A few days out at sea after leaving Midland, our heroes were enjoying their idle time on the ship.
Jinzo was inside, sitting at the dining table, enjoying a cup of tea and reading a book.
Outside, Swiss and Grit were sparring on the small deck space.
They both agreed that using their weapons in such a tiny space would be foolish, so they were fighting using their bare hands.
They decided on 3-minute rounds, with a 2-minute break in-between each.
It was currently round 119. The score was 78-41 rounds to Grit.
"Haah…Haah…" Swiss and Grit panted heavily. Their fists were severely bruised.
Yet only one of their faces looked terribly beaten. That was the face of Swiss.
Throughout this 119 round boxing match, Grit was outclassing Swiss easily.
The reason was simple. Grit was taller, had greater reach, greater strength, and overall battle experience.
Despite this, Swiss, who was just a 23-year-old gamer from the real world a few months ago, was managing to win a substantial amount of rounds.
The reason for this was quite profound.
You see, Grit was beating the absolute shit out of Swiss.
But whenever the time ran out, and they went to their corners at the end of each round, Swiss would take a sip of sake.
The sake, just one sip of that glorious alcohol, would have extreme healing effects on Swiss.
So by the next round, Swiss would be fresh and ready to go.
Grit, on the other hand, would take some rounds off. Allowing Swiss to outwork him, but not dealing much significant damage.
Swiss was sure of it by now. For some reason, his body had a positive relationship with alcohol.
The reason for this, he eventually concluded, was due to his excessive use of alcohol during his days playing One Piece Online.
This fact in and of itself opened an even greater mystery box.
What is the nature of this world?
Swiss thought about this every day.
He was in the normal world. The last thing he did was play his favorite game; One Piece Online.
Suddenly, he woke in the world of One Piece.
Okay. Simple so far.
'But why?' Swiss pondered, 'but why do I have a perception about my [name: Swiss] or that I have [Bounty: 0]?'
It was like his brain made him view the world as a game. After playing his days away for so long, his mind was doing everything it could to compensate for the change in status quo.
After being away from the game he played daily for over a decade, for a period of months now, it all finally caught up with him.
He was a recovering addict.
And yet, as bad as it sounds, for some reason it is working to his advantage,
The healing effects of drinking alcohol are proving to be extremely overpowered.
…
In round 120, Grit utilizes his reach and jabbed Swiss as soon as he got in range.
The exhausted Swiss could do nothing. Each time he stepped in range, his face was justly jabbed.
79-41 to Grit. Swiss picked himself up from the ground and whipped the dirt from his face.
"Trololol, you're too good, Grit." He took a big swig from a bottle of Sake, causing his wounds to heal rapidly.
Grit peered at Swiss, witnessing the bizarre healing effects that alcohol has on the body of Swiss, "You're not normal…" he husked.
Swiss took a deep breath and looked at Grit in disbelief, "I'M NOT NORMAL?!"… then he calmed down, "trololol, bruh, YOU'RE not normal."
That's when Swiss drank the rest of that Sake bottle. He got incredibly drunk.
His body felt like dancing.
Every pore of his skin felt like they were smiling,
"TROLOLOLOL!"
Swiss propelled the empty sake bottle towards Grit's face.
Grit widened his eyes, bending back just in the knick of time. The sake bottle flew by and shattered against the mast.
By the time Grit straightened himself, Swiss was up in his grill.
'HMPH!'
Grit swung down with a mighty right hook.
But somehow, with his drunken flexibility, Swiss dodged well below the punch.
This gave him the perfect position to hurl himself with great force into a counter punch directed towards the liver of Grit.
Swiss performed a left hook to the liver of Grit with such precision and accuracy that Grit fell to his knees.
'OOF!'
That's when Swiss, frustrated after hours of being beaten to a pulp, and drunk senseless decided to just yolo it.
Using that opportunity he punched Grit so hard in the temple that he knocked him out clean.
*BOOF!*
His body crashes against the deck.
Grit loses consciousness for a few seconds, but only briefly.
He quickly comes back to life.
"Wha? Huh?"
Swiss was giggling away, "Trololol, you got rekt boiii."
[swiss: ggez]
[swiss: f%^king scrub]
"Hold on a minute.."
Grit took a second to gather himself, then he said
"I recall that I took a knee. It should have been a count. Instead of you waiting in your corner, you decided to hit me with a dirty finisher…"
Swiss scratched his head innocently, "Uhh, I think you hit your head too hard. That's not what happened at all…"
Grit peered at Swiss as he laughed and tried to change the subject,
"Anyway, that was a good day of sparring. Let's drink!"
Swiss went inside and reached for the sake bottles stored on the shelves.
"Another 'party' is it?" Jinzo asked, sipping his tea at the round table.
"You bet your ass!" Swiss replied with a smile.
Jinzo and Grit quickly found out that Swiss enjoyed a good party. Every night, he tried roping them into joining him in the bonanza.
If you asked Swiss why he was being such a party animal, he wouldn't be able to tell you. In his old life, he was rather reserved.
But in One Piece Online, he was the party king. That virtual ocean was the only ocean he knew. Now, on a real ocean, he treats it like his gaming days.
"Do you like stories, Grit?" Swiss asked his companion.
"Stories? Uh. I suppose." Grit awkwardly replied.
"Good! There's great power in a story. Don't forget that." Swiss took a sip of sake and gazed out at the great moon that glistened on the open ocean.
Grit watched as the moonlight reflected off the amber eyes of Swiss, he laughed as he looked at the drunken fool before him, "If I'm in a story with you, that proves that anything is possible."
"Trololol, I agree. Me, the handsome one. You, the tall ugly fucker. This is an unlikely team indeed." Swiss laughed heartily.
The three-man party on that humble sailboat continued well into the early hours of the morning. It was not until just before sunrise did the gang finally pass out.
The morning rose over the South Blue. The snores of Swiss, Jinzo, and Grit were all that could be heard.
That is until a large unknown entity came fast approaching.
*SQUAWK!**SQUAWK!*
Hundreds of flying fish emerged from the water and flew past the sailboat at rapid speeds.
They were fleeing from something.
*SQUAWK!*
A pelican, no…
A Giant Pelican swooped down and gulped up the large body of water where the sailboat was.
It caught many fish. And bless its soul, it probably thought it caught one massive fish.
But that massive fish was not a fish.
It was the Jalopy Sailboat.
Inside, Swiss, Jinzo, and Grit. The idiots were too passed out drunk to realize they had been swallowed by a giant pelican.
..
This is why you shouldn't drink…