System

Nova was nearly dumbfounded. The sci-fi-like scene before him was simply too thrilling.

Everything seemed illusory, yet it all felt so real. After all, he had suddenly arrived in this world from his original one, and that alone had already felt unreal. But what had appeared now made it even harder for him to tell where reality truly lay.

Even so, Nova was incredibly nervous and excited. His voice trembled slightly as he asked, "What does the Myriad Worlds System do?"

"Answer: The host may purchase products from the myriad worlds according to their own circumstances, or exchange equivalent items. The shop includes items, abilities, techniques, self-defense, and offensive capabilities."

Listening to that mechanical voice, Nova sank deeply into it, completely unable to pull himself free.

Most importantly, this thing had actually fallen into his hands. Just thinking about it made him happy. And as the prince of a kingdom, buying things with money should be easy enough.

After staying in the System Space for a while, his excitement gradually subsided. Finally, Nova asked curiously, "System, is there some kind of starting reward? Or maybe a beginner's gift pack?"

"Answer: All items in the system shop require money to purchase. Would you like to spend one Beli to unlock the beginner's gift pack?"

"One Beli?" Nova froze. Having grown to the age of five or six, he had practically never needed to buy anything. He did not even know how expenses were calculated in this world. But when this came up, he remembered that in the One Piece World, all transactions were settled in Beli.

A little excited, he immediately said, "Start it..."

He might not have one Beli, but there were plenty of valuable things in this room. Besides, the shop did not require Beli specifically—equivalent items could be exchanged as well. In other words, as long as something was exchanged through the shop, its value would be displayed directly.

Before Nova could even leave the space, he saw the balance displayed above him: 353.4 million Beli remaining.

Amid his surprise, Nova became extremely curious. What around him could possibly be worth so much?

But after thinking for a moment, he immediately realized something—the Devil Fruit beside him!

But it was already too late. The system would identify the closest item belonging to him and use it for the exchange.

Even now, he did not know what kind of Devil Fruit he had, nor what category it belonged to. But one thing was certain: that Devil Fruit was definitely related to plants, or rather, a plant type.

He had originally thought that such a good thing would be useful even if he did not eat it himself. Giving it to someone else would have been nice too.

But now, it was all too late. Still, Nova did not lose heart. He looked forward eagerly to seeing what was inside the beginner's gift pack.

As the sound of one Beli being deducted rang out, a golden door suddenly appeared before him. When it slowly opened, the system spoke again. "Congratulations, host, on obtaining an initial gift pack. Would you like to open it?"

Golden light streamed from the thing before him. No matter how he looked at it, it seemed like an extremely valuable item. Nova quickly said, "Open it..."

"Congratulations, host, on obtaining a One Piece World package gift pack. It includes Top-tier Three Haki and one set of Marine Six Styles training methods."

The system's voice rang out, but Nova did not feel much joy or surprise. The main reason was that, beneath the system's prompt, there was a huge pair of parentheses containing another requirement: for ten years, run 10 km every day, do 500 push-ups, and perform 1,000 frog jumps.

Those tasks did not seem overly complicated, but the problem was that they had to be maintained every single day. For a child like him, running 10 km a day was practically enough to kill him, not to mention the push-ups and frog jumps afterward.

Was this really a beginner's gift pack, or beginner's torture? That was truly open to debate.

After seeing all that, Nova was completely stunned. Thinking about the next ten years of his life, he felt as though he would be living through hell.

But at the same time, he understood that the people in this world were monstrously strong. If he did not work hard, who knew what he would become in the future?

For now, he was doing fairly well. At least the old King was still healthy, so there was no need to worry about anything for the next few years. But if the old King's health failed a few years from now and this country was handed over to him, how was he supposed to take over that responsibility?

After thinking that through, Nova smiled. Though the system's beginner's gift pack was a little brutal, it was not something he could not accept.

After leaving the System Space, Nova gave a bitter smile. Looking at the now-empty bed beside him, the Devil Fruit had long since vanished. Although he had been prepared for it, he still felt a slight sense of loss.

But at that moment, the old King suddenly pushed open the door and hurried to Nova's side. He asked anxiously, "Nova, where did that Devil Fruit go?"

Since he did not know what it did or what type it belonged to, the old King was terrified that his son might eat some utterly useless Devil Fruit. If that happened, it would be a disaster.

Nova smiled and said, "Old Man, don't worry. Your son didn't eat that thing. I just thought that keeping it here would bring us trouble, so I threw it away."

"Good, good. Throwing it away was the right choice. That thing really is a disaster. A country like ours simply can't bear the conflicts it would bring."

The old King spoke with lingering fear, never realizing that his son was deceiving him.

The Tru Kingdom was located in the South Blue of the One Piece World, which could practically be called the weakest of the Four Blues. Nova understood that clearly enough.

Ever since learning that he was in the Pirate World, at least one thing had become certain: South Blue was the weakest of the Four Blues, while East Blue was probably the strongest.

Still, the weakest South Blue had both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage was that pirates were rarely encountered here. The disadvantage was obvious as well—whenever pirates did come, they could practically plunder an entire country clean.

"Old Man, what were those Marines doing here just now?"

Nova asked curiously.

The old King thought for a moment, then smiled. "It seems to be because the Pirate King's wife is somewhere in our country, though they don't know exactly where. The Marines are going to carry out an arrest, so they came to notify us."

"The Pirate King's wife?"

Nova could not help crying out. When he had learned about pirates before, he had mostly used the Great Pirate Era as a reference point. He had never looked into the exact timeline or how many years had passed.

He had never expected that by the time he learned he was in the Pirate World, the timeline would already have reached this point.

But that was good too. At least it proved that the future protagonist of the Pirate World had not yet been born. That meant he would have far more room to act and develop.

But excitement was excitement. Nova did not want to meddle in such affairs. What he wanted most now was to make the most of those ten years. Just thinking about it made him want to go mad.

"Old Man, starting tomorrow, I'm going to train my body. I want to become strong. At the very least, we can't let others bully us whenever they want, and we can't let anyone come to our country and do whatever they please," Nova said seriously.

Hearing his son say that, the old King was deeply gratified. At that moment, even his head full of white hair seemed to turn black again. He grinned broadly, patted Nova on the shoulder, and said, "Good son, that's the spirit. Whatever you want to do, go and do it properly. I'm still strong enough for my age—I won't be handing this mess over to you anytime soon."

"Listen to yourself. You've got at least another twenty years in you!" Nova said with a smile.

Whatever kind of person this old man might be, ever since Nova had come to this world, this Old Man had taken meticulous care of him.

He had never seen his mother since birth, but Nova had seen everything this old man had done.

The vast royal palace did not actually house many people. The Tru Kingdom was not only weak militarily; its economy was also a complete mess. Its people were practically in a state where they could neither eat their fill nor starve to death.

The country had always been like this, never seeing any real development. After all, no nation in this world had it easy, and being located in the South Blue meant there was no good way out through trade or the economy, nor in any other regard.

Before reaching that position, Nova did not want to burden himself with too many concerns. All he could do now was wait patiently; as for what came later, he would deal with it when the time came.

Starting the next day, Nova began getting up early to prepare. He had fully steeled himself for the challenges ahead.

Fortunately, the Tru Kingdom was quite safe, so there was no need to worry about anything happening. Even so, whenever Nova went out to run, the old king sent several people to follow him, as though afraid something might happen to him along the way.

From then on, his daily routine was almost always the same. He rose at dawn and first ran a ten-kilometer lap around the forest. For a child, it took him a very long time to complete.

Under such intense exercise, especially during the first few days, after finishing his workout on the first day, he did not want to get up at all on the second. He even considered giving up, but in the end, he persevered.

After keeping it up for a month, his formerly lazy demeanor seemed to have improved greatly. At the very least, he could finish the daily ten-kilometer run in one go.

Day after day, year after year, Nova repeated the same routine every day. Even the people in the royal palace could not understand why he chose to torment himself this way when he could clearly have lived such a leisurely, carefree life.

Yet this behavior also earned the admiration of many ministers. At the very least, they saw an unyielding determination in him. He was not so weak and spineless, and in terms of perseverance alone, Nova had earned everyone's recognition.

However, this did not last for many years.

By the seventh year, the old king's health had worsened with each passing day. After all, he was already over eighty years old, so it was only natural for his body to have deteriorated to this extent.

After finishing his training, Nova also began gradually involving himself in state affairs. At least within the Tru Kingdom, there was nothing particularly noteworthy that needed attention.

After all, this was how the country had always survived.

They were poor, with no trade and no economy. They had almost nothing at all, but because of that, no one had any interest in targeting them.

But everyone understood that if things continued like this, who knew what the country would become? The people were already struggling to survive, and things were even worse than before.

Five years earlier, the entire world order had changed. The Pirate King was executed in Loguetown, but a single sentence before his death shocked the entire world.

Pirates had gradually begun appearing throughout the South Blue. Even in the Tru Kingdom, where pirates had once been unseen all year round, pirate activity in the surrounding seas had become frequent.

This caused the kingdom's economic strength to decline even more severely.

Fortunately, most pirates were merely ordinary people. The kingdom's limited military forces were still capable of keeping most of them in check.

But sometimes they encountered particularly powerful foes, and heavy casualties were unavoidable.

The Great Pirate Era had arrived. Countless people dreamed of becoming pirates, and this was what had plunged the entire Tru Kingdom into misery.

As soon as Nova began handling state affairs, he discovered all of this. But given the kingdom's current situation, it would be difficult to bring prosperity to all its citizens in the short term.

However, for Nova, who possessed modern ideas, dealing with these matters might not be too difficult. Not to mention that he also had the system.

By the eighth year, Nova was already fourteen years old, and it was also the seventh year of the Great Pirate Era.

Nova was now around 1.8 meters tall, with a well-proportioned and sturdy build. Although he had yet to formally take part in any kingdom affairs, his lofty status still drew the attention of most people in the kingdom.

The old king could only lie in bed every day, barely clinging to life, and he paid little attention to matters outside. Aside from training and handling state affairs, Nova spent nearly all his remaining time at the old king's side.