"This scene looks so familiar! But I've never actually seen it before!"
"Wait… what's this? A Devil Fruit?"
When Leon Ford opened his eyes, he found himself lying in an unfamiliar place.
Yet strangely, everything around him felt inexplicably familiar — as if it came from a memory he never lived but somehow knew.
The truth dawned on him the moment he spotted a strange fruit resting inside a wooden box on the ground.
Isn't this… the world of One Piece?
The fruit in his hand — this has to be a Devil Fruit, right?
According to the One Piece storyline, if someone ate this fruit… could they take over Luffy's destiny?
"Pirate King, here I come!"
Without hesitation, Leon swallowed the fruit whole, his mind filled with fantasies of ruling the seas and becoming the next Pirate King.
Dreams are beautiful, but reality can be brutally disappointing.
After eating the fruit, Leon felt absolutely nothing.
His limbs didn't stretch or twist. His body didn't feel any different. Aside from one very specific "extension" ability that seemed suspiciously normal… nothing else changed.
"No way! That's not scientific at all!"
"I clearly ate a Devil Fruit — why isn't anything happening!?"
"Kid, that wasn't a Devil Fruit. That was the Hitch-Hitch Fruit."
As Leon stood there confused, a voice suddenly echoed behind him.
He turned around to see a red-haired man approaching, looking half-shocked and half-panicked.
The red-haired stranger walked up and flicked his forehead.
"Red-Hawk Shane!?"
Leon's eyes widened as soon as he recognized him — or at least, who he looked like.
This man resembled Shanks so closely that Leon blurted out the name without thinking.
If this guy was here… then why wasn't that fruit a Devil Fruit?
"Why in the world did you eat that fruit? Spit it out! Spit it out now!"
Shane grabbed Leon by the shoulders, shook him vigorously, then suddenly crouched down and seized Leon's left ankle with a swift motion.
Before Leon could react, Shane hoisted him up upside down like a sack of potatoes.
"Come on! Spit it out! Hurry!!"
He shook Leon wildly through the air, but of course…
A fruit that has been swallowed cannot be spat out.
"…It's over."
Shane finally set Leon down with a defeated sigh.
"You keep saying 'it's over.' Can you at least tell me what exactly is over?"
"And also — are you seriously telling me this isn't the world of One Piece?"
"That fruit I ate… you're telling me it wasn't a Devil Fruit?"
Leon kept firing questions. Everything here looked the same, felt the same, and even the fruit's shape and color matched what he remembered. How could this not be the One Piece world?
"What One Piece world?"
Shane shook his head slowly. "I don't know what nonsense you're talking about… This is the world of male escorts."
"…What?"
The moment he heard that, Leon's expression twisted in disbelief.
Time travel? Fine.
Travel to One Piece? Even better.
But this?
A world of… male escorts?
What kind of bizarre universe was this?
"That's right — this is the world of male escorts," Shane repeated seriously.
"Then what exactly was the fruit I just ate?"
"That's the Cowherd Fruit — also known as the legendary Hitch-Hitch Fruit."
"It grants miraculous, ahem… performance-based abilities to whoever eats it."
"Some people who ate it gained the power to unleash a spear as long as a dragon."
"Some became unstoppable spinning windmills."
"Others awakened vibrating finger abilities."
"And a few even gained limitless stamina."
"But…" Shane's expression darkened. "There's always a price."
"You lose the ability to swim?" Leon cut in reflexively.
"What does swimming have to do with the Hitch-Hitch Fruit!?"
Shane frowned before continuing.
"The true downside is… whoever eats the Hitch-Hitch Fruit will lose true love forever. They will never find genuine love in their entire life."
"…That's it?"
Leon blinked — then burst out laughing.
Losing true love? That's the downside?
Love?
He loved pleasure, not complications.
True love was optional. Universal affection was the real path.
Caring for only one person was selfish. Sharing affection with many — now that was selfless greatness.
Were all male escorts here this talented?
"Does this world at least have Haki?"
Leon asked again, feeling the similarities to One Piece more strongly than ever.
Both worlds had mysterious fruits — Devil Fruits there, Cowherd Fruits here.
Both granted supernatural abilities.
If fruits existed, maybe Haki existed too.
After all, Haki in One Piece was legendary.
"Haki?" Shane blinked. "I have no idea what that is."
"You can think of it as a hidden power inside you!"
"You mean… seductiveness?"
"Charm? That kind of aura?"
"What? No! That's a rare natural talent! Only one in a million can awaken that flamboyant aura!"
"This world is getting more interesting by the second."
Leon shrugged with a smirk, fully accepting this absurd reality now.
"If this is truly a world of male escorts…"
"Then I'll become the King of Escorts!"
"So dazzling… who could possibly rival me?"
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