"Thanks for saying that, but honestly? The taste has nothing to do with my cooking skills," Marcus said with a shrug. "It's all the Devil Fruit's power."
He wasn't trying to be modest, it was just the truth. As a modern guy who could barely tell wheat from rice, cooking was definitely not his strong suit. Hell, he'd lived off ramen and takeout for the past few years.
But he had to admit, the wild boar that came out of the furnace was pretty impressive. No hair, no organs, just pure roasted meat that was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Even without any seasoning, it tasted great.
Then again, this was the One Piece world. Luffy could roast meat just fine, and that guy didn't know jack shit about cooking either. Maybe the laws of physics here were just more forgiving when it came to food.
Alvida was studying him with her new, beautiful eyes, and Marcus could feel her sizing him up. Her gaze took in his weird outfit, beach shorts and a t-shirt with English letters she probably couldn't read. Then her eyes settled on his face.
Messy hair, pale skin, soft features. If he put on a wig and some makeup, he could probably pass for a girl. They were standing pretty close to each other, and other than the smell of roasted meat, there was no unpleasant odor coming from him.
After spending time on a pirate ship full of unwashed men who thought bathing was optional, no one cared much about smell. You just got used to it.
Compared to those rough, weathered pirates, Marcus looked like what her crew would've called "fresh meat," young, clean, and probably never been in a real fight in his life.
Looking at his thin arms and legs, he seemed like a strong breeze could knock him over.
If this had been before her transformation, she would never have given someone like him a second glance. Hell, she wouldn't have even let him do chores on her ship. He didn't look like what a man should look like.
That had been one of the reasons she'd always picked on Coby so much, too weak, too easy to push around.
"You said earlier that I could follow you?"
Marcus patted his stomach, which showed no signs of the massive meal he'd just eaten, and glanced at Alvida. "What, having second thoughts already?"
"Not really. A favor this big deserves to be repaid properly. But I'm wondering... you obviously know who I am, right? A pirate with a five million berry bounty, and I used to be..." She gestured vaguely at where her old body used to be. "Well, you saw what I used to look like. With that Devil Fruit of yours, you could probably find someone gentle and sweet to follow you around. So why me?"
Now that she had her new appearance, she didn't mind making fun of her former self. That was all ancient history as far as she was concerned.
"Plus, you've got to be some kind of nobility, right? A fallen noble or something?"
Her imagination was starting to run wild. In this world, pale skin usually meant money or noble blood. And his clothes, while simple, looked expensive from every angle. She didn't recognize the writing on his shirt, which probably meant it was from some high-end foreign brand.
If he really was nobility and he was letting a pirate like her follow him around, that meant she'd eventually be moving in high society circles. She could practically picture it, all those stuck-up nobles who would've looked down on her before, now staring at her with lust and envy.
The thought made her secretly thrilled.
"Me? Nobility? Hell no," Marcus pointed to his own nose, looking genuinely confused. "Do I really look that fancy?"
"You're not a noble?" Alvida's dreams came crashing down immediately.
Her expression turned odd as she looked him up and down again, reassessing.
"High-ranking Marine officer's son, then?"
"If that were true, I should've arrested you on sight instead of giving you a Devil Fruit. What kind of logic is that?"
Alvida was getting seriously confused now. This guy wasn't fallen nobility, wasn't connected to the Marines, and if he wasn't rich either, then nothing about this situation made sense. After all, she was a pirate, the kind that merchants cursed when their ships got raided.
Was this some kind of redemption thing? Was he trying to turn her into a good person?
Come on. She was destined to be a pirate. It was just who she was.
Marcus stood up and brushed dirt off his shorts.
"Don't overthink it. Just think of it as a hobby of mine."
Honestly, even he wasn't sure what his endgame was. Go home? If that meant returning to his cramped rental apartment on Earth... yeah, no thanks. He'd had enough of that life.
Family? He'd been on his own since aging out of the orphanage.
Friends? Mostly online acquaintances who probably wouldn't even notice if he disappeared.
The only thing he'd miss was the gaming PC he'd just finished building. That thing had cost him three months' salary.
"Come on, let's go check out your ship."
Alvida quietly followed along. She had a million questions, but decided not to push for now. If they were going to be traveling together, she'd figure him out eventually.
"So you're planning to set sail?"
"Maybe."
When they reached the coast, there was no pirate ship in sight.
The stronghold that had originally belonged to Alvida was completely empty, not a soul around.
Marcus looked around, trying to get his bearings. Was this really the manga version of events? If this had been the anime, Alvida should've been punched sky-high by Luffy while still on her ship.
But he didn't dwell on it. Either way, the plot hadn't changed that much.
Meanwhile, Alvida was radiating an aura of pure murderous rage.
"Those fucking bastards! They actually ran off!"
"You're sure it was your crew that took the ship? And not someone else sailing it away?"
"My treasure vault's been completely cleaned out! Only my crew knew where I hid that stuff!" Alvida growled, her eyes blazing with fury. "Those traitorous assholes! When I get my hands on them, they're gonna eat my iron mace!"
Marcus raised an eyebrow. "Do you have another ship?"
"..."
"Also, just checking, do you actually know how to navigate?"
"..."
Silence.
Heavy, awkward silence.
For a moment, the only sounds on the island were their breathing and the waves lapping at the shore.
"Just so we're clear," Marcus said cheerfully, "we're both landlubbers here. It's not like we can swim after them."
"I KNOW THAT!" Alvida stormed off and slammed herself into one of the abandoned buildings, clearly needing some time to sulk.
Marcus couldn't help but chuckle. She was still pretty dramatic, even in her new body.
But this whole situation did confirm something he'd been wondering about. In the original story, when Alvida showed up again later, none of her original crew was with her. Now he knew why, they'd all jumped ship the moment they thought she was dead.
Made sense, really. Working for a violent, obese pirate captain probably wasn't anyone's dream job. The moment they thought they were free, they'd grabbed everything valuable and ran.
Though he remembered that later in the story, she did show up with a new ship and crew, complete with cannons. Did she have shipbuilding skills? Or maybe she'd just recruited new people.
He thought about it for a moment, then shrugged. He had more immediate concerns.
Like figuring out exactly how his Devil Fruit powers worked.
He walked down to the water's edge and dipped his hand into the sea. At first, nothing unusual happened to his body. Then he gradually increased his contact with the seawater, first his arm, then both arms.
That's when he noticed a new status effect appear at the bottom of his vision: "Weakness X."
"Weakness 10?" he muttered, pulling his arms out of the water. "Wait... Can I use milk to remove negative buffs in this world?"
The moment his body left the seawater, the weakness effect quickly faded from his status screen. The feeling of powerlessness disappeared along with it.
"Too bad I don't have a bucket right now. I'd love to test whether I can create infinite water sources like in the game."
He looked down at the ground beneath his feet, then at his overstuffed inventory.
"Alright, I'm gonna find some iron today if it kills me. But first, I need to craft some storage chests, my inventory is packed with dirt and cobblestone..."
Marcus quickly threw together a simple wooden storage building and started dumping his excess materials inside. Just like in the game, the chests had generous storage space that defied all logic.
With his inventory cleared out, he was ready to do some serious mining.
Time for the classic gamer approach: dig straight down and hope for the best.