The Beginning of All Nightmares

Sleepy-eyed and needing to pee badly, Ye Chen refused to get up, turning over instead to push through a little longer because he truly did not want to rise.

Suddenly, a foul stench drifted into his nostrils, causing Ye Chen to snap both eyes wide open.

A buzzing, round-headed fly fluttered everywhere, landing on the bridge of Ye Chen's nose and twitching its antennae as if mocking him.

The stench was like being in a sewage ditch or a place piled high with garbage; the odor was so pungent that Ye Chen rolled his eyes, feeling weightless and ascending to heaven.

Just waking up, Ye Chen was still somewhat dazed. Enduring that indescribable smell, he scrambled up and stared at the scene before him, his face turning the deepest shade of green and his pupils dilating.

Where was his Simmons mattress? Where was his bedroom? Why was he sleeping in a pile of garbage?

Glancing across, his vision was filled with all sorts of trash. To a fly, this place was simply paradise, but to Ye Chen, it was hell.

Wait, why was his line of sight so low? It felt somewhat different.

Looking down, he saw his own short legs, the tattered rags he wore, and smelled that intoxicating, life-altering body odor. A wail rose from the garbage heap and echoed all the way to the heavens.

An hour later, in a ruined, dilapidated shack on the outer fringes of Sabaody Archipelago's Groves 1 through 9, not too far from the garbage dump, Ye Chen sat with his back against the wall, feeling utterly hopeless and devoid of emotion in his eyes as he stared blankly into the distance like a fool.

Joy, excitement, thrills, and fear now enveloped Ye Chen's entire body and mind.

He knew he had time-traveled. Inexplicably, without a single warning, he had crossed over.

And what was more, it was the world of One Piece.

At first, Ye Chen had been thrilled, thinking that as long as he ate a Logia Devil Fruit, wouldn't he be able to instantly kill the heavens and the earth and everything in the air?

Wasn't this setting him up to be the destined protagonist? From then on, wouldn't he reach the peak of his life?

As a member of the Singles' Nobility who could not live without a computer, Ye Chen had some understanding of various anime and films. Although he had only watched half of One Piece and planned to let it fatten up before bingeing it, experiencing it firsthand was far more thrilling than watching.

In those few minutes, Ye Chen thought about a great deal, figuring that hanging out with Luffy to eat and wait for death, at worst, would still allow him to become a legend later on.

This was one of his less ambitious thoughts.

However, the reality that followed plunged him into an ice cellar one moment and lifted him onto the clouds the next.

r5. That was right, this skinny body with twigs for arms and legs, only twelve or thirteen years old, was the pathetic small-time villain who would later start out hanging out with the Shichibukai Sand Crocodile, Crocodile, and a character who would be killed in seconds without surviving three episodes.

Booger boy—what a lofty and magnificent title.

A heaven-defying Devil Fruit had ended up as total trash like this. His primary means of attack was a booger. Just ask yourself: were you scared? Did your heart ache? Didn't you want to beat him to death?

From his memories, he learned that the Bomb-Bomb Fruit this guy had eaten was actually dug up from a garbage heap. He hadn't even eaten it for long before dying inexplicably, making way for Ye Chen.

How noble, how full of a spirit of dedication! He was simply a living Bodhisattva!

Unable to wait a moment longer, Ye Chen snapped back to his wits, shook the messy memories from his mind, wore a dead-serious expression, and jammed his thumb straight into his nostril.

Accompanied by a soothing sensation—very nice, it was as big as a fly's head. How the hell was he supposed to breathe like this?

Naturally and smoothly, Ye Chen understood the most basic application of the Bomb-Bomb Fruit. After flicking out the booger, Ye Chen watched without blinking as that lump of booger described a parabola and landed heavily on the ground.

Puff.

A chopstick-thick strand of black smoke rose, followed by a fleeting flash of fire, and then nothing—it was just gone.

Ye Chen, who had originally been hiding behind a crumbling wall with his butt stuck out and craning his neck to look, hung his jaw open and turned into a total idiot.

Where was the promised explosion? Where was the roaring sound? Where was the promised life?

Damn it, such a big lump of booger didn't even make a ripple, just puffed some smoke and flashed a tiny spark? And that was it? Gone? Gone?

It couldn't even compare to the firecrackers he used to play with as a kid. Was this Devil Fruit fake?

Wasn't the Bomb-Bomb Fruit the kind of fruit that went boom-boom, defied the heavens, and was full of art?

Earlier, he had still harbored the luxury of thinking there was nothing in the world that couldn't be solved with one explosion. If one didn't work, then he would just use two.

Damn it, at this rate, no matter how many times he used it, it would be useless! What peak of life? What killing the heavens and earth in seconds? It was all fake!

Stepping out from the broken wall, Ye Chen collected his composure, sat down very seriously, and began to contemplate the meaning of life.

Recalling the memories in his mind: ah, r5 had never known who his parents were since he was a child, and had lived off scavenging in the garbage heap ever since. Very good, nothing wrong with that.

The Devil Fruit he had eaten was indeed the Bomb-Bomb Fruit, because this piece of information was clearly imprinted in Ye Chen's mind. At this moment, Ye Chen was r5, and r5 was Ye Chen, so there wasn't much of a problem there.

It was very perfect, without a single flaw, but this script had some discrepancies!

Calming down, Ye Chen began to think. A few minutes later, he arrived at an answer: any Devil Fruit required development, and it used physical stamina as its driving force.

Right now, Ye Chen's body was only twelve or thirteen years old, sickly and frail. At a single glance, he was clearly malnourished. Forget developing a Devil Fruit; simply staying alive was a problem.

The most urgent task at hand was to solve the issue of food and lodging, otherwise all daydreams and teenage delusions were just floating clouds.

However, what could a twelve or thirteen-year-old do?

The most crucial thing was that his ability was currently in the state of merely sparking a bit of fire. Forget lethal power, even lighting a fire might not be faster than drilling wood to make one.

Time travel wasn't nearly as wonderful as imagined. At least, Ye Chen had encountered a tough problem.

This should be Sabaody Archipelago!

Pulling himself together and looking at the unique scenery of Sabaody Archipelago, Ye Chen made a rough comparison.

Sabaody Archipelago was safe, yet dangerous all the same. After all, there were all sorts of freaks and monsters here. Given his current physique, he'd better not go running around looking for trouble.

First set a goal, for example, eat a full meal first.

Ye Chen clutched his stomach, feeling it completely empty. He had been too excited about crossing over to feel anything earlier, but now that he stopped, the sensation was hitting him hard.

Walking out of the tattered ruins, Ye Chen headed toward the street to see if he could find an opportunity.

Walking and thinking, Ye Chen desperately tried to recall the plot. It seemed, apparently, that a major boss was hidden right here! However, combining it with the age of his own scrawny body, even without knowing the exact timeline, he could roughly guess that Roger probably had not yet become the Pirate King.

As for why r5 appeared on the Sabaody Archipelago and was doing so miserably, Ye Chen had no way of knowing; after all, everyone had a story.

Most importantly, when watching the anime in his past life, he only knew of r5 because of the Bomb-Bomb Fruit. This was a man of great renown, one of those who developed a heaven-defying fruit into a useless grunt. It was hard not to have heard of him!

Explosion? What was an explosion? Anyway, the first thing Ye Chen thought of was a nuclear bomb. Once he got powerful in the future, if he saw anyone displeasing, he would drop a nuclear bomb on them. If one wasn't enough, he would drop two and level them straight to the ground.

Although for now this dream seemed somewhat distant, it couldn't hold back Ye Chen's restless heart!

For a moment, the novelty of crossing over made Ye Chen so overly excited that he forgot what kind of world this was.

Because what one watched and what one experienced firsthand were simply heaven and hell.

Suddenly, a shadow loomed overhead. Before Ye Chen could even struggle, he lost all sensation and fell into unconsciousness.

Before losing consciousness, the sound he heard was a rough, booming roar of laughter, filled with extreme distortion.