Kairo didn't interrupt the three absurd beings.
Instead, he lowered the back of his lounge chair and stared up at the sky in silence.
Even though he had already been in the world of One Piece for seven or eight days, everything that had happened still felt strangely unreal.
Then there was the system.
At first, it had been cold, domineering, and trigger-happy—constantly threatening to erase him the moment he refused to cooperate.
But after just one day, it had completely changed its attitude.
Its way of addressing him had shifted from Host… to Godfather.
The whole thing felt ridiculous.
The reason Kairo had refused the missions in the beginning was simple:
He never wanted this transmigration in the first place.
Unlike the tragic protagonists in so many web novels—orphans, miserable backgrounds, abandoned childhoods—Kairo had lived a perfectly happy life before coming here.
His parents were successful.
His family was well-off.
By the time he graduated high school, they had already prepared fixed assets worth over a hundred million for him.
And before he even had the chance to enjoy any of it—
He was dragged into the One Piece world and tied to some ridiculous system that threatened to kill him if he didn't complete missions.
Kill him if it wanted to.
Maybe getting erased by the system would send him home.
That had been his original thought.
But in the end…
He had still underestimated the system.
"…Sigh."
Suddenly, Kairo let out a long breath, pulled a pair of sunglasses from his bag, and put them on.
"Well. Since I'm here, I might as well live with it."
The ship was moving fast.
Before long, the little town had vanished far behind them as the vessel sped toward the nearest island like an arrow cutting across the sea.
At the same time—
On the endless ocean, a medium-sized Marine warship was sailing in from another direction.
As soon as it entered this stretch of sea, it suddenly adjusted course and began heading the same way as Kairo's ship.
On the deck stood two Marines.
One was scanning the surroundings with the naked eye.
The other held a telescope, surveying the distant sea.
The moment the Marine with the telescope shifted his line of sight, a large ship suddenly entered his field of view.
At first, he didn't think much of it.
After all, the one commanding this warship was none other than a Marine Headquarters Vice Admiral—
The legendary Hero of the Marines, Monkey D. Garp.
With Garp aboard, even notorious pirates from the Grand Line would turn tail and flee at first sight.
So what if there was an unidentified ship nearby?
But then—
He noticed something was wrong.
The ship had no mast, no sails, and no flag.
And yet it was moving across the ocean at remarkable speed.
What was pulling it forward…
Was a group of seven or eight giant sea beasts.
"This ship… something's off!"
Making sure he wasn't seeing things, the soldier hurriedly lowered the telescope and turned to his companion.
"Go inform Vice Admiral Garp at once! There's an unidentified vessel ahead!"
"It's just one ship," the other Marine replied. "No need to disturb Vice Admiral Garp while he's resting—"
Before he could finish, his eyes widened in shock.
He stared toward the starboard side of the warship.
There, cutting through the waves, was the same bizarre ship—pulled by sea beasts and moving so fast that even their Marine warship couldn't keep up.
"What the hell?!"
The soldier's jaw nearly hit the deck as the ship rapidly closed the distance and sailed alongside them.
"Sea beasts pulling a ship?! What kind of nonsense is this?!"
The vessel sailing beside them was, of course, Kairo's ship.
As it drew near, Marines across the warship rushed to the rails.
Some looked curious.
Some were stunned.
Most turned wary.
Just then, a burst of loud, carefree laughter rang out from inside the warship's cabin.
"Wahahaha! What a fine day—"
Before the speaker could finish, he strode out onto the deck and froze.
An old man with silver hair, wearing a dog-head hat and a Marine Vice Admiral's coat, stared in disbelief at the strange ship being hauled across the sea by sea beasts.
After a moment of shock, his face lit up like he'd discovered a whole new world.
"Sea beasts pulling a ship?!"
"Who are those people over there?"
"Quick—catch up to them!"
A Marine officer stepped forward hurriedly.
"Vice Admiral Garp, that ship's origin is unknown. Should we stop them and inspect it?"
The man in the dog-head hat was indeed Vice Admiral Garp of Marine Headquarters, the so-called Hero of the Marines, who often returned to East Blue while on leave.
After glancing at the ship now pulling ahead of the warship, Garp waved a hand dismissively.
"Don't be ridiculous. That's not even a pirate ship."
"Hurry up and speed up!"
"Sea beasts pulling a ship faster than a warship—don't you think that's interesting?"
With Garp's order given, the warship immediately accelerated in pursuit.
Not long after, it once again came alongside Kairo's ship.
As the warship drew near, Garp finally got a clear look at what exactly was happening on the other deck.
A boy in sunglasses was lying back in a lounge chair, sunbathing.
A Da Hong.
A green rabbit.
And standing at the bow—
A dog.
When Garp realized it was the dog at the front controlling the sea beasts, his curiosity flared all over again.
Droopy, standing at the bow, had also noticed the warship catching up.
He simply tilted his head, glanced sideways at it, and calmly raised his whip.
Crack—
The whip came down.
In the next instant, the seven or eight sea beasts pulling the ship burst forward with even greater speed.
Within a few blinks, the Marine warship was left behind again.
And the distance between the two vessels visibly widened.
"Wahahaha! It's that dog controlling the sea beasts!"
After confirming what he'd seen, Garp laughed even louder.
"This is too interesting! Hurry up, speed up again!"
"Vice Admiral Garp," the adjutant shouted anxiously, "if we go any faster, we'll hit maximum speed!"
Then, lowering his voice, he added,
"We should force them to stop."
"That dog's not normal."
"It's probably a Devil Fruit user!"
Before Garp could respond, the adjutant had already spun around and shouted toward the gunners:
"There's no time! Artillery team, prepare!"
"Aim—"
"At the sea around the ship!"
"Three-shot volley!"
"Fire!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Three deep blasts rang out almost simultaneously.
Three cannonballs tore through the air with shrill whistles, streaking toward the distant ship.
On Kairo's deck—
Da Hong, who had been reading the newspaper with great interest, suddenly turned his head.
Kairo, who had been dozing under the sun in his sunglasses, was jolted awake by the sound of something rushing toward them.
When he turned around, the three cannonballs were already close.
Judging by their trajectory, Kairo immediately realized the target wasn't the ship itself—
But the surrounding sea.
Clearly, it was meant as a warning.
But while Kairo could tell that from the trajectory…
The rabbit beside him wasn't interested in making such fine distinctions.
The instant the cannonballs came whistling in, Da Hong—who had been calmly reading just a second earlier—suddenly exploded with terrifying momentum.
In the next moment, he leapt into the air.
One paw slapped aside a cannonball head-on—
While both feet lashed out and kicked the other two.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
All three cannonballs were struck almost at the same time.
Then something bizarre happened.
They didn't explode.
Instead, it was as if they had slammed into springs—
They were sent flying back toward the warship at even greater speed than before.
"The cannonballs are coming back!"
The Marines on deck instantly descended into chaos.
But compared to their panic, Garp's reaction was even more ridiculous.
He clutched his head, eyes bulging, his expression wildly exaggerated.
"What kind of rabbit is that?! It kicked the cannonballs back?!"
"Vice Admiral Garp, now is not the time to worry about the rabbit!"
The adjutant roared helplessly as he drew his sword and rushed forward, trying to intercept the returning cannonballs.
But he was too late.
The cannonballs blasted back faster than they had been fired.
Then—
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Three deafening explosions erupted above the warship.
The terrifying shockwaves rained down instantly, sweeping across the deck.
More than half the Marines were blown off their feet on the spot.
Those still standing staggered wildly, ears ringing, barely able to remain upright.
Even Garp wasn't spared.
The blast tore the dog-head hat off his head and flung it straight into the sea.