Chapter 15

I thought you were some high-level NPC, but the Purified Water that costs an average of 100 Beli per bottle—I give you 10, and you still want me to pay out of pocket?!

Do players not count as people? Doesn't running errands cost money?

"Wait!"

Cao Renqi suddenly seemed to realize something. Although he did not have much serious gaming experience, based on his previous experience with all kinds of colorful games, a quest this obviously strange was probably just a prerequisite trial.

Only after satisfying the other party could he trigger the subsequent quest. If he failed, it would more or less mean this questline had failed.

What would happen if he succeeded?

Heh heh heh, what else? Increasing favorability, and some *****, you know what I mean!

Cao Renqi, rather excited, immediately took two bottles of Purified Water from his shoulder bag and handed them to Adrian.

"I only have this much Purified Water on me. It's all for you."

Adrian completed the quest with a baffled look. What was going on? Was there really a player this eager to be fleeced?

Could this abalone guy really have something wrong with his head?

That made sense. What normal player would come to the docks to sell abalone during the closed beta?!

[Chapter 26: This Isn't Bullying a Newbie; It's Cultivating the Future]

Adrian took a sip of the Purified Water Cao Renqi had contributed for free, and his eyes lit up slightly.

"Now it's time to test the final, and most important, function!"

The panel issued a prompt.

[Would you like to open the Personal Shop to player [Cao Renqi]?]

He clicked confirm.

Two illusory boxes, similar to those that had appeared when he had just issued the quest, appeared before his eyes.

The left one was the "Item Shop." An exclamation mark indicated that he could place any personal item of his own in it. Even if he was not carrying it, as long as it belonged to him, it could still appear in the panel's list.

The right one was the "Skill Shop." He could place any skill he had already mastered in it, regardless of its level. Of course, Devil Fruit abilities and Specialty abilities were excluded.

Adrian tentatively placed several items in it, mainly skills with a few items.

[Please set prices for your goods. Note: Prices may be set in Beli, experience, specific items, and so on.]

[You may also set prerequisite purchase conditions for your goods, including but not limited to level, attributes, skills, professions, favorability...]

"Now that's amazing! My panel, this function is fantastic!"

Adrian sighed repeatedly in amazement.

After thinking for a moment longer and setting up all the goods, he confirmed the release.

Two pages of merchandise suddenly appeared before Cao Renqi. His gaze was instantly drawn to them.

"Let's see what good skills there are... Basic Hand-to-Hand Combat, Basic Marksmanship, Basic Swordsmanship, Basic Navigation, and quite a few corresponding advanced skills. As expected, experts are experts—they're on a completely different level from ordinary fishermen... Holy crap! What's this?!"

After seeing the description of a certain skill, Cao Renqi's face instantly flushed red, and his eyes bulged.

"You can freely control your body, hair, and internal organs. As long as you pour your consciousness into them, you can freely control any part of your body—any part... Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap! What I'm thinking of should be possible, right? It's really possible, right? Even if it's only in the game, I can still show off a man's prowess!!"

As an unconventional casual player, Cao Renqi's face reddened from excitement after being stimulated by the description of [Life Return]. To him, this skill was unquestionably the greatest skill in the world!

With this skill, he could definitely make all the other male players feel inferior!

Cao Renqi looked at the price again and felt as if he had been forced into an ice-bucket challenge, turning cold from head to toe, from his skin right down to his heart.

Experience could be ignored for now...

But...

1,000,000 Beli???

Even if you sold me, it wouldn't be enough!

Reluctantly closing the Skill Shop, Cao Renqi immediately opened the Item Shop. He instantly lost interest.

"Flintlock, gunpowder bullets, Standard-Issue Longsword, costume uniform... What use are these? If you gave me a ship, at least I could go out to sea and catch abalone!"

Adrian sensed that something was off. The player before him did not seem like a serious player. Wanting high-power, high-quality skills was understandable, but it was strange for him to show no reaction at all to the few items in the Item Shop.

You're only a level-one newbie. The power of a flintlock and gunpowder bullets is already enough for you to dominate the beginner area! How can you have no enthusiasm for buying them?

To keep his first sale from failing, Adrian still took the initiative to promote his goods.

"Is there any item or ability here that you need?"

Cao Renqi blushed and asked, rather bashfully, "I wanted to ask—um, I mean, I'm asking for a friend. That Life Return skill, ahem, can it really freely control any part of the body? Freely control any part?"

You're still Cao Dahua from his undercover days, aren't you?!

A complete lecher, with nothing but filthy thoughts in his head. You have none of the bearing of the soft-rice king from the Serious Crime Unit!

Adrian was covered in black lines.

After receiving an accurate reply, Cao Renqi became even more excited!

"Um, could you make it a little cheaper?"

Cao Renqi tried to negotiate.

Cao Renqi noticed that the NPC's name in front of him had turned red.

Cao Renqi gave up negotiating.

After thinking it over repeatedly and carefully weighing the thickness of his wallet, Cao Renqi still chose another skill.

[You have learned [Basic Heat Control]. You have received 1,000 experience and 1,000 Beli.]

All the costs of Cao Renqi's skill learning were handed over to Adrian. They were equivalent to tuition, with no middleman taking a cut.

Teaching players skills was equivalent to instructing them. The system panel merely simplified and accelerated the entire process; Adrian's own skill levels would not change because of it.

The skills and items Adrian had chosen to display had all been carefully considered. They were practically essential skills for making a living on the sea. The few advanced skills had only been placed there because Cao Renqi was the first player he had encountered.

But...

I thought you were a fine leek...

Yet you don't want a single combat skill. You only want to become a kitchen hand...

Having completed a preliminary test of the NPC functions of the system panel, Adrian had essentially achieved his objective for this trip. He turned and left, preparing to depart from the docks and head into the inland region of the Flower Country.

Whoa!

Boss, where are you going?!

I still want to follow you!

Cao Renqi, who had just learned [Basic Heat Control], immediately panicked.

He had helped the old fisherman sell abalone for five days without learning [Fishing]. After running into Adrian, not only had he immediately learned a Cook skill, he had also received a prompt about unlocking a Secondary Profession. How could he bear to watch this Big Fish swim away?

"Where can I find you in the future?"

Why is Cao Dahua looking for me?

If you stayed by my side, wouldn't I become the unlucky Zhou Xingxing?

Adrian waved his hand, leaving behind only a carefree silhouette before disappearing into the crowd.

At present, Adrian was very satisfied with the NPC template function he had tested. The most valuable feature was probably the [Personal Item Shop]. It would also be the best weapon for harvesting large amounts of experience from players later on.

After opening his Personal Item Shop to players, he could set different prerequisite purchase conditions for different items and skills, using them to issue quests and drive players to do things.

General skills for life on the sea were the best merchandise to sell.

Besides that, flintlocks, bullets, and swords were also extremely valuable weapons and items.

It would be best to think up some chain-type skills as well. For example, [Life Return] was a follow-up skill to [Six Powers]. Even if someone learned [Life Return] ahead of time, they would still need to spend experience to learn [Six Powers] again before they could use it.

It was true that after learning [Six Powers], players could use Skill Points to unlock [Life Return] ahead of time, but the players obviously did not know that! Selling players the prerequisite skills they were destined to learn in the future was practically the same as getting something for nothing!

"Perhaps I can also take inspiration from them and design some distinctive, highly appealing skills? After all, my main profession is Swordsman!"

"Based on the information I collected from the game forums earlier, the 'real world' is completely different from the world before me. Although it has a highly similar cultural background and geography, the details are vastly different..."

"So Yasuo can be brought out! The real world outside doesn't have a game called League of Legends, so it won't cause players any misunderstandings."

"Death is like the wind, always by my side; the road ahead is long, and only the sword keeps me company..."

"With just those two lines, who knows how many players will be attracted? After all, who could possibly reject the Happy Wind Man?"

"Hmm, let me think. What were Yasuo's skills again?"

"Way of the Wanderer, Dashing Slash, Steel Tempest, Wind Wall, Last Breath—five skills. They roughly correspond to a swordsmanship passive, high-speed movement, frontal offense, area defense, and an area ultimate. That should basically be enough for players, as long as their main profession is Swordsman..."

"Huh? Could I also charge a fee for changing professions when the time comes? That would let me scrape off another layer of experience."

"Ahem, how should I alter Yasuo's skills?"

"Way of the Wanderer can be imitated with swordsmanship affinity. Dashing Slash can use a weakened version of Soru. Steel Tempest might simulate Rankyaku's air slash. Wind Wall and Last Breath can both be set as ultimate techniques with prerequisite purchase conditions. I can't just put all the skills up at once, can I? Skills have different quality levels, after all..."

"I just wonder whether the system will allow me to 'create' skills like this. Perhaps I can find another closed-beta player to experiment on later. I'll wait until I finish making the modified skills first."

"What if someone thinks Yasuo is too pretentious and doesn't want to learn his skills?"

"If Yasuo won't do, what about his brother Yone?"

"Way of the Hunter, Spirit-Sundering Slash, Mortal Steel, Breaking Barrier Blade, Fate Sealed—it's just a reskinned set of skills..."

"Of course, that depends on whether the system allows me to teach these skills."

"Yasuo is covered, and the Unforgiven Soul is covered too. Could I also introduce the Kinkou Order and Wuju Style?"

"When the time comes, Yasuo from the West Blue can fight Yone from the South Blue, while the Kinkou Order from the East Blue and the Wuju Swordsmen from the North Blue clash together. Just imagining it is incredibly fun!"

"I really am an absolute ge(n)ius(me)!!"

[Chapter 27: The Marines' Reaction]

Grand Line, Marine Headquarters, Marineford.

In the sunlit Fleet Admiral's Office, an extremely muscular old man with a broad chest and yellow-brown skin sat behind a desk processing documents. His white hair and beard, shaped like the Chinese character for "mountain," showed that he was already quite old.

The old man was none other than the current Fleet Admiral of Marine Headquarters: Kong.

The Marines were the World Government's directly subordinate military organization. In the name of Justice, they maintained order across the world's oceans.

Because of this, large amounts of intelligence from all over the world were compiled and sent to Marine Headquarters every moment, awaiting processing and replies from the senior officers there.

Recently, the amount of business Marine Headquarters had to handle had suddenly begun skyrocketing.

There was nothing they could do. Ever since Gol D. Roger had ascended to the title of Pirate King, people all over the world seemed to have been violently stimulated. They charged toward the sea in droves, dreaming of becoming the next great ruler of the ocean.

The number of Pirates increased every second, and correspondingly, the pressure on the Marines throughout the world rose sharply out of nowhere.

Screech—!!

A sharp pen point suddenly dragged across the clean white document, leaving behind a huge scratch. The force was enough to reveal the frustration of the person holding it.

"Damn Roger! Damn Pirates!"

Behind the desk, Fleet Admiral Kong crumpled the ruined document into a ball and viciously threw it into the nearly overflowing trash can.

During the past half-month, he had practically been living in the Fleet Admiral's Office, dealing with official documents day and night and barely getting a moment of rest.

The Marine Admirals were the World Government's highest combat power and the strongest combat power in Marine Headquarters. The Fleet Admiral was an outstanding figure carefully selected from among the Admirals!

It could be said that practically every Fleet Admiral was an unparalleled powerhouse who stood at the pinnacle of the sea in strength, mentality, ability, and nearly every other aspect!

Yet such an unparalleled powerhouse had been trapped in a tiny office by endless, tedious paperwork. How could he not feel stifled?

The thought of retiring had surfaced in Fleet Admiral Kong's mind more than once.

However, replacing a Fleet Admiral was not so simple. It was not something that could be done whenever one felt like it.

Most importantly, even if there were sufficiently outstanding candidates for Fleet Admiral, there also had to be someone new who could step forward and take on the responsibilities of an Admiral!

For eight hundred years, the succession of Fleet Admirals and Marine Admirals had always happened at the same time, without exception!

But whenever Fleet Admiral Kong thought of this, his head hurt even more.

There were outstanding, even perfect, candidates for Fleet Admiral. In Fleet Admiral Kong's eyes, Sengoku the Buddha would definitely become the next outstanding leader capable of guiding the Marines!

But as for the Marine Admirals... there were not enough!