For the third time, that familiar color flashed before Kyle's eyes. His gaze lit up with excitement, and he unconsciously licked his lips, clearly satisfied.
Another red one!
That meant he had drawn another A-rank reward!
And this time, it was a captain-specific skill—incredibly important to him.
As he watched in barely-contained excitement…
A shimmering image began to form before him—a boy with flames dancing from his hands and forehead.
Tsuna Sawada.
Kyle instantly recognized the figure and spoke the name in his heart.
The protagonist of a once wildly popular action anime, Katekyo Hitman Reborn. Tsuna had started as a classic weakling, only to be pulled into a wild world of Mafia wars thanks to his tutor from Italy, Reborn.
But none of that mattered now.
What Kyle really cared about was: Which of Tsuna's skills did he just acquire?
Since he never played male characters, he wasn't all that familiar with Tsuna's skillset.
Still—pulling an A-rank character like Tsuna from a gacha pool full of weaklings?
Absolutely fair, Kyle thought with pride.
And then, the answer revealed itself.
The figure of Tsuna disappeared in a flash of light and entered Kyle's body.
As his vision flickered momentarily, a new entry appeared in his Skills list:
Skill: Hyper Intuition
Rank: A
Description: Pushes human perception to its peak, allowing the user to see through illusions, sense the tiniest details, and even catch glimpses of the future.
"Hyper Intuition… So it's that one?"
Kyle's smile froze for a moment, his expression becoming conflicted.
He knew this ability well.
It countered illusions, heightened awareness of battle nuances, and offered flashes of insight during critical decisions.
While it didn't directly boost attack power, it was undeniably one of the most efficient support skills out there.
But—
It overlapped heavily with Observation Haki!
Seeing through illusions, reading enemy movements, even glimpsing the future…
These were all abilities granted by high-level Observation Haki.
And the way experience requirements skyrocketed after Level 2 made it clear: leveling up would only get harder from here on out.
In other words, skill slots would become precious commodities.
Which meant… Kyle had just used one of those rare slots to get what was essentially max-level Observation Haki.
Was that a win… or a waste?
He couldn't tell.
After all, he already had a method to train Observation Haki.
With the system's help, he could've raised it to a high level on his own—maybe not to the point of precognition like Katakuri, but certainly strong enough to be effective.
So pulling Hyper Intuition left him… conflicted.
"Seriously, even drawing a skill has to mess with my head."
With a sigh, he shook the thought away.
Regardless, getting an A-rank skill was still a win.
Time to move on.
He shifted the interface back to the [Dockyard] system.
He'd already explored the two gacha machines, and the legendary one was still locked to him.
That left one thing unused—the dockyard feature.
The familiar interface appeared before him.
Repeating his earlier actions, he pulled out a sack of cash from the room again.
As expected, a small "+" symbol appeared beside the Tiga's experience bar.
Focusing his mind, he tapped the "+"—and one-tenth of the cash vanished instantly.
Without hesitation, Kyle tapped it nine more times in a row.
In an instant—
The once-bulging sack at his feet shriveled up like a deflated balloon.
Just like when he'd rolled the gacha earlier.
And then—
A mysterious glow spread from the bow of the ship to the stern, enveloping the entire vessel before fading into the air.
Kyle felt something about the ship had subtly changed.
Before he could take a closer look, however…
A soft, childlike voice rang out from behind him.
"Good morning, Captain."
"Wha—!? Who's there?!"
Startled, Kyle spun around and instinctively drew his flintlock pistol loaded with seastone rounds, stepping back in alarm.
But the moment he saw the speaker, he froze.
Looking down—
A small child, barely a meter tall, stood there. The kid wore a hooded cloak that cast most of his face in shadow and stared up at Kyle with wide eyes, clearly puzzled by the gun pointed at him.
Despite the obscured face, Kyle could strangely sense the boy's emotions and expression.
"Hello, Captain. I'm the ship spirit—Tiga."
Assuming Kyle was questioning him, the little boy responded politely.
"Tiga…?"
That familiar name jolted Kyle back to reality, and his tension quickly faded.
He wasn't being paranoid—he'd just been hyper-focused on the ship's upgrade, and the sudden voice behind him had genuinely caught him off guard.
Anyone would've jumped.
Now it made sense.
With the ship's upgrade, Kyle had unlocked the dockyard's ship spirit feature, bringing what was once just a tutorial NPC to life before him.
"The ship spirit… really appeared."
Kyle whispered in awe.
He still remembered how heartbroken he'd felt watching the Merry vanish into flames in One Piece.
Every time he saw a clip about it, he couldn't help but get emotional.
So the appearance of a ship spirit like Tiga? He welcomed it with open arms.
His expression unconsciously softened.
"Hmm…"
Tiga tilted his head, seemingly confused by his captain's sudden change in mood.
But Kyle took a step forward and responded to Tiga's earlier greeting.
"Nice to meet you, Tiga. I'm Kyle—captain of this ship."
"Let's work together from now on!"
He reached out to ruffle the boy's hair—
Only for his hand to pass cleanly through.
So he's not physical after all…
Kyle blinked, unsurprised.
Even so, Tiga seemed visibly pleased, even though his hood still covered most of his face.
Unlike traditional ship spirits, Tiga had no real restrictions. As long as he stayed aboard, he could appear freely and interact with the crew at will.
After a brief round of introductions, Kyle quickly warmed up to him.
"Hey, Tiga. As the ship's spirit, do you have any special abilities?"
"Like… Can you steer the ship?"
In One Piece, the Merry's spirit could not only fix damage but also steer the ship automatically.
Kyle was dying to know if his Tiga could do the same.
After all, neither Kyle's past life nor his current self had much sailing experience.
If someone else could handle that job for him, it'd be perfect.
Thankfully, Tiga didn't disappoint.
He jumped up excitedly, raising his hand.
"I can! I can!"
"Captain Kyle, I can steer the ship, repair damage… and even help in battle~!"
"Battle?" Kyle blinked. "How would you help me fight?"
"Umm… can I do a demo with a cannonball, Captain Kyle?"
Tiga looked up at him with childlike eagerness.
"Go ahead."
Kyle nodded with interest.
But the moment he spoke, Tiga vanished into thin air.
Moments later, the cabin door creaked open on its own.
Tiga stumbled in, hugging one of the cannonballs that came free with the ship.
He walked over to the ship's cannon and—surprisingly—loaded it more smoothly than Kyle ever could.
A spark appeared out of nowhere and lit the fuse.
Seconds later, a thunderous BOOM! echoed across the sea.
The cannonball shot out with scorching force, slamming into the waves and sending up a towering plume of water.
"Like that!"
Tiga reappeared beside Kyle in a blink, looking up with expectant eyes like a child waiting to be praised.
Kyle was stunned by the whole demonstration.
He clicked his tongue in admiration but kept his words short, mindful of Tiga's youthful energy:
"Impressive."
Then something clicked in Kyle's mind.
His eyes sharpened with realization.
"Wait… can you turn into a physical being?"
He had just seen Tiga carrying a very real cannonball.
"Umm…"
Tiga seemed surprised by the question, but eventually nodded.
"As long as I have a specific task in mind, I can take on a physical form."
"But once the task is done, I return to this state."
"I see…"
"That makes sense—Merry couldn't have repaired the ship without picking up nails and a hammer."
Until now, Kyle had assumed ship spirits were like phantoms—non-corporeal and intangible.
But now he knew: they could take physical form.
Kyle grinned, thrilled by the discovery.
At the same time…
A bold idea formed in his mind—one that would shock the entire pirate world if anyone ever found out.
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Note: If you're enjoying the story, you can read up to Chapter 42... You can read 36 chapters ahead of the current one) on my Patreon: patreon.com/Aurevynluv