IBM Usage Experience (Please Bookmark, Vote!)

The sound of waves washed against his ears, and the sun shone brightly.

On the deck, Wude carried a heavy stone on his back, his bare upper body revealing lean, powerful muscles. With both hands braced against the planks, he did push-ups. He lowered himself, pushed back up, and repeated the motion over and over as sweat dripped onto the deck.

The vast ocean stretched endlessly in every direction. Aside from him, there was no one else on the tiny sailboat.

The sail atop the mast swayed in the wind. At its very peak stood a black humanoid figure with its feet together, the long feathered wings on its back folded away.

Kuroh tilted his head and muttered to himself. If one listened closely...

Various dish names came out in scattered fragments.

IBM possessed language abilities. Most IBM could only simply repeat things their masters had said before. This was information Wude had pieced together from his vague memories of the Ajin he had watched in his previous life.

Of course... sometimes it said strange things.

Just then, a seabird flew overhead, and a blob of white sludge fell from the sky.

Kuroh tilted his head toward it. "Really want... to poop."

"You little..." Below, Wude set the stone aside, stood up, wiped away his sweat, and looked up at Kuroh.

Having awakened his ability at a young age, Wude had spent years drawing on Kei Nagai's and Hated Man Sato's experience to put Kuroh through "special training."

First, he had not controlled it at all, allowing Kuroh to move freely. He had tried to achieve what Kei Nagai could—having the IBM not dissipate even if its master lost consciousness, continuing to fight on.

After many years, he had fortunately succeeded.

This made the IBM especially unusual, separating it from a "clone that could only be controlled by its master." At critical moments, it would serve as a lifesaving trump card. Even if its master lost consciousness, the IBM could continue attacking and interfering with enemies.

After that, he began trying Sato's method.

He tried having Kuroh pick up swords and guns, teaching it to wield weapons.

After countless failures, he had finally taught Kuroh to use weapons.

"Come down and spar with me!" Wude shouted.

Whoosh!

Kuroh landed on the deck, reached out to grab a longsword from nearby, and assumed an attacking stance with the sword in hand.

Wude drew the long blade at his waist. The next instant, Kuroh rushed forward at high speed and slashed out. Two gusts of wind swept up from their movements.

Sword and blade clashed with a clang. They pressed against each other, creaking as they remained locked in a stalemate. Kuroh kicked at Wude, and Wude raised his leg and kicked back. Kuroh staggered backward, grabbed a flintlock pistol with one hand, then spread its wings and flew into the sky as Wude rapidly closed in.

As expected of Wude's IBM—it was just as unscrupulous in battle.

With its back to the sun, it beat its wings continuously, looked down at its master, and raised its gun to fire.

Bang!

The bullet came diving down, shooting precisely at the man on the boat.

Wude ran toward the distance in advance and dodged the bullet, which blasted a hole through the deck.

Kuroh flapped its wings and climbed ever higher, until only a sesame-seed-sized speck remained in sight. Then it abruptly folded its wings, gripped its sword with both hands, and spun faster and faster as it fell through the air. Like a black windmill carrying a cold gleam, it plummeted at extreme speed.

Clang—!

A violent metallic crash rang out. Kuroh swung its sword like a hammer and slammed it heavily against the blade in Wude's hand.

The fragile deck splintered apart. The sword and blade in Wude and Kuroh's hands were badly damaged, and the next moment, with a crack, the steel blades began to break apart as well.

Whoosh!

Neither of them stopped. They leaped away from the huge hole in the broken deck and landed on intact planks, then hurled their broken weapons directly at each other. Both swiftly dodged before throwing punches.

Black particles scattered from Kuroh's fist as it tore through the air. Wude tilted his head and narrowly avoided it, then drove his knee forward, smashing it hard into Kuroh's abdomen and sending it stumbling backward. Kuroh steadied itself and spread its wings to take flight, but Wude sprang forward, bent his forearm, and brought down a heavy blow on Kuroh's head.

Unlike the world of Ajin, people in this world were generally far stronger physically and could become even more powerful through training.

After honing himself day after day, Wude had begun using the freely acting Kuroh as his sparring partner.

Whoosh!

Kuroh tilted its head, which was missing a small chunk, and flapped its wings into the sky.

It landed atop the crow's nest and looked toward the skull flag appearing in the distance.

"My Black Ghost... is pretty cool."

It repeated the words Wude had said four years ago.

"That it is." Wude pulled out a new blade from a wooden barrel, placed one foot on the railing, and looked toward the distance.

A battered pirate ship gradually approached, its vicious skull flag swaying in the wind. The pirates aboard had long since spotted Wude's little boat. At their captain's roaring command, each pirate underling raised a curved sword and screamed loudly.

"Boys, that guy dared to sail out alone! Let's teach him a bloody lesson!" The pirate captain wore a red bandana around his head and a captain's hat tilted crookedly on top. His face was so filthy it had turned black, and his greasy hair clung to his scalp.

One-armed pirates had iron hooks attached to their stumps. The one-eyed first mate drank liquor and laughed loudly, while the gaunt cannon fodder raised their swords, which occasionally clinked together with crisp sounds.

Faced with a "poor fool," even the gunners could not be bothered to take their positions. They leaned against the railings and told bad jokes, though no one knew what they were laughing about.

The pirate ship's surface gleamed with greasy black filth. Clearly, this group did not care much for hygiene.

The stench hitting him head-on nearly made Wude think he had fallen out of some two-dimensional pirate movie and into Pirates of the Caribbean.

Unlike Luffy, who shouted endlessly about "dreams," these were real pirates.

Boom—!

All of a sudden, a cannon blast rang out, startling both sides into looking into the distance.

A three-masted sailing ship entered everyone's view. The naval emblem on its white sails resembled a seagull holding a scale in its beak as the warship cut through the waves.

At its bow stood a main battery with three synchronized cannon barrels. The barrels rose and adjusted their angles slightly. Then three thunderous blasts rang out, and three cannonballs buzzed into the sky, arcing down into the sea not far from the pirate ship.

As the spray fell, the pirates' terrified expressions were revealed.

"Fire!" On the warship, a middle-aged Marine officer in a white cape waved his hand and shouted. The cannon fire resumed.

On deck, Marines gripped long blades or held their guns tightly, their fighting spirit soaring.

The young Bellemere stood among them with a gun in hand and a Marine cap on her head, anxiously watching the civilian boat at sea.

"What kind of monster is that?"

The pirates' terror aboard their ship was not caused by the Marine bombardment.

Blood sprayed through the air. Filled with resentment and confusion, pirate after pirate had their bodies pierced before they could even see the attack, collapsing dead.

An invisible presence moved through the pirate crowd like a scythe harvesting wheat. Lifeless pirates fell one after another, blood spraying into the air.

Each pirate's face froze in terror at the instant of death.

Meanwhile, on the boat not far away.

Wude sat on the railing with a cup in one hand, blowing on the steam before taking a sip of hot tea.

"Ah, a sunny morning and a cup of fragrant tea. Not bad at all."

The pirates' voices vanished. Not a single one remained alive.

The Marines stopped firing, and the colonel aboard the ship also looked toward the young man, his eyes gleaming.

Though he could not understand what exactly was killing the pirates, Wude was the only person aboard that ship. It was likely some kind of ability the young man had used to kill an entire ship of pirates.

Wude put away his teacup, set it aside, then sprang up and jumped onto the approaching pirate ship.

A short while later, he emerged carrying a bag filled with Berry.