"There Are Only 500 Places!"
"My heart hurts so much. Such a limited number of places must be packed with benefits!"
"I went to the live stream next door again. Those players who got into Amazon Lily are living the dream. Not only are they not in danger, but they're even learning combat moves from the warriors. Ugh, I'm so jealous!"
"I want to send John a knife! This is too unfair!"
"Why can't we choose to play as women?"
"??? Wait, did you all seriously think about this?"
"Ahem, let's quickly explore other starting points. If there's a place like Amazon Lily, there must be other areas that offer great starts."
As the chat buzzed with excitement, PigeonMan didn't know what to say, so he silently started the game again and switched to another spawn point.
John exited the live stream and directly entered the game world.
Amazon Lily.
In the dense jungle, John's eyes fell on Emma, who was following one of the Amazon Lily warriors, holding a devil fruit in her hand. The corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
"What the... A Mythical Zoan Fruit?"
As the Game Master (GM), John instantly recognized the fruit's abilities. It was the Horse-Horse Fruit, a Mythical Zoan, specifically the Unicorn form!
"She must be insanely lucky…"
Even though John had designed the entire game himself, it still stung a little to see someone get so fortunate. It felt like witnessing fate at work.
In the One Piece world, aside from the Usagi Usagi no Mi and Gomu Gomu no Mi fruits, which John had intentionally placed, all other fruits were assigned randomly.
And now, Emma had picked up a Mythical Zoan fruit right at the start. What could John even do?
Nearby, the other players from Sarah Evans' team, who had landed on Amazon Lily, stood watching.
In front of them was Margaret, one of the Amazon warriors with golden hair.
As more players entered Amazon Lily, Margaret decided to start teaching them some basic combat techniques.
"Sister Bella, you said this is a devil fruit? And it gives you magical powers if you eat it?" Emma asked, staring in awe at the spiraled fruit in her hand.
"Yup! I paid a lot to get this information from the boss," Bella replied, looking a bit annoyed as she absentmindedly rubbed her forehead, still sore from the cost.
John: "???"
"Huh? John's that kind of person?" Emma asked, noticing Bella's reaction. Could this have been some shady deal?
"Let me tell you, our boss squeezes every ounce out of us all day! Oh, and now I have to go offline to work later. My back hurts, and we still haven't gotten a raise."
John lowered his hand, his face darkening.
Although he knew Bella was indirectly promoting the game, why did it make him so angry?
Bella had known Emma from Minecraft, and she was well aware that Emma was streaming. So… was she spreading rumors about him live?
John opened Emma's live stream, and sure enough, the chat was full of question marks.
"Damn it! I always knew John and the Edge Horizon team were close!"
"Focus! 'Squeezing~squeezing,' 'work,' 'back pain'!"
"As a seasoned player, I've already imagined the positions John uses."
"Emma, be careful! John might come after you!"
[System notification: "Old Gamer" has been banned.]
[System notification: "Big Joker" has been banned.]
[System notification…]
"F**k! John is lurking in the chat!"
"The Shark has awoken!"
"Emma's done for. John's got her on his radar now."
John: "..."
Back in the game, Emma's face flushed when she saw the chat, and she quickly changed the subject.
"Uh, Bella, what's your work schedule like?"
"Is this game still being optimized? A lot of friends said the game's starting difficulty is too high. Is John still making adjustments?"
"We're not sure," Bella replied, shaking her head. "The boss made this game all by himself. We're just here exploring, so we know as much as you do."
"John made this alone?"
"Yup, pretty much. And since we're just the boss's backups… oh, no! I have to go offline soon, my back is killing me!"
Bella's words trailed off as a large bump appeared on her forehead.
"Sister Bella, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Emma, do you want to eat that devil fruit?" Bella smiled sweetly, as if she hadn't been complaining just moments ago. "You might gain some unique powers if you eat it!"
"Or you could sell it to us," she added, "but since you don't know its abilities, we can only offer you five million at most."
It just so happened that they were also looking for devil fruits. With the buzz around devil fruits being so strong, their value was unquestionable.
As Emma was streaming, this only helped prove the fruit's value. Whether she sold it or not, it was a win for the viewers.
Sure enough, the live chat went wild again.
"Five million for this thing?"
"I'm so jealous! John gave Emma one million before, and now she finds a five million fruit?"
"Is this all staged? I don't believe this unless I find one too!"
"Transactions in-game or out-of-game, I don't care. Someone buy me one!"
Bella couldn't see Emma's live chat, so she nodded toward Sarah Evans. Sarah, catching on, continued, "If you're worried, we can trade in Beli. The boss has enabled two-way currency exchange between Beli and Dragon Kingdom coins."
"You can directly convert Beli into Dragon Kingdom coins."
"What? John enabled two-way currency exchange?"
Emma, who had been on the fence, was shocked when she heard Sarah's words.
The game had only just launched, and players were still getting used to John's unconventional approach of no tutorials. Very few players had noticed that in-game currency could be exchanged both ways.
A/N: Thanks for reading, keep donating some stones If you want extra chapters!
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