The scorching sun cast a faint orange glow over the wooden deck of the ship, painting the waves with the color of diluted blood.
The three sat near the open crate, the simple food distributed among them, and the atmosphere was calm, with only the whispers of the sea slipping softly between the broken tones of conversation.
Seth did not speak much. His eyes silently observed Ace and Deis, as if weighing each of them without leaving a trace. He ate slowly, cursing inwardly as he watched the food disappear in front of him at a merciless pace.
"These two beasts, at this rate there will be nothing left for me to eat..." Seth thought angrily.
Deis raised his eyebrow slightly and whispered to Ace,
"The man doesn't talk much..."
Ace smiled and nodded.
"Yeah, he's a bit of a weirdo... but he said something interesting just now..." He turned to Deis and added in a light tone,
"He said he wants to take my head to the Navy... and get the bounty."
"He's thinking of becoming a pirate hunter."
Deis nearly choked on his food.
"Damn! Why didn't you tell me that earlier?! What if he poisoned the food..." he whispered nervously as he stared at Seth.
Ace shook his head and whispered,
"Relax, this guy didn't do anything like that."
"Haaah? How can you say that when you just met him minutes ago?!" Deis whispered in suppressed anger.
Ace laughed as he scratched the back of his head.
"I just know!"
"You bastards, I can hear you..." said Seth with fake sarcasm, glaring at them with a mix of indignation and mockery.
Deis coughed to hide sudden embarrassment, while Ace simply laughed out loud.
Then suddenly, Deis asked as he chewed the last bite,
"...Why? Why do you want to become a pirate hunter?"
Seth raised his eyes to them and answered in a calm and unpretentious tone:
"Money."
Then, after a moment of silence, he added with a faint smile:
"I want a decent life, a simple house, food every day... and peace of mind. Nothing more."
Ace smiled and looked toward the horizon where the sun was slowly sinking.
"As for me... I sailed to become the Pirate King."
"I didn't ask about your dream," Seth muttered in annoyance.
Ace chuckled lightly.
"Not just any pirate... but the only one who'll surpass the Pirate King."
Deis laughed and said,
"You never get tired of repeating that, do you?"
Ace replied with a wink,
"Because I mean every word of it."
Then he turned to Seth, eyes sparkling with genuine excitement.
"Listen to me... instead of hunting pirates, why not become one? Pirates make money, own treasures, ships, islands... you could be a pirate your own way, without being like the others."
Seth's expression didn't change.
He slowly put down the piece of bread, looked at Ace, and said in a cold voice:
"Pirates? Murderers, rapists, and dishonorable thieves."
Then he looked him straight in the eye, his tone growing firmer:
"Even if you're different from them... I won't be a pirate. And forget it, I won't join you."
A sudden silence fell, even the wind seemed to quiet down.
Deis raised his eyebrows but didn't utter a word.
As for Ace, he kept staring at Seth before a calm smile appeared on his lips.
"Hmm... so you're stubborn too."
But Seth didn't respond.
He was preoccupied with something else... something inside only he could see.
[3 minutes and 17 seconds remaining for DNA stabilization...]
The message appeared inside his mind, with mechanical coldness.
He lowered his gaze to the piece of bread in his hand, then bit into it slowly.
"Not much time left, but..." he thought without showing anything on his face.
"This ignorant fool seems strong, and I'm hesitating to kill him!!" Seth frowned as he felt the hesitation to kill Ace.
"Forget it, I don't need the money now, and at least I got another transformation..."
[Scan complete...]
[DNA successfully acquired...]
[Access granted again]
A wide smile formed on his face when he heard the voice of the watch echoing in his mind. Once again, he felt that he could transform into the new form automatically.
He had asked the watch about it, and it told him that his mind was connected to it, so now he could transform directly without pressing anything, just by a single thought.
"Wow, I'm finally full..." Ace said as he patted his slightly bloated belly. He turned to look at Seth, who seemed deep in thought, and added gratefully, "Man, thanks for the meal..."
Deis also nodded in thanks and asked with curiosity,
"Where's your next destination!?"
Seth replied, "Hmm, I'm on my way back to my island!... " He sighed and stared at Deis, who seemed slightly more competent than Ace.
"But I don't know anything about navigation. I see you're the navigator of this fool..." He pointed at Ace. "I see you need a ship!!"
"How about this... help me reach the nearest inhabited island..." he tapped the ship's deck, "then this ship will be yours!!"
Ace's eyes widened in excitement, and he straightened up and quickly approached Seth, asking eagerly, "Really!? Are you sure!?"
"You're not joking, are you!?" asked Deis from the side.
"Man, you're too close... back off a little..." Seth pushed him back and nodded.
He pointed at the crate and said, "Yes! I'm not joking. Except for that crate and the sack, everything else is yours, including the ship..."
"Deis, Deis, quick, let's check out our ship!!" said Ace with excitement as he dragged Deis like a child.
Seth shook his head helplessly before turning his focus to the watch. From the corner of his eye, he saw both Deis and Ace enter the ship.
"Let's check out this new transformation..." he whispered quietly, then with a single thought, he transformed into the new DNA.
He felt a surge of heat sweep over his body then vanish as quickly as it came.
"Hmm, what's going on!!??" He looked at his form in confusion, several question marks appeared on his face, nothing happened as he expected, nothing changed in his body, everything remained as it was.
He placed his hand on his face and muttered mockingly to himself,
"What a fool I am..."
In fact, he had expected to transform into Ace's form because the last time the watch copied DNA, he transformed into the Sea King — the giant serpent.
But now it was different, and the proof was that Seth raised his hand, which was emitting flames, and stared at it in amazement.
"Amazing, I don't feel any heat at all..." he whispered in disbelief as he played with the flame to form different shapes.
"Man, it's chaotic inside..."
Seth quickly extinguished the flame and turned to look at Ace, who was complaining about the bloodstains inside the ship.
He shrugged and said, "It's not my fault, and since it's your ship now, it's your problem..."
Seth stopped speaking as his sixth sense kicked in again. He turned his head toward the source of the disturbance he felt.
He turned to Deis and asked, pointing at the binoculars hanging on his waist, "Hmm, hey Deis, give me that binoculars for a minute..."
"Oh! Here you go..." Deis tossed it to him and asked, "What's the matter?!"
Seth didn't reply, but held the binoculars and stared for a long time at the black dot in the distance, which began to become clearer bit by bit.
"Impossible...."
...
A few miles from Seth's ship, aboard a large sailboat, stood a woman with an attractive figure and silky black hair dancing in the wind.
The woman removed the binoculars from her eyes and stared at the semi-burnt white paper that was moving slightly in her palm, her eyes red from intense crying.
"Thank God, he's okay..." she murmured as she hugged the paper to her chest.
"I didn't expect to lose you so suddenly, my dear..." she whispered in a voice filled with bitterness.
"At least our son Seth is still alive. You must've protected him well..."