They were sailing peacefully until Luffy suddenly shouted in excitement.
"FIXED!!" said Luffy, proudly showing off his straw hat, now perfectly repaired thanks to Nami.
"It should be fine for now. As long as you don't tighten it too much, it'll hold," Nami explained, putting away her needle and thread.
"I can't believe it, you fixed it, Nami! Thank you!!"
Luffy started poking the hat with his finger, accidentally making another hole in it.
"Were you even listening to me?!" Nami yelled, poking him with the needle.
"You stabbed me with the needle!!" Luffy shouted in pain.
"Well, hitting you doesn't work, so a little prick is the best option for you!" Nami scolded.
"When you put it that way, that's true," Luffy admitted, nodding.
Just then, Zoro woke up after resting for a while.
"You're so noisy I can't sleep, and I'm hungry. Got anything to eat?" Zoro asked.
"You guys are so weird. You get all serious talking about pirates, but you didn't bring food or water. You have no idea how life at sea works," Nami said.
"We did have food, but they ate it all in just a few days. Luckily, I've got some fruit left," said Oliver, pulling out an apple and tossing it to Nami.
"Thanks… huh? Where did this come from?" she asked, looking at the apple.
"I've got them stored," Oliver said, making another apple appear and taking a bite before handing one to Zoro and Luffy. "It's a mystic space where I can store a lot of things. And even then, the food ran out."
"Oliver, do you have anything else to eat?" Luffy asked.
"If I give you all the fruit I've got, we'll starve. But I do have some cheese…"
Oliver took it out, and Luffy stretched his arm to snatch it and eat it in one bite.
"See why we've got no food left?" Oliver said to Nami.
"I–I kinda get it now. I guess you're the reason they haven't starved yet. What a bunch of pirates," Nami said, eating her apple.
"Alright, alright, stop complaining," Zoro said, finishing his apple. "I'm still hungry though."
Nami stared at Oliver intently, as if she wanted to ask something.
"What's wrong?" Oliver asked.
"It's just… you… you have a tail," Nami said, unsure how to ask.
"Oh, that's what you meant. Well, I'm not human. I'm a Beastkin, a hybrid between a human and a mink. Thanks to my mink side, I have animal traits — that's why I've got the tail and ears," Oliver explained, twitching his ears.
"Hey! There's an island!" Luffy shouted.
The shout caught everyone's attention. Nami looked through her binoculars and recognized it.
"There's nothing on that island, it's deserted. It's a waste of time to go there," Nami said, putting the binoculars down — only to see they were already heading toward it. "WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!"
"Maybe we'll find someone who'll join us as a nakama," Luffy said.
"I don't know, but at least we'll find food. Nami's right, we should've brought something to eat," Zoro added.
"We did have food and booze, but you two devoured everything," Oliver said, remembering. "Oh right— Nami, hurry up or we'll leave you behind!"
"But I told you there's no one there! Going is a waste of time!"
Despite what she said, Nami still followed them as they landed on the island.
"We're here!" Luffy shouted excitedly, though his enthusiasm dropped as soon as he looked around. "There's nothing here, just trees."
The island had no structures at all — only trees and a few small hills.
"I told you, if you're looking for nakamas, this isn't the place," Nami said.
"But there might be fruit and animals we can use for meat," Oliver said, excited to see the strange creatures.
"Come on, Zoro, get down here!" Luffy yelled, but Zoro was still asleep. "You're sleeping again?!"
"Leave him. Remember, he's still hurt," Nami reminded him.
"Oh, right! Let's go!" said Luffy.
"Where are you going?" Nami asked.
"Maybe there's someone in the forest," Luffy said. "Oliver, let's check out the island."
"Let's go, this'll be fun," Oliver said with a grin.
As they entered the forest, they saw a strange animal that looked like a mix between a fox and a rooster.
"What was that?" Nami asked.
"A fox-rooster or rooster-fox, how fun," Oliver said.
They kept walking until Luffy grabbed a snake-rabbit.
"Look at this, a mutant rabbit!" said Luffy.
"I'd say it's a mutant snake," said Nami.
"There are too many weird things here," Oliver said, amused, watching a tiger-bear eating fruit.
"And they're really fun!" Luffy laughed.
"I don't get how this is fun. It's kind of disturbing seeing all these weird mixes," Nami said, watching other animals.
"Well, I could be considered a weird mix too," Oliver said, looking at a dog-duck.
"But you're human… half-human, but still human. That's not that disturbing," Nami replied.
"Hmmm…"
Oliver looked to the side and saw the tiger-bear grabbing a fruit with strange markings.
"You guys keep looking around, I'm going that way," Oliver said before running off after the animal.
When he got close, he jumped to grab the tiger-bear, trying to take the fruit from it.
"Give me that," Oliver said, trying to snatch it — until he realized it was just a normal fruit. "Oh, sorry."
When Oliver let go, the bear ran away, terrified.
"I'm really sorry!" Oliver shouted after it.
He looked around and realized he had gone too deep into the forest.
"I guess I could try this. System, can I ask you a question?"
[As long as it's related to the system, I can answer your question.]
"Why was there an additional island?"
[I cannot answer that question.]
"Why did Buggy have someone from the Longarm Tribe in his crew?"
[I cannot answer that question.]
"Will there be changes in the future?"
[I cannot answer that question.]
"So you're not going to answer anything I ask?!" Oliver shouted angrily.
[Correct. It is impossible for me to answer anything unrelated to the system.]
"Damn it."
[However, if you wish for answers, I could send a request to the higher-ups to schedule a meeting and see if your questions can be answered.]
"You can do that?"
[I can send the request with your petition, but it's highly unlikely you'll receive a response.]
"I've got nothing to lose by asking. Send the request — I need to know why those changes happened."
[Sending request.]
[Request sent.]
[Would you like to ask anything else?]
"Yeah. I've noticed there are black spheres and others that are black with silver. What's that about?"
[That's due to rarity.]
"Rarity? The colors determine how rare the things I get are?"
[Exactly.]
"Can you tell me which color means what rarity?"
[Immediately.]
[Black Sphere: Common]
[Black and Silver Sphere: Uncommon]
[Silver Sphere: Rare]
[Golden Sphere: Epic]
[Rainbow Sphere: Legendary]
"So I've only gotten Common and Uncommon ones so far. I wonder what a Legendary Devil Fruit would be like. Maybe the Dark-Dark Fruit or the Quake-Quake Fruit?"
[That would be incorrect.]
[The Dark-Dark Fruit is Epic rarity, and the Quake-Quake Fruit is Common.]
"What? How can the Quake-Quake Fruit be Common?"
[That is due to the difference between gacha machines.]
[The Combat Style and Talent Gacha Machines go from least to most powerful.]
[The Devil Fruit Gacha Machine is based on rarity within the world — with Paramecia being Common and Mythical Zoan being Legendary.]
[The Weapon Gacha Machine is also based on rarity in the world — Common for regular weapons and Legendary for those belonging to the Twelve Supreme Grade Swords or comparable to them.]
Oliver stared at what the system had told him.
"Can you show me the types of Devil Fruits by rarity?"
[Of course.]
[Paramecia Devil Fruits: Common]
[Zoan Devil Fruits: Uncommon]
[Ancient Zoan Devil Fruits: Rare]
[Logia Devil Fruits: Epic]
[Mythical Zoan Devil Fruits: Legendary]
"So that's the rarity system for Devil Fruits. How interesting… I can't wait to get my hands on a powerful one."
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