On a tranquil night, the sound of the sea breeze filled the air. Shao Feng tossed a branch into the fire…
Where should I go from here?
A pirate?
A Marine?
A bounty hunter?
No matter what I choose, increasing my strength is the priority, and that requires gold. Becoming a pirate or bounty hunter seems like a good option.
An mentioned that the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger, died 14 years ago.
Luffy sets sail 22 years after Roger's death, meaning I have about 8 years before Luffy's journey begins.
Should I start my own pirate crew?
This is the South Blue, the strongest of the four seas.
To make it here, strength alone isn't enough—brains are needed too.
Shao Feng lay helplessly on the beach.
What now?
Find Luffy and sail with him?
That's not a bad idea…
"Forget it, I'll take it one step at a time." Shao Feng decided to stop overthinking and focused on the electronic watch on his wrist…
Morning came, and the cold tide woke Shao Feng from his sleep.
"If this keeps up, I'll die sooner or later. I need a place to call home first," he thought, shaking his head covered in seawater and seaweed.
Money.
That's what I need most right now.
But how can I make money?
Go fishing in the sea?
No way—I'm terrified of water.
His gaze turned to the massive forest bordering the town, its towering peaks cloaked in dense woods.
Wolfing down the leftover roasted fish from last night, which had lost its flavor but filled his stomach, Shao Feng glanced at the town and headed toward the forest…
The lush forest seemed rarely visited.
Dense weeds stood over a meter tall.
Shao Feng used a ninja sword to cut through the grass to move forward.
Luckily, he found a ninja repellent in the shop to ward off mosquitoes, snakes, and wild dogs.
With the repellent on, snakes slithered away at the scent, easing his fears.
As he ventured deeper, signs of wildlife appeared… Shao Feng's face lit up with excitement. He slowed his pace, carefully searching for prey.
Soon, a creature resembling a wild boar entered his vision.
"No matter what you are, you're my prey today," Shao Feng thought.
He grabbed three shuriken.
Upon entering the forest, he had bought ten shuriken and a ninja sword from the shop for emergencies.
Raising his hand, he threw the three shuriken in a line toward the boar.
Roar! The shuriken hit accurately but lacked force. The boar squealed and fled…
"Tch." Shao Feng chased after it. The wounded boar moved swiftly, vanishing from sight.
Fortunately, blood trails marked its path.
Following the trail, Shao Feng pursued…
After nearly an hour, just as he was about to give up, the boar's corpse appeared. It had died from blood loss.
Tying the boar with rope, Shao Feng smiled.
As he hoisted it onto his back, a powerful sense of oppression hit him.
His hairs stood on end…
What's happening?
He scanned his surroundings nervously.
His gaze landed on the boar's blood trail.
Of course—this is a forest! The blood's scent attracted predators.
What now? A wolf pack?
Shao Feng sighed inwardly.
No choice but to abandon the prey. He dropped the boar under a tree and climbed a massive one.
Three minutes later, the source of the oppression appeared.
"Skeletons? Living skeletons?" Shao Feng covered his mouth to stifle a gasp, pressing himself against the tree, barely breathing.
The skeletons moved slowly, wielding rusty weapons, their rotting flesh falling as they walked… They gathered around the dead boar.
The lead skeleton bent down, as if searching for something.
They found the boar and tore it apart, devouring it.
Shao Feng had never seen such a gruesome, terrifying scene.
He swore never to return here.
"They can't see—they track by the scent of blood," he thought.
"No, they're tracking the aura of the living." One skeleton raised its head, seemingly noticing Shao Feng.
It spread its arms, jaw moving as if shouting.
The others looked up, as if they'd found a more exciting prey.
They surrounded the tree, some throwing weapons at Shao Feng…
Trembling, Shao Feng dodged the projectiles while climbing higher.
Despite being skeletons, they were agile, quickly reaching the treetop.
Forced onto a branch, Shao Feng swung his ninja sword, knocking a skeleton down.
It shattered on impact but reassembled instantly.
The reformed skeleton roared and charged again.
"This isn't working—I'm done for," Shao Feng thought.
An idea struck: he tied wire to a shuriken, threw it at another tree, and used another shuriken to guide the wire, wrapping it around a branch.
Using the wire, he swung to the other tree.
Losing his aura, the skeletons grew confused. Shao Feng slid down and fled like the wind…
His only thought was to escape. The noise of his flight alerted the skeletons, and they pursued…
After what felt like forever, Shao Feng stopped running.
"What is this place?"
Before him was a massive basin, dozens of meters deep, shrouded in mist.
Through the thin fog, he saw wrecks of pirate ships, skeletons of humans, animals, giants, even dinosaurs… What is this place?
Crack! The cliff edge collapsed, and Shao Feng fell into the basin with a scream.
Thud!
A foul stench hit him, nearly suffocating.
His body was covered in decayed corpse grime, making him gag.
The only silver lining: the stench masked him from the skeletons.
"What is this place? But it's the One Piece world—anything's possible." Calming slightly, he felt something on his head.
It was a half-rotted hand with a gold ring.
Disgust surged, but he removed the ring and put it on his left hand, choosing to convert it to experience.
The ring vanished, granting 5 experience points.
"Only 5 points?" Shao Feng muttered, frustrated.
His gaze turned to the pirate ship wrecks.
Could there be treasure?
Pushing aside fear, he ran to the nearest ship.
After looting a dozen ships, he converted all the gold into experience, amassing 3 million points.
Still unsatisfied, his stamina was depleted, and with no food and night falling, he didn't want to stay in this eerie place.
He decided to leave but first reinforced his attributes.
Opening the stat panel, he raised his level to 20.
A prompt appeared: Level raised to 20. Gained Genin title.
Due to insufficient skill levels, further leveling is locked.
Fine, skills first. In the skill panel, he could learn Basic Ninjutsu and Basic Taijutsu.
Essential skills:
Chakra Extraction: Increases chakra by 10% per level (6 levels).
Chakra Control: Improves chakra manipulation (6 levels).
Transformation, Clone, Substitution: All skills divided into Beginner, Proficient, Skilled, Expert, Legendary, Mythical (6 levels).
Each upgrade costs ten times the previous level's experience.
"I forgot about Bloodline Limits and Secret Techniques!" Shao Feng smacked his head.
In the Bloodline Limits menu, since only one could be chosen, he picked Sharingan.
Activating the Sharingan icon revealed its progression:
Level 1: Insight Eye (B-rank, 10,000 experience)
Level 2: Copy Eye (B-rank, 10,000 experience)
Level 3: Tsukuyomi (Illusion, A-rank, 1 million experience)
Level 4: Amaterasu (A-rank, 1 million experience)
Level 5: Five Elemental Affinities (S-rank, 10 million experience)
Level 6: Space Affinity (S-rank, 10 million experience)
Level 7: Eternal Mangekyo (SS-rank, 100 million experience)
Level 8: Six Paths Reincarnation (SS-rank, 100 million experience)
Level 9: Ten-Tails Eye, Outer Path (SSS-rank, 1 billion experience)
Spending 10,000 experience, he upgraded Sharingan to Copy Eye.
Attempting to upgrade further, a prompt appeared: Insufficient conditions. Requires Chakra Control at Expert level.
Reluctantly, he returned to the skill panel, upgrading Chakra Extraction, Chakra Control, Transformation, and Substitution to Skilled, spending over 2.5 million experience.
A prompt allowed him to choose an attribute. Since Fire was tied to Sharingan, he could pick another.
Excluding Water (counter to Fire), he chose Lightning from Wind, Lightning, and Earth.
Now able to learn attribute ninjutsu, he chose the non-attribute Shadow Clone, essential for fighting and escaping, an A-rank skill costing 100,000 experience.
He upgraded Ninja Tool Throwing to Expert (95% hit rate), costing 110,000 experience.
With 200,000 experience left for emergencies, and Chakra Control at Expert, he could attach chakra to his feet to climb trees or walk on water.
Carrying a small bag of unconvertible gems, he easily scaled the basin's cliff…