[D-Rank] [Cowardly Sunfish] caught!
+50 EXP!
Your [Fishing] proficiency has increased by 1%!
[Cowardly Sunfish]:
A D-Rank fish originating from the North Blue! This fish had no defense mechanism other than its speed! They tend to stay in areas with no predators and avoid conflict at all costs! These fish can be found on the outskirts of the North Blue!
Would you like to be notified when entering an area inhabited by the [Cowardly Sunfish]?
[Y/N]
"Another D-Rank," I muttered, leaning back in my chair with a sigh, casually dragging my fishing rod back as I did, dragging the plain-looking fish, which was flat but also thin, towards me as I reached forward, pulled it off the hook, and then tossed it behind me, "Toss it on the fire. I'll tell you when to flip or turn it."
"...When I found out I was being sent on a journey with a man who had defeated a Vice Admiral, and who the Warlord Donquixote Doflamingo showed interest in, I didn't expect it to be so... boring," Reiju said blandly behind me, casually placing the fish I tossed back over the small firepit on the edge of my small vessel, "I didn't expect for you to have a ship that could compare to Germa's, but I at least thought I'd have room to lay down."
"I'm being nice enough to let you have the bed, so don't complain too much," I shot back with a chuckle, glancing back at her over my shoulder as Reiju placed the fish over the small firepit, causing the usual notification to appear in front of me.
[Cooking] Skill activated!
Time your actions properly to increase the quality of the fish!
The fact that my system registered the skill activating despite me personally not being the one to place the fish down, and instead having just caught it and given it to Reiju, had given me a few ideas for testing in the future. After all, if I could offload the cooking duties to someone else, and just tell them when to time it, could I theoretically mass-cook fish and get the cooking buff from all of them?
I wasn't sure if it was possible, and if I could even have my skill activated for dozens of fish at the same time, but it was a future thought at the very least.
"A large ship can't move nearly as quickly as this one can, so we're- flip-," I cut myself off mid-sentence, and Reiju, as she had gotten used to over the past day since we left Imbale, flipped the fish over from where it hung above the fire on a small metal platform, "Sacrificing comfort for speed."
"Speed?" She said dryly with a chuckle of her own, but it was laced with sarcasm, "We've been drifting for hours, oh-wise King of Imbale. A bigger ship with a sail would be going much quicker than this. We're barely even moving, so it seems like we're sacrificing comfort for... nothing."
"Drifting?" I hummed, leaning back in my chair as I cast my line back out, my eyes closing as I enjoyed the warmth of the sun on my face, "I'm enjoying the sun while I get some fishing in. This will be our last day in the North Blue, so I figured I'd enjoy it for a bit. You should do the same, y'know? Who knows when we'll be back here again?"
"Last day?" Reiju's head cocked to the side, her brow furrowing in confusion as she looked at me like I was an idiot, and I could tell she was thinking I was all muscles and no brain right now, "What are you talking about? It takes days to get out of the North Blue on even a large boat with a sail from here. How the hell are we going to drift out of here in a day? We'll be here for weeks at this pace! This little runt of a boat might even take a month!"
I just chuckled, setting my fishing rod down next to me as I glanced back at her. If she wanted to insult my masterpiece of a boat, then I'd make her regret it.
"Just flip the fish again," I told her idly, smirking widely, "And make sure it doesn't fall off the ship."
"Fall off the ship?" She repeated, looked at me strangely, "What does that even mean? How would the fish fall off?"
I ignored her question as I picked up the paddle from its resting place, my eyes narrowing in concentration. I slotted it into the notch in front of my chair, the familiar, solid click echoing in the sudden silence. My hands gripped the top of it, my knuckles whitening as I planted my feet firmly against the deck. [Muscular Boost] activated as my muscles abruptly bulged, my biceps straining as Reiju's eyes went wide.
"How did you just get strONNNNGEERRRRRR?!"
Then, I spun, and Reiju's words trailed off into a sharp shout.
My arms, which had been resting casually moments before, exploded into motion. The paddle, which had seemed so simple and mundane, became a propeller of pure force, churning the water beneath us into a frenzy. The small boat, which had been placidly drifting just seconds ago, lurched forward with an explosive burst.
"W-WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?!" Reiju screamed, her body thrown backward by the sudden, abrupt acceleration. She scrambled for purchase, her hands scrabbling against the slick wood of the deck as the world around her dissolved into a blur of blue. The wind, which had been a gentle caress, now screamed past her ears as it whipped her vibrant pink hair across her face and threatened to tear her off the boat.
"A bit of engineering," I grunted, my arms a piston of relentless motion as I continued to spin the paddle, the muscles in my back and shoulders straining from the effort, but I ignored them, "You're the Germa Princess, so you should know all about that, right?"
"E-Engineering?! This is more than simple engineering! I've never... I've never seen a boat go this fast!" Her voice was a mixture of shock and awe, her eyes wide as she glanced back, her head snapping to the side. The faint shadow of Imbale, which had been visible on the horizon just moments ago, was now a distant, shrinking speck, vanishing into the haze behind us at a speed that defied all nautical logic. It was as if they weren't sailing, but flying across the water.
"Flip it again," I grunted, my focus locked on the endless expanse of blue ahead, my arms a relentless blur, "The fish."
"T-The fish? You're still worried about that?!" Reiju stammered, glancing over at where it had been cooking, but a slight blush crept up her neck as she shot a glance over at me, her cheeks flushing a deeper shade of pink, "Um... It... it fell off the boat."
"Eh? But, didn't you ask earlier how it could fall off?" I teased her, making her huff.
"I didn't think this would happen!" She puffed out her cheeks defensively, looking cute in the process, "You could've warned me!"
"It's fine," I chuckled, shaking my head dismissively, "It wasn't anything special, and there'll be more."
As I continued to spin the paddle, Reiju continued to stare at me, her mind still struggling to process the sheer impossibility of their situation. The minutes stretched on as the ocean became a blur around us, the sun slowly setting on the horizon ahead of us as the darkness of night took over.
"How... how does this work?" Reiju finally managed to ask, speaking up over the roar of the water around us as we blurred through the ocean, "The paddle... spinning it like that... It's moving us faster than anything I've ever seen! It's like… It's like a propeller!"
"Simple physics," I grunted, the words forced out between the rhythmic, powerful movements of my arms, "Spinning the paddle quickly creates a powerful thrust. That powerful thrust shoves the boat forward, so we move quickly. Then, I used Sea King scales for the paddle to ensure it doesn't shatter from the force. Put it all together, and I got a bootleg motor boat."
"Sea King scales?" Reiju asked, looking at me in awe, "You... you thought of that? I've never even considered using something like scales instead of metal... and I never thought about using raw strength for something like this... it's not a concept we'd ever consider! We focus on technology, but not... not this."
"Don't feel bad about it," I just chuckled back to her, "There aren't many people physically strong enough to move a boat faster than a sail, much less faster than those big-ass snails you've got. And the bigger the ship, the less benefit you'd see. So, it's not all that revolutionary as a whole. For one man with a ton of power like me, it's amazing, but for any more and it's inefficient."
"That's... true," She conceded, still looking at the churning water behind us, "But... you've been spinning the oar for so long, and yet, you seem relaxed. Do you never grow tired?"
"Tired?" I shrugged at her question, "I was stuck on that random-ass island hauling logs for a long-ass time. I got used to physical labor."
With my high STR and END, at this point, I didn't really feel much of a burn from a simple motion like this. I assumed that was a bit surprising to her, though, as most people in Germa - and not just Germa, but this entire world - were more focused on fighting than building genuine strength. They were more focused on putting out bursts of power to take out an enemy, and not in building the endurance to sustain something like this. I was sure that some natural powerhouses would be able to do this just fine - people like Kaido, or even Grap, who was strong enough to hurl cannonballs - but the average person wasn't training for something like this. And Reiju's quiet muttering behind me confirmed that.
"Just how strong are you..." She muttered softly, more so to herself than me, but I smirked as I heard it.
"Strong enough."
She didn't press me further as we continued to fly across the water. The sun fully set soon after, and the only light came from the moon and stars above, reflecting off the churning water around us. We were moving so fast that the stars seemed to smear across the sky, their light a faint trail as we shot across the ocean. It was a surreal experience, and I grinned, glancing up as I enjoyed it. I had places to be, and quests to complete, but I didn't need to needlessly rush. I could never see a beautiful sight like this in my original world, so I was going to enjoy every second of this.
"You know," Reiju's voice cut through the silence, her tone laced with a genuine curiosity that was a stark contrast to her earlier sarcasm, "I've been wondering... where exactly are we going? You've been steering us on a direct course for a while now.
"Like I said, we're leaving the North Blue," I glanced back at her, a smirk playing on my lips, "We're heading to the East Blue."
Reiju blinked, her expression shifting from curiosity to outright confusion.
"The East Blue?" She repeated, her brow furrowing, "Why in the world would you want to go there? That's the weakest of the four seas! There's nothing of value there, and it's a paradise for rookies and weaklings. Why would a man like you, who's managed to attract the attention of a Warlord, want to waste his time there?"
Sheesh, what a harsh way to describe Luffy's home sea, but she wasn't wrong. When Arlong was just about the heaviest hitter in the whole sea, that was pretty telling of the power levels there.
"I just need to confirm some things there," I said vaguely, not wanting to get into the specifics of my own knowledge of this world, "It's a personal matter."
By 'some things' I meant a lot of things - mainly, when in the timeline I was. I had been reading all the newspapers that came to Imbale, but there was a surprising amount of dull, damn-near useless information in them. That let me know that I at least wasn't around the time that Luffy was sailing the Grandline, as he was causing so much havoc that there's no way it wouldn't have made the papers even in the North Blue. As a result, I'd barely managed to glean any information about where in the timeline I was, as while there were some familiar names, like 'Fleet Admiral Sengoku' giving a speech at some island, and thus confirming to me I was at least pre-timeskip, there was nothing concrete. There was no information about who the current Warlords were, nor anything about the Strawhats.
Thus, I needed to head to the East Blue, at least for a little while. I could look at the bounties there and better figure out what was going on in the world, as if someone like Arlong or Kuro still had a bounty, then I'd know that I was before Luffy set out. If they had already been defeated, then I could confidently know that Luffy had already set out and was probably just entering the Grandline.
As I was thinking, Reiju's confusion only deepened, her head cocking to the side as she tried to piece together my motivations.
"Confirm things? What could you possibly need to confirm in a place like the East Blue? But, if we're going there, I assume we're heading for Reverse Mountain to enter the Grand Line," She asked, looking at me with a raised eyebrow, "And then using this... ridiculously fast boat of yours to cross the Calm Belt and reach the East Blue? I'd imagine this thing could outpace Sea Kings."
"It can, but you're off a bit," I simply hummed back, "We're not going to the Grandline."
"We're not?" Reiju repeated, blinking at me, "Why not?"
"I have a quality about me that tends to attract... bullshit," I told her bluntly, a wry smirk crossing my face, "And the Grand Line is pretty much the epicenter of all the bullshit in this world. I want to stay away from that until I've confirmed a few things."
I wasn't lying, either. So far in this world, I had done damn-near nothing to attract attention - just living on a remote island, and then going to a tiny-ass kingdom in Imbale. Unfortunately, that remote island seemed to have some connection to the World Government that caused Aokiji to come investigate my presence there, and Imbale also happened to be connected to Doflamingo. I would openly admit that running into John Giant was my own fault, as Daurel had called for his aid specifically because of what I was doing, but Aokiji and Doflamingo weren't my fault in the slightest!
I felt like it wasn't a coincidence that both of my small, seemingly unnotable homes had attracted such large figures, so I wasn't eager to be in an ocean that was swimming with big-hitters. I'd have to go there eventually for the quests, but for now, I wanted to confirm where I was in the timeline first, and preferably, learn Haki.
"But... how are we going to get to the East Blue if we don't go through the Grand Line?" Reiju pressed, looking even more confused, "It's the only way! The North Blue and the West Blue are on the western side of the Red Line, while the East Blue and the South Blue are on the eastern side. To get from one side to the other, you have to go through the Grand Line at Reverse Mountain, or go underwater near Fish-Man Island - there's no other way."
"Well, we're doing neither. We're going to the Red Line," I said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"The Red Line?" Reiju repeated, "That's what I just said! We'll go to Reverse Mountain, which is a part of the Red Line, and then enter the Grand Line. And then, with this insane boat of yours, we could probably cross the Calm Belt into the East Blue before any Sea Kings even notice us. How else could we possibly get there? Have you gone senile from all that paddleing?"
I just smirked, annoying her further as I didn't answer her question directly.
"You'll see."
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
"What the hell do you mean I'll see?!" Reiju's eye twitched as she crawled forward, peering around my chair to glare at me, "What is that supposed to mean? Are you trying to be mysterious? Because it's not working, it's just annoying! Stop being an idiot and just tell me your plan!'
"Let me aura-farm in peace, damn it! You'll see when we get there!"
...
"...To think I thought you were terrifying just this morning..."
With that, my journey with Reiju continued, and soon, we would arrive at the Redline.
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"Alright, we're here, so... now what?" Reiju asked dryly, staring up at the towering wall in front of us. The sun, which had been gone for an entire night straight of paddling, was now a blazing, oppressive orb in the sky, beating down on the small boat. But, its light was blocked, casting a vast, imposing shadow over the ocean around us, courtesy of the wall in front of us.
But it wasn't just a wall. Limiting the Redline to such a simple word was insulting to it. It was an entire continent of stone - a geological impossibility that stretched in either direction as far as the eye could see, disappearing into the horizon both north and south. The sheer scale of it was breathtaking, and if I weren't sleep-deprived and a bit tired from rowing right now, I would've been appreciating its beauty. In the show, the massive wall had always looked rather smooth, being a long stretch of red, but up close, it was more than that. The rock face was a jagged surface of red stone, streaked with the scars of a millennium of erosion. Massive fissures, deep enough to swallow entire fleets, spiderwebbed across its surface, and in places, huge slabs of rock had torn away, creating sheer, vertical cliffs that plunged thousands of feet into the churning sea below.
The water itself was even different here. The calm, rhythmic waves they had grown accustomed to were gone, replaced by a wild, turbulent mess of currents that crashed against the base of the Red Line.
As I stared up at the towering structure, I knew I had my work set out for me. While Reiju had a good night's sleep, I continued paddling. I had been going constantly all night, making my arms ache slightly. Now, even with sore arms and no sleep, I was about to do something that would make my paddling look easy in comparison.
It was time to get a damn feat!
"We go on top of it," I said, my tone as casual as if I were suggesting we simply cross a street.
Reiju stared at me, blinking, and then her jaw went slightly agape. For a moment, she was silent, her mind clearly struggling to process the sheer absurdity of my words. Then, she let out a short, incredulous laugh.
"On top... of it?" She finally managed, her voice laced with disbelief, "What the hell are you talking about?"
"I feel like I'm being pretty blunt," I shrugged, turning to face her fully, smirking slightly, "We're going to climb it. We'll go on top of the Redline, then come down on the other side and avoid the Grand Line entirely."
Would it be hard? Yes, very much so. But would it save me from having to avoid whatever bullshit would surely find me on the Grandline? Also, yes, which made it more appealing than the alternative! On top of that, this was a much more direct route, so it'd be much quicker than sailing through the Grandline.
For a second, Reiju just stared at me, her beautiful face a blank canvas of shock. Then, her expression became flat, deadpanning at me.
"You're insane," She stated flatly, her voice devoid of any emotion, "You are actually insane. I get it now. I shouldn't try to make sense of what you plan, because there's no reason in it."
"I prefer ambitious," I countered with a smirk, not at all bothered by her accusation. I was only insane until my plan worked - in which case, I would then be a genius!
"I can see why a crazy man like Doflamingo was interested in you now," Reiju scoffed, shaking her head slowly as if to clear it of the madness I had just spoken, "You're torn from the same cloth. No one has ever climbed the Red Line for a reason. It's impossible!"
"Not no one," I held up a finger, a confident grin on my face, "Those big-ass snails your family has did it. And so did Fisher Tiger."
Reiju stared at me for a moment, her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. Then, she let out a frustrated sigh, running a hand through her pink hair in exasperation.
"I don't even know how you know they can do that, but yes, giant snails," She stressed the words, her voice rising in pitch as she tried to drill the point into my thick skull, "They can cover hundreds of feet with a single movement! They just slide up the wall! You are not a giant snail!"
"Fisher Tiger wasn't a giant snail," I shot back, still smirking.
"Really? Fisher Tiger? I'm not even sure if he really did that! And even if those rumors are true, he climbed the Red Line on the opposite side of the world from us! The part that the World Government has already terraformed and built a way for people to access Mary Geoise! It's much more forgiving than the side being constantly torn up by the water of Reverse Mountain!" She leaned forward, her eyes locked on mine, her expression serious, "On top of that, even if he really did climb the Redline, Fisher Tiger just went to Mary Geoise when he reached the top. We'd be walking around in a big-ass desert!"
"The Redline is a bit more complicated than that, but..." I hummed, nodding at her words, "You're right, it will be pretty barren here once we reach the top. But, I'm pretty fast, so we can get to the East Blue in only a few days."
"You can't be serious... at that point, why not just use this boat to go through Reverse Mountain to the East Blue?" Reiju asked, looking at me blandly, "It's stupid and crazy, but not as crazy as climbing the damn Redline! Just get us to the top, and instead of going down the path to the Grandline as the current takes you, use that paddle to get to the East Blue entrance and go down it!"
"Eh? Are you insane?" I blinked, looking at her with a strange look, "You want me to paddle against that current? You know it kills most crews that come up because it destroys their boats, right? The current is so powerful that the water is literally going upwards. I'd be insane to try and fight through it on this little raft."
"NOT AS INSANE AS TRYING TO CLIMB THE REDLINE! DON'T YOU DARE CALL ME THE INSANE ONE HERE!" Reiju snapped at me, then groaned as she brought up her hands, covering her face in them, "I can't believe you're serious. Even if you somehow made it to the top, you'd have no food or water!"
I countered by gesturing at the large pile of D-Rank fish that were lying in a pile near her sleeping area, their scales glinting in the sunlight. Next to them sat a large, slightly filled bucket, which I had been using to collect rainwater when I left the island originally.
"Food, and water," I hummed, as if it was obvious, "Everything I need is right here."
"Exactly! Right here and not on the top of the Red Line!" Reiju's frustration finally boiled over, her voice rising to a near-shout, "Even if you get to the top, you can't bring the boat or the fish with you! So it's pointless! Even if you somehow reach the East Blue, then you'll have no boat!"
In response, I just paused for a second. Then a wide, near-insane grin spread across my face.
"Says who?"
"W-What?" Reiju blinked at my words, "Says me, obviously! If you climb up the Redline, you can't bring your boat with you!"
"Nope," I simply countered, infuriating her with my vague answer as she glared at me, "I'll just bring it up with me."
Reiju stared at me, her jaw once again agape as she stared at me blankly. Then, she let out a defeated, tired sigh.
"You know what? I'm done. I'm done trying to reason with you," She said flatly, her shoulders slumping in defeat, "You're a madman, and there's no point in trying to talk sense into a madman. You want to climb the Red Line? Fine. I'll just watch as you fail. But... I'm not coming with you."
"You will," I countered with a confident smirk, "You're my companion in the name of Germa, remember? Or, was that just for show?"
Reiju opened her mouth to argue, then closed it as she realized I had her in a corner. She looked at me, then at the towering wall of the Red Line, and a look of utter despair crossed her face as she imagined trying to climb it. But that despair was quickly replaced by her usual, polite, yet somehow condescending mask she usually wore.
"I'll stay here and hold the boat," She said simply, "And if your body comes splashing down into the ocean from your idiotic climb, then I'll take the boat back to Imbale myself."
"Fair enough," I just chuckled, nodding at her, "Then, since you'll be here holding the boat, you can start by tying those ropes."
I gestured at a pile of ropes near the fish, which I had brought from Imbale specifically for this purpose. Reiju looked at me blankly, her brow furrowing in confusion.
"What the hell do you want me to tie them to? Yourself? As a final goodbye gift before you go to your inevitable death?" She asked sarcastically, but I just waved my hand, a smirk still on my face.
"Just tie one end of them around the base of the raft. Then, once you do, you'll see."
Reiju stared at me for a long moment, as if trying to decide if I was joking. When she saw the unwavering confidence in my eyes, she let out a long, defeated sigh. She grabbed the ropes as she started wrapping them around the thick log base of the raft. While she did that, I grabbed the other ends and started tying them around me, some around my waist, my shoulders, and even a few across my chest. In just a few minutes, I was a comical sight, a dozen ropes connecting me to the logs of the boat as they wrapped all around my body.
I glanced over at Reiju, who had just finished securing the last knot.
"What now?" She asked blandly, "What was the purpose of that?"
"Now," I smirked widely, "You've got the hardest job here. You need to make sure nothing falls off while you're hanging on, but I'm sure you can manage it. Just wedge everything under the rope knots if you need to."
"Hang on?" She blinked, and her blue eyes went wide as the pieces clicked into place, "You can't... you can't seriously be trying to..."
She stammered, her voice trailing off as the sheer absurdity of my plan fully dawned on her, and I just grinned. I leaned down, grabbing and spinning the paddle casually as I pushed the boat right up to the base of the Red Line. The churning water crashed against the stone, sending spray flying into the air and rocking the small ship violently, but I pressed a hand into the wall, leaning off the boat as my strength easily held it in place.
"That's exactly what I'll do," I grinned, my teeth flashing in the bright sunlight.
I reached forward and upwards, my hands finding purchase on the edge of the Red Line. My fingers, bulging with power, dug into the solid stone, crushing it as if it were soft clay. I created my own handholds, and then, with a deep grunt, I pulled.
The muscles in my back and legs screamed in protest. Thousands of pounds of wood, rope, and fish, not to mention Reiju's own weight, were suddenly lifted into the air, all suspended from my body. For a heart-stopping second, it felt like the entire world was hanging from my shoulders. But that short second was about to become much, much, longer. My feet left the boat, found a small crevice in the rock face, and pushed. I pulled myself up, slanting the boat below me as I hoisted the boat out of the water, and Reiju let out a panicked yelp, while I had a large, insane grin crossed my face.
If Doflamingo and Judge wanted feats, then I'd give them damn feats!
It was time to climb the Redline.
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AN: Thanks for reading! The next chapter will be posted in around a week!
Or, this and all of my stories are updated twice as often on Patreon.com/Koyon ! Up to chapter 22 is posted on there!