In the World of Pirates

"I'm exhausted..."

In an ordinary farmhouse in Shimotsuki Village, East Blue, Ling Donglai lay on his bed after once again attempting biological electricity generation. Sweat had soaked the bedding, and thunderous rumbles came from his stomach.

"Love-Powered Electricity is really hard." Ling Donglai felt utterly helpless.

When he had reincarnated into the world of Pirate King, he had been overjoyed. An orphan background, plus familiarity with the plot—wasn't that a heaven-sent protagonist template?

Ling Donglai had immediately mapped out his protagonist life plan: train his body first, then set sail as a pirate, head to Sky Island, seize the pinnacle Logia fruit—the Rumble-Rumble Fruit—and become the male lead of a power fantasy.

Ideals were beautiful, but not long after he went to sea, he received a brutal beating. He had not even caught a glimpse of Sky Island before his idiot captain stuffed a Zoan Human-Human Fruit into his mouth.

Just like that, his dream shattered.

As expected of the One Piece World—more than half its pirates had very low IQs. That captain had originally intended to sell it for money. A Devil Fruit was valuable even if it was a Human-Human Fruit.

But then the captain's right-hand man suddenly had a wild idea. "Captain, since the Zoan Human-Human Fruit can grant animals human forms, what would happen if a human ate it?"

Then the captain lost his mind too and directly picked out an unlucky bastard to force-feed it to.

That unlucky bastard was naturally Ling Donglai. The moment he swallowed the fruit, Ling Donglai felt as sick as if he had eaten shit. His dream had shattered, and his heart turned cold with it.

From that moment on, Ling Donglai became a... person who could not swim.

Once the captain learned of this, he decisively kicked Ling Donglai out.

What use was an ordinary pirate who could not even swim aboard a ship?

Come to think of it, Ling Donglai ought to thank the captain for sparing his life. Though many pirates used cruel methods, they treated their own men fairly well. That was why Ling Donglai received some settlement money and took a ship to Shimotsuki Village in East Blue.

He could not eat the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, and his dream of becoming a power-fantasy protagonist had shattered, but life had to go on. Ling Donglai's first planned wife was Nami. He intended to study swordsmanship with the hidden swordsmanship master, Koushiro, in Shimotsuki Village, then defeat Arlong the Fish-Man.

Then that plan shattered too. Koushiro only taught children swordsmanship, and he saw at a glance that Ling Donglai was a pirate.

There was no helping it. You had to make a living on a pirate ship, and to make a living, you had to hack people up alongside your idiot boss.

With his first and second plans failing in succession, Ling Donglai could not take it anymore. At this rate, how was he supposed to defeat Arlong the Fish-Man?

To put it bluntly, Arlong the Fish-Man was the first major hurdle to lusting after Nami's body—an elite boss of East Blue!

Arlong the Fish-Man might have been weak compared to others, but he had still spent some time with the Sun Pirates, and he also had the physical advantages of a fish-man.

Though the fish-man race had no true experts, an ordinary fish-man was still ten times stronger than an ordinary human physically!

This was no joke. A fish-man could easily pin down and beat up an ordinary pirate like him.

Even after years at sea, Ling Donglai had found no way to break through his limits and train himself to the point where he could fight fish-men.

First, he had no Sea King meat to eat. Second, East Blue had no such thing as nutritional balance. As long as he could fill his stomach, that was enough.

So there was simply no way he could rely on training alone to go around beating people up like Zoro.

And he did not even know swordsmanship.

This year, Ling Donglai was fourteen. Heaven never sealed off every path, and he finally sensed the mystery of the fruit he had eaten—it allowed him to perfectly control his own body and even reach the kind of Inner Vision Realm found in novels!

That year, a bold plan was born in Ling Donglai's mind.

He would generate electricity through love, using his willpower to make the cells of his body rub against one another at high speed, producing electrical currents with positive and negative poles.

In the world of pirates, this was a feasible approach. First, humans in the One Piece World were incredibly tough, let alone Devil Fruit users.

Second, Haki in the pirate world was a power of will—or rather, a power of the mind.

Thus, Ling Donglai began attempting Love-Powered Electricity day after day.

It counted as a form of Devil Fruit ability development, and it had shown slight results. At the very least, he could sense the tingling numbness of faint electrical arcs.

After finishing today's Love-Powered Electricity session, Ling Donglai began today's journey to earn a living. He worked as a laborer for others in Shimotsuki Village, doing physical work, and occasionally took some time to check out the children practicing swordsmanship at the dojo.

Though the hidden big shot Koushiro disliked him for being a pirate, he did not stop him from watching nearby. After all, the swordsmanship he taught the children was merely basic chopping and slashing for exercise, nowhere near profound.

That day, Koushiro, who was teaching the children, once again saw Ling Donglai appear by the dojo entrance.

"Master Koushiro, let's have a fight!" Ling Donglai's gaze passed over the children and settled on this novice-village swordsmanship master, who had barely made a move in the original story.

Today, after sensing a weak current through Love-Powered Electricity, Ling Donglai wanted to try an even bolder idea: take a brutal beating and see if this method could make him stronger. If it could awaken the legendary Haki, that would be even better.

After all, Armament Haki was just about getting beaten up.

And this swordsmanship master would not possibly try to kill him for no reason. He was a well-known good man around here.

"I won't fight you." Koushiro's eyes were as sharp as an eagle's, as though they could pierce straight through Ling Donglai's heart.

"Donglai, there is a lion in your eyes, and you come from a pirate background... I won't train you in any way. That would only lead to serious trouble."

"A man has to make a living. Besides, I dare say I've only ever cut down hostile pirates and never laid a hand on civilians. These days, what ambitious young man doesn't become a pirate? Even in peaceful East Blue, countless small pirate crews raid backward villages everywhere. If you can't beat them, all you can do is join them." Ling Donglai leaned against the doorway and smiled.

"But Shimotsuki Village is very peaceful. No pirates will attack here." The swordsmanship master clasped his hands and looked toward the large characters for tranquility in the dojo.

"You can live here peacefully until old age. After all, you're now a retired pirate. Even the Marines would never discover that a nobody like you had once been a pirate unless they investigated closely."

"Ling Donglai, you don't need to become stronger anymore, nor do you have a reason to wield a blade."

"How am I supposed to marry a wife if I don't become stronger?" Ling Donglai sat on the ground, watching the children repeatedly perform simple slashes.

"I know of a group of fish-man pirates. They colluded with the Marines and ruled several island villages. To be honest, my wife's family is in the territory controlled by those fish-men."

At this point in time, Nami should have been working as a thief, saving money everywhere.

After coming to this world, Ling Donglai had two dreams: Robin on his left and Nami on his right.