(A.N. Before you begin, I would just like to apologize to anyone who was reading this story before I deleted it. I write these stories for myself, and Bounty Wars was my first story, and at the time I thought it was really great, but over the years my writing has improved and it got to the point I was a little embarrassed to actually read it. I've been working on the rewrite for sometime now, and I finally finished. I will be posting the new version of the story, which is basically a whole new, much better story, in my opinion, and I hope you all like it. The story is already fully rewritten, I just need to edit it, but after each edit, I will post the chapter. Hopefully I can get it all posted in just a day or two, but if it ends up being a little longer, then I apologize for that too. )
*****
Jack was not your average person. Still only seventeen years old, the young man with raven black hair and emerald green eyes had escaped death more times than he cared to count. For the last few weeks he always had a gut feeling when something was off, and thanks to his physical fitness, he was able to avoid death on multiple occasions.
More than twenty times a truck had almost hit him, and many of those times he was nowhere near a road, so he found it mind boggling how it kept happening. He had tried calling the cops, but they were just about as useless as could be, often telling him he was just imagining things. Granted, telling the cops that a truck almost ran him down on top of a mountain did sound a little farfetched, but it did happen. It had gotten to the point that he had come to expect the driving calamity that was this truck, and he knew it was the same one because it looked the exact same every single time.
Already he did his best to keep in good shape, running 10 kilometers, doing a hundred push-ups, sit-ups, squats, crunches, jumping-jacks, and chin-ups every day, hiking a 3000 meter tall mountain every weekend, and swimming across the lake every other day, and he considered keeping watch over the truck that was out to get him as just another form of training.
As he was walking down the street to the bookstore, he kept a sharp eye about his surroundings. The truck had already tried and failed to get him twice today, but that wasn't going to deter him from getting what he wanted, and what he wanted was the next issue of One Piece, his favorite anime and manga series.
He had just finished watching the latest episode this morning, which had been the final episode of the Whole-Cake Island Arc, and he had just now gotten a notification that the next issue of the manga was out, which had spirited this little trip to the store. He really enjoyed One Piece, if for no other reason than the uniqueness of the world and the creativity of the characters and powers.
The storyline was more than a little chaotic, but he rather liked that, though the world building could use some work, mainly the Government, Marines, pirates as a whole, well, the whole damn thing needed reworked. Jack had ranted to his friends at school about it, but they simply ignored him when he got into his otaku-mode. None of them appreciated the beauty of anime or manga, and had tried to tell him to grow up, but he ignored those comments, after all, in his eyes, those who couldn't see how awesome anime was, were simply lacking in culture.
'If I had the chance, I would go to the world of One Piece, and I'd rip them all a new asshole. The Marines, the Government, the Emperors, I'd show them all.' Jack thought absently as he walked, flicking the flint on his zippo lighter as he did. Striking the flint on the lighter and making the flame always seemed to calm him down, and most people who knew him knew that it was plain common to see him with the lighter in hand.
Jack often liked to imagine what he would do in certain scenarios in One Piece, most notably was to tie Luffy into knots so he couldn't get into shit, but oftentimes he would imagine himself just killing the people who were causing problems. No one ever seemed to kill anyone in that damn show, and he felt the world itself would have been far better if a number of people just died. 'Same could be said for this world too.' He thought morbidly.
When he was nearing the mall where the bookstore was, Jack stopped suddenly on the sidewalk as he noticed the silhouette of a vehicle parked in an alleyway. After running across the street to put some distance between him and the alley, he kept moving forward, never taking his eye off of the alleyway.
Sure enough, when he got a bit further ahead, he saw that it was in fact the same truck that was always out to get him, and low and behold, the moment he came into view of the truck it began speeding towards him. Timing his moment perfectly, Jack jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding the truck and not giving it time to swerve and get him. He watched it skid to a stop and try to get him in reverse, but he only laughed as he jumped on the tailgate before somersaulting on top of the damn thing. Feeling a little vindictive, he landed hard on the windshield of the truck, shattering the glass before he once more leapt out of the way and into the clear.
Jogging forward a bit, he had a moment of triumph as he realized the truck had slammed into a telephone-pole, but his triumph was short-lived as a crushing force barreled into him from out of nowhere. He didn't even get a look at what hit him. He just felt the heavy impact before he was sent flying through the air.
As he lay sprawled over the ground and blood filled his lungs, he couldn't help but have a simple thought. 'I really hope that was Truck-kun. I'd like a chance at reincarnation, hopefully in One Piece.' That was his final thought as death pulled him into her warm embrace, finally putting an end to the existence that had eluded the great Truck-kun for so long.
*****
(Interlude)
(Truck-kun POV)
"I can't believe I had to get help from that damned yellow bastard! To think the great Truck-kun couldn't handle a puny little mortal. I need to up my game otherwise I'll lose my glorious reputation!" Truck-kun said to the deity that had hired him for the job of sending him a certain soul that had been eluding death for so long.
Apparently the kid was supposed to die like ten years ago due to some sort of accident, but he had escaped death then, and had continued escaping death every time his name was called, so naturally a professional had to be brought in, and there wasn't usually anyone better than Truck-kun at fulfilling a contract, but this one had proved elusive enough for even him, and after more than twenty failed attempts, he had to bring in a rookie to help him finish the job.
"I completely agree with you buddy. I mean can you imagine if these mortals started saying 'Bus-kun' instead? Sounds absolutely terrible." God said to Truck-kun.
"I know right?! That creepy pedophile can sometimes help in a pinch, but no one needs to praise that thing. Anyway, keep me posted for any more jobs, boss." Truck-kun said before driving off back to his favorite roadway.
*****
(General POV)
As his soul was floating in the void, he felt himself being pulled somewhere. All of the sudden the darkness was replaced with a blinding white light. 'Is this Heaven?' Jack thought. To his surprise, a loud deep voice boomed out, "NOT A CHANCE!" At the reply to his thoughts, Jack was stupefied and lost all train of thought.
"Oh come on. Don't tell me your fragile little mind shattered with just a few words? For how long you've eluded me, I thought you'd be more resilient." The deep voice spoke once more, only it wasn't so loud and thunderous as before. Brought back to what was going on, Jack's mind kicked into overdrive, and the memories of him dying came back to him. He remembered hoping for a chance at reincarnation, and part of him hoped this was it. Thinking about it, it actually made sense. After all, why else would a God or whatever all powerful being want to talk to a weak little mortal soul like him?
Looking around, or at least whatever it could be called when a soul tried to make sense of a ball of light, Jack didn't see anyone, but he knew someone was there. Thinking back to all of the fan-fictions he had read over the years, an idea came forth. "Are you God?" He asked. All of the protagonists always called out for God in the books, and almost always God answered back. "Yes." The deep voice responded back, confirming his suspicions, and giving him a little hope.
"Did you have Truck-kun kill me?" Jack couldn't stop himself from asking. Usually in fan-fiction then the deity or R.O.B. (Random Omniscient Being) would hire Truck-kun to kill a certain target for some purpose. If it was that all mighty truck, he figured he might actually get to experience something cool like some of his favorite characters did. "I sure did." God answered simply without a hint of remorse in his voice.
"Is this one of those reincarnated into another world scenarios?" Jack called out again, getting straight to the crux of the matter. "Sort of, but not quite." God answered calmly. Jack wasn't sure what God was getting at, so he decided to ask for some clarification. "Then would you mind giving me some details?" He asked, not even trying to argue or complain about his current situation. After all, depending on how this turned out, it could be a dream come true for him.
The God remained silent for a time, trying to analyze the little mortal soul he had gotten his hands on, but couldn't make heads or tails of him. The soul was different from normal souls to be sure, most noticeably in the non-freaking out or demanding answers part of him, but there was also something else. A strength that even souls from worlds filled with powerful beings did not have.
There was also the fact that this soul understood his situation almost perfectly, short of a few key pieces of information, and he was taking it all in stride, as if he hadn't just been ruthlessly mowed down in the prime of his life.
"You are taking this surprisingly well, me having you killed and all. Also you are pretty knowledgeable on what's happening right now too. Why is that?" God asked. "Well, there's not really much I could do if I wanted to. You're God. I'm a mortal. Plus this could be exciting depending on the circumstances. As for knowing about this, this same exact situation happens a lot in books, I just didn't think it was real until now." Jack answered honestly.
Listening to Jack's response, God figured as much. "Good, good, saves a lot of explaining on my part. Anyway, this is just something we Gods do from time to time to kill our boredom. Pick a soul, put him into a random world, and wait to see what becomes of it. Sometimes nothing new happens, sometimes the world gets destroyed, you know how it is." God explained as if it were obvious. "I get needing entertainment, but not quite on that level. Still, who am I to judge a God? Anyway, what's going to happen now?" Jack asked the all powerful being.
"Here's what's going to happen. You pick some world, I send you there, and pray to me that you do something amusing. You get to have fun in a new world, and I hopefully get to keep myself amused for a while." God said aloud. While internally he couldn't help but add, 'And maybe I find some pawn that can do something in the damn future.'
"So if I can pick the world, I pick One Piece." Jack said, while in the next breath asked, "Do I get any wishes, abilities, or a system?"
God, expecting this kind of answer replied back, "No you don't get any wishes, that's just stupid. Also this world has so many chances for abilities and even its own form of magic, so I'm not going to give you any. As for the system, don't even get me started on that. You earthlings and your systems. Do you have any idea what a system entails? They're stupid and require me to either personally monitor you or create some A.I to run the damn thing that will basically control every aspect of your life, which is plain fucking stupid."
Jack was a little dejected at that, but before he could say anything else, the God added, "I can give you a little bit of an advantage though. You already have more of a drive to get stronger than almost any mortal I've ever seen, so I'll give you something to compliment that. You will be able to comprehend things far faster than normal, and your gains from training will be more than normal as well."
Jack just stared back in disbelief. With something like that in the One Piece world, there was almost no way he couldn't succeed. Still, he couldn't stop himself from wanting a bit more, and after all, how would he know if he couldn't have it if he didn't ask for it. "I don't suppose I could get something like a shop to buy things, could I?" He asked hopefully.
God thought about it for a second then said, "Because One Piece is actually a fucked up world, and I don't know why you chose it, I'll give you your shop, but you can only buy and sell things from the One Piece world. I don't want you to be able to buy a nuke or an Iron man suit or anything else from any other dumbass world. And before you start, no, I don't care about any particular world, not just the ones from anime. Oh, and I guess you get an Inventory, because that makes sense with a SHOP. So, any other questions?"
"Can I pick the timeline to go to?" Jack asked. "I don't see why not. But you better not be one of those people that just join the Main Character of the story. I can't tell you how boring that is, and I don't care about divine rules, I will smite you in a fucking heartbeat if you do that." God ranted to him.
Ignoring the rant, Jack began, "For starters, I don't want to be reborn again, so can you just send me over there as I was before you got me killed? As for the timeline, I want to start five years before the main story starts. And I know this part is a little cliché, but can I also be put somewhere in the East Blue? I don't really care what island. And finally, I'm not sure if it matters whether or not you give it to me simply because I can tell anyone whatever name I want, but I want my name to be Jack Sparrow."
"Ha! Going The Pirates of the Caribbean route, eh? You're right that it wouldn't matter whether I agreed to that or not, but we can make it official just because. Everything else sounds fine. Anyway, that's it. I've spent enough time on you. Have fun and try not to die too early. If you do, at least make it entertaining." God said with a laugh, and just like that, Jack was pulled into the darkness once more.
He wasn't sure what happened after that, but sometime later he opened his eyes and saw a big bright light shining down on him and it wasn't God. He was surrounded by trees, and he could smell the salt from the ocean. Taking a deep breath, Jack closed his eyes as he took it all in. Letting out the breath he was holding, he opened his eyes and smiled broadly before shouting, "I'm going to make this world my bitch!"
*****
After taking in his surroundings Jack decided he was going to find somewhere a little more safe before checking out his shop functions, because let's face it, what's the point of going shopping without any money?
He started walking towards the closest tree to climb so he could get a view of the surroundings and hopefully find some water, or better yet, a settlement of some kind. In all of the survival shows, one of the first things people did was determine where they were, who else was there with them, and what sort of threats they were up against. Water came next, followed by shelter and then a plan would be formed to figure out what to do after that.
Having been a physical nut for most of his teenage life, Jack had climbed more than his fair share of trees, but never had he climbed a tree like these ones. They were enormous, easily being ten times the height and width of the trees he would see when he hiked up the mountain. Still, he was never one to run from an honest challenge, and before long he found himself at the top of the tree.
Glancing around the area he spotted a river not too far away, but there didn't seem to be any signs of settlements or people. Not finding any better options he climbed down the tree and headed towards the direction of the river.
It didn't take him that much time at all before he arrived at the crystal clear water, and after kneeling down and scooping a handful into his mouth, he found it was better than the water that went to his house. Granted, that water was chlorinated and filtered, whereas this stuff was probably filled with bacteria, but fuck it, he didn't care. It tasted amazing. After drinking his fill, Jack walked over to a nearby tree and sat down with his back against it's large trunk.
'Now then, how do I access the shop?' Jack wondered. "Shop." He called out to the wilderness, only for nothing to happen. 'Well, fuck. In all of those books they either called out what they wanted or…' Jack's line of thinking came to an abrupt end when he realized it, almost as if a lightbulb had been switched on.
'The One Piece world basically revolves around WILL for everything, why should this be any different.' He concluded, feeling as though this was the right way. Concentrating on the thought, 'Open Shop' in his mind, he was filled with a small amount of joy when it actually worked. Floating in front of him was a blue screen, and before he could even do anything a message popped up on said screen.
==========
[Hey kid its me, God the all powerful. As much fun as I thought it would be to watch you struggle to open this thing, you ruined it by getting it pretty quick. Anyway, as you've guessed, your shop and inventory work by willing them to either open or close. And just like willing them to open, will whatever it is you are trying to do at the time to happen. Pretty simple. To put stuff into them, you have to be physically touching them. That's pretty much it. Bye.]
==========
After having finished the message, it disappeared and Jack could see lists of categories that he could select. He realized he could click on multiple different categories to narrow down searching for specific items. Looking through the different categories, his eyes locked on to one. [Haki]. Jack immediately clicked\Willed it open.
The screen changed and he could now see three boxes in the middle of the screen, a red X in the top right corner, and a green arrow in the top left. The three boxes in the middle were labeled from the top, Observation Haki Manual, Armament Haki Manual , and Conqueror's Haki Manual. Clicking on each one starting with the Observation Haki Manual.
==========
Observation Haki Manual: Perfect instructions on how to master Observation Haki, teaching the reader how to sense life around them, the intentions of others and their power, and with enough mastery, can even glimpse into the future.
[Cost: $10,000,000]
==========
==========
Armament Haki Manual: Perfect instructions on how to master Armament Haki, teaching the reader how to coat their body with their WILL, which amplifies your body's durability, strength and attack power. Armament Haki can be infused into weapons to enhance your piercing power or the sharpness and durability of your blades.
[Cost: $30,000,000]
==========
==========
Conqueror's Haki Manual: Perfect instructions on how to master Conqueror's Haki, teaching the user how to thrust your WILL upon others to dominate their minds, causing victims to lose consciousness or in extreme cases, death. Conqueror's Haki is the ultimate technique to protect one's mind against those who wish to dominate it. [Note: One must be born with the power of the Conqueror in order to take advantage of the techniques in this book.]
[Cost: $50,000,000]
==========
After reading the descriptions Jack was pretty disappointed. They were all extremely expensive, and looking in the bottom right corner, showing a grand total of $0 berries, he wouldn't be getting those anytime soon. "God Fucking Damn It!" He cursed aloud.
Grabbing a stick from the ground Jack smashed one end of it into the tree he was previously resting against. The end shattered into off, and Jack cursed inwardly once more. 'Useless stick! Not good for anything other than firewood!' Realizing that there was no point in getting mad about things he couldn't change, he began to test more things out with his powers.
First off, he wanted to test his [Inventory]. With the stick still in hand, Jack WILLED it inside of the space only he could access, and to his amusement the stick disappeared from his hand. He did this to a number of the little sticks on the ground around him until the area was picked clean. After that, he imagined his Inventory screen appearing in front of him, and sure enough, a page filled with hundreds of little white boxes appeared, and a good number of them were filled with sticks. He was about to try and pull the sticks out of his [Inventory] when he noticed something on the screen over one of the boxes.
==========
[Name: Wooden Stick]
[Value: $1]
[Sell: Yes/No]
==========
Jack was stunned after reading the text, though he wasn't really sure why. God had told him he could buy and sell things with his [Store] when he had asked for it, but he had just never realized how to sell things until now, nor did he think he would actually be able to sell a fucking stick.
Mentally clicking 'YES', the box was replaced with a single coin, which was one Belly, the currency of this world. Without much thought, Jack went to the other boxes that were filled with sticks, and like the first one the same text appeared, letting him sell them for $1. Wanting to go even further, he tried to do the same thing with rocks and giant boulders, and sure enough, once they were inside his Inventory the text appeared giving him the option to sell them.
The boulders that were as big as himself only went for like $3, which was weird because a rock the size of his hand sold for $1. Whatever the [STORE] was using to value the items made little to no sense, but Jack wasn't going to complain. This was basically free money, and all he had to do was run around and store things inside of his Inventory.
Going over to the river, Jack dipped his hands inside and withdrew a handful of water before he tried to WILL it inside of his Inventory, but surprisingly, it didn't work. Thinking for a moment, he used $2 to buy a cup from the [STORE], and after filling it full of water he tried once more to put it inside of his [Inventory], only this time it worked. The value for the cup of water was $2, which was the same price he had bought the cup for, so he tried something else.
Pouring the water out of the cup, he put it back inside of his Inventory and tried selling the cup, but now it only sold for $1, which was half the price he had paid for it. Realizing there wasn't any profit in trying to sell the water, Jack moved on, storing anything and everything that would go into his [Inventory] before he sold them.
Once he reached $500 he opened the [STORE] and went through a bunch of the [Consumable] pages. There were hundreds of different pages he could choose from, ranging from basic ingredients like flour, salt, and sugar, to actual finished meals. The ingredients by themselves were relatively cheap, but the cooked meals were something else entirely. They cost more than ten times what it would take to buy the ingredients to make them, which was a little weird, but Jack didn't dwell too much on that. 'Someone's got to get paid to make these.' He thought, not giving the matter another thought.
Not having any cookware, or even a fire to cook with, Jack opted to purchase a finished meal. The process was almost exactly the same as when he sold things inside of his [Inventory], only he was buying instead of selling, and after purchasing the meal of pasta for $150, it appeared inside of his [Inventory].
WILLING the food to come out of his [Inventory], a plate of piping hot pasta appeared in his hand. The action of pulling things out of his Inventory was still a little new to him and he almost spilled the plate of noodles, but he was quick to steady the plate before anything fell off of it. 'I'm going to have to practice that.' He told himself, knowing there was more to his [Inventory] than just making things disappear.
Jack hadn't expected the food to be warm, but he wasn't going to complain about it. On the contrary, it made him feel as though any food he purchased from the [STORE] would be fresh top quality food, which was all he was ever hoping for. He ate the food with a smile, not caring about the fact that he was all alone somewhere in a forest on some unknown island. He was normally alone, finding comfort in the quiet more than he did in large crowds, and given how often he spent in the mountains before he died, this was like home to him.
After eating his food, he looked up into the sky and saw that it was getting rather late. He wasn't sure what time of day it was when he got here, nor did he keep track of how long he had been running around the forest, but seeing the sky slowly darken, he knew there was less than two hours before the sun would set.
Looking in the [STORE] in the [Shelter] category, Jack found lots of things that were way too expensive for him, a mansion being one, which was a surprise. He didn't think he would be able to buy a whole freaking building, on top of which he had no idea how that would work. 'How does the plumbing and power work? Does it already have some sort of magic water supply or do I have to do that myself?' He wondered curiously.
Regardless of the weirdness of buying the building, that option didn't matter at the moment because the mansion all by itself was $100 million, so he wouldn't be sleeping in luxury anytime soon. Even though he couldn't sleep in the mansion, he opted against buying the cardboard box, figuring he could do better than that.
Finally after scrolling for a while his eyes landed on a nice little tent. The price was a little more than he had, it being listed for $670 and all, but after a while of selling more random crap, he had enough and bought the tent.
Pulling it out of his [Inventory], Jack walked over to a decent little clearing in the forest that was bereft of rocks and sticks due to his gathering, and set it up. He was pleasantly surprised to see that it came with a little cotton mattress, a pillow, and a blanket. The description hadn't said it came with a mattress, just the pillow and blanket, but he wasn't about to complain about it.
After getting settled in, Jack went right back to browsing through the [STORE], and without even thinking he had reached into his pocket and pulled out his lighter and began striking it over and over. He hadn't even registered the fact that the lighter might not have been brought with him, he was just glad he had it.
The pages of the [STORE] were endless, and he was interested in some of the things he could buy in this world. He hadn't been scrolling long when he saw something that caught his eye almost instantly, and with wide eyes he selected it.
==========
[Devil Fruits]
==========
Once more a list of three categories appeared.
==========
[Paramecia]
[Zoan]
[Logia]
==========
Selecting the Paramecia Devil Fruit section, the happiness on his face died. The average price for a Paramecia Devil Fruit was around a hundred million berries, a price that seemed almost impossible to get in his current position, and that was for Paramecia Devil Fruits. Zoan Devil Fruits went on average for two-hundred million to three-hundred million, and those were for the basic ones.
There was a section for [Zoan], [Ancient Zoan], and [Mythical Zoan], and the [Mythical Zoan] fruits went for as much as $500 million. A big kicker was that many of the Devil Fruits were greyed out, and beside them it read, [Unavailable], which to Jack meant the Devil Fruit in question had already been eaten by someone, which made sense. 'Wouldn't want there to be two people with the same Devil Fruit out there. That just seems stupid.' He concluded, finding that to be more than reasonable.
The final section was the [Logia] Devil Fruits, and the number of them were far lower than the others, and most of them were already greyed out. The prices for them reflected their rarity and Jack couldn't help but feel a wave of despair wash over him, thinking it was going to be impossible to get them.
There wasn't a Logia fruit that was less than $500 million berries, which was so far out of reach it almost hurt. Regardless, most of the Logia Devil Fruits were listed as [Unavailable] so it didn't matter too much, however at the bottom he saw two that were available for purchase.
==========
[Name: Dark-Dark Fruit]
[Cost: $500,000,000]
[Purchase: Yes/No]
[Name: Flame-Flame Fruit]
[Cost: $500,000,000]
[Purchase: Yes/No]
==========
Of the two, he only had eyes for one, the Dark-Dark Fruit. He knew in cannon Blackbeard had used the power of the Dark-Dark Fruit to become a Warlord, then after killing Whitebeard he had stolen his power somehow and went on to become one of the four Emperors of the New World. No other Devil Fruit power worked against him, and combined with the power of Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit, he was a god-damned monster. Mentally clicking on the Dark-Dark Fruit, a better description of it appeared.
==========
[Name: Dark-Dark Fruit]
[Description: A Logia-type Devil Fruit, granting the consumer the ability of darkness. Darkness devours everything, including the power of the Devil Fruits. Can nullify the abilities of others. Cannot become intangible, and physical effects are amplified in the darkness. Can nullify the spirit of one other Devil Fruit, allowing for the consumer to have two Devil Fruit powers.
Note: The Dark-Dark Fruit must be consumed first before the consumer is able to devour another fruit.
==========
Despite the despairingly large cost of the Dark-Dark Fruit, Jack was excited. He could have two Devil Fruit powers if he got the Dark-Dark Fruit first, and given its ability to nullify other Devil Fruit powers, he knew it was a must have if he wanted to bring this world to its knees.
'As long as I get the money before Blackbeard eats it, then I can get one of the most broken powers in all of One Piece. This [STORE] is fucking awesome!' Jack mentally cheered. With the thought of doing more tomorrow, Jack wrapped himself in the blanket and went to sleep.