"Damn product manager, I'll f*ck your f*cking a*s!"
Levi felt his brain was like an overloaded server, CPU scalding, fans screaming.
Yet, he still couldn't process the mountain of bugs and requirements.
For seventy-two consecutive hours, caffeine and energy drinks sustained his already numb nerves.
The dense lines of code before his eyes began to twist, dance, and finally transformed into a dazzling white light.
"This requirement… is really f*cking troublesome…" This was his last thought before his consciousness plunged into boundless darkness.
A typical programmer's sudden death script, utterly unoriginal, not even worthy of making the social section of local news… After an unknown amount of time, an indescribably soft touch gently lifted Levi from the deep darkness.
It wasn't the smell of hospital disinfectant, nor was it a cold floor.
It was… dry, sun-scented straw?
He painstakingly peeled open his eyelids, which felt impossibly heavy, and his blurry vision gradually focused.
A wooden ceiling, rough walls, and beneath him, a simple bed laid with straw.
The air was filled with the salty tang characteristic of sea breeze, mixed with a faint… an elusive, strange fruity aroma?
"I'm not at my workstation…"
Levi sat up in a daze, a fierce headache making him gasp, but more than that, there was a sense of languor after a long sleep.
It was as if every cell in his body was shouting, "Don't want to move, let me lie here for another five hundred years."
He looked around. This was an extremely simple wooden hut, sparsely furnished, looking like a seaside fisherman's dwelling.
Outside the window, he heard the sound of waves crashing against the shore and seagulls crying.
Transmigrated?
As a seasoned otaku and programmer, he was familiar with this setup.
He just didn't expect such "good fortune" to befall him, a corporate drone who only wanted to be a salted fish.
"That's fine…" Levi let out a long breath, with a strange calm.
"At least I don't have to change requirements anymore, and I don't have to work overtime…"
What was his ultimate dream?
Wasn't it to lie flat without pressure, muddle through life, and enjoy it?
Writing code? That was a necessary evil to earn a living.
What he truly yearned for was the life of a salted fish: sunbathing, reading novels, and playing games (if this world had them).
He even started a half-finished fanfiction of Pirate King online, with the protagonist being the embodiment of his dream.
An individual with invincible abilities whose sole ambition was to sidestep any trouble and comfortably live out his days as a salted fish.
For that protagonist, he had poured (imagined) a lot of effort.
He specifically designed a Devil Fruit that perfectly fit the lazy person's ideal—a conceptual [Fruit of Sloth].
He still remembered the ability settings clearly!
Passive trouble avoidance, actively making people sleepy, awakening directly making everyone in the domain lie flat… Its power was not in destruction, but in "negation," negating all trouble.
It was simply the dream fruit for a lazy person like him.
"Sigh, what am I thinking…"
Levi chuckled self-deprecatingly.
"Transmigration is already outlandish enough; could an imagined fruit really be delivered to my doorstep?"
He habitually reached to rub his still throbbing temples, but then suddenly glimpsed something on the bedside table.
It was a wooden tray, padded with a clean soft cloth. In the tray, a fruit lay quietly.
The shape of this fruit was extremely strange, like several twisted spirals barely pieced together.
It was entirely a hazy, pale purple, as if it hadn't woken up yet, covered with curled patterns resembling "Z" symbols that appear when dozing off. The whole thing exuded an air of "I'm sleepy, don't bother me" decadence.
An indescribable, yet soul-stirring, strange fruity aroma was faintly emanating from this fruit.
Levi's eyes instantly widened.
This appearance… these patterns… this aura that seemed to make people drowsy at a glance… Impossible! Absolutely impossible!
He lunged forward, his hands trembling as he picked up the fruit, observing it carefully, over and over again.
Every detail, every curve, even that annoying lazy feeling, was exactly the same as the [Fruit of Sloth] he had typed into his document and fantasized about countless times in his mind!
"Fruit… Fruit of Sloth?"
His voice was dry, filled with disbelieving horror.
Why would the Devil Fruit from his imagination appear here?
Appear before him, a newly transmigrated programmer?
Was it a coincidence? Or… an utterly absurd yet uniquely logical conjecture, like a lightning bolt, struck his mind.
Could it be… not only did he transmigrate, but he also transmigrated into the lazy protagonist of his own unfinished novel?
Could this world actually follow the settings of his abandoned novel?
After the immense shock, an indescribable ecstasy and a huge sense of relief, like a warm current, instantly swept through Levi's limbs and bones.
The programmer's instinct made him subconsciously begin to analyze the situation:
Known: Transmigrated into a world suspected to be Pirate King.
Known: An [Fruit of Sloth] appeared next to him, perfectly consistent with his own settings.
Goal: Live a carefree salted fish life.
Conclusion: Eat it! Immediately! Right now!
With this fruit, what trouble couldn't be "too lazy to bother with"? What danger couldn't be "too troublesome, just sleep"? This was his long-sought VIP direct ticket to the ultimate lie-flat life!
As for the Devil Fruit's terrible taste, which was said to be enough to kill a chef?
"Compared to working seventy-two hours straight, compared to the product manager's bizarre requirements… this is nothing!"
Levi's face showed his first genuine smile since transmigrating, full of relief and anticipation.
"Better a short pain than a long one, just gulp it down!"
He no longer hesitated. With a pilgrim-like reverence, he opened his mouth and took a fierce bite out of the fruit that exuded the power of "laziness"!
"Ugh—!!!"
The next second, an indescribable, ultimate taste, as if it had gathered all the troubles and pains of the world, exploded on his taste buds!
Levi's face instantly crumpled into a ball, the strong physiological nausea making him almost vomit out his bile.
But at the same time, a strange, warm, and languid power also quickly flowed through his throat to his entire body, finally surging into his brain.
His body became light, and an unprecedented "laziness" permeated from the depths of his soul.
It was as if the whole world had pressed the slow-motion button, and he was the only one who could decide whether to press the pause button.
In his mind, some understanding seemed to emerge, about how to define "trouble" and how to issue "sloth" commands.
It succeeded… Although the taste was a human torment, but… "It was worth it…" Levi suppressed the urge to vomit, collapsing back onto the straw bed, feeling that even moving a finger was too much trouble.
"From today onwards… no matter how big the trouble… don't expect me to get out of bed…"
Warm sunlight streamed through the window, lazily falling upon him.
The sea breeze blew, bringing the scent of distant lands.
Levi, or rather, the reborn Levi with the power of the Fruit of Sloth, let out a huge yawn, physiological tears squeezing from the corners of his eyes.
"First… let's set a small goal…"
"First, I'll sleep for three days and three nights… The rest… we'll talk about later… So troublesome…"
His voice gradually faded into inaudibility, and steady, long breaths began to sound, echoing the waves outside the window.
The legend of the salted fish, at this moment, quietly began.