Thwack!
A fist the size of a sandbag slammed right into Luffy's forehead.
With no time to react, Luffy's vision went black. He was sent spiraling through the air before crashing hard into a patch of grass.
"AAAGH!!! It hurts!! It hurts so much!!! AAAAGH!!!"
Though the landing wasn't particularly messy this time, the moment he hit the ground, Luffy let out a blood-curdling shriek. He clutched his head and began rolling frantically across the grass, his face contorted in absolute agony.
Once the throbbing pain subsided slightly, Luffy pushed himself up. Cradling the massive, swelling lump on his head, he looked at Rowan with eyes full of grievance.
"Great-Grandpa, why do your punches hurt so much? Didn't I eat the Gum-Gum Fruit? I'm a rubber man!"
Rowan let out a booming laugh, raising that same sandbag-sized fist. "That, my boy, is because when my fist hits you, it is infused with a deep, profound sense of love."
At the word "love," Luffy's face paled. It was as if a traumatic memory had been triggered; he looked at Rowan with sheer terror. "Great-Grandpa... Grandpa Garp's 'Fist of Love'... he didn't learn that from you, did he?!"
"Hahaha! Of course he did." Rowan laughed brightly. Ignoring the grease on his hands, he stroked his slightly disheveled goatee.
The Fist of Love—passed down through the generations.
When Garp was a boy, he had a rebellious streak, so he had tasted the Fist of Love quite often. Then came that brat Dragon, and now, naturally, it was the turn of the little ones in Luffy's generation.
Ace and Sabo were gone—one had followed his own destiny with Dragon, and the other had snuck off to sea to be a pirate. Thus, Luffy was the only one left to enjoy this special treatment.
"Great-Grandpa, you're really something else..." Luffy whimpered, still nursing the bump on his head.
"Hahaha." Seeing Luffy's pitiful state, Rowan shook his head with a smile. He tossed the rest of the roast goat—now missing only two legs—to the boy. "Alright, it's getting late. Eat up. We need to head back once you're done."
"Ah! Meat!"
Delighted, Luffy caught the roast and immediately tore off a massive chunk with his teeth. "Th-thanksh, Great-Grandpa!" he mumbled through a mouthful.
"You little rascal."
Watching Luffy gorge himself, Rowan sat down beside the boy, unhooked the gourd from his waist, and took a long, leisurely swig of the strong spirits.
At that moment, Rowan still hadn't noticed that deep within his consciousness, the system panel had flickered one last time.
99.9% —> 100%
Suddenly, a soft, mechanical chime echoed in Rowan's ear.
[System Loading Complete. Activating...]
Rowan's expression froze. The gourd, halfway to his lips, stopped dead in its tracks. Even as the liquor spilled from the opening, soaking into his casual shirt, he didn't move. He sat there, paralyzed, until more than half the gourd had drained onto his lap.
Only then did Rowan snap out of it. And when he did, he began to roar inwardly with absolute fury.
You godforsaken piece of junk! You actually have the nerve to activate now? I'm nearly a hundred years old, and you just finished loading?!
A hundred years! A full century! Do you have any idea how much I suffered waiting for you in the beginning?
I finally forgot you even existed decades ago, and now you decide to show up?!
Thinking back on the hardships of his long life, Rowan felt a surge of righteous anger. When he first transmigrated into the familiar world of One Piece with a system in tow, he—as a fan of web novels—had been ecstatic.
However, the "Trash System" had quickly doused his excitement with cold water. Its loading speed was abysmal.
At the very start, it wasn't so bad. By the time he was a few months old, it had reached 10%. But as time went on, the progress slowed to a crawl.
By the time he was one year old, it reached 20%.
When he turned five, it was only at 30%.
Back then, Rowan suspected that at this rate, he'd be thirty or forty by the time it activated. Thirty or forty? On Earth, that's mid-life. If the system waited that long, his youth would be over. What would be the point?
But he soon realized he had vastly overestimated the system. It was much slower than he feared.
Another decade passed. Rowan reached adulthood. The interface showed a mere 43%.
That was the year a tragedy occurred that completely fundamentally changed him. His village was raided by pirates. Because he had been out fishing on the other side of the island, he was the sole survivor. Over a hundred villagers, including his family in this world, were slaughtered.
Hiding in the shadows, watching the pirates sail away with their loot, Rowan had gripped his fists until they bled, loathing his own helplessness.
If he hadn't spent those years "rotting" while waiting for a system... if he had spent that time training his body and martial arts... perhaps those pirates wouldn't have been able to raise their blades against his people.
That experience taught Rowan a harsh lesson: it was better to rely on oneself than on an unreliable system. My fate is mine to command, not the heavens'!
After the tragedy, Rowan pulled himself together and joined the Marines. He trained with a desperation that bordered on insanity, his intensity ten or even a hundred times that of the average recruit. Through sheer, bloody-minded persistence, the "average" Rowan rose through the ranks to become a Marine Headquarters Vice Admiral.
Granted, by the time he retired, he was technically the "weakest" Vice Admiral in terms of raw combat power and achievements. But Rowan wasn't just a local; he was a transmigrator.
Using his knowledge of the future and the characters: He became blood brothers with "Steel Bone" Kong. He adopted Garp as his foster son in the East Blue. He took in Sengoku, Zephyr, and Tsuru as his personal disciples when they first joined.
Once he had achieved success, Rowan had considered having children of his own. But perhaps due to his status as a transmigrator, neither he nor his various wives were ever able to conceive. Eventually, he gave up on the idea. This was why, after retirement, he spent most of his time in Foosha Village, helping Garp look after his son and grandson.
I wonder what a system that takes a hundred years to load actually contains,Rowan thought, his heart a whirlwind of conflicting emotions.
After a moment of hesitation, he finally chose to open the system interface.