"Is he playing the philanthropist now? Handing out money?!"
Instructor Carter paced back and forth in his office, head lowered, racking his brain over Klein's intentions.
He stopped, jerked his head up, and his eyes lit up: "Scheming Frog keeps rubbing your belly!"
"Klein must've hit his head!"
"Jieh jieh jieh jieh—"
Once he figured it out, the instructor brewed himself a hot cup of tea and sipped with satisfaction."Klein, just wait to lose money. That blind confidence of yours is going to cost you big time!"
"Well, if you're gonna be stupid, I don't mind you doing it a few more times. That way..."
"The more money in my pension fund, the better!"
"Jieh jieh jieh jieh—"
The news that Klein had opened a betting pool spread fast—not just within the Marine Academy, but even to some officers, and townsfolk in the family quarters.
That said, not many actually placed bets. Most just came to watch the show.
In just two days, Klein raked in a total of 400 to 500 million Berries, almost all of it bet on Kong winning.
Only a handful bet on Klein himself—barely a few million Berries in total, and Tsuru alone accounted for a million of it.
Those betting on Klein were basically throwing their money away. No one actually expected him to win.
"I'm not here for bread—I'm here for pride!""Who am I?!""The number one genius in Marine Academy history!""The big bro of the Old Era's three Admirals!""The guiding light of Marine Hero Garp!""The future daddy of Kaido!*"
Clutching his cash, Klein deposited it in the bank and rushed back to his dorm.
'Genshin Impact, launch!'
Once inside the game, he beelined for the New Year Event to farm the Year Beast boss. He burned over 200 million Berries in one go, challenging it more than 20,000 times.
Each 100-run sweep required over 200 clicks.
Klein didn't waste a single second and finally claimed the reward for clearing the event 100,000 times:
"With three top-tier talents, from now on I'm officially... a monster?"
"Ugh, neither of those sound good."
Shrugging it off, Klein immediately slotted Diamond Skeleton into his third talent slot.
He felt his bones and muscles become incomparably heavy, and their hardness soared to terrifying levels.
They say the hardest bone in the human body is the skull—well, Klein's entire skeleton now rivaled...
"With Adamant Body plus Diamond Skeleton, just my physique alone is ridiculous now." Klein was brimming with confidence.
He'd used up over 200 million Berries—this time, he planned to earn it all back with interest.
Fueled by the fire in his heart, he opened his inventory and dumped all 20,000 reward chests at once.
All for the sake of gaining a bit more strength to crush Kong in their duel the day after tomorrow.
3 Random Skill Boxes.
[Skill Acquired: Okama Kenpo]
[Duplicate skill detected. Converted to shards.]
[Skill Acquired: Fragrant Kick]
[Skill Acquired: King's Fist]
[Duplicate skill detected. Converted to shards.]
Klein shook his head, a little disappointed."Lousy luck... Maybe I should've sacrificed my good bro Zephyr first?"
Fragrant Kick was a move from Pirate Empress Boa Hancock—without the Love-Love Fruit, its power dropped several tiers.
In the movie version, it was mostly background fluff.
Even in the anime, she only stood out against the Blackbeard Pirates because of her Devil Fruit powers, turning all the officers to stone.
"Hmm..." Klein suddenly thought, "What if I unlocked the Love-Love Fruit myself?"
"Would it... work on both men and women?"
At least he wouldn't look like Blackbeard Teach—the dude radiated hardcore 'dude-lust' energy.
Was simply unspeakable.
A chubby guy with a full beard and a hairy chest blowing you a kiss? NOPE.
Send him to the shadow realm, or better yet, exile him to certain islands.
Shaking off the image of Teach using the Love-Love Fruit, Klein opened his Skill Upgrade Scrolls.
8 Random Upgrade Scrolls.
[Upgrade Success: Hasshoken LV.2 → LV.3]
[Upgrade Success: Shave LV.5 → LV.6]
[Upgrade Success: Six Sword Style LV.3 → LV.4]
[Upgrade Success: Moonwalk LV.4 → LV.5]
[Upgrade Success: Six Sword Style LV.4 → LV.5]
[Upgrade Success: Fragrant Kick LV.1 → LV.2]
[Upgrade Success: Okama Kenpo LV.8 → LV.9]
[Upgrade Success: Shigan LV.6 → LV.7]
"Not bad! At least my Rokushiki got some boosts!"
Klein was pretty satisfied with the outcome. Next up were two targeted upgrade scrolls.
He was all set to level up his Conqueror's Haki, but...
The scroll requirement for upgrading Conqueror's Haki had jumped from 3 to 5.
"You filthy devs! Come fight me IRL!"
"You absolute criminal masterminds!"
Klein shouted internally, but no one replied.
If he could have upgraded it, his Conqueror's Haki would have hit level 7 by now.
It was just the way of games—always trying to slow your progress, push you to pay more, play longer.
The devs obviously wanted whales to be lifetime wallets. If players could beat the game easily without obstacles or artificial competition—or even in-game "plants"—how would they keep milking them?
Once again, Klein was reminded of the exploitative gaming model back on Blue Planet. It was always about manipulating the players.
After venting, he looked over his current skill set, thinking about what to level next that might actually help him in the upcoming fight.
Both Basic Attack and Iron Fist required 3 scrolls to upgrade. The latest_epɪ_sodes are on_the 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩•𝗳𝗂𝗋𝖾•𝕟𝕖𝕥
After thinking it over, Klein chose Basic Attack.
[Upgrade Success: Basic Attack★ LV.5 → LV.6]
That ★ meant the skill had 1-star enhancement—making it a better return on investment.
Everything else he got was junk. Even the Devil Fruit drop was mid at best:
Zoan-type: Cat-Cat Fruit – Leopard Form
The same fruit used by Rob Lucci, dubbed the CP9's strongest prodigy in 800 years, and their coldest, deadliest weapon.
Also known as the king of trash talk.
"Straight to storage with you."Klein had no interest in a basic Zoan Devil Fruit.
He accepted the system feedback and went to bed satisfied.
Klein strolled up to his instructor, poured himself tea like it was his place, and took a happy sip."Instructor, mind telling me what time tomorrow's assessment is?"
"Assessment time?" Carter put down his newspaper. "Tomorrow morning. Nine o'clock."
"Great, thanks!" Klein downed the tea in one gulp and dashed out the door.
Instructor Carter looked puzzled."What's that brat up to?"
He smirked. "Doesn't matter. Tomorrow he's handing over his shares in the bathhouse, and all future martial arts earnings are mine."
"Jieh jieh jieh jieh—"
Meanwhile, Klein continued collecting funds with his betting scheme while keeping one thing firmly in mind:
"Tomorrow. Nine o'clock.""Strike first!"