"So this is… the price, huh…"
Rain panted heavily. That surge of power that had come out of nowhere had now turned into a burning emptiness in his stomach.
He struggled to his feet and instinctively rushed to the little locker in the room, rummaging through it like mad.
The result was despairing.
Aside from a piece of slightly damp black bread and half a jug of cold water, it was completely empty.
Rain couldn't afford to care. He gulped down some water and shoved the rock-hard bread into his mouth, swallowing it in just a few bites.
The dry, tough bread barely lined his stomach, and that terrifying hunger only became more obvious.
"No good, that's nowhere near enough…"
He glanced at the clock on the wall. The hands pointed to 5:30 p.m.
In his memories, the Marine base mess hall served dinner at six.
…
At 6:30 in the evening, when the rush hour in the mess hall finally passed and the place thinned out, Rain lowered his head and walked out of the barracks.
He moved with practiced ease at the serving window—one scoop of unidentifiable mushy vegetable-and-meat stew, two chunks of rock-hard black bread that could double as weapons, and a bowl of seaweed and egg soup.
The food looked terrible, but at least it was balanced and unlimited. As long as you could eat it, no one cared how much you took.
Tray in hand, Rain swept his gaze across the noisy mess hall. Most of the long tables had people sitting in twos and threes. Only the spot by the window—a whole long table—was completely empty.
Expressionless, he walked over and sat there alone. The chatter around him dropped for a split second the moment he sat down, as if someone hit mute, and then came back even louder.
Rain completely ignored it. Right now, the only thing on his mind was filling that bottomless pit of a stomach.
He shoveled the indescribably awful food into his mouth at an astonishing speed.
Meanwhile, in his inner world, all his attention was fixed on the blue screen hovering in his mind that only he could see.
"So that's how it works… the overall rank is divided into N, R, SR, SSR, UR, and LR? This really is just like some gacha game system."
A few minutes later, his plate was already clean.
He calmly stood up, took the tray to the return counter, then, under the cook's stunned stare, got another identical serving and went back to his lonely corner.
As he wolfed the food down, he kept digesting the system's info at high speed.
[Overall Rank]: The system's assessment of a judged target's peak strength. From low to high it's divided into N (Normal), R (Rare), SR (Super Rare), SSR (Super Super Rare), UR (Ultra Rare), and the purely theoretical LR (Legendary).
"Pretty detailed grading… though right now I'm probably just a battle power 5 scrub… thinking about this stuff is way too early."
As he delved deeper, Rain found the system had general rules: whether it was [Physique Tier], or the future [Skills] and [Haki] he could gain, everything was classified by the same clear five-step standard.
From low to high: [Basic], [Intermediate], [Advanced], [Top-Tier], [Peak].
And above those five clear tiers, he could see one more realm, greyed out and unreadable, marked only with three question marks: [???].
"So there's something even higher than Peak…"
"I'm only at Basic right now. Looks like that little bit of physique inheritance just barely pushed me over the minimum threshold for the system to even recognize me."
As for the 120 Sin Points, he dug through the system for a while and finally found a greyed-out icon labeled [Exchange Shop]. When he touched it with his mind, a line of tiny text popped up: [Access unavailable].
"What, my own system and I don't have permission? Why so mysterious… whatever, forget it."
By the time Rain put down his fifth empty tray, that terrifying hunger that felt like it was trying to devour his organs finally subsided.
"The stuff they serve here really is pig slop," he grumbled inwardly, frowning. "But at least I'm not dying anymore."
Walking along the stone path back to the dorms, the sea breeze hit his face, salty and cool with the chill of night.
The searchlights on the tall watchtowers swept over every corner of the base and across the distant sea again and again.
All of it made Rain feel strangely detached, like it wasn't quite real. He tugged at his collar and quickened his pace.
Back in his narrow single bed, hands folded behind his head, Rain finally started seriously planning his future.
"First off, the goal's clear: lie low and get stronger."
"The way to get stronger is to use my current identity to keep executing criminals and use the system to gain power. That's the core."
"Physique, skills, Haki… I can get all of that through the system. As long as the criminals I execute are strong enough and there are enough of them…"
His thoughts suddenly froze.
A single idea split the darkness in his mind like a lightning bolt.
"Wait… this is…"
"Loguetown!"
"The 'Town of the Beginning and the End'—Loguetown!"
"Which means…"
Rain shot upright in bed, his heart pounding out of control, blood boiling in his veins.
"The Pirate King! Gol D. Roger! He was executed here!"
Just thinking it made his scalp tingle with excitement.
That was a ceiling-level existence in the entire One Piece world! If he could be the one to execute Roger, what kind of insane reward would he get?! Power spike to the heavens? Instant god mode?
But a second later, Rain forced himself to calm down and tried to recall that blurry part of the story.
"Hold on… gotta confirm the timeline first. I remember Roger was executed in 1498, but the manga never really said the exact month and day, did it?"
"What month is it now? The newspaper… the date on the paper was…" Rain thought hard. "I think it was March."
He started frantically digging through the original body's memories. But for a 15-year-old outcast recruit, the only things in there were training, bullying, and the execution grounds. Nothing about the "One Piece" or Roger's execution.
"No memories indicating that Roger has already started the Great Pirate Era… which means he definitely hasn't been executed yet!"
"In other words, I'm still in time!"
Rain's breathing grew hot.
"If I just keep my head down and survive here until that day…"
"I'll take off, just like that!"
He clenched his fists, feeling the strength in his body. Even at just [Basic], this physique was already way beyond his past life's body that had been hollowed out by alcohol and overtime.
Rain suddenly chuckled, oddly at ease.
"Yeah, I did end up in a hellhole…"
He ran a hand through his thick hair.
"But at least I got a ten-plus-year age reset, and my hairline's looking a lot healthier."
He thought of the face he'd seen reflected in the dirty water that afternoon.
"And I'm actually pretty good-looking."
"On top of that, I started off as a Marine. Before I spread my wings, I've at least got stable protection."
"When you think about it like that… I guess it's barely not a bad deal."