After leaving the island, Kurogane Ren took out a Log Pose and began sailing in the direction it pointed.
Originally, he had wanted to head to the East Blue.
Based on the timeline, Luffy probably hadn't been born yet—but it should be soon.
And Ren had always had one question he'd never gotten an answer to.
Who exactly was Luffy's mother?
At least before Ren transmigrated, Oda had never released any concrete information about her.
So naturally, Ren was curious.
Even if he couldn't see Luffy yet, he could at least go take a look at Ace and Sabo as kids.
He definitely wasn't planning to show up early just so he could mess with them and pat them on the head while they were still little.
Definitely not.
Still, Ren quickly realized there was a problem.
How exactly was he supposed to get from the Grand Line back to the Four Seas?
From what he knew, there weren't many ways.
Leaving aside absurd options like flying over, if you wanted to return to the Four Seas by ship, there were only two real methods.
Either sail up Reverse Mountain against the current...
Or cross the Calm Belt.
Ren also knew that ships usually needed Seastone installed beneath the hull to safely cross the Calm Belt.
As long as Seastone was fitted under the ship, Sea Kings would ignore it.
But Seastone was something Ren didn't have.
So for now, the best he could do was hope that one day he'd get the chance to acquire some and refit his ship.
That said, people like Shanks seemed able to appear in the Four Seas fairly often.
So Ren had a theory.
There might be certain safe routes through the Calm Belt—specific channels without Sea Kings lurking below—allowing ships without Seastone to pass safely.
Otherwise, it was hard to explain how Shanks could show up in the East Blue, especially since he hadn't even become one of the Four Emperors at that point.
Of course, that was just Ren's guess.
What the truth actually was, nobody knew.
And even if his theory was right, routes like that would definitely be top-level secrets within each pirate crew.
Ordinary outsiders would never know about them.
Unless Ren somehow got close enough to them.
Like, say... marrying Big Mom or something.
But Ren had no intention of doing that.
Sure, he had never been in love before, and sure, Big Mom had been pretty attractive when she was young...
But even then, he still felt that kind of blessing wasn't meant for him.
Seeing the time reach eight o'clock, Ren prepared for today's sign-in draw.
"Congratulations, Host. You have obtained a Super Gift Pack: Grand Collection of Cards."
Ren's eyes lit up instantly.
A gift pack?
Was his luck really that good today?
He immediately checked the newly obtained pack and discovered that it contained twelve cards in total.
Most of them were cards he had drawn before, like Skill Extraction Cards.
Only one type was completely new.
Copy Card.
Ren's expression turned excited at once.
"System... this Copy Card, is it...?"
"Yes," the system replied. "It works exactly as you think. A Copy Card can duplicate items. Of course, there are conditions. First, it cannot duplicate living lifeforms. Second, the duplicated item cannot exceed the transcendent grade."
Ren's face twitched.
If it couldn't copy transcendent items, then how useful was it really?
Was he supposed to use it to copy a 98k?
If that was the goal, it would honestly be more practical to let Martha manufacture them instead.
After all, Martha's central processor stored enormous amounts of knowledge, including weapon production data. Forget the 98k—even something like an AK was well within her capabilities.
But then a thought struck him.
A single card wasn't a transcendent item.
So... could a Copy Card copy another card?
Ren immediately asked, "System, can I use a Copy Card to copy a Copy Card?"
The system snorted.
"You really are a little genius, huh? Dream on."
Ren clicked his tongue.
"Then can a Copy Card duplicate other kinds of cards?"
"That is possible."
Ren had always liked card-type items.
Because almost every card-based reward he'd gotten had been extremely useful.
And this was the first time he had ever seen a card like the Copy Card.
But besides that, he also noticed another rare card in the pack.
Character Summoning Card.
He had obtained one of these before.
A Character Summoning Card could randomly summon one person from any world Ren knew, turning them into his companion.
When he first got that card, he had struggled for a long time over whether to use it.
He had already asked the system about it.
According to the system, a Character Summoning Card could summon anyone from any world Ren knew.
Anime, movies, even game characters he had seen or heard of were all possible summon targets.
But because the summon was random, there was a very real chance he could end up pulling some irrelevant extra.
After all, side characters and random background nobodies vastly outnumbered protagonists.
And worse, he might summon someone from a low-power setting.
Like a gag character.
Say... someone like Umaru.
Of course, the opposite was also possible.
He might summon someone absurdly powerful—like a character from Dragon Ball.
Just imagining those people, who could casually destroy planets, was enough to make Ren's heart race.
That was why he had always hesitated to use the card.
If he summoned some completely ordinary person, then the Character Summoning Card would basically be wasted.
But now things were different.
Now he had a Copy Card.
So Ren decided to duplicate the Character Summoning Card first and test the waters.
After all, he was already out at sea now, and having only Martha with him made his crew feel far too small.
And trying to gather people from the One Piece world itself wasn't realistic right now.
The main story was still more than ten years away.
Most of the One Piece characters Ren knew were either not born yet or still too young.
As for the older ones... even if he wanted to find people like Crocodile, he didn't even know where to begin looking.
So for the time being, the only option was to use the Character Summoning Card and see what kind of companion he could get.
"System, use the Copy Card to duplicate the Character Summoning Card."
The Copy Card immediately spread over the Character Summoning Card.
A moment later, both cards had become Character Summoning Cards.
Ren picked one up and silently said,
"Use Character Summoning Card."
The card fell onto the deck.
Then it turned into a black point.
That black point slowly expanded, becoming a dark hole about one meter wide.
Soon, a mass of black liquid began to emerge from the hole.
Then the liquid started changing shape, gradually forming a human silhouette.
As time passed, the figure became clearer and clearer.
Judging by the shape, Ren could already tell—
this time, the summon was female.
And not just female.
Her figure was incredible.
Then, just as the form was about to fully take shape, a voice echoed out from within the black hole.
"The stars in the sky, the things upon the earth—everything began with a single great fire. Across countless ages, across countless kingdoms, mortals borrowed the power of fire and became the masters of all things. This... is what is called civilization."
[Author Note]
Take a guess who got summoned.
Hint: She's from a Chinese anime, female, and not the main character.