Chapter 1: The Boy Who Trains to Survive
"Huff! Huff!"
"Ten thousand... thirty thousand... two hundred and twenty-one!"
"Ten thousand... thirty thousand... two hundred and twenty-one!"
On the edge of a cliffside beach, a powerfully built young man—no more than seventeen or eighteen—gritted his teeth as he lifted a dumbbell nearly ten times his size. Each swing carved through the air, generating powerful gusts that howled like the wind before a storm.
He had been at it for nearly half the day.
Sweat streamed down his chiseled frame and soaked the rocky ground beneath him. Standing over 190 centimeters tall, his bulging muscles and honed physique made it hard to believe he was only fourteen years old.
"Fourteen thousand!"
Boom!
The moment he hit that number, his body gave in. The hundred-ton dumbbell crashed to the ground, shaking the beach beneath him.
"Damn… I'm exhausted," he panted, collapsing onto the sand. His arms trembled uncontrollably.
"But still—three thousand more than yesterday!" he said with a grin, clenching his fists. The sheer weight of the dumbbell, and the fact that he had swung it over fourteen thousand times, was already superhuman.
But then again, this was no ordinary world.
This was the world of One Piece—a world where strength was everything. And this boy, now called Charlotte Rockefeller, had been reincarnated into it.
He had watched One Piece as a kid in his previous life, never imagining he'd one day wake up in that very world.
But he hadn't landed in the age of Luffy. Not even close.
When he was ten, he saw a newspaper article mentioning the Rocks Pirates—a name that only true fans of One Piece would recognize. That's when he realized the truth: it was the year 1480. The era of Gol D. Roger had yet to begin. The future Warlords of the Sea were still kids. And the World Government's strongest weapons—the Admirals—were still in training.
It would be another forty years before Monkey D. Luffy set sail from Foosha Village.
Charlotte was stunned when he pieced it all together.
Everyone who's ever watched One Piece knows—this world is dangerous. Even more so in the New World... which, unfortunately, was exactly where he had ended up.
Waking up in the body of a ten-year-old boy had been jarring enough. But realizing he was in the New World, home to monsters and pirates who could destroy entire towns, sent him into a panic.
It took time, but he eventually calmed down. In his past life, he had been a mercenary, so adapting to extreme situations wasn't new—though this one definitely topped the list.
His career had started as a joke. A friend had once told him about summer jobs in the Middle East that paid crazy money. On a whim, he signed up. One thing led to another, and he found himself part of a real mercenary group, dodging bullets for cash.
As the saying goes: Play with fire, get burned.
During a firefight with a group known only as "Little Black," a grenade rolled to his feet. He never saw who threw it. The blast came without warning.
The next time he opened his eyes, he was lying on a rocky beach—reborn in the body of a child.
The original boy had drowned while fishing, slammed into rocks by a powerful wave. Now, Charlotte had taken his place.
The island he washed up on was tiny—more of a large town, with a population of just over a thousand. Though located in the first half of the New World, the nearby presence of Marine Branch G-8 helped keep pirate activity to a minimum.
That base wasn't famous like Marineford, but for a ten-year-old trying to survive, it was comfort enough.
Once Charlotte had assessed the situation, he tapped into his memories of One Piece. To his surprise, everything came back vividly—names, arcs, powers. Despite having left his otaku days behind as a mercenary, he now recalled every detail with sharp clarity.
And that gave him hope.
If he could remember just some of the key events and characters, that would be enough to survive—maybe even thrive.
But Charlotte didn't want to just survive.
He wanted to make a name for himself in this world.
He wasn't the kind to settle down quietly and wait out history. No, he would carve out his legacy with his own hands.
And so, at ten years old, Charlotte began his training.
He knew One Piece wasn't a normal world. The Great Pirate Era would eventually flood the seas with chaos. Pirates, warlords, emperors—the threats were endless.
If he wanted to stay alive—and live on his own terms—he needed power.
And One Piece had no shortage of power systems:
Swordsmanship
Hand-to-hand combat
Haki (Armament, Observation, Conqueror's)
Devil Fruits
Gunplay
As a former mercenary, he naturally considered guns first. But the firearms in this world? Obsolete. Muskets and flintlocks were a joke compared to modern weapons. That path was out.
Next: Devil Fruits.
That was a no-go too. He didn't have one, and good luck finding one randomly.
As for Haki, he had read enough to know the basics:
Observation Haki could be trained early. Armament Haki required more physical development. Conqueror's Haki? A rare gift, one in a million—no way to know if he had it.
With most options ruled out, two paths remained: body training and swordsmanship.
Thankfully, he knew a thing or two about both.
He remembered how Zoro trained in the anime: endless reps, weighted swings, endurance drills. Combine that with the physical conditioning he had learned as a merc, and he had a solid training plan.
As for swordsmanship? He didn't know any techniques, but he figured if he kept swinging long enough, something would stick. Zoro didn't start with fancy moves either.
So Charlotte set his sights on the basics: build his body, train his reflexes, and get strong enough to survive whatever this world threw at him.
Two days after recovering from the original body's injuries, he began training in earnest.
To his shock, his recovery had been insanely fast—bones that should have taken months to heal were fine in 48 hours.
At first, he thought it was some kind of miracle.
Then he learned what he had been eating.
Sea King meat.
The same kind of beast that once bit off Shanks' arm.
No wonder his body bounced back like a rubber band.
That realization sparked a new idea in Charlotte's mind:
If Sea King meat could heal injuries this fast...
What else could it do?
Maybe eating well in this world really could make someone stronger...
And so, his true journey began—with a hundred-ton dumbbell and the fire to live free on the sea.
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