Kai walked out of the restaurant, casually tossing the crumpled wanted poster into a nearby trash can.
He headed toward the docks.
But before he even reached the salt-sprayed wood of the pier, he skidded to a halt. In the exact same breath, several silhouettes burst from the shadows of the alleyways, weapons drawn.
"Die!"
"We poisoned your food back there!"
"There was enough venom in that meal to paralyze a Sea King! You can't even twitch!"
"Who cares if you're worth 350 million?!"
The trio of bounty hunters closed the gap in a flash. Their blades sliced through the air, faces twisted in ugly, desperate greed. They weren't looking at a living, breathing man, they were looking at a walking mountain of Berries.
Too bad for them... this kind of attack was a complete joke to Kai.
Compared to Kizaru's light-speed kicks, these guys were moving in slow motion. Calling them slower than snails would be a compliment.
Kai barely tilted his head. A katana whistled past, a hair's breadth from his cheek. He casually reached out, his hand clamping around the attacker's throat like an iron vise.
Crack!
The sickening sound of snapping bone echoed through the street. He let go, and a lifeless body slumped against his leg and slid to the cobblestones.
The remaining two struck simultaneously, flanking him in a well-practiced pincer maneuver. You had to give them credit for teamwork, even watching their comrade get his neck crushed didn't make them hesitate.
But it didn't matter. Their blades ghosted right past kai, hitting nothing but empty air.
Kai pivoted on his heel and lashed out with a vicious sweeping kick.
Rankyaku!
Realizing they had missed completely, the surviving duo finally felt the terror setting in and scrambled to retreat. But with their pathetic speed, how could they possibly escape?
Kai's leg tore through the air, launching a blinding, crescent-shaped blade.
Squelch!
The air blade cleaved right through them. Both bounty hunters were bisected at the waist in a messy explosion of blood and guts.
Kai didn't even break his stride, stepping right over the carnage as if it had nothing to do with him.
Dozens of eyes were still watching from the dark alleys. But after witnessing three veteran hunters get butchered in less than five seconds, nobody else dared to breathe, let alone attack.
A 350-million-Berry bounty!
That wasn't a joke. Even a fifty-million bounty would be the reigning king of the East Blue. A monster like this? There wasn't a single soul in these waters capable of taking him down.
"Paralyze a Sea King? Not quite enough kick," kai muttered to himself. "Next time, bring better poison."
Leaving the butchered corpses behind, he strolled the rest of the way to the harbor.
Down at the docks, he did a quick scan. A ship flying a ragged Jolly Roger caught his eye. Perfect. With a casual bound, he launched himself through the air and landed squarely on the pirate ship's deck.
Gulp.
Every single pirate on board swallowed hard. Word traveled fast. A 350-million-Berry big shot had just hit the East Blue. Marines, civilians, and pirates alike were all sweating bullets.
The crew stared at kai for exactly one second before making the smartest decision of their lives. They chucked themselves over the railing and dove into the ocean. Zero hesitation.
In the blink of an eye, Kai was the only man left standing on the ship.
"Man... why are they so sensible? Am I really that scary?"
Kai sighed, though he couldn't hide a smirk. Honestly? It felt pretty damn good. He didn't even have to lift a finger, just his bounty alone was enough to make an entire crew abandon ship.
"Dammit... couldn't they have left at least one guy behind to steer?!"
Kai realized the flaw in his plan. He had zero clue how to sail a ship. Back in his past life on Earth, he didn't even know how to drive a car, let alone captain a galleon.
But he understood the absolute basics, drop the sails and grab the wheel. As for where the wind would take him?
"Ah, the legendary RNG navigation method," he muttered, spinning the helm.
He wasn't in a rush anyway. He was fully healed, and since he was stuck in the East Blue, there were two tourist spots he actually wanted to hit.
The first was a no-brainer, Loguetown. The town of the beginning and the end. The birthplace and execution site of the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger. You couldn't just drop into this world and not visit Loguetown.
The second spot? Shimotsuki Village.
Zoro's master, Koushirou. The dojo master's true identity was a massive mystery, still unresolved before Kai had crossed over. Fans online threw around theories that he was from Wano, but Kai didn't really care about the politics or his background.
He just wanted to pay Koushirou a visit and see if he could squeeze some swordsmanship secrets out of the bespectacled man.
Kai's current swordsmanship was already sitting at a very high level. Thanks to his 100x training multiplier, he had effectively grinded the equivalent of twenty years of harsh training. He could cut steel effortlessly, placing him in the upper echelons of fighters.
But his foundation was entirely self-taught. He lacked the systematic, foundational discipline of a true swordsman. Drilling the basics with Koushirou seemed like a solid plan.
Am I... lost again?!
Kai facepalmed. He realized he was utterly hopeless at navigating open water. There were zero landmarks, and he didn't even have a basic compass on him. Did normal compasses even work out here, or did he need a Log Pose for the Four Blues too?
Fortunately, since he was still in the East Blue, he could roughly use the sun to guess his heading. He spent the next day blindly adjusting the rudder, chasing the sunlight.
After drifting for over a day, land finally broke the horizon.
It was a tiny island, even smaller than Aiya Island. It didn't even have a proper harbor, just a rundown, makeshift wooden pier sticking out from a sleepy little village.
Kai dropped anchor and hopped ashore. He desperately needed to find a local to guide him. Because at this rate, relying on random ocean currents, he'd be an old man before he ever found Shimotsuki Village.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Support the Flying Lizard 🦎 https://patreon.com/FlyingLizard (Pure donation / Tip Jar, All chapters remain free for everyone) Please let me know if the translation is okay and please point out any errors