"You look a little worse for wear, my friend. You must be on quite the journey." The Pirate Lord commented with a skull cane in one hand.
Shigaraki took a look at his ethereal figure before looking down at himself. He was a bit intrigued by everything else that he didn't even check what he was wearing. It was rather plain, though, with a black shirt with the sleeves cuffed up to his forearms, gray pants, and maroon colored shoes.
"Ah, you must be quite exhausted. If I were you, I'd eat to replenish my spirits." The Pirate Lord seemed to deduce why he wasn't speaking even if it wasn't true.
Suddenly, an info bubble popped up for him to mentally call up the Equipment Radial. He does so and sees a banana that suddenly appears in his hand.
The game seems to pause as more information is relayed to him.
A health bar would be typical here, but in this game it was not the case. Food will increase your health regeneration, but you'd still need bandages and rest to fully recover. Certain food items will have this process be done faster or slower with cooked meat being the fastest.
Shigaraki liked the more realistic system. He peeled the banana and ate it. The peel completely disappeared.
"There. Looking better already! Maybe even strong enough to reach the Sea of Thieves." The Pirate Lord noted.
The pale-haired man was confused he wasn't getting dialogue options or he wasn't meant to speak which was also possible.
"What's the Sea of Thieves?" Shigaraki asked without much hope of a response.
The Pirate Lord looked at him with confusion.
"Isn't that what you're here for? To brave the treacherous waters of the Sea of Thieves? Perhaps you were more injured than I previously thought, but no matter! These days people call me The Pirate Lord, but I was once a bold explorer like you when I discovered this place." The Pirate Lord explained calmly to the man while the man in question was in shock.
'Did he just respond to me? The AI is also just as advanced?' Shigaraki's expectations are further growing alongside the chat window in the corner of his eye.
"I dreamt of crossing uncharted waters filled with treasures and rife with dangers where every sunrise brought a new adventure! You've been brave to make it this far, not many do. Now you've got one last crossing to make." The Pirate Lord smiled at him.
"One last crossing?" Shigaraki was completely drawn into the environment which would be completely foreign to those who know him, but hardly anyone could blame him. Deep-Dive is truly like entering a whole new world.
"Aye, The Devil's Shroud, but first you'll want some trusty steel at your side. You've only got the clothes on your back since you wrecked here." The Pirate Lord pointed to a tree with a sword embedded into it, but there is also a skeleton there too. "The owner doesn't seem to need it anymore.
Shigaraki looked to where the ghost was pointing and immediately knew what was going on.
[Pick up the Cutlass]
"That skeleton is definitely going to jump out at me." Shigaraki muttered.
"Haha, only one way to find out!" The Pirate Lord still heard him.
'These NPCs definitely have some kind of advanced AI.' This pretty much confirmed to him that they will respond pretty organically.
Now, Shigaraki was naturally no swordsman, but he wasn't some scrub either thanks to his sensei's combat lessons that's been prevalent since he was young. He also had great instincts which would help him get the hang of it.
He grabbed the hilt and was still quite mesmerized that even with five fingers touching something, it won't disintegrate. As he pulled it out, the skeleton woke up and reached for him, but it was thankfully tied to a tree so it couldn't move.
"Slash the skelly!" The Pirate Lord called out from behind.
[Kill Skeleton]
Shigaraki only knew the basics of using the sword, and by basics he meant swinging at the enemy with the sharp side which a cutlass only had one. With just a single swing, the skeleton died.
[Holster the Cutlass]
The infographic told him that he could mentally holster his weapon, but Megumi decided for a different system. Unlike the original game, where you seemed to just pull everything out of your ass, you had to actually have items on you and the holstering function merely put the equipment away on your body for you. Of course, you could do it yourself, but to be newbie-friendly, he added this feature.
Shigaraki used it and noticed an added weight on his left hip and noticed his sword with a scabbard. He tried checking other parts like various pockets, but found nothing.
"Excellent work! Such skills are needed to survive these treacherous seas." The Pirate Lord moved further ahead on the beach which Shigaraki followed. "But there's far more to being a pirate than a blade in your hand and a love for other people's money. It's about finding your way through ancient caverns by lamplight, digging up long lost treasures and raising a frothing great tankard of grog when you live to tell the tale!
"For that, you'll need the right equipment. You can start by taking this old shovel." The Pirate Lord handed him the said shovel which Shigaraki took.
The only exception to this new inventory system was for weapons, while shovels, compasses, instruments, etc, would still work by the old inventory pocket dimension way.
"I stowed a few belongings around here back in the day. The map will show you the way."
[Quest Received]
He was instructed to open his Map Wheel and it automatically stowed away his shovel when he brought out his map.
Shigaraki held up the map and secretly grimaced.
'I hate geography.' He groaned but he looked to his surroundings and noticed he was in the middle of the crescent and had to move to the end of the left point. It was in the sand in between one patch of grass from another.
The chat also went off.
"I suck at reading maps."
"This is confusing."
"How? This looks easy!"
"Sounds straightforward."
"Chicken!"
Shigaraki walked past quite a few chickens on the beach and looked between the patch of sand that looked right.
He opened his Equipment Radial and walked up, but it seemed this was pretty newbie-friendly considering…
[Dig Here]
Yeah. Guess it's to help those who are truly clueless, but Shigaraki still felt better considering he did it the right way.
Unfortunately, this meant that he had to dig and that caught him by surprise. The surprise is that he's having fun digging. How has his life ended up like this?
He heard a loud clash in the sand which meant he had hit something and a bit of the chest peered out from the digsite.
[Old Sailor's Chest Discovered!]
Music came in and he liked how it felt and kept digging. After two scoops of the shovel, he tried grabbing the chest to pull it out but it was still too heavy, so after a few more tries with the shovel, it finally came out.
[Return the chest to The Pirate Lord]
Putting away the shovel, he picked up the chest with both arms and it was naturally quite heavy, but he made it all the way back over.
"Do we really have to carry that?"
"H8r must be swoll."
"My body will quit."
The chat had their own observations but Shigaraki was too engrossed in the game to care.
He hands it over to The Pirate Lord.
"Ah, my old chest. Let's see if she still hides her secrets." He drops the chest and whacks it with his cane and a burst of green energy envelops it, opening the chest.
[Take Equipment From the Old Sailor's Chest]
Shigaraki saw quite a number of things inside and as his hand touched one, all of them disappeared and reappeared in his Equipment Radial.
[Take out Flintlock]
He raised an eyebrow but it made sense. It was an old weapon. As he opened his Equipment Radial, he saw a bunch of new things like instruments, a compass, a telescope, a big cup or tankard, a bucket, and so on.
Pulling out a flintlock, he noticed his right hip got a bit heavier and noticed a gun holster and a pouch full of small black balls that appeared to be bullets. He put one in the gun and fired it into a tree making a satisfying sound.
"A fine weapon. She'll serve you well out there. There's plenty more to see, so why not stretch your legs and explore? I think a friend of mine is on the island if you want to pay him a visit; otherwise, head on over to the sloop and be on your way." The Pirate Lord offered.
"A friend? Who?" Shigaraki asked not knowing how a dead guy can have friends unless they're dead too.
"Nika. He'll tell you more about the wonders and dangers of the Sea of Thieves." The Pirate Lord explained.
Shigaraki didn't respond and instead went back to where he woke up and walked further into the island.
He saw a pond and walked past spotting a broken-down ship in the middle of the island. On the other hand, there was another green ethereal figure lounging on the sand with a snot bubble to show that he was sleeping.
Nika, The Sun God.
That got a reaction from the chat, and Shigaraki considering that there's a god now.
"Hello?" Shigaraki was out of his element, not knowing how to deal with a supposed god and he looks quite familiar.
"Huh?" Nika's bubble popped and looked at him. "Is it lunch time?"
"..." The chat and Shigaraki were speechless.
"OH! Right! The name's Nika. Here to guide you and tell you about the Sea of Thieves…or something." Nika scratched his head in confusion as a literal question mark appeared above his head.
"Seriously?" Shigaraki suddenly didn't think this guy could be a god. His sensei was closer to a god than this moron.
Nika busted out laughing rolling on the ground before calming down.
"Alright. First, in the Sea of Thieves, there are awesome treasures of the sea called Devil Fruits!" Nika explained and even pulled out a pencil and notepad drawing what the devil fruit would look like.
It looks terrible outside of some swirl marks on the fruit.
Shigaraki was about to lose it.
"What do Devil Fruits do?" He asked, keeping his composure.
Nika grinned widely.
"Anything! It could be anything! There are 3 main types of Devil Fruits, though." Nika stroked his chin semi-seriously, "Zoan is where you can transform into something like a bear or even a dragon! There are normal Zoan, Ancient Zoans, and Mythical Zoans! Next is Logia, where you can transform your body into an element like sand, fire, or ice! Paramecia is the last one where it can give a bunch of random abilities like increasing and decreasing weight, swimming through land, creating and manipulating strings, you get it." Nika shrugged his shoulders.
Shigaraki was blown away by the power system and it just seemed like a free power boost.
"Oh! But if you eat one, you are cursed by the sea and can't swim at all! You can also only eat one or you'll explode!" Nika laughed.
His plans went up in smoke. Wouldn't he be on a boat surrounded by water? Who would want a power like that? He started to hate this Nika person more and more with that obnoxious laugh and smile.
"I'll still eat one."
"Cool powers like a fruit version of a quirk.'
"How will you know what fruit gives what power? What if you get something that sucks?"
There was a lot of discussion in the chat regarding this that Shigaraki caught on to.
"How will you know what powers a fruit gives?" Shigaraki stole this question from a viewer.
"You don't!" Nika grinned with a sparkle in his teeth.
Shigaraki really wanted to strangle him.