The moment sensation returned to his body, Yuuki felt a wave of intense pain wash over him, accompanied by the earthy stench of blood-soaked soil, one he found oddly familiar.
"What the hell is going on…?"
He tried to recall the last thing before everything blacked out.
He remembered sitting in front of his computer, about to register for that One Piece game under Tencent, just as he'd finished typing his username,
A massive ghostly axe suddenly appeared and swung down toward him.
Then, nothing. Just endless darkness.
Biting down the pain coursing through his limbs, he forced his eyes open. He was lying in a bush, his body scratched and torn by sharp claws. As he struggled to sit up, Yuuki was startled to discover something utterly wrong.
His body, had shrunk.
He was no longer the twenty-something-year-old man he remembered. Judging by size alone, he couldn't be more than ten years old!
"What the hell? A transmigration, and I start off mortally wounded?!"
Yuuki looked at his mangled clothes, now barely rags clinging to his torn-up frame. His skin was caked in dirt, likely an attempt to mask the smell of blood.
"What the hell happened before I got here…?"
Suddenly, fragmented memories surged into his mind.
A dark dungeon. A woman's embrace soaked in blood. Ragged gasps during a desperate sprint. A ship tossed by wind and waves under a thunderous sky. The biting chill of seawater and the gut-wrenching sensation of being weightless,
Yuuki clutched his head.
It felt like someone had forcibly stuffed a hundred memories into his skull at once, his brain on the verge of bursting from the overload.
His breathing turned frantic as if trying to suck every last molecule of oxygen from the air.
But the pain only worsened, and with it, the torrent of memories came crashing down.
A black flag adorned with a pale skull. Storms, waves, pirates. Screams. Clashing swords. Blood splatter. The earth trembling underfoot.
"No way… That's…"
One detail stood out, a crescent-shaped mustache on the skull in the flag.
That was the mark of Edward Newgate.
Also known as Whitebeard, [The World's Strongest Man].
And just like that, the fragments of memory converged into a single identity.
His new name was… Credos Vito.
"I actually transmigrated into a manga world? And of all places, One Piece?"
Yuuki, now Vito, was flooded with mixed feelings. He had followed the series back home, and would even consider himself a casual fan. But to live in that world? That was another matter entirely.
Pirates. Marines. Beasts. Natural disasters. The collateral damage from battles between monsters disguised as men…
Without overwhelming strength, a normal person wouldn't survive long in this world.
Suddenly,
"Grrrr…"
A low growl jolted Vito from his thoughts. He turned to see a massive, spotted tiger looming in the underbrush, its fangs bared, saliva dripping from its jaws.
It clearly saw him as prey.
"Hey! Look! What's that?!"
Without hesitation, Vito pointed in a random direction. Then, fueled by raw fear and desperation, his battered body surged with adrenaline. He bolted, sprinting like his life depended on it, because it did.
The tiger, curious, actually looked toward where he pointed.
It saw nothing.
Its feline eyes narrowed in confusion for a second.
"ROAR!!"
Then it realized, this little brat had tricked it!
It snarled and lunged after him with a vengeance.
"AHHHH! IT'S A FEMALE TIGER!"
The tiger flinched and turned its head again.
"LOOK! A PIG'S FLYING!"
It turned again.
Thankfully, this was the One Piece world, where even animals seemed just a bit more gullible than usual. With sheer dumb luck and misdirection, Vito managed to dive deeper into the jungle.
Of course, along the way, he made more enemies than friends.
A tiger. An elephant. A python. A lion. A crocodile…
An entire stampede of monstrous beasts now chased after him like he owed them money.
The forest exploded into chaos behind him.
But then, just as Vito stumbled closer to the island's heart, something changed.
The beasts… stopped.
Their growls turned to low whimpers. Some even backed away. They all stared ahead with visible fear, as if something truly terrifying lay just beyond.
"What… what the hell is up ahead?"
He didn't have time to ponder.
His wounds were still bleeding. His limbs were numb. Every second counted. If he passed out now, he might never wake up again.
It was do or die.
Whatever lay ahead, it had to be better than waiting to be eaten or bleeding out in the middle of the forest.
So he made his decision.
Go forward, no matter what.
With the immediate threat of predators gone, the exhaustion hit him like a tidal wave. His lungs felt like they were on fire. His legs weighed like iron blocks. Every breath was a battle.
Staggering forward, he fought against the temptation to close his eyes and fall.
"I can't… give up… not yet…"
But as he inched closer to the island's core, a new sensation struck him.
Terror.
His instincts screamed at him, predator nearby.
The kind that wasn't prey to anything.
Then, he saw it.
An apple tree.
Scattered at its base were apples… and among them, one stood out.
A strange, blue fruit covered in swirling spiral patterns.
He knew immediately what it was.
A Devil Fruit.
In the world of One Piece, these fruits granted supernatural powers in exchange for the ability to swim. But that was a laughable price to pay considering the power they offered.
Logia. Paramecia. Zoan.
And if you were lucky, a Mythical Zoan. A class that combined monstrous physical prowess with fantastical abilities.
Of course, not all fruits were game-changers.
Case in point: Chopper's Human-Human Fruit. To a normal person, it would just make you a slightly more intelligent flightless duck.
Still,
To Vito, this was salvation.
As he picked up the fruit, he noticed something strange. Amid the spirals, additional markings twisted into unnatural lines… and when he tilted the fruit slightly,
Was that… a face?
"What kind of fruit is this…?"
He didn't have time to care.
Without hesitation, he bit into it.
Bitter. Rotten. Revolting.
There weren't enough words to describe how vile it tasted. The rumors were true, it really was like eating crap.
But he didn't stop.
Gritting his teeth, Vito shoved the rest of the fruit into his mouth and forced it down.
His body collapsed instantly. Knees hit the dirt.
And that was the moment the beasts descended.
"ROAR!!"
Tigers. Lions. Crocodiles. Snakes.
They had waited, and now, they pounced.
In the middle of the stampede, his small, fragile child's body knelt motionless on the forest floor.
Small, broken and helpless.
//----------------------------------------------------//
//--- Add to Collection!
//--- 150 P.S = 1 Extra Chapter