────────────────────────
[Training Arc 2]
────────────────────────
| Hours later… |
...
"Hgnh!" Dan let out a groan as he stretched his back, giving it faint bumps with his fists.
On the stall next to his, the man left in charge of showing him the ropes leaned forward on his counter and sent him an amused grin. "You look like an old man right now, kid. Back hurting from sitting too long?"
"Yeah..." Dan answered with a wry look.
He was doing so much training, yet just being seated left him this drained? Something was wrong with how that worked.
The man chuckled. "You could have walked around a bit too, you know? People like an interactive seller. Walking around, gesturing to their merchandise, that kind of thing."
Dan looked at the tangerines, recalling the days he'd followed old Shun to sell their catches at the local market.
'He did move around a lot for an old guy.' He mused, noticing a selling tactic he'd missed from his main source of inspiration.
Regardless, it was too late to apply it now.
His eyes shifted to the sky, catching the midday sun.
It was certainly nowhere near sunset, but the activity in the market had dropped off severely. Everyone had done their shopping already, and were now busy earning their keep or dealing with whatever responsibilities people had in a world with no phones to waste five hours doomscrolling.
With activity this low, plenty of the other vendors were already packing up.
It appeared this was around the time selling wrapped up for the day.
He looked down at his stock, wincing a little as he saw a still-plentiful amount of tangerines remaining.
"About half got sold... well, that's something, I guess?"
The man laughed loudly. "That's roughly what Bell-mère sells herself on average. Good job, kid! You basically covered for her completely."
Dan blinked, then looked down at the tangerines with a helpless expression.
'She just sells this amount on average?'
They had brought double the crates he had here, so... she normally only sold about a quarter of what they brought altogether.
'No wonder she's having problems with money.'
Dan winced slightly.
Tangerines weren't expensive either, so the already low quantity sold made the whole picture even more bleak.
'It's a wonder she's managing to support the three of them at all.' He thought, picking up one tangerine and turning it over in his hand.
Well, she probably wasn't, given the faint memory he had of her eating little and passing it off as being on a diet.
Suddenly, the tangerine in his hand felt a bit heavier.
"Oh, kid. Looks like she's done for the day. There she comes." The man's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.
Lifting his gaze, he saw Bell-mère approaching from a distance, carrying a stack of empty crates on one shoulder and some still-full ones in the other.
"Well, since she's here, my job's done." The man said as he stood up.
He began packing up his own merchandise—apparently having stayed this late into the day just to keep an eye on Dan until Bell-mère returned.
Thinking about that, Dan could only watch in silence as the man packed everything away and Bell-mère finally arrived.
"Look at this, kid—you were right. I sold plenty more than usual!" Bell-mère exclaimed, holding up some empty crates with a beam.
Dan glanced at them, then at the ones still somewhat full on his side.
'She actually sold basically the same as me.' He thought, smiling wryly.
While he registered that, Bell-mère eyed how he'd done on his end, her eyes widening at the results.
"Well, would you look at that... You sold a lot too, kid!"
The man, already fully packed and heading out, gave Dan a parting look with a grin as he passed Bell-mère. "He's pretty good, Bell-mère. Lacked here and there, but he made up for it with that needy look of his. Overall, he might actually have more selling potential than you!"
Bell-mère laughed, giving Dan a look. "I get what you mean, he made me feel like I needed to help him whenever I saw him—I already got berated for that, though."
"Wha—?"
Dan shot both of them a baffled look, then glanced down at himself, a bead of sweat rolling down his temple.
Did he look needy?
He was wearing a worn white tank top and his usual worn-out dark-green pants, together with his black shoes—also looking a bit worse for wear.
There was also the cape he'd bought recently, currently back at his boat—but he doubted it would do much for him against the allegations. It didn't add much to his overall look beyond hiding his clothes.
'Maybe I do look needy...'
But it wasn't his fault. The old Dan had been dirt poor, and after he became the new Dan, all his money had gone to food and supplies for the trip.
He hadn't given clothing much thought. Nor had his priorities on the matter shifted much since. He'd still rather spend what little he had on more useful things.
But well, at least now he'd give it some consideration if he ever had extra money… Or extra NP. The system let him buy clothes for NP too, so maybe that was worth a look, given they might be of better quality than anything he'd find out here anytime soon.
It was a magical floating screen with the power to defy reality. The clothes couldn't be shitty, right?
While those thoughts filled his head, the man left, and Dan and Bell-mère began packing everything up, emptying the stall and carrying the leftover fruit back to the boat.
Minutes later, they were back on the water. As they crossed, Bell-mère seemed genuinely joyful—despite Dan not considering the day's results particularly impressive, the woman clearly saw it differently.
She also seemed a bit eager to get back home to the girls. It was already past what he considered lunchtime, so she was probably in a hurry to feed them.
Before long, they hit land, and after carrying everything back to the farm, they were met with both Nojiko and Nami sitting on the porch waiting for them.
""Bell-mère!""
The two immediately ran to meet her, while Bell-mère set down the crates to hug them both.
Dan could only watch in silence as the warm reunion played out in front of him, a little awkward.
Soon, however, the attention shifted to him.
""Bleeh~""
And instead of a warm welcome, all he got was two stuck-out tongues.
He breathed in deeply.
'I have grown-up memories. I am the bigger person.'
And so, with the patience of a kid attempting to be mature, he walked away and carried the crates to their proper spot beside the house.
As he set everything down and wiped the sweat from his forehead, Bell-mère came over and put down her share too.
Then she jabbed a thumb toward the house, smiling at him.
"I'm making lunch soon. Wanna join us, kid?"
"Again with that?" He shot her a flat look.
"Come on, kid. We sold a lot today, and half of it is thanks to you. Let me celebrate with you a little!"
Dan could only stare at her, finding it hard to refuse after that.
Still, he didn't want to burden the already struggling family just because their mother couldn't contain her own generosity.
On that thought, his eyes widened briefly as something occurred to him.
"Alright, but give me ten minutes. I'll go catch some fish so we can add it to the meal."
"What? No nee—"
Bell-mère didn't get to finish her sentence as Dan walked off, utterly ignoring her.
Watching him disappear, Bell-mère grumbled with a frown. "...For a brat, he sure is stubborn about pulling his own weight—hold on, ten minutes? What's he going to catch in ten minutes? Water?"
Ten minutes later, Dan came back with a wooden basket holding three big fish, still damp from being freshly caught.
He extended it to Bell-mère, who stared at it in disbelief.
"Here."
Blinking at the word, she took it speechlessly, and soon, went back inside to prepare the food without saying a word.
As the minutes passed, eventually Dan sat at the porch, waiting patiently as he fiddled with a stick and the grainy ground, drawing whatever came to mind.
A fish, then a sword, then a gun, then a really bad drawing of Arlong, followed by a drawing of himself drop-kicking the hell out of him.
Out of things to draw, his mind drifted to his journey here—and to what might come after the situation at this island was dealt with.
He drew a rough and ugly map of what he knew of this part of the sea, and where he might head next.
…
He honestly had no idea.
'Maybe Luffy's village might be worth going to? I think it was called Foolish village or something,' Dan mused, recalling that he'd looked it up when he'd worried he was sailing there instead of the Conami Islands.
Though there wasn't much of interest there, aside from Shanks and Garp possibly showing up—if his timing was right.
But what use was there in meeting those two?
Shanks? Nothing in particular. He doubted the guy would let him join his crew—and he didn't want to anyway. With Shanks's crew around, farming NP would be far harder, given how the system rules worked. Only personal infamy counted, not one gained through the infame of another, and those guys would probably eclipse any infame he tried to build.
As for Garp—he could ask the man to train him, but there was a real chance doing so would eat most of the time he had to farm NP.
Not to mention he had no idea how things would actually play out. For all he knew, maybe all the fanfic authors from his memories had been too optimistic, and in reality the moment he showed up and asked, Garp would glance at him, dig his nose, and throw a booger ball at him.
Which would probably knock him out.
There was a chance he'd be taken under the old man's wing, sure—he was fairly strong for his age, and Garp might see something worth training. But that was all assuming he'd actually run into him at Luffy's island. Garp was a notoriously absent grandfather. Who knew how long he'd have to wait for the old man to turn up?
Not to mention the very real possibility of missing him entirely just because he hadn't bothered to check on the three brothers that particular week.
So much time wasted. Time he could spend farming NP and building infamy instead.
And even if he somehow managed to become Garp's disciple, joined the navy to gain juicy intel and interesting contacts, and lastly amassed enough strength to feel secure about initiating his criminal career… who knew if Garp would actually let him leave unscatched? Or leave at all.
'Maybe the sunglasses would help with that… although, who knows if they work at all with someone who has a strong Observation Haki.'
If they didn't and the old man became aware of his less than righteous intentions, he might even chase him all around the world to put him down like a rabid dog.
So no—it appeared this was going to be a solo run for the most part.
'The path of the strongest is a solitary one.' He thought with a snort.
Although, maybe he could at least go do some tourism on that island. It was the only island he knew had a proper city—which also meant more people to terrorize and NP to gain.
'Well, that and Logue Town… but the marines are going to kick my ass if I try anything there.'
It was, after all, the town where Roger was executed. Marine activity was bound to be heavy there.
He also hadn't gotten maps to get there so far.
'Well, surely there's a map somewhere across this entire archipelago, right?'
"Is that... the Conomi Islands?"
Suddenly, a voice came from behind him.
"...?"
He turned, and found Nami standing there, looking at his drawing with curiosity.
He glanced back at it—something he had drawn with little effort and even less love.
'As expected of the future's greatest navigator—she can even recognize a drawing this terrible.'
"Yeah."
"It's wrong." She stated, looking at it with a dissatisfied expression.
"I know, I just sketched it roughly."
Sweeping his foot over the drawing, he erased it in one go, then began drawing again.
In about a minute, he had redrawn the whole thing.
"Is this better?"
"... Hm. Yes, I guess."
And like that, she began walking away, as if this was no longer her concern.
Dan stared at her retreating back with a baffled look.
'This is pissing me off. Should I just have refused to eat here?'
"Alright you three, food is ready!" Bell-mère's voice came from inside, followed by the smell of cooked fish and a faint citrusy aroma.
Dan swallowed.
'Never mind, I'm hungry.'
...
°
°
°
| An hour later... |
...
After the meal—which he had to admit was pretty damn good—Dan's work hours were officially declared over by Bell-mère, and he was left with the rest of the day for himself.
It was roughly 3 PM, which left him with quite a lot of free time for the rest of the day.
Which was good, since he had something waiting on his agenda.
So, with the food eaten and the leftover tangerines stored somewhere cool so they wouldn't turn bad that quickly, he bid the family farewell for now—since he was apparently expected to sleep there come nightfall—and made his way back to his boat on the coast.
-Crunch-
Once he stepped onto the sand and arrived at the beach where his boat was moored, he dug through his stored belongings and pulled out the sword.
With it in hand, he glanced around to make sure no one was nearby, then opened his system interface and materialized his two new acquisitions.
═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════
≡[Hacked Item: Gravity Cuffs]
▸ Wearable cuffs that affect perceived gravity to an adjustable degree.
═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════
The first were a pair of goofy sci-fi-looking cuffs that, for some reason, weren't chained together—appearing more like an aesthetic accessory than anything resembling actual restraints.
There was a small knob on one of them that could be rotated between ×1 and ×5.
The meaning was pretty obvious.
"I was hoping for at least ×10... but I guess ×5 gravity works too." Dan muttered, before setting them on the boat's railing and reaching for his other new acquisition.
═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════
≡[Hacked Item: Intelligent Dumbbells]
▸ Perfect for always surpassing your limits! The Intelligent Dumbbells 2.0 will always weigh just barely the limit of what you can lift. No matter how strong you are or become.
═══════•°• ⚠ •°•═══════
The moment they materialized over his hand, he nearly pitched forward from the unexpected weight—like one of those tungsten cube pranks where someone hands you what looks small and light, and you nearly drop it because you didn't brace for it at all.
Making it worse was that the dumbbell looked like a small pink plastic one. Not even a proper metal one.
The fact that he nearly couldn't catch it was a bit humiliating.
But ignoring those feelings, he picked it up from the ground with effort, gawking at himself struggling to lift something that looked like a child's toy, even when putting all his back into it.
After enough straining, he got it into a proper position, the weight baffling him given what he could normally lift nowadays, even accounting for still being a kid.
'As expected of the system.'
Then an idea took shape in his head.
He set the dumbbell down, then picked it up differently.
Like a sword, with both hands still.
With the weight it had just displayed, lifting it that way should have been impossible—or at the very least, agonizing.
Yet, amazingly, the weight adjusted to match what that particular grip could handle. He still strained, and it certainly wasn't comfortable, but there was no torn muscle in the motion.
Once he set it down again, he let out a small laugh.
Most shonen protagonists would kill for something like this.
That, plus the cuffs—
"Hold on, the cuffs?"
His eyes moved to the pair, another idea settling in.
Eyes narrowing at the thought of what might be a brilliant plan—or a deeply stupid one—he proceeded to put them on, one on each wrist.
Then, upon twisting the knob up to ×2—
"Oof—!" Dan felt the air leave him as the world's pull suddenly doubled.
Way doubled.
Not only his trained muscles felt the strain—every other one did too. His entire existence had become twice as heavy.
Still, he laughed in spite of himself, awed at the absurd things he was being allowed to experience.
And then... his gaze drifted to the dumbbell.
With some difficulty, he made his way toward it and grabbed it.
And pulled.
"...!"
But, to the utter confusion of his senses—and his once-again disbelief—the dumbbell remained liftable. Just barely, but liftable.
'I might actually be a genius.'
He let out a disbelieving laugh and proceeded to lift it in different positions, feeling the weight shift as he rotated his grip, adjusting to whatever that particular hold could manage.
Whenever he turned it in a way that would certainly tear a tendon if it had a fixed weight, it became almost nothing. Yet the moment he settled into a proper position, it bore down with everything it had.
Factor in the changed gravity on top of that, and the fact that the dumbbell was accounting for all of these variables simultaneously was nothing short of remarkable.
But more important than any of that...
"With this, my training speed will increase several fold." He muttered, turning the dumbbell and gripping it like a sword.
With it, he swung up and down, feeling the full strain on his body with a wide grin.
When he'd arrived at this island, he'd been worried he'd be too weak by the time Arlong showed up. That he'd go into that fight with the real risk of the bastard kicking his head off in one clean hit.
Now? Now he wasn't so sure.
A chuckle escaped him.
'Depending on how long he takes, I'll be the one to punt his head into the next island.'
...
────────────────────────
-To Be Continued...-
────────────────────────
Join my Patreon to get access to more chapters, and you'll help me make ends meet while doing so.
pḁtreon.com/TheSynonym (Change the a)
─────────────
(A/N: A new training method has dropped, and thus, Dan's road to becoming stronger and not getting one-shot by Arlong is now clearer.
Aside from that, it's also time at last for a time skip so we can get soon to the action, so don't worry about this arc of Dan working until Arlong pulls up extending infinitely)