Pitch darkness, then silver light—Clark instinctively grasped it, ignoring the bronze lights near the silver glow.
Clark gasped suddenly, as if his chest had taken its first breath in life.
His hands flailed madly toward his neck—but no wound, no blood… no trace of a knife.
"I am alive?"
He slowly opened his eyes and saw the iron bars of the cage in front of him.
The air was cold and damp, gravel beneath his cheek, just like the first time.
Beside him, the same three prisoners slept peacefully.
His heartbeat accelerated: 'This… the same place. I've returned?'
His eyes trembled as he vaguely recalled the voice that had echoed in his mind before he lost consciousness entirely.
[You have died!]
[Activation condition for "Returner's Clockwork Watch" fulfilled.]
At that time, he thought it was just a dream… but upon being reborn, it seemed as if he had truly won the grand prize.
'Returner's Clockwork Watch… Isn't this an EX-grade skill from the SSS-Class Suicide Hunter manhwa protagonist!? How did I get it?'
Clark felt his dream becoming increasingly strange. Being an avid reader of manhwas in his previous life, he could easily recognize the skill, one of the best from the manhwa he had ever read.
Yet, the memory of dying at Buggy's hands remained vivid. He still felt the sting in his neck, placing his hand on his throat where he had been stabbed. His fingers traced what seemed to be a wound…
It was a real, deep stab wound!
'Will my "death" remain a permanent mark on my skin?'
'If I die again, will I get a trace of it in the next life too? I guess that's a small price to pay for a skill like this.'
'This skill seems a little different from Kim Gong-ja's…'
His face was still on the rough ground, but this time, from shock at what had happened, he forgot even to feel his aching body or scream like before.
At that moment, a gold system-like menu appeared before his eyes.
He closed his eyes and shook his head, thinking it would return him to reality—perhaps he would wake up on the roof of that building in Philadelphia, not having committed suicide, not waking up in Buggy's circus, not dying at his hands, not obtaining Kim Gong-ja's skill, none of it.
But when he opened his eyes, the system menu still floated in front of him—a golden menu resembling that of a manhwa protagonist.
[Skill 1:Returner's Clockwork Watch – Innate Skill Linked to Host]
[Each time you die, you will return 24 hours back with memories of your past life. You are practically immortal unless you voluntarily relinquish this skill. Your body will remember how it previously died.]
[Skill 2: I Want to Become Jist Like You – Innate Skill Linked to Host]
[You can copy one ability of your killer. You can only copy your killer's skill once. but you will die.]
[Skill 3: Splitting Human – Copied Skill]
[Chop-Chop Fruit ability: Allows the user to split their body into parts unaffected by cutting. At a higher level, the user can split both living and non-living bodies.]
Clark stared in astonishment at the skill list… He remembered hearing the name of the first skill before losing consciousness, but he had never heard the second one!
This didn't mean he didn't know what the second skill meant—it was also Kim Gong-ja's overpowered skill. He knew that well, but he hadn't expected to be lucky enough to get both at once! How had this happened? He didn't know…
Two skills that complemented each other perfectly… What had he done to receive them? Why? And who had given them to him?
'Is there a tower in this One Piece world?'
Clark wondered. From his knowledge of SSS-Class Suicide Hunter, he knew what a tower meant. Perhaps his story was part of the many novels in the great library on the 21st floor of the tower—who knew?
But being in the One Piece world, Clark understood the probability of that was extremely low…
Clark's head ached from overthinking… plus the pain in the body from what had happened to the original body's owner.
Clark sat on the iron bars, pondering everything that had happened so far.
'So I copied Buggy's devil fruit too… I'll try it.'
The faint moonlight passing through the tent holes gave him dim vision, but it was enough to see his fist splitting from his arm by his own will.
Amazing!
He did the same with his other fist… then his entire arm separated from his body, as did his upper half… The split upper half floated magically in the air. Clark felt immense excitement, imagining how wonderful it would be to live in this dream forever.
'With this power, my life will finally have meaning…'
___
The next morning, when the three prisoners awoke, they found no body where Clark should have been, only the cell keys in its place.
"What's happening? Where did he go?" the old man wondered. He knew Clark and felt deep sorrow for the young man who had stood for them despite his weakness.
"I didn't feel anything yesterday. You know how light my sleep is—if he opened the cell, I would have heard it for sure…" the dark-skinned man said, surprised.
"Where did these keys come from? Wait, these are the cell keys… Clearly he escaped somehow. Should we escape too?"
The third man picked up the keys and tried them on the cell gate before suggesting it.
The three were confused about what to do next.
___
On the roof of a certain building in the town, not far from Buggy's camp, Clark sat dangling his legs over the edge. After a full night's sleep in his soft bed, his body no longer ached like before.
He scanned the sky. At that moment, a giant pink bird appeared, seemingly holding someone in its beak.
'Have you finally arrived? Monkey D. Luffy…'
Clark smiled as the bird was bombarded and saw Luffy falling right near Nami, who was being chased by three of Buggy's subordinates.
___