[Pirate crew successfully named. Starting location: East Blue!]
[Current pirate crew funds: 56,287 gold coins.]
[Current pirate crew member: Imu's Dad]
[Navigator: None]
[Chef: None]
[····]
[Minimum crew size to set sail: 3. Please recruit your crew at the tavern.]
"Alright, let's see what this tavern recruitment looks like." Klein tapped on the tavern.
As expected, three options popped up before him: single draw, ten draws, and hundred draws.
Recruitment region: East Blue.
Recruitment pool: Zoro, Kuina, Sanji, Usopp, Nami, Joseph, Johnny...
Free daily draw count: 1.
"Ooh! Not bad! You can even recruit Kuina? I've gotta get her!"
"She's the woman who beat the future world's greatest swordsman two thousand times!"
Klein's attention was fully on the female characters available for recruitment.
He used the free draw. Naturally, he only got 1 fragment.
In most other games, after pulling a certain number of times, you're guaranteed some kind of bonus.
But in this game...
Just one word: scam!
No so-called "pity system"—you just keep pulling until you die!
Once the free draw ended—
As expected, the four-tier special bundle popped up on the screen.
[Super Value Offer!!]
[Four-Tier Tavern Recruitment Bundle Arrives with Incredible Value!]
[······]
He bought every bundle, making Klein sigh, "Guess I'll be buying an extra special bundle every day. That's over 200,000 Beli a month!"
It didn't seem that expensive at first glance, but once you factored in all the other bundles, he'd end up spending several million Beli every month just on special offers.
It was terrifying when you broke it down.
The joy from just making a few million Beli vanished in an instant. It felt like he was either making money... or on the way to making money.
When would life finally slow down so he could just take a break!?
He closed the game.
Pulled the covers over himself and went to sleep. That night, Klein had a nightmare—he dreamed of lying in a bed filled with Beli.
Then all the Beli grew arms and legs and started yanking at his skin and body hair, waking him up with a jolt.
When he opened his eyes—
He found all three beds were empty.
"???" Klein's eyes widened. Sleepiness gone. "Garp and the others didn't come back all night??"
"Are they that hardcore?"
"Do they really need to go this hard??"
After washing up, he headed to class. Upon closer inspection, he saw that Garp and Sengoku's clothes were soaked with sweat—no time to change them.
"Holy crap!"
"Are they made of iron?!"
Klein was floored with admiration. It wasn't just talent—they worked this hard, too? They weren't leaving anyone else a chance to succeed.
Luckily, I'm not a normal guy.
Otherwise...
These guys would break me mentally.
Little did he know—Garp and Sengoku were the ones mentally broken by Klein, which was exactly why they trained all night.
Also...
Last night, the two of them were at the derelict shipyard—doing handstand hair washes.
Meanwhile, at Marine HQ—in the instructor's office of the Naval Academy—
"Sensei, look what I brought you."
The instructor looked up, his eyes lighting up. "Ho! Kong, you rascal, come to visit your old teacher?"
"And you brought my favorite booze too—not bad! I did cut you some slack back in the day."
He was a tall, well-built man with thick muscles bulging from his exposed arms. His tanned skin showed he was a man hardened by wind, sun, and sea.
Kong placed the bottle on the desk and sat down across from the instructor. "I spent months at sea hunting pirates, but things went pretty smoothly overall."
"This is the liquor I brought you."
The instructor picked up the bottle, lovingly caressing it as his eyes gleamed. "Nice, nice. You're probably getting promoted to Rear Admiral soon, right?"
"Yeah." Kong nodded. "Sensei, how's the current class of cadets?"
The instructor's expression shifted, and a wide grin stretched across his face. "Hahaha—Kong, let me tell you, this year's cadets are the most talented batch in history!"
"Not like your year, where you were the lone standout."
Seeing the instructor so hyped up—and even claiming this batch was the strongest yet—Kong was a bit surprised. "Sensei, they're that good?"
"More than good," the instructor beamed. "This batch already had great potential, but I didn't expect to find such an outlier!"
"I really misjudged him at first... I didn't think Klein's talent would be..."
"He's the strongest student I've ever taught!"
"Even brighter than you were, Kong."
Hearing such praise, Kong was stunned. Back in his day, his talent and hard work were praised to the heavens. He took pride in that.
And now...
His teacher already had a new favorite?
And even claimed that guy was more gifted than him?
"Sensei, is Klein's talent really that strong?" Kong furrowed his brow.
He'd graduated a while ago and faced off against rising pirate stars across the seas—none of them had been a match for him.
Kong was confident in his own natural ability.
"Heh—" the instructor chuckled. "That guy learned Tekkai in just a few hours!"
"Nani?!"
Kong's eyes bulged as he shot to his feet, staring at the instructor in shock. "Someone mastered Tekkai in just a few hours?"
Unbelievable!
"I didn't believe it at first either, but that's the truth." The instructor couldn't help recalling the moment.
He added, "Besides Klein, this class has other promising ones too—Garp, Sengoku... all future Vice Admiral-tier talents, at minimum."
"But Klein..."
"Has admiral potential!!"
"An admiral?" Kong was shaken. As a Marine, 99% of them dreamed of becoming an Admiral.
But out of thousands, maybe one or two ever made it.
Without exception, you needed more than merit—you needed monstrous strength capable of terrifying pirates.
Admiral potential…
That was the highest possible praise for a cadet.
No exaggeration.
The instructor suddenly looked conflicted, a little worried. "Klein's talent is great, but the guy... how do I put this—he's got a real obsession with money!"
He knew Klein's talk about opening training classes and offering sparring sessions "for the sake of others" was all an excuse.
The instructor wasn't that easy to fool.
Lately, Klein's money-making operations were getting bolder, with higher price tags.
Even...
The Academy's point system—according to the teachers, Klein had converted all his points directly into Beli!
It gave the instructor a real headache. He thought, If Klein put that much energy into training instead, he'd improve even faster...
"On the bright side, Klein's antics have actually sparked motivation and competition among the cadets. This batch is growing faster than any before."
That's the main reason he hadn't stepped in to stop Klein's money-making at the academy.
Kong was genuinely intrigued by the students his sensei mentioned. "Sensei, I'd love to meet this batch myself—to witness their strength and talent firsthand."
"You'll get the chance."
The instructor stood and patted Kong's shoulder. "We'll arrange a day soon. Let a veteran like you teach 'em a lesson—show 'em what a graduate can do."
"I'm seriously looking forward to fighting these new kids." Kong's eyes lit up.
As for Klein, he was steadily progressing in the game like clockwork.
Every day, he maxed out the special offer bundles.
He kept challenging "Buggy the Clown," and finally, just before the month ended, he managed to collect all the fragments of the Chop-Chop Fruit.
[Successfully synthesized the Chop-Chop Fruit!]