One Piece with Cheat Codes

"An intermediate body tempering skill book!" Ryu felt a pang of disappointment. What he desperately needed was an intermediate meditation skill; if he had drawn that, he could have saved his diamonds. It seemed he would have to purchase it from the shop.

"Use the intermediate body tempering skill book!" With no flashy effects or cosmic phenomena, Ryu felt a slight surge of strength in his body after using the skill book.

"Phew, better buy that meditation skill before this drags on!" Ryu opened the shop and found a basic intermediate mental technique, clicking to purchase it.

"You have lost 1000 diamonds and obtained the intermediate meditation skill. Your basic meditation skill is now ready to upgrade. Would you like to use the intermediate meditation skill?" The system's synthesized voice chimed again.

"Upgrade!" Ryu exhaled and confirmed.

After using the skill book, he clearly sensed a growth in his internal energy. He directed it to his fists and threw a light punch.

"The power has more than doubled!" Ryu's eyes lit up as he felt the change brought by his enhanced internal energy.

"Next up is the Purple Mist Divine Skill!" He suppressed his excitement and directly used the secret manual for the Purple Mist Divine Skill from his backpack.

"Prerequisite skill level insufficient. Please upgrade the prerequisite skill!"

The system's emotionless voice made Ryu nearly flip the table in frustration.

"What the hell? Don't I already have an intermediate meditation skill? Do I need to max it out too?" While grumbling, Ryu opened the intermediate meditation skill icon, only to see that reaching level one required a whopping 2000 points of proficiency, nearly giving him a heart attack.

In other words, even if he used skill points to upgrade, it would take two skill points to reach level one. Glancing at his remaining six skill points, Ryu gritted his teeth and allocated one point.

"You have used a skill point. Proficiency increased by 1000 points!"

"Just as I thought," Ryu sighed. The reason he hadn't upgraded two points at once was that he wanted to keep a safety net, but reality taught him once again that without spending money, one could never get ahead in the game.

After using another skill point, his level one intermediate meditation skill quickly rose to level two, and his energy finally surpassed the 100-point mark. He could feel a significant difference from when he faced Ace; he was no longer limited to just a single strike against a Logia user.

"It really went up!" Ryu glanced at the level two proficiency and sighed in despair. He now had only four skill points left, and even if he spent them all, he wouldn't max out the skill.

"Prerequisite skill level insufficient. Please upgrade the prerequisite skill!" With his skill points dwindling, Ryu, with a mindset of trying his luck, once again used the Purple Mist Divine Skill manual. However, the system didn't let him off the hook and continued to prompt him to upgrade the prerequisite skill.

"I refuse to believe this! Worst case, I'll just grind it out. I've done it before, so what's there to fear?" Ryu steeled himself and dumped all his skill points into the meditation skill, watching as the proficiency climbed to 4000. He settled down, planning to train continuously until Garp arrived.

Three days later, at the Loguetown Marine Base, in the high command office.

"Where's Ryu?" Smoker asked, chewing on his cigar, addressing the marine standing in front of him with reports.

"Reporting, Captain. Bounty hunter Ryu has been staying at the inn since the last incident!" The marine saluted and replied loudly.

"Go inform him that Vice Admiral Garp is on his way and that he should come here!" Smoker commanded directly.

"Yes!" The marine saluted again and promptly left.

"Captain, do we really have to hand Ace over to him?" After the marine left, Tashigi expressed her reluctance.

"Phew~ I've looked into it. Ace isn't the type to rob for a living; he does some strange things but isn't an outright villain. I suspect he might be related to Vice Admiral Garp. Otherwise, someone like Ryu wouldn't be so eager to take him to Garp. He likely wants something from the Vice Admiral!" Smoker exhaled a plume of smoke as he analyzed.

"Then why let Ryu have his way?" Tashigi was confused; it was clear that Ryu didn't seem trustworthy. Why allow him to take Ace to Garp for a reward?

Smoker gazed out at the sea, where a marine ship was faintly appearing on the horizon, and smiled, saying, "That's Vice Admiral Garp! He's not someone a kid like Ryu can deceive!"

If Ryu were here to hear Smoker's analysis, he would surely have exclaimed, "True, old guy is impressive!"

But he had no idea that his benefits were not coming from Vice Admiral Garp but from the system in his mind.

At this moment, Ryu was just interrupted from his training by the summoned marine.

"Hmph, what an impolite guy. Is that how you call someone?" Ryu remarked coolly, looking at the marine he had knocked down.

"Such a loss! Ordinary marines don't even give experience points anymore. Better not bother with this kind of trash in the future. So embarrassing!" Exiting the inn, Ryu shook his head and muttered.

Though Ryu felt a bit irritated at being interrupted during his training, the message from the Marines made him somewhat satisfied. He knocked down the soldier purely because he was stingy enough not to let even a single Marine soldier's experience slip away. He even found a flimsy excuse for it.

"Smoker! Long time no see!" Ryu greeted casually as he arrived at the Marine base.

"Phew~ Kid, casually attacking Marines isn't very pirate hunter-like!" Smoker clearly wasn't pleased about Ryu taking down his messenger.

"Haha, my apologies, Captain! Your subordinate was a bit rude. I was in the middle of training, and he barged in, so I gave him a little lesson!" Ryu chuckled, trying to defuse the tension.

Smoker refrained from attacking Ryu, precisely because, as he said, his subordinate wasn't harmed. If he had been, their encounter would have been quite different.

"Vice Admiral Garp's ship will arrive at the port shortly. You can take Ace now!" Smoker took a puff from his cigar, his disdain for Ryu evident.

"Sounds good! So, should you be handing me the key to the handcuffs, Captain?" Ryu smiled, reaching out toward Smoker.

Smoker fixed his gaze on Ryu, saying nothing. Ryu remained unhurried, standing there with a smile, seemingly confident Smoker would hand over the key.

"Here you go!" After a long moment, Smoker pulled the key from his pocket and tossed it to Ryu.

Ryu caught the key with a grin, following a Marine soldier toward the cell where Ace was held.

"Captain, why give him the key? What if he frees Ace?" Tashigi asked anxiously.

"Phew~ Remember my earlier speculation? He won't let Ace go, but Vice Admiral Garp might need the key, so giving it to him is fine too!" Smoker exhaled a few smoke rings and explained slowly.

Tashigi fell silent, saluting Smoker and stating, "I'll follow them with some men, just in case!"

With that, Tashigi turned and left, and Smoker didn't stop her. After all, it was just his guess. If this were all a charade between Ryu and Ace, they would be the ones fooled.

"Hey~ Looks like you haven't had a good time these past few days!" Ryu entered the cell, greeting the listless Ace with delight.

"What's your goal?" Ace had been thinking clearly during his days of confinement. He believed Ryu must have captured him for a reason, suspecting, like Smoker, that Ryu had somehow learned about his connection to his "old man" and aimed to extract some benefits.

"Don't sound so calm; that persona doesn't suit you! As for my goal, you'll find out later, but not right now!" Ryu said with a cheerful smile.

"I hope you really won't do anything weird!" Ace glanced at Ryu with a strange expression. He knew his "old man" might seem unreliable, but that was just due to his absurd strength, leading him to act somewhat cynical. Anyone who truly underestimated him would be the real fool.

"Relax~~ relax~~ let's go! Your old man is about to arrive. I'll say it again: once I get you on your old man's ship, I'll find a chance to pass you the key. But I don't need to tell you how terrifying he is, right? How to escape is up to you. I can only help you buy time by blocking your old man's attack; if you still can't escape, then it's not my problem!" Ryu twirled the key to the Sea-Prism Stone handcuffs in his hand as he spoke.

"What's the difference between this and directly handing me over to him? Do you think I can escape from my old man?" Ace rolled his eyes, displeased.

"So your Fire-Fire Fruit power is your only trump card. Your old man probably doesn't even know you ate a Logia fruit!" As they walked out, Ryu said.

"That's useless. Luffy is also a power user, but he was always beaten by our old man. He definitely knows how to use Haki!" Ace said with some despair.

"Then I can't help you. Just remember, I'll give you the key; you figure it out. Once I put you on the ship, I'm out!" Ryu shrugged, adopting a "not my problem" attitude.

........

Started editing the chapters now ^^

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