Hard-Won Survival

Loguetown was a strange place. Although it was under Marine jurisdiction, the Marines did not bar pirates from its docks. Pirates even did business openly in town.

As Rubick saw it, Loguetown was probably a chaotic place, full of wealthy, powerful nobles; civilians who fell somewhere between law-abiding citizens and street toughs; pirates who committed every crime imaginable but obeyed the rules while in town; and Marines doing their best to catch them.

Take Loguetown's backstreets, for example. They had everything anyone could want for a night out. Countless people drank their troubles away there, burned off their excess energy, and spent the meager wages they had earned at sea.

Rubick had only discovered the place after working at the docks for two months.

Now he had quit his job with Harg and taken a position as a security guard at a backstreet establishment called the Rose Bar.

Rubick pushed open the window and drew a breath of free air.

He had earned this thirty-square-meter room by knocking the bar's deputy security captain down with three punches. The room was not the only perk: he also earned ten thousand a month.

"Now I just need to focus on getting stronger."

Rubick nailed the wanted posters he had collected to the wall one by one. At the front were Pirate Admiral Don Krieg and Arlong, two major East Blue pirates with bounties of twenty million each.

Those two posters showed that Luffy had not yet set out to sea.

Rubick knew exactly where things stood.

He was not someone who liked staying in one place for long. Now that he had crossed over into the world of the Pirate King, his curiosity would never let him stay put without going out to see it.

But what good was being able to fight? Out on the seas, connections and power mattered. Every one of the Four Emperors had a dozen or twenty core officers and thousands upon thousands of underlings. Even the Supernovas of Luffy's generation had to fall in line and serve someone else when they reached the New World.

Hawkeye, on the other hand, traveled alone and looked like he had it made. But when the Marines abolished the Shichibukai, they dared to order his arrest outright. And what did he do? He took off.

That was why Rubick had set his sights on a future like Rayleigh's.

First, he would gain formidable strength, then find dependable crewmates. After that, he would see the wider world before settling somewhere peaceful, marrying, and having children. Perhaps one day, if the mood struck him, he would even train a promising apprentice.

Besides, Rubick was just an ordinary man. He had never been a leader and did not have the knack for it. Finding a reliable captain was what mattered most.

And in this world, what captain could be more reliable than Luffy, the favored son of fate?

"Good. Getting stronger starts with showing up for work!"

Rubick straightened his clothes, went downstairs, and crossed to the Rose Bar to begin his workday.

"Good afternoon, Deputy Captain!"

Yes, Rubick was now the deputy captain. The former deputy captain had naturally been demoted to an ordinary security guard. He had often used his size to bully the bar's other employees.

Once Rubick took the position, the other employees started currying favor with him. The captain spent every workday in the manager's office upstairs and was rarely seen.

Wearing the professional fake smile he had perfected as a delivery rider in his previous life, Rubick ignored the employees, went straight to the bar, and rapped on its perpetually grimy counter.

"A glass of milk."

The servers stifled their laughter and quickly went back to work. Drinking milk in a bar was an odd sight, but Rubick was the deputy captain. None of them dared laugh in his face.

Rubick did not care. Meat, eggs, and milk were the only dietary rules he followed right now.

"And three portions of medium-rare steak, plus an order of fried noodles."

The bartender called the order to the kitchen and poured Rubick a glass of milk in a large beer mug.

It was four in the afternoon. Rubick's job was to sit there and wait for someone to cause trouble, then teach them a harsh lesson. It was simple, but also terribly dull.

Fortunately, the bar had a small training area in its back courtyard, with exercise equipment set out in the open air.

As deputy captain, Rubick did not have to sit inside the bar the whole time. He was free to train in the courtyard.

After eating and drinking his fill, Rubick made a round of the empty bar, then headed to the courtyard to begin his daily workout.

This world was remarkable. If someone had talent, even basic exercise could turn them into a formidable fighter. Koby and Helmeppo were the clearest examples.

Both had entered the Marines as chore boys, but grueling training had sent their strength soaring. They had shot up in height and even grown much better-looking. Koby no longer needed glasses.

Koby later learned the Six Powers and awakened Observation Haki during the Paramount War. That was how far he had come.

But without talent, no amount of training would make someone more than a pushover. A burst of Conqueror's Haki would knock them right out.

Zoro and Sanji also showed how important training was. Their talents were about equal, but Zoro trained far harder than Sanji.

Training did not really need any fancy tricks. Just look at Zoro: it was a matter of ordinary sword swings. Swing a blade a hundred thousand times with all your strength, and you could become a formidable fighter.

And Zoro's everyday routine was weighted training. Simple, but extremely practical.

Rubick glanced at the barbells on the ground. The heaviest weighed no more than three hundred kilograms. He tried lifting it and found it a little strenuous, so he decided to commission a set of weighted gear once he had the money.

Or, if he got the chance, he could get hold of a little Seastone and wear it. Training that way seemed like it would be even more effective than using weights.

When Luffy first set out to sea, touching Seastone left him unable to move. Ace, meanwhile, could walk, sit, and lie down while wearing it. The difference in strength was plain to see.

Rubick had been training with the barbell for a while when a bare-chested, bearded man entered the training area.

"So you're the new deputy captain?"

Rubick set down the barbell. He knew who the man was: Macron, the security captain.

"Captain Macron."

Macron saw Rubick's fake smile and said irritably, "If you don't want to smile, don't. You beat that useless Clay, but I still want to see what you can do."

The moment Macron finished speaking, he pushed off the ground and charged. An ordinary straight punch shot toward Rubick.

Rubick did not want to reveal the powers of the Smoke-Smoke Fruit, so he threw a punch of his own. Knowing he was no match for Macron, he put all his strength into it.

But Macron did not meet Rubick's fist head-on. He drew back his straight punch with effortless ease, turned sideways, and threw a left hook.