[Tomorrow's After Tomorrow]
[Type: Consumable]
[Description: Upon use, your current day will be restarted. Time will rewind to 00:00 AM.]
[Note: Only two uses available. Please use with utmost care.]
["There's no such thing as a parallel world—this is just a simple regret pill."]
———
Nao had a particularly deep impression of this item.
Not just because of its insanely overpowered effect—but because back when it was still available in the item shop, its listed price was absurdly high.
A staggering 2 million points.
At the time, he was practically broke, couldn't afford it at all, and could only watch with regret as it slipped away.
Who would've thought—today, he'd actually score this god-tier artifact for free, straight out of an S-Rank gift box?
"Didn't even need a 20%-off coupon. Basically just earned 2 million points for nothing…"
Staring at the pill suspended in the air, Nao's gaze turned strange.
What does it mean to be blessed by luck?
This is what it means.
He was a pure-blooded, top-tier RNG god!
Carefully storing the pill back into his inventory, Nao's gaze shifted toward the nearby Random Attribute Points, and without hesitation, he tapped to use them.
The blue dice appeared once more—four rolls in a row.
[Rolling… Please wait]
[Roll complete]
[Your Charisma has increased by +1]
[Your Strength has increased by +1]
[Your Stamina has increased by +1]
[Your Stamina has increased by +1]
Four notifications flashed in succession. Nao quickly did the math—no boost to Intelligence, but overall still quite profitable.
That alone saved him the equivalent of another two million points.
And as the four attributes took effect, Nao could clearly feel a surge of heat rush through his body. His overall physicality had quietly ascended another tier.
On the data front, his current stat sheet now looked like this:
[Name: Natsuya Nao]
[Age: 20]
[Strength: 33 (Current stage: 1,000,000 points per upgrade)]
[Agility: 30 (+3) (Current stage: 500,000 points per upgrade)]
[Stamina: 33 (Current stage: 1,000,000 points per upgrade)]
[Intelligence: 11 (Current stage: 200,000 points per upgrade)]
[Charisma: 19 (Current stage: 1,000,000 points per upgrade)]
[Current Points: 1,743,000]
[General Skills]: Swimming (Master), Sweet Talk (Advanced), Dual Blade Swordsmanship (Advanced), Rokushiki (Advanced), Firearm Proficiency (Advanced), Close Combat (Advanced), Self-Discipline (Master), Armament Haki (Advanced), Observation Haki (Intermediate), Painting (Advanced), Fishing (Master)
[Innate Skills]: Radiance Smile, Craftsman's Spirit, Wind Barrier (Intermediate), Thick-Skinned (Intermediate), Iron Head (Intermediate), Limb Regeneration, Amphibious Breathing
[Currently Equipped]: Boots of Lightness, Thornmail Armor
"…Huh?"
After scanning through his skill list, Nao's eye twitched, and he couldn't help but grumble.
"Sweet Talk counts as a skill? Isn't that a bit much?"
Damn it! He only ever told some harmless little lies—white lies—to maintain peace within his harem.
At heart, he was still just a simple, honest boy from the East Blue, okay?
This damn system—it was clearly just making stuff up!
The point cost for attribute upgrades had, before he even realized, crept into the million-point range.
Compared to his rookie days back in "Starter Village," it was a whole different world now.
Fortunately, he'd stockpiled enough points—over 1.7 million. After some thought, he spent 700,000 to raise Intelligence and Agility by one point each.
Then, in one go, he finally upgraded those three long-ignored but highly valuable skills—Wind Barrier, Thick-Skinned, and Iron Head—to Advanced level.
That cost another 300,000 points.
Now, the mighty Lord Nao was even more invincible. With all these damage reduction buffs stacked up, his defense was downright absurd.
"At this point, there probably aren't many people in this world tankier than me."
Nao stroked his chin, pondering.
"Kaido, Big Mom, Whitebeard, old man Garp, future Bullet… and then… what? That's it?"
Yeah. That's probably it.
He shrugged and reeled his thoughts back in.
With over 700,000 points still remaining, he decided to upgrade his Yone Dual Swords first. The rest he'd keep on hand for emergencies.
Speaking of which—
The upgrade requirement for Yone's twin swords, "Blood Of The Sinner *10,000"," had already been met a few months ago, back when he went on a pirate-killing spree in the West Blue.
But in a backwater area like that, it hadn't felt urgent.
Now that he was back at headquarters, standing on a far grander stage—it was time to evolve his weapon into its final form.
[Upgrade condition met. Spend 200,000 points to upgrade Yone's Dual Swords into Supreme Grade Blades?]
A prompt appeared.
Nao didn't hesitate—he tapped Yes.
[200,000 points spent. Upgrading… Please wait.]
In his weapon tab, the animation for quenching and reforging began to play, along with a long, slowly progressing "Loading" bar.
Since it was taking forever, Nao simply sprawled on the couch and closed his eyes for a short nap.
By the time he woke up, dawn had broken—and the progress bar had just reached 100%.
[Upgrade Complete]
[Previous weapon traits enhanced. New trait acquired.]
[Wind Sword - Old Trait Enhanced: Breath of the Gale]
[When using Wind Sword, Iai Draw speed increased by 30% (was 20%)]
[Azakana Sword - Old Trait Enhanced: Fear of Demon]
[When using Azakana Sword, deal +30% damage to enemies with Devil Fruit powers (was 20%)]
"Enhanced old traits—that was expected."
After reading through the prompt, Nao grew curious and opened the weapon's full details.
"But what about the new trait…?"
[Weapon: Wind Sword / Azakana Sword]
[Current Level: Supreme Grade Blades]
[Cannot Upgrade Further (Max Level Reached)]
[New Trait Acquired - Wind Sword: Breath of the Wind]
[Breath of the Wind: Greatly enhances your affinity with wind. You are granted nature's blessing—becoming completely immune to all damage from wind-element attacks.]
"…Passive skill, huh."
Nao furrowed his brow.
A bit underwhelming, honestly.
His body was already ridiculously durable—he didn't really need another damage-negation buff.
And in the world of One Piece, how many enemies even specialize in wind attacks, anyway?
Still, something is better than nothing.
He consoled himself with that thought, then scrolled down to the other sword's new trait.
[New Trait Acquired - Azakana Sword: Devil Extraction]
[Devil Extraction: When used to kill or defeat an enemy who has lost all resistance, you may permanently strip their Devil Fruit power and seal it within the blade.]
[After 3 months, the sealed devil power will be purified and reborn into a brand-new Devil Fruit.]
[Note: While the devil power is sealed and unpurified, this skill cannot be used again.]
"…Strips Devil Fruit ability…"
Nao's eyes widened, shock flashing through them.
"And in just three months, I can turn it into a usable Fruit?!"
Compared to the Wind Sword's new passive, this was on a whole different level—incredible and immensely practical.
Why did the Marines build Impel Down?
Why keep so many heinous criminals alive in permanent solitary confinement?
Because when a Devil Fruit user dies, their Fruit reincarnates randomly somewhere in the world. These untraceable, uncontrolled powers represent a major threat to world stability.
No one could predict where the next Fruit might show up.
But now—with this new skill…
Nao took a deep breath, his gaze deepening.
The vague plan he'd formed back when being escorted to Enies Lobby… was finally starting to take shape.
...
After the sun fully rose, Nao left his house and headed straight for the Headquarters fortress building, beginning his first day of work as a Headquarters Vice Admiral.
Perhaps it was the cooler Vice Admiral cloak and uniform, or perhaps his charm stat had increased by one point, but along the way, he had a nearly 100% chance of getting people to turn their heads.
Many young female Marine officers even stared for so long that they accidentally ran into lampposts and trees…
This was one of the many troubles of being too handsome. Nao silently mourned for the gardeners and repairmen, then headed up the stairs and hurried to his office.
His new office was quite luxurious and spacious, located on the second-highest floor of the fortress. Above him were only Fleet Admiral Kong and the Admirals like Sengoku.
Sitting in the comfortable sofa chair, looking down on the crescent-shaped Marineford harbor through the floor-to-ceiling windows, it was hard not to feel a sense of superiority as a high-ranking officer.
Still, Nao kept his ego in check.
He actually rolled up his sleeves and got to work—dutifully handling documents all day, taking time to accept warm congratulations from colleagues, and even sitting in on high-level HQ meetings, full of endless slideshows and reports…
A day or two like this was fine.
But after a week?
Nao couldn't take it anymore.
Looking at the growing mountain of documents on his desk made him sick. For the first time, he began to understand why Kizaru slacked off all the time…
He started missing the West Blue. Missing Gion.
By now, that little rabbit should be on her way to Headquarters for reassignment, right?
Still, even with the most optimistic estimate, it would be at least another month before he saw her.
As for Bell-mère and their two daughters? They'd take even longer.
Until then, he'd just have to endure this agonizingly lonely life.
It was hell.
Thankfully, on the ninth day, things finally took a turn.
Fleet Admiral Kong gave him a call, summoned him to the top floor office, and greeted him with a smiling face as he handed over a freshly signed mission briefing.
Finally—a field assignment! Something real to do!
Nao nearly burst into tears.
But when he opened the folder, his face immediately fell.
"…Escort mission?"
"That's right."
Kong sipped his tea, smiling at the young officer he admired so much.
"Seemed like you were going stir-crazy here at Headquarters, so I figured I'd let you stretch your legs a bit. What, you're not willing?"
"I wouldn't say that. I mean… anything's better than sitting in an office…"
Nao sighed.
"But an escort mission? Kinda boring, don't you think, Fleet Admiral? Isn't this a bit of overkill?"
What was he hoping for?
A brutal pirate crew to annihilate. Ideally with a captain worth hundreds of millions—a proper, satisfying battle.
Not… this.
"Escort duty isn't as easy as you think, kid."
Kong gave him a sideways glance. "This mission is extremely important. You're not going alone—Kuzan is going with you. Two Vice Admirals for this one. That should give you an idea of the stakes."
Aokiji is going too?
Nao blinked.
So this really wasn't some routine job. Whoever they were transporting… was no ordinary criminal.
His expression turned solemn.
He rose and saluted.
"Understood, Fleet Admiral."
...
Three days later.
Somewhere on the Grand Line, two Marine battleships cut through the waves at full speed.
Standing by the rail at the bow, the two ship captains were casually chatting.
"No wonder this escort mission required both of us to go."
Aokiji glanced behind him—at the massive shadow looming over the deck—and grimaced as he scratched his head.
"This guy's… absurdly huge."
"Yeah, no kidding."
Nao couldn't help but look again too.
A grotesquely obese giant, nearly 30 to 40 meters tall, lay against the ship's hold, snoring like thunder. His drool flowed like a stream, soaking the deck.
San Juan Wolf.
A legendary pirate from decades ago—imprisoned by the World Government for committing unspeakable atrocities. In the original timeline, he would one day escape Impel Down with Blackbeard and become one of his most terrifying lieutenants.
"From what I heard," Aokiji said, clicking his tongue, "this is him after suppressing his size. If we removed the Seastone shackles and let him loose… I can't even imagine how big he'd get."
Nao knew, of course. When San Juan Wolf appeared at Marineford, his height was nearly two hundred meters. Even the legendary descendant of Oars looked like a stumbling infant in front of him.
He wondered why they had to send a guy like this to Impel Down to be locked up.
The prison food he ate in a single year would be enough to feed several thousand ordinary people, right?
Nao subconsciously glanced at his Azakana Sword at his waist.