The two lines of product information hanging on the light screen held Zaraki's gaze in place.
[Eight Sword Style · Taijutsu Scroll (Kumogakure Special Edition): Price 50,000 Points]
[Broken Blade · Executioner's Blade (Evolvable Version): Price 30,000 Points]
The muscles in Zaraki's cheek twitched uncontrollably.
He instinctively clutched at his chest, where a tightness had already spread as though someone had driven a heavy punch straight into it!
The measly Points he still had on hand were nothing in front of prices like these!
"System, this is straight-up robbery..."
Zaraki drew in a deep breath, but even that was not enough to suppress the urge to curse.
The origins of those two items were obvious at a glance—they were the technique of Killer B and Zabuza's sword from the Naruto world.
The slippery, unpredictable style of Eight Sword Style, paired with a battlefield weapon like the Executioner's Blade, really did suit a combat template like Zaraki far too well.
Just imagining a madman who fought on beast-like instinct while swinging seven or eight more blades at the same time was enough to make the blood boil.
This damned System really could be thoughtful when it felt like it!
And absolutely vicious when it didn't.
It clearly knew what would tempt Zaraki the most, then slapped on a price he could never afford just to stir his appetite and leave him hanging.
"Forget it. I'm poor as hell!"
Grinding his teeth, Zaraki swiped a trembling finger through the air and forcibly closed the Shop interface.
Watching something that good slip out of reach right in front of him left him in an especially bad mood, bad enough that he was already itching to pick a fight just to vent it.
Bang—!
A gunshot interrupted his thoughts.
Above him, a seagull circling lazily in the sky suddenly stiffened and dropped straight into the sea less than two meters from the ship, without even managing a cry, sending up a small splash.
Zaraki raised a brow and turned to look.
Carina was standing on the cabin roof, holding a flintlock pistol that still smoked faintly at the muzzle.
The recoil had made her shoulders tremble a little, but there was a stubborn determination in her eyes.
"I... I was practicing my aim."
The moment she noticed Zaraki looking at her, Carina hurriedly holstered the pistol at her waist and explained herself like a student caught doing something she shouldn't.
"When we get to Cocoyashi Village, I don't want to do nothing but hide behind you. I'm not as strong as you, and I'm definitely not as strong as that mosshead, but at the very least... I want to make sure I don't hold you back."
The sea breeze stirred her short purple hair and exposed a neck that looked pale, tense, and far too rigid.
Zaraki glanced first at the dead bird slowly sinking beneath the waves, then at the earnest look on Carina's face, and found that a fair bit of the irritation caused by his lack of Points had quietly eased away.
"Good shot."
With a grin, Zaraki flicked a gold coin toward her. "Your accuracy's good. Next time, try shooting at moving targets. Hitting something that can't fight back and doesn't move won't sharpen you into anything real."
Carina fumbled in a panic, barely catching the coin, and her cheeks flushed at once.
And with that offhand remark, something in Zaraki's mind suddenly clicked.
'Wait.'
'Hitting something that couldn't move and couldn't resist wouldn't sharpen anything?'
He rubbed the stubble that had just begun to show on his chin.
These past few days, he had been racking his brains trying to figure out how to raise the Template's unlock progress, but every path he thought of led nowhere.
The skills in the System Shop were good, but they were still outside tools.
Where did Kenpachi Zaraki's strength come from?
From slaughter.
From life-and-death fights.
From every clash with strong opponents where blades crossed and survival hung on a thread.
If he had to rely on clearing tasks, scraping together Points and slowly buying skills one by one, then the process would be far too slow.
That sort of steady, step-by-step strengthening was not his style, and it did not fit the instincts this body carried either.
'If I can't afford Eight Sword Style, then why not find someone who knows how to use multiple swords and learn from a real fight with them?'
'Or better yet, smash through his technique with my fists?'
Instead of sitting around waiting for the System to hand him freebies, it would be much better to seize a chance to grow stronger with his own hands.
"Zaraki-san! Two o'clock direction! Something's wrong!"
Carina's slightly panicked voice rang out again.
She had already raised a monocular telescope, but the hand holding it had started to shake.
"It's... it's a warship! A huge one at that! That's the size of a Marine Headquarters Vice Admiral's ship!"
Zaraki narrowed his eyes and did not bother reaching for the telescope.
At this distance, his own eyesight was more reliable than any lens.
At the bow of the massive warship stood a tall, upright figure.
The man wore a Justice coat and a peculiar helmet, but what drew the eye most was the long black thing behind him, moving like living limbs as it gripped several swords at once.
Marine Headquarters Vice Admiral Onigumo.
Zaraki's eyes lit up at once, so brightly that it was almost frightening.
He had just been worrying about Eight Sword Style, and now a ready-made teacher had sailed right to him!
Even if Onigumo used his devil fruit power to wield multiple blades, the fact remained that he was a genuine multi-sword monster.
On top of that, this bastard was famous for being ruthless, a man who believed in Absolute Justice and never held back once he entered a fight.
An opponent like that might not count as top tier in the New World, but in the current East Blue, he was absolutely a monster worth boiling blood over.
"What a luck..."
Zaraki licked his dry lips, and the fighting spirit he had been holding down began to stir in his eyes.
"Just when I was starting to get sleepy, someone brought me a pillow."
"Zaraki-san, should we change our course?" Carina's face had already gone pale, and her voice shook with fear.