Game Merchants Starting from the Ninja World.

Chapter 263 Roger Questions Life

The Lunaria brat standing nearby stared in disbelief.

Is this the Pirate King who once shook the world? He seems like an idiot.

After a while,

The two sat on the deck, drinking cheap ale.

"I never expected my first drink after being resurrected would be this bad."

The unpleasant rusty smell emanating from the bottle mouth made Roger keep pursing his lips, clearly annoyed.

Rayleigh didn't indulge him and said bluntly, "There's no good wine on this slave ship. If you can hold back, you can drink it after we land."

Does that mean, if you can't resist your own cravings, who can you blame?

Are there any slaves left?

Upon hearing Rayleigh's words, Roger's expression darkened slightly.

Rayleigh nodded and said, "Even with slaves, Fishman Island still hasn't seen the sun. The Celestial Dragons have already proclaimed themselves gods, and they remain a very powerful force on this sea."

Roger asked somewhat dejectedly, "Did the plan fail?"

He was referring to the Age of Exploration.

He set sail full of dreams, searching for companions and defeating enemies along the way, eventually reaching Laugh Tale and becoming the Pirate King.

But he discovered that even becoming the Pirate King wouldn't change the oppressed world.

That's why, on his deathbed, he wanted to say those words and start the Age of Exploration.

He wasn't sure if he could succeed.

But now that he is terminally ill, all he can do is use his final cry to awaken everyone's yearning for freedom and dreams.

Rayleigh nodded first, then shook his head and said, "Successful, but not entirely successful."

"The Age of Exploration was a success. In the years since your death, countless people have followed in your footsteps and headed to the sea, hoping to find the treasures you left behind."

"But the result was a failure."

"Most treasure hunters are not the freedom and dreams you expect, but despicable pirates who only know how to cause destruction everywhere. More than ten years have passed, and the World Government and the Celestial Dragons are still sitting at the pinnacle of power."

Although the process was successful, the result was a failure.

Because it was a wrong start from the beginning, the ending was already predetermined.

"Is that so? It seems I have become a sinner of this era."

Roger looked dejected.

This wasn't his intention, but there was nothing he could do about it.

If he had been younger and healthier back then, he might have had more choices and a brighter future.

But he was already terminally ill, and the Age of Exploration was the best choice he could make at the time, but it ended in failure.

Rayleigh looked at the dejected Roger and slowly said, as if panting, "However, Shanks, on whom you placed so much hope, has given this sea new life."

"Shanks!"

Roger's eyes lit up when he mentioned the trainee crew member he had high hopes for, and he asked, "How's he doing now?"

"He was once one of the Four Emperors of the New World."

Rayleigh said with a half-smile, "And now, the president of the Adventurers' Guild has not continued to inherit your will, but has issued a new Adventurers' Declaration, which even shocked me at the time."

"An Adventurer's Declaration?"

Speaking of adventurers, the Lunaria kid next to him had his eyes light up and started chattering excitedly as he began to describe them.

Roger listened carefully to his narration and quickly pieced together the story about the adventurer.

Finally, he exclaimed, "What a magnificent declaration! It's far more expansive than my Age of Exploration. Shanks, that brat, certainly didn't disappoint me."

"Disappointed you?"

Rayleigh said without any mercy, "Now it seems that you, as the captain, are making Shanks feel ashamed."

"What?"

Roger glared at him angrily and said, "Old man Rayleigh, do you want a fight?"

The Lunaria brats and the slaves who had been freed by Rayleigh and were staying in the cabin all stared at the two of them with strange looks.

They were already deeply shocked when they learned that Rayleigh was the vice-captain of the Roger Pirates.

Whose right-hand man is this, disguised as an old slave and infiltrating a slave ship?

Then came Roger's resurrection.

This was the second shock they received: the Pirate King, who had been dead for many years, was actually standing right in front of them.

Then came the third shock.

Compared to Big Mom, who rules the Kingdom of Torrent, Kaido, the admiral of the Beasts Pirates, and the imposing Whitebeard, the legendary Pirate King Roger seems a bit dim-witted.

Despite his graying hair, Rayleigh confidently declared, "You're no match for me now, Roger brat!"

"Are you serious, Rayleigh? I'm not sick right now."

Upon hearing this, Roger's lips curled into a smile.

His eyes blazed with fighting spirit.

Two minutes later,

Roger was bound hand and foot to the deck, thrashing about like a drowning fish.

"Old man Rayleigh, what's going on? Are you a monster? How could you even block my divine evasion?"

Roger felt a sense of existential unease.

He was in his prime, yet Rayleigh defeated him effortlessly, without even a hint of suspense.

As is well known, aside from Devil Fruit users, most martial arts masters experience a slight decrease in strength as they age.

Has Rayleigh been hiding his true strength all along?

You should have said so earlier!

If I had told you earlier, I would have let you be the Pirate King, and I would have been your right-hand man.

Rayleigh took out a Contract Fruit, held it to Roger's mouth, and said, "Eat this fruit, and you'll understand what's going on."

"Devil Fruit?"

Roger shook his head repeatedly, saying, "Although I don't reject the power of Devil Fruits, I don't want to eat one. I'd become a landlubber and unable to swim, that wouldn't be free! Wait... no, that's not right."

He was halfway through his sentence when his eyes suddenly widened.

Keep a close eye on the fruits of the contract.

He possessed the ability to hear the voices of all things, yet he heard no sound from this fruit.

The so-called listening to the voice of all things

In the world of One Piece, it is an extremely domineering and abnormal ability.

Unlike spiritual power, it is more like a free soul that actively detaches from its body, extends its tentacles into the world, and has the ability to sense the emotions and soul content of any living being after resonating with their soul.

Even inanimate objects retain audible sounds over time.

But on this fruit,

Roger couldn't hear a single sound.

It's as if a power transcending the world created a fruit that has no connection with anything else, resulting in no sound remaining at all.

Roger was confused but deeply shocked, and asked, "Old man Rayleigh, where did you get this fruit?"

"Game Merchant".

Rayleigh briefly recounted what had happened since the appearance of the game merchant.

"Coming from another world, creating a game that allows travel to countless other worlds to hunt for contamination, freeing everyone from the shackles of fate, and granting any wish?"

Roger's face flushed red, and he clenched his fists.

He untied the rope binding him and looked at the contract fruit with anticipation.

Without hesitation, he swallowed it in one gulp.

"Idiot captain, like a Devil Fruit, you only need to take one bite. Are you trying to choke yourself to death?"

(End of this chapter)