Darren woke up in a soft, spacious bed.
He had a high, straight nose, eyes as deep as the stars, brows sharp as sword blades, and short, tousled black hair that gave him a carefree, unruly air.
He slowly rose from the bed. His bare upper body was covered in all kinds of fearsome scars, and his rugged muscles lent him a wild edge.
All in all, he was just plain handsome.
"Lord Darren, are you awake?"
A sultry, honeyed voice came from beneath the soft blankets.
A mature face, tender as water, emerged from under the covers. The curves of the figure beneath them were too scandalous to describe.
The woman gazed seductively at the tall man standing before the floor-to-ceiling windows, her eyes glistening. Her expression brimmed with the satisfaction of having been conquered.
She had never seen a man so perfect—wild, domineering, and untamed.
Because her husband was fond of men, last night had been her first time. Yet the man before her had given her pleasure beyond anything she could have imagined.
Darren walked over to the window, picked up a fine cigar from the crystal coffee table, and lit it. After taking a deep drag, he smiled and said:
"Mm. Go back to sleep, darling."
He called her darling, but she was no more than a passing acquaintance in Darren's long history of seduction.
He would soon forget her.
Though the noblewoman had certainly been a delight.
Darren casually threw on a loose white shirt, leaving his chest exposed. He poured himself a glass of whiskey, picked up the latest newspaper, and began flipping through it as he drank.
"'World Destroyer' Byrnndi World sinks a World Government ship! The Celestial Dragons are enraged! Bounty raised to 200 million Beli! The World Pirates may become the government's greatest threat!"
"Great Pirate Roger sets sail again!! His latest whereabouts: the weakest sea, East Blue!!"
"Great Pirate Golden Lion Shiki recruits in the New World, hoping to assemble the largest pirate fleet in history!!"
"Great Pirates Kaido and Charlotte Linlin clash in the New World, leveling a small island!!"
"..."
One shocking headline after another stared back at Darren, and his eyes narrowed unconsciously.
"This era sure is lively..."
He slowly folded the newspaper, took a sip of whiskey, and lit a premium cigar patterned with gold foil.
The rich tobacco smoke stung his throat and cleared his head, drawing him into thought.
That was right. Darren was a transmigrator.
Unlike other transmigrators, he had no system or cheat marking him as the chosen one. His only advantage was that, after his soul merged with this body, he could sense and control it far more precisely than an ordinary person.
He had transmigrated into this pirate world five years ago. Starting as the lowest-ranking Marine private, he had struggled his way up to where he was today.
Though it lay beyond the Grand Line, North Blue was the most chaotic and savage of the four seas, and the most rife with filth and corruption.
It had none of East Blue, the "weakest sea," and its peace,
none of West Blue's prosperity and flourishing trade,
none of South Blue's stability and sparse population...
North Blue was rife with Mafia shootouts, underground factions battling for power, endless wars between kingdoms, and rampant piracy...
All of this made North Blue a nightmare for the countless Marines sent to govern it.
From an ordinary Marine to the commander of Branch 321, and now on the verge of receiving a commendation from Headquarters, Darren had been through countless brushes with death and political schemes... Even he could hardly remember them all.
The scars covering his body were proof enough.
Knowing just how hard he had fought to get here, Darren had adopted an utterly unrestrained approach to life.
After all, it was the year 1492 of the Sea Circle Calendar!
The God Valley battle had ended several years ago, and the entire world order was in turmoil—
Roger had yet to complete his great voyage and become the legendary Pirate King;
Golden Lion had yet to go to Marineford and get himself killed, and was still dreaming of ruling the seas;
Whitebeard was still roaming the oceans, collecting sons, his golden hair as thick as ever;
Kaido had yet to become the famous "Cute Teacher" of later generations, and still had a hard head, occasionally trying to get the Marines to kill him;
Charlotte Linlin had yet to become a steel balloon like "BIG MOM," a veritable mountain of flesh. She still had a fine figure and was searching the seas for suitable stallions;
Red-Haired was still an apprentice, Buggy had yet to become an Emperor, and Monkey D. Luffy had not even been born...
This was an era without the balance of the Four Emperors dividing the New World, and without the Shichibukai system. All it had was chaos and bloodshed!
In an age when the whole world was ravaged by pirates,
when great pirates and ambitious warlords roamed everywhere,
even the Marines—a profession many transmigrators before him considered ideal for keeping a low profile while growing stronger—
risked their lives every day.
Darren couldn't say when he might die in the fighting, so of course he wanted to make the most of his life.
After transmigrating all this way, he was going to live it to the fullest!
Even as a Marine, he wasn't going to be some miserable grunt.
He would drink the finest liquor, smoke the strongest tobacco, and sleep with the most beautiful women!
That was his life philosophy.
Whether people called him depraved or corrupt, that kind of reputation didn't matter at all.
He wasn't a pirate. What did he need a reputation for?
North Blue Marines had never relied on a good reputation to rise through the ranks.
Take his former superiors, Borsalino and Sakazuki, for example. They were also from North Blue.
It wasn't as if they had particularly good reputations.
Yet hadn't they both made it to Headquarters? After graduating from the Officer Training Camp, they had risen steadily through the ranks and become the undisputed "future Marine Admirals" in the eyes of the entire Navy?
Of course, while he might play around, Darren was just as strict about training and improving his strength as he was about choosing women.
With that in mind, he adjusted his breathing and slowly focused, immersing himself in the sensations of his own body.
The soul fusion caused by his transmigration had given him a mysterious talent, allowing him to sense his body with a precision beyond ordinary people's wildest imaginings.
To make it easier to analyze and record, he had spent the past few years exploring this sensation and had managed to quantify it in rough terms. Using numbers as units of measurement and the Admiral Sengoku he had once seen as a point of comparison, he had created a "personal stat sheet."
It seemed unreasonable, but after something as absurd as transmigration, this was easy enough to accept.
Physique: 58.103
Strength: 53.831
Speed: 57.539
Fruit: 71.345
Physique represented the body's defense, vitality, and endurance;
Strength meant pure arm strength, physical power, and explosive force;
Speed meant movement speed and short-distance bursts;
As for Fruit... it measured mastery of one's Devil Fruit.
These stats had a concrete point of comparison, with 100 as the maximum.
For Physique, the comparison was naturally the "Strongest Creature in the World" from the original story: Kaido of the Beasts.
Darren estimated that Kaido's Physique was around 90, given his terrifying defense—one that couldn't be overcome without advanced Ryuo.
"Mm, my Physique really did go up by 0.03."
Darren carefully sensed his body, the corner of his mouth curling into a smile.
An accidental discovery of his had finally been confirmed.
After last night's two-hour "campaign," he had woken up feeling refreshed—and his Physique had indeed improved.
It made perfect sense.
Based on what he had learned about physiology before transmigrating, moderate "exercise" could raise testosterone levels and release a large amount of dopamine, promoting muscle growth.
An increase of 0.03 might not seem like much, but every little bit counted.
Yes, this was the way Darren had discovered, through years of hard work and experimentation, to make use of his "talent."
By sensing his body with precision and receiving feedback as accurate as data, he could find the training methods best suited to his growth and steadily improve his strength!
Just then—
Whoosh!
A flash of sharp swordlight suddenly sliced through the door.
A tall, black-haired beauty strode in, her expression cold and her face full of anger.
"Captain Darren, as the North Blue Admiral-designate, doing... doing something so outrageous inside a Marine Base... This is completely unacceptable!"
Gion glanced at the woman cowering beneath the covers, clutching a famous golden sword. Her eyes nearly blazed with fury as she said something that left Gion's partner behind her dumbfounded:
"This woman is the wife of the governor of Yadis Kingdom!!"
A quick reminder, everyone: this story spans a long period, from Roger's era all the way to the Paramount War. The timeline at the beginning is very early, so many characters are still quite young.
They haven't been through much yet, and they're still immature. Their ways of thinking haven't yet taken the shape we associate with them in the original story.
In this book, you'll see Dragon in his younger days, Gion with her pure commitment to justice, Gion's partner still green and inexperienced, Aokiji still clinging to his "Burning Justice," and Crocodile full of ambition...
But trust me, I know what I'm doing. I'll give every character a proper portrayal, and as time goes on, they'll grow and become more like their original-story selves.
Before you continue