"Did you hear? Did you hear? The school beauty from next-door Fengming High, Di Ruqing, successfully obtained a Devil Fruit ability from the Devil Space on her eighteenth birthday yesterday! And they say—it's a Logia!''
"Hiss! You can't be serious! A Logia-type Devil Fruit ability? That's one of the rarest among the Three Great Fruit Classes—and also the hardest to acquire! If I remember correctly, throughout history, every single Logia user who didn't die young eventually became a Tier-7 Sovereign-level powerhouse!"
"I heard Di Ruqing got the Magma-Magma Fruit!"
"Holy crap, the Magma Fruit?! The goddess truly lives up to her title! Her grades were already top-notch, and didn't they say she recently awakened Armament Haki too?"
"Can't help but envy her. Rumor has it she's already been pre-admitted to Imperial Capital University!"
"Sigh… people like that really make the rest of us miserable."
Tong City, Tong City No. 1 High School.
A group of seniors were chatting animatedly during their break.
"Forget about the goddess Di for a second—did you hear about Li Zhiwei from our own Class 2? Word is, he also got a Devil Fruit ability from the Devil Space! Seems to be some kind of Superhuman-type ability!"
"What!? No way! Even Li Zhiwei managed to enter the Devil Space? Isn't it said that only those with strong enough spiritual power can enter on their eighteenth birthday? If I recall correctly, during last year's major assessment, Li Zhiwei's spiritual power ranked dead last in the entire school!"
"Well, what can I say—his family's loaded. A few months ago, there was that newly-discovered ruin near Mu City, right? They found a kind of Spirit Fruit inside—eating it slightly boosts spiritual power. His dad went and bought every single fruit produced in that ruin for the past few months. Spent tens of millions!"
"Damn! That's insane! The definition of filthy rich!"
"So, uh… does anyone know what Superhuman ability he got?"
"Something called the Slow-Slow Fruit, I think."
"..."
The classroom buzzed with chatter—
Almost everyone joined in on the gossip.
Everyone… except one person.
Sitting quietly in the corner near the trash bin and the broom, Zhao Xuan looked utterly dumbfounded.
His mind was in complete confusion.
What in the world are they even talking about?
The graduation exams were only half a month away, and instead of studying, these people were seriously discussing Devil Fruits and Haki?
Had they all gone crazy?!
If the homeroom teacher walked in now, they'd all get an earful!
If Zhao Xuan hadn't been absolutely certain he was sitting inside a modern classroom, he might've thought he'd somehow crossed into the actual One Piece world.
"Don't tell me I'm still dreaming?"
Muttering under his breath, Zhao Xuan pinched his arm hard.
"Hiss—"
A sharp pain jolted through him.
"Not a dream… Then what's going on? None of the girls in our class were even into One Piece before! How did they all become die-hard fans while I took a nap?"
Still puzzled, Zhao Xuan's gaze drifted toward the chalkboard—
and what he saw written there made him freeze.
The class schedule on the blackboard… was utterly absurd.
Normally, it should've read something like:
Morning: Chinese, Math, English, Physics
Afternoon: Math, Chemistry, Self-Study, English
But what he saw instead was:
Morning: Moonwalk, Tempest Kick, Finger Gun, Self-Study
Afternoon: Iron Body, Iron Body, Meditation, Paper Art
"What… the hell?"
Just as Zhao Xuan sat there, completely dumbfounded—
Suddenly, a wave of searing pain tore through his mind!
It came fast—and vanished just as quickly.
Before he could even react, the pain faded away… replaced by a flood of strange yet familiar memories.
"Holy—so I really did transmigrate!"
His expression turned complicated.
He was still on Blue Star—but this wasn't the Blue Star he'd known.
This was a modernized One Piece world.
A world with Devil Fruit users, people who could awaken Haki, and even swordsmen as a recognized profession.
However, unlike in One Piece, people here didn't gain powers by eating actual fruits.
On their eighteenth birthday, if their spiritual power was strong enough, they could enter a mysterious realm called the Devil Space.
Inside it stood the Tree of Devils,
whose branches bore countless Devil Fruits that refreshed at random.
Each person could choose one fruit—
and obtain its ability.
But note—
they didn't truly acquire the fruit itself,
only its power.
That's why, in this world, it wasn't uncommon to see multiple people sharing the same fruit ability.
It was said that if someone could develop their Devil Fruit ability to its absolute limit,
they would then truly own that fruit's power—
and from that moment on, no other user of the same ability could ever harm them again.
Yet, since the Devil Space first appeared,
no one had ever achieved complete mastery over their fruit.
"What a pity… My spiritual power doesn't seem very strong. During last year's major test, it was only 15 points—and you need at least 20 to enter the Devil Space on your eighteenth birthday."
"It's been almost a year since that test, but according to research reports, unless you take special medicine to boost it, your spiritual power only increases by two or three points in that time. That means I'd be at most 18 points now—still two points short of the requirement."
"So I transmigrated into such an amazing world… and I don't even have the qualifications to become a Devil Fruit user?"
The more he thought about it, the more unwilling Zhao Xuan felt.
Without realizing it, his fists clenched tight.
"No… No way. I can't just give up like this!"
"I'm not the same person I used to be!"
"My spiritual power must have changed!"
As that thought surfaced—Zhao Xuan's eyes began to shine with determination.