Bounty of Ten Billion

Zero.

A seemingly unique name.

No surname, but that was all there was to it.

In reality, Zero was just an ordinary young man in modern society. He worked nine to six, watched anime and shows in his spare time, and lived a fairly peaceful life.

Until one day, while Zero was watching a video, a window suddenly popped up on his computer—"Do you want to understand the meaning of life? Do you want to truly... live?"

Having seen plenty of internet tricks, Zero directly clicked the × in the upper-right corner. But the pop-up trembled the next moment, and the words changed—"What is your favorite anime?"

"Definitely One Piece!"

He answered instinctively. Before he could react, the words before him flickered again.

"If you were transported to One Piece, what would you most want to do?"

Zero blinked, somewhat unable to understand how this damn thing had heard him.

"Is it a coincidence? Still, if I really got transported to One Piece, I'd really want to see just how incredible that world is! And if I could meet Nami, Robin, and the Pirate Empress while I'm at it, that'd be even better. Ahahaha..."

After laughing happily, Zero shook his head helplessly. It was just a pop-up ad. Why was he taking it so seriously?

But the next moment, when he saw what appeared on the computer screen, he could no longer laugh.

"Ding! You have been granted the qualifications to travel to the One Piece World!"

"Ding! It has been detected that your personal strength is insufficient. To ensure that you possess adequate means of self-defense in this world, a Trial Space has been specially created for you (One Piece theme). Countdown to entering the Trial Space: 10, 9, 8,..."

"Hey, hey, hey, why is there already a countdown..."

Zero watched helplessly as the number on the computer screen turned to 0. Then his consciousness blurred, and he immediately lost consciousness.

Zero felt as if he had had a very long dream.

It was also a terrifying dream.

In the dream, he was hunted by endless enemies. Even if he was killed, he would revive again, only to be killed once more. Driven into a corner, he could only use every ounce of strength he had to defeat his enemies.

If he had no weapon, he took one from an enemy. If the weapon broke, he used his fists, his teeth, and tore at them with bites. In short, he used every means available!

The number of enemies he killed went from one to ten... one hundred... one thousand...

Later on, Zero felt as though he had become a merciless shredder, mechanically swinging whatever weapon he had picked up from some enemy. Dodging, leaping, thrusting, slashing...

Just when Zero thought he would never escape that dream, a sound from the depths of his soul shook his mind.

"Ding! Congratulations, you have met the requirements to clear the Trial Space. It has been determined that you now possess a basic degree of self-defense ability. The passage to the One Piece World is now being opened..."

The world before Zero's eyes blurred once again. When his vision cleared, those vicious-faced enemies had vanished, and the surrounding environment had changed completely.

"What is this..."

He murmured to himself, staring at the scene before him with slight shock, as though unable to accept that he had really been transported here.

After standing there in a daze for quite a while, Zero finally let out a long breath.

"Forget it. Since I'm here, I might as well make the best of it. There's no point overthinking it. I'll just treat it as a trip abroad!"

As if he had thought of something, his brows suddenly rose.

With a try-it-and-see attitude, he casually said, "Status panel?"

The next moment, an interface appeared before Zero's eyes.

"Damn, there really is one!"

Character: Zero

Title: Enemy of Ten Thousand

Level: LV.1 (0/100)

Strength: 10

Stamina: 10

Agility: 10

Skills: Conqueror's Haki LV3 (Max Level), Armament Haki LV2, Observation Haki LV2, Hand-to-Hand Combat LV4, Swordsmanship LV4.

"This, this, this!!!"

Zero looked at that string of skills and was so shocked that he nearly could not close his mouth.

Only then did he remember that every time he defeated a certain number of enemies in the Trial Space, several golden boxes would pop up for him to choose from. But he had never had the time to pay attention to them, so the first option had always been selected by default.

Those golden boxes must have been the skills that had suddenly appeared on his status panel.

"Good thing they aren't some weird skills. I've even got max-level Conqueror's Haki. Not bad, not bad. I'm one in a million now, wahahaha..."

Although Zero was somewhat puzzled as to why he had not drawn a Devil Fruit skill, he thought about how everyone in the later stages had Armament Haki, and even overwhelmingly powerful Logia types could only take a beating. He was content enough.

But the next moment, he saw a line of small text in the skills section that was especially glaring—The power of skills is related to the character's own level!

"..."

Zero suddenly felt that max-level Conqueror's Haki did not seem quite so amazing anymore.

Only then did he look around—

Blue skies, white clouds, and a boundless sea. He was standing on a small boat that swayed with the waves. Other than that, there was only a lone barrel at the stern.

Wait, a barrel?

Could it be...

As though responding to Zero's thoughts, the barrel suddenly shook, followed by a voice he found extremely familiar coming from inside it.

"I woke up!"

Bang!

The barrel split apart completely, and a young man wearing a straw hat and red clothes jumped out from within!

"Holy shit!!!!!"

Zero's eyes widened as he stared blankly at the young man, whose image was already deeply familiar to him. He had never expected the future Pirate King to appear right before him like this!

"You, you, you..."

The young man grinned and greeted Zero.

"My name is Monkey D. Luffy. Nice to meet you!"

"Ding, main quest activated: Assist Monkey D. Luffy in becoming the Pirate King. At the same time, your own bounty must reach ten billion. Reward: World Proof."

Zero froze.

His attention focused on that final, terrifying number.

Ten billion?

Was this a joke?

Even the previous Pirate King—Gol D. Roger—had only had a bounty of 5.5648 billion Berries. This main quest was asking for nearly double that. Wasn't this making things way too difficult?

The only comforting thing was that there was no notice regarding failure for this main quest. If there had been some punishment like getting erased for failing to complete it, Zero would really have suspected that he was being deliberately targeted.

Still, what exactly was this World Proof?

While Zero was still thinking, Luffy had already stretched out his neck and leaned closer.

"Hey, what's your name?"

"Ah, me? Zero."

"Oh, Zero..."

"Yes, what is it?"

"You..."

"Hm?"

Zero raised his brows, but inwardly, he could not stop himself from mocking the carefree Luffy.

He really was the protagonist of the world. If it had been some ordinary Devil Fruit user, drifting across the sea in a barrel like Luffy did would have gotten them swallowed by some sea beast sooner or later!

"Do you have anything to eat?"

"No."

"Ah!"

Seeing Luffy's dejected expression, Zero found it rather funny, but there was nothing he could do. His starter "equipment" was just a small boat, after all.

Suddenly, Luffy's gloomy expression turned delighted. Zero followed his gaze.

What entered their sight was a "colossal creature" far larger than the little boat beneath their feet!