The classic gacha animation appeared.
Kael's shoulders tightened.
The panel flashed—starlight blooming across the screen, gathering in the "sky" as if the system were pulling constellations into a single point.
He stared so hard he forgot to blink.
Blue. Green. White. Blue. Green. Green. White. Blue…
He didn't even need to care about the early cards. After enough pulls, you learned the system's habits the way a gambler learned tells. If there was a purple or gold in a ten-pull, it always revealed itself at the end.
Always.
And from what he'd seen, the best "realistic" result was one gold and one purple. Hitting more than that was absurdly rare—two high-rarity cards in ten meant you were heaven's chosen.
"Purple," Kael muttered under his breath. "Purple. Purple. Purple…"
He prayed for the second-to-last card to be purple. If it was, the final card had a high chance of being gold. Even if it wasn't, two purples in one ten-pull was already a win.
Two golds?
He didn't even allow himself to imagine it.
Then the second-to-last card flashed—
Blue.
Kael's heart sank so fast it felt physical.
Now it all came down to the last card.
"Gold," he breathed. "Gold. Gold. Gold…"
Swoosh—!
A ray of golden light cut across the starlit sky like a falling star.
"It's gold—!!!"
Kael shot up from where he sat, fists clenched, excitement surging through him like a shockwave.
Half a year. It had been half a year.
He hadn't seen a gold card in half a year.
Do you know how he lived this past half-year?
He worked hard every day, and forty pulls gave him no gold. He was starting to think he was stuck on some kind of "Pity Pull Master" achievement.
He'd even started wondering if his luck had simply run out.
But this—this proved it.
He was still the chosen one.
He must have just been picking the wrong times.
"System," Kael snapped, riding the adrenaline, "talk!"
[Talk? What should I talk about? You're proud of getting a gold card on your 50th pull?]
"…"
For a heartbeat, Kael just stood there, mouth half-open.
…Ugh. He'd gotten too arrogant and taunted the system again.
The animation ended. The cards began flipping.
He didn't bother looking at the first nine. They were experience fodder, and half the time he didn't even recognize the faces.
The only one that mattered was the last one.
Finally—the gold card flipped.
Kael's eyes widened.
"It's him!!"
On the card was an extremely tall, massively built old man. A black bandana wrapped his head. His chest was bare, thick muscle crossed with long, brutal scars—scars that looked earned, not decorative.
Light-yellow pants. Black boots. A black sash at his waist.
A white coat with a red lining hung from his shoulders like a flag.
And in his hand was a giant naginata—heavy, solemn, like it belonged to an era when men still challenged the sea itself.
But the most striking thing—the thing you couldn't mistake even if you tried—was the iconic crescent-shaped white mustache, curving upward like a blade.
That's right.
The man from the world of One Piece, known as the Strongest Man in the World—
Whitebeard.
Edward Newgate.
"White… Whitebeard!!"
Kael recognized him the instant he saw the image. If you had to pick the most memorable character from One Piece, Whitebeard was absolutely on that list.
The power Whitebeard displayed during the Summit War was still fresh in Kael's memory.
You could say the Summit War was the absolute peak of the One Piece anime.
To fight Whitebeard, the Navy Headquarters pulled out all the stops: Fleet Admiral Sengoku. Navy Hero Garp. The Three Admirals—Akainu, Kizaru, and Aokiji. The Seven Warlords. The Pacifistas. One hundred thousand navy troops.
Even with that lineup, Akainu still resorted to something despicable—tricking Squard into stabbing Whitebeard at the start, inflicting a severe wound before the real battle even began.
And still—
Despite his injuries, Whitebeard fought the Three Admirals. He died in the end, but the glory of the "World's Strongest Man" was on full display.
The only regret was that this wasn't Whitebeard in his prime.
Of course, based on the later story, even a prime Whitebeard would have definitely lost against the Navy's lineup at the Summit War.
The World Government is unfathomably deep. Not even mentioning the legendary Imu, just the Five Elders are only slightly weaker than the Admirals. Then there are the God's Knights, all of whom are immortal. The Whitebeard Pirates had no chance of winning.
But even so—
An old man who needed IV drips to live still fearlessly stormed the navy headquarters, Marineford, to save his son.
What a legend!!
"I've hit the jackpot!" Kael clenched his fists, voice shaking with excitement. "This time I've really hit the jackpot!!"
He now had four gold cards.
Ulquiorra was a good all-rounder. He could fight, take hits, and had high-speed regeneration—plus a super-move like Lanza del Relámpago. But even with all that, he was just "very good."
In the later parts of the Bleach anime, there were plenty of guys stronger than Ulquiorra.
Yoriichi was a character with a huge gap between his floor and his ceiling. In terms of energy level, Yoriichi was the worst.
Sun Breathing is the strongest breathing style in the Demon Slayer world, but it only enhances physical abilities and adds a burning effect to attacks.
That enhancement is very limited. Pushing a large boulder is the most it can do. Many fodder characters in the One Piece world can lift a boulder of the same size.
Yoriichi's true strength lay in the Transparent World and his mastered swordsmanship.
Boosted by magic, Yoriichi's power received an epic enhancement. His single-target attacks could even pierce dragon scales and severely wound a dragon. His destructive power was even more terrifying than Hawkeye, the World's Strongest Swordsman in One Piece.
But in terms of his own stats, Yoriichi was still the lowest—especially his defense, which was pitifully low. He could be severely injured if hit by a normal magic attack.
He was a glass-cannon character who completely sacrificed defense for extreme offense.
Fushiguro Toji was the opposite of Yoriichi. His base stats were maxed out, reaching a level that Sun Breathing could never achieve, no matter how much one practiced.
His floor was terrifyingly high. He was a complete battle machine. He once almost killed Gojo Satoru with one blow. He didn't finish the job because he thought Gojo was dead—it's hard to imagine someone surviving a pierced brain. He was ultimately counter-killed by Gojo, who had learned the Reverse Cursed Technique.
Whitebeard was different.
He himself possessed monstrous strength, top-tier Haki, and the strongest Paramecia Devil Fruit—the Gura Gura no Mi.
Strength, speed, defense, attack, and fruit ability were all MAX!!
He was a true super hexagonal warrior.
In the One Piece world, filled with powerhouses, he was still called the Strongest Man in the World.
Fleet Admiral Sengoku even described him as a man who could destroy the world.
Without a doubt, this was now the strongest gold card Kael had.
Kael inhaled once—slow, steady—like he was bracing his own body for what he was about to become.
"Full-Body Take Over: Edward Newgate!!"