Chapter 45: The System Speaks
If you asked Ren when he was most nervous in his new life—more nervous than facing a monster tide, more nervous than confronting a Giant Dragon—he could tell you clearly: it was every time he drew cards.
He sat on his bed, fresh from a hot bath, the fatigue of his journey washed away but his heart hammering against his ribs. He had twenty chances. Two ten-pulls. And most importantly, he had the Goddess's Blessing (Luck +100) from Mira.
This was it.
"System," he said, his voice tense. "Use one ten-pull."
"[Confirm!]"
The familiar panel screen lit up, flashing with streaks of starlight, the individual pulls constantly converging in a swirling, starry sky.
Ren clasped his hands together, his eyes squeezed shut. "Gold! Gold! Gold! Please, Mira, lend me your luck! Gold! Gold! Gold!"
Ren cautiously opened one eye and looked at the animation on the screen.
His expression froze.
The starlight flickering in the sky... let alone gold, he didn't even see a single purple one.
The animation stopped. The results were in.
Seven blue. Three white.
Ren thought he was seeing things. He thought he must have had hallucinations from his three-day knockout. He closed his eyes, rubbed them hard, and when he reopened them, all ten character cards had already flipped over.
They were all nameless, cannon fodder characters he didn't recognize. Just... experience.
That's right. No gold. No purple. Just a pile of useless blue and white. His Goddess's Blessing... had it failed?
"System?!" Ren shouted in his mind, his voice filled with an angry, betrayed whine. "Why no gold?! What is this?!"
He waited for the usual, silent [Ding!] response. Instead... something new happened.
A different kind of text box appeared. It was sharper, colder.
[...Query detected. What is the Host's issue?]
Ren's anger vanished, replaced by pure shock. "...You... you can talk?"
[I am a System. I can communicate,] the cold, synthetic voice explained in his mind. [You have never asked a direct question before. You have only given commands. Please state your query.]
"I... My query is, why no gold?!" Ren sputtered. "And why didn't I even get one purple?!"
[Analyzing query...]
[It is statistically normal for there to be no gold-tier rewards,] the System replied instantly. [The guaranteed gold-tier reward is at 100 pulls, not 10. The probability of receiving a gold-tier reward on any individual pull is 1%. The cumulative probability of receiving at least one gold-tier reward in a single ten-pull is 9.56%.]
[Therefore, it is 'most normal' not to receive a gold-tier reward.]
"What about purple?!" Ren demanded.
[Host, you are perhaps underestimating purple-tier rewards. The probability of receiving a purple-tier reward is 5%. The cumulative probability of receiving at least one purple-tier reward in a ten-pull is 40.13%. It is also very normal not to receive a purple-tier reward.]
"..."
Although Ren had been admitted to university, he was not good at calculations at all. He only now realized that the probability of getting gold from a ten-pull was barely one-tenth.
The System wasn't done. [The Host's luck before was a statistical explosion. You received a gold-tier card on your first ten-pull and another on your second. You also received a purple-tier card on a single monthly pull. This was a severe anomaly.]
[This does not mean the Host will always be lucky. Getting gold or purple is an anomaly. Getting blue, green, or white is the norm. In fact, by the data, the Host's luck on this pull is still good. Receiving seven blue-tier cards is a high-value outcome for a standard ten-pull.]
Ren's mouth twitched. He suspected the System was mocking him. What was the use of drawing so many blue character cards? Fodder!
"I refuse to believe it!" Ren said, gritting his teeth. "I am a Transmigrator! I'm one in billions! I'm a chosen Transmigrator who awakened a System! How can my luck be norm?! Plus, I have the Goddess's blessing, and I just did a ten-pull to warm up! With three buffs stacked, I won't get gold?!"
He was a gacha addict, and he was on tilt.
"Do it again! Ten-pull!"
"[Confirm!]"
The panel screen began to flash with streaks of starlight again, converging in the starry sky.
Ren stared intently at the screen, his eyes wide, not daring to blink.
The first star descended... White.
"Tch."
The second... Blue.
"Useless."
The third... White.
"Garbage."
The fourth... Green.
"Seriously?"
The fifth... Blue.
The sixth... White.
The seventh... Blue.
The eighth... Green.
Eight consecutive stars had appeared, all of them fodder. Ren's heart sank. Just as he thought this pull was also a complete bust...
Whoosh—!
The ninth star descended, but it was different. It was a deep, vibrant, and powerful purple star.
"A purple!"
Ren was immediately, pleasantly surprised. His shoulders sagged in relief. Okay. At least it wasn't a total loss.
Purple character cards, though not the ceiling-level combat power of a Gold, are still top-tier in strength.
For example, Hoshigaki Kisame, whom Ren had previously pulled. Kisame's overall strength was extremely formidable. In his world, the legendary taijutsu master Might Guy only barely defeated him after opening the Seventh Gate of Joy.
[Akarin's Note: The Eight Inner Gates (Hachimon Tonkō) from the Naruto series is a technique that unlocks the body's physical limits at the cost of extreme damage. The Seventh Gate (Kyōmon - Gate of Joy) grants the user immense power. The final Eighth Gate of Death (Shimon) grants power surpassing all others, but at the cost of the user's life.]
It should be known that when Might Guy opened the Eighth Gate of Death, he was evaluated by the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki, Uchiha Madara, with the legendary words: "I, Uchiha Madara, declare you the strongest."
So, while the upper limit of purple character cards might be slightly inferior to gold, their overall strength is only slightly less. A purple was a huge win.
Just as Ren thought this card draw was over, as he let out his breath...
BOOOOOOM!
A blinding, dazzling, GOLDEN starlight descended from the heavens. It didn't just streak across the screen; it slammed into the center, obliterating the other, lesser lights with its sheer presence.
"A GOLD!"
Ren was overjoyed. He leaped up from his bed, his fatigue and his earlier anger completely gone, replaced by pure, maniacal gacha-fueled ecstasy.
"SYSTEM! SPEAK!" Ren directly jumped up and shouted arrogantly, pointing at the golden light. "SPEAK NOW! WHAT DID YOU SAY ABOUT ANOMALIES?! HUH?! LOOK AT THAT! WHO'S NORMAL NOW?!"
[...]
The System was silent.
[...Luck is a statistical variable,] it finally responded, its synthetic voice sounding, for the first time, just a little bit stressed. [This is... another anomaly. Congratulations, Host.]
At this moment, Ren's gaze was fixed on the panel, his heart hammering. The character cards on the panel began to flip open one by one.
Ren directly skipped the white, green, and blue ones at the front; character cards of this level were all experience fodder, keeping them had no meaning whatsoever.
What Ren cared about were the purple and gold ones at the back.
Soon, the purple character card flipped open.
"It's actually him!"
Ren couldn't help but be very surprised to see the character that appeared.
The character on the card had wavy black hair, normal skin, and a spray of freckles on his cheeks. He wore an orange cowboy hat with 'smile' and 'sad' emblems on the brim. He wore a red bead necklace around his neck, black shorts, and his upper body was bare, showing off his perfect physique, with a dagger tucked into his waist.
That's right! He was one of the many One Piece fans' greatest regrets—
"Fire Fist" Portgas D. Ace.
Because of him, the most classic and brutal war in the One Piece manga took place: the Marineford War.
To rescue Ace, his adoptive father, Whitebeard, led his entire grand fleet to declare war on Marine Headquarters.
In hindsight, such an act was tantamount to suicide, but that man had to go. Because he was Ace's father, and because he was the strongest man in the world, Whitebeard.
It was a pity that the hero was aging, and the lineup of Marine Headquarters was simply too powerful.
Although Ace was successfully rescued later, a huge sacrifice was paid.
Finally, Ace, in order to protect his younger brother, Luffy, was impaled through the chest from behind by Admiral Akainu's magma fist, and ultimately died in his brother's arms.
When Ren saw this in his past life, he couldn't stop his tears from falling. He never thought that one day he would actually draw Ace's character card.
Ace's strength goes without saying. He was the 2nd Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates. Although the power of Haki was greatly strengthened in the later stages of the anime, Logia Devil Fruit abilities are still super strong.
The Mera Mera no Mi... it wasn't a weak fruit. The joke wasn't that "dogs don't eat it"; the joke was that it was just an "inferior" version of Akainu's Magu Magu no Mi, fire versus magma.
[Akarin's Note: Mera Mera no Mi (Flare-Flare Fruit) is the Logia-type Devil Fruit that allows the user to create, control, and transform into fire. Magu Magu no Mi (Mag-Mag Fruit) is the Logia-type fruit for magma, which was shown to be "superior" to Ace's fire, allowing Akainu to burn and kill him.]
Ace's only drawback might be that he appeared too early; the Haki setting was not yet fully developed at that time, and he relied almost entirely on his Devil Fruit.
However, even if Ace were truly a Haki master, he probably would have found it difficult to withstand Akainu's punch. Akainu's setting is still that of the most powerful single-target burst master.
Perhaps because of these shortcomings—the lack of Haki and his "inferior" fruit type—Ace was classified as a purple character card. But among purple character cards, Ace's strength should also be considered top-tier.
Ren smiled, happy with this pull. His gaze then turned to the last, final card. The golden one.
This was the main event, after all.
Ren's breath caught. He slowly reached out and tapped the card on the screen.
The golden light flared, and the card flipped.
Ren was instantly astonished when he saw the other person's appearance. His jaw dropped.
"It's... It's actually him!"
[Akarin Note:
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