Thirty-eight years had passed since the God Valley Incident, and the name of Rocks D. Xebec, the overlord of the seas, was no longer heard on the Grand Line.
On a small, craggy, uninhabited island in the treacherous Grand Line, there were numerous overgrown graves, long neglected.
On the largest of these graves was a metal strip, weathered by wind and rain and the erosion of time, yet its edge still gleamed sharply.
As the breeze stirred, fallen leaves, gracefully descending, split cleanly in two before even touching the blade, a testament to how incredibly sharp this famous sword must have been before its decay.
What kind of glorious existence could have a supreme grade great sword, one whose edge remained incredibly sharp after thirty-eight years of erosion, as a burial item?
That night, dark and moonless, the sea wind swept in black clouds, and the black clouds carried lightning; just as the waves near the shore crashed against the reefs, sending spray flying into the air.
A flash, as if tearing the heavens apart, sliced through the sky and ripped open space.
The purple-gold lightning, without branching, shot straight down, passing through the famous sword whose wooden hilt had rotted away, leaving only the blade, and plunged into the ground.
"Crack!!!"
A thunderous explosion, like a bomb, erupted where the purple-gold lightning struck, and the lightning, flashing across the earth like a tree's root system, illuminated the entire night sky.
The thunder ceased, and the clouds dispersed.
The bright moon in the sky cast down its tranquil light.
"Om!!!"
Suddenly,
The sword hummed with a shock ing sound.
And then, amidst the intertwining wisps of smoke and Moonlight jade fragments, the tomb of Rocks D. Xebec, the first acknowledged overlord of the seas in pirate history before Pirate King Roger, moved!
It trembled and quivered, like a hibernating frog pushing away the mud above it, emitting faint, eerie fluctuations.
Immediately after, the massive, rough granite tombstone, which seemed to have broken off a mountain and was inscribed with the deeds of this overlord of the seas, cracked.
"Bang!"
With a loud bang, behind the cracked tombstone, from beneath the burnt earth of the grave, a hand, its bones exposed, muscles torn, and covered in granite fragments, shockingly emerged from the coffin's crevice.
Although this arm, exposed to the Moonlight, had shriveled muscles and even exposed bones, looking much like a decaying mummy from a pyramid.
However, the power it possessed was terrifying; the moment the arm straightened, the heavy coffin and even the grave earth covering it were all flung away.
Then, Rocks D. Xebec's shattered corpse, even more dilapidated than his arm, with even his skull exposed, sat bolt upright from the coffin.
'Where am I? Who am I? What am I doing?'
Rocks' exposed upper and lower jawbones clattered, but his dried, decayed vocal cords could not utter a single word of the thoughts forming in his consciousness.
Not only could words not be spoken, but what greeted his dry eyes was also a profound darkness, without a single glimmer of light.
Just as he realized that his sight, smell, touch, and hearing had all disappeared,
A dry, piercing sound, like metal scraping, rose in his mind,
"The Strongest Overlord System is loading... Loading failed, host arrival time is incorrect, the body of Rocks D. Xebec, the Overlord of the Pirate World, is severely decayed, not meeting system arrival standards, the system is preparing to extract the host... System energy insufficient, extraction failed, forced extraction will cause system collapse, automatically searching for alternative solutions... Alternative solution selected, beginning to extract energy from sub-system modules to restore host body, beginning repair..."
'Who!!!'
The moment the dry, piercing system prompt sounded from his mind.
He instinctively tensed all his nerves, almost leaping up,
'Who's speaking!'
"Om!"
His attempt to leap up failed,
Because, in that instant, he clearly felt streams of warm, gentle current gushing from his glabella and spreading throughout his body!
"The arrival body has been repaired to the minimum standard required for system binding, starting binding... Binding successful." The mechanical voice sounded again, "System energy is insufficient, the host's large-scale, highest-intensity body interruption, please acquire energy in time to repair yourself."
As the mechanical voice fell,
He found himself touching something hard; the moment his sense of touch returned, his sense of smell and hearing also returned; immediately after, he clearly felt a surging power reviving within his torso.
"Bang bang bang!!!"
His dry heart began to beat again, and his dry, decayed flesh continuously heated up; finally, a hazy light appeared before his eyes, and he found that he once again possessed normal vision.
It was then that he realized with astonishment that he was lying inside a coffin carved from granite, and his hands were exposed with stark white bones, like a mummy!
However, as the warm current surged within his body, like 3D printing, the exposed bones on his arms were rapidly covered by blood vessels, muscles, fascia, and skin, as the corpse spots receded.
The re-filled flesh and brain tissue caused his previously stiff and sluggish thoughts to accelerate.
Witnessing such a miraculous, even terrifying, scene made his no longer rigid mind fully believe in the reality of the system's existence.
"The Strongest Overlord System, Pirate World, Rocks D. Xebec, arrival body—that is to say, I've transmigrated to the Pirate World!"
The moment he confirmed the system's true existence, he fully understood where he was.
This was the world of the Pirate King!
"I've transmigrated to the world of the Pirate King, and I've been resurrected in the body of Rocks, who died thirty-eight years ago..."
Rocks D. Xebec, before Pirate King Roger, was the undisputed, acknowledged absolute ruler of the Pirate World.
When he dominated the seas, his subordinates even included Whitebeard, the strongest man in the world and leader of the Four Emperors; Golden Lion Shiki, one of the three legendary great pirates; Kaido of the Four Emperors; Big Mom of the Four Emperors, and other famously powerful beings.
It is imaginable what kind of charisma and combat power Rocks himself possessed, to be able to subdue so many individuals who would later become legendary pirates or emperors of the sea...
As a killer who had experienced life and death, decisiveness was a necessary quality, but such a miraculous event happening to him still left him unable to calm down.
After a long while, he finally composed himself and asked the system, "System, is there a way to restore Rocks' body to its peak condition?"
Although under the system's repair, Rocks' body, which had been dead for thirty-eight years, had its heart resume beating and pump blood throughout.
However, the system's highest-intensity repair was not completed due to insufficient energy.
Therefore, while he could perceive the surging power contained within this body, he also perceived its 'weakness'!
He could feel a painful sensation in his lungs, almost overwhelmed, with every breath he took; every beat of his heart pumping blood felt almost as uncomfortable as cutting blood vessels with a dull knife...
"System energy is insufficient, the host needs to collect negative values from others as energy. With sufficient energy, not only can the system's repair mechanism be activated to restore the body, but the system can also enable more functions."
"Negative values?" He frowned slightly. Having read thousands of novels, he was not unfamiliar with negative values. But, since it concerned himself, he still asked for details, "Please elaborate."
"Negative values are the manifestation of all negative emotions, including timidity, fear, horror, shock, etc., that others generate towards the host. As long as others generate negative emotions towards the host, they can be converted into negative values by the system..."
"Can mere shock generate energy?!"
Negative emotions like shock might be difficult to obtain if they were on someone else;
But, placed on him, now reborn in the body of the overlord of the seas, Rocks, wouldn't it be as easy as picking something out of a bag, readily available?
"Hahahaha!!!" He smirked, ignoring the pain in his body, and stood up with a loud laugh, "Since I've transmigrated into Rocks' body and been reborn in Rocks' burial ground, then from now on, I am Rocks D. Xebec!"
"I am Rocks!!!"
The moment his roar exploded, a palpable wave of wind pressure burst forth, and the earth-shattering roar echoed continuously in the air.
Afterward, the entire mountain and field were filled with startled birds and beasts fleeing in panic.
The sound wave swept through but did not dissipate in the slightest; finally, even the distant ocean waves were intimidated by this endlessly grand and domineering sound, and the entire island and the surrounding sea were left with only one voice echoing—the name of the overlord of the seas!
Rocks!!!
In his previous life, he didn't even know his name or origins until his death; the moment he was surrounded and ambushed by gunmen, he had completely despaired, but now, this world had given him a second chance...
Since the system has given me a chance to be reborn, how can I live a miserable life, barely surviving?
In this life, I will seize every moment. Since I am reborn in the body of an overlord of the seas, I will surely rule the world and become a truly deserving emperor and overlord!!!
"Pirate King World! Prepare to receive the baptism from me, Rocks, the Overlord of the Seas!!!"
"Enemies in the New World! Be terrified! Fragile Marines! Celestial Dragons, like dregs! Fear! I, Rocks! Your nightmare has returned!!!"
At that moment,
Rocks roared with surging power,
The very air, seemingly empty, was shaken by Rocks' voice.
It began to tremble, forming ripples, and finally burst open like an ignited bomb.
Even the vast and boundless sea was agitated by the shattered and cracked air, giving rise to colossal waves dozens of meters high...
All of this proved to the world that the fiercest, most evil, and strongest overlord of the Pirate World, Rocks, had returned!!!