章節 3: Introducing Slender

"Your grandfather is Monkey D. Garp, the Marine Hero and your father is Monkey D. Dragon. You have two brothers, Ace and Sabo." Marcus replied, dropping that bombshell.

"The Marine Hero?!" They all shouted before looking at their captain.

"Ah, my dad's a dragon? Neat." Luffy nodded.

"That's not the point!" They berated him before sitting back down. Their captain has a marine legend as a grandfather and he wants to be King of the Pirates. That definitely sounds like their captain.

"Wait! Dragon?! As in Revolutionary Leader Dragon?!" Sanji was so shocked, even more so than the Garp reveal, that his cigarette fell out of his mouth.

They all looked at the rubbery man with horror.

'Who the hell am I following?' The crew thought.

"And his mom?" Ussop's knees were shaking. 'Would his mom also be terrifying?'

Marcus shrugged his shoulders, taking another drag.

"I don't know who his mother is." He shook his head.

They all calmed down and thought it was surreal to know someone who could see the past and future.

"I know Luffy doesn't want spoilers, but do you know everyone that will join?" Zoro asked and Luffy gave me a look.

"No names!" He declared and Marcus nodded.

"Yeah, Luffy wanted around 10 members and I know who all of them are." Marcus confirmed.

"Will we be rich?!" Nami, understanding that they're now discussing the future, asked her own question. Marcus thought it was a rather obvious one from her.

"Yes." He replied and she never specified what kind of rich. They will be wealthy in friendship and adventure, so it's not a lie.

She started to celebrate as if it were her birthday, getting carried away to the point of hugging him before she calmed down.

"Will I ever be with a woman to the end of my days?!" Sanji looked a little too excited at his question.

"You will have a wedding." Once again, not a lie.

Sanji started noodling around as he typically does.

"Would I become a great warrior of the sea?!" Ussop's heart began to race.

"You will be worshiped and admired by many." Marcus thought 'ascending to divinity' would be a bit much so he settled for this.

Zoro had a very different question though.

"Will any of us die?" The room got very quiet and Luffy, who didn't like spoilers, seemed to not care when it involved his friends.

Marcus took a long drag of his cigarette.

They took that as a bad sign and got very nervous.

"No one in the Strawhats will die." He responded and they let out a sigh of relief.

Sanji looked over at Zoro.

"You just had to bring down the mood, Mosshead." He shook his head.

"It was a reasonable question, unlike yours, Pervy Cook." He bit back.

"Unreasonable? I'll be married, who would marry a brute like you?"

"Who says you'll stay married? The divorce will come the next day."

"YOU WANNA GO?!"

"DO YOU?!"

They butted heads.

"QUIET!" Nami slammed her fists into the back of their heads.

Marcus felt that it was surreal to see their antics right in front of his eyes. He shook his head in amusement.

Ussop felt that something was off and thinking of Zoro and Sanji's argument and the answers, he had an idea.

"You responded to the questions in an indirect way. Sanji will have a wedding but nothing about being married, and that…no one in the crew will die, but will people close to us die?" Ussop voiced his thoughts and the atmosphere grew heavy.

Luffy, although not a big thinker, knew that something was off.

"Will any of our friends die?" He asked in a serious manner with his hat covering his eyes.

They all looked at Marcus in anticipation.

"Yes."

It was eerily silent.

"Who?" Luffy didn't care about spoilers anymore. If he could save a friend, he didn't care. Just as he didn't care about the World Government and wanted Robin back no matter what.

Marcus grew serious and they felt it.

"Are you sure you want to know?" He gave them a final warning and Luffy nodded once again.

"I don't care about being spoiled if it means I can save my friends." He responded with a serious gaze.

They all nodded with him in agreement.

"Ace." Marcus answered and Luffy stood up abruptly.

"YOU'RE LYING! HE WILL NEVER DIE!" He remembered Ace's promise to him as children and didn't even entertain the idea.

His crew was shocked and tried to calm him down.

Marcus thought that it was a bit unbelievable to Luffy and that's exactly why it hit so hard. After everything he did. Amazon Lily, Impel Down, and Marineford. It was all for nothing when Ace died.

"The marines find out who his father was. A Marine Admiral killed him." Marcus sighed as it was not easy telling that his brother would die.

Luffy seemed to gain a bit of clarity at his words and began thinking harder than he has in his life.

"How do I stop it?" Luffy responded in a quiet voice that is unlike him, but he would do anything to make sure Ace doesn't die.

"You have to become stronger, far stronger than you can imagine. I believe that I can help with that." He responded as they looked at him with hope. The crew didn't know Luffy for long but they would do anything to make sure Luffy's brother doesn't die.

"What did you have in mind?" Zoro asked and Marcus grabbed the box on the table.

"You know how I'm a game designer, yes? The games I create are…special." Marcus grabbed 5 bracelets and set them out on the counter.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Ussop asked, looking down at the bracelets.

Luffy felt that they looked somewhat familiar but didn't think too much about it.

Marcus gave a look at Nami.

"Because I have a great interest in your crew's future, and that your captain has his straw hat, I'll give you a 90% discount. My games are able to increase your strength and will as you play." He explained and Nami looked giddy at the discount.

Luffy's eyes widened.

"You know Shanks?!" He looked straight at the purple-eyed man.

"I only know of him and his connection to you, but that hat originally belonged to the Pirate King and then passed onto Shanks and then you." He explained and the crew was shocked to say the least.

"While that may be…very interesting. How do your games increase our strength and what are those?" Zoro knew Luffy cherished the hat and it seemed that it had even more history than he originally thought, but he needed to steer the conversation back on track.

Naturally, even with the manual, Marcus had no fucking idea how it increased your strength. One might make a case for increasing a person's will since they are horror games and they require bravery–mental strength, but he didn't know how that translated to physical power.

"It's rather complicated since they aren't traditional games. The bracelet has an interface that has my games and whenever new ones are created, they will show up on the display. It's complex technology, but it sends your consciousness inside the game and the more objectives you complete, the stronger you get." He explained as he put on his bracelet.

They looked amazed at how the bracelet attached to his wrist.

Nami, who was very savvy when it came to money, knew that it was something incredible. The whole 'consciousness inside the game' mostly flew over everyone's heads but it should be incredibly expensive.

"How much?!" Nami was practically salivating.

"100 belly each." Marcus could hardly finish his sentence as she directly handed him 500 that she got from…somewhere.

That got a few looks from her crewmates as they knew how Nami could be about money and she practically threw it in his face as if afraid he'd change his mind.

She grabbed one and it immediately wrapped around her wrist. Nami inspected it and saw an on button and pressed it.

"Whoa!" She looked at the screen and saw that there was only one game that cost 100 belly. The system knew that she already paid for five so it was ready to play.

"What?" Zoro asked.

Nami looked at him as if he were stupid.

"Don't you see it?!" Nami pointed at the screen.

"We don't see anything, though." Ussop responded and they all nodded.

Marcus decided to intervene.

"You all can't see it unless you have your bracelets on." He explained and they nodded before putting theirs on.

They all now saw the screen in front of Nami.

"What the hell?" Ussop murmured.

"Is this the interface you talked about?" Zoro could hardly comprehend what was happening. One second a screen wasn't there, and once he put on some bracelet, it was now there.

"Ah, I know how it is!" Luffy smiled and nodded to himself.

They all had raised eyebrows.

"What is it, captain?" Sanji asked.

"It's a mystery game." Luffy smiled.

Their anticipation immediately died a horrible death full of pain and agony.

"He said it was complex technology! I don't really understand how it works, but it's still straight forward. You have a bracelet and you can see the screen and play games. How is that a mystery?!" Nami couldn't believe what she heard.

They all pressed the on button as Nami did and saw their own screens.

"What's Slender? Is that the game?" Ussop asked as he felt a little unnerved at the game's art cover.

"Yes, it's very simple. You have to find 8 pages and you complete the game." Marcus explained half-heartedly as he took one final drag.

"...That's it?" Zoro was bewildered. How will that make them stronger?

"What's more important is that our consciousness will go inside the game. What will happen to us here?" Sanji asked the important question which drew their gaze to Marcus.

"It would be as if you fell asleep. What's great is that it completely replaces sleep, at least for your physical body. Mental fatigue is still something to watch out for, so I don't recommend you stop sleeping." Marcus saw that there were amazed looks from the crew.

"Could we trust him if we were to play now?" Nami asked and Luffy immediately responded.

"I trust him, so let's play!" Luffy being carefree, pressed the play button on his screen and immediately dozed off.

Marcus wanted to give them a little advice but maybe he should've expected Luffy's impulsiveness.

"Well, since the captain says it's fine, so be it. Do we really have to just find 8 pages? Pages of what?" Zoro wanted a bit of information.

"Does it matter? Can you even find them in the first place with your disability?" Sanji scoffed.

"Huh? I'll find more pages than you, Shitty Cook!" Zoro, completely forgetting his question, immediately dived into the game and his body went to sleep.

"Don't think you can get a headstart, GrassHead!" Sanji also went into the game.

"Those two!" Nami sighed at their antics.

"But what pages?" Ussop asked the question again and the remaining two pirates looked at him.

"They are just pieces of paper with drawings and writing on them. There isn't any other paper like it so they are quite obvious." He responded and they nodded. "Ah, a piece of advice."

Nami and Ussop glanced back at him with their fingers outstretched towards the play button.

"What?" They responded.

Marcus gave a slight smile and they couldn't tell what emotion it told as the expression didn't reach his eyes.

"Don't look at it." He said cryptically.

They both shuddered and that caused them to press the button. The slight panic on their faces disappeared as they went to sleep.

Marcus gave a soft chuckle.

The VR will completely enhance the game to the point where it is indistinguishable from reality apart from the limiting mechanics. The small sprint timer and exhaustion, slow speed, pitch-black forest, the only source of comfort being a flashlight, and the horrifying music echoing throughout the woods.

I will say that they are far braver than me, even if they have no clue what they're getting into.

"I could have told them outright, but where's the fun in that. Perhaps it would enhance the experience. It seems the faceless being will be hunting today. May God have mercy on their souls because Slenderman won't." He laughed louder.