Starting Out with the Door-Door Fruit

Sea Circle Calendar, 1472. West Blue, Marine Branch 153.

Lin Yuan woke up choking on seawater.

Salty, bitter water flooded his nose and mouth, and his lungs burned with pain. He struggled instinctively, flailing his arms, but couldn't find anything to grab onto.

Just when he thought he was going to drown, a hand grabbed him by the collar from behind and hauled him out of the water.

"Kid, you're pretty hard to kill."

A rough voice sounded beside his ear. Lin Yuan lay on the cold ground, coughing violently and spitting out the seawater that had entered his lungs as his mind gradually cleared.

He opened his eyes.

An unfamiliar face was in front of him—a burly, dark-skinned man in a Marine uniform. People dressed similarly surrounded him, some carrying supplies, others polishing weapons. In the distance stood rows of low wooden buildings, with a seagull flag flying above them.

A sea breeze carried the salty, fishy smell of the ocean, and waves slapped against the dock.

Lin Yuan's mind raced.

He remembered being in a laboratory, running a simulation test in spatial physics. Then a violent earthquake had struck, the ceiling had come crashing down, and endless darkness had followed.

Then came seawater, and drowning.

"Where..." Lin Yuan slowly got to his feet and looked around, his pupils narrowing slightly.

He recognized the insignia.

The seagull flag. The Marine uniforms. And the warship in the distance, its bow shaped like a seagull.

This was the world of One Piece.

And he had transmigrated.

Two

It took Lin Yuan three days to digest the fact.

His new identity was "Lin Yuan," an orphan from a small island in the West Blue who had been adopted by the Marines and served as a recruit at Marine Branch 153. The original owner of his body had encountered pirates during a patrol, and their ship had been sunk. He was the sole survivor.

He had been rescued because the "tenacious vitality" he displayed while struggling in the sea had drawn the attention of his superiors.

Simply put, it was bad luck.

Lin Yuan lay on a bed in the infirmary, staring at the ceiling as the memories left in this body churned in his mind. The world of One Piece, Devil Fruits, Marines, pirates, Celestial Dragons, the World Government...

The corners of his mouth slowly curved into a subtle smile.

He was all too familiar with the world of One Piece. As a physics PhD, he had used its setting countless times for case studies with his students—from the electromagnetic principles of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit to the spatial folding possibilities of the Door-Door Fruit.

And now he was here.

Not as a reader or a viewer, but as someone who could change everything.

"Lin Yuan!"

A rough shout interrupted his thoughts. The infirmary door swung open, and a burly man with a scar on his face walked in.

"Instructor Zephyr wants to see you. He said it's about next week's selection test."

Lin Yuan sat up and nodded.

The original owner had kept a low profile at the branch. His physical fitness and fighting skills were average, and his only strength was his ability to endure hardship. But in the world of One Piece, there were plenty of people who could endure hardship.

Those who could survive were few and far between.

Three

That night.

Lin Yuan didn't sleep.

He lay on his bunk with his eyes closed, his thoughts racing. For the past three days, he had been recalling everything about the Door-Door Fruit from the original story.

Blueno, a member of CP9 and the user of the Door-Door Fruit.

In the original story, the fruit had been severely underestimated. Blueno had only used it to open doors, hide, and teleport, never bringing out its true potential.

But Lin Yuan was different.

He had a PhD in spatial physics.

The essence of the Door-Door Fruit isn't "opening doors," but "spatial manipulation," he reasoned silently. Creating a door on any material essentially means opening a passable hole in space. If I can control the size, location, and duration of that hole...

Then spatial folding, spatial cutting, and even spatial anchoring are all possible.

He opened his eyes, raised his right hand, spread his fingers, and gently swept them through the air.

Nothing happened.

He didn't have the fruit yet.

But Lin Yuan wasn't in a hurry. He knew where the fruit was now.

The original owner's memories contained a crucial piece of information: a confiscated Devil Fruit was in the branch warehouse, and no report had been filed about it yet. Three months ago, the previous branch commander had seized it from a group of pirates during a mission.

The former branch commander had died in a pirate attack not long ago, and the information about the fruit had been lost with him. It wasn't recorded on the warehouse inventory, and only two people had known about it—the former branch commander, who was already dead, and the original Lin Yuan, who had been responsible for taking inventory of the warehouse.

And now, only Lin Yuan knew.

He sat up, put on his shoes, and slipped silently out of the dormitory.

The moon was hidden, and the wind was high.

Lin Yuan walked through the empty base, his footsteps nearly soundless. He avoided the routes used by Marine patrols and circled around to the back of the warehouse.

He had long since figured out the lock on this door.

The original owner had entered and left the warehouse many times and knew its layout and security inside out. Lin Yuan pulled a thin piece of wire from his pocket, inserted it into the keyhole, and gently worked it around.

Click.

The lock opened.

Lin Yuan pushed the door open, stepped inside, and closed it behind him.

The warehouse was piled high with odds and ends—old weapons, obsolete equipment, and confiscated loot. Lin Yuan walked between the shelves to a corner at the very back.

A dust-covered wooden crate sat there.

He crouched down and opened it.

Inside lay a purple fruit covered in strange patterns, giving off a faint sheen.

Lin Yuan narrowed his eyes slightly.

The Door-Door Fruit.

He reached out and picked it up.

It felt warm, like a living thing. In the moonlight shining through the skylight, the patterns on its skin seemed to flow slowly.

Lin Yuan looked at the fruit in his hand, the corners of his mouth slowly rising.

"Heh heh heh..." His low laugh came from deep in his chest, carrying an indescribably chilling quality.

"Thank you, Blueno. You wasted it, but in my hands..."

"It's something that can change the world."

Without hesitation, he took a bite.

It tasted terrible. Like spoiled rubber and rotten bananas boiled into a paste, then left out for three days and three nights.

Lin Yuan's face twisted for an instant, but he endured it and ate the whole fruit.

Then he closed his eyes.

A strange power surged within him, as though something were flowing through his veins, spreading and becoming one with him. He could feel it—countless doors in space were opening to him.

He raised his right hand and gently swept it through the air in front of him.

Space rippled. A translucent door, glowing faintly, appeared before him.

Beyond the door was another space.

Lin Yuan didn't go in. He canceled his ability, and the door slowly vanished as space returned to normal.

He stood up and brushed the dust off his clothes, unable to suppress the smile on his face.

"First step, complete."

Four

Early the next morning, at the training ground.

The selection test was held as scheduled.

Zephyr stood on a raised platform, sweeping his gaze over the nearly hundred recruits below. "Today's test is Soru," he said in a deep voice. "The rules are simple—complete one valid high-speed movement within the allotted time."

Soru, one of the Six Powers, produced explosive movement by kicking off the ground dozens of times in an instant.

Normal training took months or even years.

Lin Yuan stood in the crowd, his expression calm.

The test began, and the recruits stepped forward one by one. Most of their performances were painful to watch—some broke the ground beneath their feet without moving an inch, some charged straight into a wall, and others simply fell over.

Zephyr's face grew darker and darker.

"A bunch of good-for-nothings!" he roared. "You're Marines, not street thugs! If you can't even learn Soru, going to the battlefield is suicide!"

The recruits fell deathly silent.

Then it was Lin Yuan's turn.

He walked to the center of the training ground and took a deep breath.

In the original story, Blueno used Soru in combination with the Door-Door Fruit—open a door, close it, and move. But Lin Yuan didn't want to expose his fruit ability, at least not yet.

So he would disguise his fruit ability as Soru.

He opened an extremely small "micro-door" beneath his foot. The other end of the door was on the ground three meters ahead.

He stepped down.

The space between his foot and the ground folded, and his body appeared three meters away in an instant.

All anyone saw was Lin Yuan's figure flashing before he appeared in another position.

He was so fast he left almost no afterimage.

The entire training ground fell silent.

Zephyr's eyes lit up.

"This is..." He strode over to Lin Yuan. "Do that again."

Lin Yuan did as he was told. Another instant movement.

Zephyr stared at Lin Yuan's feet for a long time before slowly asking, "How did you do that?"

Lin Yuan's expression didn't change. "I practiced the basic stepping technique you taught us over and over again after I went back. Maybe my physique is better suited to this kind of explosive movement."

It was bullshit. But he was betting that Zephyr wouldn't spot the flaw.

Zephyr was silent for a moment, then nodded. "Not bad. What's your name?"

"Lin Yuan."

"Starting tomorrow, you'll train under me."

Lin Yuan stood at attention and saluted. "Yes, Instructor!"

His gaze was calm, but the corners of his mouth rose slightly.

The second step: get Zephyr's attention.

(End of chapter 1)