Protagonist Gern's appearance
[They say if we gather enough brains, we can summon the divine dragon! Let's all pitch in.]
[The Logia Tremor-Tremor Fruit is this lazy author's own invention! Stop asking why it isn't a Paramecia.]
My name was Gern, and I was a transmigrator.
Once, I had fantasized about taking the One Piece world by storm.
Unfortunately, reality clubbed me over the head-no system, no special advantage, not even a decent cheat.
But that was fine. At least I still had the advantage of knowing what would happen.
With my knowledge of the plot, surely I could latch onto someone powerful and live the good life?
But that naive idea was utterly shattered when I was ten.
That day, I held a crumpled newspaper in trembling hands. Printed on it was a name that chilled me to the bone: "Golden Roger."
Not the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger, but "Golden Roger"!
At that moment, I realized this world had already strayed from the course I remembered.
This was Rocks' era, right at its peak, while my supposed knowledge of One Piece came entirely from watching clips on Douyin...
So the next day, just to put food on the table, I clutched a recruitment flyer for chore boys at a West Blue Marine branch and joined the Marines without looking back.
If Koby, that king of deserters, could rise from chore boy to Headquarters Captain in two years, surely a transmigrator like me could do the same?
As it turned out, I really couldn't.
Four years! Four whole years! With no backing and no connections, I scraped together every last coin to grease palms and only managed to become a private second class in logistics.
Our famous Marine instructor, Zephyr, had just been promoted to Headquarters Vice Admiral on the strength of his reputation as "Black Arm." He hadn't even considered training the next generation of Marines yet.
There was still the Marine academy at Marine Headquarters, with its precious few places.
But Gern was nothing more than a West Blue branch nobody with three things missing-no Haki, no Devil Fruit, no talent. Aside from being a little stronger than average, he had nothing going for him.
As for earning promotions through military achievements? Don't make me laugh. In an era when the Rocks Pirates ran rampant, that was simply asking to die!
So if I was dead either way, I might as well bet big!
A Devil Fruit!! That was my answer.
If I could get my hands on any one of them, I could completely rewrite my fate!
And my opportunity lay in the "God Valley Incident."
Six Devil Fruits! The Celestial Dragons' prizes! This was the opening I had spent four years waiting for!
For this day, I scrimped and saved, maneuvered among the various West Blue mafia families, risked my life, and pledged my organs as collateral to borrow from every loan shark I could find.
A full thirty million Beli, plus bribes handed out left and right, finally bought me a place among the many Marines escorting the Celestial Dragons on their "educational trip."
Four years of keeping my head down, all for this moment.
This was no longer just a matter of staking my life.
What I was betting on-was the future of this world!
Sea Circle Calendar, year 1484. God Valley.
"Gah!!" Gern dragged himself out of unconsciousness and snapped his eyes open.
"Conqueror's Haki again..." Gern, who had already been knocked unconscious fifty times, struggled to prop up his upper body.
Then he looked around and found himself lying at the edge of a dense forest on the outskirts of God's Island, not far from the shore.
His memories came flooding back.
The Celestial Dragons' hunting game, the sudden storm, the Rocks Pirates' surprise attack, the arrival of Roger and Garp...
Then came that clash of Conqueror's Haki powerful enough to tear the sky apart, followed by darkness that swallowed everything.
"Damn it!" Gern slammed his fist into the ground.
"What time is it now? How long was I out this time?! The battle..."
At that thought, Gern struggled to his feet, his legs trembling faintly under the lingering pressure of Rocks' and Roger's Conqueror's Haki.
Through the thick canopy, he could see the sky had turned an eerie dark red. Dull, thunderous roars rumbled in the distance from time to time.
"It can't be over already..." In an instant, fear coiled around his heart like a venomous snake.
According to his memories from before he passed out, the battle of God Valley should already have erupted, with Roger and Garp fighting the Rocks Pirates in a decisive showdown.
And those six Devil Fruits that could change his fate...
Gern bit through his lip. The taste of blood spread through his mouth as he forced himself to calm down and assess the situation.
"The Fish-Fish Fruit and the Paw-Paw Fruit... they should still be somewhere on the island..." Gern's voice suddenly caught.
In truth, he knew better than anyone that this brutal battle, which had lasted less than a day, had already come to an end.
The moment that sky-splitting Conqueror's Haki abruptly faded, it had marked the end of Rocks' era.
Especially now, when no cries of battle could be heard on the island, only scattered cheers from Marines.
"It's all over..."
The thought coiled around him like a venomous snake, sinking its fangs into Gern's heart.
The Fish-Fish Fruit had fallen into the young Big Mom's hands, and Bartholomew Kuma had eaten the Paw-Paw Fruit. The remaining Devil Fruits... had probably already been divided up.
Four years of planning.
The twenty-odd million Beli he had borrowed by putting his life and organs on the line.
At this moment, it had all become a joke.
"So in the end... I actually..." Gern's fists began trembling uncontrollably, and his long-suppressed rage finally erupted.
"Aah!" With a furious roar, Gern slammed his fist into the oak tree beside him.
That punch shook the tree, and a white apple dropped from above, landing squarely on Gern's head.
The blow briefly stunned him, and his gaze instinctively turned toward whatever had struck his head...
"This..." Before his eyes lay a peculiar apple, its white, crack-patterned surface resembling shattered crystal.
A Devil Fruit!
Gern instantly snatched the Devil Fruit into his hand. His pupils contracted sharply, and his fingers instinctively tightened around it.
He jerked his head up toward the canopy. A few ordinary apples, mottled green and red, hung from the apple tree and swayed gently in the breeze.
They stood in stark contrast to the fruit in his hand, which exuded a mysterious aura.
Gern stared at the pale Devil Fruit in his hand. Its crack-like patterns gleamed eerily in the sunlight.
Crunch! Without a moment's hesitation, once he was certain he held a Devil Fruit, Gern opened his mouth and bit down hard.
The instant the flesh entered his mouth, an indescribable taste sent a wave of revulsion through his entire body, but Gern forced himself to swallow.
"Ugh, aaagh!!" Gern dropped to his knees. "That taste..."
Gern was just about to complain when, the instant the fruit reached his stomach, his body shuddered involuntarily.
Countless fine shock waves seemed to pierce his bones, muscles, and blood. Every inch of his nervous system vibrated at high frequency!
His vision warped. The ground undulated like ocean waves, and the air around him trembled unnaturally.
Hum! Suddenly, the world fell into an eerie silence.
Gern's pupils contracted sharply. He could distinctly feel his body disappearing!
No, it wasn't disappearing. It was... becoming something more fundamental!
And he seemed able to create and control these... vibration particles.
Realizing this, Gern immediately looked down. Under the control of his will,
his arm had taken on a translucent, vibrating form, as though it were composed of countless tiny vibration particles that quivered gently with his breathing.
At that thought, Gern tentatively clenched his fist.
Boom!! An invisible shock wave erupted. The air before him shattered like a mirror, and the shock wave swept outward in a fan, instantly pulverizing every tree within ten meters!
"This... this is... Tremor-Tremor?!" Gern stared at his palm in disbelief. "No, that's not right!!"
He could clearly feel that he wasn't activating it through a medium. At this moment, he himself was the source of the vibrations, the embodiment of the tremors between heaven and earth!
With a thought, Gern instantly transformed into an invisible shock wave and passed through a broken tree trunk in a flash.
Sure enough, in his elemental form, he passed straight through the broken trunk and re-formed on the other side.
"Logia elemental transformation, no doubt about it! It's a Logia!!" Gern was ecstatic, only to freeze abruptly.
"Wait... isn't the Tremor-Tremor Fruit a Paramecia? How did it become a Logia when I ate it?!"
Before you continue