Chapter 31
New
The Synonym
Writer of things, and money wanter
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2025
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────────────────────────
[Prepared]
────────────────────────
| An entire month later... |
...
"Haaah..."
A long, slow exhale left Dan as his eyes locked onto his target some meters ahead.
His sword, gripped tightly between both hands, trembled from the force coiling through his body into it, ready to be unleashed at any instant.
And soon, that very instant arrived.
—Shiiiin!—
Dan's form flashed, disappearing and reappearing well past his original spot in the blink of an eye—right past a giant boulder.
-Shhhhhhck-
Then, slowly, he drew the sword back into its scabbard, deliberately letting the blade scrape against the metal until—
-Cling-
The hilt met the scabbard, clicking into place.
And at that exact instant, a clean diagonal line appeared across the boulder, followed by it splitting apart, the upper segment sliding slowly off the lower one and hitting the ground.
-Thunk!-
As the heavy stone landed beside him, Dan straightened up, a brief exhale leaving his nose.
Then he turned, looking at the clean and smooth cut he had made, his mouth curling into a faint smirk.
"Nice."
He had actually done it.
What had been a dream a month ago—mere hopeful wishes at that point—had now turned to reality.
He had split a huge boulder in a single slash. Something right out of a fantasy story.
... Well, he was currently living in one such story, more or less. But it didn't take away the feeling of accomplishment.
'And what's more...'
His eyes fell to his wrist, to the knob on the cuffs he was wearing.
It was at ×5 gravity.
Even weighed down like this, he had accomplished such a superhuman feat.
The realization made him wonder, just how much stronger would he be once he took the extra gravity off?
Normally, he'd have the answer, as he didn't tend to have the gravity cuffs turned on at all moments, since it wasn't exactly a pleasant state, and he only used it for his training sessions.
However, that wasn't the case anymore. Ever since a month ago, he started to basically live in a constant state of increased gravity, having decided to take the training to every single moment of his life.
When he ate, when he slept, when he walked, when he breathed. Every single moment was lived while bearing down several times more weight.
He became one with the gravity pull.
And the only changes he ever did to the gravity bearing down on him was increase it, starting from the ×3 it was a month ago, to ×4 about a week after, and then to ×5 another week after, leading all the way to this moment two weeks later, during which he never turned off the damn weights.
So, having seen what he was capable of at ×5 gravity, it was only natural to feel curious as to how much faster, stronger, and deadlier he'd become once the extra gravity went off.
Luckily, he had just the right thing to find out.
Smile on his face, Dan walked away from the boulder, making his way through the forest for about a minute.
Before long, he arrived at his boat—most of it covered in leaves, vines, and whatever else worked to hide it. Luckily, during the past month, it was never found, saving him a lot of trouble.
The food compartment was the only part somewhat in the open, mostly for convenience.
"Alright, let's see... where did I put it?"
Climbing aboard, he opened it and rummaged through everything inside for a few seconds.
"Ah, here it is."
Then, he took out a particular object.
Round, big, and most importantly—made of steel.
A cannonball.
The perfect training dummy for what was to come.
As to where he'd gotten it? The past month of NP farming had taken him through many towns, and during one nighttime raid on a certain village's dock reserves, he'd found a batch of cannonballs and pocketed one specifically for this test.
Steel. The realm that separated the common riffraff among swordsmen from the truly talented.
-Thud-
Dan jumped down from the boat holding it in one hand, bouncing it up and down with some difficulty under both its weight and the gravity still weighing on him.
With it, he'd finally find out how far he really was from the legendary steel-cutting realm that Koushirou had mentioned, and Zoro had reached.
And aside from the mysticality of it, it was also a realm that Dan felt especially curious about.
Because by any measure, cutting steel shouldn't be all that hard given the extremes people could reach in this world. Even Zoro before his Mr. One fight should have been physically capable of cutting the man's steel body on raw strength alone—and yet, steel was talked about as if it were some kind of invincible metal, cuttable only by what he theorized was some starting level of Armament Haki adapted to swordsmanship.
Maybe he was underestimating the alloy's actual hardness. He wasn't a smith, so he had no idea.
Maybe the material was just that hard even in real life, to the point that even in a world of superpowers people still struggled to cut it.
But regardless of the answer, today he was going to put it to the test.
Eyes brimming with determination, he drew his sword with his free hand and in one swift motion—
-Swish!-
—slashed a nearby tree horizontally, felling it in one clean pass.
-Boom!-
Ignoring the commotion, Dan set the cannonball on the freshly cut trunk to hold it at the right height. Then he took several steps back, turned the knob to ×1, and drew his sword back into the scabbard—keeping his hand on it even after it clicked shut.
-Click-
Then, he took a deep breath, eyes closing as he seemed to relax fully.
Following that, his legs buckled, his back arching slightly... before his eyes opened and tunnel-visioned onto the only thing in his world right now.
The entire world save for the cannonball seemed to blur.
And as it did, his muscles tensed, legs and arms coiling with explosive force on the verge of erupting.
And then—he exhaled.
"Haaah...Hup—!"
The instant that air left his body, his face contorted as everything released at once.
—CLANG!—
And in the blink of an eye, he stood past the cannonball just like with the boulder, sword now out of its scabbard, gripped between both hands and in a pose that evidenced it had just been brought down with great force.
As Dan stood past it, silent and still for a bit, the metallic ring of the clash echoed through the area for a few seconds.
Then—
"Oh shit, shit, shit!"
He snapped out of it, and quickly examined the blade, a panicked look rising as he checked the edge carefully.
The result was clear.
He had failed.
The damn thing had been so hard that even with all his force and speed behind that strike, the blade had only gnawed at its surface for a fraction of a second before sliding off, completely unable to pierce it.
And when a sword fails to pierce something that dense, it usually means chipping.
"It's perfectly fine—thank god."
Though, it seemed he got lucky this time.
Sighing in relief, he sheathed the sword again, this time with less ceremony, and turned to glare at the cannonball with a deadpan.
'Guess I have my answer now,'
He was still nowhere near the steel-cutting realm. Whether by buffed standards or realistic ones, slashing steel like butter was beyond him. Maybe he could cut chains, or wreck them at least, but clearly not steel at that level of thickness.
Whether he needed more strength, speed, technique, Haki, or all of them together for thicker targets—that would be something to discover with time.
'Still, I suppose this is enough for now.' Dan thought with a huff, lifting his sword and staring at the light catch its surface.
Steel wasn't within his capabilities, but having been able to split a giant stone while ×5 gravity bore down on him was proof enough he'd reached an appropriate level for what he was aiming at.
His training the past month hadn't been for nothing.
'Nor, I hope, all the NP farming.' Dan thought with a scoff, summoning his status window.
═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════
Current Infamy Tier: Starter
▸[Current Bounty: 0 / 500K]
▸[NP: 927]
Equipped Passive Hacks [1/1]
▸ SpeedyGains
Equipped Active Hacks [1/1]
▸ Tireless
Equipped Script
▸ None
═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════
Physical training hadn't been the only thing he'd focused on during the past month. His raids on the villages across the archipelago had been just as intense as his training sessions, earning him around 900 NP over the course of the month.
Which was a bit less than he'd hoped—but it seemed one of the ROB's rules was beginning to take effect.
Now that he was stepping into new levels of strength, the NP gains from each raid had started diminishing. Not drastically, but enough that his expectation of clearing a thousand had been quietly denied, leaving him at 927 instead.
Worst of all, it had felt awful the entire time. Not physically but mentally.
Arlong's invasion had already settled a tragic mood over the islands. And on top of that, a bandit who seemed to enjoy making people suffer had been paying regular visits.
Yeah. It hadn't felt good to play that part.
But he wasn't backing down. Not now.
The less seriously he took this, the more chances Arlong had of killing someone when he came to collect next—if he hadn't already done so the first time, which was something Dan preferred not to think about.
So no. He wasn't going to risk not being at the right level when the fight came, just because he felt guilty.
NP was just as important as strength in this. And he'd earned it.
Although he hadn't gained as much as he'd hoped, 927 NP still left him plenty to work with.
... and plenty to buy, as it turned out.
"Let's do this." Smirking excited to finally get to spend what he had saved up the entire month, he opened his shop screen.
And the first thing he did was pick up another Hyper Glue Bottle at 50 NP, three more Smoke Pellets at 90, and three Fix-all Tapes he hadn't had the chance to grab before at another 90, bringing his NP down to 697.
Next came four Golden Screwdrivers, totaling 60, and dropping him to 637.
And then, his eyes moved to the next item—or rather, hack.
'Coward's Eye.'
He tapped buy without hesitation. Like Tireless, it cost 100 NP.
As for what it did...
═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════
≡[Active Hack: Coward's Eye]
▸ Unsure of whether to fight or run away? Become able to gauge correctly the gap between you and your foes with one single look!
▸ Note: The hack lists the gap between you and your targets in five levels: Joke, Easy, Equal, Bad Idea, and RUN AWAY.
▸ Note 2: The hack only takes into account your body's base strength. It doesn't factor in any hacks you have equipped.
═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════
Basically, it was a biological scouter. Though as it noted, it wouldn't account for how the gap changed when he had combat-boosting hacks active—Tireless or Sugar Rush.
Not that it mattered much. He just wanted a feel for where he stood, and the fishmen would be a good yardstick. Even if Arlong came up as RUN AWAY, he doubted it would change his decision to fight either way.
Purchase made. NP down to 537.
"..."
Dan stared at his remaining NP with a speechless look.
When he had been saving up, he hadn't really made any math. He just went to farm as much NP as he could.
In his somewhat abstract plans, what he would need by the end of the month was just as abstract, so he just assumed it'd be quite a lot.
... Turns out 900 NP had been a bit too much for what he'd actually needed.
He had nearly 500 to spare.
Still a little surprised, but otherwise satisfied, he turned to the rest of the shop.
'Well, since my preparations are already set, might as well get everything else I can.'
And so, without a second thought, he went on a purchasing spree—every passive and active hack he hadn't bought yet, gone in one sweep.
By the end, his NP had dropped to a sad 57.
Of course, none of the hacks he had bought just now would help in the fight directly. Most were only useful in specific situations—WalkingCompass letting him know cardinal directions at all times, SpeedReader letting him absorb written information faster, IronStomach making him more resilient to whatever he ate, PokerFace keeping him perfectly stoic without effort.
On the active side: Dry, which removed moisture from his body or clothing on command, Internal Clock, giving him an instinctual sense of the exact time of the day, Clean, which explained itself, and Appraiser, which put a rough beli value on whatever he looked at.
Just like Polyglot and Presentable, none of it combat-relevant. But it felt good to have. His once-empty hack list was now full of strange abilities he'd only been able to watch without touching before.
And as he looked at the nearly depleted shop screen, he huffed in quiet satisfaction.
═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════
[Starter Tier SHOP]
≡ Passive Hacks
▸ Presentable: [BOUGHT]
▸ WalkingCompass: [BOUGHT]
▸ SpeedReader: [BOUGHT]
▸ IronStomach: [BOUGHT]
▸ Pokerface: [BOUGHT]
▸ Polyglot: [BOUGHT]
───────────────────
≡ Active Hacks
▸ Dry: [BOUGHT]
▸ Internal Clock: [BOUGHT]
▸ Clean: [BOUGHT]
▸ Appraiser: [BOUGHT]
▸ Tireless: [BOUGHT]
▸ Coward's Eye: [BOUGHT]
▸ Sugar Rush: [BOUGHT]
───────────────────
≡ Scripts
▸ AutoRest: [75 NP]
───────────────────
≡ Items
▸ Water Bottle: [5 NP]
▸ Jerky: [5 NP]
▸ Clothes: [10 NP]
▸ Golden Pencil: [15 NP]
▸ Golden Pen: [15 NP]
▸ Golden Quill: [15 NP]
▸ Golden Fork: [15 NP]
▸ Golden Spoon: [15 NP]
▸ Golden Lockpick Set: [15 NP]
...
▸ Music Headset: [25 NP]
▸ Fix-everything Tape: [30 NP]
▸ Bugged Smoke Pellet: [30 NP]
▸ Bottle of Hyper Glue: [50 NP]
▸ Gravity Cuffs: [BOUGHT]
▸ Very Stable Surfing Board: [75 NP]
▸ Intelligent Dumbbells: [BOUGHT]
▸ Haki Knot (Weak Level): [BOUGHT]
═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════
With this, he was finally entering the endgame of the starter tier. Just a handful of items left along with one script, and he'd have bought everything—save for the ones that could be purchased repeatedly.
And on that note...
═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════
≡[Hacked Item: Clothes] [BOUGHT!]
▸ Specification: Leather jacket.
═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════
▸[-10 NP]
He made one last purchase.
A thick leather coat appeared in his hands, black and cool to the touch. The moment he put it on, he felt the smooth lining inside—the kind of quality that simply didn't exist in the goods available anywhere around here.
Until now, he had been a hacker in name only.
Now, at least, he looked the part.
... The rest of his clothes could use some work, though.
But that was for another day.
Today, someone had a visit coming his way.
Arlong.
An entire month had passed by, and tomorrow would be the day the fishman came back to collect "his" money.
Dan was going to make sure that day never came for him.
Today was the day he moved.
All the preparations he'd made had been building toward this moment. From Shimotsuki, to the day he arrived at this archipelago, to right now. An entire year and a bit more of work.
His physical growth was slowing down—maybe a matter of base talent, maybe just his age. He was, after all, still ten years old.
He also had reached the cuffs' limits, so he was gonna have to settle for that ×5 until he ranked up and either got an improved version if it existed, or something else that might boost his training.
And lastly, his NP gains were diminishing as well, as per the rules of the system.
So, factoring all of that in, even if he put this off again and found another way of paying the fish, there wouldn't be much point. He was reaching his current peak.
And thus, Arlong and his crew would be the final obstacle standing between him and the real test—of everything his training and effort had produced since the day those memories arrived.
And whether he was actually up to what would come after.
Snorting, Dan turned his gaze upward through the canopy.
Sunset was approaching. And with it, night.
The exact time to strike.
"Alright, I should get moving." He muttered, walking back to his boat and dropping the cannonball back into the compartment.
He patted the dust off his hands and turned to leave.
But just as he was about to walk away from the boat—
-Crack-
The sound of someone stepping on a branch not too far away reached him.
He turned calmly, hand landing on his sword's hilt, grip tightening—until he saw who it was, and relaxed.
A sigh left him as he looked at the person now a few meters ahead.
"What are you doing here, Nami?"
...
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-To Be Continued...-
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(A/N: I don't know if the chapter felt a bit rushed. I had to cram quite a few results from Dan's month of isolation training, so maybe it just felt like a listing chapter. Hopefully not.)
[Prepared]
────────────────────────
| An entire month later... |
...
"Haaah..."
A long, slow exhale left Dan as his eyes locked onto his target some meters ahead.
His sword, gripped tightly between both hands, trembled from the force coiling through his body into it, ready to be unleashed at any instant.
And soon, that very instant arrived.
—Shiiiin!—
Dan's form flashed, disappearing and reappearing well past his original spot in the blink of an eye—right past a giant boulder.
-Shhhhhhck-
Then, slowly, he drew the sword back into its scabbard, deliberately letting the blade scrape against the metal until—
-Cling-
The hilt met the scabbard, clicking into place.
And at that exact instant, a clean diagonal line appeared across the boulder, followed by it splitting apart, the upper segment sliding slowly off the lower one and hitting the ground.
-Thunk!-
As the heavy stone landed beside him, Dan straightened up, a brief exhale leaving his nose.
Then he turned, looking at the clean and smooth cut he had made, his mouth curling into a faint smirk.
"Nice."
He had actually done it.
What had been a dream a month ago—mere hopeful wishes at that point—had now turned to reality.
He had split a huge boulder in a single slash. Something right out of a fantasy story.
... Well, he was currently living in one such story, more or less. But it didn't take away the feeling of accomplishment.
'And what's more...'
His eyes fell to his wrist, to the knob on the cuffs he was wearing.
It was at ×5 gravity.
Even weighed down like this, he had accomplished such a superhuman feat.
The realization made him wonder, just how much stronger would he be once he took the extra gravity off?
Normally, he'd have the answer, as he didn't tend to have the gravity cuffs turned on at all moments, since it wasn't exactly a pleasant state, and he only used it for his training sessions.
However, that wasn't the case anymore. Ever since a month ago, he started to basically live in a constant state of increased gravity, having decided to take the training to every single moment of his life.
When he ate, when he slept, when he walked, when he breathed. Every single moment was lived while bearing down several times more weight.
He became one with the gravity pull.
And the only changes he ever did to the gravity bearing down on him was increase it, starting from the ×3 it was a month ago, to ×4 about a week after, and then to ×5 another week after, leading all the way to this moment two weeks later, during which he never turned off the damn weights.
So, having seen what he was capable of at ×5 gravity, it was only natural to feel curious as to how much faster, stronger, and deadlier he'd become once the extra gravity went off.
Luckily, he had just the right thing to find out.
Smile on his face, Dan walked away from the boulder, making his way through the forest for about a minute.
Before long, he arrived at his boat—most of it covered in leaves, vines, and whatever else worked to hide it. Luckily, during the past month, it was never found, saving him a lot of trouble.
The food compartment was the only part somewhat in the open, mostly for convenience.
"Alright, let's see... where did I put it?"
Climbing aboard, he opened it and rummaged through everything inside for a few seconds.
"Ah, here it is."
Then, he took out a particular object.
Round, big, and most importantly—made of steel.
A cannonball.
The perfect training dummy for what was to come.
As to where he'd gotten it? The past month of NP farming had taken him through many towns, and during one nighttime raid on a certain village's dock reserves, he'd found a batch of cannonballs and pocketed one specifically for this test.
Steel. The realm that separated the common riffraff among swordsmen from the truly talented.
-Thud-
Dan jumped down from the boat holding it in one hand, bouncing it up and down with some difficulty under both its weight and the gravity still weighing on him.
With it, he'd finally find out how far he really was from the legendary steel-cutting realm that Koushirou had mentioned, and Zoro had reached.
And aside from the mysticality of it, it was also a realm that Dan felt especially curious about.
Because by any measure, cutting steel shouldn't be all that hard given the extremes people could reach in this world. Even Zoro before his Mr. One fight should have been physically capable of cutting the man's steel body on raw strength alone—and yet, steel was talked about as if it were some kind of invincible metal, cuttable only by what he theorized was some starting level of Armament Haki adapted to swordsmanship.
Maybe he was underestimating the alloy's actual hardness. He wasn't a smith, so he had no idea.
Maybe the material was just that hard even in real life, to the point that even in a world of superpowers people still struggled to cut it.
But regardless of the answer, today he was going to put it to the test.
Eyes brimming with determination, he drew his sword with his free hand and in one swift motion—
-Swish!-
—slashed a nearby tree horizontally, felling it in one clean pass.
-Boom!-
Ignoring the commotion, Dan set the cannonball on the freshly cut trunk to hold it at the right height. Then he took several steps back, turned the knob to ×1, and drew his sword back into the scabbard—keeping his hand on it even after it clicked shut.
-Click-
Then, he took a deep breath, eyes closing as he seemed to relax fully.
Following that, his legs buckled, his back arching slightly... before his eyes opened and tunnel-visioned onto the only thing in his world right now.
The entire world save for the cannonball seemed to blur.
And as it did, his muscles tensed, legs and arms coiling with explosive force on the verge of erupting.
And then—he exhaled.
"Haaah...Hup—!"
The instant that air left his body, his face contorted as everything released at once.
—CLANG!—
And in the blink of an eye, he stood past the cannonball just like with the boulder, sword now out of its scabbard, gripped between both hands and in a pose that evidenced it had just been brought down with great force.
As Dan stood past it, silent and still for a bit, the metallic ring of the clash echoed through the area for a few seconds.
Then—
"Oh shit, shit, shit!"
He snapped out of it, and quickly examined the blade, a panicked look rising as he checked the edge carefully.
The result was clear.
He had failed.
The damn thing had been so hard that even with all his force and speed behind that strike, the blade had only gnawed at its surface for a fraction of a second before sliding off, completely unable to pierce it.
And when a sword fails to pierce something that dense, it usually means chipping.
"It's perfectly fine—thank god."
Though, it seemed he got lucky this time.
Sighing in relief, he sheathed the sword again, this time with less ceremony, and turned to glare at the cannonball with a deadpan.
'Guess I have my answer now,'
He was still nowhere near the steel-cutting realm. Whether by buffed standards or realistic ones, slashing steel like butter was beyond him. Maybe he could cut chains, or wreck them at least, but clearly not steel at that level of thickness.
Whether he needed more strength, speed, technique, Haki, or all of them together for thicker targets—that would be something to discover with time.
'Still, I suppose this is enough for now.' Dan thought with a huff, lifting his sword and staring at the light catch its surface.
Steel wasn't within his capabilities, but having been able to split a giant stone while ×5 gravity bore down on him was proof enough he'd reached an appropriate level for what he was aiming at.
His training the past month hadn't been for nothing.
'Nor, I hope, all the NP farming.' Dan thought with a scoff, summoning his status window.
═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════
Current Infamy Tier: Starter
▸[Current Bounty: 0 / 500K]
▸[NP: 927]
Equipped Passive Hacks [1/1]
▸ SpeedyGains
Equipped Active Hacks [1/1]
▸ Tireless
Equipped Script
▸ None
═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════
Physical training hadn't been the only thing he'd focused on during the past month. His raids on the villages across the archipelago had been just as intense as his training sessions, earning him around 900 NP over the course of the month.
Which was a bit less than he'd hoped—but it seemed one of the ROB's rules was beginning to take effect.
Now that he was stepping into new levels of strength, the NP gains from each raid had started diminishing. Not drastically, but enough that his expectation of clearing a thousand had been quietly denied, leaving him at 927 instead.
Worst of all, it had felt awful the entire time. Not physically but mentally.
Arlong's invasion had already settled a tragic mood over the islands. And on top of that, a bandit who seemed to enjoy making people suffer had been paying regular visits.
Yeah. It hadn't felt good to play that part.
But he wasn't backing down. Not now.
The less seriously he took this, the more chances Arlong had of killing someone when he came to collect next—if he hadn't already done so the first time, which was something Dan preferred not to think about.
So no. He wasn't going to risk not being at the right level when the fight came, just because he felt guilty.
NP was just as important as strength in this. And he'd earned it.
Although he hadn't gained as much as he'd hoped, 927 NP still left him plenty to work with.
... and plenty to buy, as it turned out.
"Let's do this." Smirking excited to finally get to spend what he had saved up the entire month, he opened his shop screen.
And the first thing he did was pick up another Hyper Glue Bottle at 50 NP, three more Smoke Pellets at 90, and three Fix-all Tapes he hadn't had the chance to grab before at another 90, bringing his NP down to 697.
Next came four Golden Screwdrivers, totaling 60, and dropping him to 637.
And then, his eyes moved to the next item—or rather, hack.
'Coward's Eye.'
He tapped buy without hesitation. Like Tireless, it cost 100 NP.
As for what it did...
═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════
≡[Active Hack: Coward's Eye]
▸ Unsure of whether to fight or run away? Become able to gauge correctly the gap between you and your foes with one single look!
▸ Note: The hack lists the gap between you and your targets in five levels: Joke, Easy, Equal, Bad Idea, and RUN AWAY.
▸ Note 2: The hack only takes into account your body's base strength. It doesn't factor in any hacks you have equipped.
═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════
Basically, it was a biological scouter. Though as it noted, it wouldn't account for how the gap changed when he had combat-boosting hacks active—Tireless or Sugar Rush.
Not that it mattered much. He just wanted a feel for where he stood, and the fishmen would be a good yardstick. Even if Arlong came up as RUN AWAY, he doubted it would change his decision to fight either way.
Purchase made. NP down to 537.
"..."
Dan stared at his remaining NP with a speechless look.
When he had been saving up, he hadn't really made any math. He just went to farm as much NP as he could.
In his somewhat abstract plans, what he would need by the end of the month was just as abstract, so he just assumed it'd be quite a lot.
... Turns out 900 NP had been a bit too much for what he'd actually needed.
He had nearly 500 to spare.
Still a little surprised, but otherwise satisfied, he turned to the rest of the shop.
'Well, since my preparations are already set, might as well get everything else I can.'
And so, without a second thought, he went on a purchasing spree—every passive and active hack he hadn't bought yet, gone in one sweep.
By the end, his NP had dropped to a sad 57.
Of course, none of the hacks he had bought just now would help in the fight directly. Most were only useful in specific situations—WalkingCompass letting him know cardinal directions at all times, SpeedReader letting him absorb written information faster, IronStomach making him more resilient to whatever he ate, PokerFace keeping him perfectly stoic without effort.
On the active side: Dry, which removed moisture from his body or clothing on command, Internal Clock, giving him an instinctual sense of the exact time of the day, Clean, which explained itself, and Appraiser, which put a rough beli value on whatever he looked at.
Just like Polyglot and Presentable, none of it combat-relevant. But it felt good to have. His once-empty hack list was now full of strange abilities he'd only been able to watch without touching before.
And as he looked at the nearly depleted shop screen, he huffed in quiet satisfaction.
═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════
[Starter Tier SHOP]
≡ Passive Hacks
▸ Presentable: [BOUGHT]
▸ WalkingCompass: [BOUGHT]
▸ SpeedReader: [BOUGHT]
▸ IronStomach: [BOUGHT]
▸ Pokerface: [BOUGHT]
▸ Polyglot: [BOUGHT]
───────────────────
≡ Active Hacks
▸ Dry: [BOUGHT]
▸ Internal Clock: [BOUGHT]
▸ Clean: [BOUGHT]
▸ Appraiser: [BOUGHT]
▸ Tireless: [BOUGHT]
▸ Coward's Eye: [BOUGHT]
▸ Sugar Rush: [BOUGHT]
───────────────────
≡ Scripts
▸ AutoRest: [75 NP]
───────────────────
≡ Items
▸ Water Bottle: [5 NP]
▸ Jerky: [5 NP]
▸ Clothes: [10 NP]
▸ Golden Pencil: [15 NP]
▸ Golden Pen: [15 NP]
▸ Golden Quill: [15 NP]
▸ Golden Fork: [15 NP]
▸ Golden Spoon: [15 NP]
▸ Golden Lockpick Set: [15 NP]
...
▸ Music Headset: [25 NP]
▸ Fix-everything Tape: [30 NP]
▸ Bugged Smoke Pellet: [30 NP]
▸ Bottle of Hyper Glue: [50 NP]
▸ Gravity Cuffs: [BOUGHT]
▸ Very Stable Surfing Board: [75 NP]
▸ Intelligent Dumbbells: [BOUGHT]
▸ Haki Knot (Weak Level): [BOUGHT]
═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════
With this, he was finally entering the endgame of the starter tier. Just a handful of items left along with one script, and he'd have bought everything—save for the ones that could be purchased repeatedly.
And on that note...
═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════
≡[Hacked Item: Clothes] [BOUGHT!]
▸ Specification: Leather jacket.
═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════
▸[-10 NP]
He made one last purchase.
A thick leather coat appeared in his hands, black and cool to the touch. The moment he put it on, he felt the smooth lining inside—the kind of quality that simply didn't exist in the goods available anywhere around here.
Until now, he had been a hacker in name only.
Now, at least, he looked the part.
... The rest of his clothes could use some work, though.
But that was for another day.
Today, someone had a visit coming his way.
Arlong.
An entire month had passed by, and tomorrow would be the day the fishman came back to collect "his" money.
Dan was going to make sure that day never came for him.
Today was the day he moved.
All the preparations he'd made had been building toward this moment. From Shimotsuki, to the day he arrived at this archipelago, to right now. An entire year and a bit more of work.
His physical growth was slowing down—maybe a matter of base talent, maybe just his age. He was, after all, still ten years old.
He also had reached the cuffs' limits, so he was gonna have to settle for that ×5 until he ranked up and either got an improved version if it existed, or something else that might boost his training.
And lastly, his NP gains were diminishing as well, as per the rules of the system.
So, factoring all of that in, even if he put this off again and found another way of paying the fish, there wouldn't be much point. He was reaching his current peak.
And thus, Arlong and his crew would be the final obstacle standing between him and the real test—of everything his training and effort had produced since the day those memories arrived.
And whether he was actually up to what would come after.
Snorting, Dan turned his gaze upward through the canopy.
Sunset was approaching. And with it, night.
The exact time to strike.
"Alright, I should get moving." He muttered, walking back to his boat and dropping the cannonball back into the compartment.
He patted the dust off his hands and turned to leave.
But just as he was about to walk away from the boat—
-Crack-
The sound of someone stepping on a branch not too far away reached him.
He turned calmly, hand landing on his sword's hilt, grip tightening—until he saw who it was, and relaxed.
A sigh left him as he looked at the person now a few meters ahead.
"What are you doing here, Nami?"
...
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-To Be Continued...-
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(A/N: I don't know if the chapter felt a bit rushed. I had to cram quite a few results from Dan's month of isolation training, so maybe it just felt like a listing chapter. Hopefully not.)