The Transmigrator's Moment of Truth

After the two high-bounty bandits leading the group were taken down, the remaining bandits either feared Li Mingyuan standing nearby, or simply were not much stronger than the villagers without their leaders. In any case, even without Li Mingyuan stepping in, they did not hold out for long. The enraged villagers soon beat them to the ground and tied them up alongside the bandit brothers.

Before long, the villagers scattered from Li Mingyuan's side. They had to carry back the stolen supplies and gather the bandits together, so everyone began rushing about.

Only Li Mingyuan remained where he was, quietly observing the situation.

According to the man who seemed to be the village chief, they were planning to hold a banquet tonight to thank him for his help.

He did not need to worry about anything else.

The villagers would escort the two wanted criminals to the Marines to claim the bounty. If he needed anything, whether it was a place to stay or suitable clothes, he only had to ask. In short, his task now was to rest here and wait for tonight's banquet.

That was a tremendous help to Li Mingyuan.

Of course, he was not referring to clothes or lodging, nor was he interested in the banquet itself.

The important thing was that Li Mingyuan did not want to show his face to the Marines just yet.

Although he had not yet fully planned his future actions or decided how to tackle the main quest, he already had some preliminary thoughts regarding his identity. If the Marines learned of his existence too early, it would become inconvenient no matter what he wanted to do later.

Since someone was willing to help him claim his future startup funds, he naturally had no reason to refuse.

That said.

Once he accepted the village chief's arrangements and everyone else handled the follow-up matters, he suddenly had nothing to do.

At that moment, Li Mingyuan was leaning against the warehouse fence, watching Joseph and Johnny, who were still unconscious beside him.

Compared to the original story, the two had been beaten far more severely. If they had merely been disfigured in the original, then now they were practically unrecognizable. The dried blood on their faces could not even be wiped clean. Even after the villagers administered some emergency treatment, there was still no sign of them waking up.

Looking at the two of them, Li Mingyuan felt a slight sense of guilt.

Even though he had never met either of them before, and not only had he done them no wrong, he had even saved their lives.

But emotions could not be controlled through reason alone.

Joseph and Johnny had been minor supporting characters with a little screen time in the original story, and Li Mingyuan had some fondness for them. When he was younger, he had watched the early One Piece arcs countless times. Only after the Fish-Man Island arc did he start following updates on and off, so the characters that had left the deepest impression on him had always been those from the earlier parts.

Now, because he had acted a little too late, the two of them were nearly at the execution threshold.

If he had stepped in any later, one of them might have gotten kicked in the head so hard he became a vegetable.

If he had acted thirty seconds earlier, their injuries might not necessarily have been much lighter, but at least they would not have been lying here half dead without being able to utter a word.

"I really lost my head there."

"I spent so many years in the Naruto world, yet I still got so fired up. My anticipation at seeing characters I liked appear actually outweighed my rational judgment of the situation, leading me to make the wrong choice."

Li Mingyuan sighed and reflected on himself. I need to be more rational next time.

Such a low-level mistake really should not have happened to him.

Was it because he had transmigrated into another world and received a better start than in his previous one, making him happy enough to get carried away? Or was it because the system had restored his body to how it had been at twenty-four, causing his mentality to become younger as well?

Whatever the reason, Li Mingyuan had once been a figure who led an era and the first nominal leader of a unified nation. He had to hold himself to a higher standard. At the very least, he had to reach a point where Madara and Hashirama, who had chosen him as their leader, would not regret it.

He needed to avoid this kind of problem as much as possible in the future.

"But speaking of transmigration... I almost forgot about what happened earlier."

As he thought that, Li Mingyuan suddenly seemed to recall something.

When he had been thinking in the house earlier, he had only gotten halfway through considering the main quest related to this world's future before the bandits' cannonfire interrupted him.

Now that things had finally settled down, it seemed he could revisit the matter.

"The main quest..."

"After actually fighting the locals, it feels manageable. Maybe the Sharingan is just absurdly overpowered, or maybe the system's included power system is simply too strong. But regardless of which factor it is, the pressure does not seem nearly as great as I expected."

"And that was without even using Kamui."

"If I handle the main quest with this level of strength, the success rate should be much higher than I imagined. It is worth doing."

Li Mingyuan stroked his chin and fell into deep thought.

Back in the house, the first thing he had considered was the quest itself and how to complete it.

But in truth.

Aside from figuring out how to complete the quest, he had another hidden option.

—He could abandon the quest.

He could abandon it, find some random place in this world to settle down, and use his abilities to peacefully live out the rest of his life.

Every time he died and settled his rewards, he would transmigrate to the next world, but the prerequisite was completing the quest. If one day he truly grew tired of the endless journey, he simply did not need to do the quest. Once he died and settled things in that world, the system would automatically unbind from him and transfer to the nearest person nearby.

That was how he had obtained the system in the first place.

This was only his second world, so logically speaking, he was still far from living enough. It would make more sense to venture through several dozen more worlds before becoming tired and choosing a place to die.

But one had to prepare for the worst.

After all, who could guarantee that the next world would definitely be better than the previous one?

Transmigrating into the One Piece world was fine, but what if the next world was Warhammer 40K? Or worse, what if he ended up in a Cthulhu world?

There was no telling.

Perhaps he would painstakingly complete the quest in this world and transmigrate to the next, only to discover that his new reward had no competitive value whatsoever there. He might die like cannon fodder right from the start. By then, regretting that he had not enjoyed life in the previous world would be far too late.

And besides that...

The One Piece world offered the possibility of eternal youth and immortality.

Setting aside whatever means the Five Elders and Imu had used to survive until now, even the Op-Op Fruit openly offered the option of eternal life.

He actually had far more choices available in this world than expected.

So in fact, before the cannonfire interrupted his thoughts, Li Mingyuan had already been considering whether to find somewhere secluded, fulfill the wish he had failed to achieve in his previous world by marrying and having children, and live until old age.

Until now.

Only after personally experiencing the power of his abilities did he begin to consider completing the main quest.

"If I seriously think about the One Piece world's main quest, it is not completely impossible. Spatial abilities are relatively rare in the One Piece world, and speed-based abilities like Kamui are even rarer... Most importantly, what sets me apart from the locals? Kamui's power cannot be detected even by Haki! I can completely achieve the same sort of overwhelming advantage that elementalization had in the early One Piece story, when it could not be countered."

"The only thing I need to consider is probably the usage limit of these eyes."

"However, by studying the differences between the two worlds in the future, I may be able to find a method similar to Hashirama Cells or the Sage Body to compensate for my physique and indirectly avoid going blind in both eyes."

After thinking deeply, Li Mingyuan gradually arrived at a conclusion.

The One Piece world's main quest could be done!

And not only could he complete the quest, but while doing so, he could seek an opportunity for eternal youth and immortality. Perhaps he would not even need to transmigrate to another unknown world to gain a more enduring happiness in this one.

"Whew! That settles it, then..."

"Sure enough, a transmigrator's proper calling is to do system quests."

Having made up his mind, Li Mingyuan felt as though his entire body had relaxed at once.

At least now that he had a goal, regardless of matters like conviction, he no longer needed to feel lost over what he should do in the future.

For a transmigrator with no family or friends in this world, that was not bad at all.

He looked around once more.

With his mindset changed, Li Mingyuan looked at Joseph and Johnny lying beside him again. He crouched down to inspect them, no longer regretting that he had failed to save them sooner. Instead, he clicked his tongue in amazement from time to time.

"Come to think of it, they really got beaten badly."

"I did not think much of it earlier, but now that I do, these two really had the guts to charge in. Their physical strength was only a little better than mine when I had just awakened without chakra. How did they dare pull their swords against a brute whose arm was thicker than their waists?"

The bandit Dick's 10 million Beli bounty did have some weight behind it.

In the anime, that 10 million Beli bandit had nearly one-shot the rookie Zoro.

The moment Zoro briefly lost focus, the man seized the opportunity and fired a cannon straight at his face. If not for that brave little boy among the villagers suddenly dumping a bucket of water on it and extinguishing the cannon's fuse, Zoro's journey through the East Blue might really have ended on the spot.

That had also been reflected in Li Mingyuan's battle with him earlier.

After his younger brother was killed on the spot, he immediately seized the opportunity and fired his cannon at both his own brother and his enemy without hesitation. Even while under genjutsu without realizing it, he had dared to raise his broadsword and decisively slash at his opponent's head.

Li Mingyuan knew that if their positions had been switched and he had faced the bandit Dick in their place, he definitely would not have stepped forward.

Even now, if this had not been his second transmigration but rather his first, where he started without any rewards, then aside from watching like those "cowardly" villagers nearby, he would not have done anything at all. At most, he would have muttered a few resentful complaints about the unfairness of the world.

Oh.

Perhaps he could have cursed the incompetent Marines for being unable to protect the people's safety?

"Thinking back on it now, it really is absurd. I had only just awakened, yet I was already forced to use my newly acquired abilities to deal with bandits. Fortunately, this was my second transmigration, and I started with rewards that let me exchange for dual Kamui along with the chakra system. Otherwise, with the physical constitution of this One Piece commoner body I came with, that bandit might have been able to crush my head with one hand."

"Having power is better. At least it gives you the right to choose."

After that bout of reflection, Li Mingyuan moved beside the two half-dead men and lay down.

Compared to speaking with villagers he did not know, he felt more at ease staying near people he recognized.

He watched the sunlight spilling through the eaves and continued to let his thoughts wander as he passed the idle hours. Sometimes he recalled the original One Piece story and considered his current circumstances and the broader situation. Other times, he yawned in boredom and blankly wondered what had happened to the people he had known in his previous life.

And so, time passed quickly.

At some point, the sun overhead gradually descended from high in the sky.

The small village, not particularly large to begin with, welcomed another night.

But unlike before, the streets that should have gone dark with nightfall were now brightly illuminated. Villagers eating heartily and drinking deeply filled every corner, chatting and laughing around the flames.

The banquet had begun.

As the guest of honor, Li Mingyuan was naturally among the crowd and received the most enthusiastic attention.

Feeling this novel atmosphere, Li Mingyuan might not have cared much for banquets, but he was not about to hold himself stiff when he could enjoy himself. He simply went with the local customs, drinking the finest wine, eating the largest chunks of meat, and fully carrying himself like a local as he accepted the villagers' gratitude with a clear conscience.

There was only one thing that surprised Li Mingyuan.

The food here was far more delicious than he had expected.

One major reason Li Mingyuan had felt indifferent about the banquet was that he had no idea what this sort of setting could offer for a transmigrator like him to enjoy. The food he had eaten in modern society, if brought into the One Piece world, might not count as gourmet fare, but it was likely the kind of thing only royal families and nobles in the Four Blues could enjoy every day.

Of course, the One Piece world undeniably had plenty of unique delicacies, such as Sea King meat, the flesh of all kinds of rare beasts, and even master chefs devoted to making such dishes. During Usopp's two years of training, there had even been an astonishing Gourmet Island.

But naturally, none of those things had anything to do with a banquet in a tiny village.

So, from the beginning, he had held absolutely no expectations for attending this banquet.

Yet now, after actually tasting the food the villagers had carefully prepared, Li Mingyuan discovered that things were not as he had imagined—this food was unbelievably delicious!

Rather than the chefs being exceptionally skilled, it was more accurate to say that the ingredients themselves simply tasted incredible.

Now that he had finally eaten food from the One Piece world, he understood. No wonder the characters in the manga reacted so exaggeratedly whenever they saw delicious food. It really was that good.

If food from a tiny village tasted like this, then food served in high-end restaurants or made from Sea Kings and rare beasts would be...

Better not think about it. Better not think about it.

Drinking fine wine with a faint buzz in his head, Li Mingyuan immersed himself in the atmosphere.

He found himself looking forward to his future life even more.