The Grand Line, the New World, Sleeping Town.
A rusted, weathered anchor stood impaled at an angle in the cracked stone pier.
Crows let out raspy caws from a dead beech tree, and bleached, crumbling bones were scattered sparingly across the desolate, ruined streets.
Clad in a tailored suit, Caesar strolled through the abandoned town.
His custom leather shoes crunched softly against the gravel beneath his feet, making his exquisite, expensive attire look entirely out of place in these dilapidated surroundings.
Following behind him were a man and a woman.
The woman was tall, with healthy wheat-toned skin, wearing a black dress as her inquisitive eyes swept over the environment.
The man had golden hair styled into a punk crest, a tattoo sprawling across his chest, and an easygoing, somewhat flippant posture.
The woman was Nico Robin, a scholar and historian with a bounty of 79 million Berries.
The man was Marco, First Division Commander and ship’s doctor of the Whitebeard Pirates—the undisputed second-in-command of the crew, holding a bounty well into the hundreds of millions.
According to how the story was originally supposed to go, one of them should currently be roaming the New World alongside Whitebeard, while the other ought to be struggling to survive under the relentless pursuit of the World Government.
As for Caesar…
Caesar was never supposed to exist in this world.
Yet, like in so many stories, he was a transmigrator.
He had been in this world for eighteen years, going from an utterly penniless orphan to a commercial titan whose wealth rivaled entire nations.
There had been no grit or hard work involved—he owed it all to his cheat.
Caesar’s cheat was called the Collection System.
True to its name, it allowed him to collect objects, and by achieving various collection milestones, he could earn all sorts of rewards.
With his system’s aid, Caesar had rapidly built his initial pool of capital.
He could even say to anyone without exaggeration: “I’m so poor that all I have left is money!” It sounded like an arrogant boast, but it was the plain truth.
After all, this was the world of *One Piece*.
For those living here, nothing was more precious than power.
And Caesar—unfortunately, compared to those monsters who could swim across the Calm Belt single-handedly or conquer the Grand Line in a tiny rowboat—was merely an ordinary mortal.
Even after putting in two hundred times the effort and training frantically day and night, he had barely scraped together the strength of a Marine Headquarters Major.
Translated into a pirate bounty, that was roughly tens of millions of Berries.
If he went up against those sea-shattering monsters, he wouldn’t last a single exchange.
Even his golden cheat couldn’t directly grant him raw power.
If there was one area where he truly stood out, it was his looks…
As a transmigrator, Caesar didn’t harbor grand ambitions.
Becoming the Pirate King, Marine Fleet Admiral, or conquering the world held zero interest for him.
Given a second life, Caesar only wanted to live a long, comfortable, and lavish life while completing his system’s main quest: Collect the World.
Yet on these turbulent and chaotic seas, sometimes just staying alive was a luxury.
Without strength to back it up, vast riches were nothing more than a castle built on sand.
Thus, flawed in natural talent, Caesar set his sights on Devil Fruits.
Among the fruits with known locations, the Rumble-Rumble Fruit was up on Skypiea.
He had no way up there, and even if he did, he wasn’t sure if Enel had already eaten it yet.
Making a wasted trip was one thing; delivering his head on a silver platter would be an utter tragedy.
Besides, considering his physical condition, the Rumble-Rumble Fruit wasn’t ideal for him.
While it could dramatically raise his lower combat threshold, given his current physique, it was unclear how much of its true potential he could actually harness.
In contrast, Zoan Fruits provided tangible, raw boosts to physical stats.
However, Caesar turned his nose up at ordinary Zoans, and Ancient Zoans felt a bit lacking.
Mythical Zoans were quite good, but aside from Luffy and the young man standing behind him, most known Mythical Zoans were locked away in Wano or held by the World Government.
Still, there were one or two exceptions…
For instance, the Zoan Fruit that lay dormant in Sleeping Town in the official game *One Piece: Unlimited World Red*, which was ultimately eaten by the Red Count—the Bat-Bat Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Vampire.
A fruit so ridiculously broken that it only appeared in a video game…
Normally, whether a fruit existing solely in a spin-off game actually existed in this world was unknown.
However, taking a “nothing to lose by trying” approach, Caesar had inquired around and discovered that a place called Sleeping Town really did exist in the New World.
And regarding Sleeping Town, there were indeed rumors of mysterious ruins and hidden treasure…
Upon obtaining this news, Caesar hadn’t hesitated for a moment.
He paved the way with Berries, contacted the Whitebeard Pirates, and specifically requested Marco as an escort.
Throwing down a staggering three billion Berries, Whitebeard readily dispatched his eldest son.
Marco was a straight shooter.
Under Caesar’s overwhelming barrage of money, he had slapped his chest and declared he would gladly hang out with his new “brother” for the next few months.
With Marco’s backing, Caesar hadn’t rushed into action.
Instead, he made a trip to the West Blue, reached out to Nico Robin through the black market, and bribed her onto his ship with the promise of Poneglyph information before finally heading for the New World.
After a voyage of more than a month, Caesar finally stepped foot on this island.
“It’s complete ruins…” Marco’s eyes scanned the deserted town.
“Hey, Caesar, you didn’t travel all this way just to do some urban reconstruction, did you?” “Of course not.” Caesar chuckled.
The two had gotten along quite well along the way, but for safety’s sake, he hadn’t told anyone about the Vampire Fruit, merely claiming he was exploring an ancient ruin.
“Marco, how far can your Observation Haki cover?” Marco understood what Caesar meant and focused his senses.
“Given the size of this island, covering the whole thing is no problem.
I can confirm there are only the three of us here.” The three had come aboard Marco’s ship.
The Whitebeard Pirates’ flag was enough to avert plenty of unnecessary trouble in the New World.
Before disembarking, Caesar had specifically instructed Marco not to bring along any crewmates, and Marco naturally wasn’t one to turn down free money.
“Follow me…” Caesar didn’t elaborate further, simply gesturing for the two to follow as he strode toward the island’s interior.
Looking out from their position, a towering, derelict church stood in the center of the island.
Judging by the game’s plot, if nothing went wrong, the Vampire Fruit should be located somewhere in that church complex.
They passed through a dark, dense forest where shadowy bat silhouettes flickered hauntingly, red glints flashing through the gloom every so often.
“A lot of vampire bats.” Marco sensed the surrounding activity with his Observation Haki.
“You two be careful.
These vampire bats carry a ton of viruses.
If you get scratched, you’re guaranteed to get infected.” *Flap, flap, flap…* Just as he finished speaking, a huge bat darted out from the thicket and circled above their heads.
Marco instinctively raised a hand to shoo it away, only to see the bat flap its wings and land right in front of Caesar with a soft rustle.
Claw-like digits on its wings gripped the ground as it waddled around Caesar, raising a puppy-like head to sniff at him.
It uttered a low chirp, seemingly expressing a strange fondness.
“It seems to like you,” Robin remarked quietly, arms crossed.
“Though it might just like your blood.” “Don’t say something so horrifying with such a straight face…” Caesar’s lip twitched as he scrutinized the little creature before him, a surge of subtle excitement rising in his chest.
The original story had mentioned that Devil Fruits seemed to consciously choose their hosts.
Did this vampire bat represent the will of that Vampire Fruit?
After thinking it over, Caesar offered a polite, gentle query: “Can you lead the way?” Marco teased, “Hey, don’t be silly.
You don’t actually expect this bat to take you to what you’re looking for, do you?” Before the words had even left his mouth, the bat flapped its wings and took off, circling once above their heads before flying straight toward the church.
“Huh?”