chapter 3

After a whole night's sleep, I wake up feeling energetic and head outside my tent to do what would probably be my daily routine for as long as I stay on this island, like yesterday I started by grabbing several fruits to have as my breakfast since I devoured all the meat yesterday.

I then equip my gear, survey the surroundings for any dangers, and sit down and stretch any lingering sleep away from my head after my search for any signs of threats proved Unfruitful.

Finally clear-headed, somewhat complete, and ready to act, I jog in the forest's direction with a lit cigarette in my mouth. My first stop was the bottle gourd tree to get a dozen of them, which I then stuffed inside my backpack and headed deeper to the forest into the stream to refill my empty gourds with my water.

I then make my way back to camp while picking any mushrooms, fruits, nuts, and vegetables I come across to put as much diversity as I can into my diet. My trip back was uneventful and much shorter than yesterday, only taking an hour and a half or two max.

During my trip back, I came across the tracks of the feline that I tracked yesterday while looking for a source of water, which I had to reluctantly ignore in favor of returning to my camp to set my goals and plans.

Finally reaching my camp, feeling only slightly tired after what must have been at least an hour and a half of constant jogging. 'thank you, enhanced stamina.' i smile white, thinking inside my head, and sit for a couple of minutes sipping some gourd juice to wash away the exhaustion and take out my notebook and pen to start my planning session.

The primary goal, I scribble first, trying to think of what I want to do in this world, which didn't take me that long.

What I wanted to do was quite simple. I want to live a full and happy life, which I write beneath the primary goal.

To live a full and happy and life, I'll need to explore the sea and see its wonders with my eyes. I mean, the world of one piece is exquisite if you ignore the catastrophic weather, sea king infested waters, and the many deadly hazards which are all too familiar, of course, but it is an enchanting world indeed. I want to see as much of it as I can.

To do that, I needed friends, comrades, companions, whatever you want to call them, not only for the obvious reasons like the strength which numbers bring, look at whitebeard, the world's most muscular man, even with the power to destroy the friggen the world. A literal army of pirates he still died in the marine-ford, granted he wanted to die there, but numbers still defeated him, so my point still stands.

Or that to sail the seas, a crew with all kinds of experiences is very much a necessity, since I can't do everything on my own, sure I had some basic knowledge about navigation and first aid. Still, my little basic knowledge would be useless when compared to true experts in said fields.

But also because going through such a grand adventure alone would be meaningless with no people I care about to share that experience with, and so I scribble crew beneath living a full life.

"but of crew of what," I mutter to myself as I take a minute to ponder while twirling the pen between my fingers.

There are four paths that I can take, which I write beneath the crew, the marine path, the revolutionary path, the bounty hunter path, and lastly, the pirate path.

The pros of becoming a marine would entail access to training, some resources, and maybe even the six powers, which are seven and Haki if I play my cards right. The cons, however, entail taking orders, not having any real freedom to act or travel as I see fit, getting asked questions about my prosthetics, having my nonexistent background investigated, being a servant of celestial dragons, and that I can probably figure the six powers and Haki on my own, albeit at a slower pace, having listed both the pros and cons I take some time think, only to shake my head, deciding the cons outweigh the pros and then cross the marine path.

The pros and cons of joining the revolutionary army are more or less the same as joining the marines with the added benefit of meeting some pretty cool people, not serving the celestials dragons, and not learning the six powers. I again take some time to think, only to unsurprisingly cross the revolutionary path, I mean, taking orders is a big no-no for me even if said orders are coming from someone as outstanding as Monkey D Dragon, and besides, I'm not such a bleeding heart that I will try to save the world, the celestial dragons can keep jerking each other off at Mariejois for ill care, as long as they don't cross me of course. Still, I'll try to maintain a friendly relationship with the revolutionaries if possible.

Being a bounty hunter will offer me a lot of freedom to act and travel at my leisure without breaking the law, of course. The ability to gather resources I can use to fund my plans by hunting pirates and claiming their bounties, that being said, it's also the fastest way to build grudges and make enemies and bounty hunters don't really make it big in one piece, the seas are ruled by the world government, the revolutionaries, and big pirate crews, and bounty hunters don't amount to anything much in paradise and the new world. I take a slightly longer time debating the pros and cons inside my head, only to move on after failing to decide about this path, leaving it untouched inside my notebook.

Piracy offers me the most freedom out of all options in all ways. It also means that I cannot get as many recourses as I need, provided I'm strong enough to get said resources for myself and to beat up any marine or bounty hunter coming after me, and, of course, it's also the fastest way to make a reputation for myself, thanks to the world government's retarded bounty system.

I really don't know what the world government was thinking when they came up with this system, sure it could lure some bounty hunters to do the dirty work of the government for them, but it would also act as a philter getting rid of all the weaker pirates leaving only the elites with less competition and more resources to thrive, it would also give world-wide exposure and fame to any pirate intelligent and strong enough to survive with a hefty bounty on their head, so it's just a joke system doing more bad than good and by actually giving the pirates a way to determine their strength by how big their bounties are, and giving them an easier time recruiting better crew members based on their bounty-enhanced infamy.

There are only two cons I can think of for being a pirate, the first being constantly being hunted down, which can be solved quickly enough with the application of sufficient strength, and the second is not being well received by locals while traveling, which is not that big of a deal in and by itself.

And so I'm left between two choices, leading me to dive even deeper inside my head, as I continuously debate my two options again and again and again, only to be interrupted by the rumbling of my stomach.

I suddenly realized that I must have spent a couple of hours drowning in my thoughts, evidenced by the scorching sun, which had made its way straight above my head.

Sighing, I decided that thinking on an empty stomach would only make things worse, so I grabbed a sharpened stick and made my way towards the seawater to get some fish to satiate my hunger with.

After cooking and devouring my lunch, which did little to clear my conflicting thoughts, I frustratedly take hold of satori and archangel and set my sights on the forest, intending to go inside of it, not to explore, not to search for sustenance, but to find a fight, not being able to make a choice has frustrated me more than I thought it would. So I've gone and vented my frustration on the first strong-looking animal that I can find in the forest.

I made my way to the forest by taking a couple of slow steps, only for them to develop into a jog as my heart started to beat in anticipation. However, that also did not last for long because my jog then turned into a full sprint as what I can only imagine as a maniacal/deranged smile stretched across my face.

And so I sprinted through the woods, oozing what could be described as an almost tangible aura of battle lust, not even sparing a second glance as all kinds of small animals fled in all directions ahead of my path, only stopping momentarily to dodge or slash several weak-looking, whose shapes I honestly couldn't even be bothered to memorize, as they tried to attack me.

My battle-lust-induced sprint continues, only to come to an abrupt end, as I stop to lay my eyes on it.

And by god, was it the most glorious thing I have ever seen, standing at an impressive 5 meters, it shrieked, simultaneously holding the two halves of what seems to be a tiger two times its size and bathing in its blood while striking its chest at the same time.

My smile widens even further, growing even more maniacal, as I gaze at this monstrosity that was a giant, silver, four-armed gorilla, bathing in the blood of its dead foe and declaring itself as the strongest predator in this area of the forest and claiming it as its territory.

"Hey, four-arms," I state loudly, trying to get its attention, and not failing as it finally seems to notice me, its savage gaze landed on my person, appraising me for several seconds, as it finally seemed to understand my purpose for standing in front of it, and I could have sworn that it looked to be quite annoyed as it threw away the two halves of the poor tiger and prepared its self for incoming battle.

"let's fight," I say simply as I stab the sheathed satori into the soft ground beside me and start charging bare-handedly toward the giant gorilla while laughing loudly.

He answered my charge by standing its ground and holding one of its arms backward in a fist, preparing to crush my bones and send me flying with its fist.

I happily answer its challenge, doing the same as I continue my charge. It doesn't take me a long time to be in striking distance of the gorilla as its enormous fist covers my vision, blocking all other sights.

I answer by launching my left prosthetic fist in its direction as I channel all power I can into it. A shock wave sent both leaves and branches all around us as the gorilla's large silver-furred arm met my much smaller metallic arm.

We continued pushing each other for a second or two until we both staggered backward, me reeling a good five steps and the gorilla merely taking a single step back.

'it has an overwhelming advantage in terms of brute force,' I think as I try to develop the best strategy to defeat my opponent.

'if the brute strength approach doesn't work, then I'll go with finesse instead.' I think again as I raise my hands in a traditional boxing stance and approach step by step more slowly and carefully.

Looking at my cautious approaching figure, the gorilla snorts, seemingly disdainful of my caution, and then charges towards me while shrieking and beating its chest, once close. It launches one of its giant fists toward my head, which I barely dodge, by weaving my body the side and taking a step forward, trying to get close enough to strike its abdomen or one of its sides 'I seem to have a small advantage in speed.' I think inside my head, not having the leisure to think of much else.

It sends a second and third punch, each seemingly more vicious than its predecessor, which I also dodge by a hear-breadth until I'm close enough to plant my fist to its left side, doing no damage at all, 'crap, what the hell is this guy's skin made of' i think briefly as it continuously tries to smash my head, and splatter its contents across the forest floor. I continue weaving left while striking at its sides at every chance I get.

The stalemate of dodging and counter-attacking is finally broken as it tries to engulf me in a bear hug, or a gorilla hug to be more precise with two of its muscular arms, which I avoid by taking a step backward, causing my foe to catch nothing but air, I then take a step forward and lunge my fist toward its face which it lowered while trying to catch me in its gorilla hug, but my eyes open wide as it suddenly smirked smugly in my direction, I only had time to bring my arm back and guard my chest as one of its two hands which had been idle the whole fight to strike my hastily made arm guard sending me flying back, and knocking the air out of my lungs, 'this guy is definitely smarter than it looks, it lured me into a false sense of security by not using two if its arms during the fight only to strike me with one of them when I least expected it.' I thought as I took a big breath and corrected my stance mid-air to make myself slide backward when I hit the ground instead of tumbling and rolling like a rag doll.

Having noticed that I've been sent flying toward my sword, I reach for it with my right hand and draw it while still mid-air while leaving the sheath buried in the ground, hesitating for a fraction of a second, I also hold my revolver with my right while sliding backward and lower my stance and stab my sword into the ground to stop myself from sliding anymore, and barely stopping myself before slamming into a tree.

I then fire a shot that hit the giant gorilla's chest, only causing it to take a step backward and grunt in slight pain, making my eyes twitch at its freakishly tough hide, seeing as I could attack from range and lacking the same capability, it charged at me deciding to keep our confrontation a melee one so as not to lose its advantage, looking at its charging figure I calmly raise my revolver and start firing at it while pedaling backward.

It simply raises its four arms to protect its head and torso without stopping its charge as it grits its teeth through the pain of my bullets hitting it and bouncing off its tough hide, only causing it some pain and slightly slowing it down.

I stop pedaling backward as I fire the last bullet in my revolver. I then place it back in my belt and then stand my ground while holding my sword with both hands in front of me.

My opponent doesn't leave me waiting for long, as its shrieking tyrannical form finally towers over me, throwing a massive silver fist in my direction, which I parry to side using my blade and move forward as fast as I can while ducking under its arm, dodging another punch and slashing at its now unprotected side while remaining on guard for of it's two remaining arms, luckily it wasn't fast enough to react in time, and I sliced its side and go behind it. Then I turned around and quickly swung my blade at its wide-open back and jumped back as it also turned around merely a fraction of a second later and tried to sweep my side with its fist.

'crap this guy's hide must be as hard as steel. Even satori only left two white lines at its side and back,' I think as I take a step forward and dodge several more attacks to slash its side at the same place.

The stalemate of dodging and counter-attacking returned, except that I focused on attacking its left side. It, of course, didn't long to notice the pattern and predicted my attacks limiting my option. As we continued to fight, I landed fewer hits, while its attacks became even harder to dodge because it was able to predict my attacks.

As we continued our fight, which was slowly but surely becoming more and more helpful for the gorilla, it finally made a mistake by stepping into a hole in the ground and losing its balance. My body reacted on pure instinct as I took a step forward and lowered my sword to my side.

I then slashed at its side while shouting at the top of my lungs, "Zekkū(Absolute Void)," and finally I saw the color red 'huh neat, so shouting attack names really strengthens them.' I think as I turn around and jump backward in case of any counter-attack.

'ugh, so this my life now fighting giant gorillas in a forest while shouting chunibyo attack names, you, the giant gorilla over there hurry and kill me before I die of embarrassment.' I think while gazing at the thin red line I left at my opponent's side as the words my life linger for a while longer inside my head, my life..? and suddenly it hits me. I felt the urge to bang my head against a hard surface for taking so long, thinking about which path I wanted to take, which was silly of me, to be honest, now that I think about it.

Looking at the gorilla, which brought its hand to its side and then up to its face, it looked at the small amount of blood staining its hand and then looked at me with a look of serious contemplation. It then looked back at its hand and then at me. It kept alternating its gaze between its hand and my form until I sheepishly raised a cupped fist to my mouth and coughed dryly, honestly feeling embarrassed by the giant gorilla's bewildered gaze.

"ah-hm, that was a great fight but I really have to go now," I said embarrassedly as I felt an urge to go back to my camp and complete my planning session since I was finally clear-headed enough to continue without going in circles around myself inside my head.

"you're really strong, and that was definitely my loss, so how about we continue this another time since I really have to get going," I said as I reached into my backpack, taking several fruits and throwing them to the gorilla.

It caught one of them, and after giving it a couple of sniffs, it stuffed it inside its mouth. After chowing it several times, it swallowed.

Having finished the fruit, it just snorted at me and turned around to leave. Looking at the gorilla's retreating figure, I confirmed this guy is most definitely more intelligent than it looks; I didn't overthink, however, as this is the world of one piece where turtles would practice kung fu and monkeys and tigers wield swords like it's the most normal thing. An intelligent gorilla is nothing strange.

Picking up satori's sheath and sheathing it inside, I make my back to camp.