During those three days, Kurogane Ren had thought about a lot of things.
He had considered relying on the system to become a rich man and living out the rest of his life quietly in the world of One Piece, never making a name for himself.
After all, fighting and killing for survival wasn't something he was naturally good at. He had grown up in a peaceful country. A life of bloodshed and constant danger had never suited him.
But then he remembered one thing—
he had killed a Celestial Dragon.
And there was also that bottle of red liquid he had taken from the Celestial Dragon.
Ren had always believed that thing was trouble.
At one point, he had thought about tossing it into the sea. But after thinking it through, he couldn't bring himself to do it. If it was something a Celestial Dragon had chosen to protect even at death's door, then it had to be important.
Very important.
Possibly even tied to one of the World Government's greatest secrets.
So Ren decided to keep it for now.
Besides, he had already eaten the Devil Fruit that had been stored alongside that liquid. He still didn't know whether the World Government knew exactly what that fruit did, but he strongly suspected they did.
If they didn't know the fruit's ability, then there was no way they would have had a Celestial Dragon guard it so desperately.
Even so, Ren still couldn't understand why the World Government valued that Devil Fruit so highly. As far as he could tell, its ability didn't seem especially outrageous.
But the fact that it had been entrusted to a Celestial Dragon meant there was definitely something suspicious about it.
So for the sake of his own life, Ren made up his mind.
Unless absolutely necessary, he would avoid using that ability as much as possible in the future.
As for the bottle of red liquid, he kept it for the same reason—
to protect himself.
If the World Government ever really did discover him one day, maybe that bottle could become his bargaining chip.
That was why Ren hadn't thrown away the troublesome red liquid.
He had simply shoved it into the deepest corner of the storage bag and resolved never to take it out unless he had no other choice.
Dong—
At that moment, a bell rang out.
Ren looked up at the huge town clock in the center of the square. It showed exactly eight o'clock.
He silently said in his mind,
Sign in.
Because he had fainted a few days ago, his sign-in streak had been interrupted and reset. So right now, his current streak was only four days.
...
"Your cold beer, Uncle Johan!"
Gulp—
"Ahhh... that hits the spot!"
"Ren, your beer really is the best!"
"Hahaha..."
"Of course it is! Ren's beer has a reputation now. People from other islands come all the way here just to buy it!"
"That's right. Not only is Ren's beer delicious, it's cheap too."
Kurogane Ren stood behind the counter, smiling as he watched the lively crowd in his tavern chat, laugh, and drink the night away.
He had already been on this island for nearly a year.
During that time, Ren had learned that he was now on an island in the Grand Line.
Since there was a Marine base nearby, the area was relatively safe. Several neighboring islands were also prosperous, making this a fairly stable place to settle down.
Over the past year, Ren had relied on two titles he had obtained from the system—
Cooking Mastery and Brewmaster.
Using the gold he had taken from the Celestial Dragon, he bought the tavern he was now standing in. Day to day, he simply sold food and drinks.
Thanks to his superb cooking, excellent alcohol, and low prices, his place had already become famous across several nearby islands.
During this time, Ren had lived honestly and quietly on the island.
Every day, he signed in on time, drew his lottery reward, and secretly trained his strength in the background.
Over the course of nearly a year, he had obtained plenty of things from the lottery.
But most of them were useless.
In all that time, he had only drawn two transcendent-grade items.
Naturally, Ren had asked the system why transcendent items had become so rare. After all, during his first month, he had drawn three of them.
Later, the system explained it to him.
The reason he had gotten three transcendent items in his first month was because, during that time, he had still been under the system's beginner protection period.
Even though the system didn't care whether he lived or died, its rules still gave new hosts a slight advantage during the first month in order to reduce the chances of them dying too quickly.
That was why Ren had been able to pull three transcendent items back then.
But once the first month ended, the drop rate for transcendent items fell sharply.
So naturally, his chances of drawing them became much lower.
After sending off the last guest, Ren shut the tavern doors and called out,
"Martha, come out and clean up."
A moment later, a blonde, blue-eyed beauty walked out from the back of the tavern, wearing an apron and holding a cleaning cloth.
If anyone from Earth saw her face, they would probably shout the same thing instantly—
T-X.
Because this woman looked exactly like the Terminator from Terminator 3.
This was the second transcendent-grade item Ren had drawn over the past year.
Of course, as a transcendent item, she wasn't exactly the same as the version from the movie.
She retained all the Terminator's original functions, but had also been significantly upgraded.
First, her combat chassis—the internal metal framework—was made from a material called ultra-hard memory alloy.
Naturally, Ren had no idea what that actually meant on a technical level. All he knew was that the metal was absurdly tough.
Even if hit head-on by an RPG, it wouldn't be damaged.
And the truly insane part was that the material could repair itself.
As long as it wasn't completely destroyed, the Terminator could restore itself by reassembling its metal components.
Then there was the power system.
Its internal energy source could support high-intensity operation for over ninety years.
And beyond that, it possessed a learning function and could be programmed with new knowledge.
Though only Ren had the authority to input new content.
Her existence had made Ren's life much easier.
He had loaded cooking and brewing processes into her system, leaving her to handle the kitchen and alcohol production while he focused on taking money.
At first, Ren had planned to keep her hidden in the storage bag.
After all, the Terminator looked too much like a real human. He needed an excuse before giving her a public identity.
But then he discovered that the storage bag couldn't hold her.
After asking the system, he learned why.
Because of the synthetic living tissue covering her body, the storage bag classified her as a lifeform, which meant it refused to store her.
Left with no choice, Ren staged a little performance.
He pretended he had rescued her from the sea, while she pretended to be a shipwreck victim suffering from memory loss.
That way, he could bring her back openly without raising suspicion.
For convenience, he gave her the name Martha.
Everything Ren did was meant to prevent the Terminator's true nature from being discovered—especially by the World Government.
Because the Terminator's existence would have huge implications for the One Piece world.
Not because of her combat strength alone—
but because of the technology inside her.
If the World Government got its hands on that kind of technology, the consequences could be severe.
After all, Pacifistas could basically be viewed as a kind of Terminator too.
The only difference was that Pacifistas could be controlled by others.
After assigning Martha the cleanup work, Ren headed into the courtyard behind the tavern.
When he bought this place with gold, he hadn't just bought the tavern.
He had bought the residence behind it too.
Ren reached into his storage bag, pulled out a pair of flip-flops, and began swinging them.
Over these months, he had also drawn various martial arts techniques—swordsmanship, blade arts, boxing styles, and the like.
But he quickly discovered a problem.
Ordinary blades couldn't handle his ability.
His power was temperature control.
If he lowered the temperature too much, a weapon would become brittle.
If he raised it too high, it would melt before it ever clashed with an enemy.
But while ordinary swords and blades were useless to him...
he had transcendent-grade flip-flops.
He had tested them before.
These things were ridiculous.
Fire couldn't burn them.
An RPG couldn't damage them.
Not even a little.
And most importantly, they could withstand his ability.
So Ren had simply started using the flip-flops as weapons.
One in each hand.
The left glowed blue.
The right glowed red.
Then Ren began to move.
Red and blue streaks danced through the courtyard, weaving up and down like flashing blades of light.
After ten straight minutes of swinging the flip-flops, Ren finally came to a stop.
After nearly a year of steady accumulation, he was confident he could defeat pirates with bounties in the tens of millions.
Anything stronger than that, though, would be a problem.
It wasn't that his techniques or abilities were lacking.
It was his basic physical stats.
For some reason, perhaps because he wasn't originally from the One Piece world, Ren's physique had never been particularly strong.
Sure, he was much stronger than an ordinary person now.
But compared to the monsters in this world, the gap was still enormous.
Like just now—
when he used his power at full strength, he could only keep it up for about ten minutes.