Chapter 28: The Overlord Appears
It had taken every ounce of his strength to kill that Level 35 monster.
Kaizen Reiya looked at the bloodstained sea and let out a long, slow breath.
However, hunting Level 35 monsters also yielded substantial rewards from the World Will.
He obtained a total of five red potions and three blue potions.
These potions were excellent for restoring stamina and energy.
They were similar to health and mana potions in a game.
The difference was that in this world, death was permanent. It was a real world, not a game where one could respawn.
Therefore, Kaizen had to constantly improve himself.
Drawing on his past life's experience, he knew that the higher the level of the monster slain, the greater the rewards.
This made Kaizen even more eager to kill the Level 100 King of the Near Shore.
And to hunt a Level 100 monster on the third day of the new One Piece world's existence would be unprecedented.
Even in his previous life, the Japanese swordsman hadn't dared to challenge the Sea King until more than ten or twenty days in, after he had developed his strength considerably.
Walking on the sea, Kaizen traversed many dangerous areas and finally arrived at the active territory of the Level 100 Overlord monster, the King of the Near Shore.
This was the very sea where the Japanese swordsman of his past life had slain the beast.
By now, after his frenzied killing spree, Kaizen had risen to Level 20.
He glanced at his status panel.
Player: Kaizen Reiya
Level: 20
Combat Power: 20
Cultivation Method: Star-Siphoning Art
Techniques: Triple Slash, Fire Serpent Slash, Thirty-Six Windstorm Slashes, Lightness Skill: Water Treading...
Equipment: Gold-grade Spear Gun. Gold-grade Three-Pronged Harpoon.
Finally, Kaizen reached a stretch of rough, turbulent sea.
This was a place where many ships vanished each year.
Suddenly, on the water's surface about five or six miles ahead of Kaizen, a massive whirlpool with a diameter of five or six hundred meters churned violently, moving toward him at high speed.
A strange, gurgling sound accompanied it, setting one's teeth on edge.
"Is that the Level 100 King of the Near Shore?"
Kaizen's eyes lit up. He directly stepped onto the turbulent waves and charged toward the churning water.
The King of the Near Shore was a terrifying creature. Thick-skinned and heavily armored, it possessed monstrous offensive and defensive capabilities, and was famously known for having bitten off the arm of Jack, one of the renowned Four Emperors.
It had also successfully killed another Level 100 Sea King in battle.
However, that very battle had left a fearsome scar on its body—the location of its Life Gate.
Kaizen, having learned the details of the King's battle history—later leaked by the Japanese in his previous life—knew the method to hunt this Level 100 monster.
He planned to kill this beast by targeting its famous weak point.
Treading the waves, Kaizen circled to the left flank of the King of the Near Shore.
This was a huge advantage for him. A boat could never achieve such maneuverability and would appear clumsy in a fight against the Sea King.
Through the blue water, Kaizen could make out the colossal figure of the beast, nearly eighty to ninety meters tall, swimming swiftly just below the surface.
The sheer size of the creature was enough to make one tremble.
Kaizen gazed at the right side of the beast, feeling even his breath catch.
It swam with incredible speed, its fish-like tail propelling it thousands of meters with each stroke.
It also had sturdy limbs and fierce, thick fangs at the corners of its mouth, resembling a monstrous hippopotamus.
Its swimming speed was so great that even Kaizen's agility on water seemed inferior.
If not for the Japanese leaking the Sea King's Life Gate in his past life, it was unimaginable that this Level 100 monster could be hunted and killed within the first ten or twenty days.
"As expected of a Level 100 Overlord monster. Just the sight of it is enough to shatter one's courage."
"If not for someone in my past life discovering this Overlord's fate, even with more Gold-grade equipment, I'd just be delivering myself as a meal."
Kaizen's body rose and fell with the waves, beads of sweat rolling down his forehead.
The King of the Near Shore was colossal. Its movement across the sea created massive waves; its turns were like tsunamis, an utterly terrifying sight.
With such power, it was no wonder the ships Windmill Village sent to seek Marine help had all been sunk, with only a few villagers surviving by clinging to wreckage and drifting ashore.
Kaizen clearly remembered a Japanese consortium from his previous life that, leveraging its substantial financial resources, assembled a fleet to hunt the King of the Near Shore. The direct result was the complete annihilation of the entire fleet.
However, during their final moments, a crew member had written a note about the Sea King's Life Gate, sealed it in a bottle, and thrown it into the sea.
That bottle was later found on a beach by the Japanese swordsman, who used the information to prepare for his own successful hunt.