The last thing Accel Winchester remembered of Earth was the glow of his monitor at 3:17 a.m. He had just finished binge-reading One Piece chapter 1137 for the third time, muttering "Oda, you absolute madman" while the credits of the newest anime episode rolled. Eighteen years old, freshly graduated, acceptance letter to a decent comp-sci university sitting unopened on his desk; life was supposed to start in September.
Then the screen flickered white. Not blue-screen-of-death white. Pure, blinding, world-erasing white.
When the light finally dimmed, he was face-down in warm sand that smelled faintly of salt and sun-dried seaweed. Gulls screamed overhead. Real gulls. Not the muffled city pigeons outside his apartment window.
He pushed himself up, coughing, heart jackhammering. Blue sky. Real ocean. A tiny village of maybe thirty wooden houses in the distance, smoke curling from chimneys. No cars. No power lines. No Wi-Fi bars in the corner of his vision.
"…You've got to be kidding me."
Before panic could fully set in, a translucent blue panel materialized in front of his eyes with the familiar ding of every system novel he'd ever read.
Welcome, Traveler Accel Winchester
World: One Piece (East Blue Sea)
Insertion Complete
You have received the ★ Impact System ★
Awakening Path: Available
Unique Feature: Impact Point (IP)
Growth Type: Unlimited (System-Bound)
Current IP: 100
Current Title: None
Current Location: Unnamed island, 40 km northeast of Shells Town
Timeline: Sea Circle Calendar 1518 (exactly two years before Luffy leaves Foosha Village)
Current IP: 100 → 90 (after first Cannonball test)
Current Identity: Accel Winchester → "Seaman Recruit Accel" (official Marine badge registered in system)
Affiliation: Marines (provisional cover)
Bounty: 0 Berries (for now)
The sun was setting blood-orange over the tiny harbor when Accel finished buttoning the crisp white-and-blue uniform. The fabric fit perfectly, as if it had been tailored on his body while he slept. The Marine badge on his chest gleamed with the standard gull-and-anchor emblem, and a small name tag now read: ACCEL – BRANCH 153 – SEAMAN RECRUIT
He looked ridiculous and perfect at the same time.
Impact System (offline – 47 h 58 m remaining)
Compensation Chest claimed Item obtained:
Seaman Recruit Uniform Set (Rank 0)
Buffs active (see previous message)
Accel exhaled, rolled his shoulders, and faced the empty beach again. No villagers had come to check on the earlier explosion; they were used to pirates testing cannons on the far side of the island. Good. Less explaining.
He raised his right hand. White fractures crawled over his knuckles like living lightning.
Skill: Cannonball (Level 1)
Cost: 10 IP Cooldown: 10 s
Range: 2–3 m (pathetic)
Trajectory: whatever "drunken baseball" looks like
He threw.
The glowing sphere arced in a sad, wobbling parabola and detonated harmlessly against a palm tree six meters away. Bark exploded outward; the tree listed but didn't fall. A flock of gulls screamed at him in disgust.
Accel grimaced. "Again."
Throw. Miss. Throw. Miss. By the twentieth attempt he was sweating, IP down to 50, and the beach looked like a meteor shower had decided to practice golf.
He dropped to one knee, panting.
"…This is harder than Garp makes it look."
A new notification flickered—silent, because the main System was offline, but a sub-module still worked.
[Training Quest Generated – Offline Mode]
Objective 1: Land 50 Cannonballs within 3 m of a marked target (coconuts placed on driftwood)
Reward: Cannonball range +2 m, precision +5 %, IP +50
Time Limit: 48 hours (while System is offline)
Accel stared at the row of coconuts he hadn't even noticed appearing in the sand. They were arranged in a neat line, 15 meters away.
He barked out a tired laugh. "Fine. You want a Marine? I'll give you a Marine."
Night fell. The only light came from the moon and the faint white glow of each Cannonball he hurled into the dark.
Again.
Again.
Again.
By dawn the next day, the beach was scarred with perfect craters. Forty-nine coconuts were dust.
He formed the fiftieth sphere. This time it didn't wobble. It flew straight, fast, and punched through the final coconut like a railgun slug. The shockwave uprooted the driftwood log and sent it tumbling into the surf.
Quest Complete
Cannonball upgraded → Level 2
Range: 2–5 m
Precision: +5 %
IP: 100 → 150
New Passive Skill: Last Stand
-> Survive a Fatal Damage once per 24 hours.
Accel collapsed onto the sand, chest heaving, staring at the Marine cap in his hands.
Two years. He had two full years before the Straw Hats even existed.
Two years to turn a cheat system into something the world had never seen.
Two years to decide if he would protect this timeline… or break it beyond recognition or freely enjoy freedom.
Day 2 on the island – System offline: 2 h 11 m remaining
The second night was colder than the first. Accel lay on his back in the sand, Marine jacket folded under his head as a pillow, staring up at a sky that should not exist. No light pollution. No airplane contrails. Just the Milky Way spilled like shattered diamonds across black velvet, and a moon so bright it cast shadows. For the first time since arriving, the homesickness hit him like a Cannonball to the chest.
He fell asleep to the sound of waves and the distant cry of a sea king far out at sea.
Dawn broke pink and gold. He woke stiff, hungry, and determined. Waiting forty-eight hours for the System to finish "fixing an error" was not an option; he needed information, food, and a way off this rock.
The raft was a disaster at first: three logs lashed with fraying vine, gaps big enough to lose a leg through. Then the new skill triggered.
[Crafting & Blueprint activated]
Mental schematic overlaid his vision: optimal log curvature, rope tension, balance point, even a crude keel made from a broken plank. His hands moved almost on their own. By the time the sun was high, a proper six-log raft with cross-bracing and a simple square sail made from his old Earth hoodie sat on the sand.
A wooden chest materialized without fanfare.
Compensation Reward
Basic Needs Type I
-> 10 island apples, 5 sealed clay bottles of fresh water, 1 large towel
One-Hand Katana (Nameless)
-> Quality: Common | Damage: 11–17 slash | Durability 200/200
Enhancement Scroll x1
-> (Single-use, random target, random stat buff)
He ate two apples, drank half a bottle, strapped the katana to his Marine belt (it looked ridiculous with the uniform, but better ridiculous than dead), and pocketed the scroll.
At what he guessed was 4 p.m. (no clock, just the sun), he pushed the raft into the shallows. The first wave nearly capsized him. The second soaked him to the waist. By the tenth wave he was paddling like a man possessed, thighs burning, palms already blistering despite the towel wrapped around the oar.
The island shrank behind him. No Marines. No convenient patrol cutter. Just open sea, the cry of gulls, and the faint silhouette of bigger land to the southwest—Shells Town, if his internal One Piece map was still accurate.