The Pirate World

Year 1498 of the Circular Calendar, West Blue, early morning.

A gull held a newspaper in its beak, soaring freely through the clear blue sky. It spread its wings, slowly drifting and dipping across the vast sea of clouds, its pristine white feathers blending seamlessly with the mist.

At last, it folded its wings and plunged downward like a bright streak of light, dropping through the clouds, through the endless sky, and through the dim veil of night to dive straight into the boundless ocean below.

Ohara Island sat in solitary quiet upon the open expanse of the sea. Dawn was just beginning to break at that moment, casting the deep and shallow silhouettes of the coastline into relief.

The gull flapped its wings, flying toward the island and sweeping past the shore with the sea breeze to fly over the forest canopy on the island's eastern side.

Following its trained route, it was responsible for delivering the latest newspapers to the residential area on the eastern coast.

Just as it flew low over the dense forest, a sudden change occurred.

A stone shot out from the jungle, striking the gull's soft belly dead center in the air.

The force was not great, but it was just enough to startle the gull.

Panic-stricken, the gull released the newspaper in its beak, circled once in the air, and flew back the way it came.

A young boy sprinted through the jungle!

He leaped forward, his slender body agile and nimble as he cleared the bushes with ease.

With a few strides, using the force of his feet kicking against a tree trunk, he easily climbed up onto a branch several meters high.

He caught the newspaper falling from the air and spread it flat across the thick tree branch.

The rolled-up newspaper was entirely in black and white without color, and when spread flat, the large, bold headlines were shocking.

"King of the Pirates Gold Roger surrenders! The government announces his execution in seven days!"

That day had finally arrived as scheduled.

Ye Qiong sighed inwardly, sitting cross-legged on the tree branch and patiently reading through the contents of the newspaper.

No one could have anticipated that the man most hated and hunted by the government as an peerless powerhouse—the man recently recognized by all pirates as the King of the Pirates—Gol D. Roger (his true name; the World Government concealed information regarding the D. clan, thus altering it to Gold) would go to surrender!

This was a momentous event capable of shocking the world and altering the balance of global powers!

Even the Marines, having just received the news, must have found it hard to believe that Roger, an absolute powerhouse capable of conquering the oceans, would walk right into a trap and choose to surrender.

Yet Ye Qiong knew. Everything—this boy of only eight full years knew it all.

Gol D. Roger was certainly not dying as a loser! He simply intended to use himself as a cog to drive the wheels of history, dying without a single regret!

Before his surrender, Roger was already suffering from an incurable disease. Before death claimed him, he merely wanted to use his identity as the King of the Pirates to try and change this era!

That was why he went to surrender, choosing to die upon the stage of the entire world, under the gaze of everyone!

"Roger, you truly live up to the name of a generation's King of the Pirates." Ye Qiong murmured a soft sigh.

A brand-new era was about to arrive! This was the best of times, and it was the worst of times!

The World Government towered over all rivals! The Yonko carved up the New World! The Shichibukai guarded the seas! The Revolutionary Army stirred up turmoil!

Countless conflicts would sweep across the land, and no one would be spared.

Only by possessing strength can one survive in this chaotic era and world of power!

Ye Qiong clenched his fists.

He cared not who ruled the seas, nor whose territory it was.

If others did not offend him, he would not offend them; if others offended him, he would repay them tenfold!

Beneath the sea cliffs, the waves surged.

Beyond the dense forest-covered eastern shore lay a stretch of coastal stone cliffs, within which a square stone alcove could hold about ten people.

This was Ye Qiong's training ground for the past three years.

Dressed only in shorts with his upper body bare and a boulder strapped to his back, he lay face down on the ground with his palms pressed flat against the stone wall, his arms rapidly moving up and down as his muscles bulged and rippled in rhythm.

One thousand weighted push-ups, a fairly comprehensive training method.

Ye Qiong was only eight years old, yet his body was already taller and stronger than that of an eleven- or twelve-year-old child. His robust physique gleamed with a jewel-like luster in the sunlight, strands of dragon-like muscles contained formidable power, and his slender frame lacked any bloated flesh or a single ounce of fat.

Perhaps no one would have imagined that a child of his age could possess such a robust physique. Though relatively lean, it showed hints of developing toward a perfect form.

This was largely thanks to his relentless and grueling training over the past three years: carrying boulders, hauling large trees, fighting wild beasts—all sorts of terrifying, inhuman training methods were pulled out in endless succession.

Yet what shocked even him, a former special forces soldier, was that his body had completely endured it all.

The shackles of the human body were a joke in this pirate world. Perhaps upon coming to this world, his body had adapted in tandem with the local power system.

Through training, every single day he could feel his strength growing bit by bit.

Unlocking the treasury of the human body granted him unimaginable power!

Take his current eight-year-old body, for instance, after merely three years of cultivation: using all his might, a single punch could unleash over a thousand catties of force!

A punch of a thousand catties could beat a bull to death!

What kind of concept was that? One had to know that the boxing champion Tyson from his past life only delivered a punch force of around 50 kilograms.

Boxing experts who had trained could generally strike with a force equal to one to two times their own body weight. For someone like Ye Qiong, whose body weight was only thirty kilograms, to throw a punch exceeding a thousand catties was absolute inhumanity!

Ye Qiong did not pride himself on this. Did he not know that Garp could split an island with a single punch?! Did he not know that Whitebeard could shatter the firmament with a single slash?!

In this world, even sheer physical technique alone, taken to its absolute limit, can make someone a match for ten thousand!

Massive marine creatures like Sea Kings, those were mere shrimp living in the middle and lower layers of the power pyramid, not worth mentioning at all.

Though he lacked this world's martial arts guidance, Ye Qiong followed the physical training routines of a special forces soldier from his past life, building upon and refining them until he gradually grasped the corresponding methods.

After three years of training and honing, his skin was tanned a wheatish color, and after finishing a set of thousands of push-ups, he would be drenched in sweat, dampening the stone ground.

In the end, he was left with aching muscles and gasping for breath, sprawling out flat in a star shape upon the stone.

Three years of time, and I've successfully practiced the Vajra Body to the mid-stage of the first layer.

Ye Qiong's eyes were full of radiance. The Vajra Body was an ancient martial art he had learned after becoming a special forces team captain in his past life.

Back in his peak days of the previous life, it had taken him over a decade just to reach the intermediate stage of the first layer, yet that alone was enough to make him a king among soldiers on the battlefield.

Now, at only eight years of age with a body not yet fully developed, he had already reached the peak standard of his past life. This was the reason he remained so utterly confident even in this world of fierce competitors like the sea.

Consummation of the Vajra Body First Layer brought body strength to the point of being impervious to swords and spears!

Consummation of the Vajra Body Second Layer made the body immune to water and fire!

Consummation of the Vajra Body Third Layer supposedly rendered the physical body undying and indestructible!

Although undying and indestructible sounded a bit exaggerated, Ye Qiong believed that by cultivating the Vajra Body, he could definitely become a peak powerhouse in physical techniques.

If he could, he actually wanted to stay on this island until he was sixteen, training the Vajra Body to the second layer before leaving.

However, this island...

"Ye Qiong."

A crisp, childish call broke his train of thought.

Ye Qiong opened his eyes. Reflected in his gaze was a cute purple-haired girl dressed in a deep blue long dress, carrying a bag in her hands.

"Robin, how do you dare run all the way out here by yourself?"

"This isn't your turf, why shouldn't I be able to come?" Robin said huffily, tossing the bag straight at his face before sitting down beside him.

"That hurts, you know."

"You don't feel pain when you're being crushed by stones?!"

This girl...

Ye Qiong was left speechless. He got up and opened the bag, finding it packed full of all sorts of miscellaneous snacks.

A warmth welled up in his heart, and he no longer had the heart to say anything harsh.

When all was said and forth, the girl meant well and had deliberately brought him snacks.

"Let me know ahead of time when you come next time, and I'll go pick you up." Ye Qiong tore open the packaging and popped a biscuit into his mouth.

"No way, I'm not that weak!" Robin turned her back to him, refuting him coldly.

A six-year-old loli, worried she'll run into a perverted uncle! Ye Qiong chewed on the biscuit, crunch, crunch.

"I don't need you to mind my business!"

This girl, you couldn't tell from the original story, but she was quite the tsundere.

"Do you want to eat a lollipop from big brother?" Ye Qiong held up a lollipop with a dog on the wrapper, dangling it before her eyes.

"Pervert! This was mine to begin with." Robin snatched the candy away.

Ye Qiong looked at Robin, who was putting on a proud front that only made her look cuter, and couldn't help smiling slightly.

He didn't know if it was fate, but on this familiar yet unfamiliar island, the brat he had inadvertently saved from a group of bullies turned out to be none of us than Nico Robin.

The sharp-tongued, cool beauty who would one day become a member of the Straw Hat Pirates.

Ye Qiong also knew the reason she was bullied: it was simply because she had accidentally eaten the Paramecia Flower-Flower Fruit, gaining the ability of the Flower-Flower Fruit to sprout limbs from any surface of her body.

Those brats didn't understand anything and thought she was a monster or a demon, so they banded together to hunt her down.

Robin had seen Ye Qiong rescue her and wasn't afraid of her ability, and from then on, a deep curiosity toward Ye Qiong took root in her.

After a few visits back and forth, they grew close.

"Why do you torture yourself? And even self-harm?" Robin turned her head back to look at him, wearing the expression of a curious child.

Three bolded black lines popped up on Ye Qiong's forehead.

Damn it!

So in her eyes, his physical training and cultivation counted as self-harm!

"I'm practicing martial arts here, I can get stronger." Ye Qiong clenched his fists together, his knuckles cracking with a flurry of pops.

"What's the use of getting stronger?" Robin glanced at him sideways. To her, only knowledge was the greatest wealth of mankind.

"Lass, you have to get stronger so you can protect the people you want to protect and do the things you want to do!" Ye Qiong reached out and patted her head.

Ah, her hair was extremely smooth and soft.

"Ye Qiong! You messed up my hair!"

"Oh oh, did I?"

Ye Qiong smiled sheepishly and withdrew his hand, though his eyes flashed with a complex expression.

Robin was already six years old this year. If the original timeline remained unchanged, two years from now, when she turned eight, this island—Ohara Island—would be completely and utterly erased from the map!

Two years later, what awaited him was the horrifying Buster Call!

Five vice admirals, one rear admiral, nearly ten thousand elite marines, and the high-end combat power of ten top-tier warships!

The Buster Call represented the World Government's absolute and fatal order, completely eradicating everything and everyone in a region deemed a threat to the World Government's rule.

Which meant not leaving a single living soul, a indiscriminate destructive blow that would bombard the island right along with them!

At the very thought of this, a heavy sense of powerlessness welled up inside Ye Qiong.

So powerless! Facing that kind of high-end combat power, his current self was truly too powerless.

If he didn't flee at this moment, whether he could leave this island alive two years later remained uncertain.

"Ye Qiong, if one day I encounter danger again, will you save me?" Robin didn't turn back, simply gazing calmly at the boundless, azure sea before her.

Ye Qiong said nothing.

Robin fell silent too, her heart sinking bit by bit, as if soaked in seawater, breeding a chilling sensation.

After a long while, Ye Qiong clenched his fist and struck a stone, almost punching clean through the rock beneath.

Robin hastily turned around, only to lock eyes with that pair of shockingly bright eyes.

"Of course! You're my very first friend in this world, I will definitely protect you!" Ye Qiong's tone was resolute, his gaze unshakeable.

Wasn't there still two years left? If he was going to worry too much just because he knew too much, he would rather know nothing at all!

Get stronger! Young man!

Ye Qiong was brimming with fighting spirit.