The production of One Piece John is not rushing and expects to complete it within a month.
A few days later, after several revisions, Bella Smith sent him the finalized cartoon drawing.
"boss, do you think this is okay?"
"Yeah, that's pretty much what I had in mind," John responded with a smile, looking at the cartoon picture Bella had sent him. Roger should look like this—beard flowing wildly out of his nostrils.
John thought back to the earlier drawings Bella had done. Some were either too wise and powerful, others too thin and cunning. They were decent, but something always felt off.
This time, though, there were three different cartoon pictures, all depicting Roger on the execution platform. The first was a close-up of Roger's face, smiling in the face of death. The second was zoomed out, showing the two executioners beside Roger, capturing the intensity of the moment. The third depicted the massive crowd below the platform, their excitement and euphoria palpable after Roger spoke his famous last words.
These three images, combined with the accompanying text, perfectly captured the backstory of One Piece—the birth of the Great Pirate Era.
"What's this extra picture you sent?" John asked, noticing Bella always included one random drawing each time.
The first time, she sent a picture of two white birds, saying they were pigeons. The second time, it was a sheep. This time, both the pigeon and the sheep were there.
"Hehehe, boss, don't you get it?"
"Wait… you're hinting you're going to 'pigeon' me?" John asked, confused.
"Boss, haven't you noticed the sheep looks different?"
John squinted at the picture. "It's… lying down?"
"Hahahaha, boss, that sheep is dead."
"???"
"You really don't get it, boss! Nevermind, I've got to get back to work. If I don't, Emily Wang will take all the original concept art for Identity V, and I'll end up with my salary cut!" Bella giggled before logging off, leaving John puzzled.
"What does a dead sheep have to do with me?" John muttered to himself, still confused.
"Well, no use dwelling on that. Time to start building some hype."
Shaking off the odd conversation, John opened the backend of WebNet and posted the three cartoon images, accompanied by a short text:
The Pirate King, Gol D. Roger, had everything—wealth, fame, and power. But his final words before his death sent countless men to sea, ushering in the Great Pirate Era.
'Do you want my treasure? You can have it. Go find it! I left everything in one place!'
Image: …
The post blew up almost immediately.
"Got it! First comment!"
"John's finally back!"
"Your speed is insane! I couldn't even get first!"
"I have a feeling John's got a new game up his sleeve. He's been way too quiet for too long…"
With three successful games already under his belt, John's WebNet followers had soared into the hundreds of millions. His fan base was practically rabid, always keeping a close eye on his updates. His certification as a Level 10 Virtual Game Designer further solidified his reputation, with Happy Farm and Minecraft collectively reaching over a billion players.
It wasn't long after John posted that the comment section erupted.
"One Piece? Is this a new character on Dragon Kingdom's planet?"
"Wealth, fame, power? Sounds a lot like John himself, don't you think?"
"New game confirmed! Can't wait!"
"Am I the only one focused on the cartoons? Looks like John's too broke from making games and can't afford to make a CGI trailer anymore, so he's resorting to comics! Ha!"
"Wait, seriously? A new game in less than a month after Minecraft? How does this guy even sleep?"
"He's a machine!"
John chuckled as he scrolled through the comments. He deliberately kept things vague, letting the fans speculate. He knew from experience that teasing a little excitement early on was key to building anticipation for the launch of One Piece. He'd seen the same trick work with Minecraft—though that campaign had largely been managed by Sarah Evans, with John only stepping in at critical moments to stoke the hype.
This time, though, things were different. Fans were used to John posting multiple times in a row. When only one message came, the comment section became even more lively.
"Wait, that's it?"
"John must be tired from working on the new game."
"It's all my fault! I kept distracting him! I'm such a terrible partner!"
"Pfft, no way! That person was clearly me."
"Hang on, I searched, but I didn't find anything about this 'Gol D. Roger' or 'One Piece.' John didn't even leave a game link this time."
"Yeah, same here. I've been searching for a while. Was hoping to get an early stream going."
"??? Dude, are you some sort of genius moneymaker?"
John's Level 10 Virtual Game Designer status came with its perks. As soon as he posted on WebNet, the keywords "One Piece" and "Gol D. Roger" shot to the top of the trending searches. Some people who weren't even following John were suddenly intrigued, trying to find out what these terms meant.
But they wouldn't find anything. One Piece, as a concept, didn't exist in their world. Everything was still being built from the ground up, just as it had been in John's previous life.
As the excitement continued to build, John sat back with a satisfied smile, confident that the hype train had officially left the station. One Piece was coming, and soon the world would set sail into the Great Pirate Era.
A/N: Thanks for reading, and donate some stones for extra chapters.
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Enjoy✌️.