One Piece: The Desert Princess

"In the New World, there's no ship that can carry me!"

"I don't belong to the pirates, nor will I become a Marine. What am I supposed to do? I'm really at a loss!"

Vivi was in the middle of sleeping, her long aqua-blue hair looking messy. Her light-green coat was casually thrown aside like a rag. She mumbled some words that outsiders couldn't understand, and her hands were swinging in the air while holding onto the pillow, clearly half-asleep.

"Quack? Quack, quack! Gah... Quack?!..." Sitting by her side, her pet duck Karoo sighed in a somewhat human-like manner. What should it do now?

It picked up a frying pan and looked at the bottom of the pan, then glanced at Vivi's smooth forehead. It gestured a couple of times in the air with the pan, but ultimately gave up on this deadly weapon…

To wake up its owner, Karoo took duck-like steps to the kitchen and fetched a big spring onion. Then, it lightly tapped Vivi's face with the green onion leaves.

"Stop, stop…" Vivi rolled over and turned inward, facing the pet with the back of her head.

The spring onion didn't wake her up, so Karoo had to follow her to the other side.

"Quack-quack, quack, quack, quack!" It seemed like Karoo was singing, calling out while using its wings to nudge its owner. One nudge didn't work, two nudges, still no response. Soon, the duck became fond of this game called "Wake Up the Owner" and was tirelessly engaged in it.

From a distance, it tossed a paper ball and then quickly hid behind the cupboard. After a few seconds, it stuck its neck out to observe Vivi's reaction.

After contemplating for a moment, Karoo brought out its treasured little fish snacks and dangled them near Vivi's nose…

The result was a punch to the face from the girl who was in the middle of a bad dream.

Fifteen minutes later…

Vivi finally woke up. She wiped her face and sniffed, "Strange. Why do I smell onions? Karoo, did you eat a spring onion in the house?"

Karoo had long hidden the spring onion and the scene had been somewhat disguised. The frying pan, paper ball, and small fish snacks were nowhere to be seen. Faced with Vivi's inquiry, it looked around with big curious eyes, seemingly asking, "Where's the onion? I didn't see any!"

Vivi looked at Karoo's face as if she had discovered a new continent. "Karoo, why is your face swollen? Who hit you? Tell me, I'll avenge you!"

The duck rolled its eyes at her. 'Who hit me? Don't you already know?'

Seeing that Vivi didn't understand the situation at all, Karoo comically lay on the ground, then imitated someone, closing its eyes and waving the pillow continuously.

After a moment of confusion, Vivi seemed to have figured out what happened. Her gaze wandered, and she awkwardly smiled, "Ah? Hahaha… I see. Um, you know, I've been under a lot of pressure lately, and, well, it's understandable to have nightmares when under stress, right?"

Now that the owner was awake, Karoo naturally wouldn't let her go back to sleep. It expressed itself in a rhythmic pattern of duck sounds. Surprisingly, Vivi understood most of it, and the general meaning was for her to stop sleeping and get up to play with it.

"What time is it now?" Vivi asked, still feeling a bit groggy.

"Quack! Quack!" The duck's words seemed to automatically translate into a language Vivi could understand, and she nodded somewhat dazedly.

"It's already afternoon? I slept for two hours, and they didn't even come to call me for food. How unreliable!" Vivi stretched lazily.

With bright yellow feathers, wearing a blue-striped cotton cap and goggles, and a small wooden barrel tied to its chest, the pet duck sat in front of Vivi. At this moment, it looked at her with an eager expression.

"Is the commission time over? Looks like you've gained quite a lot," she asked.

Thinking about how it was controlled by a mysterious force and ran around the town for two hours, the pet duck quickly nodded.

"That's fantastic!" Vivi clapped her hands happily.

The look in Karoo's eyes towards its young owner was filled with positive emotions like loyalty, protection, and willingness to work hard. The girl didn't disappoint its expectations either. From beneath a nearby bookshelf, she retrieved a bucket of cold water that had been prepared in advance.

Vivi said, "Drink more cold water!" using a phrase that only she understood. Then, she let the pet duck enjoy the cold water happily on the side while she lightly tapped the air in front of her a couple of times. (TL/N: Drink more cold water – is an internet slang, which means "cooling down" or "chilling.")

If she had to evaluate the golden finger she brought with her using one word, she could only think of it as "rudimentary."

It had been more than half a month since she transmigrated. She had studied this thing, which allowed her to entrust her pet to the panel and then let the panel control the pet to pick up attributes, more than ten times and used it three times in total.

There were no instructions, no introductions; she could only keep trying various methods, attempting to uncover the functions of it bit by bit.

Considering how dangerous the world of One Piece was, if Luffy didn't have his father helping him, then even in Loguetown, his fate would be "defeated before even starting the journey." Laughing on the execution platform? Smiling brightly? What good would that do!

The likes of Monkey D. Luffy and Roronoa Zoro simply didn't understand the world of pirates at all. Vivi secretly devised a plan. She had to survive! After that, she could then think about making a name for herself.

"No one knows the world of pirates better than me. We must survive, so, Karoo, eat more. I'll rely on you later!" After seeing the pet duck finish drinking the cold water, Vivi magically presented a plate of adorable and colorful jellies.

Karoo picked a jelly with a star pattern and happily gobbled it down, then patted its belly contentedly. The duck continued to nod, thumping its chest vigorously, showing that it was a tough guy ready to handle anything.

"Great! I can always count on you! Come here, let me pat your head."

"Quack! Quack-"

"Karoo, you're the best duck! Now, let's raise you up high!" Despite feeling quite stressed herself, Vivi still enjoyed playing with her pet.

Although Karoo noticed that its owner had changed quite a bit in the past half-month, it was happy to see this transformation. Having an owner who could play with it was the best kind of owner.

After playing for a while, Vivi asked Karoo to play on its own for a while as she had some important matters to attend to.

This time, the pet duck was entrusted to the panel for two hours, and the rewards were not bad. Vivi lightly tapped her fingers and counted. She had obtained a total of 13 bright spots.

She examined them one by one. The bright spots contained the attributes of <Swordsmanship +1> <Swordsmanship +1> <Marksmanship +1> <Medical Expertise +1> <Slash +1> <Cooking +1> <Shipwright +1> <Shipwright +1> <Swordsmanship +1> <Swordsmanship +1> <Cooking +1><Navigation +1> <Swordsmanship +1>

Although the number of bright spots appeared to be significant, the actual impact on her combat prowess was not. Improving any skill required a long period of accumulation.

Out of the 13 bright spots, only 7 were related to combat, which wasn't a large quantity. However, Vivi was still quite satisfied with these attributes she obtained by simply picking them up.