(My original novel is here! You can read 5 chapter on Royal Road. The title is My 10th Transmigration.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/129193/my-10th-transmigration
You can also read up to chapter 12 on my patreon for free. It's open for Public.
Pat.reon.com/relifewithkarmicgacha Search for the 10th Transmigration collection)
[Edward POV]
A booming, menacing voice echoed from within the whirlpool, reverberating through the storm.
"I FINALLY CAUGHT YOU—YOU THIEF!"
From the churning abyss, a monstrous galleon began to rise—the Flying Dutchman—its bow breaking the surface with a groan like the wailing of tortured souls trapped beneath the waves.
The ship was enormous, its warped hull carved from blackened, sea-soaked wood. Barnacles clung to every inch, crawling over rotting timbers like a disease. Algae hung in long, green streamers from the rails, and the entire vessel glistened with a slimy, sickly sheen.
Its sails—tattered, ink-black sheets—flapped violently in the storm winds. A ragged black flag whipped at the mast, half-wrapped around a skull tangled in its fabric.
Chains dragged across the deck, rusted and crusted with coral. A ghostly blue light pulsed faintly from deep within the hull—like trapped souls trying to scream their way out.
The prow snarled forward, shaped like a monstrous sea creature with gaping jaws lined in jagged, rusted metal teeth.
Along the sides, sea-caked cannons slid outward. The front cannon—the main gun—shifted into position with a loud CLANK, its mechanisms groaning to life.
It was massive, sculpted like a kraken's eye, glowing orange from within—ready to fire some cursed payload dredged from the depths.
Lightning flashed—illuminating the deck—where a figure stood, framed by storm and fury.
He was part man, part fish. His peg leg scraped across the soaked planks, and his right arm had mutated into a twitching chitinous crab claw. Tentacles hung from his head like hair, writhing wetly. He had no beard—only barnacles crusting across his jaw.
He raised his sword high, and his voice cut through the wind like a harpoon.
"I, DAVY JONES, will make sure you suffer the consequences for stealing from me!"
The main cannon locked onto Sage and me.
"Sage? What should I do here?" I asked, slightly lost.
Sage sighed. "First of all… let's calm him down."
"How?"
"You should go and beat him up," she said dryly.
I blinked at her—then grinned. "Got it."
"EAT MY WRATH, YOU THIEF—!"
Before the cannon could fire, I launched into the air using [Skywalk], landed above him, and cocked my right fist—coating it with haki and chakra—before punching downward.
He blocked with his crab claw, startled. The impact echoed like thunder, blasting a shockwave across the ship and pushing it halfway back into the whirlpool.
"Ahh!" Davy shoved me off. From that clash alone, I could tell—he was strong. As strong as me.
"That'll be added to your DEBT!" he shouted, lunging with his sword.
"If you want to charge me, you'll have to beat me first!" I shot back, swinging my fist into his blade.
Another shockwave burst outward, distorting the sea.
Meanwhile, Sage crouched on the dock, resting her chin on her hands, watching the fight unfold. She'd cast a veil around us so no one could see the fight.
I traded blow for blow with Davy Jones—finally, a fight on equal footing. I couldn't stop smiling.
He too was slowly enjoying himself. Until, he slipped on a slippery deck surface and stumbled, which made me able to knock him out pretty easily.
Eventually, I managed to bind him in the chains of his own anchor and restrain him above the deck.
"UNTIE ME, YOU VILLAINOUS, THIEVING SCUM!" he roared, thrashing.
My shirt was shredded again, and I was bleeding from multiple wounds. Sage floated up, walked over, and began healing me.
"Davy," she said evenly.
"What—" His thunderous tone faltered, becoming almost childlike. "Sis? Why are you here?"
"I was about to ask you the same thing," Sage replied, before smacking him squarely on the head.
His skull plunged straight through the deck, leaving a neat hole.
I took a step back, mildly terrified of her. I had experienced that a lot before. Poor guy.
Now that things were calmer, I finally had time to process who this guy was. Davy Jones—a name infamous across the seas, especially thanks to Pirates of the Caribbean. A sea spirit who ferried drowned souls to the next world.
Davy Jones' Locker—a euphemism for the oceanic abyss, the final resting place of those lost at sea.
As my dad was a man of the sea, he talked to me about Davy Jones before. I also heard of his name multiple times from the ship captains.
Once he'd calmed down, Davy started explaining himself.
"This kid—he stole from the Locker. From me! He looted a whole bunch of stuff!"
His grand voice was gone. Now he just sounded like a brat tattling to his mom.
Sage turned to me. I instinctively shook my head.
"No I didn't!"
"Yes you did!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Yeah-huh!"
"Stop it. Both of you." Sage sighed. "Davy, start from the beginning."
As it turned out, I had technically broken a rule.
When I ransacked sunken ships and ruins for treasure, I'd unknowingly violated something called the Trial of the Locker—a spiritual agreement that Davy Jones oversaw.
According to him, treasures lost at sea weren't simply abandoned—they were bound to the Locker until someone earned the right to retrieve them through a trial.
That trial involved effort, risk, and time—fighting currents, surviving sea beasts, enduring storms. Only then would the treasure be "released." They literally had to put their life on the line in this trial.
Some items were deliberately placed in places humans could almost reach, but not quite. The temptation itself was part of it.
I bypassed all of that with my overpowered telekinesis, casually yanking treasures from unreachable depths of the sea.
And just like that, I understood exactly why he was so pissed.
"Oh shit," I muttered. "I did rob the Davy Jones' Locker."
"See! He admitted it!"
And just like that, I understood exactly why he was so pissed.
"Now, it's time for you to pay your debt!" He said, standing up after Sage loosened the chain around him.
"Wait–" I was alarmed as I saw him reach for his sword, but instead, his hand went straight to his pocket and he took out a glowing calculator.
"Value of all the gold, gems, relics, and cursed cutlery you looted… Gold is 20 dollars an ounce, the cups are around 10 dollars each…"
He kept tapping the calculator at a high speed, which made my heart beat quicker.
He showed the calculator screen to me, which made me scream in horror.
"Ahh!"
"You OWE Davy Jones, around 570,000 dollars! MUAHAHAHA!" Davy Jones laughed maniacally.
"NOOO– Wait, only 570,000?" I was confused.
"And now," he continued, ignoring me, "we calculate your labor cost. One shilling a week. That's, let's see... about 25 cents per week back then."
"Wait." I had a hunch that he didn't use the current era aspect of calculations.
He hit the final button on the calculator. It displayed;
{570,000 ÷ 0.25 = 2,280,000 weeks}
"Which means," Davy said with joy, "you'll work for me for… oh, about 43,846 years!" He laughed madly again.
A glowing green contract appeared in front of me, and my name was automatically signed on it. But, the 43, 846 years changed into 73 minutes of manual labor.
A golden cuff appeared around my wrists. I felt bound to the ship.
"But I can make that in an hour tho?" I said, stunning him.
Davy stopped laughing and stared at me blankly. 10 seconds later, he finally reacted.
"W-What?!" Davy Jones was flabbergasted.
"Yeah," I pressed my watch and a holographic projection shot out. Then, I opened up my bank account and showed it to him. It was one of my main accounts, and it had over 50 billion dollars in it.
Davy Jones almost fainted from the shock. "Are you perhaps the descendant of the Queen of Spain?"
"No. I'm a musician." I replied.
"NO! Musicians are poor!" He argued.
Sage smiled and said, "He used the calculations from the 1700s."
"I guessed that." I said as I turned off the projection.
With a smirk, I said, "So, should I give you back the 570,000 dollars in cash, or should I exchange it for something of the same value?"
I had taken about 60 billion dollars worth of treasures from the shipwrecks around the world.
The actual values were lower, as many of those were precious because they came from under a shipwreck, not that they had any actual value on their own.
Davy Jones was stunned speechless for a while. As he had closed the contract, he couldn't even change the terms on it.
"You— You ignored the trial. That is an offense in itself. The sea wouldn't let you get away that easily." He stammered and took out another device and put it in my hand.
It was a silvery, three-pronged fork. Or more accurately, a very small trident.
"Now! BE JUDGED BY THE SEA!" He raised his hand upward to the stormy skies, which seemed to respond to him with flashes of lightning.
"You will be judged on your greed! Your heart, and also your mind!"
My heart beats quicker again.
The trident beeped and he grinned. He snatched it back and then widened his eyes as he saw the judgment. A sentence made of water began to float from the prongs of the trident.
{He's so FINE! Also, he's not guilty. Let him go.}
"What?!" he was shocked. "How–how could the sea let you off so easily?"
Sage interjected for me, "Maybe because of his efforts in trying to clean it up?"
"I did use my psychokinesis and shot the entire Pacific Garbage Patch into the sun. So I guess the sea and I have no problems with each other." I shrugged triumphantly.
"But what about greed? You've seen all of that gold. How are you not feeling greedy about the gold at all!" He asked, bewildered.
I could turn an ordinary rock into gold. So I wasn't tempted by the shipwreck treasures.
Also, my intention for the treasures was to use that to build up the economy in Latin America. The sea judged my intentions and I was even rewarded by it.
A ring appeared on my index finger. A blue ring that shined brightly underneath the stars.
Sage was also surprised when she saw the ring, but she didn't comment on it.
Davy Jones was incredibly depressed now. He squatted by the rails of the deck and pouted.
"Still, you have me for an hour. Do you want me to clean up the deck for you?" I asked, feeling a little bad.
Sage suddenly told Davy, "You shouldn't ask him to do manual labor. Instead, why don't you ask him to give you another leg? One that won't rust in the water. I know you're already sick of using that wooden leg."
"New leg? I can do that." I nodded in agreement. He lost the fight mainly because of that leg. I had some spare parts for the androids that I was sure I could recalibrate to make a prosthetic leg for him.
She also added, "Since you boys can handle everything by yourselves now, I'll be going back home to sleep. Make sure not to create any more trouble! I'm warning you, Jones!"
"Wait, Sage, where am I even?" I asked her as I was unfamiliar with the surroundings. "Are you going to pick me up later?"
She paused and said, "Cuba. And no."
Jones came to search for me in Cuba because I hid the gold and treasures here. He was following the curse of the sea on those treasures. Luckily I didn't have anyone find the treasures just yet so no one was implicated by the curse.
The sea lifted the curse immediately after the judgement. Now, I could use the treasures freely.
Sage disappeared. I stared after her in disbelief, wanting to say something but also too stunned to speak.
Jones had a similar reaction.
"Why don't we get started on that new leg right now?" I said to Jones as I pulled up a glowing barrel and sat on top of it. "I also have a lot of questions, if you don't mind."
Jones paused for a few seconds before shrugging and answering casually, "Sure. I'll answer what I can."
I scanned his leg with my watch and a holographic projection of his body was on display.
Jones was an ordinary sailor in the early 1700s when his ship was shot down by pirates. He lost his arm and leg, and was left to die alone on the wreck, adrift at sea with a broken mast.
When he died, the sea turned him into the guiding spirit for the souls who lost their lives at sea. Hence, the start of the Davy Jones legend.
He told me he didn't do much—just drove his ship back and forth between here and the afterlife to guide souls. It was so boring, sometimes he just let the ship steer itself as he shut down his mind and slept in the captain's cabin.
Unlike Pirates of the Caribbean, Jones could apply for breaks anytime he wanted. He didn't have to wait a whole decade to come to the surface world.
"I've shared my story. Now it's your turn," Jones said. "How did you die?" he added.
I looked at him with disbelief. "I'm alive though? Well— I was dead once—"
He flinched back in shock. "Wait. You're a mortal?"
"Yeah?" I said, confused.
"A mortal… can fight with me like that?"
"I'm also an afterlife agent, so—"
"Ah! That's it." He finally understood.
He relaxed a bit more once I told him I was an afterlife agent. He said that technically made me his co-worker.
"Your ship—is it always like this?" I asked him. "Always eerie and slimy…" I looked around and grimaced.
He shook his head. "No. But I can only use ships that were shipwrecked at sea. This one's in better condition than most."
I nodded in understanding. "So you can't use a normal ship?"
"I can. But how could I even buy one?" He shrugged.
"Well I owe you 570,000 dollars. So if you want, I can build a ship for you. With additional features that won't make you feel bored during your work hours."
I took 60 billion, so I felt bad only paying him 570,000 dollars.
His eyes lit up in excitement, and he began telling me what kind of ship he wanted.
…
[General POV]
After Edward's sudden departure, Frankie and Ted came to the mansion, hoping to understand what had happened. But neither Edward's girlfriend, his maid, nor even his AI could offer anything beyond a single explanation.
"Sage took him away."
So the three of them—Frankie, Ted, and Vanessa—waited in the living room, restless and concerned.
Stella was there too, sitting quietly as the air grew heavy with uncertainty until she couldn't take it anymore and went to have some fun in the arcade.
Nearly an hour passed in tense silence before Frankie's phone rang. She answered it in a heartbeat.
"Eddy? Where are you?" she asked urgently.
"At the sea. Frankie, I need some help," Edward replied, knowing that Frankie was there in the mansion.
He wanted to ask Yuri to do it, but Yuri was summoned by Robin to do some work for her, leaving an actual maid in the house to do the cleaning.
Ted leaned in, face full of urgency, "Is that Edward? What did he say?"
Vanessa rushed over as well, anxious, trying to catch a word from the call. Her heart sank the moment Frankie relayed the message.
"He needs some help," Frankie said softly.
Ted furrowed his brows, concern etched into his face. Vanessa, too, looked disheartened. She mumbled, "Why didn't he call me for help?"
But Frankie gestured for her to wait and stop as it wasn't the time to ask Edward that question.
"What do you need, Edward?" Frankie asked in a lowered voice, stepping slightly away from the others to give the call some privacy.
"I need you to pick up some stuff for me and put it in the jet. Woo-Jin is flying it to me. Also, I need you to buy every single DVD and album you can get— You know what, it'd be better for me to give you a list."
Frankie blinked. "Huh? What do you need that for?" Her worry shifted into something between disbelief and confusion. "So you need me to buy stuff, not help you in a fight?"
"Oh, the fight has already ended. I won," Edward said with a snicker. "Although my clothes are destroyed again."
"Wh— Who did you fight?" Frankie whispered, glancing over her shoulder and shielding the phone as if protecting a secret. She knew if Edward's shirt was impacted, that meant it was a particular rough fight– like the ones he had with the supersoldiers.
"Davy Jones. But it's fine. Although I owe him a debt, so I'm going to need to do some of his bidding. He wants a new ship– I'm building him one with an entertainment room."
Frankie stood still, internalizing what she was hearing. Her tone stayed calm, but the color in her face betrayed a flurry of thoughts. "I see," she replied, then added more seriously, "What else do you need me to do?"
"Nothing. Just go into my lab and get some prosthetic arm and leg for me."
Then Edward asked casually, "Do you want to see what Davy Jones looks like?"
"No, I don't think I want to," Frankie answered instantly. "Although I will accept some description from you."
"Well, he looked around my age. He has a peg leg, a crab hand, squid tentacles as hair, and barnacles on his chin— Wait, he's telling me he can scrape off the barnacles. He only put them there as an accessory. He wanted to look like he had a beard to look older."
Hearing that made Frankie exhale through her nose with something resembling relief. If Edward could banter like this with Davy Jones, then whatever "debt" he owed clearly wasn't a hostile one.
When Frankie ended the call, Vanessa immediately asked, "What did he want?"
"For me to pick up some stuff for him. He's dealing with a friend right now, so he might not be back for the next two or three days," Frankie said as she pocketed the phone.
Vanessa sighed, visibly disappointed. "So, I'm not trustworthy enough for him to tell me all the details, huh? Is that only for family?"
Ted stepped in gently, "I don't think so. He's not telling me anything either."
Vanessa blinked in surprise. That realization softened the sting. If even Ted—one of Edward's closest family—was being kept in the dark, then maybe it wasn't personal.
Meanwhile, Frankie headed toward the hidden lab. Edward gave her access to the subterranean level.
She had never been here before.
What she found was astonishing. A five-level subterranean complex hidden beneath the mansion. She paused at the threshold, staring at the rows of tech inside the lab she gained access to.
"Just how deep does the secret go?" She mumbled, yet she didn't venture out of her requirement and only picked up the stuff Edward needed.
In Cuba, Edward showed some pictures to Davy Jones and asked him to pick a design for his new ship. He showed some real life ships and even one from animes.
Davy Jones picked the Whitebeard Pirates ship– The Moby Dick, and was even intrigued by the internet.
"If I have access to this thing, then I won't be bored when I'm doing my work. Can you add this to my ship?"
"It depends. I need to know exactly how you operate so I can see if it's feasible." Edward replied.