Chapter 6: The Glue Pistol
"Let's start with the Glue Pistol!" Kaizen Reiya read the manual carefully. The training method wasn't overly complex; it involved condensing internal energy, or combat power, into a rubber-like bullet and shooting it from the fingers.
This technique was a creation of the New One Piece World's consciousness, developed after it devoured the modern Earth, inspired by concepts like the Duan family's Six Veins Divine Sword and the properties of the Gomu Gomu no Mi.
Cultivated to its peak, it could possess the power of a modern pistol. With all ten fingers firing, the bullets would fill the sky, surpassing the rate of fire of an ordinary machine gun.
Following the meridian pathways and movement diagrams in the manual, Kaizen began to circulate the combat power he had absorbed. He activated the Calm Sea Key, practicing at twenty times the normal speed. A chilling, murderous intent gathered around him.
Fwoosh!
Kaizen's little finger twitched. A glue bullet shot out, striking a small tree over ten meters away and punching a clean hole through its trunk.
If it hit a person's body, it could cause significant injury. Only missing a vital spot would prevent a fatal blow.
Ding. Congratulations to player Kaizen Reiya for successfully mastering the Glue Pistol, reaching the Initiate Level.
The deep, weathered voice of the system resonated in Kaizen's mind.
Kaizen knew that martial arts cultivation was divided into four realms: Initiate, Minor Achievement, Major Achievement, and Perfection.
The Glue Pistol was slightly more difficult to cultivate than something like the Six Veins Divine Sword.
An ordinary person, without ten or eight years of dedicated training, couldn't hope to reach the Initiate Level at all.
As for Minor Achievement, thirty years was a conservative estimate. Major Achievement was unthinkable without exceptional talent, perhaps unattainable in a single lifetime.
Reaching the state of Perfection depended on fortune and serendipity. Not even one in ten thousand practitioners of such techniques ever reached Major Achievement, let alone Perfection. The difficulty was immense.
It had taken Kaizen less than an hour to reach the Initiate Level. First, he relied on the bitter experience of his past life, learning from those failures and avoiding many detours. Second, and most crucially, he had the Calm Sea Key. This magical golden key allowed him to master in less than an hour what would take others a decade of hard work to even begin.
Kaizen felt the residue of the glue bullet and looked at the hole in the tree, a fierce excitement blooming within him.
"I truly am a prodigy. To train the Glue Pistol to the Initiate Level in under an hour... I fear I'm the only one in the entire One Piece world with such talent."
He laughed out loud. "Who else?!"
"Let's keep going. Let's see if I can reach the Minor Achievement level at the fastest speed. Once I do, I'll be able to fire multiple glue bullets simultaneously: two, then four, then eight, thirty-two, sixty-four, one hundred and twenty-eight! And as for Perfection... two hundred and fifty-six bullets, over five hundred! An invincible storm of rubber projectiles!"
Kaizen forcibly suppressed the thrill in his heart and began his assault on the Minor Achievement realm of the Glue Pistol.
Ding. Detected that player Kaizen Reiya's internal energy is insufficient. Personal level is not high enough to train the second stage of the Glue Pistol.
Ding. Please, player Kaizen Reiya, improve your internal energy, combat power, and personal level as soon as possible.
Ding. Must reach Level 2 Player to practice the 'Twin Bullets' variation.
Kaizen couldn't help but let out a wry laugh. "This Glue Pistol does require a substantial amount of internal energy and combat power, but its advantages are clear. It allows for ranged attacks. Combined with my swift footsteps, even some higher-level players would fall to it."
"Hmph, if any random person could learn this in a short time, what value would it have?"
He pondered. "What method can I use to drastically improve my internal energy in a short time? My storage backpack has quite a few fruits, precious liquids, and medicinal herbs that boost internal energy and combat power, but none can deliver the required boost in a single day. The only way to meet the requirement for the Twin Bullets quickly is to go absorb power from the bandits themselves."
His eyes lit up at the thought of using the Star-Siphoning Art on the bandits. It was the perfect way to kill two birds with one stone: decimate the bandits' strength while empowering himself.
Was there anything better in this world?
Absorbing others' power wasn't unlimited. He couldn't absorb from someone whose level was vastly higher than his own. It was like a small stream trying to drain the ocean.
Otherwise, Kaizen wouldn't need to bother with laborious offensive martial arts like the Glue Pistol.
Even with that limitation, the Star-Siphoning Art was an immense advantage over other players.
As long as a player wasn't more than ten levels higher than him, Kaizen could drain their internal energy and combat power.
This single advantage made it impossible for others to catch up.
"Time to find some prey." A fierce grin spread across Kaizen's face as he began hunting for bandits within the village.
By now, more and more players were arriving in Windmill Village via the transport scrolls.
After Kaizen's thorough scouring of most treasure chests, valuables, and hidden caches, over ninety percent of the resources were gone. The first wave of players who arrived just after him, after their own frantic digging, left the subsequent players with nothing—not even Grey-Stone tools or low-grade Yellow Class techniques. These latecomers had no choice but to line up in long queues at the quest board, taking on tasks like slaughtering chickens, walking dogs, or catching turtles. Kaizen didn't even glance at those quests in this life.
"This isn't a virtual game at all."
"This is the real world."
"Wow! It's just like when Columbus first set foot in the Americas. Look, there are even natives here!"
"Haha, you can kill monsters for quests! I, Zhao Ritian, have come to the right place!"
"Hehe, I, Ye Liangchen, can finally show off my skills!"
"I, Long Aotian, declare that I will now begin my killing spree!"
With the influx of players, the place grew bustling and noisy.
All sorts of people appeared.
"You disgusting ruffian!" A young girl from Windmill Village shouted. With a sharp crack, she slapped a male player, sending him flying to the ground, howling in pain.
Kaizen watched with a cold sneer. They seem to think this is a bus back on Earth, where women are weak. The girls here are far stronger than the toughest men from modern Earth.
Soon, the village's law enforcement team arrived. They dragged the male player away like a dead dog, throwing him into a water prison. It would take at least fifteen days for him to get out.
Fifteen days of certain torture and hardship. Meanwhile, the players outside would have already progressed by killing monsters and digging for treasures.
In his previous life, Kaizen had been just like that—a few hours too slow, forced to survive in the cracks left by the first arrivals, living a miserable existence.
After fifteen days inside, you wouldn't even be qualified to be cannon fodder for the major players; you could only be used as expendable bait for their minor underlings to gain experience. Your life would be at the very bottom.
It showed just how crucial his rebirth experience was, granting him those precious three hours ahead of everyone else.