"I'm Gojo. Yes, that Gojo…"
"Do you use that line on everyone? Is it supposed to mean something?"
"Well, you're a real downer, aren't you? Anyway, I wonder why we were brought here."
"What do you mean? I'm here doing a dungeon; I go home when I beat the boss or find the instant teleportation stone. How did you get in this dungeon?"
"I'm not in a dungeon. I'm in the prison realm, but I guess a dungeon and a prison are the same. So, you think this tele-stone is the One Piece?"
[Urgent Quest: The New World]
Find the One Piece
[Reward: ???]
[Penalty For Not Accepting: Return to Level One]
Do you accept?
[Yes/No]
I walk around, standing side by side with Jin. "What type of curse is this?" I ask while running my hand through some holographic screen floating in the air.
"Wait, you can see the system?"
"Yeah, I can see it. I do have six eyes. What are you trying to pull here? And I need to find the One Piece, so you're not going without me."
"Want to bet?" He says, smirking as he taps the accept button.
[Crew Required to complete this Quest]
"Huh, I guess I won that."
You're lucky; you're the only one I've met who can see the system. Now tell me, what do you mean you have six eyes?" He says as his eyes glow blue, and a blue aura surrounds his body like a threat in the dark of night, the wind blowing fiercely now.
"I didn't mean it literally you moron," I said as I pulled down my blindfold, showing off my own striking blue eyes and staring him down face-to-face.
"Hey, you guys over there, what are you doing out this late?!" yelled a man in marine clothes.
"Jump on," Jin Woo yells
"Jump on what?" I ask as a shadow dragon appears out of thin air.
"This is Kaisel."
I jump onto the back of the dragon, my back facing Jin Woo's back. I watch the man grow smaller as he runs away towards the base. "Well, now you've done it. He's going to send all his Marine buddies after us."
"This quest is urgent; I'm not sticking around here if I don't have to."
The sun rises beyond the horizon, casting a glare off the ocean.
"We've been flying all night. Do you even know where we're going?" I ask as my stomach growls.
"I don't know. The system didn't say, but I need to land somewhere to complete my daily quests, and I haven't seen any land since we left that Island."
"Well, I need to eat, so we better land somewhere soon."
"You don't think I want to eat too…Wait, up ahead, I see something in the distance. Kaisel, fly faster." He says as he points forward.
As we get closer, we notice a bridge in the middle of the ocean. We land on the edge of the unfinished bridge, the wind whipping past us. Kaisel vanishes the moment our feet hit solid ground. I stood at the edge of what resembled a cliff, peering out into the ocean, where vast blue waves rolled.
I turned around. "Jin Woo, this is the middle of nowhere. I don't see any green or food here."
"Didn't you say you had six eyes? Don't you see all these people?" He says, waving his arm at a group cowering and looking scared.
"It's okay, everyone. Gojo is here."
"Not with this crap again, I'll be down the way doing my daily quest before I'm stuck in the desert again."
"You never explained that when you mentioned it before."
"You never asked." He says, fading away in the distance.
That guy can run. I look around, and everyone is staring at me. Well, what am I supposed to do now, I thought to myself. I walk up to a person and say, "Hey, do you have any food?" before noticing they are wearing uniforms with numbers on them.
"Hey, don't be distracting the workers!" A guard holding a gun yells.
"I was just looking for some food. Do you have any?"
"What do you think this is? We don't give handouts. Now get over here and work," The guy says before trying to slip a cuff on my arm. I pulled away. "Well, these guys are no help. I look over to the previous guy in uniform, "Are you here of your own free will or as a slave?"
He then mutters the word slave as he looks at the guard, fearing for his life.
I walk down the bridge, throwing each guard left and right into the ocean. Some are shooting their guns, but my infinity stops them, and I flick the bullets back. The slaves are lying down, only showing guards in my view. Suddenly, I caught up with Jin Woo.
"I leave you alone for ten minutes, and all the guards are gone." He says in his annoyed tone.
"I freed the slaves. As usual, Gojo saves the day."
"Why do you say your own name so much? Are you in love with yourself?"
"What's not to love?"
He shakes his head and hands over a piece of bread.
"I found this on my run. Now, let's get out of here before more guards show up."
The shadow dragon emerges from the ground, and we jump back on. "You're free now. Remember, Gojo saved you!" I yell out to the slaves as I see them standing there, confused as if they don't know where to go.
"Why would you give them your name? Do you want more people after us?
"At least they would be coming after us because I'm a hero and not because you ran away."
"Let's just find the next island. The system told me there was a recruit there for the crew."
After a couple of hours of baking in the sun, we reached the Archipelago of the Organ Islands.
"We made it. Now we need to land in Orange Town."
"And the system told you all this?"
"Yeah, how else would I have found this place?"
"Maybe you're not who you claim to be."
"And maybe you're the moron."
We landed on a path between destroyed houses, with a few still standing. We jump off the dragon, and it disappears once again.
"Where does the dragon go?"
"Resting in my shadow"
"So, like Megumi—except with your own shadow domain."
"What are you talking about, old man? I don't even know who Megumi is or this shadow domain. You realize I'm not from your world, right?"
"Just like Megumi would say, but I'm not much older than you are, Old man."
"Would you please stop being so distracting and just help me find this recruit?"
"Well, what do they look like?" I ask before getting interrupted by an old man in glasses.
"I am Mayor Boodle, are you pirates?"
"Why do I keep getting asked that, and why are all the mayors old men with glasses?
"Look, we're here looking for someone; then we'll be out of your hair." Jin Woo says to the mayor.
"Well, I think I know who you're looking for. He just showed up."
We follow the mayor through the rubble into a house that is still standing. At a chair in the kitchen sits a man with dark hair down to his neck, but he's not sitting on his bottom; he's got his feet in the chair and is hovering his body above them.
"What's your name?" I asked the strange-looking man-eating sweets.
"Ryuzaki"
"I sit down and help myself to some of the sweets. I look over at Jin Woo. "Well, is this the guy we're looking for?"
The system appears, and I quickly jump back up.
[Recruit??? – Alias: Ryuzaki]
Jin Woo and I stared at the screen.
"It's not the name that bothers me," He whispered. "It's the question marks. The system always knows. But this time, it hesitated."
Ryuzaki licked frosting from his fingers. "Is something wrong?"
"Not yet," Jin Woo said, keeping his eyes on the system.
Then, just loud enough for me to hear,
"Whatever he is, I don't think the system can control."