Chương 42: Sample text
...
A week passed by in the blink of an eye.
Arabasta, a country on the verge of disaster just a week ago, was now brimming with happiness and peace, as the people there were cheering for the fact that the conflict that had lasted so many years had finally ended.
And all thanks to the defeat of an evil Pirate who took advantage of the people's trust.
After Crocodile was defeated by whom the people of Arabasta assumed were the Royal Guards, the Rebel Army came to an agreement with king Cobra after all misunderstandings got resolved, and their conflict ceased there and then, making all Arabasta cheer in happiness at once.
After all, what people thought was going to be a horrendous war where people would die one after another just for the sake of Arabasta's future, ended abruptly one day without even having the chance to begin!
And all thanks to the defeat of Crocodile, who thanks to the help of the marines, was rapidly sent to Impel down and sentenced to his entire life in prison.
Peace had finally come back to Arabasta, and its future now looked brighter than ever!
"Some pepper won't hurt anyone"
However, unknown to almost everyone, all this had been the work of a single person.
A young man of long and messy black hair, living his peaceful and relaxing life alone in the desert, isolated from any human contact.
-Tzzzzzz...!-
"Hmm... Looks pretty good"
A young man who possessed power beyond that of what his appearance really showed, and who during all this week of celebrations and happiness, had been spending his days leisurely tidying up his home, and practicing his cooking skills.
-Sip-
"Kinda lacks a bit of salt..."
Farid, the Idle System user, whose purpose in the world was still unclear.
"I should call this the Legendary Farid soup..."
Sitting on a nearby chair inside what seemed to be his kitchen, Farid could be seen taking a sip of a red-colored soup that was inside a bowl in his hands. His face grinned slightly as he savored the soup with a pleased expression.
"Though, let's better not. I will die from shame every time someone says that name in front of me"
Chuckling quietly at that, Farid then began looking at the soup with a pensive expression on his face as he started humming in contemplation.
Then, as if he was eyeing a very valuable treasure, soon a grin appeared on his face, as he began muttering something in a sinister tone of voice.
"Wouldn't it sell for a good price at restaurants? I wonder how much would they be willing to pay me for the recipe...?"
Laughing at that, Farid soon gulped the entire soup in the blink of an eye, before he then stood up and began walking away while patting his stomach satisfied.
"Alright, enough cooking for a while... I wonder what should I do now...?"
Sitting on the couch in his living room, Farid began glancing around, trying to see if there was anything else to clean or anything left for organizing before he frowned when he noticed that everything was perfectly in place.
During the past week, he had cleaned, tidied, and organized every little thing that he found wrong within the house.
Be it cleaning the house that was full of spiderwebs and dust, moving the furniture that was in awkward positions or that was not even where it should have been, or storing all the food and other stuff that he had brought with him from Nanohana. He had done all of them during the past few days.
Always looking for something new to do in order to always be busy.
However, even a house that was completely dirty had a limit on how much it would be cleaned. Because of that, soon Farid ran out of things to do and was left only with his hobbies to entertain him during the time to come.
Like cooking, for example.
That, however, also had a limit on how much it would entertain him. And by now Farid had already reached his limit.
Because of that, now Farid had nothing else to do. Which made him feel rather anxious due to of his active and rather hyperactive nature.
While he enjoyed peaceful moments as much as moments filled with adrenaline, he had already had his fair share of peace during this past week.
Now, his body craved excitement.
However, being the stubborn man that he was, he didn't want to go back to fighting pirates so fast. He had only had a vacation for one week! That was far from being enough to compensate for the six years he had spent capturing pirates left and right!
So, not knowing what else to do that didn't involve cooking or cleaning, Farid closed his eyes, before he then leaned on the couch and began muttering something in a resigned tone.
"Hmm... Well, taking a nap isn't that bad of an idea either..."
Thinking such, Farid rapidly took a comfortable position before he began trying to sleep.
After all, for moments like this, there was no better way to pass time other than sleeping! (A/N: The author can confirm this)
"..."
-Rustle-
-Rustle-
-Rustle-
Unfortunately for him, and as evidenced by how much he kept moving on the couch, he couldn't sleep.
"Goddamnit..."
Opening his eyes in annoyance, Farid stood up from the couch, before he then walked towards the window and began looking through it. Observing the seemingly infinite desert in silence, as if thinking about something.
Then, as if by accident, suddenly his eyes moved to his side, and narrowed slightly as if he had seen something unpleasant.
There, next to him, floated the same screen that always followed him. His status window.
However, this time, it had something different compared to the previous times, and Farid noticed it. Making him raise an eyebrow in surprise.
"So he is also here now...? I hadn't checked, so I didn't notice until now"
▽
『Status points remaining: [21,015,027]
...
☠ [Selected oponent] ☠
▸[Ink-Human: Osamu Nowaidia] Gives 0.3~0.5 status points every [4 Seconds...]
『Opponent [Sand-Human: Crocodile] is now available in the list of opponents!』
『Do you wish to try and set a new record for your current opponent? Or do you wish to change it?』
『Set a new record』『Change current opponent』
△
To his surprise, that guy, Crocodile, had also turned into a selectable opponent for him to fight and collect status points from.
Of course, with how many pirates he had defeated during these past six years, the list of opponents that were available to fight was just as enormous as an entire library. So in a way, he had gotten used to ignoring the screen telling him that there was a new opponent.
This time, however, he couldn't help but notice the appearance of a big character like Crocodile in his list of opponents.
He was sure that given how strong he had been in the real world, inside the Battle-simulating stage he would surely turn into a complete monster.
Honestly, it surprised Farid a lot the difference that Crocodile had with a pirate like Osamu, who had given him so much trouble back then when he still didn't know Haki.
Surely, if he was still that kid that didn't know about Haki and had fought Crocodile, he would have lost horribly. Maybe even died.
While in terms of physical power he and his young self were probably the same, his present self on the other hand had a much bigger mastery over his own body and possessed much more advanced combat techniques that he had developed through his years capturing pirates.
He had seen a lot of people, and as such, he had learned many different combat styles that he had copied and adapted into his own.
His memory and learning rate was on a whole other level than normal people, after all.
In terms of combat effectiveness, the current Farid was leagues above his old self.
In fact, it was so much the difference that if both were to fight, Farid would surely decimate his old self with just a few movements.
That, and adding the fact that he knew how to use Haki, made the match even more unbalanced.
For an opponent as strong as Crocodile was, he had been lucky to have acquired Haki and developed so much of his fighting skills before fighting him. Otherwise, it would have been a problematic fight for him.
Though, he could always use his ultimate technique in case the fight was not something winnable, or too problematic to fight without previous preparations.
However, seeing the name of Crocodile now on his list of available opponents made him wonder...
'How hard to fight will the Crocodile from the battle stage be compared to his real self?'
A certain glist of curiosity passed by his eyes as Farid eyed the name of Crocodile.
"Hmm..."
While Farid was not leveling up his stats anymore as he didn't need to, he still used the battle stage from time to time.
After all, whenever he wanted to practice his fighting skills, there was no better place other than the battle stage as opponents there would fight much better than their real counterparts, and they wouldn't die no matter how much Farid went all out against them.
And now, seeing Crocodile there, with probably a higher level of combat, it certainly made his fists itch for a fight.
And the fact that he was bored to death just a few moments ago didn't help at all.
He wondered, how fast would he be able to defeat Crocodile if he went all out, unlike in their previous fight, where he didn't have full certainty about Crocodile's involvement in Arabasta's situation and didn't know if it was a good idea to go all out?
Would a Crocodile fully focused on defeating him, and who didn't have any attachments or emotions be able to give him a good fight?
He was really itching to know.
"Well, I don't have anything else to do. Might as well prepare in case he escapes from prison or something like that..."
Muttering an excuse like that, Farid grinned, before he then pressed yes, and saw as his surroundings turned completely white once again.
Then, as if he had been transported into some kind of celestial realm, soon all that surrounded him was the empty and vast battle stage where he would fight Crocodile. Making him furrow his eyebrows slightly while glancing around.
"It's been a while since I've entered here... It's unnerving as ever"
Seeing such a desolate and seemingly infinite place as the battle stage really unnerved Farid. After all, who knew what would happen if he one day got trapped here?
It was terrifying to think about it.
Fortunately, he always managed to shake that feeling off when it came to beating down the opponents in front of him.
Thus, grinding both of his fists against each other, Farid shook his uneasiness with a smile on his face and rapidly began focusing on the image of Crocodile appearing in front of him, who was looking at Farid with the same frosty expression as ever.
"Looks like it's going to be fun"
Saying that, Farid coated both of his fists with Haki before he rapidly prepared to lung at the inexpressive Crocodile as an excited expression appeared on his face.
『Beginning battle』
Then, as if responding to Farid's enthusiasm, soon a screen with a countdown appeared in front of Farid, and gave an opening to the battle.
『3...』
『2...』
『1...』
...
『Begin』
-Booom!!-
-Baaam!!-
And with that, the titanic fight between the two fo they began. Creating enormous shock waves and explosions that, unfortunately, no one managed to see.
...
°
°
°
|Outside, in the real world...|
...
"Such a strange man... Why would he live in such a place?"
-Tschk, tschk, tschk-
Walking through the dunes of the desert with a slightly annoyed expression on her face, Robin glanced ahead and saw Farid's house in the distance, which was still as desolate as ever.
Sighing softly, Robin continued walking forward, as her head was filled with dozens of thoughts about a certain situation that had surged out of nowhere.
'I didn't imagine that they would come and try to take revenge for Crocodile... Maybe I should have ended with both executives when I had the chance?'
Wearing a troublesome expression, Robin continued walking as she began to remember what had happened over the past few days,
Because she had let the executives of Baroque works leave a few days ago, thinking that they would just give up and go look for work somewhere else (They were animals, after all. She didn't expect them to have much loyalty to a boss they didn't know), they then went and contacted all the other executives and told them what had happened here in Arabasta, and how Crocodile had been defeated. Rendering all of the many years of preparation completely useless.
And because of that, they decided that even if Crocodile wasn't there, they would take over Arabasta themselves!
After all, too much effort and years were lost in the preparation of the plan. Simply giving up after losing their boss was not something that they were going to accept so easily.
Luckily for her, thanks to some goons from Baroque Works that were still slightly loyal to her, she managed to get to know about the executive's plans.
Now, they were on their way to try and recruit Robin back into Baroque Works again. As she had been an important person in Crocodile's plan, and it would certainly be beneficial for all of them to have her back.
However, knowing most of the executives, it was very probable that if she refused they would make sure to seal her mouth one way or another seeing that she didn't want to join.
And, knowing that she probably wouldn't be able to deal with all the executives if they attacked together, she came to the conclusion that seeking help from her new boss was the best course of action.
He also seemed to care about Arabasta seeing that he fought against a Shichibukai for it, so it was also something that would probably concern him.
And although she had not seen him fight against Crocodile, she could easily guess that he would be more than enough to fight against the executives.
Thus, now hers and Arabasta's fate fell on his hands. Whether he decided to help or not, it would determine the future of Arabasta.
'I hope everything turns out well...'
Sighing softly in worry, soon Robin arrived at Farid's house, and called at the door.
"..."
Soon, however, she noticed that no one was opening and that the entire house was completely silent.
"Is he out?"
Muttering that in wonder, Robin tried calling once more at the door, before she then noticed that it was slightly open.
'Did he leave it open?'
Raising her eyebrows in surprise, Robin smiled slightly, before she then entered without a second thought and began walking where she remembered was the living room.
Either her new boss didn't worry about someone stealing his things, or he had forgotten to close the door.
Though, Robin suspected that it was actually the first option.
'I guess I will just wait for him then'
Nodding her head with a calm expression, Robin smiled slightly as she remembered the previous time when she had waited for him, as a giggle escaped from her mouth while thinking about it.
His reaction was very amusing when he saw her drinking tea in his living room like it was an obvious thing. She certainly expected to see him all surprised again.
'I'll prepare him some tea since I'm at it. He seemed to have liked it a lot the previous time'
Smiling softly, Robin then arrived in front of the living room and entered without hesitation. Expecting to see it completely empty.
It was at that moment, however, that she noticed a certain figure lying quietly on the couch, and rose her eyebrows abruptly in surprise.
There, lying on the couch in a position that was rather awkward for someone to sleep, was Farid.
His eyes closed as if he was completely asleep.
...
-To be continued...-
°°°
(A/N: I failed on uploading on time, but later is better than never, right? As for the title of this chapter... My brain simply got tired of thinking and it ended up being like that.
B)
Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.)
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