c4 Become a Slave and Start Training
Lu Kai suppressed the anger in his heart, not daring to show it at all without saying a word, he quickly walked to a pile of boxes and started moving them.
Every box in the area that Lu Kai was responsible for matched the standardized marine supply crates, each weighing around 50 catties, roughly the same as the supply containers used by the Marines at Loguetown's docks.
Even if his body had recovered to perfect condition, it would still have the strength of an ordinary child no lineage from a powerhouse race like the Buccaneers or even a fraction of Luffy's natural vitality as a D. carrier.
The weight of 50 kilograms was too much for Lu Kai, who was only six years old his frame resembled that of the orphans seen in Grey Terminal before Sabo's escape, fragile and undernourished.
"System, turn on the 'guidance' function and teach me how to practice the basics by moving boxes."while carrying the boxes with difficulty, Lu Kai gritted his teeth and instructed the system in his mind, mimicking how Nico Robin trained herself to survive after Ohara's destruction, guided only by knowledge.
Guidance: When the host is exercising, the most scientific and accurate guidance will be given to the host based on the projects that the host has mastered and gotten started with similar to how the Rokushiki techniques break down body mechanics in the CP9 training manuals.
Although he had only been the system host for less than a day, Lu Kai already had a clear understanding of the training system like how Zoro instinctively grasped Mihawk's sword philosophy after their first duel.
As long as you turn on the system's 'guidance' function, it will be regarded as exercising as long as you tell the system what you are exercising, the system will give you the most scientific and accurate guidance, much like how the Fish-Man Karate schools adjust stance and breathing for different oceanic pressures.
As the 'guidance' function was turned on, the system's voice immediately sounded in Lu Kai's mind the mechanical voice kept telling Lu Kai what posture he should use to carry the goods, which muscles should be exerted in what way, how to do it with less effort, and what way he should breathe to last longer, not unlike the specific breath patterns taught in the New Kama Kenpo style at Emporio Ivankov's Kamabakka Kingdom.
After he got tired of carrying the boxes, the system reminded Lu Kai to carry them on his shoulders and then continued to tell Lu Kai every detail of how to carry them on his shoulders, adjusting his center of gravity like a martial artist perfecting a Tekkai stance.
So Lu Kai kept shifting the box from his left shoulder to his right shoulder, then from his right shoulder to his left shoulder, sometimes carrying it with both hands, and sometimes holding it on his head with both hands this rotation training mimicked the unpredictability of weathering cannon recoil or sudden ship movements on a Grand Line vessel.
Lu Kai turned the originally painful process of moving things into a kind of aesthetics although it looked very slow, he had mastered the method, the way Roronoa Zoro turned lifting boulders into elegant sword kata.
However, his strength was a disadvantage at the age of six it took Lu Kai five minutes to move the short distance of 100 meters, a span not unlike the gauntlet-style physical drills seen in the Revolutionary Army's lower camps.
After placing the box on the hanging basket, Lu Kai returned to the starting point and continued to relax every muscle in his body according to the method taught by the system, letting the lactic acid drain like the cooldown breathing Dragon emphasized in Luffy's hypothetical haki training.
After returning to the starting point, Lu Kai consciously moved the second box after Lu Kai moved seven or eight boxes in a row, the hanging basket was full, indicating not just physical endurance, but growing mechanical memory.
As a guard in charge of guarding the hanging basket pulled a rope, the hanging basket slowly rose during this interval, Lu Kai had more time to recover his strength, resembling the break phases during ship maintenance aboard the Thousand Sunny.
Lu Kai kept following the system's instructions and made some strange movements, awkward to an outsider but perfectly aligned with long-term kinetic efficiency, the way Rayleigh trained Luffy under the guise of "simple" labor.
Stretching, shaking or twisting, giving people a feeling of eagerness to try and can't wait which makes many guards stunned.
This is something they had never seen before even after years of guarding slaves, even in places as brutal as Tequila Wolf or the Celestial Dragon compounds on Mary Geoise, none had ever seen a newly arrived child slave move with such unnatural enthusiasm and initiative.
Three minutes later, the basket fell again and Lu Kai consciously carried it up again.
This time even Stone was stunned. He had planned to keep a close eye on Lu Kai today—if Lu Kai slacked off for even a moment, Stone had intended to beat him to death, like how the guards at the Human Auctioning House on Sabaody treated those who resisted. However, he didn't expect Lu Kai to not give him any chance at all.
Although Lu Kai had systematic guidance, his body was too weak after all—after three hours of high-load carrying, comparable to slave labor in the mines of Kaido's Udon Prison, Lu Kai was almost exhausted, and his hands and feet began to twitch.
Just when Lu Kai felt he couldn't hold on any longer, a child in the distance suddenly collapsed falling to the ground without any warning.
The guard at the side immediately stepped forward but instead of checking on the child, he kicked the child hard in the abdomen, just like how Celestial Dragons treat "spoiled merchandise" during inspections.
Seeing that the child had no reaction at all, the guard grabbed one of his legs and dragged him away like a dead dog—it was obvious that the child would be dragged to the processing room, a place whispered about by the others as worse than the arena under Doflamingo's reign in Dressrosa.
During the whole process, all the children continued with their work numbly as if they did not see this scene at all, or they had already become accustomed to it, just like the robotic behavior of Wano's prisoners after years under Queen's control.
But it was the first time Lu Kai saw a young life die tragically in front of him his whole body trembled uncontrollably, and his face became extremely ugly.
After his memories, emotions, and feelings were completely integrated with little Lu Kai—Lu Kai's perception of the world also changed, and an indescribable depression lingered in his heart for a long time, much like how Robin felt when she saw Ohara burn as a child.
The ugliness, darkness, and evil of this world constantly refreshed Lu Kai's cognition which was completely different from when he read One Piece as a comic in his previous life.
It also made Lu Kai slowly accept the reality this is not a fairy tale or a comic book, but a real world; in many corners of the world, it is filled with endless filth and evil, like the lawless zones of the New World or the shadows behind Mariejois's golden walls.
At least in the place where Lu Kai is, there is no sunshine and happiness no passion and adventure, only despair, like the hopelessness enslaved children felt building the Red Line's bridge in Tequila Wolf for 700 years.
The child could be no more than eight years old.
Lu Kai lowered his head and said nothing but in his heart he felt an indescribable depression, anger that had nowhere to vent, and a strong sense of sadness.
At this moment, Lu Kai suddenly felt very angry he hated himself for being weak and unable to help these people, he hated these inhumane guards, and he hated this factory that did not treat people as human beings, much like how Fisher Tiger came to loathe the Celestial Dragons' system after escaping from Mary Geoise.
Lu Kai didn't know whether this thought was supposed to come to him originally or it appeared after integrating little Lu Kai's memories and emotions, but it didn't matter, because this was how he really felt.
In the end, Lu Kai could only turn all his emotions into motivation for training he gritted his teeth and moved the objects even harder in order to ease his indescribable mood.
The first day of moving was not completed until midnight Lu Kai lined up with all the other children, waiting to receive food.
Their food was a piece of black, sour bread per person which was served three times a day, comparable to the starvation rations given in Wano's Prisoner Mine, where even dango could mean life or death. After eating the bread, Lu Kai entered a room that looked like a prison cell.
The room was only about 20 square meters and 1.5 meters high but there were as many as 20 people in it.
In this crowded space, most people had dull expressions and showed no interest in Lu Kai—most of them fell asleep due to extreme fatigue, like the worn-down gazes of the children on Punk Hazard after Caesar's experiments.
These children are clearly at their most active age—yet every day they do work that is almost torturous to death and far beyond their ability to endure, as if they were in the labor pits once run by Orochi's men.
These people, who are already extremely sore and tired, don't have enough rest time so they won't waste it on roommates who can be replaced at any time.
Lu Kai did not rest like his roommates but continued training in the corner of the room. The daytime moving made Lu Kai feel his own progress.
The system is worthy of being a system the guidance function is so powerful that it provides the most accurate guidance based on Lu Kai's current physical condition.
Because there was no foundation, no facilities, equipment or weapons Lu Kai first did strength training for every muscle in the body in this small corner.
The system provides a complete set of movements when Lu Kai is training, he knows what to exercise first and what to exercise later, as well as what posture and strength to use for each exercise.
How to breathe, when to rest, what kind of stretching exercises to do during rest and what is the best way to relax are all reminders at all times, just like how the Six Powers (Rokushiki) style is taught in a strict progression from Soru to Rankyaku.
The movements given by the system seemed strange to Lu Kai and they were all very difficult. After completing a whole set, Lu Kai sat on the floor gasping for breath.
Today was the longest day of training for Lu Kai in his two lifetimes but it was also the most enjoyable day for him. Although he was extremely tired, he felt refreshed.
After the strength training, the system reminded Lu Kai to do physical training and gave him a complete set of movements. Lu Kai continued to train under the guidance of the system.
After that, it's explosive training again…
The reason why he was trying so hard was because Lu Kai wanted to escape from hereband in order to escape, he must have enough strength, and the system was his greatest hope, much like how Luffy trained with Rayleigh for two years just to survive the New World.
And because of the system's 'zero reset' function Lu Kai is not afraid of ruining himself.
Clear: At 6:00 a.m. every day, all negative states of the host caused by exercise, combat, injury, poisoning, etc. in the previous day will be completely cleared.
The progress is gratifying but Lu Kai is not in a good mood.
He just felt that if there was an election to select the most miserable time traveler he deserved it. He and the original owner, Xiao Lu Kai, were simply brothers in distress. There is no most miserable, only more miserable.
If they had participated in the China's Miserable King Competition the two would not have had to exaggerate or make up stories, and they would have surely secured the national championship and runner-up spots.
At that time, no one would have thought that just because there was one more slave in a corner of the world, the whole world would undergo earth-shaking changes one day in the future.
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