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🎉Chapter 900🎉

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Inside the Art Store in Marijoa, Shamrock looked at the white capsule he was about to enter in the dark room. Even as a majestic Holy Knight, he had to obediently wait for his turn behind the hundreds of damned Celestial Dragons eager to play.

’Tch, even though most of them don’t last a minute in there, they never learn at all,’ Shamrock mocked the Celestial Dragons inwardly, who often lost easily in the game.

Then, he pressed the button to open the capsule and stepped inside. ’Trust me, Shanks, one day I’ll find you in the game world.’

That was his last thought before his consciousness disconnected from reality and entered the game world.

...

Shamrock opened his eyes—he was currently on a ship.

"This place..."

In Story Mode, he was still in the same location he had left previously when his game time had ended. Aboard his own ship, he was currently playing as a pirate... He wanted to replicate Shanks’ journey as a pirate—something he had always dreamed of, and the game world had allowed him to do just that.

Shamrock looked at his hands; he was wearing leather gloves. His long red hair was tied in the same way as in real life. His avatar body in the game resembled an older version of himself but dressed like a pirate.

He looked behind—the ship was docked near a solid red cliff. Not far from there was a building resembling a lighthouse. An old man was calmly seated on a bench, reading a newspaper.

Player Shamrock’s eyes met with the old man’s, who was clearly annoyed that this ship was still here.

"Hey kid, you’d better raise your sail and leave now... before he shows up."

Crocus said that once again... after warning him multiple times, but the red-haired boy didn’t seem to care at all.

"..." Shamrock knew exactly what Crocus was referring to... Laboon would soon appear and start smashing his massive head against Twin Cape, causing the sea to rage in the area where his ship was resting... Incidentally, that’s how he had died and left the game previously—because of Laboon.

At that moment, Shamrock jumped off the ship and walked toward Crocus.

...

"I’m just a retired old man. Why are you so desperate to recruit me...?"

Crocus looked at Shamrock this time with surprise—he had been trying to recruit him for nearly a week without giving up. For the first time, his expression changed due to the persistence of this strange man.

"I don’t have a doctor on my ship. The doctor of the former Pirate King deserves a shot at recruitment," Shamrock said calmly.

He was currently trying to clear the quest and earn the reward. After attempting to recruit Crocus multiple times and being rejected, the system converted it into a high-value quest. That meant if he succeeded, he’d receive a huge boost of EXP, valuable skill points, a powerful skill, and—most importantly—his first crew member.

"You don’t have a doctor on your ship? You don’t have anyone on your ship to begin with. And how do you know I was on the Pirate King’s ship, or that I’m a doctor?"

Crocus mocked him at first, then revealed his surprise.

"You’ll be my first crew member. Isn’t that an honor—I mean, isn’t that great for you?"

Shamrock almost spoke in the high-and-mighty tone of the Celestial Dragons, but he bit his tongue just in time.

"Hmm... You reek of a stench that reminds me of the Celestial Dragons... Who are you, really?"

Crocus grew more cautious. This strange pirate was one of a kind. He had met countless pirates who entered the Grand Line from Reverse Mountain—madmen and weirdos were common—but only Shamrock had managed to leave such a strong impression.

"I’m the Red Star. I’ll become a great pirate in this world. Come and witness it yourself,"

Shamrock drew his sword, declaring his name as a player... It was, without a doubt, his identity in the game world.

"Red Star... That’s a title, not a name. Stop dreaming. Just leave. I’m not joining you."

Crocus refused flat-out. It was impossible—who would take care of Laboon if he left?

Shamrock squinted hard. He wanted to draw his sword and slice the old bastard’s head off, but at his current level, he didn’t think he could succeed.

His current level was only 26, while the old man—who looked weak—was level 63!

An immense gap indeed.

Shamrock turned around, accepting the failure of his quest. He couldn’t waste any more time here. But at that moment, the giant whale appeared and began rampaging.

In less than a minute, his ship turned into scattered wooden debris floating in the sea.

Shamrock stood there staring at the raging Laboon with a blank expression.

The ship he had stolen from pirates in the East Blue—after all that effort—was destroyed here... He had no way to leave anymore.

Crocus returned to his newspaper, completely ignoring Shamrock. He had nothing to do with him.

[You have failed the quest: Recruit Crocus!]

The system notification added salt to Shamrock’s wound at that moment.

...

Far away in the Art Store on Urura Island, stronghold of the Beast Pirates, Kaido was excited to re-enter the game world again.

Despite his terribly bad luck there, it was in this chaotic environment that he finally felt free from everything—he could do whatever he wanted, even with his low level.

"Last time, that bastard Mihawk fought me... But this time... I’ll definitely avoid him."

Kaido had learned to be cautious of top-tier NPCs in the game world. He didn’t want to waste a precious month of progress just because a powerful NPC passed by him by accident.

Yes, in the latest game update, one full year in the game world (previously equal to 1 hour in real life) was reduced to just one month in the game world for every hour in real life!

This sudden update from Rob caused the player forums to be filled with disappointed sighs. But Rob’s only explanation was that to fix system bugs, the extreme time difference had to be adjusted!

After all, the online mode release was approaching, and bugs had to be minimized to make the game safe to play.

What Rob did couldn’t be undone, but for unlucky players like Kaido—who usually died before the first month ended—this change felt normal.

Kaido opened his eyes again inside the game world. He looked at the Krieg Pirates crew he had just subdued. He had restarted the game from this critical stage!

He immediately ran and jumped onto his ship, which was docked beside Krieg’s massive pirate ship.

"Raise the sail! Go! Go!"

Hearing their captain’s orders, the crew acted without question. Kaido had trained them to follow him no matter what. They were used to his strange decisions, but they always survived thanks to them!

They didn’t know that every time their captain acted like this, it was because... he had already died before that!

After all, they were just NPCs—for them, time still flowed normally and no error had occurred.

Krieg and his crew stared in confusion at the wild pirate who had just defeated them and suddenly let them go, fleeing with his tail between his legs.

Before Mihawk could appear, Kaido and his crew had already escaped far from the doomed ship.

...

Inside the game world, in the northwest of Alabasta, in the city of Rainbase, Shanks was currently inside the casino called Rain Dinners.

"Handsome boy, you better back off and leave this place before you get yourself hurt."

At that moment, Shanks heard a woman’s voice. He turned to see a woman with blue eyes, short ash-blonde hair, and slightly tanned skin, wearing a white cowboy hat.

It was clearly her who had spoken. What caught Shanks’ attention the most was the level above her head—Level 25!

Her level was very close to his, although he had just reached Level 29 before arriving in Rainbase.

"What exactly is the lady trying to tell me? Why should I leave? Don’t I have the right to gamble in this casino like everyone else?"

Shanks smiled and replied with several questions instead.

"You’re the infamous black-haired pirate, with a bounty of 160 million berries. You’re currently on the Shichibukai Crocodile’s territory. You should leave before the boss gets angry."

When Miss All Sunday realized she couldn’t deal with this man, she quickly mentioned the name behind the casino, hoping he’d back off. But Shanks only smiled.

"Why don’t you call him so he can tell me that himself?"

Shanks knew that Crocodile didn’t want any trouble to interfere with his ’stupid’ plan, which is why he sent Miss All Sunday to scare him off.

But would Shanks obey just like that? Where’s the fun in the game then?

"So you want me to kick you out myself, huh? Fine. You asked for it."

At that moment, a man in a green coat appeared, staring at him with sharp eyes.

The first thing Shanks noticed was Crocodile’s red-colored name—and his level: 60!

"Man... this is gonna be tough..."

Shanks sighed, stood up, and drew his sword.

———

BlackStar_BH:

Chapter 900.

I don’t know what to say or how to express my feelings at this historic moment. I still can’t believe I’ve written this many Chapters.

For the past three years, I’ve written and written tirelessly. Sometimes I got bored, sometimes I felt empty, and other times my passion faded.

But what never changed... was my strong comeback every single time.

Why?

Because of you.

I never wanted to let you down, not even once.

I promised you before that I’d reach Chapter 1000—and go beyond it.

I’ll follow the footsteps of the original manga and catch up, to finish the greatest fan-novel based on reactions in history!

I won’t give up. I’ll keep writing until the end—

After all, this novel has become my daily routine... something that gives meaning to my life.

Thank you all for supporting me, no matter how small or intangible that support may be—I still feel it, and I appreciate it deeply.

I know every name of those who supported me on Patreon and on Ko-fi, too—those who still do, and even those who once did.

A simple thank you is not enough to express how much I love you.

But I believe my continued writing of these Chapters says it all, doesn’t it?

Let’s keep this journey going.

Don’t stumble along the way.

...

Maybe—just maybe—my next novel will be just as good... or even better! 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

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Upcoming Chapter titles (spoilers):

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Chapter 901: Fisher Tiger, The Human.

Chapter 902: Rob’s Impression of the Latest Elbaf Arc Chapters! Solo Leveling Nears Its End.

Chapter 903: The Birth of Luffy!

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BlackStar_BH:

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