Zero Variable Awakens

"Get lost! I just got transmigrated—I'm not dying in a wild boar's mouth!"

Su Hang clenched the stone in his hand.

The boar's tusks snapped through the brush, and a reeking gust rushed straight at his face.

His eighteen-year-old body looked healthy enough, but his empty stomach ached with hunger, and his legs were weak from being soaked in seawater.

Behind him was the sea.

Before him was a boar that could skewer a man clean through.

The enormous windmill in the distance and the red ship docked at the harbor had already given Su Hang the answer.

The pirate world, Windmill Village.

The Red-Haired Pirates were staying here.

Luffy was seven this year, with ten years left until his planned voyage.

But none of that had anything to do with Su Hang right now.

He had no Beli, no weapon, and no identity.

Forget the Grand Line—even a beast outside the village could take his life.

The boar charged again.

Su Hang rolled aside, slamming the stone hard into its eye socket.

The boar jerked its head away in pain. Its tusk grazed his shoulder and tore a gash in his clothes.

"Come again."

Su Hang grabbed a second stone and lowered his body.

"If you dare charge, I'll gouge out your other eye."

The boar pawed at the sand twice before finally retreating into the woods, blood and tears trailing behind it.

Su Hang did not pursue it.

Fighting a beast to the death on an empty stomach was just delivering himself as meat.

Just then, an icy voice drilled into his mind.

"An otherworldly soul has been detected."

"Host Su Hang meets the criteria for the Zero Variable."

"Myriad Worlds Fusion System activated."

A translucent screen unfolded, blocking half the sea.

Su Hang's breathing stalled. Then he raised his hand and touched it.

His fingertips passed through the screen, but no power entered his body.

"What can you give me, System?"

"This system possesses the functions of Fortune Perception, Opportunity Interception Determination, Perfect Fusion, and Law Modularization."

"Speak plainly."

"The host can sense opportunities that influence the course of an era. After personally changing critical causality, the gains obtained through interception can be converted into fusion modules."

Su Hang rubbed the knuckle of his index finger.

"What about a starter gift pack?"

"None."

"An invincible cultivation level?"

"None."

"A way to survive?"

"None."

Su Hang stared at the screen, his face darkening.

"So if that boar comes back, I'll still die?"

"Yes."

The blunt answer was infuriating.

New words continued appearing.

"Fortune Perception provides only vague directions and does not directly identify targets."

"Once the designated recipient completes their destined cycle, interception becomes invalid."

"Perfect Fusion can eliminate most rejection reactions, but cannot eliminate the price inherent to the power itself."

"The host remains subject to the limitations of seawater, Seastone, and physical stamina."

"Forcibly fusing high-tier powers may result in physical collapse or loss of control over one's personality."

Su Hang fixed his gaze on the final line.

"An otherworldly soul sounds pretty impressive."

"Assessment result: The host is a Zero Variable and is not entirely bound by this world's predetermined causality."

"The price?"

"Every alteration to a high-weight destiny will trigger world correction. The greater the alteration, the stronger the correction."

The waves rolled onto the beach and washed over Su Hang's shoes.

Merely touching this small amount of seawater caused no abnormality.

But once he ate a Devil Fruit, the sea before him would become his natural enemy.

The system had not erased the risks for him, nor did it intend to hand out power for free.

If he wanted to live, he could only take it.

Su Hang closed the interface and headed toward the village.

Windmill Village was small, but more than a dozen empty barrels were piled outside the tavern.

The laughter of the Red-Haired Pirates could be heard even through the wooden door.

The scent of meat wafted out through the cracks.

Su Hang pushed the door open and entered.

"If you don't have money, you can't run up another tab today!"

Behind the bar, Makino held down a plate of roasted meat.

The little boy sitting on the barstool stretched out his arms, nearly burying his face in the plate.

"Shanks will pay!"

Luffy hugged the edge of the plate and refused to let go.

"I never agreed to that."

Shanks held up his wine glass, smiling without a shred of burden.

"You're a pirate. How can you be so stingy?"

"A pirate's money can't support a bottomless pit either."

The tavern erupted in laughter.

Su Hang stopped by the door, his gaze swiftly sweeping over everyone.

Red hair, three scars over his eye, and his left arm was still intact.

The timing matched perfectly.

Shanks turned his head, his gaze falling on Su Hang's torn shoulder.

"A new face. Did you crawl out of the sea?"

"I almost died in the sea."

Su Hang walked up to the bar.

Makino looked at his wet clothes, then at his wound.

"You're hurt?"

"Just a scrape. Give me a meal, and I'll move all the barrels outside for you."

"Eat first."

"Makino, he doesn't have any money!"

Luffy's eyes widened.

Su Hang picked up a piece of bread and bit off more than half of it.

"That's why I'll work."

"Then can you beat pirates?"

"Not while I'm hungry. I couldn't even beat you."

Luffy quickly shielded the roasted meat.

"This is mine!"

"A seven-year-old eating that much? Aren't you afraid of bursting to death?"

"I won't die! I'm going to become the Pirate King!"

The laughter in the tavern grew louder.

But Su Hang had confirmed the last piece of information.

Seven-year-old Luffy.

Red-Hair had only just returned from his voyage.

The fruit the World Government had pursued for eight hundred years was most likely in the village at this very moment.

Shanks swirled his wine glass.

"You know me?"

"That pirate flag at the harbor is hard to miss."

"You saw pirates and still dared to come in?"

"There's no food outside."

Su Hang swallowed the bread and raised his eyes to meet Shanks's gaze.

"Besides, if you wanted to kill me, you wouldn't need to wait for me to walk through the door."

The smile on Shanks's face faded slightly.

Lucky Roux tore off a huge piece of meat and looked over while eating.

"You've got guts."

"Those without guts already starved to death on the beach."

Makino pushed a bowl of hot soup toward Su Hang.

"Eat slowly. Red-Hair and his men won't hurt villagers."

"Hey, Makino, don't make pirates sound so nice."

Shanks complained with his mouth, but his gaze remained fixed on Su Hang.

Su Hang did not probe any further.

Right now, he could not even defeat the weakest pirate in the tavern.

Knowing the plot did not mean he possessed power, and the Red-Haired Pirates would never hand an opportunity over just because he was a transmigrator.

He had just finished the bread when his vision suddenly trembled.

A faint dark-gold glimmer lit up deep within the tavern.

It was very blurry.

It flickered in and out of sight.

The system interface unfolded on its own.

"An opportunity of extremely high weight has been detected."

"This opportunity is sufficient to alter the course of the world's era."

Holding his soup bowl, Su Hang followed the glowing point with his eyes.

A wooden box sat beside a table leg.

The box was small, its corners reinforced with copper. Fresh scratches marked the clasp.

Lucky Roux sat beside it, the tip of his boot less than half a foot from the lid.

Luffy had clearly noticed it too.

"Shanks, what did you bring back this time?"

"A secret."

"Let me see!"

"No."

Luffy had barely jumped down from his chair when Makino reached out to stop him.

"Don't touch it carelessly. That's the Devil Fruit Shanks brought back. I heard that after eating it, your body turns into rubber."

The dark-gold point abruptly contracted, firmly locking onto the center of the wooden box.

Su Hang's fingers froze on the rim of his bowl.

The Mythical Zoan that the World Government had spent eight hundred years pursuing, yet had never truly managed to control.

The Sun God Power that, ten years from now, would carry Luffy to the top of the world.

At this moment, it was only a dozen steps away from him.

Su Hang raised his head, his gaze passing over Shanks and falling on that unremarkable wooden box.

"That box contains the Gum-Gum Fruit."