Vengeance for the Annihilation, Slaughter All the Celestial Dragons

Sea Circle Calendar 1483, one year before the God Valley Incident.

In the East Blue, a youth of about seventeen was weeping bitterly, his hands relentlessly pounding the rock before him, and even though his fists were battered and bloody, he showed not the slightest intention of stopping.

Celestial Dragons, damned Celestial Dragons! Scum, beasts, the dregs of this world—sooner or later, I will wipe you from this face of the earth!

Sooner or later!

The youth was named Rono, and he was a transmigrator.

More than a decade ago, Rono had transmigrated into the world of Pirate King, at which time he was merely a few years old.

In this world where powerhouses were as common as dogs and pirates roamed everywhere, the young Rono had been rather fortunate, spotted by a kind young couple who took him in and adopted him.

Over the next dozen years, under the meticulous care of the young couple, Rono grew up happily.

In Rono's heart, he had long since regarded the young couple as his own biological parents.

Yet just two days ago, tragedy had struck.

Rono's parents met a brutal end at the hands of the Celestial Dragons.

The reason was absurd as well: on a whim, a Celestial Dragon used a hunting rifle to fire wildly at civilians!

To the Celestial Dragons, such behavior was as common and natural as eating or drinking.

In the eyes of these Celestial Dragons, civilians were nothing more than swine and dogs, cattle and sheep, beasts—commoners unworthy of breathing the same air as them.

Since they were commoners, they could naturally be slaughtered at will.

Rono's mother was unlucky, struck by a stray bullet and dying on the spot.

Seeing his wife killed, the father was instantly overcome with blood rushing to his head, and grabbing an axe, he rushed forward, wanting to avenge her.

The ending was obvious: the father was riddled with bullets by the Celestial Dragons' Guards and the Marines, dying a wretched death.

Watching this scene unfold right before his eyes, Rono nearly lost his footing!

Pain, agony that wrung his heart!

Rono felt as though his heart and lungs had been hollowed out!

Vengeance—he had to avenge his parents!

Rono clenched his fists tight, ready to risk his life against the Celestial Dragons!

"Rono, you must hold back! Those people are Celestial Dragons! If you go now, you'll only die—don't be reckless!"

At the crucial moment, a kind neighbor grabbed Rono in a death grip, unwilling to let him throw his life away.

Those were Celestial Dragons, after all; they were not existences that commoners could afford to provoke.

"Did those commoners just die like that? How boring... I thought they'd struggle a bit longer."

Spitting a thick glob of phlegm onto the two corpses, the Celestial Dragon swaggered away with his subordinates.

The young Rono was no match for the obstruction of four or five adults, forced to watch helplessly as the murderers who killed his parents strode off.

"Dammit, dammit!"

"Bastard Celestial Dragons!"

After the Celestial Dragons left, Rono came before his parents' corpses, his knees slamming heavily into the ground as he wept bitterly toward the sky!

For no reason at all, the Celestial Dragons had gone mad and fired into the crowd.

Clearly, both his parents were kind-hearted, good people—why were they so unlucky?

It was all because of the Celestial Dragons!

Someone was backing these swine-like Celestial Dragons from the shadows!

Even if they fired at crowds at random on a whim, they would not face the slightest punishment!

Although Rono had detested the Celestial Dragons deeply in his past life, that was merely hatred.

Now, having transmigrated to the pirate world and truly experienced the harrowing torment brought by the lawless tyranny of the Celestial Dragons—his own family having been needlessly murdered—Rono's hatred for the Celestial Dragons reached its absolute peak!

These pieces of scum were utterly unworthy of ruling this world!

He would definitely make the Celestial Dragons pay!

Pay in blood!

Kill!

Slaughter these beasts, he must avenge his parents!

This thought grew ever clearer in Rono's mind.

At the same time, Rono knew clearly that to avenge his parents, he had to possess formidable strength.

These Celestial Dragons were nobility of the world, protected by powerful bodyguards; merely provoking them would cause the Marines to mobilize an Admiral!

If he wanted to wipe out those Celestial Dragons, he needed the terrifying strength to confront the two major powers of the World Government and Marine Headquarters!

"Kill! Kill them!"

"Avenge my father, avenge my mother, I must!"

Rono suddenly burst out with intense emotion!

Next moment.

[Ding~ Detected intense fluctuations in the host's emotions. Successfully acquired Conqueror's Haki. God-Tier Pickup System activated!]

Hearing the voice in his mind, Rono paused for a moment and immediately pulled himself together!

As a transmigrator, Rono naturally had heard tales of how powerful systems were.

With the system, he could quickly grow strong!

You must know that strength was the hard currency of this world.

Now was not the time for sorrow. After the system awakened, Rono wiped away his tears, returned home, and began researching the system's functions.

After spending the entire night, Rono understood.

The God-Tier Pickup System, true to its name, could pick up all kinds of abilities.

This included the Three Types of Haki, the Six Powers, Hand-to-Hand Combat, swordsmanship, physical constitution, and all other abilities that could be picked up!

In addition, it could also absorb Devil Fruits, using them to rapidly enhance a specific aspect of his own abilities.

In other words, his upper limit would be terrifyingly high!

Whether it was the Three Types of Haki, Devil Fruit Abilities, swordsmanship, hand-to-hand combat, or even physical talent, he could elevate all of them to the level of the World's Strongest!

He was going to become the most terrifying existence in this world, storm the Holy Land, and slaughter every single one of those pig-like Celestial Dragons to comfort the departed spirits of his parents!

Rono clenched his fists and made a resolute decision in his heart.

Open the system interface.

Soon, Rono opened the system interface to first check what he was lacking.

[Host: Rono]
[Age: 17]
[Strength: 13 (Average person: 10)]
[Speed: 9 (Average person: 10)]
[Stamina: 19 (Average person: 10)]
[Haki: Conqueror's Haki (Intermediate).]
[Other Abilities: None]
[Devil Fruit Ability: None]

Scanning his stats, Rono gained a rough understanding of his current strength.

Aside from awakening Conqueror's Haki, he was an absolute, ordinary person.

However, the current him was already filled with confidence in the future, no longer feeling as helpless as before.

Not only that, Rono also discovered that perhaps due to awakening Conqueror's Haki, his entire temperament had undergone a drastic change.

The once harmless youth, when looked at closely, carried an air of unquestionable authority.

The next day, Rono prepared to test how the system's pickup ability was actually used.

Thus, Rono came to the liveliest and most crowded place on the island.

Poor child.

As Rono walked down the street, nearby villagers who knew of his plight cast kind and sympathetic gazes toward him.

Rono simply walked on his own accord, having no time to pay attention to the villagers greeting him.

That was because he discovered that card-like objects were constantly dropping from every passerby, much like items dropping from monsters when playing a game.

[Ding~ Congratulations to the host for picking up 5 points of strength!]
[Ding~ Congratulations to the host for picking up 3 points of strength!]
[Ding~ Congratulations to the host for picking up 4 points of speed!]
[Ding~ Congratulations to the host for picking up 8 points of stamina!]
[Ding~ Congratulations to the host for picking up 3 points of stamina!]

They were all basic attributes like speed, strength, and stamina. After all, the villagers here were ordinary people and didn't include any Devil Fruit Users or Haki users; otherwise, the stats dropped would definitely have been far beyond this amount.

Still, something was better than nothing, and these basic attributes could also bring about a tremendous improvement for Rono.

After all, in this world, hand-to-hand combat was also an important component of strength. There were even a tiny handful of powerhouses who didn't rely on Devil Fruit Abilities, reaching the world's peak level purely through the cultivation of hand-to-hand combat.

Furthermore, the three attributes of speed, strength, and stamina determined just how destructive a person's hand-to-hand combat truly was.

[Ding~ Congratulations to the host for picking up 3 points of strength!]
[Ding~ Congratulations to the host for picking up 2 points of stamina!]
[Ding~ Congratulations to the host for picking up 6 points of speed!]

Watching his three-dimensional basic attributes grow rapidly, Rono could feel his physical constitution making a swift leap forward as well!

After wandering around the island for a whole day, Rono returned home to inspect his harvest.

Opening the system panel once more, Rono immediately discovered that his strength had undergone a qualitative leap!