Planning for the Future

An hour later, John and Billy were exiting a saloon style building near the edge of town fittingly called the "Visitor Center", which basically amounted to the excise office of the town. While it was particularly necessary for John to go there, since he had told Billy he was a merchant he needed to play the part and register in the town as one.

"Well that went easier than expected." John took another look around the town, adjusting his eyes to the sunlight. The inside of the building was dark for some reason and lacked windows, with the only light being from the lanterns near the visitor counter. For looking like a saloon, the interior felt like an Adventurers Guild from any generic name.

"Off course it was John, you haven't got anything to sell!" Exclaimed Billy in a happily boisterous manner.

Billy had, in some weird twist of fate, offered to be John's guide around town and even offered him a place in his home until John could make something of himself. It was an incredibly generous offer, and John was touched by it. As strange as this sounds, seeing as they barely know each other, John could not help but think of this man as a great person, and believed that the people who know him well must be truly blessed.

Or perhaps just overwhelmed by his courtesy and positive demeanor.

The only unusual thing was that Billy had mentioned that it was just him and his son at the house, with no mention of a wife or other extended family. John considered asking about it but decided he did not know Billy enough to pry.

"Come on, let's head to my place so we can get you settled in, then I can show you around the rest of the town. Maybe you can even roam for yourself!"

With that Billy started walking away from the saloon towards the center of town, probably towards some housing section.

Side-by-side we walked, occasionally moving past another person roaming by, saying an occasional hello, and flashing a smile to others.

Everyone was kind and friendly, and they all knew each other, at least on a first name basis. Based on first impressions, John liked this town.

"Speaking of selling things," Billy spoke up after we greeted a lovely couple of housewives gossiping on their front porch, "what type of business were you hoping to do or open John?" Billy had a very curious look on his face. It made sense, not many people went out to become a merchant with no real product and little money.

John was wondering about this too. Obviously the most important thing to John was to secure the necessities for himself, which can instantly be solved with his Devil Fruit. So, the next big thing John needed was a place of operation, a 'home' if you would.

This was not to say John was necessarily looking for a home to buy, but he needed a place to stay after bunking with Billy, whether that be by having enough money to rent a place, buy a home, or even get something like a ship much like pirates do.

Before any of these questions could be solved though, he would need a steady source of income that would be easy to get. Luckily with his power it did not need to be incredibly stable or often since he could 'recycle' things he bought to make things last longer, but money was needed.

The next big thing John needed was power of some sort. He needed to find a way to anchor himself in the world in such a way that he was either too strong to touch or make people too afraid of the consequences of trying to touch him.

In his quest for power, John's first milestone for himself was to get physically stronger. Pulling up his status page…

{John Capet [Aspiring Business Owner]}

{Attributes}

Strength- 20

Constitution- 20

Dexterity- 30

Intelligence- 35

Wisdom- 50

Charisma- 50

{Skills}

(Lying [30])

(Bartering [50])

{Abilities}

(Devil Fruit [Bāta-Bāta no Mi])

{Traits}

…John was determined to raise his Strength, Constitution and Dexterity as quickly as possible. While he had hoped that if he ever had to fight someone that he would be a total beast and win immediately, he knew this was not going to be feasible. So, training was a must.

Fortunately, he had his power at his disposal! He was sure that with enough money and resources he could buy himself some great training equipment to maximize his gains when trying to improve, maybe even hire personal trainers. He had no intention of training like Zoro who lifted a dumbbell made of two rocks and a stick.

No offense to Zoro, of course. He would kill John in a second with that dumbbell.

The next big task after getting some better attributes was to gain better skills that were not lifestyle like (Lying), which John both questioned and found humorous. He supposed that it was something he always had, but it only surfaced because he used it on Billy. John decided for the future to just hide that skill, it was nice to know he was okay at it, but he wasn't particularly interested in tracking its growth.

{Skills}

(Bartering [50])

Much better.

Back to skills though, John decided he needed to train more combat oriented skills, with the top of his list being Observation Haki and Armament Haki. In addition, he would need to see if there was a way to increase both his usage of firearms and swords, he sincerely doubted he had the capacity to be a pugilist like Luffy was.

But no matter what his plans were, John needed money to secure a foothold in the world. Than he could hold up somewhere and train until he was competent.

And with that in mind…

"…I think I want to open a pawn shop. You know, trade goods for money, then sell them back if people want them back? It's like money lending, but more ethical in my opinion."

To John, this was a great idea, at least on paper. With this, John would have an established storefront which would cement his place in the world physically. It would be a place he could come and go from as long as he owned it personally since he could take as many days off as he needed, all he would need to do is pay rent for the space. Plus, if he ran his business well and even connected in people in high places, he could make himself hard to touch by criminals, to some degree.

Billy frowned at the mention of this business while dodging some kids playing a game of tag right in his path. "Not for nothing, but isn't it really hard to start a place that that with no money? Plus, don't you need connections to sell those items that get pawned to you? Otherwise you are just sitting on dead product!"

Normally, Billy would right with the points he was making. The trouble with a pawn shop (in John's experience by both taking loans and watching reality television) was that there were always problems both getting people to actually sell you objects at a price they were okay with, and then finding sellers to re-buy these objects at a higher price.

These were 2 problems John did not have to deal with.

John would be both the buyer and the seller.

The plan so far was this, in most shows John watched, pawn shops rarely bought items for their full value, often trying to undercut customers and buy it for about 50% or so tops (usually). John, with his power to know how much things are worth, could just offer people a 75% flat fee for what they sold him. Then if they wanted to re-buy it, he would sell it back to them for 125% of what it was worth, like a loan.

While the 50% increase would seem sketchy to some people, he would definitely be the highest cut pawn shop out there with his initial flat 75% payment, and he could offer them the money right then and there because he could sell it immediately without having to find any buyer. And, on the off chance the person gets the money to buy back there item, because they would have to pay at 125% what it was worth, he would still get that 25% cut.

Of course, John could be around 50% like the other shops, or even lie about the rarity of objects to sucker fools into selling priceless heirlooms for a pittance. But John was not going to do that. To John, if he could make a reputation of being incredibly honest, as well as having a fairer price than all the competition, he would rise to the top of the scene immediately.

And if people were unhappy with his business, he was sure he could commission a mercenary crew or some pirates to take care of those who would want to take him down.

That said, this was all just the initial plans John had, because he still had 2 problems ahead of him.

One, he needed starting money.

Two, he needed to clarify how possession worked when he sold things.

He needed to make sure that whatever he sold in his theoretical shop was considered his so he would not get hit by the penalty for stealing stolen goods. John's initial thought was he probably could make a contract of some sort to make items his until people offer to buy it back, but that was an experiment he was going to run another day.

"…I'm sure it will work out fine. I got my luck to help me get this far, I am sure it will help in the days to come."

Billy continued to frown for a little bit before his face lit up once more. "That's the spirit! It is always a good idea to have dreams, even if they are totally unreasonable!"

"So, you have no faith in me?"

Oh, I do John, you just got a lot going against you." Billy looked around the town, putting on a hard to describe expression on his face. "You got nothing but optimism and not a fantastic staring place I'm afraid. This town just isn't big enough for what you want to do."

That got John's attention. "What do you mean not big enough? I thought you said you get plenty of people visiting?"

Billy started to look a bit embarrassed. "Well, yeah, but they are sporadic and all over the place, so you won't find any consistency from folks around here, we just don't have to money or items to keep your pawn shop afloat. In fact, I hate to say it, but any business here will probably be dire unless you take over for someone else."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, we were originally a mining town John. We found some Gold near the rocks, set up some mines and went to digging. Problem was that only lasted for a few years before everything dried up. The people that live here now are from the families that didn't have enough money to skip town."

John was once again floored by how stereotypical this situation was to a western movie.

"So, what do you suggest then?"

Billy though for a moment. "Well, you could go to Water Seven to run a business. They are close by, have visitors coming through all the time. Plus, the men shipwrights there are a rowdy bunch, I am sure they would need a pawn shop to get some money for gambling or drink." He pauses again before speaking. "You could also run down to the Archipelago if you want, but I don't recommend that. Businesses are pretty locked down there with the government and nobles always around, plus if you have no connections someone will probably either rob you blind or trick you into slavery."

Billy brought up a good point. Being so close to the world government may keep pirates wary, but it also meant John had to worry about the hypocritical nobles that existed as well. Oddly enough, while John could see himself making more money at Sabaody, the risks were much higher. He was not like Shakky who had Rayleigh to deter people.

"Maybe I will give Water 7 a shot then. They sound like a fun group and some easy money."

"Yeah, they are good people. Either way, you're stuck with me and the boy for three weeks, so maybe you could do some odd jobs around town to get some money in the meantime."

John looked at Billy, confusion filing his face. "Three weeks? That's an odd amount of time."

"Well yeah. The merchant ships that pick up what we sell only come once a month, and since they came by last week you will have to wait a bit. Plus, they will probably want some pay so you can stow away on their ship." Billy quickly ducks, avoiding a rock that a nearby child threw while having a temper tantrum with their parent, before continuing walking. "You may get lucky if a tourist ship docks before the merchants arrive, but they probably won't want a random person on their ship."

John thought about this for a second and didn't see anything wrong with this for the moment. He still needed to get used to being in this world and find some cash anyway.

"…And here we are!" Billy suddenly turned to the right and faces a house. It looks like almost every other building in this town, a single story ranch style home built with red painted wood with an exterior porch and what seems to be a chimney. it is almost amazing that he knows it is his home.

Opening the front door, John follows Billy inside. Within the house is nothing amazing, a small couch in the corner, a table in the middle of the room with a few chairs (where Billy's son John is coloring something on a piece of paper with crayon), and a counter and stove in the other corner of the room with what seems to be a refrigerator, the only advanced looking thing in the entire home. There are some doors on the far side of the entryway, probably some bedrooms and a bathroom of some sort.

It was old-timey and minimalistic, but cozy.

"This is my home." Billy exclaims. "What's mine is yours, just let me know if you need anything."

John could not help but feel touched at Billy's generosity. Letting someone into your home the day you meet them is a different type of kindness.

"Let's get a drink really quick and take a load off before we look at your room." Billy heads over to the refrigerator and pulls out a pitcher of water, then goes to grab 3 glasses for himself and the two John's.

John takes a seat next to the boy while Billy delivers the glasses. After a few seconds of drinking and sitting in silence, John speaks.

"Thank you for all this, I…"

"Save it. You seem like a good person, so I wanted to help you out. If you want to thank me, then get ready to get on your feet and start your new life. A new adventure."

John stared at Billy hard for a long time.

"Adventure, huh…"

John closed his eyes.

"Okay then, what would you suggest for a job then?"

Billy got this big, toothy smile on his face. "I could hook you up with some fishing buddies I know, they could use the help. We always need more wood for lots of things, so you could volunteer to help log and see what they say. If you are handy you could see about fixing things around town for some pocket change. Or if you are feeling especially lucky, you can try digging at the old gold mine."

This last one caught John's attention. "I thought you said there was no gold in the mine?"

"No there is gold in there, just not enough to run our town. Every so often someone finds a nugget or something and sells it to the traders, then they usually blow it at the bar."

John, hearing this excitedly flexed his hand and remembered the gold flake in the rock.

He was wondering how much he could make in 3 weeks.

"So, tell me more about this mine."