Even though he had repeatedly told himself not to get involved, Karl ultimately couldn’t bring himself to abandon Luffy on the beach.
After wrestling with his conscience for a while, he finally sighed, lifted the unconscious boy onto his shoulders, and began making his way back toward the cliff where he had been fishing.
Along the journey, he collected all of his fishing gear as well.
His workday was officially over.
Although today’s catch had amounted to nothing, he still had enough preserved food stockpiled to survive for several more days.
More than an hour later, a completely exhausted Karl finally returned to his shelter deep within the forest, carrying Luffy the entire way.
Calling it a house would have been overly generous.
A wooden box might have been a more accurate comparison.
After all, Karl had never learned construction in either his previous life or this one.
The closest thing he possessed to building experience was watching a few wilderness survival programs online.
The fact that he had managed to assemble something habitable at all was already impressive.
For Karl, it didn’t need to be comfortable.
As long as it could provide shelter from the elements and a place to sleep, it was sufficient.
On a deserted island, even a crude hut offered a sense of security.
“Just how long has this guy gone without food?”
Karl stared at Luffy, who was sprawled across a rough dirt bed inside the shelter, sleeping soundly and snoring away.
He couldn’t help muttering a complaint.
Back on Earth, Karl had grown up in a time when starvation was no longer a common concern.
People collapsing from hunger were things he had only seen in documentaries, novels, and films.
And ever since arriving in this world, Luffy was the first actual person he had encountered.
Naturally, this was also the first time Karl had witnessed something like this in real life.
“Sigh…”
He sat down outside the hut.
“Having someone around to talk to isn’t actually that bad.”
After a pause, he shook his head.
“But joining his crew?
Not a chance.”
Admittedly, becoming a member of the protagonist’s crew sounded incredibly tempting.
However, life in his previous world had taught Karl many lessons.
Reality had a way of crushing youthful fantasies.
As a result, he had reached a certain understanding.
Since fate had unexpectedly granted him another life, he intended to enjoy it properly.
A peaceful life.
A comfortable life.
A life free from unnecessary risks.
As for fighting?
Killing?
Those things held no appeal whatsoever.
Karl had never been a warrior.
In his previous life, he had been nothing more than an ordinary citizen who obeyed the law.
The idea of taking another person’s life wasn’t something he could casually accept.
The same applied to piracy.
While his life on Earth hadn’t been especially remarkable, his upbringing had certainly instilled a proper sense of right and wrong.
Like many people, he had occasionally imagined himself as a wandering hero who protected the innocent and punished evildoers.
But hurting innocent people?
That was a line he couldn’t cross.
Maybe he really was the sort of person people mocked when they said morality was a set of invisible shackles.
Of course, Karl understood perfectly well that this wasn’t Earth.
The laws, regulations, and social systems of his old world no longer existed.
But understanding that fact intellectually and accepting it emotionally were entirely different things.
During nearly three months of isolation, Karl had spent an extraordinary amount of time thinking.
And through that reflection, he had gradually realized something.
The physical laws of his former world might have vanished.
But the values that had shaped him since childhood remained firmly rooted within him.
Invisible restraints were often stronger than visible ones.
Chains could be broken.
Beliefs were far harder to escape.
Even after crossing into another world, those principles continued to influence him.
In the end, Karl simply wasn’t the sort of person who could take lives without hesitation.
That was the true reason he had rejected Luffy’s invitation so decisively.
A life filled with adventure.
A legendary voyage across the seas.
Those ideas certainly sounded exciting.
But for Karl, they belonged in dreams rather than reality.
During the past few months, he had also spent considerable time contemplating his future.
Combining fragments of memory from the body’s original owner with scattered knowledge he vaguely remembered from internet clips and discussions in his previous life, he had managed to assemble a rough understanding of this world.
The conclusion was obvious.
Pirates.
This truly was the era ruled by pirates.
The title Great Age of Pirates was not an exaggeration.
If the world itself favored any group of people, then pirates undoubtedly occupied that position.
Karl couldn’t help comparing it to stories from Earth.
Every age had its central stage.
Every era had its chosen protagonists.
And in this age, pirates stood at the center of history.
Even if the world eventually transitioned into a new era, the person destined to connect the old age and the new one would almost certainly be a pirate.
The greatest pirate of all.
As for who that person would be…
The answer seemed obvious.
Karl turned his gaze toward the hut.
Through the slightly open doorway, he could see Luffy sleeping without a care in the world.
Unless something drastic changed, Luffy would almost certainly become the future Pirate King.
What happened after that was impossible to know.
As far as Karl could remember, the One Piece story hadn’t even concluded before he was struck by lightning and transported here.
So while he could roughly predict the direction history would take, the final destination remained a mystery.
Even so, Karl had no desire to place himself at the center of those events.
His previous life had taught him one particularly important lesson.
He wasn’t special.
He wasn’t a genius.
He wasn’t a chosen hero blessed by fate.
He was simply an ordinary person.
And once someone truly accepted that fact, how could they possibly fight for the center stage of the world?
How could they compete with those destined to shape history?
Simply living a peaceful life was already difficult enough.
As a result, the pirate path was immediately eliminated from consideration.
That naturally left another option.
The Marines.
Unfortunately, Karl wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about that choice either.
From the bits and pieces he remembered, the Marines were hardly perfect.
Corruption existed.
Political struggles existed.
Internal conflicts existed.
None of that surprised him.
Stories often portrayed institutions as flawed.
Otherwise, how would the protagonist stand out?
Karl had no interest in debating whether the Marines were righteous or corrupt.
What mattered to him was practicality.
Joining the Marines essentially meant obtaining stable employment.
On paper, that sounded excellent.
But reality was another matter entirely.
What if he ended up under a terrible commanding officer?
What if he was assigned to confront powerful pirates?
What if he became involved in dangerous missions?
Any one of those scenarios could easily get him killed.
And survival remained Karl’s highest priority.
For that reason, the Marine route wasn’t particularly appealing.
In his eyes, the ideal future was much simpler.
Open a small business.
Operate a modest shop.
Earn enough money to live comfortably.
That would be more than sufficient.
In fact, Karl felt fairly confident he could make it work.
After all, for a modern Chinese man, opening a restaurant in another world wasn’t exactly an unrealistic dream.
Then a new thought suddenly crossed his mind.
“Wait a second.”
He snapped his fingers.
“The safest place would be near Marine Headquarters.”
A grin slowly appeared on his face.
After all, pirates would probably think twice before robbing a restaurant operating right under the Marines’ noses.