Mike stood at the window, his back to the room, but he wasn't seeing the bustling, reorganized base below.
He caressed the cold, metallic surface of the [Death Star Controller], the small, unassuming sphere humming with a latent, impossible power in his hand.
As his thumb traced its smooth contours, the memories surged back like a tidal wave.
The scene before him instantly shifted.
He was no longer in his office.
He was back in the hot springs, the steam coiling around him, the Den Den Mushi pressed to his ear.
He was hearing Smoker's voice, no longer full of its usual gruff bravado, but low, tight, and seething with a murderous rage he had never heard from the man before.
"Mike… back in Loguetown… the rice crackers…"
The floodgates of Mike's own memory burst open.
The image, so vivid it was as if he could reach out and touch her, flashed before his eyes.
A little girl with pigtails, her face bright and smudged with dirt, holding up a cup of yogurt.
"Thank you, big brother! You're the coolest!"
"Go, cool brother!"
"You're the best!"
Her childish, innocent voice still echoed in his ears, a bright, pure sound in a world of darkness.
A rage so profound, so volcanic, erupted in Mike's chest that his vision momentarily turned red.
She was just an ordinary little girl.
A happy kid in a port town.
Yet, simply because she had the misfortune of being born into this rotten, twisted world—a reality trampled under the indifferent heels of the Celestial Dragons, a world drowning in the filth of the slave trade—she had to face dangers that no child should ever even know existed.
If not for the New Marine's liberation operation coincidentally reaching Sabaody at that exact moment… If not for her being among that specific batch of slaves… If not for Smoker happening to be the one to find her…
Mike shut his eyes, his hand gripping the controller so tightly his knuckles turned white.
He didn't dare dwell on the "ifs."
He was afraid.
Afraid that when he next traveled to Loguetown, when he returned to that familiar marketplace, he would find that yogurt stand empty, and he would never again hear that sweet, innocent voice calling him "cool brother."
"Haah—" Mike exhaled, a sharp, ragged breath that sounded more like a growl.
The air in the room, which had been still, shimmered and warped around him.
"Then let me be the one to end this utterly rotten world," he whispered, his voice a low, terrifying promise.
Let all injustice, all evil, all the suffering and all the tears, turn to ashes as the old era crumbles.
[Ding!]
A new, urgent system notification flashed in his mind's eye.
[System detects the host's extreme emotional state. Fury levels critical. Emergency protocol activated.]
[Drop rates have been massively increased!!! The probability of obtaining a golden-tier divine item in a 10-draw is now at its absolute peak.]
Mike slowly opened his eyes, his gaze falling on the Happy Points counter in the corner of his vision.
[Happy Points: 850,000]
He had just spent 400,000 to upgrade the Senzu Beans for the old-timers.
But now… there was no other choice.
Nor did he need one.
Just… go all in.
850,000 Happy Points. 850 ten-draws.
Explode. Explode. EXPLODE!
The number on his counter poured out like a broken dam, the numbers plummeting to zero in a dizzying, silent rush.
The familiar lottery wheel spun wildly before his eyes, but this time, there was no rainbow of colors.
It was a pure, blinding, overwhelming golden light.
[Ding—!]
[Ding—!]
[Ding—!]
The clear, triumphant notification tones rang out one after another, a symphony of ascension. Golden-tier items began flooding his inventory.
[Kusanagi no Tsurugi, upgraded to 5 stars!]
[All Breathing Styles elevated to the highest, most supreme tier.]
[New Trait: Elemental Transcendence. All elemental-type attacks in this world—fire, ice, lightning, magma, light—cannot harm the host.]
He could feel it.
A fundamental shift in his very being.
He was no longer just resistant. He was impervious. He was the master of all elements.
[Shinigami Sword Style: Host can now use 'No Moon' (Mugetsu) without side effects or recoil.]
...
[Nautilus, upgraded to 5 stars!]
[Four-Star Trait: Abyssal Rift – The Nautilus can create abyssal fissures in the sea, capable of erasing any ship in this world, regardless of size or level.]
This wasn't an attack.
This was annihilation at a conceptual level.
Any ship swallowed by the rift would simply… cease to exist.
[Five-Star Trait: Master of the Sea!]
[Effect: The Nautilus resonates with all oceans, and the host becomes the 'Master of the Sea.' The host gains dominion over all global waters, can freely manipulate currents, weather, and Sea Kings, and can teleport to any body of water instantly.]
Mike gasped as a new, profound connection formed.
He could feel... everything.
The flow of every drop of water in the Four Seas.
The movement of every fish in the Grand Line. The ancient, slumbering breath of the Sea Kings in the Calm Belt.
The entire ocean was now an extension of his own body.
On these seas, he was truly, absolutely invincible.
...
[Conqueror's Haki Talent, upgraded to Five Stars!]
[Five Stars: Supreme Conqueror's Haki. Within this world, the host's Haki reigns supreme.]
[New Ability: Haki Seal. The host can, at will, use their own Haki to completely seal an enemy's three types of Haki.]
Mike's eyes widened.
He could just… turn it off?
Imagine an enemy, like Kaido or Akainu, painstakingly charging a devastating, Haki-infused attack, only to realize... their Haki was just… gone?
...
Mike's gaze finally settled on the last golden item.
The one that had just appeared in his hand.
The small, black sphere.
[Death Star]
Two simple words, yet they carried the weight of boundless, terrifying power.
[Death Star, Golden Item, Five Stars!]
[The Death Star looms, annihilating all, silencing the cosmos!]
[A floating superweapon in the void, modified by the system to directly attack targets within this world!]
[One Star: Death Star Emerges – Fires a precise high-energy beam. Locks onto a single target (combat power ≤ Elite Marine Vice Admiral), piercing all defenses to obliterate both body and spirit. Cooldown: 30 minutes. Ineffective against Logia users.]
'A good start. An instant-kill for most of the rabble.'
[Two Stars: Death Star Ascends – Releases a wide-area energy pulse, covering an entire island. Instantly annihilates all units at or below Admiral Candidate level. Reduces buildings and warships to molten slag. Logia users must defend at full strength (leaving them critically wounded and near death). Cooldown: 12 hours.]
'The ultimate field-clearer. An entire island wiped clean. But… barely a scratch on an Emperor.'
[Three Stars: Death Star Descends – Activates planetary-grade main cannon. Evaporates an entire sea area in one strike (range ≈ a large nation in the New World). Admiral-level combatants will perish instantly upon direct hit. Four Emperors-level figures will suffer severed limbs as the price of escape. Cooldown: One day.]
'Now we're talking. One-shot an Admiral. Maim an Emperor.'
[Four Stars: Universal Collapse! – The annihilation beam upgrades into a causality weapon. It ignores distance and defense, directly locking onto a Four Emperors-level target, forcibly striking and dismantling their very essence (body and soul).] [Cooldown: Five days.]
Mike's breath hitched.
A causality weapon.
It didn't travel. It didn't need to aim. It just happened.
It could erase a person's very existence from reality.
[Five Stars: "Death Star Reigns, Annihilating the Cosmos!"]
[Effect: Activates the "Doomsday Protocol." No target designated by the host, including Ancient Weapons, can resist.]
[The host may choose the method of the target's destruction, including outright, instantaneous erasure.]
[The host must visually confirm the target to lock on and initiate the attack.]
[No Cooldown!!!]
Mike looked down at the small, black sphere in his hand.
He looked at the fleet of the Beasts Pirates now appearing on the distant horizon.
He looked at the execution stand where the Celestial Dragons were whimpering in terror.
And he smiled.
'From now on', he thought, 'this world belongs to me.'
--------------------
This guy might be having the best system of all time.