— — — — — —
Everyone stared at Garp, who was lying flat on the ground. Not a single one of them moved to help—on the contrary, they casually shifted a little farther away, as if silently saying, 'Nope, don't know that idiot.'
Rimuru gave the scene a quick glance, then calmly went back to sipping his drink. He wasn't about to let some fool ruin a perfectly good, lazy afternoon.
But, of course, life never went the way he wanted.
Shion eyed the group lounging by the pool and sighed, clearly unimpressed. Then she walked straight over to Rimuru.
"Rimuru-sama," she said, plucking off his sunglasses with a helpless look, "handing everything to your subordinates isn't really how a king should act, you know. And you lot—" she turned to the others—"your world was only just liberated. How are you already so free and easy?"
"Well, with you guys around, I can relax, can't I?" Rimuru answered with an awkward yet polite smile.
Shion shook her head, scooped Rimuru up, and dropped onto a deck chair with him in her arms, kneading him like a stress ball.
"By the way," Rimuru muttered, eyes half-closed as if none of this bothered him, "you all finished your work already?" He was long used to Shion manhandling him. Shuna had the same habit, so he'd given up resisting.
"Mm. There's really nothing much going on," Shion said contentedly while still squishing him. "This country's too peaceful—nothing for us to worry about."
"That so?" Rimuru grinned. As king, hearing his nation was calm and harmonious was the best news.
"Oh, right. There's something else I need to tell you all." Rimuru wriggled free from Shion's arms and stood up. "I've made a little change to the guild's recruitment system."
"Huh? Recruitment system?" Everyone looked curious.
"Yup," Rimuru pushed up imaginary glasses with a serious look. "The Gate of Worlds needs a world's coordinates to function. If we wait for automatic capture, it takes ages. So, I scattered a bunch of guild invitation cards into the timestream. Whoever finds a card and meets the membership requirements will join the guild. And when they do, the coordinates of their world will be added to our system. That way, we can hop to their world through the gate. Cool, right?"
"That's pretty clever," Shion praised.
"But wait," came an annoying voice. Sure enough, Garp had crawled back up. The King of Nitpicking—fifty years undefeated—struck again. "What if someone finds an invitation card but doesn't meet the membership requirements, then just hides the card instead? Huh? What then?"
Everyone: "…"
Rimuru glared at him, snorted, then carried on. "Anyway. I've got another announcement. I want to establish a guild base. That way, we'll have a proper place for meetings, activities, and hanging out. Makes communication easier too. What do you think?"
"Yeah, we should have a headquarters," Shion agreed.
"Definitely. Meeting at Rimuru's house all the time isn't ideal," Sengoku added.
"I agree as well," Whitebeard rumbled, dead serious. "Rimuru's home is far too small. Just look at this pool. You can't swim in it—it's barely big enough to soak your feet."
Whitebeard, you too?
…Are you sure you and Garp aren't long-lost brothers?
"So where are you planning to build it?" Roger asked.
"Heheheh." Rimuru chuckled smugly. "Already picked the perfect spot. Right over there." He pointed into the distance.
Everyone followed his finger.
At the heart of the city towered an ancient tree, thousands of meters tall, its vast canopy brimming with life, sheltering the entire city in its shade.
"Oho!" Roger's eyes gleamed. "That is a good spot. Building on top of the Tree of Life… excellent idea."
The Tree of Life had been one of Rimuru's gacha prizes. Its limitless vitality nourished everyone living beneath it, strengthening their bodies, warding off disease and curses. If its life force was that overwhelming just at the roots, then at the crown… who could imagine? It might even condense into literal Water of Life.
"As expected of Lord Rimuru," Shion said, impressed. "That's a brilliant plan. When do we start building?"
"Not for a few more days," Rimuru said with a mysterious smile. "There's one little thing I need to handle first. Once I'm done, we'll go build the guild together."
"What thing?" Shion asked, curious.
"Secret." Rimuru just grinned.
[Ding…]
[Mission complete: Let Freedom Ring Across the Seas.]
[Rewards incoming.]
"Okay… I'm done. All guild members will get their share of the mission rewards. I think you've got the gist of how the Dimensional Guild works now."
Rimuru's cheeks warmed with embarrassment. He'd just been about to check the One Piece world to see why his mission wasn't finished—and bam, the face-slap system kicked in right on cue. Still, he managed to act like he was distributing the rewards.
"Ohhhh!" Sengoku and the others were surprised, but the joy on their faces was obvious. Ensuring their world had been transformed, they couldn't be happier with the outcome.
"Hey, Sengoku, check it out—I got… huh? Only 500 crystals?" Garp frowned, rubbing his eyes. Was he missing a zero? He checked again. Nope. Just 500.
"Could've been worse. Don't forget, we used to be part of the World Government. If we hadn't played such a big role later, even that 500 would've been out of reach," Sengoku sighed.
"Roger, what about you?" Garp grumbled.
"Eh, nothing special. Just 8,000 crystals. Pretty measly, huh?" Roger said with a smug, punchable grin. Garp nearly exploded.
Right then, a chime rang in Rimuru's ears.
[Ding…]
[Rewards received: 40,000 crystals, one Ultimate Enhanced Devil Fruit, and one Gacha.]
"Ultimate enhanced, huh? Sounds fun." Rimuru stroked his chin, intrigued, then tapped to claim it.
[You have obtained the Devil Fruit: Space-Space Fruit (Ultimate Enhanced).]
[Gacha reward: Source Fire.]
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