Four a.m. and the scent of oranges still mingled with gunpowder.
Leon Wesley woke to find himself in a dilapidated fishing-tackle shed, moonlight leaking through the roof-beams and casting a chess-board across the floor. Beyond the warped planks the shadow of a black-sailed ship burned like coal hurled into a furnace."Awake?"
The voice was crisp, salted by sea-breeze. The tangerine-haired girl pushed a bowl of hot soup toward him. "Drink, otherwise your blood-sugar drops and you faint again."Leon accepted the soup, but a blue interface popped into his mind:[Hunger +15]
[Skill Point: 1 → Unassigned]He exhaled silently and looked at the girl. "Thank you, Nami."
Nami smiled like a cat that had just stolen a fish. "Don't thank me yet—the deal has only begun."The terms were simple and insane:Tonight they would infiltrate the slave-ship Gellman and rescue her shadow-clone;In return she would provide navigation, funds, and absolute secrecy about his "pixel ability";If they failed she would sell his power to the Under-World Exchange for the one-hundred-million Berry needed to ransom her village.Leon gave a wry smile. "It seems I don't have veto power?"
Nami wagged a finger. "You do—but the price is Impel Down. Choose."Outside, the skeleton of a sky-citadel loomed in the clouds—an accidental "bedrock platform" Leon had generated while unconscious, now worshipped by villagers as a miracle. The system told him that for every hour the platform existed it would consume 1 % of his coordinate-seed; when the seed hit zero he would be trapped in the One Piece world forever."Seventy-two hours," Leon murmured. "I must gather seed fragments within three days or I can never go home."
Nami spread a chart across a crate and traced a scarlet line with her nail. "Then let's tear the Gellman to pieces before the counter hits zero."Night fell; the sea became a slab of black-obsidian mirror. Their craft—an "orange speed-boat" barely half the size of a navy cutter—carried a silent "Ender-Engine" Leon had secretly crafted: a purple-glowing square propeller that accelerated to sixty knots in three seconds without a sound.On the way Nami taught him the use of the Log Pose and told him the money behind the slave auction—Donquixote Doflamingo.
"That man's Ito-Ito Fruit is already awakened," Nami bit her lip. "If your blocks are analysed by him the whole East Blue will become marionette strings."Leon gazed at the burning ship-silhouette in the distance, purple lightning reflected in his pupils. "Then I'll dismantle his stage first."Two nautical miles from the Gellman the system suddenly warned:[Detection: Sea-Prism-Stone Reaction]
[Advise: Avoid Direct Contact]Leon sneered, opened his right palm, and a "Sea-Spirit Stone Block" took shape—pseudo sea-prism-stone he had reverse-engineered via the system, identical in density yet fully pixel-controllable.
"Contact? No—I will turn sea-prism-stone into my weapon."Nami glanced at him and suddenly felt that this youth from another world was more storm than any pirate she had ever met.The speed-boat slipped into darkness, counter reading 71:59:59.