Sengoku was a smart man. He knew Klein wanted him to yield. And if his opponent was Klein...
He basically had no chance of winning.
But if it was Garp...
Then he still had a decent shot!
After a moment of thought, Sengoku decided to agree—better that than letting Klein keep pestering him in the future. "Fine. One month from now, I'll spar with Garp."
Upon hearing that, Garp's tiger eyes lit up with excitement. He grinned and said, "Sengoku, if I win, does that mean you gotta call me Big Bro?"
"When you can beat Klein, I'll gladly call you Big Bro," Sengoku said slyly, passing the problem right back to Garp.
Garp's face darkened. Beating Klein...
Wasn't easy!
Klein had outperformed both Sengoku and Garp in this round of evaluations. Among all the current trainees, he was firmly in first place.
His rapid progress was starting to leave Garp feeling overwhelmed, to the point where he didn't even bring up the idea of sparring with Klein anymore.
"Karp, from now on, I'll be giving you some very strict special training," Klein said, his expression turning devilish as a Whitebeard-style grin curled at the corners of his mouth.
The sight sent a chill down Garp's spine and made his scalp tingle.
Special training?
Wasn't that gonna turn his brain to mush?
Noooo—
Klein snatched Garp's bag of snacks and casually munched on them, saying in a "kind and gentle" tone, "Little Garp, you'd better work hard. We can't lose to Sengoku!"
"If you win, I might knock a chunk off your debt."
"But if you lose..."
I'll bash in that dumb 'Hakimi' head of yours.
Crunch—
The donut really was delicious, but eating too many was a bit cloying.
Next time, maybe I'll try rice crackers.
Seeing the smile on Klein's face, Garp shivered. "Bro, aside from you, none of the other trainees in this class stand a chance against me!"
"I'm not losing again!"
Good.
That's the spirit!
Fight on!
"Come on, lie down. I'm in a good mood today—I'll give you a free massage!"
The next second, Garp was already lying shirtless on Klein's bed.
"Aaah—this feels amazing!"
"Bro, your massage technique is god-tier!!"
"Feels so damn good!"
After wrapping up everything else, Klein washed up and lay in bed.
It was already way past midnight. Probably around 3 or 4 a.m. by now.
The game update and maintenance had long since completed.
Genshin Impact: Launch!
As soon as the game loaded, a pop-up appeared.
[Game Version Update 2.0][Gameplay Optimization: ······][New Content: ······][New Events: ······]
A big update.
Way too much content for Klein to bother reading through carefully. He usually just skipped past all that fluff.
There was a new event page, new icons, and—of course—red notification dots.
Clear them one by one, and move on. Easy!
First, on the character profile, aside from his name "Imu's Dad," level, and EXP, there was now a new label: VIP.
With a glowing red dot.
"Well well, just now rolling out a VIP system, huh? This indie studio's catching on. Finally figured they should show off that I'm a filthy whale."
Klein tapped on it. The VIP system had levels from 0 to 15!
Every time you level up your VIP, you get special perks and rewards.
And there was even a charge progress bar:
[50,000,000+ / 30,000]
Holy crap!
He hadn't noticed before.
But now that he looked...
He'd already spent over 50 million Beli!?
Money really piles up over time. Klein honestly hadn't been keeping track, but with the VIP breakdown right there—
Crystal clear.
"Whaling = burning cash. And it's only been a few months." Klein knew he'd recharged a lot...
Still, it felt like way too much.
If he were just some ordinary Marine, the pay from being a wage slave definitely couldn't cover this.
Even tossing in eight to ten years of salary wouldn't put a dent in it.
It was basically a bottomless pit.
You had to hustle!
Working for someone else? That ain't it.
Left turn out the door, foot massage parlor in, cup noodles at home.
The rewards for going from VIP0 to VIP1 were: stamina, 1 Selectable Shard, and a Random Shard Box.
"Let's see what VIP level I hit with all that spending..."
Klein clicked to claim the rewards and level up.
[VIP0 → VIP1][Unlocked 2x battle speed][······]
The next progress bar became:
[50,000,000+ / 980,000]
"Is this legal?" Klein frowned. Jumping from 30k to 980k in one level?
One more tap—
[Unlocked Quick Raid, +1 daily dungeon attempt][······]
VIP3 needed 1,980,000 Beli.
What the hell?
VIP4 needed 32,800,000.
And VIP5? You had to recharge a total of 648,000,000.
Wait wait wait.
He'd already charged 50 million and was just VIP4!?
VIP5 needed 600 million more!?
Are you a damn poet!?
Klein silently raised his middle finger at the devs. "It's the year 1462 of the Sea Circle Calendar, not 1520!!"
"Hyperinflation hasn't even started yet! Where the hell am I supposed to find that much money!?"
"You're trying to back me into a corner, aren't you!?"
Stupid devs!
So this is what they mean by "no conscience, just maximum profits"?
This trash system had officially gone off the deep end. The monetization was starting to look real ugly.
Klein grabbed all the VIP rewards. Among all the perks, the only one worth a damn was the 'Purple Rare Character Selector (East Blue).'
He immediately picked the one he'd been longing for:
Kuina.
A little girl in the game, forever frozen at the most beautiful age of her life.
Otherwise...
If she'd grown up, she'd be a heroic and dashing swordswoman—a total beauty who could fence like a pro.
One Piece early arcs really hit hard sometimes. It used to be full of emotional gut punches.
But by the later arcs, the vibe had changed a lot.
Next, the old 'Battle Pass' had been upgraded to a full-on 'Sailing Pass,' and the rewards were reworked.
[The All-New Sailing Pass Has Arrived!][Insane 10,000% rebate! Tons of valuable rewards await you!][Buy the Deluxe Pass now and instantly gain 10 levels!]
The pass screen now had two rows: the top for standard rewards, the bottom for deluxe.
Standard pass rewards were still the basics: some minor items and scattered pull tickets. At level 100, you got a "Nami Chinese New Year Outfit."
But the deluxe version?
Absolutely stacked.
Lv30: Random Skill Upgrade Scroll x1
Lv50: Random Pet Box x1
Lv80: Famous Sword Box x1
Lv90: Random Talent Box x1
Lv96–100: Random Swordmaster Box, Pirate Ship Upgrade Bundle, Character Advancement Scroll x1, Random Devil Fruit Box x1, Skill Upgrade Scroll x1
"Holy crap, that's way better than the last battle pass."
"You're really spoiling us here—"
"Why's it feel so... generous? Something's off."
Klein's eyes sparkled as he looked at the locked rewards, itching to grab them all at once.
Then he saw the price of the pass.
680,000 Beli!
???
And next to it?
A fat, flashy "Buy Levels" button.
One look, and Klein knew:
"System... I can tell you're really trying to improve."
"Just like me—you've got that 'always striving harder' kind of spirit."