Leo stood at the stern of the pirate ship. Dozens of pirate corpses lay scattered below him—these were the ones who hadn't managed to jump overboard and escape. As for the ones who did, what could be done with them?
...
"Keep swimming! Swim faster, he's not coming down after us!"
"Ahahaha! We survived, we survived!"
...
Quite a few pirates were swimming for their lives away from that pirate ship.
However, they failed to notice a figure floating in the sky above.
She raised her arm, and a crisp voice rang out: "Shikigami Spear."
As the words fell, hundreds of sheets of paper appeared around her, weaving together and coiling into the shape of a spear, which then shot at ultra-high speed toward the swimming pirates in the sea!
Swish, swish, swish...
In an instant, blood dyed the ocean red.
...
At the bow of the pirate ship,
"Wahahaha! Another 12.10 million Belly in the bag!"
With purple hair cascading down to her waist, standing about 1.8 meters tall, possessing an exquisite face, a slender figure, and wearing a short-sleeved top and long trousers, the young woman laughed heartily without a shred of restraint.
Meanwhile, Leo sat cross-armed and bored on the ship's gunwale, gazing out at the vast sea as his thoughts drifted into the distance.
He had been in The World for eighteen years already...
That's right, Leo was a transmigrator!
Eighteen years ago, in a certain dormitory in a certain city on a certain blue planet, Leo had been playing Naruto with a flushed face while sitting in his chair.
And he had been swept three-to-zero!
Even after pulling out his strongest lineup—Qingshui, Hawk-Faced Sasuke, and Baimian—he still got swept three-to-zero. Unconvinced, Leo prepared for another round, only to be rejected on the spot after waiting sixty seconds... and then he started a new match.
That very night as he went to sleep, Leo transmigrated without any warning, descending directly into The World as a tiny baby. He was adopted by an old village chief, and during that time, a cheat arrived as well—the very one that had swept him three-to-zero:
Edo Tensei Zabuza!
It wasn't just memories; it was a straight copy-paste. Aside from his appearance, he had a Executioner's Blade, two Katanas of unknown quality, all of his skills, and even the substitution and counter-attack mechanics. Everything in the game was there except for Edo Itachi. Whether it made any sense was none of his concern; everything happened for the best.
As for whether there was a system?
Of course there wasn't—at least, Leo hadn't noticed any so far. Maybe the heavens above had simply forgotten to give him one.
It didn't matter, though. If there wasn't one, so be it; he didn't particularly want to be the protagonist anyway.
Who knows, if he had a system, he might be forcibly assigned all sorts of missions, forced to fight various powerhouses, and ultimately dragged into becoming the overlord of the world.
Good grief, was there anything worse than that?
For someone suffering from terminal laziness like Leo, that would be absolute hell.
Life right now was pretty good. He was a happily chilling bounty hunter in the East Blue, with no formidable enemies and no bounty on his head. You could say this was the best arrangement possible!
"Wahahahaha..." The laughter behind him hadn't stopped.
That's right, she was a money lover named Aida Lena, twenty years old, and a Paramecia-type Paper-Paper Fruit user.
Leo had met her three years ago when he first took to the sea as a bounty hunter. According to her, she was a bounty hunter from the Grand Line who came to the East Blue for reasons involving blah, blah, blah... and the two of them instantly hit it off, becoming partners.
They had spent three carefree years in the East Blue. Because they had killed so many pirates, their reputation spread far and wide across the East Blue, earning them titles like 〈Ghost Man〉, 〈Nightmare of Pirates〉, and 〈Mysterious Bandaged Man〉.
The origin of the "Mysterious Bandaged Man" moniker was that Leo always wrapped his face in bandages when hunting pirates. Ever since he debuted, the true face of the Ghost Man had never been seen by outsiders.
However, certain factions with some connections actually knew what he looked like, seeing as Leo hadn't gone out of his way to hide it.
Lena's reputation wasn't as prominent. In combat, she was mainly responsible for delivering the finishing blow.
And since Leo's margin of error was exceedingly low, she rarely had a chance to attack herself, naturally leaving her without much fame; most people simply assumed she was Leo's attendant.
Besides, she liked it that way.
After three years, Leo had a profound understanding of her true nature.
She was a bona fide money lover and an ultimate, invincible penny-pincher.
Actually, Leo didn't really know much about her background or anything like that, but it didn't matter. What could she possibly scheme against him for? What did he even have that she could covet?
At this thought, Leo turned his head slightly: "Lena, how much Belly do we have left?"
"Ha... ah."
Lena, who had been laughing heartily just a moment before, instantly froze. Her gaze turned cold: "567,000 Belly."
"So little? We need to spend our money more carefully." Leo shook his head and sighed.
Swish!
Lena instantly flashed right behind Leo and grabbed him by the neck: "You bastard, how have you the nerve to say that?! All the money gets spent on your food!!"
Gag!
Leo's eyes nearly rolled back from the chokehold as he managed to wheeze out an explanation: "Cough, cough, cough! I'm dying, I'm dying! Didn't we just bring in over ten million?"
"Heh..."
Lena released Leo's neck, her eyes half-drooped and her cheeks puffed out: "Over ten million... who knows how long that'll last."
...
Confirming that Lena had moved away from behind him, Leo let out a heavy sigh.
Returning to the previous topic—what could she possibly scheme against him for?!
Given Leo's appetite, no amount of Belly would ever be enough to feed him. During the off-season for pirates, Lena's savings had even been eaten away by Leo to the tune of two-thirds, forcing her to subsidize him out of her own pocket.
For some unknown reason, Leo had an astonishing capacity for food—enough to eat an entire island clean.
He still remembered when the village chief first adopted him; a body not even the length of an arm had managed to milk a dairy cow dry over the course of several days.
By the time he was seven or eight, the village chief's house truly couldn't feed him anymore, so he set his sights on the undeveloped wilderness and, relying on his formidable strength, became the boss of the island.
Finally, by the time he was fifteen, he had devoured all the wild beasts in the mountains, the Sea Kings nearby, and the coastal sea beasts...
Prompted by the village chief and the others, and by unanimous public demand, the age at which villagers were allowed to go to sea was lowered to fifteen.
Thus, a fifteen-year-old Leo logically set sail. On that day, everyone in the village came to see him off, and he was so moved he almost didn't want to leave.
So, what was he supposed to do after going to sea?
Influenced by the One Piece tales of his past life, Leo had assumed there were only two paths upon going to sea: pirates or Marines.
That was until he saw the brutally vicious pirates and the corrupt Marines who broke the law for personal gain.
Hence, out of those two options, Leo chose "or," becoming a free bounty hunter.
Leo sneered at those who constantly had phrases like 〈Pirates are the most free〉 hanging from their lips.
Only once you became a bounty hunter would you discover that *this* right here was true freedom, and he would accept no argument to the contrary.
Alright, that was about it. If he didn't start moving now, he was going to be murdered by her glare.
Leo immediately stood up, selectively ignoring Lena's murderous gaze, and walked over to her: "Finished already?"
"Done five minutes ago."
"Great, let's go then." Leo pretended not to notice and nodded nonchalantly.
Lena: "..."
...
A small, sail-less boat with two wings attached to its sides sped swiftly into the distance.
Meanwhile, the pirate ship behind them was slowly sinking. Years later, it would become home to many new marine lives—a kind of final destination, you could say.
...
Though the sparrow was small, it had all the vital organs. Leo and Lena's small boat had everything they needed, and the food stored in the cabin was enough for the two of them to eat for... two and a half days.
In the kitchen,
"What kind of pirate crew was that? Poor as ghosts, not an ounce of grease on them!" Lena sat on a round stool, one hand propping up her cheek, her mouth puffed out.
Slurp, slurp, slurp...
Leo slurped down several mouthfuls of fish offal noodles, then, without lifting his head, said, "Isn't that great? Just think about where they got their money in the first place."
"Plundering, obviously."
Glub...
Swallowing the entire bowl of noodles in one go, Leo raised a hand to wipe his mouth, then said, "You know damn well it's from plundering. The fact that there's so little grease just means they hadn't gotten around to plundering yet. We indirectly saved civilians from a bit of suffering. It's great."
Lena immediately seized upon a flaw in his logic: "Couldn't it just mean they didn't plunder at all?"
He stood up, placed his bowl and chopsticks into the sink, and walked away while speaking in a casual tone: "Maybe, but I'm certainly not going to gamble on the conscience of pirates."