Unfortunately, the character art for the ship girls was just way too cutesy—completely not Kyle's aesthetic.
So much so, in fact, that he couldn't even name a single one of them.
After five minutes of deliberation, he finally gave up on naming his pirate ship after a ship girl.
"A real man should ride the winds and waves, and do what men are meant to do! Women only slow down my naming process!!!"
Using that as an excuse, Kyle decisively rejected all those girly names.
From what he remembered, ships like Roger's and Whitebeard's all had pretty masculine names.
He could totally take inspiration from that.
"Something more manly…"
Kyle kept digging through his memory.
But soon, some strange names started surfacing in his mind.
Toguro, Yujiro Hanma, Jotaro Kujo…
Just imagining himself spending every day with guys like that made his rear clench involuntarily.
"Hmm… masculine is good, but let's not get too carried away."
"Maybe… something a little more normal."
Kyle instinctively began examining his ship.
When his eyes landed on the newly established captain's quarters, he suddenly remembered—he still had a valuable Devil Fruit sitting in his inventory.
"Come to think of it, for sailing the seas, the power of the Storm-Storm Fruit is pretty damn useful."
"Not only can it help steer the ship, it can also protect against natural disasters."
"My second uncle really went above and beyond for me, huh?"
"How about… calling the ship Storm or Tempest?"
"Kinda generic, but it does sound pretty nice."
"Wait a minute…"
A flash of inspiration suddenly struck Kyle like lightning.
Muscle memory kicked in.
The moment he thought of the word "storm," an impassioned lyric burst into his mind:
'A new storm is on the rise, how can we stay where we are!'
'Through time and space.'
'With all my strength.'
'I'll come to your side!'
"Wait… wasn't there an Ultraman card deck in the gacha pool?"
"Maybe I can actually get an Ultraman crew member one day!"
"With the power of an Ultraman who roams the cosmos, even in the world of One Piece, I'd be an unstoppable force—surely top tier!"
"So, for good luck, I'll name my pirate ship Tiga! (Diga-gō, literally Tiga)"
With a thought, the words "Tiga" appeared in bold at the top of the pop-up window.
In that moment, Kyle's world seemed to turn into light.
Of course, that didn't mean he literally turned into light.
It just meant that the game's dockyard feature had officially activated.
A brand-new, beautifully designed interface appeared in Kyle's mind.
The first thing to pop up was the pirate ship's info panel.
[Tiga]
[Level: 0]
[EXP: 0/10]
[Facilities: 0/1 (+)]
Just like with the captain's interface, a detailed explanation of the dockyard system immediately appeared with a single thought.
[Ship Level]: Increases ship size, hull durability, and the number of facilities that can be installed. (Note: When the ship reaches Level 1, the ship spirit of the Tiga will be activated.)
[EXP]: Costs 1 million Berries to gain 1 ship EXP point.[Facilities]: Special rooms that grant unique abilities to aid the pirate crew in their adventures.
"Hmm… the dock system mechanics are pretty much identical to the game."
"But…"
Kyle paused in thought.
His eyes were immediately drawn to the description of how to earn ship EXP.
Unlike the captain level, which could be increased by spending Berries in the system to gain EXP, the ship level required you to directly burn Berries.
Currently, Kyle had a total of 50 million Berries in cash, enough to level the ship up once or twice, and also boost his captain level.
But…
"No rush to spend money yet. Let's see what the gacha system's got first…"
Gotta use your resources where it counts.
50 million Berries wasn't a lot, but it wasn't a little either. He had to use them wisely.
And judging by typical mobile game behavior, the system was almost guaranteed to turn into a bottomless money pit later on.
With such limited starting funds, Kyle had to plan carefully.
In the game, items were ranked from E to S—six tiers total.
E-rank being the weakest, S-rank the strongest.
And all of these items came from the game's gacha system.
Opening the [Gacha] tab, Kyle was greeted by a familiar interface.
Three capsule machines of different colors and effects stood before him.
From left to right, the first one was a light blue [Standard Gacha Machine].
As the name suggested, it was the lowest tier gacha, mostly filled with E-rank items. There was a small chance to pull D–A ranked items.
The second one, orange in color, was the [Premium Gacha Machine].
While its item pool was similar to the standard one, it guaranteed at least a D-rank item, with a chance for S-rank drops.
But like all lotteries, the jackpot was mostly just there to taunt you.
As for the final machine—now that was the big one.
Just the name alone—[Legendary Gacha Machine]—was enough to make your heart race.
Not to mention the golden lights constantly sparkling around it.
Even its worst drops were C-rank, and the odds of pulling an S-rank item were significantly higher.
However…
After skimming through the three options, Kyle instantly turned his gaze away from the legendary machine, as if it didn't even exist.
The reason?
He was broke.
The legendary machine required a whopping 100 million Berriesper pull!
Sure, to someone with grand dreams of becoming the strongest pirate, that might not be a dealbreaker.
But for Kyle right now? That kind of money wasn't even worth dreaming about.
Even the other two weren't exactly affordable.
The premium machine cost 10 million Berries per pull.
The standard machine? 1 million Berries per pull.
1 million Berries…
That could buy a full-grown adult nearly ten months of life in Cocoyashi Village!
And from what Kyle remembered about the game, the standard gacha was filled with worthless items like Master Roshi's cane, Little Chef's cooking tools, Demon Slayer uniforms, Hinata's cheongsam, and Bulma's underwear.
In the game, you could at least sell those things back to the system for Berries.
But in real life? Who would want this junk?
"Sigh… Let's hope the post-isekai version of the gacha is a bit more generous."
Despite how rigged it had been in the game, Kyle still decided to spend some Berries to test out what the gacha had to offer after crossing over.
Just like the song said:
"A new wave of microtransactions has appeared, how can I not pay!"
Strangely enough, the standard gacha machine—which had no guarantee system at all—still had a convenient [10-Pull] button.
Apparently, even in its evolved form, the system hadn't lost its talent for manipulating player spending.
Determined to understand the mechanics better, Kyle gritted his teeth and pressed the [10-Pull] button on the standard machine.
In an instant, a long line of system messages appeared.
[Congratulations! You received E-Rank Item: Saeko Busujima's School Uniform!]
[Congratulations! You received E-Rank Item: Mai Sakurajima's Bunny Girl Outfit!]
[Congratulations! You received E-Rank Item: Shinpachi Shimura's Glasses!]
[Congratulations! You received E-Rank Item: Sekai Saionji's Machete!][...]
[...]
Kyle's mouth twitched.
He thought he was prepared for disappointment, but blowing 10 million Berries on a bunch of useless junk still hit him hard.
"Some things never change—gacha machines will always screw you, no matter what world you're in!"
One-fifth of his startup capital had vanished into thin air.
For a moment, Kyle even began wondering if he'd had it too easy since setting sail—was he getting cocky?
But just as he wallowed in regret, the final message from his ten-pull flashed before his eyes.
[Congratulations! You received A-Rank Item: Character Card – Rukia Kuchiki!]
"…Huh?!"
Kyle froze, his eyes filled with disbelief.