Even before setting off, Kyle had already used the Navy's hidden connections in the East Sea to order a ship here.
Since it was billed through the Navy, Kyle had no idea how much the ship had cost in total.
Now, more than twenty days had passed since the order was placed, so the ship should be just about finished.
…
…
At the port of Yakeshi Island.
Thanks to his reputation, Kyle was quickly led by the staff to see his very own ship!
It was a medium-sized sailboat, slightly larger than the Going Merry from the anime.
On the deck, two decorative cannons had been installed.
After all, everyone in the pirate world knows how cannonballs work.
Anyone who's been at sea for a while will have some sort of move to counter cannonballs~
However…
After experiencing the thrill of firing the cannon himself during a demonstration, Kyle couldn't help but exclaim:
"Whoa! Awesome!"
After admiring the ship, Kyle eagerly urged the staff to help sail it out of the dock.
Although things got a bit chaotic at first, with his superhuman physical abilities and the ship's instruction manual, he managed to get the ship onto the sea successfully.
After a quick exploration, Kyle went straight to the highest room on the deck, declared it the captain's cabin, and sat down excitedly, rubbing his hands together.
"Now comes the thrilling part!"
"Dear System, after all this fishing, isn't it time to haul in the net?"
He first pulled a pirate flag out of his backpack.
On the pitch-black fabric was a skull with lifeless, dead eyes, fluttering in the wind.
It was a pirate flag designed by Kyle based on his past self's image, and it had already been registered with Sengoku.
Along with it came the name of the pirate crew!
That's right.
Even before leaving Marineford, Kyle had already decided on the name of his pirate crew…
The Dusk Pirates!!!
A name that sounds pretty normal, but has a bit of flavor upon closer thought.
Actually, naming the crew wasn't that important for Kyle, who had spent seven days naming things in the system.
But upon learning he was about to become a spy, he was reminded of an anime he watched before crossing over — Spy x Family.
So, he borrowed the codename of the male protagonist — the top spy "Twilight" — to name his pirate crew.
He hoped the name would bring him some luck.
Now, the pirate crew name, the pirate flag, and the pirate ship were all in place!
Everything was ready — all that was missing was the right wind!!!
Just as Kyle hoisted the pirate flag onto the mast, before he could even do anything else, a prompt popped up in his mind from the system.
[Pirate crew detected. Do you want to bind to "The Dusk Pirates"?][Confirm] or [Decline]
"Huh? This system is that smart?!"
Just as he was tugging the ropes, Kyle froze in surprise and then grinned in delight.
He quickly focused his mind and pressed the [Confirm] button mentally.
In an instant—
The name selection screen that had been bugging him for so long finally dissolved into gray mist and vanished.
A brand-new game interface suddenly appeared in Kyle's mind.
"It's here! It's here!"
Seeing the familiar yet unfamiliar screen appear, Kyle's heart began to pound.
Suppressing his excitement, he carefully examined the system interface to see if anything had changed since he crossed over.
To be honest—
Compared to those low-quality mobile games, this system was much cleaner.
At least those annoying pop-ups that tried to trick you into spending money were gone.
But in truth, this wasn't necessarily good news for Kyle.
After all, where else could you get an S-rank healer and fighter like Tsunade just by spending six bucks?!
"Looks like the game's functions have changed a lot after the crossover."
Kyle muttered thoughtfully.
He had a strange premonition…
The system's changes weren't just limited to removing the cash-grab windows.
On the current screen, there were five basic options lit up: Captain, Inventory, Crew, Dock, and Gacha.
Following the order, Kyle first clicked on the Captain option.
A brand-new popup appeared instantly.
On the left side of the screen was a 3D model of Kyle, exactly matching his current appearance.
Kyle waved his hand, and the figure did the same.
The model could also be rotated 360° in his mind with no blind spots.
"Hmm… not bad! No need to buy mirrors anymore!"
"I like this feature!"
After curiously checking out his 3D model, Kyle shifted his focus to the right side of the screen.
There, a column listed his captain stats:
[Captain: Kyle]
[Level: 0]
[EXP: 0/10]
[Total Power: 0]
[Skills: None]
"...This really is a rookie panel, huh. But still…"
Looking at his stats, Kyle frowned.
"Even if I'm just a low-tier fighter, I'm still a Grand Line low-tier fighter. Shouldn't my power be more than zero?"
"And what's with the Skills tab? I don't remember captains having skills in the game."
As if sensing Kyle's doubts, the panel flickered and several smaller popups appeared to explain things.
[EXP: For every 1 million Berries spent in the system, the captain gains 1 EXP.][Total Power: Captain's Power = Crew's total power × Captain level × 10%][Skills: Each time the captain levels up, a random skill from the general pool is granted.]
"Holy—! That's awesome!"
Kyle, not the most eloquent man, once again let out a primitive cry of amazement.
Clearly, his game system had been drastically altered by his crossover.
He had never seen a system where you could level up by burning Berries.
But all in all, this was a promising start.
At least it meant the system still worked.
And that gave Kyle even greater expectations.
"So as long as I recruit crew members, I can boost my power?"
"If the Captain interface has changed this much, what about the others?"
He closed the Captain tab and clicked on Inventory.
Unfortunately, it held no welcome package, just an infinite pouch for storing system items.
"Nothing new here."
Slightly disappointed, Kyle kept exploring.
He opened the Crew tab.
It was completely blank.
Even the "Train" button was grayed out.
That made sense — he didn't have any crew members yet.
According to typical game logic, he was just starting out and hadn't even gone through the tutorial.
Leaving the Crew tab, Kyle moved on to the fourth Dock tab.
Finally, something new appeared.
A new popup:
[Please select the ship to bind...]
Below the text was a model of a sailboat sailing across the vast sea.
The pirate flag Kyle had just raised fluttered on its mast.
No doubt, it was the ship Kyle was currently on.
He clicked on the ship model, and a new window popped up.
[Please name your pirate ship ______]
"What?! I have to name something again?!"
Maybe it was PTSD from the earlier naming screen, but Kyle got a headache just seeing it.
More importantly…
He was terrible at naming things!
When playing games, he always let the system auto-generate names.
"Let me think…"
He rubbed the stubble that had started to grow back since shaving that morning, adopting a thoughtful pose.
If the dock function hadn't mutated and still followed the same game logic, then binding the ship should give birth to a ship spirit.
In the game, the ship spirit was just a guide for players, but who knew what it would be like in the real world?
So this name had to be chosen carefully.
However, for someone terrible at naming, even careful thought was mostly a waste of time.
At first, Kyle thought of naming it after a famous ship girl from his past life.
A pirate ship blessed by the crew's love turning into a ship maiden to return the favor — now that would be a legendary story.