I woke up in pain that did not belong to me. My back was covered in whip marks, my hands trembled from exhaustion, and the salty stench of the sea mixed with blood filled the air. Rough laughter echoed around me, while a single name rang faintly in my mind like a fading warning. Alvida. In that moment, I understood something that made my heart stop for a breath. This was not a dream, and this was not a safe world.
I was not a hero. In my previous life, I was nothing more than an underpaid private school teacher, someone accustomed to being crushed by the system and surviving through calm reasoning alone. Now I had awakened in the body of a lowly errand boy on a pirate ship, with no power, no status, and a future that could end at any second. I remembered this world, yet only in fragments, as if the details had been deliberately sealed away. One truth, however, pierced through the confusion. This world was called One Piece, and someone like me was meant to die early.
Then a voice echoed inside my head, cold and emotionless, offering something I had never possessed in my entire life. A system. Levels. Statistics. Shadows. If this world only offered the choice between predator and prey, then I chose to become something unseen. I would not walk beneath the light. I would become the shadow behind those who would one day shake the seas. And without anyone realizing it, the first step of an unrecorded legend had begun.
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Pain was the first thing I became aware of.
Not a sudden or sharp pain, but a persistent burning sensation that clung to my back like embers refusing to fade. I lay on a cold, sticky wooden floor, my breathing shallow, each inhale scraping against open wounds. The salty stench of the sea mixed with something far more familiar and far more disturbing. Blood.
I opened my eyes slowly.
There was no sky above me. Only a dull wooden ceiling filled with rusted nails and dark stains whose origins I did not want to imagine. Rough laughter echoed from somewhere nearby, followed by the sound of glasses slamming down and drunken curses. This body felt both light and unbearably heavy, as if it did not truly belong to me.
I tried to sit up.
Pain exploded across my back, forcing a hiss from my lips as I collapsed again. That was when I noticed my arms. Thin, scarred with old wounds, and hands rough from hard labor. This was not my body.
My last memory before all of this was vague, yet clear enough to tighten my chest. A cramped classroom, a faded chalkboard, the noisy voices of students, and a salary number that always felt like a cruel joke. I had been nothing more than a private school teacher with a small paycheck, someone used to enduring rather than dreaming.
Then darkness.
And now, I was here.
A name surfaced in my mind, faint at first, then sharper with every beat of my heart.
Alvida.
The name struck my consciousness like a hammer. I had heard it before. Not in this world, but in another. A world where pirates, Devil Fruits, and endless seas were not fiction.
Slowly, with a growing sense of dread, I accepted the truth.
This was the world of One Piece.
The realization did not bring excitement or hope. What I felt instead was cold, practical fear. I knew enough to understand one simple fact. In this world, the weak were not given second chances.
And I was undeniably weak.
"Hey, get up, trash."
A kick landed against my side. Not hard, but enough to remind me of my position. I lifted my head and saw a large man grinning mockingly, a whip in his hand still stained with something dark.
"The captain wants everyone on deck. If you are late, you know what happens."
I nodded quickly, swallowing anger and pain together. In my previous life, I had swallowed my pride more times than I could count. This was no different, except the stakes were much higher.
I rose unsteadily, joining the flow of other errand boys toward the deck. Each step sent pulses of pain through my back, as if this body had long grown accustomed to abuse.
On deck, Alvida's massive figure stood proudly, her iron mace resting on her shoulder. The oppressive aura she radiated was tangible, almost crushing my breath. I lowered my head, not out of fear alone, but instinct. Standing out in a place like this was the same as asking to die.
That was when something changed.
A cold sensation spread from my chest, unlike physical pain. It felt like a door opening in a dark room.
A voice echoed inside my mind.
Calm. Flat. Emotionless.
"Shadow Ascension System activated."
I froze.
The words were not spoken aloud, yet they carried undeniable certainty. Before my eyes, faint and translucent, lines of symbols and text appeared. I did not panic. Strangely enough, my thoughts felt clearer than ever, like a teacher suddenly presented with a new problem to solve.
A system.
The word felt unreal, yet it also made sense. If this truly was the world of One Piece, then my presence here could not be without reason.
I read quickly, absorbing the information presented.
Levels. Stats. Skills.
I was weak, far below the standard of anyone who could be called a fighter. Yet one thing caught my attention. A passive skill named Shadow Adaptation.
Standing beneath the shadow of the ship's mast, I felt it. The world around me seemed slightly slower, and my presence felt faint, not invisible, but… overlooked.
I held my breath.
If this was real, then this was not a power meant to create heroes. This was a power designed for survival.
And survival was something I understood all too well.
I lowered my head further, hiding the glint of resolve beginning to form in my eyes. On this ship, under the name Alvida, I was nothing but trash. But within the shadows, something had just awakened.
I did not know how long I could survive. I did not know how the future would change. But one decision had already been made.
I would not die here.
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I stood at the very back of the formation, half of my body swallowed by the shadow of the ship's sail. No one paid attention to me, and for the first time since awakening in this world, I felt that it was not a coincidence.
I focused.
The translucent system panel was still there at the edge of my vision, as if it did not care whether I was ready or not. I reread the information calmly this time.
Level 1. Low stats. Almost embarrassing.
But systems never promised fairness. They only offered possibility.
The passive skill Shadow Adaptation drew my attention again. There was no long explanation, only a short, deliberately vague description. The body adapts more easily to shadows. At first it sounded abstract, but the longer I stood in the dark, the clearer the effect became.
People passed by without looking at me. Their gazes slipped past me, like water sliding off oiled cloth. I was not invisible, but I was unimportant.
For someone used to living as a nobody, the effect felt terrifying and perfect at the same time.
"Hey, you."
A rough voice from behind made me tense. One of Alvida's crew approached, his face sour and reeking of alcohol.
"What are you doing here? Go fetch water from the lower storage. Now."
I nodded obediently.
The lower storage was dark, cramped, and rarely visited. As I descended the steep wooden stairs, the light from the deck slowly faded. Shadows swallowed me whole.
And there, I felt it clearly.
The shadows felt… welcoming.
The breath I had been unconsciously holding finally eased. I raised my hand, observing it in the darkness. There was no physical change, yet the sensation was undeniable. It was as if my body knew how to exist in places like this.
I walked deeper inside and grabbed a bucket of water as ordered. That was when I heard other voices.
Two people.
Heavy footsteps and quiet laughter. I froze behind a stack of wooden crates.
"The captain's getting more brutal," one of them said. "Another errand boy died this morning."
"Hah, that one was weak," the other replied. "But the new one's still alive. Strange."
They drew closer. Their conversation no longer mattered. The distance did.
Too close.
Every instinct screamed at me to retreat, yet my feet refused to move. On the system panel, an active skill flickered faintly, as if waiting for a command.
Shadow Step.
I knew what it meant, even though I had never used it before. Short range movement through shadows. Limited distance. High risk.
My hands trembled.
I was not a killer. In my previous life, I avoided conflict whenever possible. But this world did not care about my old morals. Here, I was prey.
They stopped right in front of my hiding place.
"Hey, who's there?"
I had no time.
I activated the skill with a single thought.
The world folded.
It was not like running or jumping. It felt as if I was pulled through a sheet of cold, soft darkness. In an instant, my position changed. I appeared right behind one of them, almost without sound.
He had no time to react.
My hand moved on instinct, grabbing a sharp piece of metal from the floor. I covered his mouth and drove it into his neck.
Warmth spilled.
His body trembled, then went limp.
The other one turned around, eyes wide, but the surrounding shadows seemed to swallow us whole. I did not give him time. Panic, survival instinct, and the cold logic of the system merged into a single action.
A few seconds later, the storage was silent again.
I sank to the floor, breathing heavily. My hands were stained with blood. I did not vomit or faint, but my chest felt tight. I had just killed someone.
And the system did not care.
"Target eliminated."
"Experience gained."
The panel glowed softly.
"Level up."
I closed my eyes.
There was no pride. No exhilaration. Only the bitter realization that I had crossed a line, and there was no going back.
At the same time, something changed. My body felt slightly lighter, slightly more responsive. The pain in my back did not vanish, but it became more tolerable.
I opened the stats panel again.
The numbers had increased. Just a little, but undeniably real.
This was how I would survive now.
I cleaned myself as best as I could and hid the two bodies behind the crates. The lower storage would remain dark, and no one would care about two missing low ranking crewmen.
When I returned to the deck, the sea wind greeted me. The atmosphere above had shifted. Shouts, commotion, and something unusual.
I looked up.
In the distance, a large barrel floated on the sea, drifting closer to the ship.
For some reason, my heart began to pound.
The sealed fragments of memory in my mind stirred, like a door about to open.
I stared at the barrel, my shadow stretching at my feet.
If my guess was right, then my life was about to change faster than I had expected.
Monkey D. Luffy was about to appear.
And I was not ready.