Chapter 94: Oda Eiichirou
Getting muted is a complete routine now? There's actually a whole routine for this?
After reading Kaguya's message in the group chat, Yukari—currently muted for thirty minutes and deep in a state of existential crisis—couldn't help but fall into contemplation.
Thinking back over her past experiences… the flowchart did, in fact, check out.
But why was she muted for so long this time?!
Thirty whole minutes! Had she… fallen out of favor?
Pfft—why had she just used "fallen out of favor"? What kind of suggestive language was that?
Yukari slowly drew in a deep breath and sank further into her youkai existential crisis.
Right now, she just needed some time alone.
In the past, even thirty years would pass in the blink of an eye for her. But now, a mere thirty minutes felt utterly unbearable. Was this what people meant by "internet addiction"?
By the time twenty-nine minutes had elapsed—
Yukari's golden hair had devolved into a tangled mess.
Her beautiful eyes were locked onto the timer on the chat group interface, watching the seconds tick away with agonizing slowness. One second. Another second. Another.
When the final minute expired, she exhaled an enormous breath of relief.
As though a hundred-thousand-ton weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
Her first order of business was to pop up in the group chat.
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden: Ahahahahaha! The Sage of Youkai, returned from solitary confinement—making her dazzling entrance!
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden: Admin-dono muted me for THIRTY MINUTES!
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden: Kisama—that was too cruel! Table flip! (╯‵□′)╯┳┳
Kaguya-sama: Yukari-nee-sama is finally free! There, there. *pat pat*
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden: See, Little Kaguya always knows what to say. Admin-dono didn't even bother to comfort his poor, pitiful group member.
RawrSoFierce: …Pitiful my ass.
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden: This one does not have an ass—this one only has…
Kaguya-sama: STOP! Pull over! Hit the brakes! My innocence can't keep up with this!
Crazy Diamond: My innocence can't keep up with this!
The Little Wandering Planet: My innocence can't keep up with this! (adorable copy-paste machine)
Yukari did exercise some restraint this time. Courting death was an art that required proper pacing—you couldn't get released from solitary and immediately go right back to provoking the Admin.
As someone with extensive experience in the field of courting death, Yukari understood this principle well.
Though come to think of it—boys running out of "innocence" was normal enough.
But why was Little Kaguya's innocence running low too?
Hssss… the more you thought about it, the scarier it got.
Words like a certain genre involving women began floating through Yukari's mind.
* * *
Meanwhile, Ryū had stopped surfacing in the group chat.
Because he was currently engaged in a highly confidential backroom deal with Whitebeard.
Well—it was just a normal PM. And Whitebeard had been the one to initiate it.
[PM] Edward Newgate: Admin, Admin—this old man has something that I feel I should tell you…
[PM] RawrSoFierce: Huh? What is it? Can't you just say it in the group?
[PM] Edward Newgate: This matter is a bit… particular. I'm not even sure how to explain it right now. Could you give me a moment to organize my thoughts?
[PM] RawrSoFierce: …Sure. Take your time. No rush. It's fine.
Whitebeard seemed… agitated? Or maybe just off somehow? Ryū couldn't quite pin down what was different.
But something about Whitebeard's demeanor felt wrong. He was missing his usual Four Emperor composure.
That was it—he was missing his composure.
Given Whitebeard's status and personality, unless something like one of his sons being killed—or one of his sons betraying him—had happened, he should normally be rock-solid steady.
Had something gone wrong in the One Piece world again?
Had Blackbeard respawned? Had someone else been reborn?
Or was there a transmigrator?
[PM] Edward Newgate: All right, I've got my thoughts in order. This is genuinely hard to believe.
[PM] Edward Newgate: [Image] Take a look at this photo first. Does the thing in the picture look… familiar to you?
[PM] RawrSoFierce: …Is that? One Piece… manga? What? A TANKOBON VOLUME?!
[PM] RawrSoFierce: What is going on—how does a One Piece tankoubon exist INSIDE the One Piece world? That's a straight-up crossover paradox!
[PM] Edward Newgate: I'm not entirely sure either. This manga called 'ONE PIEE' has already spread into the New World. Nobody knows who the author actually is.
[PM] Edward Newgate: The only thing anyone knows is the pen name: Oda Eiichirou.
[PM] RawrSoFierce: ??!
[Edward Newgate sent you a Gift Package. Tap to claim!]
Ryū tapped the Gift Package, and several books materialized in his hands.
One glance at the covers confirmed it—these were unmistakably One Piece manga volumes.
A One Piece manga inside the One Piece world. What kind of cursed recursion was this?
[PM] Edward Newgate: Admin-dono, could you take a look and tell me—does the story in this manga match the future trajectory of my world?
[PM] RawrSoFierce: Sure, let me take a look. If it's a match…
[PM] RawrSoFierce: Then there's likely a transmigrator in your world.
[PM] RawrSoFierce: Though that's just a guess for now.
[PM] Edward Newgate: The odds of it being a transmigrator are pretty high.
[PM] Edward Newgate: But whoever's drawing this 'ONE PIEE' is staying hidden. They haven't shown their face publicly. They clearly don't want to be exposed.
[PM] RawrSoFierce: Hmm… give me a moment. Let me read through the manga.
* * *
Setting the PM aside for now, Ryū turned his attention to the tankōbon volumes in his hands. They were One Piece volumes, all right.
Though the art style was slightly different from Oda's—the real Oda, that is.
But that made sense. Two different artists, after all. Even if you copied the plot beat-for-beat, perfectly replicating the original art style would be impossible.
"Chapter 1? So it's only just started serialization," Ryū noted. "And the pen name is Oda Eiichirou. The real one is Oda Eiichirō—this guy went with Eiichirou. Cheeky."
The corner of Ryū's mouth twitched. Even the pen name was plagiarized?
He opened the manga and flipped through a few pages.
It didn't take long for the picture to become clear.
This person was almost certainly a transmigrator. As for which world they'd come from, that was harder to say—after all, it wasn't as if only Ryū's original Earth had One Piece. The manga existed in the Gintama universe too, for instance.
So the transmigrator's world of origin would need further observation.
The bigger question right now was this: the chat group hadn't issued a Group Quest.
Which meant this person wasn't classified as an illegal transmigrator.
Or perhaps they simply hadn't done anything harmful to the One Piece world yet?
The previous target, "Meiyu Yinjing," had presumably triggered a bounty because they'd committed acts harmful to Kaguya's world—that was what had prompted the chat group to put out a wanted notice.
Blackbeard Teach had been a reincarnator, not a transmigrator—a different category entirely. Excluded.
"So this is a legitimate transmigrator?" Ryū murmured. "And a plagiarist, at that?"
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