2. New Life Starts

The cat's explanation is long, but the boy just listens to it all. After all, he was always curious about his blood family, but he never had the chance to even know them before. Now he will never be able to see them with his own eyes even once because he has died in that world.

"So, what about this world? And why did I suddenly become this boy?"

He asks while removing his tears. There's no point in being sad about it for too long because life will still go on for him.

"Remember an anime that many of your colleagues were obsessed with? The title was Naruto."

"Hmm? Was it the one about pirates?"

"That's One Piece. Well, it was also popular and many of your colleagues watched it. Naruto was the one about ninjas. The main character was a blonde kid with 3 striped of whiskers on each of his cheek. He is dreaming to be his ninja village's leader, a Hokage."

"Ah, I remember it now. But I didn't watch all its episodes because I could only watch the ones my colleague played in the office which were just a few."

"I know, that's why God is preparing a few things to help you. But first, let's heal you."

The cat puts its paws on his cheeks and green light suddenly covers the paws. The scratches that the cat made start to disappear slowly, then they all gone after a while.

"Ooh, so this is magic."

"Well, it's called ninjutsu here, but I guess it is basically like magic. Anyway, about your body, it is not something born from this world's natives. In other words, you aren't born from a man and a woman in this world."

"Like Adam?"

"Right, like that guy. God created your body using the cells of your body in previous life because only your original body can hold your soul perfectly. But your DNA has been modified so you can use this world's power."

"Uh, I don't understand. Please use words that someone like me can understand."

".... Basically, God personally made your current body using your old body but with some changes, so you don't have any blood relative in this world. Your memories have just returned because you were too young before, so your brain couldn't handle your past life's memories yet."

"Ah, okay."

"Anyway, this place isn't good for talking. Let's go to the town."

"Town?"

"Yeah, there's a town nearby. I've arranged everything so you can enter the town legally."

The cat gives him a small blue book with a cloud covered by lightning bolts logo on the cover.

"It's an ID book. Similar to a pasport in your previous world. Though you never had a passport because you never went to other countries, so you didn't need it."

"Must you mention that?"

"Of course. Anyway, you can enter any town in this country with that.

"Land of Iron. An interesting name for a country. Hmm? Roronoa Zoro?"

"That's the name of the body. When God made your body, it somehow turned to look like Zoro's body, so he decided to just give you that name. Ah, Zoro is a character from One Piece, the one about pirates."

"How could I turn out to look like him?"

"God said he was thinking about Zoro's battle with a powerful enemy when he made the body. So even if he used your original body's cells as the base, the result is very different from your real body's appearance. Well, there are other changes, but I can't explain it now."

Just as the cat said, he can enter the town easily after showing the book. The cat doesn't need any id. It just sits on his left shoulder and the guards don't bother with the cat. Then he walks into the town before continuing the conversation.

"Your answer worries me."

"What can you do even if you are worried? Just accept it and do what you can."

"Sigh, right. Anyway, I have a question."

"What is it?"

"How do I get rich?"

".... Huh?"

"How to get a lot of money?"

"Wait! Why do you suddenly want to get rich? Those isekai MCs usually want to get power, you know."

"Well, I only want a good life, so money is the most important."

"... You're not wrong. But I don't know how to make you rich. I only know how to make you strong. Ah! Well, the only way I can think of is you use your power to get money by doing some jobs like escorting merchants, being a mercenary, or hunting criminals to get their bounties. I don't know how to build a business, so that's the only way I can think of. Furthermore, you will need to have power no matter what. This is a more dangerous world than your previous world, so you can only protect yourself if you are strong."

"Hmm, you're right. That means you can make me strong?"

"Not make you strong. I can only help you get stronger. How strong you are depends on yourself because your body was made by God, so you have a great talent and the result depends on your effort."

"Alright. Then should we start training immediately?"

"No, you need to study first. Training will be much easier if you are smart. Though the problem isn't your IQ, but your knowledge. You have too little basic knowledge because you weren't schooled. So you'll start learning basic knowledge that you'll need to live in this world."

"And you will teach me those things?"

"Of course, that's my job as your assistant. But it doesn't mean I know everything, so there are still things I can't teach you and you need to learn them yourself."

"Alright, so what should I learn first?"

"First, I'll teach you more about this world and a good way to get food. You are very malnourished and the brain needs nutrients to work properly. But you are too weak now, so our options are limited."

The method to get food that the cat decides to teach Zoro is hunting using traps. It's almost impossible for a weak kid with no money like him to get food from this small town. So he needs to get the food from outside and hunting is the fastest way.

But because he is still very weak, he can't hunt them using weapons. That's why the cat will teach him to hunt using traps that are easy to make. The traps they'll use are snares and cage traps which are easier to make and safer.

They gather the materials like ropes and rather big containers like wooden crates or thrown out buckets that have some holes on them. Those materials are easy to find in the town's garbage dump. The cat leads him there to get the materials.

There are also some kids in the garbage dump that rummage through the trash. The cat says they are orphans who look for food among the trash. It reminds Zoro of himself in his previous life when he was a kid.

Anyway, they find ropes, wooden crates, and even broken buckets there. They are even lucky enough to get a knife in the metal trash section. The knife has been snapped in half, but it's still quite sharp, so it will be useful to cut things.

Then they go to the forest, but only enter the outskirts because it will be too dangerous if they go too deep. The cat shows Zoro how to find animal tracks that they'll use to find the best place to set the traps.

For an inexperienced person, it's not easy to find animal tracks. It isn't very noticeable like the ones in cartoons. But the cat says that great hunters can see the tracks at a glance because of their experience.

"By the way, what's your name, Mr. Cat? It just doesn't feel right to keep calling you Mr. Cat."

"You can call me Torao."

Torao then finds an animal track and predicts it as a wild chicken track. They will only hunt small animals because this is still just their 1st hunt. Then they search for a good spot to place their trap and after finding it, they start setting the trap.

The trap that Torao chose is a snare trap because their target is a small animal. It's also an easy trap to set. Besides, they still haven't made the cage for the cage trap and it will take quite some time to make, so a snare is better for now.

But even if it's an easy trap, Zoro still needs time to set it because he never made it before. They place the snare traps in some locations to increase the chance of them catching some prey. They also use bait on the traps. The bait is some leftover food they got from the garbage dump.

While waiting for the snare traps to catch their prey, they are making the cage traps. The items they'll use to make the cages are small, so they can only target small animals too. Their targets are squirrels now, so they will place the traps on the trees.

It's almost dark already when they finish setting the last cage trap. So they quickly check the snare traps to see if they catch something. They are quite lucky because they manage to catch a wild chicken and a hare out of 6 snare traps they set.

"Good thing, right, kid? You won't be starving tonight."

"Yeah, but I will freeze to death again. I still don't have a place to sleep."

"Oh, crap."