The King of Bandits, Sig, started his day by waking up naturally.
The first thing he did upon waking was glance at the wall of his wooden cabin.
The large hole that Garp had punched in the wall yesterday had already been simply repaired with several large wooden boards.
Looking at the wall, a faint smile appeared on Sig's lips.
Garp, you're finally gone.
Since the day he crossed over after drinking too much, Sig had been living in constant fear of Garp's arrival. Because of this, he had even planned to stay quietly hidden deep in the mountains as a recluse until Garp left.
Now, his goal had been achieved, and the crisis was over.
It wasn't that Sig had no curiosity about this world or no desire to travel around and challenge the Grand Line.
But previously, due to Garp, he had decisively chosen to listen to his inner voice and keep a low profile.
Now, things were different.
"From today onwards, history's wheel shall spin recklessly. The journey of a legendary king shall begin here…"
"After all, I am someone recognized by the naval hero Garp as a strong man—someone who once fought a heaven-shaking battle with him and emerged unscathed."
Sig narrated to himself in his mind, a surge of ambition rising in his chest.
As he thought this, a virtual interface quickly unfolded in front of him.
After having dealt with Dragon from the Revolutionary Army and receiving a visit from Garp, Sig's compatibility rate with the KING character card had increased to 61%!
According to the system's description, there were two ways to increase compatibility: by role-playing or by practicing abilities.
However, the system hadn't provided much detail, leaving Sig to figure things out on his own.
After experiencing these events, Sig had developed some personal insights.
The method of role-playing wasn't about standing in front of a mirror and acting like a drama queen—it required an audience. And who the audience was also made a big difference.
For example, the speed of his compatibility increase when acting in front of Shanks, Dragon, or Garp was much faster than when he acted in front of his small gang of underlings.
Sig took the compatibility rate very seriously. After all, the system didn't give many hints, and future character cards might be related to the KING card's compatibility.
As he pondered, the sound of commotion came from outside the wooden cabin.
"For the glory of the King of Bandits!"
"For the glory of the King of Bandits…"
Hearing the unified chanting from outside the cabin, Sig's expression turned complicated.
Since Garp's visit yesterday, a group of bandits, led by the most excitable bald guy, seemed like they'd been injected with adrenaline. They declared they would undergo rigorous training to become worthy subordinates of the King of Bandits.
"To be fair, having such enthusiastic subordinates is much better than leading a group of lazy freeloaders."
With that thought, Sig couldn't help but feel a little touched by his gang's fervor.
Stepping out of the wooden cabin, he looked at the gathered bandits outside with a bit of gratification.
It seemed that the bald guy was trying to train the group of bandits in a manner similar to the Navy.
The two rows of bandits standing in formation, shouting slogans in unison, actually looked somewhat impressive.
"For the glory of the King of Bandits!"
Hearing the synchronized chants, Sig's face suddenly darkened, and he had a bad premonition.
Among the voices, he seemed to hear a child's voice.
Following the direction of the sound, he looked more closely, and Sig was completely stunned.
Among the bandits wearing hats and scarves, there stood a little boy wearing a straw hat, standing out like a crane among chickens.
Each time the slogans rang out, the little boy excitedly raised his fist and waved it in the air.
"Our king is destined to lead the bandits of the four seas to rise, correcting the errors of this misguided Great Pirate Era!"
"The dawn of the Great Bandit Era is upon us! For the glory of the King of Bandits!"
Sig gasped sharply, rushed to stop the chanting, and pulled the boy out of the group before casting a buff on the bald leader standing at the front of the group.
"What the hell is going on? What did you say to Luffy?"
Sig became serious and asked in a deep voice.
"Boss…" Baldy clutched his head and explained:
"We were doing our daily routine of chanting slogans, and this kid just joined in on his own..."
Sig was slightly stunned and looked at the little Luffy in his hand with surprise, only to see him grinning widely with a big smile.
Turns out, he just thought it was fun… simply joining the crowd.
Sig glanced at the large bump on Baldy's head, stayed silent for a moment, and then said:
"Consider that buff as something I gave you in advance."
However, Sig still felt something was off.
This time, Luffy joined in just for fun and to fool around, but if he kept being exposed to this long enough and started developing even the slightest idea of becoming the Mountain Bandit King… then he really would get smashed to bits by Garp.
After thinking it through, Sig spoke:
"From now on, change the slogans. Absolutely no slogans related to the Mountain Bandit King, got it?"
The bandits were slightly stunned and a bit confused.
Once again, it was Baldy who reacted first:
"Now I get it! Boss, you mean that goals like becoming the Mountain Bandit King would lose their depth if shouted as slogans!"
"True dreams aren't achieved by shouting them out. We only need to keep that goal deeply hidden in our hearts."
The other bandits, as if suddenly enlightened, started to nod and exclaim:
"The Boss is the Boss! Even a simple sentence contains so much depth."
"Boss, we will definitely follow you to the top of the world!"
Sig raised his hand to rub his forehead, giving up on trying to explain further to his subordinates.
Holding Luffy in one hand, he suddenly heard commotion behind him.
"Alright, everyone, listen up! This is our new slogan. Follow after me…" Baldy's voice rang out.
"No matter what difficulties we encounter, don't be afraid. Face them with a smile! The best way to conquer fear is to face it head-on! Let's do this! Go for it!"
Hearing this, Sig instantly froze in place as if turned to stone, his brain momentarily short-circuited.
When he came back to his senses, the entire mountain was echoing with a unified chant, the sound reverberating far and wide.
"Where did this come from? Where did you hear that slogan?" Sig asked with a shocked expression, as though he'd seen a ghost, glaring at Baldy.
"Boss, wasn't this your personal instruction?" Baldy scratched his head and replied:
"A few days ago, you asked me to come to your room at 3 a.m. to receive your guidance…"
"At the time, Boss, you said… Mountain Bandit King, I'm going to be thatZZZZZZZZZ… No matter what difficulties…"
Sig rubbed his face and suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of exhaustion.
"From now on, no one is allowed to approach my room at night while I'm sleeping."
"And also, come up with a normal slogan!"
After saying this, Sig quickly carried Luffy away. Once they reached an open space where there were no subordinates around, Sig finally put Luffy down and asked him:
"Luffy, let me ask you again. What kind of King do you want to become?"