Chapter 1: The Boy of Cocoyasi Village
As autumn deepened, a heavy rain swept over Cocoyasi Village.
"Whoa, why did it suddenly start raining so hard!"
"Shane, big bro, run faster!"
At dusk, a black-haired boy burst through the gate of the orange grove. He carried two large baskets of oranges on a shoulder pole, sprinting towards the village.
A rustling sound came from the baskets, and two small figures popped out from the piles of oranges, peeking out from over the boy's shoulders.
"Full speed ahead, Battleship Shane! The intersection is three hundred meters away! Hard to port!" the orange-haired girl on the left shouted, raising her right hand high with heroic spirit.
"Nami, be a little more considerate. Brother is already exhausted," the blue-haired girl on the right said gently, holding up a small umbrella with a slight frown.
"Huh? You're the considerate one? If you were so considerate, you wouldn't still be sitting in the basket!"
"Wh-what are you talking about! I need to hold the umbrella for brother! He's a whole head taller than me, how am I supposed to shield him if I'm not sitting up here!"
"Tch. Well, I'm directing him so he doesn't have to look down and can see the road. I'm definitely more useful than you!"
...
Shane was already used to his two little sisters' familiar bickering. He glanced at the umbrella, which was nowhere near his own head, and quietly quickened his pace.
Even though both his sisters and a hundred and thirty kilograms of oranges were on his shoulders, the boy ran as if he were flying, his breathing steady and calm.
A few moments later, a familiar house appeared in his line of sight.
The lights were already on.
Through the window, he could see a slender figure busy in the kitchen. Smoke curled up from the chimney, mixing with the rain and fog before vanishing.
He pushed open the wooden door with his right hand, and the warm, orange glow of the fireplace instantly enveloped him.
In the cozy light, the sweet scent of oranges and pinewood rushed to greet him, pushing the cold, damp air back outside.
Shane set the baskets down with a thud, closed the door, and collapsed onto the old sofa, stretching out his limbs into a star shape with a comfortable sigh.
The firelight turned the twilight into thick, molten caramel, flowing over his outstretched arms and legs.
In that single moment, all the soreness and fatigue seemed to drift away with the sound of the desolate rain.
"Oh, you're back, Nojiko, Nami?"
The sound of footsteps from the kitchen grew closer. "And Shane, you've worked really hard lately."
Oops! The two little ones scrambled out of the baskets in a panic, but in their haste, they knocked the baskets over. They both tumbled to the floor with a thud, and the golden oranges rolled across the room like little suns.
"Ah, I knew it!"
A young woman in an apron, her hair tied in a deep red ponytail, stood with her hands on her hips, looking angrily at her two daughters.
"You said you were going to help your brother, but you were really just going to cause trouble, weren't you? Riding in his baskets again. Are you only happy when he's exhausted?"
"Belle-mère, we know we were wrong..." Nami and Nojiko looked pitifully at the floor, kicking their toes.
"It's fine, Belle-mère," Shane said from the sofa, turning his head. His tired voice was gentle. "Don't blame them. The rain came down so hard and fast, I told them to hide in the baskets. It keeps them dry, and it's good exercise for me."
"Yeah, yeah," the two guilty little rascals immediately chimed in.
"Argh, you two are so infuriating! When will you ever be as sensible as Shane!"
Belle-mère lightly bonked both girls on the head with her fist, ultimately not having the heart to use any real force. "Don't do it again. Go get a towel, dry your hair, and come eat!"
Saved! Nojiko and Nami shot a look of immense gratitude toward their big brother before cheering and running to the kitchen table.
"Belle-mère, what's for dinner tonight... Is that duck breast with orange sauce? Yay!"
"And honey-glazed ribs! Wow, let me have a taste!"
"Hey! Did you wash your hands before grabbing food? You two little devils, at least wait for your brother!"
...
Listening to the cheerful chatter from the kitchen, Shane leaned back contentedly. Suddenly, he felt the warmth of a ceramic mug against the back of his neck. The comforting aroma of ginger ale mixed with honey snaked into his nose.
"Hurry up and drink it while it's hot."
Belle-mère's exasperated voice sounded beside him. "All you do is protect your two sisters. You don't know how to take care of yourself."
She then took a set of clean clothes from the wardrobe. Before Shane could react, she swiftly pulled off his wet shirt and began wiping his upper body with a hot towel.
"Uh, hey, Belle-mère," Shane tried to pull away but was forcefully held in place. He looked embarrassed. "I'm thirteen years old now. You really don't have to do this. I can do it myself."
"Don't talk nonsense!" Belle-mère asserted her adoptive mother's authority, leaving no room for argument. "You're only two years older than Nojiko. Stop pretending to be a grown-up. Stand still!"
It was no use.
Shane could only let her fuss over him like a doll, an unwilling expression on his face.
Deep down, however, a wave of warmth spread through his heart.
To be able to live in Cocoyasi, to grow up in a family like this... It's truly wonderful.
When had his past self ever experienced something like this?
At twelve, he cut the back of his hand changing a lightbulb for the first time in the orphanage. At twenty-five, he collapsed from overworking all night and was carried away in an ambulance. On his twenty-sixth birthday, the line on his ICU heart monitor went flat...
Until he suddenly opened his eyes.
He found himself a five-year-old boy, covered in blood and grime, surrounded by ruins. A female Marine wearing a white coat of "Justice" had struggled to bend down and extend a life-saving hand to him.
...
"How many times have I told you!" Belle-mère suddenly twisted his ear, not too hard. "Don't push yourself! Don't push yourself! You harvested twelve baskets of oranges today and still insisted on making a seventh trip. Don't you know that little boys trying to be heroes are the first to catch a cold!"
Shane winced, quickly reaching for the towel, only to have a dry set of clothes with the fresh scent of citrus thrown over his head.
The rough-knit sweater was slightly itchy against his neck. Amidst the crackling of the fire, he could hear her rustling as she tidied up his wet clothes.
The mountain of plaid shirts from his past life had never once smelled of sunshine. But now, the feeling of the coarse fabric against his skin caused a strange, swelling ache in his chest.
Shane looked at his reflection in the mirror.
Black hair, black eyes. The face of a handsome thirteen-year-old boy was bathed in the warm light, his eyelashes still damp from the towel.
The lonely figure that once stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows of a skyscraper had long since been ground to dust by the ticking of the old grandfather clock in the living room.
"Thank you," he said suddenly in a low voice.
Belle-mère, who was bent over picking up the clothes, paused for a moment before resuming her task.
"What are you talking about? I should be the one thanking you," she said. "You've taken on all the hard, tiring work in the orange grove. You make me, the mother, look like a useless fool. Honestly, you're still just a kid, but your strength is already so terrifying."
"I wonder who your birth parents were. I feel like they must have been someone important. Like, once you get older, BAM, your bloodline will awaken and you'll inherit some incredible power..."
Bloodline power?
What bloodline? Suddenly awakening? I'm not some Sun God Nika.
Shane was momentarily stunned, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
For the first few years after his reincarnation, he had lived in a daze, playing and fighting with his sisters every day, picking mushrooms in the mountains one day and catching fish in the river the next, just like a real child.
It wasn't until about two years ago, when he was around ten, that his brain fully developed, and he began to sort out the memories of his past and present lives.
His parents in this life were just ordinary people from the Oykot Kingdom who had died in that tragic war. There was nothing special about them.
If Belle-mère hadn't happened to save him and raise him, he would have long since become another body in the ruins.
However...
He could understand Belle-mère's rambling.
His performance was indeed a cut above the rest, especially in a small East Blue village like Cocoyasi. At only thirteen, his strength was already unbelievable. In the wrestling competition at the recent harvest festival, not a single one of the hundred or so adult men in the village was his match. They couldn't even last a few rounds against him.
An ordinary background, an ordinary bloodline.
Raised in a rural farming family with no famous master to guide him.
The reason he possessed such strength was, naturally, because of the "golden finger" he carried with him.
"Deep Sea," Shane recited the activation word in his mind.
The system instantly booted up. The air rippled like fine silk, and a deep blue light screen, visible only to him, appeared in his vision.
This was the "Sacrifice Trading System" he had awakened three years ago.
[Name: Shane]
[Age: 13]
[Height: 159cm]
[Strength: 1.9]
[Agility: 1.8]
[Endurance: 1.7]
[Spirit: 1.3]
[Remaining Points: 25]
[Skills & Talents: Breathing Fist (Adept), One-Sword Style (Beginner), Cooking (Beginner), Fruit Tree Cultivation (Adept), Fishing (Master)]
An average adult in the world of One Piece had a baseline of 1.0 in each stat. Although Shane's stats were only in the high ones, he was confident he could easily fight off seven or eight adult men with his bare hands. After all, he had only been playing around in the wrestling tournament, not using his true strength at all.
Clearly, the calculation for stats wasn't simple addition. It most likely followed some sort of exponential function, where even a small increase of a few decimal points resulted in a massive difference in power.
The so-called Sacrifice Trading System, as the name implied, had a trading market that offered a few items for purchase with points, refreshing once a month.
The source of these points was providing acceptable sacrifices. After sacrificing an item, he would receive points equivalent to its value.
When he first awakened the system, Shane had no idea what counted as a sacrifice. He experimented with everything all over the mountains, even trying to sacrifice a passing dog. But whether it was a freshly caught fat fish, a rabbit hunted in the forest, or a large 1,000-Belli banknote, none of them could be sacrificed.
Until one day, by chance, he tried it on Belle-mère's old service pistol from her time as a Marine.
Like a blind cat finding a dead mouse, it actually worked.
The system even thoughtfully provided an appraisal panel:
[Sacrifice: Belle-mère's Old Flintlock]
[Quality: Excellent]
[Value: 50 Points]
[Appraisal: The weapon that accompanied Belle-mère throughout her youth. Its worn body witnessed her growth from a rookie recruit to a capable soldier on the battlefield. Even after her retirement, she often polished this gun. It is not just a memory, but also the crutch that supports her and this family. It holds immense significance for her.]
It was way too thoughtful.
After reading the appraisal, Shane tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep a wink from guilt. The next day, when Belle-mère discovered the pistol was missing and stood at the door fuming and cursing the "thief" all morning, he wanted nothing more than to slap himself a few times.
I'm so damned!
So, after the guilt gradually subsided, he tried to pick less conspicuous targets. For example, Nami's orange-blossom hairpin and Nojiko's forehead band. These were cheap items Shane had bought for his sisters years ago when the family was still poor. They were old and worn out, and it was about time for new ones anyway.
And the result... the sacrifice was successful.
But the damned system still loved to stab him in the heart.
[Sacrifice: Nami's Orange-Blossom Hairpin]
[Quality: Common]
[Value: 180 Points]
[Appraisal: A cheap accessory that cost one hundred Belli at the general store, but young Nami adores it, treating it as a treasure. She wears it every day, reluctant to take it off, even placing it under her pillow when she sleeps. It carries the deepening emotional bond between brother and sister.]
...
[Sacrifice: Nojiko's Old Headband]
[Quality: Common]
[Value: 30 Points]
[Appraisal: A faded strip of cloth stained with orange juice, difficult to wash clean. Nojiko, with her awareness as the eldest daughter, would use it to tie her forehead when her mother and brother were busy in the grove. She did this to prevent sweat from stinging her eyes, fearing it would make her doting brother worry.]
That day, Shane was silent for a long time, then gave himself another two slaps.
I'm so, so damned!