Questions

This chapter mainly answered some questions about what I had written so far.

1. The protagonist was a transmigrator, so he began changing the world to some extent the moment he arrived. Treat it as a parallel world, but since one person's power was limited, the changes would not be that extensive.

The chapters before chapter 50 were the growth phase, so not much would change. This was not one of those invincible-protagonist novels where he beat Roger in chapter one and Imu in chapter two.

That was all there was to it. One person's power was limited.

Even if you were reborn twenty years in the past and became some country's richest person or a high-ranking official, you still could not stop someone else from becoming the world's richest person or prevent the Soviet Union from collapsing.

There would not be many changes early on. Things would more or less start changing in the chapters after fifty.

Events he experienced would have outcomes that differed from the original to some extent.

For example, there were John and Ochoku's corpses from the battle at God Valley. In the original, Moria stole their bodies, but now they had already been destroyed, so he would never get them.

That counted as influencing the timeline to some extent, but it did not affect the overall course of events. One person's power was ultimately limited and could not reshape the world.

Another point was that things he had never crossed paths with would remain unaffected. For example, in the original, Sakazuki and Kizaru both joined the Marines in 1490, when Sakazuki was twenty-three.

But the protagonist here joined the Marines at twelve. The timeline had not reached 1490 yet; it was roughly the end of 1486.

That was why Kizaru had not appeared so far. The protagonist would not deliberately seek him out. Everyone had their own story unfolding.

2. The Magma-Magma Fruit issue.

In this book, he obtained it shortly after transmigrating, because everyone thought differently. For example, you might want to head east, but then someone suddenly transmigrated into your body. He looked at the fork ahead, thought for a moment, and steered your body west instead.

That disrupted Sakazuki's original life trajectory. There was no way to establish where he obtained the fruit, so I simply arranged it.

Point 16 below explained the Three Admirals' fruits in detail.

Besides, the protagonist was not invincible. If he went to challenge Roger or Whitebeard now, he would definitely get thrashed. He was nineteen at present. If he could beat Roger and Whitebeard already, wouldn't he be able to crush Imu by twenty-one? There would be nothing left to write.

3. The Vice Admiral issue.

The protagonist joined the Marines at twelve and became a Vice Admiral at nineteen. Was reaching Vice Admiral in seven years too fast? No.

In the original, Aokiji joined the Marines at nineteen and was already a Marine Headquarters Vice Admiral during the Ohara incident at twenty-seven. I did not know how many years the Elite Class lasted, but assuming three, he reached Vice Admiral in just four years.

A Logia Devil Fruit Ability would certainly provide a major advantage. Early on, it might not work so well in the New World, but it would be extremely useful against opponents in the Four Seas and the first half of the Grand Line.

In this book, Sakazuki joined the Marines at twelve and spent most of his time on the front lines wiping out pirates. He certainly had enough military merit, and with the Logia Magma-Magma Fruit on top of that, he earned promotion to Vice Admiral.

4. The timeline issue.

The timeline in the sources I checked when I started writing was wrong. Everything had now been moved back two years. The battle at God Valley should have taken place in 1484. If any earlier chapter had not been corrected, please leave a comment so I could fix it. I had changed everything I could think of, but I did not know whether I had missed anything.

5. The Dragon issue. At nineteen, Dragon might not have witnessed those dark realities yet, so he was simply a powerful Marine officer without so many other ideas.

The earliest signs appeared at Roger's execution, where he stood below the platform with a serious expression, looking faintly different. But Roger's execution was still many years away.

Not everyone was extraordinary from birth. Dragon was not born a revolutionary leader or anything like that.

People changed step by step through their experiences. The protagonist would not deliberately try to get close to him. There was no point forcing himself on someone.

6. The moves issue.

You had already seen some of the skills. They were imitations based on ideas he had before transmigrating, and an imitation was not the same thing as the original.

Take the Hundred Quadrillion Death Burial Formation, for example. It imitated Ryujin Jakka, but these were two different worlds with different systems, so it was not the same.

When Sakazuki used it now, he merely used his ability to imitate mindless lava giants. Under the influence of his power, they charged relentlessly forward. Once they were blown apart, that was it. They could not re-form like those created by Ryujin Jakka.

How should I put it? I wanted to write a world close to the original One Piece, not casually throw in all kinds of absurd abilities and overpowered fruits. That was why the protagonist was not invincible. I did not know whether everyone would find that to their taste.

Some readers might also be uncomfortable with moves from other worlds, but I could not keep using Great Eruption over and over.

The world would change through the protagonist's influence. It was not simply a matter of making him invincible, having him crush Imu, succeed in a revolution, establish a new government, and give everyone a happy ending...

Look at it another way: the protagonist was invincible, joined the Revolutionary Army, crushed Imu in a few years, and then everyone lived happily ever after under his and the Revolutionary Army's leadership... That was nonsense...

An underground organization that had existed for a little over a decade suddenly rose to power and ruled hundreds of affiliated nations around the world. You could imagine what would happen.

Sometimes, people who suddenly gained power could be even more terrifying. A similar example was some of the Huai West nobles who had followed Zhu Yuanzhang.

They came from the bottom, but after gaining power, they rapidly became major landowners across the country, seized vast amounts of land, organized private armed forces, treated human lives as worthless, and so on. Their crimes were so heinous that even executing their entire extended families would not have been excessive.

That was why he needed to lay the groundwork step by step, gradually bring about change, and take over smoothly. Killing the Celestial Dragons and Imu would not automatically bring world peace. That was not a novel; it was a fairy tale.

7. The World Government issue.

The World Government had ruled the world for eight hundred years. Even someone as powerful as Rocks had been defeated and killed. Strength alone was useless. In eight hundred years, only Roger had overturned the entire game.

As for the oppression of the heavenly tribute driving large numbers of people out to sea.

First, the countries in One Piece were monarchies. Was there anything wrong with an emperor collecting taxes? No.

The tax rates might have been too high for that era, but most people still considered paying them a matter of course.

Some of you might have read historical novels where the protagonist reduced taxes to one-tenth, and huge numbers of ordinary people were overwhelmed with gratitude.

That was the situation here. In the eyes of most people in the One Piece world, these taxes were normal.

Why did I say Roger overturned the entire game?

He drew large numbers of young people out to sea, leaving more and more elderly people and children behind. With insufficient productivity, the population would resist once the oppression pushed them to their limit.

That also helped bring about the Revolutionary Army. I did not know whether revolutionary armies had existed during the previous eight hundred years, but in the original, the Revolutionary Army had only been established relatively recently.

Then there were the Celestial Dragons. It was not a matter of seeing them commit evil, deciding the protagonist was this or that because he did not kill them, and then piling abuse on him... First, consider this question: from an omniscient perspective, what was the safest way to change the One Piece world? Usurping power.

Become one of the few people at the pinnacle of power, take control of the Marines, turn the entire force into his own private army, then make his move and smoothly take over the government's authority. That way, the world would not suffer major upheaval.

Killing a Celestial Dragon the moment he saw one commit evil would be bleeding-heart behavior. The protagonist's justice meant protecting ordinary people, but there were some things he could not touch yet.

As the saying went, "Only sacrifice could strengthen lofty resolve, daring to make the sun and moon shine upon a new heaven." Some sacrifices were unavoidable.

If the protagonist saw a Celestial Dragon commit evil and killed them, what came next? He became wanted, turned pirate, stormed the Holy Land, and destroyed Imu... Did that make sense?

The pirates won and the government lost, but how could a pirate crew with a dozen or a few dozen members govern the world? Without the government's suppression, the world's pirates would grow even more brazen, and more people would die.

Even if he joined the Revolutionary Army after killing a Celestial Dragon and overthrew the World Government, it would be just as I said above: an underground organization established a little over a decade ago... governing the world... That was another fairy tale.

Every angle needed consideration. It was not simply a matter of killing everyone in the way...

8. The issue of Zephyr not being an Admiral at the beginning.

Let me explain. The battle at God Valley took place in 1484. Afterward, Garp was hailed as the Hero of the Marines. He had both the strength and the military achievements, so we could establish that he explicitly refused promotion at that point.

Zephyr became an Admiral in 1486 and held the record for the youngest person promoted to that rank. The youngest, not the first.

Sengoku was five years older than Zephyr. Even if he was promoted in his forties, he could still have become an Admiral before Zephyr. He had the strength, a mythical Zoan fruit, and Conqueror's Haki.

It was impossible for there to have been no Admiral positions before 1486, with just Fleet Admiral Kong, no Admirals, and a bunch of Vice Admirals...

There was also the Elite Class issue. The sources I checked stated that Sakazuki and Kizaru were Zephyr's first class of students. They did not say the Elite Class was established that year.

If there was a Navy Academy, there would certainly be an Elite Class. After all, elite education had existed for thousands of years, even in ancient times.

So they were the first class Zephyr taught, not an Elite Class established because of him.

If that still did not work for you, treat it as a setting unique to this book.

9. The Conqueror's Haki issue: every enemy the protagonist encountered had it, while he did not.

Conqueror's Haki did not emerge just because someone wanted it to. In the original, it generally erupted after some kind of shock or after someone firmly embraced a conviction.

Examples included Doflamingo's hatred as he was burned and Luffy trying to save Ace. Those were clear eruptions. The protagonist's experiences were there for everyone to see, so do not rush. He had not even fought a life-or-death battle yet.

10. The magma ability issue. There was no need to get hung up on temperature and so on. You could look up how powerful the recent volcanic eruption in Tonga was and what it was equivalent to.

11. The system issue.

There was a World-Breaking Gate on the system panel. That was there to leave open the option of continuing after the One Piece portion ended. He could add some points and become a little stronger than his original counterpart.

As for all kinds of cheats, there were none. I wanted to keep things as faithful to the original as possible.

12. The Marines and pirates issue.

When you first watched One Piece, each of you was probably moved by certain events. But as a manga progressed, it inevitably developed its broader world, which led to polarized opinions.

Everyone had their own story, so I would try to portray them fairly without taking any side. You could judge for yourselves.

Some plotlines were original, because the world could not consist solely of what the manga depicted. That was why there would be original material, such as the chapter "Roar That Resonates Across Heaven and Earth."

A Buster Call and pirates massacring a town each had their own horrors. There was no perfect world, so I would try to depict things as fairly as possible.

13. The short chapters issue.

This was my first time writing a novel, and I really struggled to come up with plots. People had kept saying the chapters were short over the past couple of days. I had noticed the problem too, and I would try to write more.

The earliest readers following updates might remember that, a while back... each chapter was only a little over a thousand Chinese characters...

It was also my first novel, so I lacked experience. The opening chapters were a little rough too. I would revise them when I had time.

14. If you noticed any problems in the first fifty chapters, please remember to let me know. This was my first novel, and the early writing had some issues that I could sense myself. Point out anything that did not work, and I would find time to revise it later.

15. Feel free to point out anything unreasonable. I would correct it promptly.

16. When the Three Admirals obtained their fruits in the original.

This book assumed they obtained them before joining the Marines. In One Piece Film: Z, Zephyr said this to Kizaru: "Borsalino, I believe I taught you not to rely too much on your Devil Fruit Ability."

Their conversation showed that Zephyr and Kizaru did not get along, and the only time Zephyr had taught him was in the Elite Class.

In the original, Kizaru and Sakazuki were students in Zephyr's first class. Since Kizaru had his Devil Fruit Ability, Sakazuki, who was called a monster alongside him, must have had one as well.

Aokiji became a Vice Admiral just a few years after graduating from the Elite Class, so it was also fairly safe to conclude that he already had his ability when he joined.

Why not assume they obtained them after joining the Marines? First, that would be unreasonable. Second, the government certainly had Logia fruits, but possessing them was one thing. These three abilities were not ordinary Logias, and there was no reason to award them to those three.

Take Aokiji. No matter how outstanding he was in the Elite Class, there was no reason to reward him with a Logia fruit. Wouldn't giving it to CP0 have been better? There was no reason to award them to three Marine cadets. They had not earned that kind of merit.

No matter how foolish the government was, it would not give three powerful fruits like these to a few new recruits. Put another way, that would be as ridiculous as promoting you straight to brigade commander as soon as you finished recruit training and joined your company.

Give those three fruits to any three Vice Admirals skilled in physical combat, and you would instantly have three Admiral-level fighters.

Why give them to three recruits fresh out of training camp? By the time they grew strong enough to become Admirals, it would be far too late.

That earlier era was a time when great pirates like Roger, Golden Lion, Whitebeard, and Big Mom competed for supremacy.

Where would they find the time to let you grow? Why pass up three Admiral-level fighters and give the fruits to three recruits so they could develop slowly?

But it was very likely they already had Devil Fruit Abilities when they joined. There were so many people on these seas that it was a matter of probability. Once the population reached a certain size, Logia users were bound to join the Marines, just like the Three Admirals.

And this recent Sky Island arc had practically broken me.

Honestly, I had been misled too. Although I occasionally kept up with One Piece, I spent most of my time reading novels. In most of those novels, the protagonist found Enel as soon as he reached Sky Island, so my planned outline involved the protagonist going there and doing various things concerning Enel and the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.

But after checking sources and watching the anime over the past couple of days, I discovered that was not the case at all. Enel's homeland was a small island south of the White Sea. He only destroyed it six years before the main story, then occupied the Land of Gods.

What problem did that cause? The entire outline for Sky Island had to be scrapped. It was a complete mess, and I was still thinking it through. Be patient, be patient.

Finally, I would do my best to reason things out plausibly and portray an authentic One Piece world and how it developed.