Strange Illness and Talent

[I am a zombie who ate the Zombie-Zombie Fruit. I'll help everyone preserve their brains.]

(The protagonist is firmly aligned with the pirates, a Rocks-style pirate. His goal is not the One Piece, but to become king of the world.)

(This book will strictly follow the timeline and preserve the original characterizations. For characters who received little attention in the original, I can only create original characterizations for them. There will be movie and game content as well, but I'll make adjustments when integrating them so they fit reasonably with the main manga storyline.)

(The protagonist's Devil Fruit is the mythical zoan Earth God. Its appearance is based on the Earth God worshipped by the people of Skypiea in the original work.)

(The protagonist's companions' growth will take up a certain amount of space in this book. After all, Rocks brought a whole group of legendary pirates to God Valley. The protagonist can't exactly bring a few hundred-million-berry speed bumps with him, can he? At the very least, they have to be Shichibukai.)

Year 1497 of the Sea Circle Calendar (25 years before the original story)

(PS: The latest SBS announced that the current timeline is Year 1541 of the Sea Circle Calendar, but this book is already 500,000 words long, and revising it would be far too much work. I'll keep that in mind for the next book.)

West Blue, waters near Ohara.

Lead-heavy clouds hung like ink, pressing down upon the sea. The violent wind was like a savage beast, plowing deep trenches of churning white foam across the pitch-black water.

A small sailboat, its hull creaking, battled the apocalyptic waves as it struggled to cut through the ink-dark sea.

"Grandpa..."

Inside the cramped cabin, a silver-haired youth over three meters tall knelt on both knees. He stared at the old man before him with his eyes tightly shut, his aqua-blue eyes brimming with worry.

The old man was tugged back to a sliver of consciousness by the faint call. He struggled to lift his heavy eyelids, his dry, cracked lips moving weakly.

"Don't worry... Adams... I... I'm fine... What matters now... is figuring out what's wrong with your body... My scholar friends... will definitely find a way."

Every word came out with tremendous effort. His aged body trembled as he spoke, like the last candle flame in the wind.

Adams said nothing. He merely shifted his massive body in silence, allowing his grandfather's weightless hand to easily grasp one of his thick fingers.

His other giant hand clumsily and stubbornly pulled up the slipping thin blanket, futilely trying to wrap that meager warmth more tightly around him.

That tiny gesture laid bare the bewilderment and dependence buried deep within him, like that of a wounded young beast.

His grandmother had died early, and he had never met her. After his parents had been reduced to ashes in the horrific explosion that swallowed their laboratory and nearly half a block, his grandfather had become his only family in this world.

The hand holding his had once been so strong. It could steadily support his body as they gazed together at the vast stars of summer nights.

Yet now, it was like the last withered leaf clinging to a dead branch in late autumn, trembling faintly in an invisible cold wind, ready to fall away at any moment.

At that thought, Adams could no longer hold back. Two streams of hot tears burst from his eyes. Seeing his grandson like that, the old man did not move, only letting out one sigh after another.

Time stretched unbearably long amid the sound of wind and waves, the boy's sobs, and the old man's sighs.

After an unknown length of torment, a dull scraping sound finally came from beneath the hull. The boat jolted violently. They had reached shore.

Adams hoisted his grandfather onto his back and slowly stepped off the boat, setting foot on Ohara.

Several figures had already been waiting on the shore amid the swaying wind and rain.

The man at their head had clover-shaped hair and a matching beard. He was none other than Dr. Clover, famed throughout the academic world.

The moment he saw the barely breathing figure on Adams's back, his composed face shook violently. Deep shock and grief surged into his sunken eye sockets.

"Old friend, how did you end up like this? Let me examine you first. Maybe some ancient text contains a way to extend your life."

As he spoke, he directed the scholars to carefully place the old man onto a stretcher.

The old man weakly shook his head. The hand not held by Adams rose limply before falling back down, signaling his refusal.

"Life and death... are fated... I've lived... long enough... Don't waste time... on a dying man like me... Help me examine this child first... You know... our whole family studies physics... We haven't accomplished much in biology... I can only ask you."

Hearing his old friend's words, endless bitterness and worry churned in Dr. Clover's heart. He forced his voice to remain steady and spoke helplessly.

"All right. Since you insist, I won't say any more."

Then he took a deep breath of the cold, damp air and turned to Adams.

"Child, come with me."

Adams nodded silently and started walking, heavy-footed yet obedient as he followed the scholars, who carried the rich scent of books and ink, away from the storm-battered dock.

Their destination was the sanctuary of knowledge in West Blue and the entire world: the largest library in the world, the Tree of Knowledge.

The moment he stepped inside the Tree of Knowledge, even someone as enormous and unusual as Adams instinctively felt small.

Beneath the dome lay a truly boundless sea of books. Massive bookshelves rose in layers, while the air held the distinct stale scent of paper accumulated over countless years, mingled with dust and the weighty sighs of passing time.

Adams was led through maze-like corridors lined with endless books. His footsteps echoed hollowly through the silent space. He was brought into a relatively spacious, brightly lit room with a huge oak table and several tall windows.

Several scholars specializing in medicine were already waiting inside, their expressions focused and their faces framed by glasses of all kinds. Their eyes were filled with curiosity as they repeatedly examined Adams's enormous body.

The scholars here were people willing to discard their lives for knowledge. They only wished to explore the unknown, without any personal ambition or selfish motive.

The time that followed was long and tedious.

Before these embodiments of human wisdom, Adams was like a giant clay doll forced to be handled and examined.

The scholars bent over their notepads, writing rapidly. Their brows either furrowed or relaxed, while technical terms burst from between their lips in low, rapid voices like the clash of cold surgical blades.

"Peak bone density... beyond specifications!"

"Muscle fiber activity... abnormally high!"

"Basal metabolic rate... far beyond that of ordinary humans!"

By the time the sky outside had been entirely devoured by dusk and bright lamps had been lit indoors, an elderly scholar wearing bottle-bottom-thick lenses closed the notebook in his hands, its pages densely covered in notes.

He raised his head. His gaze swept like a searchlight over the anxious Dr. Clover before finally nailing itself onto Adams's handsome face, which was full of confusion and unease.

"Doctor, we have confirmed it repeatedly. This child has no illness, no pathological infection or genetic defect of any kind."

He paused, seemingly searching for the most accurate wording. His eyes behind the lenses began to shine brightly.

"On the contrary, he possesses an extremely rare constitution. His body has an unimaginable potential—

When subjected to external pressure, it can consume the energy within his body and activate an adaptive evolutionary mechanism, making his bones, muscles, internal organs, and even his entire body tougher.

This is... this is an extreme outward manifestation of life's evolutionary potential!"

The old scholar grew increasingly excited, as though he had discovered a priceless treasure.

"We consulted every relevant ancient text and sealed genetic evolution chart, and found that only in the distant Heavenly Calendar Era... were there a few obscure records of a constitution in which the body evolved rapidly under desperate circumstances.

"Additionally, according to the records...

"Those with this constitution will complete their developmental stage at an incredible speed, no later than eight years. After that, their height will be fixed. That is the reason for his abnormal height."

"Pressure... evolution... an eight-year growth period..."

Dr. Clover murmured those keywords to himself.

He suddenly turned his head and looked toward the cold stretcher in the corner of the corridor.

On the stretcher, the old man's hand, covered in dark age spots, suddenly lifted from the edge of the white sheet. It trembled violently as he pointed at his grandson with heartbreaking, liberating ecstasy.

"So it was only... that he grew too fast... It's not an illness... That's good... It's not an illness... that's good..."

Cloudy tears finally trickled down from the corners of his sunken eyes, crawling over his deep wrinkles before dripping onto the cold stretcher cloth.

Then the old man looked at his old friend and said.

"Old... friend... on the ship I came on... there are... physics manuscripts... passed down by my ancestors... I entrust them... and this child... to you."

Dr. Clover closed his eyes deeply. When he opened them again, they held a solemn promise as firm as steel. He answered with only one decisive word.

"Good."

He had met the old man's son. He had been a well-mannered, gentle, kind, helpful, and educated young man. Dr. Clover believed that if the son had been like that, then the grandson could not be a bad person either, so he agreed without hesitation.

The old man seemed to smile. That smile spread across his gray, withered face like a crack.

Using the last trace of strength with which he could control his body, he turned his eyes toward his worried grandson. His voice was so gentle, as though afraid of disturbing something.

"Adams... from now on... make sure to... eat well..."

Adams nodded heavily. A wounded beast's whimper burst through the room.

"Wuwuwu... I... I will, Grandpa."

The trace of a smile his grandfather had barely maintained finally froze completely.

His slightly raised fingertips went slack and slipped gently onto the white sheet. The final glimmer of life went out, like a candle snuffed by the wind, leaving not even a wisp of smoke behind.

TO BE CONTINUED

(PS: After reading the first chapter, some people may question why the protagonist did not show the reaction expected of a transmigrator. The author will explain here that it is because the protagonist will not awaken his memories of his previous life until Chapter 3.)

(The pacing in the early stages of this book is slow, but the author will update frequently and release many chapters. According to relativity, that means it is not slow. In the latest plot, the protagonist has already finished his basic growth stage, so please read without worry.)