As autumn deepened, heavy rain swept across Cocoyasi Village.
"Waaah! Why did it suddenly start raining so hard!"
"Brother Xia Nuo, run!"
At dusk, a black-haired boy dashed out of the Orange Grove gate, carrying two baskets of oranges on his shoulders as he raced toward the village.
Rustling suddenly came from the baskets. Two little girls popped out from the piles of oranges with a "bam," one on each side, poking their heads over the boy's shoulders.
"Charge, Xia Nuo! The intersection is three hundred meters ahead. Hard to port!"
The orange-haired girl on the left raised her right hand high, full of spirit.
"Nami, behave yourself. Brother Xia Nuo is already exhausted."
The blue-haired girl on the right held up an umbrella and frowned slightly, her voice gentle.
"Huh? You're the well-behaved one? If you were, you wouldn't still be sitting in the basket!"
"W-what nonsense! I'm holding the umbrella to keep Brother Xia Nuo dry. He's a head taller than me. How else could I block the rain if I didn't sit up here?"
"Tch. Then I could say I'm giving directions because Xia Nuo can't see the road clearly when he looks down. That's still more useful than you!"
Listening to his two younger sisters' familiar bickering, Xia Nuo was already used to it. He glanced at the umbrella, which was nowhere near covering his head, and quietly quickened his pace.
The two girls and one hundred and thirty kilograms of oranges were all weighing down his shoulders.
Yet the boy still strode like the wind, his breathing steady.
A moment later, the familiar house appeared in his line of sight.
The lights were already on.
Through the window, he could see a slender figure bustling about in the kitchen. Smoke climbed from the chimney, mingled with the rain and mist, and soon vanished.
He gently pushed open the wooden door, and the warm glow of the fireplace instantly spilled over him.
In the cozy halo of light, the sweet scent of oranges and the fragrance of pinewood rushed toward him, forcing the chill of the cold rain back outside.
Xia Nuo set the baskets down with a thud. After closing the door, he collapsed onto the old sofa, stretched out like a starfish, and gave himself a long, comfortable stretch.
The firelight simmered the dusk into thick caramel, flowing across his outstretched limbs.
In that instant,
the soreness and exhaustion seemed to drift away together with the bleak sound of the rain.
"Oh? You're back, Nojiko, Nami."
The footsteps from the kitchen drew closer. "And Xia Nuo—you've really worked hard lately."
Oh no! The two little girls hurriedly crawled out, but toppled the bamboo baskets with a clatter. They both smacked into the floor, while the golden oranges rolled everywhere like tiny suns.
"Ah, I knew it!"
The young woman in an apron, her dark-red hair tied in a ponytail, planted her hands on her hips and glared angrily at her two daughters.
"You said you were going to help your brother, but you were really just going to cause trouble, weren't you? Sitting on Xia Nuo's load again—are you happy only when you've exhausted him completely?"
"Bellemere, we know we were wrong..." Nami and Nojiko lowered their heads pitifully, kicking their toes against the floor.
"It's all right, Bellemere."
Xia Nuo turned his head from the sofa, exhaustion mixed with gentleness in his voice. "Don't blame them. The rain was heavy and sudden. I was the one who told them to hide in the baskets. It kept them dry, and it also gave me a chance to train."
"Exactly, exactly."
The two guilty little rascals immediately echoed him.
"Ahh, you're infuriating! When will you two ever be as sensible as Xia Nuo?"
Bellemere rapped her knuckles lightly against their heads. In the end, she could not bring herself to use much force. "Don't do this again. Dry your hair with a towel and come eat!"
Saved! Nojiko and Nami looked gratefully at their big brother, then cheered and dashed toward the kitchen table.
"Bellemere, what are we having tonight... Duck breast with orange sauce? Yay!"
"There are honey-glazed ribs too! Wow, let me try one!"
"Hey! Did you wash your hands? How dare you grab food directly! You little brats—at least wait for your brother!"
Listening to the chatter from the kitchen, Xia Nuo leaned back contentedly. Then the warm ceramic rim of a cup pressed against the back of his neck, and the warmth of ginger cola mixed with honey snaked into his nose.
"Drink it while it's hot."
Bellemere's displeased voice rang out. "You only know how to protect your sisters. You don't know how to take care of yourself."
She took a clean set of clothes from the wardrobe. Under Xia Nuo's astonished gaze, she swiftly pulled off his shirt and began wiping his upper body with a hot towel.
"Uh, Bellemere..."
Xia Nuo tried to dodge, but she forcibly dragged him back into place. He could not help looking embarrassed. "I'm thirteen already. You really don't have to do this. I can do it myself."
"Enough nonsense!"
Bellemere summoned the authority of an adoptive mother, leaving no room for argument. "You're only two years older than Nojiko. What are you pretending to be, a grown man? Stand still!"
There was no helping it.
Xia Nuo could only let her fuss over him like a cloth doll, his face wearing an unwilling expression.
But deep down, he could not help feeling a rush of warmth.
To live in Cocoyasi, to grow up in a family like this...
It was wonderful.
When had he ever experienced anything like this in his previous life?
At fifteen, he had cut the back of his hand while changing a lightbulb for the first time at the orphanage. At twenty-five, he had collapsed from working overnight and been carried into an ambulance. At twenty-six, on his birthday, the line on the heart monitor in the ICU had gone flat...
Until he suddenly opened his eyes.
He found himself transformed into a five-year-old boy, covered in blood and grime amid the ruins. A female marine in a white cloak of justice had bent down with difficulty and reached out a helping hand.
"How many times have I told you!"
Bellemere suddenly twisted his ear hard.
"Don't push yourself! Don't push yourself! You picked twelve baskets of oranges today, yet you insisted on making a seventh trip. Don't you know that reckless little heroes catch colds most easily?"
Xia Nuo bared his teeth and hurriedly reached for the towel, only to have a set of dry clothes carrying a fresh citrus scent pulled over his head.
The thick-knit sweater scratched faintly against his neck. Amid the crackling fire, the rustle of her gathering the wet clothes mixed into the room.
The plaid shirts piled up in his previous life had never carried the scent of sunlight. Now, the sensation of coarse cloth rubbing against his skin stirred a strange ache in his chest.
Xia Nuo looked at the face in the mirror.
Black hair, black eyes, and the features of a handsome thirteen-year-old boy were bathed in warm light. Moisture still clung to his eyelashes after the towel had wiped them.
The solitary figure who had once stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows of a skyscraper had long since been ground into dust amid the ticking of the old clock in the living room.
"Thank you," he suddenly said quietly.
Bellemere paused as she bent over to gather the clothes, then quickly resumed as if nothing had happened.
"What are you talking about? I should be the one thanking you."
"You handle all the hard work in the Orange Grove. You make me, your mother, look like a useless idiot. Honestly, you're still such a little runt, but you've already gotten frighteningly strong."
"I wonder who your biological parents were. I feel like they must have been extraordinary. Maybe once you reached a certain age, boom, your bloodline awakened and you inherited some incredible power..."
Bloodline power?
What bloodline? What sudden awakening? I'm not King Nika.
Xia Nuo was briefly stunned, then found himself torn between laughter and tears.
For the first few years after his reincarnation, he had lived in a daze, fighting and playing with his sisters every day. One day he picked mushrooms in the mountains, and the next he caught fish in the river, acting like a genuine little child.
It was not until two years ago, when he was around ten and his brain had fully developed, that he gradually sorted out the memories of his past and present lives.
His biological parents in this life had merely been ordinary people from the Oykot Kingdom. They had died in that terrible war and possessed nothing special.
And when he had crossed over, if Bellemere had not happened to save him and raise him, he would probably have become a corpse amid the ruins long ago.
Still,
Bellemere's rambling was understandable.
His performance really was rather exceptional, especially in a small East Blue village like Cocoyasi.
At only thirteen, his strength was already astonishing.
At the wrestling competition held during the recent harvest festival, not one of the hundred or so adult men in the entire town had been his match. Several of them had not even lasted a few rounds.
An ordinary background, an ordinary bloodline.
He had also grown up in a rural farming family and had never received guidance from a famous master.
His strength naturally came from the cheat ability he carried with him.
"Deep Sea."
Xia Nuo silently recited the activation phrase.
The system instantly activated. Ripples like woven silk spread through the air, and a dark-blue light screen visible only to him appeared before his eyes.
This was the "Sacrifice Trading System" he had awakened three years ago.
[Name: Xia Nuo (Siano)] [Age: 13] [Height: 159 cm] [Strength: 1.9] [Agility: 1.8] [Endurance: 1.7] [Spirit: 1.3] [Remaining Points: 25] [Skill Talents: Breathing Fist (Minor Accomplishment), One Sword Style Swordsmanship (Beginner), Cooking (Beginner), Fruit Tree Cultivation (Minor Accomplishment), Fishing (Mastery)]
For ordinary adults in the Pirate World, the average value of each basic attribute was one.
Although Xia Nuo's basic attributes were only in the low ones, provided both sides were empty-handed, he was confident he could easily repel seven or eight adults attacking him together.
After all, at the wrestling competition, he had merely been playing around. He had not used his true strength at all.
Clearly, the method of calculating attribute points was not as simple as addition and subtraction.
It most likely followed some kind of exponential function. Every increase, even by only a fraction, created a huge difference in strength.
As its name suggested, the Sacrifice Trading System came with a trading market. It provided several items that could be purchased with points and refreshed once a month.
The source of the points depended on whether the host could provide qualified sacrifices.
After a sacrifice, the host received points of the same level according to the difference in value.
When he had first awakened the system, Xia Nuo had been unsure what counted as a sacrifice. He had experimented everywhere across the mountains, even grabbing passing dogs to test them.
But whether it was a large fish he had just caught, a rabbit hunted in the forest, or a large-denomination thousand-Beli banknote, none of them could be sacrificed.
Until one accidental attempt, when he tried the old service pistol Bellemere had used when she was a marine.
A blind cat had stumbled upon a dead mouse, and it had actually worked.
The system had even thoughtfully provided an appraisal panel:
[Sacrifice: Bellemere's Old Flintlock] [Quality: Fine] [Value: 50 points] [Appraisal: The weapon that accompanied Bellemere throughout her youth. Its mottled body witnessed her growth from a rookie recruit fresh out of training into someone who could stand alone on the battlefield. Even after retiring, she often wiped the gun. It was not merely a memory, but also the support that allowed her to hold up this family. It held great significance to her.]
How damn considerate.
After reading the appraisal, Xia Nuo had tossed and turned in bed, wracked with guilt and unable to sleep for the entire night.
Especially the next day, when Bellemere discovered that her service pistol had vanished and stood at the doorway, furious and anxious as she cursed the thief for an entire morning, he had wanted to slap himself several times.
I'm horrible!
So after his guilt gradually faded, he chose his targets more carefully, doing his best to pick inconspicuous little objects.
For example, Nami's Orange Blossom Hairpin and Nojiko's headband.
He had personally bought both items for his sisters several years earlier, when the family had still been poor. They were already quite worn out and not worth much.
Now that life was slowly improving, it was about time they were replaced.
But then...
The sacrifices succeeded.
The damn system still loved twisting the knife.
[Sacrifice: Nami's Orange Blossom Hairpin] [Quality: Ordinary] [Value: 300 points] [Appraisal: A cheap accessory sold for one hundred Beli at a general store, but young Nami loved it dearly and treated it as a treasure. She wore it every day and could not bear to take it off, even placing it beneath her pillow when she slept. It carried the steadily deepening bond between the siblings.]
[Sacrifice: Nojiko's Old Headband] [Quality: Ordinary] [Value: 30 points] [Appraisal: A faded strip of cloth stained with citrus juice that was difficult to wash clean. Nojiko had the awareness of an eldest daughter. Whenever her adoptive mother and elder brother worked in the Orange Grove, the little girl would tie it around her forehead to help, afraid that sweat would run into her eyes and sting them, making the brother who adored her worry.]
That day, Xia Nuo fell silent for a long while, then slapped himself twice more.
I'm horrible!
Before you continue