and trying to recover their property, some exchanged glances after hearing Li Mingyuan's words.

To be honest, the bandits had not been the only ones who assumed Li Mingyuan was with the two bounty hunters. The villagers had thought he was there to help the bounty hunters too, so no one had questioned why he attacked the bandits directly.

But thinking about it now, it was indeed a little strange.

"Huh? Now that you mention it, he really never said he was with those two bounty hunters."

"Come to think of it, why do I feel like I've seen this man somewhere before...?"

As the villagers discussed it among themselves,

"Ah! I remember now!!"

Suddenly, one villager slapped his forehead and shouted.

His eyes wide, he looked excitedly around at the others. "Hey, do you remember that strange man we found on the shore three days ago? The one we carried into the farmyard!"

"Three days ago? On the shore?"

When some of the villagers heard that, they too fell into thought, then immediately looked enlightened.

"Could it be?!"

"That's right! Look closely, isn't he still wearing that old shirt you washed?"

In only a short while, the villagers had basically figured out Li Mingyuan's origins.

Once they confirmed Li Mingyuan's identity, the villagers immediately began discussing him even more enthusiastically. Their fear of this unknown man also dropped by more than half.

"No wonder he helped us..."

"So we really did show him kindness?"

Perhaps because they had confirmed that Li Mingyuan was not dangerous and was on their side, many villagers gathered around him. Some even approached him directly, working up the courage to speak with him and ask questions.

Li Mingyuan did not mind becoming the subject of discussion. While quietly listening for information about what had happened before he regained consciousness, he watched them talk with a smile. Whenever his name came up, he even waved from time to time.

And just like that, Li Mingyuan naturally became part of the villagers' world.

With the capture of the bandits as his starting point, this small village became his first foothold in the world of One Piece.