Sometimes when I replied to comments, the system swallowed my replies without even telling me why they couldn't be posted. They just silently disappeared. Readers' comments got swallowed too, and there were some I genuinely couldn't see. I never deleted them. You can check the paragraph comments: plenty of negative reviews are still there, including some pretty nasty ones.
So here we are. Since this is free to read, I'll shamelessly use the main text to post an announcement. Consider this a general response to the various questions.
First, a basic premise: readers can choose what books they read, and authors can choose what books they write. The choice goes both ways.
I'm very willing to discuss comments about specific content in the book. I'm happy when I see people commenting. Especially readers who are demanding about the content-they usually have good books on their shelves and can help me find something to read.
But if your comment is simply that the subject matter doesn't suit your personal tastes, I don't have much to say. It's all free here. I haven't charged you anything.
It's like walking into a Shandong cuisine restaurant and insisting on Sichuan cuisine, then saying the chef is bad. Why not go to a Sichuan cuisine restaurant instead?
As for people who say they don't understand it, I completely understand.
This book is packed with references, so the barrier to entry is admittedly a little higher. Let me add a disclaimer: a higher barrier doesn't mean higher quality or greater sophistication. It simply means you need some background information to understand it.
This is [typical fanfiction]. Because of moderation concerns, I didn't mention the harem elements in the synopsis. If you can't accept that, you can choose to stop reading. Sometimes I post comments or pictures and everything is fine; other times they just disappear. All I can do is avoid triggering that as much as possible.
1. Female characters
A story without a female lead gets called a monk story; one with multiple female leads gets called a harem. I already said it was [typical]. What else can I say? Any more and I'll run afoul of moderation.
If a protagonist with only one love interest doesn't save the other female characters, people say, "If you came to this world and changed nothing, wasn't coming here pointless?" If he saves them but doesn't take them as love interests, people say, "Why lead them on if you won't marry them?" But if he marries them, isn't it a "harem" again?
What should I do? Arrange for other male characters to take them? Then people will accuse me of "giving the girls away." Come on, someone tell me how I'm supposed to write this. You can't please everyone. Readers' expectations and demands often contradict one another.
On this front, the protagonist will get together with pretty much all the major female characters in this book: the Empress, Yamato, Uta, Nami, Robin, Vivi, and so on. Some minor characters too, where it makes sense. Also, "higher-level narration (the author's intent)" and "the protagonist's perspective (the character's intent)" are not the same thing.
2. Stamina
The original never said Enel had particularly outstanding physical fitness, yet he still used his powers on a massive scale and could even destroy an island. The protagonist's current physical condition isn't that far behind either, because he used the Rumble-Rumble Fruit to cheat at physical training. He's just nowhere near the powerhouses who specialize in Haki.
Besides, this world explicitly establishes that bloodlines matter. Ordinary people in this world have limits to how far training can take them. If the training ceiling for "truly ordinary people" were also very high, then with the resources the Marines have, even if they couldn't make everyone a lieutenant commander, couldn't they make everyone an ensign? Taking another step back, couldn't they at least make everyone a petty officer? Yet in reality, most are still ordinary soldiers.
The protagonist was an ordinary person in his previous life. He couldn't possibly be that disciplined or work that hard. If he could really work as hard as even an ordinary powerhouse in the world of One Piece, would he still have been an ordinary person in his previous life? If I'd made him an elite soldier, assassin, mercenary, or traditional martial arts master in his previous life, even more people would surely have objected.
If I'd made him an elite soldier, assassin, mercenary, or traditional martial arts master in his previous life, even more people would surely have objected.
3. Combat strength
We're only in the early stages of the story, and his combat strength is already pretty respectable. There needs to be some plausibility. Without a deus ex machina cheat, he can't start out with all three types of Haki, can he?
With the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's early-warning capabilities, speed, range, and destructive power, what situation would actually force him into close combat? If a Rumble-Rumble Fruit user wanted to flee, how many people could catch him? Mantra covers a huge area, and he can even strike beyond visual range.
With those advantages, choosing close combat would be like a fully equipped, top-tier special forces soldier in a real life-or-death situation voluntarily abandoning his gear and the outdoor terrain to fight a death match in a ring against a top martial arts master with twenty years of training. What kind of thought process would make that soldier agree? And then, to improve his hand-to-hand skills (physique and Armament Haki), he'd neglect all his other technical and tactical training (Observation Haki and Devil Fruit abilities)?
The Rumble-Rumble Fruit could absolutely pull this off: throw caution to the wind, launch a beyond-visual-range strike before the enemy even notices, then run. The moment he feels even a little stamina drain, he could flee to the other side of the planet and hide, then come back and continue once he'd recovered.
Fight to the death, strike once and run, never even give the other side a chance to meet him face-to-face. Apart from Kizaru or characters whose capabilities remain unknown, like Imu, how many people could endure that?
Does that tactic involve Armament Haki or Conqueror's Haki? Take someone like Red Hair. No matter how strong his Conqueror's Haki is, could it affect the protagonist beyond visual range? Strike from an extreme distance and flee. Go ahead and chase him.
4. The Rumble-Rumble Fruit
Earlier chapters already explained that, for various reasons, the protagonist needs several cover identities. His main identity is currently disguised as a user of the "Mythical Zoan Angel Fruit," so he hasn't publicly displayed the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's abilities.
He has a separate cover identity as a Rumble-Rumble Fruit user.
I can't just list all his plans in a table at the start. That would turn the story into an explanation of the outline.
5. The Artificial Angel
It isn't a "character." It's just a puppet.
It will have other uses later too. I can't spell out every plan right from the start.
6. Skypieans
As for whether those wings are decorations, if you really asked the original work, the answer would simply be, "You don't need to pin it down that precisely."
Take the Mad Monk among the Supernovas as an example. He's a burly man with a bare upper body, and those wings just hang there with nothing visibly holding them up, even while he's fighting a Pacifista so fiercely. Calling them decorations would be pretty hard to justify.
Besides, the wiki explicitly says some are "born" with them. So I'm also assuming both possibilities exist: some are wingless, while others are born with wings.
7. The Mythical Zoan Fruit's angel form
Some people say that since the Celestial Dragons call themselves gods and the protagonist calls himself an angel, doesn't that make him their servant? What kind of nonsense is that? Leaving aside the fact that it's only a "cover identity," are an "angel" and a "Devil Fruit user with an angel Mythical Zoan Fruit" even the same thing?
There's another issue: this world has concepts involving nuns, priests, and churches, as well as legends of a figure similar to God. Otherwise, are those nuns and priests praying to the Celestial Dragons?
Don't bring up Imu rewriting things or stealing the "position of god." Imu is a secret. If some outsider learned Imu's name, the Holy Knights would probably be sent to silence them and wipe out ten degrees of their relatives.
Besides, the Celestial Dragons have only existed for a few hundred years. That world also has long-lived races. How could they possibly regard the Celestial Dragons as "gods" in a religious sense!?
People in that world understand the Celestial Dragons as follows: their ancestors founded the World Government, and they are "Celestial Dragons" who claim to be descendants of the creators and liken themselves to gods.
The original's official description: Celestial Dragons who style themselves "descendants of the creators."
The original story repeatedly uses the phrase "style themselves." Many different kinds of people, with different backgrounds and positions, have said they "style themselves" or "proclaim themselves" as such.
Residents of the Sabaody Archipelago privately call them "trash."
During the Fish-Man Island incident, people even cheered for Luffy attacking a Celestial Dragon.
In the eyes of most ordinary people, the Celestial Dragons do not possess "divinity" either!
8. How strong the Rumble-Rumble Fruit is
(Since this chapter is for explanations, more content will gradually be added.)
Oda's exact statement in the Volume 95 SBS was that Nami could become the strongest if she ate the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
So, in fact, even if Sephiroth never learned Armament Haki and couldn't use Conqueror's Haki, the Rumble-Rumble Fruit and Observation Haki alone would be enough to put him in tier zero.
Honestly, that really was the route I initially planned for Sephiroth.
But people kept calling him weak, and before I knew it, I gradually wrote him into an almost invincible all-rounder in the later chapters.
And don't start with claims that Conqueror's Haki counters elemental transformation.
With Nami's characterization, even if she ate the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, would she learn Armament Haki and Conqueror's Haki? Even if she did, how far could she develop them?
Oda himself declared that she'd be the strongest after eating the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
Before you continue