Sea Circle Calendar, Year 1510 — West Blue!
A luxurious passenger ship was sailing steadily across the ocean. The vessel stretched nearly a hundred meters in length, its wooden planks looking brand new, advancing under the push of several pure-white sails. It was exactly noon, and under the blazing sunlight, the deck and hull shone so clean that they almost reflected like a mirror. Well, maybe not that clean… but that was at least worth bragging about after all, it was the result of the protagonist's entire morning of hard labor.
"Damn, I'm dead tired. Is this really work meant for humans? Still… this body really is a monster..." A tall young man leaned his mop, rag, and bucket against the railing of the deck, then flopped down like a salted fish, complaining endlessly under his breath.
The youth stood about one meter ninety something he had once dreamed of in his past life. But after finding out where he had ended up, he realized this height wasn't much at all. That's right this guy was a transmigrator.
He had a great build, a handsome face, dressed in a standard sailor's uniform with a cap perched on his head. His expression was full of bitter grievance, while the back of his shirt was drenched with sweat. When he had first crossed over and discovered his eight-pack abs and long legs, he was stunned beyond words. But not long after, a flood of the body's original memories surged into his mind and he realized the new world he had landed in was none other than the anime world he had loved so much back then: One Piece.
Before transmigrating, he had been nothing but an orphan, drifting aimlessly through society, wasting away his life. Anime, games, novels he consumed them all. Now, in this new life, he felt no particular attachment to his old one. But the world of One Piece was no playground. His hot-blooded fantasies of chasing after "cute girls" quickly cooled down. Here, the number of pirates probably outnumbered the vicious single dogs of his old world, and people lost their lives left and right.
This body's original name was Rogers. Such a fine body, yet instead of chasing girls, its former owner had chosen to become a pirate one of those fired-up, hot-blooded types. A textbook Shanks-fanatic kind of pirate. Coincidentally enough, Rogers's hometown was also Shanks's hometown, a famous wine-brewing island. So, naturally, the former Rogers had set his sights on becoming a great pirate like Shanks!
And if memory served right, this guy had even awakened the legendary Conqueror's Haki. According to the memories, when their village was attacked by pirates, he had awakened it in a life-or-death moment, leaving a massive scar across his stomach in the process adding an extra touch of menace to those sculpted abs.
Of course, the villagers had no idea what "Conqueror's Haki" even was. At the time, Rogers himself didn't know either, only thinking he'd been lucky to survive. In short the old Rogers could be described as someone with a protagonist's fate, but without a protagonist's halo.
He had first set sail at the age of fifteen, just like Luffy. With nothing but a small boat, he'd ventured out onto the seas. A few days in, a storm wrecked his ship, tossing him into the ocean. That was the moment when the transmigrated soul took over the body turning into the Rogers of now.
After the shipwreck, he was rescued by this passenger vessel. But the Rogers that was saved… was already a brand new Rogers.
"Sigh, Conqueror's Haki… It's been a month, and I still don't feel like I have any such badass power. Special, maybe, but… don't tell me my transmigration snuffed it out?" Rogers muttered to himself, squinting against the blinding sunlight as he gazed at the calm sea.
He had already been on this ship for a month. When he was saved, he had nothing not even a single Beli to his name. So he worked to pay off his meals. And since the ship was severely short-handed, he had to play multiple roles waiter, cleaner, sailor. Thankfully, this body was ridiculously strong, so the work wasn't that bad. After a day of hard labor, he would feel only a little tired, and after a night's rest he was brimming with energy again. Typical hot-blooded protagonist physique, apparently.
Aside from that boundless energy, his five senses were incredibly sharp probably due to the merging of two souls. After all, he was a transmigrator now.
This passenger ship carried only the wealthy, and in the past month alone, they had already been attacked by pirates several times. Luckily, the ship's guard squad was exceptionally strong, easily repelling every raid. That was probably also why the ship was so short-staffed—who would want to work on a passenger ship that got attacked every other day?
"Hey, Rogers! Finished scrubbing the deck yet?" At that moment, a square hatch on the deck flipped open, and a head popped out. The face was fierce, scarred across the forehead, but wore a grinning expression that looked more terrifying than friendly.
"Can't you see for yourself? Seriously, this whole massive deck, and you expect me to clean it alone?" Rogers shot back, annoyed.
"Quit your whining. You're the rookie here, aren't you? Hahaha, rookies should do more work!" The scar-faced man chuckled, his tone clearly teasing.
"Tony! I've been here a month already. How long do I have to be the rookie?" Rogers retorted without much care.
"Nothing we can do about it. We've stopped at plenty of islands this past month, but nobody wants to join us. Once we get some fresh blood, you'll stop being the newbie." Tony grinned, though his words carried a hint of helplessness. Still, he didn't look the least bit troubled by their recruitment woes.
"Fine, fine. Don't tell me I've gotta play waiter again?" Rogers sighed helplessly. Tony was technically part of the guard squad, but with so few crew members, he usually ended up working as a sailor. His face, however, was definitely not suited for waiting tables it would scare customers off for sure.
"It's mealtime. We're short on waiters again. Go cover for them! Otherwise, old man John will chew us both out!" Tony said with a rueful shrug, though his grin didn't fade.
"Alright, alright! I'm coming!" Rogers exhaled, grabbing his mop and bucket, and headed toward the open hatch.
Beneath the opening was a staircase leading down to the crew's quarters.
"I wish I could be a waiter too! Being a sailor is way tougher!" Tony went down first, muttering his complaint.
"Forget it. Did you already forget the last time you made that little girl cry? We all got complaints because of you!" Rogers followed behind, setting the mop and bucket in a corner before mocking Tony.
"Hey, that wasn't my fault! Hahaha, this scar of mine came from battling pirates. It's a badge of honor!" Tony rubbed the huge scar on his forehead, wearing an expression of pride.
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T/N:
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