A boat could be seen tied to a small dock in front of a shabby shack by the sea. Outside the house, a man sat on a stool as he cleaned the fish he caught just an hour ago. He wore a vest with pockets, a long-sleeved shirt, and a scarf around his neck. It had been seven months since he had woken up in this world. He looked up at the cloudy gray sky and sighed, mist visible from his breath. As he removed the scales and gills from the fish he caught, he looked back at the screen in front of him that only he could see.
John
Lvl. 2
Age 21
Exp - 170/200
HP - 165
AP - 29
STRENGTH - 4
PERCEPTION - 2
ENDURANCE - 6
CHARISMA - 3
INTELLIGENCE - 3
AGILITY - 4
LUCK - 2
Available points - 0
Traits:
Sharpshooter - Increases accuracy by 20%, decreases fire rate by 20%.
Perks:
None
Skills:
Fishing lvl 3 - Increases fishing efficiency by 15%
Dagger/Knife lvl 2 - Increases attack speed by 10% and crit rate by 5%
Cooking lvl 1 - Increases quality of food you cook by 5%
Hand-to-hand combat lvl 2 - Increases attack speed by 10% and fatigue damage by 5%
John has been living on Goat Island for seven months now and has become part of the community. He was given the old shack where he resides by the village chief since the old man who had lived there passed away a year ago. He has been living day-to-day as he planned by working as a fisherman. He purchased a small boat by saving his earnings for five months while working alongside Mitsuo. Although life has been relatively peaceful, he has kept up his training and gained some new skills because he knew something was bound to happen eventually.
Through training his body, he gained 2 strength, 3 endurance, and 2 agility. He also gained 1 perception, which he assumed was due to using his senses often while fishing. He had completed a few simple quests given by the local residents, earning him 150 experience points, but he hadn't yet leveled up. By speaking to people frequently, he also gained 1 charisma and 1 intelligence from learning more about the current state of the world.
As far as he knew, the cannon hadn't started yet. He hadn't heard about the Strawhat Pirates, Arlong still had the highest bounty in East Blue, and Don Krieg was probably still in the Grand Line. It seems like East Blue really is the most peaceful sea, relatively speaking. But not everything goes the way you want it to. Considering this, John puts his 1 point into LUCK.
He used 'Observe' on the people in the island and found that most adults were at the 5-10 range in terms of level, which confirmed his suspicions that Mitsuo might be more than he lets on. He also noticed that Sasa often approaches and subtly flirts with him whenever she sees him, and Mitsuo seems to try to set them up together. Everything looks fine, but John has had a bad feeling for a while now.
…
John was walking toward the market, carrying two baskets filled with fish balanced on each end of a wooden pole on his shoulders, when he heard the villagers gossiping.
"Have you heard? Pirates have been spotted on the docks. One of them has even entered the village," said the fish vendor.
"What are they doing here? A-are they here to rob us?" The frightened woman asked.
"Don't they know there's nothing of value in this Island? Though, they might kidnap me because of my beauty" said an old woman with a curved back.
……
The frightened woman gasped, "The boy, uh, the pirate, went to the tavern. Sasa is there; i-if they're going to kidnap anyone, it'll most likely be her!"
Upon hearing this, John gently set down the baskets and jogged toward the docks. As he neared, he saw a ship docked in the middle. It was towering over the small fishing boats and casting a large dark shadow over the market. The ship was painted pink all over. The sails had hearts on them, and there were also hearts on the sides of the ship. Its figurehead was a white duck, and atop the mast was a black flag with a symbol on it: two bones in an X formation beneath a side view of a skull that had a heart on it.
The Alvida Pirates! Why are they here on Goat Island?
…
I should go to the tavern first and see what's going on.
He ran to the tavern and opened the door, his knife hidden in his vest. Inside, he saw the Tavern owner, Sasa, and the village chief standing over a boy who was looking down and shaking. The boy was wearing a white shirt with blue stripes on the sides and black pants. He wore round blue glasses and had pink hair parted in the middle.
"C-captain Alvida says she wants this island as her base of operations," the boy said, holding his hands in front of his chest. "You should give her all your treasure and get out of this place immediately!"
"And if we don't give all our hard-earned money to this Captain Alvida, what will you do, huh?" Sasa asked the boy with an annoyed tone.
"She will k-kill all the people on this island!"
…
"Listen kid, if you and your pirate gang are going to come and threaten us, they should have sent a scarier person than you!" shouted the village chief, while pointing his finger at the boy.
"I-i'm not threatening you!, I'm trying to he-"
"Tell that pirate Alvida, we won't let her use this island as her base! She will have to kill us first!"
The village chief then kicked the boy out of the tavern.
"No!" shouted the boy as he knelt on the ground, tears in his eyes.
That's definitely Coby… he's still with the Alvida pirates so he hasn't met Luffy yet.
John silently followed Coby who was walking back to the ship. He saw three men approach Coby and laugh at him.
"What's a useless shit like you doin' anyway? You know Captain Alvida don't care if they surrender!"
"Go back to cleaning the deck! You're useless in a fight anyway. Once the Captain's done with her beauty rest, we'll take over this island!"
The downtrodden Coby went inside the ship. He tried to save the inhabitants of this island, but it wouldn't matter anyway to the ruthless pirates. That was why he wanted to become a Marine, to enact justice and help the victims of these kinds of crimes. But he couldn't fulfill his dream of becoming a Marine, as he was now one of the pirates himself, and he could never get out without losing his life.
John looked at the three pirates. He knew that these pirates were basically cannon fodder in the world of One Piece, but when he used "Observe" on them...
Level 12, 15, and 17...the weakest of them is stronger than the average adult here, and one of them is as strong as Mitsuo. There's probably more of them on the ship, at least twenty people, not to mention Alvida herself.
…
This is not good.
John went back to the tavern, and thankfully, the chief was still there, and Mitsuo was there too.
"Are you sure, Mitsuo? I haven't even heard of this Alvida." asked the village chief.
Mitsuo nodded and replied with a serious face. "Alvida has a 5 million berry bounty. Even if she's not the strongest in these seas, she can still easily take over this island."
"But if we gave up the Island, where would we go?" The Tavern owner asked, looking sad. Meanwhile, Sasa remained silent as she knew that her father knew what he was saying.
Just then, they noticed John standing by the door. Before they could ask him what he was doing there, he started speaking.
"I've seen their ship by the docks. They must have at least twenty people there, and I've heard they're going to attack after their captain has had her beauty sleep."
John continued, "I think we should stall them while we formulate a plan."
"What plan, John? The marine base is far away, and it will take several days for them to arrive at our rescue... Do you think we can defeat these pirates?!" The village chief asked, looking skeptical.
"Do you mean to fight John?" Mitsuo asked, looking John straight in his eyes with a serious look.
John paused for a moment, thinking about whether or not they could really defeat these pirates with a much higher level than them. Then he replied. "I don't want to surrender to these pirates," he shook his head and looked up. "I know I sound crazy, but I think we can defeat them. There are some strong people here and creative ones too. We just have to band together and use our strengths. If we can do that, we can drive out these pirates. As long as we have the WILL to live, then we will never lose!"
The four people in the tavern looked at John in astonishment. They had never seen him like this before in the seven months he'd been on Goat Island. But John was looking at something else entirely.
QUEST STARTED
Battle at Goat Island
Help the town drive out the pirates
or
Help the pirates take over the town
Reward - 500 exp, reputation increase
Mitsuo wondered where John's confidence was coming from; he had never seen the man fight before. Looking at his face, though, Mitsuo was convinced. Because for a moment, he saw John's mouth curve upward in a greedy smile, and that's a smile he had seen before.