The Summoning System
"Hey, Busboy I need another refill over here" a drunkard yelled out to me.
"Right away" I hurrying to bring him another cup of rum before going back to cleaning.
It has been over two months since I woke up in this world and honestly, I was having a blast. Meeting Smoker and Tashigi that first day was incredible but, I haven't really seen them since.
While Tashigi was taking me to buy a few pairs of new clothes I asked her a couple questions that helped me figure out exactly where I am in the timeline.
Her and Smoker were sent here to Loguetown to take over and help run the base after the last Commander died in a pirate attack. Apparently he was caught in the ambush Captain Kuro planned, the one where he faked his own death. They even attended Axe Hand Morgan's promotion to Captain on the way to their new posts.
All of that gave me a pretty good idea of when I was. I couldn't remember exactly but, it seemed like it was around two or three years before Luffy set out to sea.
I wasn't sure if I wanted to try and join him yet, though. After all I wasn't exactly a fighter and I knew the kinds of crap him and his crew were going to be put through. But, at the same time it almost felt like blasphemy to be in this world and not go out into the grand line.
Once Tashigi finished buying me clothes we went back to the base. Tashigi was called away to do some paper work and Smoker was no where to be seen. I was left in the care of some Marine grunts. They told me I had a week to find a job or they would kick me out. I didn't argue with them considering they weren't in the wrong, they were a Military organization not a Orphanage.
All of that was for later thought, for now I needed to focus on my new job. It took some searching but, I managed to get a job as a Busboy at a dive bar in one of the cities back alleys. And it wasn't just any dive bar either it was one I specifically searched for. It was the Gold Roger from the show.
It was small place that was mostly frequented by the towns visiting pirates and local thugs. It probably wasn't a good idea for me go there but, I needed a job and I knew the old man who worked there was a good guy.
His name was Raoul and he was four feet tall and had sunglasses and a blue beanie. He agreed to hire me after I begged him nonstop for over a week.
And I ended up regretting my decision almost immediately. The old man was a damn slave driver. He had me sweep and dust everything, clean the dishes, take orders, and deliver people their drinks. Not to mention he would tell me that damn story about him meeting Gold Roger about a thousand times a day. The only reason I stayed was because he let me use one of his extra rooms for free and paid me a decent amount.
At the end of my first day of work he took out a couple bills from his wallet and gave me over 100,000 Beri. It sounds like a lot but, I remembered that this world's Beri was the same as the Japanese Yen so it was actually only about 100 USD. Not alot but if I combined it with the tips I sometimes got it was more than enough to survive.
"Hey, Aaron stop daydreaming over there and get back to work!"
"Sorry, Raoul!"
It was the evening rush right now and the place would be packed until everyone passes out at around two in the morning. Working late hours like this was hard but, it gave me my days free to focus on the best part of my trans migration so far. My System.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Two Weeks ago
I was just falling asleep after staring at the ceiling of the small room the Marines had provided for me when I was awoken by a soft beeping sound.
"System Download Complete, Begin Initialization."
A transparent white panel appeared in front of me. I was slightly shocked but, not too much so. Considering everything else that happened to me today. Plus, I already had a decent idea of what was happening considering how much I used to read.
I reached up and tapped it. It only had three options on screen. Movies, Books, and Tv it confused me a little but, I wasn't going to find out what they were for by just staring at it.
I clicked Tv and another menu with every more options popped up. This one had all kinds of Tv shows listed on it and an A-Z search bar on top so I could select different shows easier.
Out of curiosity I scrolled down and selected Dragon Ball Z as it was one of my favorite series. And my eyes widened as I realized what it was for. Every character from the show was listed and they all had numbers by their names like prices.
I clicked on Goku and another panel showing a picture of him as well all of his information popped up. Things like his height and age as his different skills and even his personality. At the very bottom of the panel was a slider with the price on it. The slider was all the way to the right and as I started moving it in the opposite direction, and I could see Goku's age on the panel go down from 38 all the way to 25. The interesting part was that his price went down too.
I took a moment to try and think through everything. My system allowed me to 'purchase' fiction characters and bring them to this world. And how much they cost depended on how strong they were. That's why Goku got cheaper as he got younger, or at least that was my guess.
Now I just needed to figure out what I was supposed to do with this system and how to get points. Because there was a big glaring zero at the top left of the panel which almost seemed to be mocking me compared to the unimaginable amount of points Goku cost.
Just as I was wondering how to get points another "Ding" sounded in my ears.
______________________________________________
A New Quest Has Been Created! This World Is Endless And You Won't Get To See It Cooped Up In Some Small Town!
Objective: Train To Enter The Grand Line
Rewards: Dependent On Intensity And Effectiveness Of The Training (Daily)
Failure Penalty: Eternal Shame And Weak Baby Arms
______________________________________________
After seeing the Failure Penalty my eye twitched a little.
"So it's going to be one of 'those' kinds of systems."
Well, at least I had a goal now and even though it was kind of terrifying I really did want to see the Grand Line. And besides as long as I had my System it wasn't like I was going to have to do it alone.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
And ever since then I dedicated a good chunk of my day to basic exercises like jogging and push ups. Though I wasn't getting very many points from it only about one to two hundred a day. Even the cheapest people I could Summon cost at least a couple thousand and were just ordinary people without any special skills.
But, what was reassuring was that there was no deadline for the Quest and that as I got stronger the points I was earning also went up.
And that brings me back to today at my job at a shitty dive bar. The work was tough and the customers were mostly local thugs and pirates who were passing through but, that's exactly why I wanted to work here. To toughen myself up.
"What'd you say about my mother" I heard shouted behind me followed by the sound of breaking glass.
I laughed and shook my head, it happened every night like clockwork. Some idiot would insult someone else and they'd throw a punch and knock the guy into someone else. Pretty soon the whole bar was in on it.
I dropped the drinks I was carrying and jumped in throwing punches of my own. Something I discovered was that quests weren't the only way to earn points. I could also get them from defeating opponents. I figured it out when a drunk pirate stumbled towards me with a knife and I bashed him in the head with a beer bottle.
"(Weak) Pirate defeated +10 points" the system announced as I knee'd a man hard in his stomach.
It wasn't that many points but, then again these guys weren't exactly Yonko either. Besides brawling like this was a good way to learn how to fight, and was also kind of fun
"Whack" At least when I wasn't getting punched in the face!
I woke up screaming in pain after being kicked. "Damn, it old man do you have to wake me up like that every time!"
"Course I do" he screamed back at me! "I'm paying you to work! Not to sleep on the job! Now start cleaning up its late and I'm tired!"
I reach up to rub my head and flinched when I felt the massive bruise on my cheek. I sighed trying to ignore the pain and get back to work.
The bar was mostly empty as all of the customers normally leave after the bar fights to go tend to their wounds. However there were a couple men laying unconscious scattered about either from the fight or just from too much beer.
My first job before cleaning up was to pick all of their pockets and move their bodies out into the street. This was the Gold Roger's standard policy and everyone who came here already knew about this. It was considered a tax of sort that Raoul collected for letting them fight here.
And no one ever complained about this because this was the only bar in the city that allowed violence like this. Every other bars hired guards or had guns to stop this kind of thing,because they didn't want to have to fix all damage bar fights normally cause. So if they stopped letting Raoul from getting his money then he wouldn't let them fight here anymore. It was a good deal for everyone involved.
It took another two hours to clean everything up and replace all of the damaged chairs and tables with the spares from our storage room. By now it was already 3 in the morning and I was exhausted just like I was everyday after finishing work. I forced myself to stay awake as I trudged upstairs to where Raoul and I lived.
The man in question was waiting for me on his living room couch like he was every night. He held out a single 100,000 beri note which I gladly took before heading to my room and collapsing in bed.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Sorry for the late update I had family stuff going on. I'll try to update more often from now on. As an apology here's a list of awesome Fanfiction you might like. They're all really good and over 100,000 words. I would recommend the first three because those are the best in my opinion.
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/11515678/1/This-Bites
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/12592223/1/The-Spider
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/11634921/1/
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/12989970/1/Dial
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/11899396/1/Ichigo-Awakens
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/13056708/1/
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/12816524/1/
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/13248865/2/