Which One Piece Are You Even From?

Li Mingyuan.

Though it was not a common form of address, it was indeed a memorable name.

Hearing this, Joseph and Johnny exchanged glances again, finally satisfied.

Just as they had said before, the two of them had specifically come tonight to see what their lifesaver looked like before leaving. Now that they knew their benefactor's name, they also gave Li Mingyuan the little money they had on them, along with most of the bounty money they had earned from taking down wanted criminals.

This way, they could leave without regrets.

"We're sorry for suddenly disturbing you tonight, but now the two of us can leave this island without regrets as well. Thank you for saving our lives!!"

With that, Joseph and Johnny turned around, putting on a dashing pose as if they were about to depart.

Seeing this, Li Mingyuan did feel a little regret that the two of them had not made the same choice as in the original story.

But he had no intention of stopping them.

In the end, their change could barely be considered a butterfly effect. As long as he continued to exist in this world, similar changes would inevitably become more and more frequent. Rather than forcibly dragging things back onto the original plotline, he might as well adapt to the current situation.

Besides, even in the original story, these two became missing persons after the Arlong arc. It was said that after separating from Luffy's group, they started fishing in Cocoyasi Village. Whether that was true or not, no one knew.

All he could say was that bounty hunting really was a high-risk profession.

What he remembered most clearly about the two was how, after hearing Nami's story, they had rushed ahead of the Straw Hat crew to kill Arlong without hesitation. In the end, they were beaten bloody and battered all over, only to let the Straw Hat gang who arrived afterward take the spotlight.

There was nothing wrong with them retiring early now.

As for what would happen to the later plot without them? After all, these two were the opening act of Nami's arc several years from now.

Li Mingyuan did not care about that at all.

Just as he had decided before, he was already planning to deal with Arlong ahead of time. Since the future would not unfold like the original plot anyway, there was no point in considering the original story's circumstances.

But just as Joseph and Johnny were about to leave, Li Mingyuan suddenly grabbed them both.

Because he still had one unanswered question.

"You two, do you know the pirate hunter Roronoa Zoro?"

Li Mingyuan asked.

Caught off guard and pulled back, Joseph and Johnny looked at each other.

"Roronoa Zoro...? Why are you suddenly asking about him?"

"He's that pirate hunter who's been making a name for himself recently, right? We do know of him, but even though we're bounty hunters too, we have no chance of knowing someone like that. If you want to get acquainted with him through us, then you're out of luck."

Joseph said, somewhat confused.

Li Mingyuan let out a deep sigh.

"So that's how it is..."

"It's nothing. Thank you for answering. I have nothing else to ask."

Li Mingyuan rubbed his face, a trace of relief showing on it as he said, "If fate allows it, we'll meet again."

"Then, if fate allows it, we'll meet again! Benefactor!"

Not noticing the subtle change in Li Mingyuan's expression, Joseph and Johnny turned back around after that final farewell and walked into the darkness of the night.

Before long, their silhouettes blended into the darkness, disappearing from sight.

Li Mingyuan was left alone.

He returned inside and lay down on the bed again, but he had completely lost all desire to sleep.

Joseph and Johnny's answers kept replaying in his mind.

They only knew of him.

Yet they did not know at all the person who should have become someone they followed like an "older brother."

"This is going to be troublesome."

Li Mingyuan stared at the ceiling and murmured.

Even during the day, when he had discovered that the plot was different from what he remembered, he had already felt an ominous premonition. But the situation had been urgent, and Joseph and Johnny, whom he had delayed rescuing only because he wanted to confirm something, had nearly been beaten to death. He had not had time to think further and could only hurry forward to deal with the bandits. Later, when he finally had some free time, Joseph and Johnny had remained unconscious due to their serious injuries, so he had never gotten the chance to confirm it.

Only now, when the two had come to him on their own, could he finally ask the question he had been holding back for so long.

Did they actually know Zoro or not?

Honestly, now that he thought about it, this was a case of good deeds being rewarded. Fortunately, these two had remembered to come see him before leaving. Otherwise, he might not have gotten his answer until years later, when he actually met Zoro.

Now, with Joseph and Johnny personally admitting that they had not known Zoro before this, and that Zoro had not met them today as he did in the anime's plot, Li Mingyuan could finally be sure that he had not been overthinking it.

The situation was exactly as he had predicted. Things were heading in a very bad direction.

Coincidentally, he had witnessed similar circumstances in the Naruto world before.

And back then, through firsthand experience, he had nearly run into setbacks while advancing the process of unifying the country. Even with Madara and Hashirama helping him, he had almost failed.

"One Piece, or rather, the work called ONE PIECE, has a manga main plot that basically revolves around Straw Hat Luffy's adventures during the Great Pirate Era. Along the way, the protagonists keep sailing and unraveling many of the world's mysteries. Sometimes they fight powerful enemies, sometimes they experience the meaning of travel amid all kinds of scenery, and in the end, every one of them moves toward their own goal or dream."

"Overall, aside from a small number of controversial plotlines, it can basically be considered a masterpiece with a very tight structure and exciting story. Precisely because of its high quality, it has countless devoted fans, as well as many official spinoffs. Whether TV anime, OVAs, films, or live-action adaptations, all of them were born from the manga."

"However, precisely because One Piece is so popular and has so many spinoffs, it also gave rise to another problem."

"That is, the settings in many spinoffs do not match the original manga's settings."

Li Mingyuan recalled what he had seen and heard today... no, yesterday during the day.

Taking his own experience as an example, he had saved Joseph and Johnny, defeated the bandit Dick, who had a bounty of 10 million Beli, as well as Dick's younger brother, who had a bounty of 5 million Beli, and thus become both their lifesaver and the benefactor of this village.

Yet in the manga, there was no such plot at all.

There was no bandit Dick, nor was there any extra storyline for Joseph and Johnny.

This was an anime-exclusive original story.

As one of the One Piece manga's spinoffs, the One Piece anime drew most of its plot from the manga. But likewise, it contained many original settings and storylines, and that was not simply because the creators had sudden flashes of inspiration.

The key was that an anime, as an audiovisual medium lasting over twenty minutes per episode, moved through its plot very quickly. If it was not careful, it could easily catch up to the original manga, leaving nothing left to air.

So, to prevent that from happening, anime adaptations often dragged out the plot, added scenes, and even inserted lengthy original stories that did not exist in the manga.

The quality of this original content varied wildly.

Some were so well-made that they received universal praise, but others were so terrible that they even came up with awful ideas completely different from the manga and were despised by manga fans.

Naruto had the same problem.

As another long-running and hugely popular work, it too had a great deal of original filler content. Some of those original stories were good, while others were bad, but in any case, many settings did not match the manga.

The classic examples were Kaguya descending like a god in the manga to end the war and bless humanity with children, while the anime directly gave Kaguya an original husband. In the original manga setting, the Sage of Six Paths was born with the Rinnegan, but the TV anime changed it so that he awakened it during a battle with his younger brother Hamura. Even more outrageous, the anime gave Fugaku Uchiha an original Mangekyō Sharingan, making his characterization even stranger.

Thus, after Li Mingyuan actually transmigrated, another problem arose.

What kind of world setting had he actually transmigrated into?

The system only said that he was currently in One Piece, but there was a huge difference between One Piece and the One Piece world. No matter how outrageous anime-original content was, it still bore the name of an officially licensed One Piece anime. For many people who did not read the manga and only watched the anime, the anime's story was the true original. Who could say that the One Piece anime was not One Piece?

In the Naruto world, Li Mingyuan had encountered many character backgrounds from spinoffs, anime, films, and even games. Powerful enemies had appeared out of nowhere, as if they had crawled out from some unknown corner. Even with Madara and Hashirama at his side, he had occasionally faced the risk of things going wrong.

Logically, if he had truly only transmigrated into the original manga's world setting, then he should not have encountered all this messy stuff.

Yet after transmigrating into the One Piece world, he had actually run into part of an anime storyline.

Then this situation could only mean one thing.

The One Piece world he had transmigrated into was most likely a mishmash version that had fused together many official spinoffs.

"If that's the case, then it's normal that Zoro didn't come. Although the contents of this mishmash setting are fused together, there are still differences in their individual settings, so plot conflicts can still happen from time to time."

"That was how it was in the Naruto world. Although it was a setting that fused many spinoffs together, conflicts between their settings often meant that only one part of a plot remained while the other half vanished into thin air. In some places, characters who should have appeared in the anime ended up continuing the manga plot instead because the manga had a higher priority. Meanwhile, the characters were simply absent from the anime-original portions, causing the story to collapse into bizarre directions."

"In the manga, there was never any plot about how Joseph and Johnny met Zoro. So manga-version Zoro does not have this event here—after all, manga Zoro never had that experience. Isn't it perfectly normal that he didn't come?"

Thinking of this, Li Mingyuan began to feel a headache coming on.

The various Naruto spinoffs had still centered on Naruto and Sasuke's timeline. At most, those original stories would add background details like, "The origin of this incident was actually XXX long ago," which happened to overlap with the era he, Hashirama, and the others lived in. That was why he encountered those added elements.

Overall, even if there were powerful enemies, there were not many of them.

But the One Piece world he had transmigrated into was now already about to approach the main storyline's timeline.

In other words, those many spinoffs born from the One Piece manga, with their closely overlapping time periods, could bring their characters and stories directly into his path.

In terms of sheer volume, this was completely different from the Naruto world he had transmigrated into.

This was simply too insane.

"If I remember correctly, starting with Strong World, the One Piece films were personally taken over by Oda. Many of their characters and settings connected with the main work, especially Strong World. Since it was the first film for which Oda officially wrote the story, he attached particular importance to it. He even released a Chapter Zero manga for it, packed full of information. The character Golden Lion continued to appear repeatedly even in the manga's later arcs, proving that his character design was not limited to the film alone."

"If that is taken into consideration, then the settings of those films may have an even higher priority than the anime's original content. The powerful figures in them should also actually be alive in this world, right?"

"If I act in the future, these people might suddenly emerge from some obscure corner and create unforeseen consequences."

Li Mingyuan fell into deep thought, his brow tightly furrowed.

"Besides that, what's even more fatal is that I can't ignore those earlier films, the ones that can practically be considered true parallel worlds, simply because these later films are closer to the main work."

"Every film before Oda took over was essentially completely original. Some were compilation films that brought later characters into One Piece's early plot ahead of time. For example, <Movie 9: Episode of Chopper Plus: Bloom in Winter, Miracle Sakura> featured Franky and Nico Robin, who should not have appeared at that point. In other words, even the order in which the Straw Hat crew members join may not necessarily be the same as in the manga in my world."

"And there's also the film Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island. Rumor has it that because its setting deviated too far from the original work, and its visuals and plot were too bizarre, later films gradually turned into compilation films. It supposedly even made Oda decide to start taking over the film stories himself. I don't know whether that is true, but that film's setting really is strange. If those elements have also fused into the current world setting, who knows what changes they might cause."