Buy One, Get One Free? Double the Surprise!

(May all you esteemed readers who come in strike it rich! New year, new beginnings!)

(The author's main profession is being a pirate. Serious face. Please keep reading; I won't disappoint you!)

[ Ding! Naruto System successfully activated! ]

[ Detecting the host's current environment... Distributing beginner gift pack. ]

[ Beginner gift pack distributed. Please check it. ]

[ Obtained: One-Tomoe Sharingan (from the Uchiha Bloodline, perfectly fused). ]

[ Obtained: Chakra Refinement Technique (Basic Version). ][ Obtained: Ninja Tool Pack (includes Kunai ×1, Explosive Tags ×3, Soldier Pills ×1). ]

Darkness. Swaying.

Victor abruptly opened his eyes, only to find a pitch-black wooden board before him.

"Did I transmigrate? A system?"

Victor sensed the cool energy in his mind, and then his eyes suddenly burned.

He blinked in the darkness, and the cramped, pitch-black space instantly became clear.

Even the grain of the wood was visible in perfect detail.

Sharingan!

Before he could be excited for long, a powerful sensation of weightlessness hit him.

"Thud!"

It sounded like something heavy had landed on the ground.

Then strange noises came from beside him.

"Snore... snore... meat... I want meat..."

The voice was muffled, as though it came through a layer of wood.

Victor froze for a moment, then the corners of his mouth twitched wildly.

That voice, those words, and the place he was currently in, which was most likely a "wine barrel"...

You've got to be kidding me. I transmigrated into a barrel alongside Luffy?

At this moment, somewhere in the sunny waters of the East Blue.

On the deck of a massive sailing ship flying a heart-shaped skull flag—the Miss Swan.

Several sleazy-looking pirates surrounded two huge wine barrels that had just been fished out of the sea, their eyes gleaming.

"Hey! Koby! Hahaha! Your luck finally turned around, kid!"

A pirate with a fleshy face "viciously" patted the short pink-haired boy with round glasses beside him.

"We thought it was empty, but it's so heavy! At this weight, it must be full of fine red wine!"

"And there are two barrels!" Another pirate greedily rubbed his hands together, drool nearly running down his chin.

"One barrel could sell for at least tens of thousands of Beli. If we make Miss Alvida happy, she might even reward us with a good meal tonight!"

Koby hunched his neck and trembled all over.

"Um... shouldn't we move them into the storeroom first?"

"If Miss Alvida catches us drinking on the deck, she'll flatten us with her iron club..."

"Huh? Shut up, coward!"

The fleshy-faced pirate spat impatiently.

"A barrel this heavy must be full! This weather is perfect for a drink. Let's open it and have a taste first. As long as you don't tell, who'll know?"

The other two pirates exchanged glances and revealed knowing, lecherous smiles.

"Hehe, that's right! Open the one on the left first!"

The burly man impatiently raised a fist the size of a casserole pot and smashed it down hard on the lid of the left barrel, which was covered in strange graffiti.

"Open up for me!!"

"Bang—!!!"

There was no sound of a wooden lid shattering as expected.

Instead, it was as if an explosion had gone off inside the barrel. The entire lid, along with its wooden splinters, instantly blew apart.

The burly man, who had leaned close to smell the wine, was struck in the chin as though by a heavy hammer.

He flew backward like a kite with its string cut, tracing an... utterly ungraceful arc through the air.

Finally, he crashed heavily onto the deck several meters away with a slap, foam spilling from his mouth as he fainted on the spot.

"Phew! That was a great sleep!!!"

Under the sunlight, a straw-hatted boy suddenly stood upright from the shattered barrel.

His arms spread dramatically to either side, his face wearing the same carefree grin as always.

"The wind feels great today!"

The remaining pirates were dumbfounded, and the curved blades in their hands nearly fell onto their feet.

"A... a person was inside?"

"What kind of monster is that? He sent Jerry flying with one punch?"

Before the pirates could recover from their shock, the straw-hatted boy rubbed his shriveled stomach and turned toward Koby, who had collapsed to the ground in fright.

"Hey, do you have any food? I'm starving."

Veins bulged on the pirates' foreheads. "..."

Oi! Oi! Oi!

Was this kid an idiot? Couldn't he read the room? They were pirates!

Just as they were about to attack the straw-hatted brat who did not know his place—

"Click."

The barrel beside them, which had been quiet all along, suddenly made a crisp sound as its latch snapped.

The pirates' nerves were already taut. Upon hearing it, they instinctively turned their heads together.

They saw a slender hand gently push open the lid of the second barrel.

Then, a handsome black-haired, black-eyed youth slowly stood up.

Victor looked calm as he lightly brushed the wood chips from his shoulder, then raised his head to reveal a somewhat pale face.

Victor stretched lazily, his gaze sweeping across the astonished pirates around him.

Finally, his eyes settled on Luffy, who was still blankly asking for food, and a playful curve appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"Though I expected it, this wake-up service is still a little too noisy, Straw Hat."

At that moment, Victor's originally black pupils had somehow taken on an eerie blood-red hue.

A black tomoe slowly rotated within his irises, radiating a chilling coldness.

One-Tomoe Sharingan!

"Is this... a themed restaurant that serves free lunch?" Victor asked humorously.

The deck fell into deathly silence, broken only by the sea wind blowing across the sails.

Three seconds later, furious roars erupted.

"One after another! What the hell are you two doing?!"

The remaining pirates finally snapped out of it, their faces flushed red with rage.

"Where's our wine?! Give us back our fine wine!"

"Kill these two brats who don't know what's good for them!"

The three pirates raised their gleaming sabers and split up with clear coordination.

Two rushed at Luffy, who appeared to be the greater threat, while the remaining bald pirate charged toward Victor with a ferocious grin.

"Pretty boy! Die!"

"Hey! Watch out!"

Koby covered his eyes in terror, unable to watch the bloody scene that was about to unfold.

"Hehe." Luffy did not move at all. He merely tugged down the brim of his hat, revealing a mouthful of white teeth.

Meanwhile, facing the sharp saber descending upon him, the tomoe in Victor's eyes slowly turned.

In his vision, the world slowed down.

The bald pirate's savage expression seemed as though someone had pressed the frame-by-frame playback button.

Victor could clearly see the man's nostrils flare from exertion.

He saw the tiny notch in the blade and even predicted the saber's final trajectory.

Too slow.

Slower than an old lady crossing the street!

Victor slightly turned aside, moving only half a step to the left.

Whoosh!

The heavy saber sliced down right past his nose, the gust it created stirring the loose strands of hair over his forehead.

It then smashed viciously into the edge of the empty barrel, kicking up a spray of wood chips.

"W-What?!"

The bald pirate's eyes widened so much that they nearly popped out.

He could not believe that his sure-kill strike had been dodged.

And at such close range, so easily and effortlessly?

At the instant his old momentum had run out, before new force could arise, and his body tipped forward from inertia, Victor moved.

A pitch-black kunai appeared in his right hand as if by magic.

With a deft turn of his fingers, he gripped it in reverse, stepped close, and pressed the cold tip of the kunai precisely against the pirate's throat artery.

"Don't move."

The icy touch of metal instantly drenched the bald pirate in cold sweat.

His legs gave out, and the saber in his hand clattered to the deck.

From Luffy's side came two crisp clangs.

Two sabers struck his body, but it was as though they had hit thick rubber tires, immediately bouncing away under the tremendous recoil.

"Huh?"

Luffy tilted his head, completely ignoring the people who had attacked him.

Instead, he looked curiously at the uninjured Victor. "You're pretty strong too!"

Victor put away the kunai and kicked the terrified pirate, sending him rolling away.

He turned around, and his pair of scarlet One-Tomoe Sharingan stood out especially clearly beneath the sunlight.

He extended his hand toward Luffy, wearing an inexplicable smile.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Victor. I'm a... magician."

Luffy's large eyes instantly turned into stars, and his mouth fell wide open.

"A magician? Are your red eyes magic too? You look like a monkey! So cool!!

"My name is Luffy, and I'm the man who'll become the Pirate King!"

A monkey?

The corner of Victor's mouth twitched as he was about to retort.

"Who is it?! Who dares cause trouble on my ship?!"

A fat, freckled woman holding a huge spiked club burst through the doors in a rage.

Koby's face instantly turned pale, and he clutched his head in despair. "I-It's over... Miss Alvida is here..."