The system, pretending to be mysterious, kept Kaito Sakamoto in suspense for three seconds before finally explaining why he was still so unlucky despite his ability to alter his luck. The reason was...
"That's because this ability has one limitation: you cannot swear."
"...."
"What!!!"
Kaito couldn't believe his ears.
"To put it simply, this ability allows your luck to increase by one point every day, with a maximum of 100 points."
"But if you swear, it resets to zero, and you'll have to start over from scratch."
"And there's a small side effect: if you swear too much, your luck will actually get worse."
The system gave a detailed explanation.
The detail was this:
Luck cannot be defined, but once it became an ability, Kaito's luck was transformed into a visible number.
To categorize luck, the highest a person can reach is 100 points, which is ultimate good fortune.
This is something that refreshes daily for ordinary people, and Kaito's situation was no different.
However, Kaito's ability granted him an additional 100 points, which increased by 1 point every day.
If he refrained from swearing, his luck would accumulate daily, up to a maximum of 100 points.
In other words, Kaito could have 100 extra points. This meant that on a day when Kaito's luck reached its peak of 100 points, it would be doubled to 200 points—truly extraordinary luck. It was the kind of luck where even death's scythe would miss him by inches.
But with good luck came bad luck.
The points were divided as follows:
1 point was ordinary luck, and the higher the number, the more the luck stacked.
Negative points, like -1, meant bad luck, and the further the negative number went, the worse the luck. -100 was the ultimate bad luck.
Kaito's luck ability was reflected here.
If Kaito's luck for the day was at -100 (ultimate bad luck), but the ability gave him an additional 100 points, his luck would become 0, a normal state. Whether he experienced good or bad luck depended entirely on fate.
There was also another side effect: swearing would cause the accumulated 100 extra luck points to reset to zero. If Kaito kept swearing, his random luck for that day would slowly decrease.
If the day was already fortunate, that would be fine. But if it was a day of bad luck, it would only worsen.
So the system cautioned him: don't swear, or you might bring bad luck upon yourself.
Kaito was stunned. He had no idea how many times he had sworn over the past ten years. Even if it wasn't frequent, there must have been some occasions. No wonder he had been so unlucky.
.....
"Hey! Hey! Wake up!"
The system snapped Kaito out of his stupor, and he jumped in surprise.
"Ah!"
"The third ability has been explained to you. I have other things to do, so I must leave. We may never meet again."
"Since we've met, do you have anything to say?"
The system asked, though it seemed like an unnecessary question.
Kaito, still dazed, thought, Where do you get off asking if I have anything to say? Meanwhile, all the curses he had learned from humanity's civilization rushed to his mind, and he could hardly wait to throw them all at this "diligent" system.
But when the words reached his mouth, all he could manage was a gritted-teeth response: "Safe travels."
"Show some manners."
The system replied.
Kaito shouted inwardly, Manners? I'm forced to do this!
"I'm leaving. You should wake up now!"
With those final words, the white expanse of the space seemed to collapse. Kaito felt as if everything had gone completely white. He couldn't even see his own hand.
He forced his eyes open and suddenly snapped awake, his consciousness returning to reality.
In the real world, Kaito's eyes shot open. Sweat dripped onto the pillow as his gaze landed on an ornate canopy bed.
.....
"Hey, is anyone there? We need a boat and we're looking for Kaito Sakamoto!"
Standing at the entrance of the luxurious Koya mansion, Luffy called out loudly.
Kaito, just waking up, had barely sat up when he vaguely heard Luffy's voice.
"Wait, is that Luffy?"
He looked around, and even the room he was in seemed extravagantly decorated.
"This must be the home of some rich family."
"By my guess, this should be the island closest to where I fell into the sea, which means this must be Usopp's CP—Koya's house."
Just as Kaito finished speaking, Merry, wearing a sheep headpiece, entered the room, bringing lunch with her.
"Ah, you're awake! Good, it's lunchtime, please have some lunch."
Kaito naturally accepted the meal, "Are you the housekeeper here? Thank you for saving me."
"You flatter me, I'm not the housekeeper."
"I saw you on the beach this morning and brought you back. I'm just glad you woke up safely."
Merry stood tall with an air of dignity, almost like a proper housekeeper.
Realizing Merry had saved him, Kaito immediately bowed.
Just as he was about to eat, he heard Usopp and a stranger yelling.
"Ah, it looks like Butler Kuro is really angry. Seems like the intruders did something serious."
Merry said calmly, as if she weren't the servant of this house.
Kaito deduced it was because Kuro had insulted Usopp's father, and that led to a fight between them, with Kuro even getting physical.
Poor Koya was still defending Kuro, unaware that this had all been part of a grand plan Kuro had been executing for the last three years.
Kaito thought for a moment before continuing his lunch. He didn't plan on meeting up with Luffy and the others just yet. He figured it would be better to stay in this luxurious mansion and wait until the inevitable battle arrived.
"Go ahead and eat, I'll check what's going on," said Merry.
"You do your thing, I'll be fine here."
Kaito smiled and replied.
...
Meanwhile, over at Luffy's group.
Usopp, after saying, "I'll never come here again," left in a huff.
With Kuro shouting something, Luffy and the others finally departed from the mansion, bringing the farce to an end.
....
The camera was passed to Koya's room. She looked confused, unsure if it was right or wrong to have sent Usopp away for Kuro's sake.
After all, Koya still thought of Kuro as the kind housekeeper who had cared for her for three years, not the pirate who had schemed against her family for all that time.
Thus, Kuro entered and put on another performance, claiming he had been saved by Koya's father and that everything he did was for her own good, even saying it was all for the memory of her deceased parents.
With that, Koya forgave him for his words to Usopp, and it became clear that Koya had been manipulated.
Kaito, standing outside and hearing everything through the door, couldn't help but admire Kuro's acting skills.
Unable to listen any longer, he knocked on the door.
Knock knock.
"Come in," Koya responded.
With permission, Kaito opened the door and walked in.