Several days had passed since Luffy first received that so-called system.
At first, he thought it would chatter endlessly in his mind, nagging him day and night about becoming some kind of cosmic adventurer. But strangely enough, after that first wave of excitement, the system went silent. Not a word. Not even a single beep.
It was as if the whole incident had been nothing more than a dream.
Luffy didn't really mind. Having peace and quiet was a rare luxury, and honestly, he welcomed it. Without the system's noisy interruptions, he could focus on what mattered most right now sending out resumes, walking from company to company, and praying one of them would offer him a stable job. A steady paycheck sounded much more reliable than chasing after some vague destiny.
But fate, or rather the system, wasn't finished with him yet.
[Hahaha! My dear host, I'm back!]
The voice rang suddenly in his head the moment he returned to his shabby rental after another fruitless day of interviews.
Luffy nearly tripped over his own feet. "You're still around?"
He had honestly assumed the system had abandoned him, packed its bags, and fled into the cosmic void.
[Of course I'm still here! I've been working tirelessly these past few days, solving the biggest problem in your path the spaceship issue!]
Luffy blinked. "Wait… are you saying you actually fixed it?"
He hadn't expected much from this so-called system, but now it was claiming to have secured a spaceship in just a few days? Maybe it wasn't as useless as he thought.
[Naturally! Would you like to see your future ship?]
Luffy scratched the back of his head. He had nothing else to do tonight anyway. "Sure, why not. Let's see it."
According to the system, it had stashed the ship outside the city, in a quiet patch of forest where almost no one ever went. It wasn't exactly the safest place, but compared to leaving it parked on Main Street, it was good enough.
By the time Luffy trudged his way there, the sun had dipped below the horizon, and shadows swallowed the forest paths. The journey had taken much longer than expected, and he was already regretting his decision. If it weren't for the sheer waste of walking all this way for nothing, he would've turned around long ago.
[Almost there! Just push through those bushes, and you'll see what I've prepared for you!]
Luffy shoved through the thickets, and then he froze.
In the clearing before him stood not a starship, not a cruiser, but a train. A gleaming black-and-gold locomotive, its shape carrying the nostalgic grandeur of an old steam engine.
Recognition struck him immediately.
"This… this is the Astral Express! Where on earth did you get this thing?"
[Heh, I happened to detect a derelict Express drifting in a nearby asteroid belt. So I towed it back here and did a little remodeling.]
Luffy stared, dumbfounded. In the games he used to play, there had only ever been one Astral Express, the one restored and commanded by Himeko and her companions. Yet in the distant past, during the age of the Aeon Akivili, there had been many such trains, riding the cosmic rails to blaze paths across the stars.
With Akivili's death, the path of "Exploration" had withered, and one by one, the trains vanished.
Until now.
"So what, we're just going to use the Astral Express as our pirate ship? You're not worried the followers of 'Exploration' will come after us?"
The thought sent a shiver down his spine. It was one thing to dream about adventuring, another to risk getting annihilated by actual Trailblazers. Rumor said a working Express had already been sighted in the galaxy just a few years ago. What if they ran into the real crew?
[Don't worry, I already asked Akivili. They had no objections!]
"You… you can talk to dead Aeons?"
Suddenly, the system sounded far more mysterious than he'd ever believed.
[Well, not exactly. I asked. They didn't answer. So I assumed it was approval.]
Luffy buried his face in his hands. "Unbelievable."
Still, curiosity pushed him forward. This was the legendary Express, after all. Just stepping inside would be like stepping into a sacred monument of the game he once loved.
He hurried up the steps and through the doors only to be greeted by decay.
Dust blanketed every surface. The carpet smelled of mildew. The once-plush couches sagged, their fabric torn to shreds. A choking cloud of grime swirled with every step he took.
"Good grief! This is supposed to be the Astral Express? It looks like a haunted house!"
[Well, what did you expect? It's been rusting in an asteroid belt for who knows how many aeons. Be glad it didn't crumble into scrap metal!]
Luffy sighed. "Fair point. But can it still run?"
[Of course! I replaced the power core and repaired the critical systems. It'll fly just fine.]
The system's confidence was absolute.
[See, host? With this ship ready, we can finally set sail as cosmic pirates!]
Luffy crossed his arms. "Not interested."
[What? But I went through all this trouble to fix it! Do you have any idea how hard it was to haul this train across space? Do you know how many manuals I had to study just to learn cosmic engineering in two days?]
The voice in his head sounded so pitiful he almost felt guilty. Almost.
"Even so," Luffy said firmly, "I'm not keen on becoming a pirate."
[That doesn't matter! Look at Monkey D. Luffy. Did he ever actually do pirate things? Most of the time he was saving kingdoms and helping people!]
Luffy paused. "…You've got a point."
If one thought about it, Luffy from One Piece was hardly the picture of a pirate. No pillaging, no pointless cruelty just adventure, loyalty, and freedom.
[Ding! The system has officially been updated to the Pirate King Cultivation System!]
[See? Now it's not even about being a pirate. It's about being a hero of the stars!]
"…Unbelievable," Luffy muttered, shaking his head at how quickly the system shifted its branding.
[Tell me, host, are you really content wasting your life on this backwater planet? Don't you want to see the galaxy? Don't you want to carve your name among the stars? A real man should chase a dream so grand it shakes the heavens!]
The voice was persistent, persuasive, worming its way past his doubts.
And the truth was, a part of him longed for it. He had spent decades in this world already, always dreaming of what lay beyond. Wasn't it a waste never to step beyond his own skies?
Luffy clenched his fists. He took a deep breath.
"Fine," he said at last, his eyes blazing with resolve. "I'll do it. I'll set out."