"Soru!"
Kazu accelerated instantly, reaching Peppa's side a second later.
Before Peppa could even react, Kazu's fist had already given it a loving caress.
Bang!
Peppa went straight to meet its great-grandmother, whose kindly face looked just as it had before she was eaten all those years ago.
"If I ration it, that takes care of meals for the next two days."
Kazu picked up the wild boar weighing several hundred pounds with one hand, already thinking up 108 ways to cook Peppa.
Just as Kazu was about to head back the way he had come, he looked up and happened to spot a fruit that had fallen beside a large tree.
It was silvery white, covered in strange patterns, and shaped much like a peach.
Kazu recognized it at a glance. It was a Devil Fruit.
No wonder Peppa had lingered here for so long. Presumably, it had discovered the Devil Fruit too, but had never eaten it because it did not know whether it was poisonous.
That worked out nicely for Kazu. He wanted both Peppa and the Devil Fruit.
Picking up the Devil Fruit, Kazu had no idea what kind it was, so he planned to take it home first and look it up properly.
Her mother had once been a Marine captain, and his family had a Devil Fruit Encyclopedia.
With the Devil Fruit in one hand and Peppa in the other, Kazu quickly returned to the cabin.
"Found it."
Kazu found the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia in a chest, but even after searching for ages, he could not find any information matching this Devil Fruit.
It seemed no one had ever discovered this Devil Fruit before. This encyclopedia had come from Marine Headquarters and was quite comprehensive.
Without finding out what fruit it was, Kazu did not dare eat it rashly. If it turned out to be a trash fruit, he would have nowhere to cry. He would be better off not eating it at all.
Forget that line about there being no trash Devil Fruits, only trash users.
Given a Swamp-Swamp Fruit and a Rumble-Rumble Fruit, both Logia Devil Fruits, he believed 99 percent of people would choose the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
That was reality. Everyone knew perfectly well which one was stronger.
Kazu did not dwell on it. It was still a Devil Fruit, after all. If he ran short of money later, he could always dump it on the black market for a hundred million Beli. He could not lose either way.
Eating one of those powerful Devil Fruits was the better deal. It would not be too late to eat one once he went to sea and encountered a Devil Fruit he could identify.
Humming a tune, Kazu gave Peppa a quick cleaning, chopped some firewood, and lavished some fiery affection on Peppa.
Before long, the aroma of roast meat drifted out. Kazu feasted at lunch, then continued training that afternoon.
Two days passed in the blink of an eye, and Kazu arrived at the shore early that morning.
The boat was small, but it carried Kazu's hopes for his first voyage.
"I, Her Kazi, am setting sail!!!"
With a loud shout, Kazu began his journey as a pirate.
"Ding~" "A high-quality host detected." "God-Level Idle System successfully loaded!"
The wooden boat had only just sailed out to sea, and Kazu was still brimming with excitement when the voice that suddenly rang out in his mind gave him a huge fright.
"Nani, this is..."
Kazu nearly burst into tears on the spot. Eighteen years. Eighteen whole years!
When he read webnovels in his previous life, everyone who transmigrated came with a system as standard equipment, commonly known as a cheat.
But after Kazu arrived in the pirate world, he waited and waited without any system appearing. He had thought he would never get one in this lifetime.
Do you know how I got through these eighteen years?!!!
He had never expected the system he had been longing for to finally arrive on his very first day at sea.
Kazu calmed himself, and the system in his mind came into view.
"God-Level Idle System?"
"Oh, there's even an introduction here."
A line of small text appeared in front of the system.
"God-Level Idle System: receive one idle reward every day, a minor critical reward at the end of every month, and a major critical reward on the final day of every year." "Beginner's gift pack!" (Unclaimed.)
Short and straightforward. Kazu thought this system was simply lazy.
No wonder it was called an idle system. Put plainly, it was a lazy bum system.
"Mr. System?"
"Mr. System!"
Aside from that passage of text, the system gave no response, no matter how Kazu called to it.
Other systems issued tasks every day and even scoured various worlds for items to reward their protagonists.
Some systems were downright chatterboxes, arguing endlessly with their protagonists.
But this system said nothing, simply putting everything up front as an announcement. What was that if not laziness?
"Whatever. Having a system is better than not having one. No tasks just means I'll improve a little more slowly. I'm only eighteen, anyway."
"Claim the beginner's gift pack!"
"Ding, distributing the beginner's gift pack!"
"Huh? So you can talk."
A light appeared in Kazu's mind, followed by three small balls of light appearing before him.
"Congratulations, host. You have received the Sword Saint inheritance." "Congratulations, host. You have received one Demon Sword Muramasa." "Congratulations, host. You have received a choice of one of three Devil Fruits." "Ding, the host has been detected to possess a Paramecia Split-Split Fruit. The Devil Fruit can be consumed and fused with the third reward, upgrading it to a choice of one of three Devil Fruits without side effects." "Proceed with fusion?"
"Fuse them!!"
What was there to hesitate over? Kazu had never expected the Devil Fruit he had stumbled across to prove so helpful.
Paramecia Split-Split Fruit?
It sounded like the twin brother of Buggy's Chop-Chop Fruit. Compared with a choice of one of three Devil Fruits without side effects, it hardly mattered.
"Ding, choose one of three Devil Fruits without side effects." "Paramecia Teleport-Teleport Fruit." "Logia Space-Space Fruit." "Dog-Dog Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Crimson Heaven Divine Wolf."
The instant the three Devil Fruits appeared, Kazu disregarded the Teleport-Teleport Fruit.
With a Logia Space-Space Fruit available, who the hell needed a Teleport-Teleport Fruit?
Although Mythical Zoans were the answer in the current meta, that was a Space-Space Fruit.
"System, I choose the Logia Space-Space Fruit."
Kazu felt that hesitating even one more second would be disrespectful to the Space-Space Fruit.
"Ding, congratulations, host. You have received the Logia Space-Space Fruit (no side effects)."
A dark gold katana appeared before Kazu, and the Split-Split Fruit in his bundle turned into a golden watermelon.
At the same time, the Sword Saint's swordsmanship inheritance instantly flooded Kazu's mind. Every move and technique felt as though he had practiced it countless times.
"Holy shit. Battō Slash, Rising Upper Slash, Raging Dragon Slash, Phantom Sword Dance, Ultimate Ghost Swordsmanship: Storm Style."
"So it's that kind of Sword Saint."
Kazu had not expected this system to be a gaming addict.
Besides those five skills, there were three others.
Secret Swordsmanship, Weapon Mastery, and Overdrive.
"Having them is better than nothing. And you couldn't really tell in the game, but I never expected this Sword Saint's inherited swordsmanship to be so exquisite."
Kazu picked up the Demon Sword Muramasa, and a suction force suddenly appeared. The katana was actually absorbing his Haki.
"Hmph. Let's see which of us comes out on top."
Rather than stopping it, Kazu let the demon sword devour his Haki with all his might.
The process lasted over ten minutes before the Demon Sword Muramasa finally stopped devouring Kazu's Haki, as though it had eaten its fill.
Seeing this, Kazu drew Muramasa. Its keen edge seemed capable of slicing through the air. He circulated his Armament Haki and coated Muramasa's blade, only to feel that his Haki had grown stronger?
Kazu suddenly realized that the Haki Muramasa had spent so long absorbing had not gone to waste. Muramasa had acknowledged him as its master, and only then revealed this Famous Sword's true power.
"Secret Swordsmanship!"
Kazu swung horizontally, sending a dark gold Flying Slash dozens of meters long flying out from the wooden boat.
"This Sword Saint inheritance is fucking awesome."
Someone who had never practiced swordsmanship had directly unleashed a Flying Slash. This inheritance really delivered.
He took out the Devil Fruit, bringing the golden watermelon before his eyes. Without another word, he opened his mouth and bit off half of it.
Perhaps because the system had purified it, the Devil Fruit without side effects did not have that awful taste. It was sweet and delicious, even tastier than an ordinary watermelon.
In no time at all, Kazu ate the entire Devil Fruit.
Spatial power filled his entire body, as though he had been born knowing how to use it.
"Devil Fruits really are miraculous."
"No wonder Sabo could use the Flame-Flame Fruit's power right after getting it."
Kazu had prepared himself for boredom throughout the voyage, but now that he had received the beginner's gift pack, he devoted himself entirely to studying his fruit abilities and swordsmanship and did not feel bored at all.