Chapter 12: Arrangements and Estimations
Walking along the streets of the royal capital, Su Xiao observed the shops on both sides until a store named "Dulu Grocery" came into view, and he stopped in his tracks.
This was exactly the place he was looking for. Su Xiao entered the desolate grocery store.
"Eh, Sir Guard, our shop already paid the security fee three days ago, so why~?"
The grocery store owner's gaze seemed to be looking at a plague god. It was clear he had been frequently squeezed by the guard squad.
"I'm not here to collect the security fee. Do you have a plant like this...?"
Half an hour later, Su Xiao left the grocery store with a smile on his face. The shop owner enthusiastically saw him out, indicating that Su Xiao had bought quite a few things.
Killing the master of Mount Colubo was by no means simple.
According to Su Xiao's memory, that tiger's size was at least several times that of an ordinary tiger. Its height alone was around four or five meters—a complete monster.
Su Xiao didn't head directly into the wilderness to search for the master of Mount Colubo. Instead, he first returned to the Guard Headquarters.
After wandering around the Guard Headquarters for a while, Su Xiao entered the warehouse where supplies were stored.
With Oka's death, the guard squad was now leaderless. In just one morning, the squad had already shown signs of factionalism.
Hank and Oka's two trusted subordinates each formed their own factions, engaged in open and covert struggles.
Tomorrow night was the time to burn the waste terminal, so today, the higher-ups would definitely select a new guard leader; otherwise, it would affect the major operation.
Amid this chaos, Su Xiao easily infiltrated the warehouse. After staying inside for a while, he left the guard squad and headed toward Mount Colubo.
Looking at the city gate in the distance, Su Xiao had previously sneaked in through this same gate. Now, getting out of the city was very simple—he just needed to walk forward openly.
The few gate guard members, upon seeing Su Xiao, nodded to him and let him pass directly without any questioning.
Passing through the city gate and passing by the waste terminal, Su Xiao saw a vast forest. This was Mount Colubo, the place where the original story's protagonist, Luffy, grew up.
Entering the forest, Su Xiao clearly felt that the air here was fresher, filled with the scents of various plants. Some unknown birds chirped incessantly on the tree branches, and occasionally, some gentle herbivores moved through the vegetation, not too afraid of humans.
Although Mount Colubo had beautiful scenery, it was equally dangerous. Ferocious beasts often appeared, and ordinary people dared not venture deep inside.
Walking through the uninhabited forest, Su Xiao placed his hand on his sword hilt. He appeared relaxed, but in reality, he was alert to any movement around him.
The dense forest surrounding him was not suitable to become Su Xiao's "hunting ground." He needed an open space.
The open space didn't need to be too large, but it had to meet the following two conditions.
First, there had to be a water source. The Goa Kingdom was located on a sea island, and water scarcity was the most common situation on islands. Therefore, water sources on Mount Colubo were also few. Once he found a water source, the chances of finding that giant tiger would increase significantly.
Second, the open space had to have vegetation cover, making it easier for him to set traps.
Of course, the traps Su Xiao planned to set were definitely not digging a pit to lure the master of Mount Colubo into falling in.
The soil layer on Mount Colubo was not very hard. For a creature of such massive size, unless the pit walls were reinforced with cement, a collapse would definitely occur. At that point, it would be a dead end—unable to escape even if it wanted to.
The trap location Su Xiao wanted was not easy to find, but perseverance paid off. After three hours of painstaking searching, Su Xiao finally found a satisfactory terrain.
It was an open space surrounded by trees. The ground was covered with lush green grass, and some wildflowers of various colors grew there, emitting a faint floral fragrance.
Upon smelling the floral scent, Su Xiao frowned. The fragrance might have some impact on his plan, but it also had pros and cons. The floral scent could mask the odor of certain items he was setting up.
Taking a shovel out of his storage space, Su Xiao took off his shirt and began digging a pit on the open space.
Two hours later, Su Xiao hid on a large tree near the open space. The open space looked completely normal, except for a few dried fruits casually placed on the ground.
Sweat dripped down Su Xiao's cheeks. After taking off his shirt, he revealed his well-toned muscles. His muscles were not exaggerated but appeared very smooth.
In fact, those men with explosive, bulging muscles were not suitable for combat. Strong muscles indeed increased strength, but they also affected speed and flexibility, which was very detrimental in battle.
Su Xiao had once tried this. He found a famous boxing gym and sparred with the strongest fighting coach there.
According to Su Xiao's estimation, that fighting coach, with his heavily knotted muscles, had at least twice his strength and very fast punches.
However, after only five minutes, that fighting coach, who was said to have won a city's freestyle fighting championship, collapsed to the ground, his body twitching uncontrollably. His pained groans aroused sympathy from some female students.
Su Xiao honed killing techniques, while that fighting coach practiced competitive skills. The two were fundamentally different.
If rules were set, Su Xiao might not be the opponent. But if they fought to the death, Su Xiao could kill him within two minutes.
After seeing Su Xiao's roughly 1.8-meter-tall, not-so-strong physique, that fighting coach said, "For a spar, we don't need rules," so he was destined for tragedy...
Su Xiao sat on a sturdy tree branch, holding a gun in his hand. This gun had three bullets left.
Su Xiao had previously tried to reload this gun, but the Reincarnation Paradise prompted that due to severe wear and tear, reloading could cause the entire gun to break, rendering it unusable.
This was probably a kind of restriction, because Su Xiao had picked up this gun; it was not obtained from a treasure chest.
After opening two white treasure chests, Su Xiao roughly understood some rules of the Reincarnation Paradise.
Items obtained through treasure chests were basically rule-based items that could be taken out of the One Piece world. Items picked up or obtained during missions had a certain chance of being taken out of the One Piece world, such as the gun at his waist.
Through initial exploration, Su Xiao reached some conclusions.
The semi-datafication of living beings served merely as a prompt. For example, the concept of his strength increasing from 6 points to 7 points very intuitively reflected his growth.
As for things like health points, they could not be specifically quantified. At most, they were calculated as percentages. There would be no situation where he slashed out and the enemy lost a certain number of HP.
The health bar that appeared above the enemy's head was more used to display the enemy's vital signs. The more the health bar decreased, the weaker the enemy became.
After receiving a fatal injury, the enemy would die directly. Even if they still had 100% health remaining, the health bar would be cleared instantly, followed by death.
The datafication of equipment or items was even more interesting.
For example, the gun at his waist. Su Xiao could understand its durability and additional attributes. As for attack power: 5~16, this referred to the sharpness and attack intensity of the weapon.
The equipment's rating was the most important data. From the rating, the item's value could be intuitively seen.
After a few battles, Su Xiao understood that although it was semi-datafication, it was only for convenient strength estimation. Everything was based on reality, and no gamification occurred.
Semi-datafication was meant to more intuitively reflect his strength and the value of items.
This was the greatest help the Reincarnation Paradise provided to Su Xiao.