I went to the living room and grabbed the newspaper. After confirming today's date, I was delighted.
'Just as I imagined, there's a difference in the flow of time between dimensions and... Only a few minutes have passed since I went to the Little Mermaid's dimension.'
--
--
After eating eggs with rice and salad that Nojiko had already prepared for me, I spent 4 GP and bought 2 bronze scrolls and opened them.
════════════════
[Jack Sparrow's Compass (Pirates of the Caribbean) - ★★☆]
[Flounder (The Little Mermaid) - ★★☆]
════════════════
'Ariel's best fish friend, and...' What caught my attention the most, obviously, was Jack Sparrow's Compass.
'Now, I just need one more of this card, or two 2-star items to upgrade my Compass to 3 stars.' I thought, excited.
Another thing I was thinking about was letting Nojiko and Nami assimilate a card.
For Nojiko, I'm considering letting her assimilate the [Audrey Ramirez (Atlantis: The Lost Empire) - ★★★★] card.
As for Nami... Well, I'll think about it when I get some female character.
'By the way, what's the limit of cards someone can assimilate?'
That was important information. Just like the level of influence a card can have.
...
Lately, I feel like I'm getting more and more trapped in my room.
This time, I was looking at the things I stole yesterday.
Grabbing the wooden box with the Devil Fruit, I opened it and took the fruit.
'I feel like I've seen this fruit before...' I thought.
As a One Piece fan in my previous life, I watched all the episodes several times, but even so, I couldn't remember where I had seen this Devil Fruit.
Pink, looking like two buttocks on the side.
'A question... If I summon someone and give them a Devil Fruit to eat, would their star rank increase?'
Cri-Kee is still marked with 3 stars after being summoned by me, which makes me think that there's still a way to increase the star level even after being summoned.
Of course, Cri-Kee has already reached his maximum star potential, so if I let Cri-Kee assimilate a character, is there a chance of suffering some mutation?
It was a question I had.
Or even if I let him eat a Devil Fruit, maybe it would increase to 4 stars?
These thoughts made me excited and anxious to run these kinds of tests.
But, to achieve that, I would need to acquire more GP.
════════════════
1: [A new mission has been activated: "Defeat Arlong!"]
2: [A new mission has been activated: "Defeat the Arlong Pirates!"]
════════════════
Surprised? Actually, no.
I admit that I had high hopes of getting a mission to deal with Arlong.
And these missions came right at the moment when I was thinking about acquiring GP.
Well, I would be foolish to think that I'm not somehow being heard.
Even though no one answers me, it doesn't change the fact that there could be someone behind this.
But honestly, this is something I don't want to think about, nor do I like thinking about it.
It's like knowing that death exists but wanting to think about the afterlife. Even though you might think that everything indicates there could be an afterlife, it's not really a pleasant subject to keep thinking about.
Precisely because of that, I didn't want to think about it and clicked on the first mission.
════════ ××× ════════
[Mission: Defeat Arlong!]
Objective: Defeat Arlong, either by eliminating him or capturing him to hand him over to the Marines.
Time to accept the mission: [2 days, 7 hours, and 35 minutes...]
Reward: 1 Special Gold Gacha Coin and 150 GP.
Failure Penalty: No reward for the mission.
Difficulty: ★★★
[Accept] – [Decline]
════════ ××× ════════
'1 Special Gold Gacha Coin?' I automatically thought about the silver coin I got in the level promotion mission.
If it's something similar, it's very good.
Then, I clicked on the other mission.
════════ ××× ════════
[Mission: Defeat the Arlong Pirates!]
Objective: Defeat the Arlong Pirates, either by eliminating them or capturing them to hand them over to the Marines.
Time to accept the mission: [2 days, 7 hours, and 34 minutes...]
Reward: 2 Special Silver Gacha Coins and 100 GP.
Failure Penalty: No reward for the mission.
Difficulty: ★★
[Accept] – [Decline]
════════ ××× ════════
'Almost the same thing, only the difficulty changes.' I thought.
This also proves that without Arlong, although strong, the fish-men from his crew weren't that significant.
Even though Hatchan has an important role in the One Piece narrative, I don't care.
Even if I don't kill him, I won't let him go unpunished.
--
--
Night came, and after helping Nojiko, I returned home and was once again in my room.
Being an island and very close to the sea, the air around me was very humid.
Around me, while I sat cross-legged, snowflakes were falling around me.
'It's still not enough to be of any help, but it's just the beginning.' I thought.
However, the elastic ability was proving to be more and more useful.
My flexibility increased in such a way that even my strength was becoming easier to use with half the effort.
Opening my window, I climbed onto the flying carpet.
In my hand, I held the Fishing Hook, and on my head, I wore the hat capable of making me partially invisible.
Since my goal was to be 'invisible,' I made sure to wear my darkest clothes: black pants, black shoes, and a gray T-shirt with a black zip-up jacket over it.
The jacket had a hood, but I didn't use it, obviously because of the hat.
Before leaving, however, I went to Nojiko's room.
She was sleeping deeply.
Looking at her sleeping, I took the [Audrey Ramirez (Atlantis: The Lost Empire) - ★★★★] card and placed it in her hands, then stepped back to the corner of the room and waited.
Time passed, and soon I saw the miracle happen.
The card disintegrating and its fragments merging with Nojiko.
When it was over, I left silently.
Back in my room, I got on the magic carpet and soon started flying.
...
[Arlong Park]
Surrounded by walls, Arlong Park stood out for its five-story castle.
The floors of Arlong Park decreased with each level, until at the top there was a shark head.
Arlong was a fish-man of the shark type. The shark head representation was in his honor.
The place was silent; no fish-man seemed to be awake at that moment.
I went down to the sea. When my feet touched the water, everything visibly started to freeze.
I was surprised at first by the speed at which I managed to freeze it. But I continued with my plan.
More and more, the sea around kept freezing.
After freezing approximately 1 kilometer, I got back on the magic carpet and flew, feeling a little mentally tired.
However, I only needed 5 minutes of rest. Standing up, I officially went into action.
In my hand, an ice ball started to form. It took some time until I managed to create one the size of a basketball.
"Haah!"
"Whoosh!"
"Bang!"
When it was finally done, I threw that ice ball toward the castle with all my strength, hitting the shark head.
Then came the screams of the fish-men.
"We're under attack!"
"Quick, quick!"
"Who dares to attack us!!"
I didn't even have to wait long until I saw Arlong.
Just seeing him already made my blood rush to my head, and I almost lost my composure.
I hated him.
My mother died from working too much because of him, and the lives of the people who helped me in the village also became terrible because of him.
There was no way not to hate him. There was no way I could allow him to have the same fate as in the original story, where he was only arrested and not killed.
It was no longer a question of whether he deserved the air he breathed, but rather, I couldn't stand him staying alive.
Spinning the Fishing Hook, I threw it in Arlong's direction.
When he noticed, the Hook was already right behind him.
"What is this?" Arlong looked and panicked when I pulled the rope and the pointed part aimed at his head.
With his hands, he tried to stop it from hitting his head.
"Hahaha!"
I don't know why I did it, but I laughed coldly, very loudly, and pulled with all my strength, which was strong enough for the hook of the Fishing Hook to go through his mouth and out the back of his neck.
"Crack!"
His shark teeth didn't even have a chance to stop it. All the teeth that were in the way were shattered into pieces.
"Up there!"
Following the rope, one of the fish-men noticed me.
But I didn't even care, and as the rope of the Fishing Hook shortened with Arlong being pulled up, I started spinning the rope like a cowboy about to lasso cattle.
Arlong, who was stuck on the Hook like a simple fish, began to spin in the air, making loud and strange noises.
Any ordinary person would have died in his place, but not him — he was Arlong, a fish-man with durability far greater than that of ordinary people, and having a hook pierced through his mouth wasn't enough to kill a fish, right?
"Stop! Let go of Captain Arlong!" The one who shouted was Kuroobi, a fish-man with the typical appearance of a martial artist, wearing a dark blue kimono and a black belt.
"Desgdhsau eu voaudd te masfjdsfoitar!"
Arlong's voice came out all broken; even his tongue was pierced by the tip of the Hook. He tried to escape using his hands, but the force of the spinning, along with the speed at which he rotated, made his weight greater than his strength.
Without caring about what he was saying, I saw that I had spun him enough and threw him toward the castle.
"Whoosh!!"
"Booom!!"
Like a blue comet, Arlong hit the castle, breaking its thick walls with his body.
In the rubble of the castle, Arlong managed to pull the Hook out of his mouth.
"Bastard..."
The first word that came out of his mouth after that was this. It sounded kind of strange since his teeth were broken and his tongue was pierced.
However, he removed the broken teeth, and new teeth grew while his tongue was partially healed.
"Bastard, bastard, bastard!!!"
Screaming several times, I could see how furious he was, with his red, shark-like eyes going insane.
"I'm going to kill you, Noah!"
"Noah? That Noah?"
"Nami's little brother?"
"How can it be him?"
The fish-men seemed incredulous.
But Arlong didn't care and… after grabbing a serrated tooth sword, he jumped high toward me.
"Baka (Idiot)." I mocked, pulling the Fishing Hook's rope.
My pull came with the sound of part of the castle collapsing.
After removing the Hook, Arlong had pinned it against the castle pillar, probably believing that it would be enough to stop me from pulling, maybe even believing that without it, he could easily defeat me after discovering my real identity.
However, he simply underestimated my strength way too much.
My pull not only broke the building's pillar but also caused it to start partially collapsing as the Hook was pulled back toward me.
Arlong, who must have felt the Hook coming, couldn't dodge in midair, so using the serrated tooth sword, he attacked in the direction of the Hook to defend himself.
"Beng!"
"Sparks!"
'As expected, he possesses a strength that shouldn't be underestimated.' I thought, livid.
If I had tried this before reaching 20% assimilation with Hercules, maybe I wouldn't have been able to face Arlong this easily.
However, I was still superior in strength and weapon. My Hook may not be the original version, but it was still a 4-star weapon with magical powers.
When I pulled harder, Arlong's serrated tooth sword started to crack.