One Piece: I Loaded a Game Panel

"I'm so jealous! Am I the only person in the world who didn't get a closed beta slot?" That was one envious bystander.

"Everyone in this world is so tall. At just 1.9 meters, I stick out like a sore thumb." That was a sarcastic show-off.

"Question: Has anyone run into pirates?"

The game forum was a jumble. Alongside the closed beta players who had entered the game, hordes of bored spectators were posting. It took Adrian quite a while to find a thread that looked useful.

He clicked the last question thread.

"Didn't the game company's announcement include a wanted poster for the Pirate King? How come I haven't seen a single pirate after playing all day? Is it the same for everyone else? P.S. I'm in the East Blue."

The replies ran the gamut.

"Show-off! Drop dead!"

"I haven't run into any pirates either. Maybe it's because I've stayed on land..."

"Or maybe you never got into the game at all (smirk)."

"Thanks for asking. In the North Blue, just logged in..."

After scrolling through several pages, Adrian finally found a fairly useful reply from a user named "Crystal Clear":

"As we all know, 'Pirate King' has attracted gamers' attention ever since development began. As far as I know, it's the world's first holographic VR game, offering a fully immersive experience.

Unfortunately, the company has revealed precious little about the game itself.

It's like scratching an itch through a boot. The more you scratch, the worse it gets.

Judging by the information currently on the company's official website, most of the 'Pirate King' world is ocean. Humanity lives mainly on islands scattered across those vast waters and on the Red Line, which stretches across the planet.

Here's what we know so far, with a few irresponsible personal guesses mixed in:

1. The Red Line and the Grand Line divide the world into seven major regions: the East Blue, South Blue, West Blue, and North Blue; the Red Line; the first half of the Grand Line; and the second half of the Grand Line.

2. The game's major powers can roughly be divided into the World Government, the Marines, the Independent Kingdoms, and pirates.

3. Gol D. Roger has already reached the summit as Pirate King, with a bounty of 5.5 billion Beli. Barring a surprise, he'll declare war on the World Government, the force of order and authority. That should be the game's main storyline.

4. Version 1.0 is called 'The Dawn of the Great Pirate Era.' Roger's rise to Pirate King will draw huge numbers of people out to sea to become pirates. Since this is only the 'dawn,' there will naturally be a 'journey' and a 'climax,' followed by a 'fall' and an 'ending.' I think we're in for a very long story.

5. If nothing else, the name 'Pirate King' makes it obvious the game company is on Gol D. Roger's side. I'm betting Roger defeats the World Government and comes out on top!"

The post looked well reasoned, but Adrian reached only one conclusion: this "Crystal Clear" fellow had not only never read the manga, he had never even watched the anime!

The third and fifth points were the most ridiculous.

Roger hadn't declared war on the World Government. After becoming Pirate King, he'd disbanded his crew on the spot, then run off to the South Blue to marry and have a son!

Besides, Roger was terminally ill. He would turn himself in to the Marines next year and be executed in Loguetown. How was he supposed to come out on top?

To Adrian's surprise, not a single reply challenged the post. Instead, the thread was full of "Agreed!" and "All hail the expert!"

Do the players know nothing about the plot? Adrian wondered. If that's the case, there's so much I could do...

He closed the thread. Looking over the chaotic forum, Adrian posted a newbie bait thread under the username [Eight Trigrams Sea]. It sank without a trace and received no replies.

"Will the forum be any better when the game enters open beta?" he muttered, feeling a headache coming on. "Right now, it's far too hard to find useful information."

After browsing for a while longer, Adrian found another valuable tidbit: closed beta players in the West Blue were gathering at four main locations. The closest was the Flower Country, only five days by ship from Ohara.

If he turned into a ghost and flew there, he could arrive much faster.

Adrian wasn't desperate to meet the players yet. The closed beta would last fifteen days, and the five-day voyage would give them time to get used to the game and gain some experience.

Meanwhile, he could keep gathering information about them on the forum.

Five days later, Adrian steered his homemade speedboat toward the Flower Country's enormous port, now visible ahead.

"The Flower Country. I'm here..."

He gazed at the ships weaving back and forth in the distance like a school of fish.

To Adrian, the Flower Country was one of the few exceptionally dangerous islands in the West Blue. The reason was simple: many of the Happo Navy's leaders wielded Haki. The twelfth leader of the Happo Navy, Chinjao, had once been able to briefly hold his own against Garp the Hero with his Armament Haki.

That was extraordinarily rare in the four Blues!

As a rule, any pirate who made a name for himself in the four Blues went to the Grand Line to test himself against powerful opponents from around the world.

In other words, nearly all the world's top fighters gathered on the Grand Line.

Chinjao was one of the rare "legendary pirates" who had earned a bounty of over a hundred million while still in the four Blues. His bounty had reached a staggering 500 million Beli!

Even in the New World, the second half of the Grand Line where powerful fighters abounded, Chinjao would have ranked among the best in his prime!

And as far as Adrian knew, Garp had specifically trained for a while before defeating Chinjao five years ago. Using mountains in place of punching bags, he had flattened eight of them with his fists!

This was Garp, the Marine hero who had joined forces with Roger thirteen years earlier to defeat the seemingly invincible Rocks Pirates!

Granted, Chinjao's head had later been flattened with a single punch...

Still, the fact that Garp had taken Chinjao's distinctive cone-shaped head so seriously showed, to some extent, that he respected Chinjao's skill with Armament Haki.

"Armament Haki..."

Longing flashed through Adrian's eyes. His maxed-out [Ghost Body] let him ignore attacks from the vast majority of people in the world, but Haki was one of the few powers that could still hurt him.

Forget it. I came to quietly check on the closed beta players, not provoke the Happo Navy, Adrian told himself. Haki can wait.

"Fresh fish! Fresh fish! Fresh black abalone!"

After five days, Cao Renqi had gone from a complete game novice to a practiced fishmonger. He hawked his wares enthusiastically on the docks, blending right in with the other fishermen.

On the other side of the dock, Adrian had just disembarked when he stopped short. It wasn't because he had a special fondness for abalone, or because anything unexpected had happened. Among the fishermen, he had spotted a bright white ID: Cao Renqi.

Great name!

Adrian admired it without thinking.

Wait, what?

He snapped back to his senses. Instead of doing quests and earning experience like a proper closed beta player, this guy was selling abalone on the docks? Was there something wrong with his head?

No, that's not it!

The real question is, why can I see a player's ID? And his actual name, at that?

Is it because I have a system panel too, just like they do? Adrian wondered. But with the people I've met before, I couldn't see a stranger's name unless someone told me...

Whatever the reason, this was good news. He could now distinguish players from NPCs at a glance, even in a sea of people.

Adrian didn't inspect the status panel of the fellow with the excellent name. He had already learned plenty about the players' stats from the forum.

For some reason, every closed beta player who had entered the game had [Full Datafication]!

Every last one!

It covered everything, even their health and stamina!

According to posts where players had shared their own stats, every player's health matched their stamina. Both came from their Stamina attribute at a ratio of 100 to 1.

The legendary tactic of killing someone by nicking at their heels would work particularly well against enemies like that.

Full Datafication has its pros and cons, but starting with every attribute at one point is just cruel! Adrian thought.

Every closed beta player had the same attributes, regardless of how they entered the game or whether they spawned in one of the four Blues or on the Grand Line.

Every one of them had Strength 1, Agility 1, Stamina 1, Intelligence 1, Charm 1, Luck 1, Health 100, and Stamina Points 100. They were so identical they might as well have been clones from the same factory.

The problem was that, apart from Luck, the standard attribute score for an adult man in the Pirate King world was five!

Even Charm!

The poor players started out with worse attributes than ordinary children. Who knew how many would be scarred by that realization...

To the powerful people of this world, the players probably looked like a bunch of short, ugly weaklings...

Adrian almost laughed.

Cao Renqi, still selling abalone, had just finished a sale to an older woman shopping for groceries. He wiped the sweat from his brow and was about to call out again when he noticed a handsome young man in an impeccably tailored suit staring at him without blinking. The man's lips were slightly curved, and his gaze was deep and distant. In truth, he had simply zoned out.

Cao Renqi's backside clenched. Instinctively, he used Detect.

[Based on your level and attributes, you have obtained the following information.]

[?—Handsome Young Man] (Yellow Name)

[Level: ?]

[Attributes: ?]

[??]

[Danger Level: Extremely Lethal!]

"Extremely lethal?!"

Cao Renqi swallowed. During his five days hanging around the docks, he had seen NPCs rated highly dangerous. But this was the first whose details were all question marks, revealing nothing except a danger rating of "Extremely Lethal"!

Just what level of person was this?

At that moment, the handsome young man strode toward him.

"It's you—Cao Dahua?!"

Adrian had charged over, but the sight of "Cao Renqi" nearly knocked the wind out of him.

Well, would you look at that!

He had a name fit for the mighty Cao Cao, but a pudgy, sleazy face like the Tiger of the Serious Crime Unit. Where did he get the nerve?

"Cao Dahua?" Cao Renqi trembled. "Young man, have you mistaken me for someone else? My username—my name is Cao Renqi!"

With the way all that flesh is jiggling, you expect me to believe you're not Cao Dahua?!

"Ahem! That's not important!" Adrian coughed twice, then said in a low voice, "Were you secretly inspecting me just now?"

Cao Renqi shuddered again.

What the hell? Is today a bad day to sell abalone?

Nobody has ever noticed me using Detect before. Have I run into some absurdly powerful expert? At his age?

Seeing Cao Renqi so nervous, Adrian laughed to himself.

His Intelligence attribute was now over two hundred. The boost it gave his hidden [Perception] attribute was almost unimaginable!

To Adrian, Cao Renqi's Detect had been as obvious as a lamp in the dark.

With nothing he could say in his defense, Cao Renqi gave a dry laugh. "I don't understand what you mean. Would you like some abalone, young man? My black abalone is the freshest around."

"Abalone? No, thanks." Adrian smiled. He stopped teasing the player and got to the point. "My name is Adrian. I've just arrived in the Flower Country, and I need help with something else. Do you have time?"

Cao Renqi was startled, then even more startled, then suddenly thrilled.

Could a fishmonger finally catch a break?!

After five days selling abalone, I've stumbled into a high-level NPC whose stats are nothing but question marks. Could it be...

Is abalone my lucky charm?

"I'd be happy to help!" Cao Renqi replied eagerly.

Adrian thought for a moment. "I need some clean freshwater. Can you get me some?"

As soon as he spoke, a notification appeared on his panel.

[Would you like to issue a quest to player [Cao Renqi]?]

So this is what comes with the NPC template!

A system for issuing quests to players!

"Yes!"

[Please set the quest requirements and rewards. Experience rewards are subject to a limit determined by your level, strength, influence, and renown.]

[You may offer your own possessions as additional rewards, including but not limited to Beli, items, experience, and skills...]

Two pale-blue, translucent windows appeared before him. The left let him choose a quest type, while the right displayed his current total experience allowance.

After glancing at the daily limit, Adrian set up a simple quest and issued it.

At the same moment, Cao Renqi received a panel notification.

What the hell?!