Seems... Not Too Bad

"So this is... the price..."

Rayne panted heavily. The sudden strength that had appeared out of nowhere had now turned into a burning emptiness in his stomach.

He struggled to his feet and instinctively rushed to the small storage cabinet in the room, rummaging through it frantically.

The result was despairing.

Aside from a slightly damp piece of black bread and half a jug of cold water, it was completely empty.

Rayne could not care about anything else now. Washing it down with cold water, he swallowed the piece of black bread—hard enough to be used as a brick—in two or three bites.

The dry, hard bread barely lined his stomach, but that terrifying hunger only became more obvious.

"No, this is nowhere near enough..."

Rayne glanced at the clock on the wall. The hands pointed to five-thirty in the afternoon.

In his memories, dinner at the Marine base cafeteria started at six.

At six-thirty in the evening, when the dinner rush in the cafeteria had gradually passed and people had become sparse, Rayne finally emerged from the barracks with his head lowered.

He skillfully got his meal from the serving window—a ladleful of unidentifiable mushy vegetable stew, two dry, hard pieces of black bread that could be used as weapons, and a bowl of egg-drop soup clear enough to see the bottom.

Holding his tray, Rayne swept his gaze across the noisy cafeteria. Most of the long tables had people sitting around them in twos and threes, but one table by the window stood completely empty.

Expressionless, he walked over and sat down alone. The chatter and laughter around him seemed to hit a mute button the instant he took his seat, falling silent for a moment before resuming even louder than before.

Rayne turned a deaf ear to it. His only thought now was to fill the bottomless pit that was his stomach.

At an astonishing speed, he shoveled the indescribably awful food into his mouth.

Yet within his own consciousness, all his attention was focused on the blue screen only he could see.

"I see... Overall Level is divided using rankings like N, R, SR, SSR, UR, and LR? Isn't this just some weird mobile game system?"

A few minutes later, the heaping tray of food had been wiped clean.

He calmly stood up, took his tray to the return station, then got another identical serving under the cook's astonished gaze before returning to his corner.

As he wolfed down the food, he rapidly digested the system's information.

[Overall Level]: the system's assessment of a judged person's strength at their peak. From low to high, it is divided into N (Normal), R (Rare), SR (Super Rare), SSR (Extremely Rare), UR (Ultimate Rare), and the LR (Legendary) rank that exists only in theory.

"That's pretty detailed, but I'm probably just a weakling right now... It's too early to think about that."

As he continued looking into it, Rayne discovered the system's general rules: whether it was [Physique Realm], or the [Skills] and [Haki] he might master in the future, the system used one unified and clear five-tier grading standard.

From low to high, they were: [Beginner], [Intermediate], [Advanced], [Top-tier], and [Peak].

Above those five distinct tiers, he saw another realm displayed in gray that could not be inspected, showing only three question marks: [???].

"There's an even higher realm beyond Peak..."

"I'm only at Beginner right now. It looks like that small amount of physique inheritance earlier merely allowed me to barely touch the threshold the system could recognize."

As for the 120 Sin Points, after searching through the system for quite a while, he finally found a grayed-out [Exchange Shop] icon. When he touched it with his mind, a line of small text appeared: [No access permission at present].

"Why is this system being so mysterious? It's my own system, yet I don't have permission? Forget it, I won't think about it."

When Rayne put down his fifth empty tray, the terrifying hunger that seemed ready to devour his insides was finally suppressed.

"The stuff the cafeteria makes is basically pig feed," Rayne judged inwardly with a frown. "Still, I survived."

As he walked back to the dormitory along the stone-paved path, the salty sea breeze blew toward him, carrying the chill of night.

The searchlights atop the towering watchtowers swept across every corner of the base and the distant sea again and again.

All of it gave Rayne an unreal sense of detachment. He tugged at his collar and quickened his pace back.

Lying once more on his narrow single bed with his hands beneath his head, Rayne began seriously planning his future.

"First, the goal is clear: lay low, then get stronger."

"The way to get stronger is to use my current identity to keep executing criminals and gain abilities through the system. That's the core of it."

"Physique, skills, Haki... I can gain all of them through the system. As long as I execute enough criminals, strong enough criminals..."

At that thought, Rayne's train of thought abruptly froze.

An idea, like lightning splitting the night sky, struck his mind in an instant!

"Wait... This place is..."

"Loguetown!"

"The 'town of the beginning and the end'—Loguetown!"

"Doesn't that mean..."

Rayne suddenly sat up in bed. His heart pounded uncontrollably, and all the blood in his body seemed to boil at that very moment!

"The One Piece! Gol D. Roger! He was executed right here!"

The thought instantly made his whole body tingle with excitement!

That was a being at the absolute pinnacle of the entire One Piece world! If he could execute him himself, what kind of terrifying reward would he receive?! Would he rise to the top in one step? Become invincible right away?!

But the next second, Rayne forced himself to calm down and began recalling that vague part of the story.

"No... I need to confirm the time first. Roger seemed to have been executed in 1498, but what month and day exactly? The manga didn't seem to make that very clear?"

"What month is it now? The newspaper... The date on the newspaper was..." Rayne recalled carefully. "It seemed to be March."

He began desperately digging through the memory fragments of this body's original owner, but the memories of a fifteen-year-old enlisted boy who had been ostracized contained nothing but training, bullying, and execution grounds. He found no memories concerning the "One Piece" or Roger's execution.

"There aren't any memories of Roger already starting the Great Pirate Era... That means he definitely hasn't been executed yet!"

"In other words, I'm still in time!"

Rayne's breathing became scorching hot.

"As long as I quietly lie low here and wait for that day..."

"Won't I take off just like that?!"

He clenched his fists tightly, feeling the strength in his body. Just a [Beginner] physique was already countless times stronger than the body his past life had hollowed out with alcohol and sleepless nights.

Rayne suddenly smiled in relief.

"Even though I transmigrated to this hellhole..."

He touched his thick hair.

"At least I became more than ten years younger, and even my hairline is healthier."

He recalled the face he had seen in the sewage reflection during the day.

"And I'm pretty handsome, too."

"On top of that, I started out as a Marine. Before my wings are fully grown, I have stable protection."

"Thinking about it that way... it seems I'm not really losing out?"