Marineford Calendar Year 1496.
Goat Island, located in the first half of the Grand Line.
The Straw Hat Crew would stop here for a few days in the future.
It was an island rich in mountains and forests. Suddenly, a beast's roar rang out from deep within the forest, sending flocks of birds flying into the sky.
A huge, tattooed tiger, seven or eight meters long, came charging out in panic, shaking the forest as it kicked up dirt and bared its fangs. As if some primordial beast were on its heels, it wailed and fled with its tail between its legs.
"Still running!"
Sunlight streamed through the lush branches. A golden little figure suddenly appeared, covering three meters in the blink of an eye before materializing out of nowhere and kicking the tiger in the backside.
With a wail, the tattooed tiger shot through the air, scattering dirt and grass. It rolled like a ball before crashing beneath a giant tree, then scrambled to its feet on all fours, baring its teeth. Its face should have looked mighty and savage, but now it had lost all the dignity of the forest king and wore an expression of pleading grievance instead.
"You seem to have gotten thinner lately!"
The golden little figure approached. Gaia Chaos looked down at the tiger with disdain.
Year after year, three years had passed since his transmigration, and he had been in this world for that long.
When he first transmigrated, he had stayed calm.
After all, every month, over a million people in the global village got handed a protagonist's script and set off on the road to godhood, crushing every enemy in the world and eventually sitting upon a throne that others could only look up to.
It was practically the story of a great comeback.
Transmigration was just a job. Aside from a little excitement and novelty at first, it soon became ordinary and lost its appeal.
He had transmigrated in Marineford Calendar Year 1493. A little early!
That year, Sakazuki and Borsalino had only recently joined the Navy.
That year, Doflamingo, Born to be King, would kill his father to prove himself.
That year, the World's Most Beautiful Woman, Boa Hancock, had only just been born.
In other words, Kuzan hadn't joined the Navy yet, Gol D. Roger hadn't become the Pirate King, and the current Fleet Admiral was Steel Bone Kong. The future Four Emperors and Shichibukai were just beginning to make names for themselves—or were still innocent, adorable children.
As for Monkey D. Luffy, the man who would become the Pirate King, he might still be a liquid.
This was the era of the legendary powerhouses of the future.
It was practically a riot of monsters!
As one of many Chosen Ones, Chaos had received the most basic golden-finger perk.
It was just the kind that had become so common it was practically everywhere—in fact, the basic perk every Chosen One had.
First: he automatically knew the Pirate King's language and script.
Second: transmigration had given his talent, soul, body, and so on a second growth spurt.
It was like going from mediocre to a genius all at once.
And that was it.
Yep. Chaos hadn't believed it at first, but three years had passed.
Life still had to go on!
Still, Chaos had gotten off to a dreamlike start—or he could call it good luck!
When he first transmigrated, he'd been holding in his pee, so he found a random spot to relieve himself. Halfway through, after relaxing, he spotted something golden, covered in strange curling patterns. It looked incredibly familiar.
Chaos's heart skipped a beat.
He forced himself to stop peeing, picked it up without caring that it was dirty, and noticed it smelled like urine!
A golden Devil Fruit. At a glance, it looked like the Logia-type Glint-Glint Fruit!
He'd started at the peak.
He had never eaten shit before, but as the Devil Fruit went down, Chaos felt like he'd taken the first step of his life. Shit would've tasted better than that thing!
Before long, his face turned green.
This wasn't the Glint-Glint Fruit he wanted.
It was the Paramecia-type Gold-Gold Fruit.
It was the Devil Fruit of Gild Tesoro, the Golden Emperor from the movie. He had intercepted it before Tesoro could get it.
But after his disappointment, Chaos got excited again.
His dream from his previous life could come true in this one!
The Pirate King and the Marine King were lame. Wasn't becoming the richest man in the world much better?
If something could be solved with money, was it even a problem?
If someone rubbed him the wrong way, he could put a bounty of tens of billions on their head. There'd be no shortage of people willing to do his bidding.
In this corrupt, lawless world, he could manipulate everything with money.
Then, after getting excited, Chaos calmed down.
Considering his current situation and the fact that he was weak as hell, he decided to lie low for a few years first.
And those few years of lying low had stretched into three!
He'd stayed on this island the whole time. Even when merchant ships and pirates showed up, he had no intention of leaving.
He'd decided to get strong enough to protect himself before heading out to make a splash—and make it a very flashy one!
Everyone had a protagonist's script, so he had to talk big and go wild. Otherwise, how could he do right by Heaven and Earth?
He was destined to be King of B!
"Roar~"
Humanlike anger and resentment showed in the tattooed tiger's eyes as it stared at those golden eyes and slowly backed away.
Ever since it had met this human three years ago, its carefree days had been gone for good.
Its standard of living had plummeted to that of a pauper.
Rain or shine, this guy always came to find it. At first, it had chased him around, but somehow, little by little, the tables had turned, and it was the one being chased.
After that, its spirits had sunk, and its tiger life had gone downhill.
The only consolation was that two other guys were going through it with him.
The lion next door with the singed mane, for example, and the armored crocodile in the biggest river.
Once upon a time, the three of them had divided the entire mountain range between them. They had been the undisputed overlords of the forest.
But now, every day was a living hell.
"Bite!"
Chaos held out his golden arm, deliberately bringing it up to the tiger's gaping maw.
Staring at the golden arm before it, the tattooed tiger looked humiliated. It opened its jaws and sank its sharp teeth into the arm, full of resentment.
"Use some force."
Chaos was a little dissatisfied. The tiger hadn't even left a tooth mark. Its bite force was disappointing; it used to be able to hurt him.
"Roar~"
The tattooed tiger put every bit of strength it had into its bite and wailed. It really wanted to kill the guy, but he was just too hard!
"Useless. And you call yourself the king of the forest."
After a while, Chaos looked at his golden arm. There wasn't so much as a mark on it. He wiped the tiger's saliva on its brownish-yellow fur with black stripes, then flipped up onto its neck and looked at his golden hands. His hair, eyes, and every part of his body had now turned to gold.
Over the past three years, he had run, done push-ups, sit-ups, and other exercises every day, come rain or shine. With years of training, he was now beyond human. On top of that, transmigration had improved his soul, talent, and physique. Now, he had a little ability to protect himself.
He had also developed the Gold-Gold Fruit to a certain extent.
He could temporarily turn his body into gold, greatly increasing his defense.
The little tiger beneath him could easily snap a half-meter-thick tree with its jaws and even crush rocks. But now, it couldn't leave a tooth mark on Chaos.
That showed just how strong Chaos's defense was.
He could also sense the presence of gold within a certain range.
Aside from strengthening his body and developing the Gold-Gold Fruit, Chaos had another unexpected gain over the past three years.
That was one of the Six Powers: Soru.
Three months ago, he'd trained blindly and somehow managed to learn Soru.
Anyone who had watched One Piece knew about the Six Powers.
Before you continue