Roja would never admit it aloud, but the day he'd tried to rob Startend Internet Cafe was the day his life split in two.
Surrounded by strange machines, was Sakura with dead-fish eyes, lazily stretched body as those eyes stared at the bright monitor.
From their first meeting to the present, the character called Sakura was surrounded by mysteries—yet, the thought of asking it never crossed his mind.
Such things were unnecessary between men anyway.
That's why even if Sakura managed to do the impossible again…Roja believed he wouldn't be surprised but...
In the ocean, Sakura was swimming freely. Unaffected by the Devil Fruit's curse, he was kicking flames into waves throttling forward like a shark.
Roja's brain short-circuited at this sight. "You—how? Even Vegapunk couldn't,"
Making a strange machine, he could nod along. Summoning an egg and it hatching a creature he had never seen, he could understand. The world is huge after all.
But swimming in the ocean as a devil fruit user? This fact challenged his view of the world—it would've been more believable if someone said they were friend with one of the Four Emperors.
"Not feeling powerless after submerging into still waters feels good. It was worth it almost dying for."
Initially, he had been happy but as an inside person, he soon got bored with the act of swimming.
Sakura's body drifted above the ocean as he approached Roja whose body was refined by repeated hellish training.
"By the way, Roja, how far have you progressed at the game?"
"Me? I'm selected as a mid-fielder…? for the U20 game. I'm excited for the next world. Although soccer is fun, I want to have a real battle,"
"Already? That's fast," Sakura replied.
Considering Roja only played two hours daily for around two weeks, it was an extremely fast progression.
"Wait, you were chosen? Didn't you just begin playing soccer not long ago?"
"I was chosen for my physical prowess. The people of that world are terribly weak, only as good as the average adult here."
'Damn, I've always known about it, but average One Piece citizens are really a cheat if they were sent to the modern world.'
"Do you… feel any different? Like, you became unnaturally good at soccer after playing it?" Sakura asked.
"I mean, yes. I've become unnaturally good at soccer, but I've accepted my 'ego' and understand more about myself."
'…I wonder if that's connected to why he comes to Internet Cafe always battered.' Sakura decided to not pursue this any further.
"Then, do you feel any 'restricted' inside the game? Like, you could exert a stronger force outside, but feels much weaker when you enter inside the game."
"Probably? At first, I didn't feel any difference but as I trained, the power I could exert weakened. From 100% -> 99%. Now I can only release as much as 95% of my strength."
'So each world has strength limits to not hinder the entertainment value like when the system deleted my devil fruit intangibility—but I don't feel my strength lessening. Is it because I'm too weak? Or does the hidden route remove the restriction aside from cheats?' Sakura nodded, making a full sense of Roja's explanation.
The three passed time by the coast before returning.
…
After returning to the Startend Internet Cafe, Sakura hadn't opened the shop but sorted the answers from Roja to the question he asked.
The reason why he could use his strength in real life inside the game, why it could improve him. Everything leads up to [Law Of Program]—
Most form of entertainment in the future world uses [The Law Of Programs] as foundations—future technology that allows one to program the reality we live in.
From this, Sakura made a simple theory. Future games didn't just stimulate worlds—they hacked reality itself.
The "Law of Programs" rewrote common sense—not through brainwashing, but by editing the universe's source code.
In pursuit of realism, the boundary between 'reality' and 'game' became unclear.
To someone like Sakura not from the future world, editing one line of code—[V1_REGENERATION = FALSE] -> [V1_REGENERATION = TRUE] was akin to directly modifying the body of your real world.
In short, imagination has turned into reality.
'...What am I thinking with my empty head, this is just giving me a headache. It's just a waste of time. Anyway, for now, let's make what I want and what is realistically achievable.'
[Worker Robots]- Buildable
Robots with AI that can obey orders and serve customers.
[Air Purifier+] - Buildable (Needs ASAP: Roja has no clue how much he stinks!! And I can't trust my future pirate customer's hygiene)
Air purifier, air cons, heater, unpleasant odor eraser.
[Force Field - Conqueror's Haki variant] - Unbuildable (due to lacking Conqueror's Haki data)
A force field purposefully built for Conqueror's Haki.
Sakura's ideas were based on what would make his life more pleasant, or reduce his work.
It was a dilemma, he had to work hard to not work in the future.
'Let's start with worker robots." Sakura said, activating the Law Of Programs, enabling him to see the indecipherable letters.
At first, he started with empty shells of the robot. To do so, he copied the data from 'Monster Alloy' contained in the gaming mouse and copied it as a 'mesh' of Monster Alloy popped out mid-air.
The newly formed Monster Alloy contained its most basic square form so Sakura had to mold it. Changing the value of the data, the Monster Alloy transformed in shape. From square to circle, to circle to abnormal shape spiking up and down.
Sakura felt like he was using an extremely user-unfriendly Blender. To add mesh, you had to program, to change its shape, you had to mess with the value.
In fear of accidentally causing a black hole with his limited knowledge, Sakura stopped messing with data value as CTRL + Z (Undo) shortcuts didn't exist in the real world.
Then, he made of the Monster Alloy's flexibility, to mold it with his hand. But such works required an extreme load of power.
Thankfully, Sakura had gone to Character Design College in his previous life and had experience in making life-sized character figures—albeit he failed to make it big.
After three days of crying and welding the Monster Alloys' parts, Sakura and Ralts stood in front of their robots not even half-finished.
"I just wanted to drink cola and play games," he muttered, collapsing onto the café floor.
"Ralts..." Ralts cried, patting his head dispirited.