At the port, Luffy gazed out at the vast, endless sea. A thought suddenly struck him as he glanced over at the docked ships.
"We might not need to travel by ship anymore," he said casually.
"Hm?"
Robin and Brook blinked in confusion, not quite grasping what he meant.
Eyes twinkling, Luffy stared out toward the ocean and said,
"Brook, bring out the Poké Ball!"
"Ah, oh!" Brook immediately understood, cheerfully flipping open the top of his skull and reaching into the dark space inside. He pulled out Laboon's Poké Ball and handed it to Luffy.
The trio walked along the harbor until they reached a deserted stretch of coastline, an open area, quiet and free of ships. Most importantly, it was big enough.
"Come on out, Laboon!"
Luffy pointed the Poké Ball toward the ocean. A beam of red light burst from the center, landing on the sea's surface and forming a massive, semi-transparent silhouette.
"Bwooooooh~!"
Laboon let out a joyful call, stirring up waves as he emerged from the light.
Even though time inside the Poké Ball didn't feel lonely, Laboon clearly preferred being out in the real world with Luffy and the others.
Since being captured with the Poké Ball, Laboon's bond with Luffy had grown dramatically, almost to the same level as his bond with Brook.
Luffy stepped forward, patting Laboon's enormous head with a grin.
"Laboon, how about you be our ship from now on?"
"Bwooh~!" Laboon's eyes squinted happily as he let out a warm response.
"Haha, you're easy to please!" Luffy chuckled, giving Laboon another playful pat.
"Brook, wait here for a second, we're going to bring the ship over."
Brook bowed politely, right hand over his left shoulder in a butler-like gesture.
"As you wish, Luffy-san."
At the back of Loguetown, along the secluded coast, the enormous island whale opened its mouth, wide enough to swallow half the town.
The seawater inside Laboon's mouth was still and serene, unlike the turbulent waves outside. It felt like an entirely different sea existed within.
Luffy, Robin, and Brook navigated the ship with the wind at their backs, drifting gently into Laboon's cavernous mouth.
As Laboon slowly closed his jaw, darkness fell. The only sound was the growing roar of rushing water beneath the ship as it suddenly accelerated, faster and faster.
Suddenly, a feeling of weightlessness swept over them. The ship dropped steeply. Instinctively, Luffy grabbed Robin with one hand and clutched the railing with the other as they plummeted.
"Ahh! Ahhh, ahhhhhh!"
Brook screamed, clinging desperately to the mast. His voice, once panicked and broken, soon turned into a continuous, soaring wail.
By the end, he had transformed into a super tenor, belting out a dolphin-like falsetto mid-fall.
No matter how powerful he became, Brook never lost his goofy, lovable nature, especially now that he had reunited with Laboon.
SPLASH!
The ship hit water hard, but thanks to solid Marine craftsmanship, it stayed afloat. Otherwise, Luffy and the crew might've ended up swimming.
Inside Laboon's massive body was a space that had been transformed by Crocus into a miniature world.
The stomach walls were painted to resemble a sky so real it was hard to believe it wasn't. A powerful spotlight served as an artificial sun.
On a small island floating in the digestive fluids...
Robin spread out a nautical map of the East Blue on a wooden table and asked,
"Luffy, where are we headed next?"
"Hmm..." Luffy rubbed his chin thoughtfully, eyes scanning the map, looking for the kingdom of Goa.
Suddenly, something caught his eye. He pointed at one of the islands on the chart.
"Let's go here first."
Robin glanced at the spot, memorized the name, and said,
"Alright, I'll calculate the heading and direct Laboon."
"Got it!"
Brook strolled over, smiling brightly.
"Luffy-san, I've had a spark of inspiration! I'm going to write a new song!"
"Nice! Go for it!"
Soon, the little hut on the island was quiet, Luffy was left alone.
Finally, he had a moment to himself to explore the newly unlocked Pet System.
System, explain the Pet System, he said silently in his mind.
Without delay, the cold, mechanical voice of the system replied:
[Pet System] – A sub-system of the Companion System.
Pets are creatures captured using special tools purchased from the Random Item Shop. Once successfully caught, the creature becomes your pet.
The type of pet depends on the tool used. For example:
Poké Balls from the Pokémon world can't capture beings with human DNA.
Magical Enslavement Orbs from magical realms can only capture humanoid creatures.
Once captured, pets are officially recognized by the system and develop a very high affinity toward the host.
Pets do not receive any stat bonuses from the host, nor can they provide stat bonuses to the host.
Each pet is granted one passive skill, which the host must manually unlock.
In addition, pets have four skill slots:
– 3 Regular Skills
– 1 Ultimate Skill
Unlocking these requires spending gold coins:
Regular Skills come in five levels, each costing:
– Level 1: 100 gold
– Level 2: 1,000 gold
– Level 3: 10,000 gold
– Level 4: 100,000 gold
– Level 5: 1,000,000 gold
The host may freely choose which level to unlock, but once unlocked, the skill level cannot be changed.
The Ultimate Skill costs 10,000,000 gold to activate.
In addition to natural growth through training, pets can gain attributes through gold spending.
Attribute point exchange rates:
– Under 100 points: 100 gold = 1 point
– 100–999 points: 1,000 gold = 1 point
– 1,000–9,999 points: 10,000 gold = 1 point
– and so on...
For every tenfold increase in attribute tier, gold cost increases tenfold as well.
After unlocking the Pet System, the Random Item Shop will also begin refreshing with pet-specific equipment and items. Check regularly.
Luffy let out a sigh.
Figures... this system really won't leave my savings alone.
Staring at the exorbitant gold prices, he suddenly realized that the 30 million gold he'd spent the past year saving up... didn't even qualify as middle class.
Just unlocking the Ultimate Skills for three pets would already wipe out 30 million.
And that's not even counting the regular skills...
"System, how are these regular skill levels determined?"
[Regular skills] are selected at random from across the multiverse, based on the pet's traits and elemental affinity. The amount of gold spent determines the skill's potential, flexibility, and compatibility.
"Multiverse stuff again, huh..."
"System, show me Laboon's status panel!"
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