“Hello, everyone. My name is Bane—full name, Disaster Bane. I’m sixteen years old, and my hobbies include singing, dancing, rap, basket—”
“Alright, alright! That’s enough. Move along. Next!”
And just like that, after one completely pointless self-introduction, Bane officially joined the Black Cat Pirates.
His glorious new position?
Pirate grunt.
Standing off to one side of the deck, Bane ignored the noisy pirates around him and waited with barely concealed anticipation.
“It should be coming any second now…”
As though responding to his thoughts, a series of messages appeared before his eyes.
[Quest: Join a Faction — Completed]
[Reward: Beginner’s Gift Pack]
[Big Brother System officially activated!]
[Name: Disaster Bane]
[Gender: Male]
[Age: 16]
[Physique: 5]
[Physique affects overall physical ability, including strength, speed, defense, and related attributes.]
[Spirit: 3]
[Spirit affects mental strength, recovery, and the use of certain special abilities.]
[Aura: 1]
[Aura represents willpower and presence. It is the primary attribute for strengthening Conqueror’s Haki and can also enhance Armament Haki and Observation Haki to a certain extent.]
[Skills: None]
[Talents: None]
[Currently Bound Faction: Black Cat Pirates]
[Faction Rating: C]
[Special Faction Bonus: Stealth]
[Stealth can be activated once per day.]
[Big Brother: “Hundred Plans” Kuro]
[Default Target: Captain]
[Trust Value: 1]
Bane’s eyes lit up.
After spending a moment studying the interface, he quickly understood the basic mechanics of the Big Brother System.
Whenever he joined a faction, he would receive a special ability associated with that faction.
In the Black Cat Pirates’ case, that ability was [Stealth].
Once activated, Bane’s presence would drop to the absolute minimum, while even the sound of his footsteps would disappear.
The effect lasted three minutes.
However, the moment he actively attacked someone, the ability would immediately end.
It could only be used once per day, but Bane could already imagine countless uses for it.
Sneaking past enemies.
Setting up ambushes.
Escaping when things went horribly wrong.
For someone who had only just become a pirate grunt in the East Blue, a life-saving ability like that was practically priceless.
But the faction bonus was only one part of the System.
The captain of whichever faction he joined would automatically become his designated [Big Brother].
And when Bane trained near his Big Brother, the rate at which he gained experience in his skills would increase.
The exact bonus depended on two things—the Big Brother’s strength and how much that person trusted him.
There were even special Big Brother quests capable of providing additional rewards.
Bane nearly laughed out loud.
So the whole point was to find himself a powerful backer?
Now that was something he could work with.
His gaze immediately shifted toward Captain Kuro.
For a moment, the intensity in Bane’s eyes was almost unsettling.
Kuro might not amount to much when compared to the true monsters roaming the Grand Line, let alone the New World.
But this was the East Blue.
Here, “Hundred Plans” Kuro was already a fairly dangerous pirate captain.
And considering Bane’s current level of combat ability, he was in absolutely no position to complain.
A usable backer was still a backer.
“Right. The Beginner’s Gift Pack.”
Bane immediately focused on the System.
[Open Beginner’s Gift Pack?]
“Open it.”
[Beginner’s Gift Pack opened.]
[Congratulations! You have obtained Intermediate Trust Card ×1.]
[Congratulations! You have obtained Haki Training Manual ×1.]
[Congratulations! You have obtained Random Talent Card ×1.]
Three rewards.
Bane immediately checked them one by one.
[Intermediate Trust Card]
[Effect: Upon use, increases the current Big Brother’s Trust Value by 20 points.]
His eyebrows rose.
Twenty points?
Not bad at all.
Next.
[Haki Training Manual]
[Effect: Upon use, grants LV1 Armament Haki and LV1 Observation Haki.]
[Additional Effect: Grants complete foundational training methods for the continued development of Armament Haki and Observation Haki.]
[Cannot be used repeatedly to stack initial Haki levels.]
Bane’s breathing stopped for half a second.
Haki.
Actual Haki.
He hurriedly checked the final item.
[Random Talent Card]
[Effect: Grants one random talent upon use.]
There was no reason to hesitate.
Bane used all three items in succession.
[Intermediate Trust Card used.]
[Trust Value increased by 20.]
[Current Trust Value: 21]
The instant the Haki Training Manual activated, a flood of unfamiliar information poured into his mind.
Methods of controlling willpower.
Ways to sense another person’s presence.
Techniques for hardening the body through Armament Haki.
Exercises for refining perception with Observation Haki.
The knowledge appeared so naturally that it almost felt as though Bane had spent years memorizing it himself.
His status panel changed immediately afterward.
[Skill Acquired: Armament Haki LV1]
[Skill Acquired: Observation Haki LV1]
Bane could barely contain his excitement.
They were only at the introductory level.
But they were still Haki.
In the New World, Haki might seem almost commonplace because practically every truly powerful fighter knew how to use it.
That didn’t make it ordinary.
Haki was one of the foundations separating genuine powerhouses from the countless pirates who never rose beyond mediocrity.
And the earlier someone began training it, the greater the advantage.
More importantly…
Bane was currently in the East Blue.
The sea widely regarded as the weakest of the Four Blues.
Learning Haki here, three years before Monkey D.
Luffy would even begin his journey?
Against most ordinary East Blue pirates, it might as well have been cheating.
Bane calmed himself and turned his attention toward the last reward.
“System, use the Random Talent Card.”
[Random Talent Card used.]
[Generating random talent…]
[Congratulations! Talent acquired: Bane of Existence.]
Bane blinked.
“Bane of… what?”
He opened the description.
[Talent: Bane of Existence]
[This talent possesses two stages.]
[Stage One — Confidant]
[While the current Big Brother’s Trust Value is below 100, Trust Value will randomly increase by 1–5 points each day.]
[Stage Two — Great Bane]
[Once the current Big Brother’s Trust Value reaches 100, the Big Brother will develop a powerful urge to eliminate you despite continuing to trust you.]
Bane stared silently at the words floating before him.
Several seconds passed.
Then—
“What the hell?!”
His expression twisted.
What kind of ridiculous talent was this?
The more his Big Brother trusted him, the more likely that same person was to want him dead?
Wasn’t that basically a sugar-coated time bomb?
And the worst part was that he’d already used the Intermediate Trust Card.
Bane slowly looked at the number displayed on the interface.
[Trust Value: 21]
For some reason, he suddenly pictured himself peacefully sleeping one night…
Only to open his eyes and discover Kuro standing beside his bed, adjusting his glasses with the heel of his palm while ten razor-sharp Cat Claws gleamed in the moonlight.
Bane shuddered.
“…Damn it.”
There was nothing he could do now.
Talents couldn’t exactly be returned for a refund.
He could only deal with the consequences when they came.
More importantly, there was something he could do right now.
Train.
If Kuro eventually reached the point where trusting Bane somehow made him desperate to murder him, then Bane simply had to become strong enough to survive.
With that very reasonable survival goal established, Bane threw himself into Haki training.
Seven days passed in the blink of an eye.
His integration into the Black Cat Pirates went surprisingly smoothly.
Every day, after finishing whatever deck-cleaning or menial work was assigned to him, Bane openly practiced Armament Haki and Observation Haki aboard the ship.
He wasn’t particularly worried about anyone discovering what he was doing.
The average grunt in the Black Cat Pirates didn’t even know what Haki was.
To them, Bane was simply the strange new guy who spent his free time standing around with his eyes closed, punching the air, taking hits, or performing bizarre physical exercises.
A few older crew members had initially tried to put the newcomer in his place.
That lasted until they picked a fight with him.
Bane flattened them.
His Armament Haki and Observation Haki might only have been LV1, barely beyond the threshold of awakening, but Haki was still Haki.
Against East Blue pirate grunts who relied almost entirely on wild punches, brute force, and tavern-brawl experience?
More than enough.
After several men were sent sprawling across the deck, the harassment abruptly stopped.
Pirates weren’t complicated people.
Strength earned respect.
And if you could punch harder than the other guy, he suddenly became much more willing to listen.
A few days later, Bane received another surprise.
He was promoted.
Whether it was because Kuro had noticed his performance or because the steadily increasing Trust Value had somehow influenced the captain’s opinion, Bane couldn’t say.
Either way, he was made a squad leader.
Five rookie pirates who had joined around the same time were placed under his command.
Bane didn’t care much about the position itself.
Commanding five random pirate grunts wasn’t exactly the beginning of his grand conquest of the seas.
What mattered was the privilege that came with it.
He no longer had to spend most of the day doing menial chores.
And that meant—
More time to train.
For Bane, that alone made the promotion worthwhile.
The current year was 1517 of the Sea Circle Calendar.
Three years remained before Monkey D.
Luffy would set sail from Foosha Village.
Three years before the era Bane remembered would truly begin moving.
It sounded like plenty of time.
Bane knew better.
In a world like this, three years could disappear frighteningly fast.
“One hundred twenty-two…”
On the deck beneath the afternoon sun, sweat dripped from Bane’s forehead and splattered against the wooden planks.
“One hundred twenty-three…”
His arms trembled.
“One hundred twenty-four…”
He lowered himself again.
Strengthening his body was an indispensable part of Haki training.
Without a strong enough body to support it, even powerful Haki could only take him so far.
So Bane trained relentlessly.
Push-ups.
Squats.
Running.
Striking exercises.
Endurance training.
And once his physical conditioning was finished, he moved on to something considerably less pleasant.
Bane picked up a thick wooden stick.
Then he struck himself.
Thump!
Armament Haki flowed through his body just before impact.
Another strike.
Thump!
Again.
And again.
He repeatedly used Armament Haki to defend against the blows, forcing himself to maintain the coating through pain and exhaustion.
His progress over the past week had been absurdly fast.
There was a simple reason.
[Big Brother: “Hundred Plans” Kuro]
[Trust Value: 40]
As Kuro’s Trust Value increased, so did the System’s training bonus.
At forty points, Bane estimated that his current skill-training efficiency was roughly five times greater than normal.
Five times.
And according to the System’s mechanics, that multiplier would continue increasing as Kuro trusted him more.
Right up until the Trust Value reached one hundred.
At which point [Bane of Existence] would enter its second stage and Kuro would inexplicably begin wanting him dead.
A fantastic arrangement.
Still…
Bane had to admit something.
Before reaching the murderous part, this talent was incredible.
His growth speed was ridiculous.
Every day, Kuro trusted him a little more.
Every day, Bane trained faster.
And every day, he moved another step closer to becoming strong enough to survive whatever waited beyond the East Blue.
It was dangerous.
Completely unreasonable.
And strangely exhilarating.
Like playing with fire while knowing perfectly well that eventually, the flames would turn on him.
Thump!
Bane struck himself again.
Armament Haki hardened across his body.
The wooden stick rebounded slightly.
Then—
Ding!
A familiar sound rang in his mind.
Bane froze.
A notification appeared before his eyes.
[Armament Haki has advanced to LV2!]
[Physique +1]
[Spirit +1]
[Author’s Note: A Trust Value of 100 does not mean absolute obedience. It simply means the Big Brother is much more inclined to believe what Bane says. Trust Value is also not permanent. If Bane does something that displeases his Big Brother, it can decrease; likewise, actions that earn approval can increase it.]