When Kurosaki Rei saw the information for the new world, his eyes lit up.
One Piece!
He had been looking forward to this world for a long time. As one of the three legendary "big shōnen migrant-worker manga" of the last century, it had brought him plenty of joy in his childhood.
What's more, the Armament Haki he was currently using originated from One Piece. If he could enter this world, his mastery of Haki would undoubtedly improve by a huge margin.
The only uncertainty was whether he'd be lucky enough to spawn somewhere suitable for learning Haki. In the smaller nations outside the New World, Haki was indeed far from widespread.
On his way back, Kurosaki Rei used the remaining Terminus Coins at the trading market to restock some consumables. After that, he returned to his room and entered the Pioneer-exclusive chamber.
Previously, in the Kengan Ashura world, he had carried out a Pioneer mission and obtained a Pioneer Medal, which could be spent in the shop.
Back then, he had taken a look around the shop but wasn't impressed by the items, so he hadn't redeemed anything.
After returning this time and checking the refreshed inventory, it still didn't look great. Kurosaki Rei more or less understood the purchasing power of the medal.
A Bronze Pioneer Medal was clearly a low-tier medal. It could only be exchanged for rare-grade equipment with max ratings, or purple-grade recovery items with mediocre stats. So Kurosaki Rei decided not to save it anymore and directly spent it on a purple-quality recovery item—better than letting it rot unused.
With all preparations complete, Kurosaki Rei lay down on the Divine Breath and entered meditation, adjusting his mental state to its peak.
When the countdown began, he stood up, shrank the Divine Breath, and stored it in his storage space.
[Teleportation begins…]
Along with the prompt from the Terminus Space, Kurosaki Rei felt himself once again entering that hazy tunnel of white light. Everything was blurred, except for the clear voice of the Terminus Space echoing in his ears.
[Locating world…]
[Location confirmed. Target: Large Derivative World — One Piece]
[Explorers deployed by Terminus Space: 179]
[Explorers deployed by Divine Space: 158]
[Common language of this world has been automatically mastered for the Pioneer. Cost: 100 Terminus Coins]
[World teleportation in progress… Pioneer may preview world details in advance.]
After the prompt ended, a menu popped up before Kurosaki Rei's eyes. Since the teleportation would take some time, he started reading.
[Mission World: One Piece]
[World Type: Large Derivative]
[World Difficulty: Lv.3–???]
[Note: This is a large, open-development derivative world. Difficulty varies by region. Pioneers are advised to act with caution.]
World Introduction:
The struggle for wealth, fame, and power; the fog shrouding historical truths.
Across the vast seas, the Marines and pirates clash—battles between "justice" and "evil," collisions between Devil Fruit users and Haki.
Devil Fruits: Fruits born from humanity's inner desires. Consuming one grants miraculous powers, but as they violate the laws of nature, they are despised by the mother of life—the sea. Devil Fruit users fear seawater and Sea-Prism Stone.
Three Types of Haki: A latent power within all humans. A higher-level technique that requires strong conviction to awaken.
World Government: The largest organization in the world, ruling for eight hundred years.
Marines: The armed force under the World Government, sometimes maintaining order at sea.
Pirates: Mostly cruel criminals guilty of arson, murder, and plunder, though a small minority are pirates in name but adventurers in truth.
[Note: Killing explorers from the Divine Space in this world grants a double chance of dropping a Deadman's Chest.]
Kurosaki Rei skimmed through it, then heard a new prompt from the Terminus Space.
[Assigning initial identity for the Pioneer…]
[Combat power weighting detected… Title weighting detected… Trait weighting detected… Personality weighting detected…]
[…Comprehensive analysis complete. A suitable identity has been assigned.]
[Deployment successful. Pioneer, please check your mission.]
As the sensation of weightlessness faded, a rotten, pungent stench rushed into his nose. Kurosaki Rei opened his eyes to find himself in a dark, damp prison cell.
He froze for a moment, then tried to move his limbs—only to feel a heavy sense of restraint.
His face instantly darkened.
Because he realized that he seemed to have… gone to prison again.
And unlike last time in the Kengan world, this time his ankles were shackled with Sea-Prism Stone cuffs, with a heavy iron ball hanging from the outer chain.
Fortunately, he wasn't a Devil Fruit user. Even with his legs shackled, it only limited his mobility and didn't drain his strength—he could still swing a blade just fine.
He was currently held in a single-occupancy cell. The treatment didn't seem half bad—at least it was a private room. Kurosaki Rei comforted himself mentally.
After confirming there was no immediate danger, he stayed alert and checked his mission and initial identity.
[Current Location: New World · Wano Country · Udon Prison]
[Current Time: Sea Circle Calendar, Year 1510]
[Current Identity: Prisoner]
Before even seeing the mission, just confirming his location and identity nearly made Kurosaki Rei spit out a mouthful of blood.
Fine. Very fine.
He had hoped to land in the New World, since many people there knew Haki, making it easier for him to learn.
In a sense, the space had fulfilled his wish—and then some.
Not only had it dropped him into the New World, it had directly enrolled him in Teacher Hundred-Beasts Kaido's gold-medal cram school.
The problem was that he wasn't a member of the Beast Pirates—he was a prisoner in Udon, the kind of slave labor convict meant to be worked to death under the overseers' whips.
After browsing the details of his identity, he roughly understood why he was locked up here.
Originally, he had been a traveler who accidentally entered Wano. After witnessing the suffering of the local people, he decided to become a so-called "Oni Slayer."
So he went to challenge Kaido.
The outcome was, of course, exactly what one would expect.
Calling it "getting smashed" wasn't entirely accurate. Kaido had been drunk at the time, and from a great distance he casually swung his kanabo like he was swatting a fly. The resulting shockwave alone sent Kurosaki Rei flying into a wall, leaving him half-dead.
Kaido had always been lenient toward those with the guts to challenge him—or perhaps he simply disliked wasting labor. So he ordered his subordinates to send Kurosaki Rei to Udon Prison for "reform through labor."
According to the Headliner who escorted him, as long as Kurosaki Rei performed well during his labor reform, he could apply to join the Beast Pirates afterward—becoming a lowest-rank Waiter, if he so desired.
So-called Waiters were members who hadn't eaten an artificial Devil Fruit and were waiting for the chance to obtain powers.
Kurosaki Rei wasn't sure how much of this background was true. All he knew was that it was his third day in Udon Prison. He had just woken up after his injuries healed, and the "Supreme Bandage" wrapped around him hadn't even been removed yet.
Likely to fit his starting identity, his original jet-black Nightmare trench coat had been stored away in his inventory. His footwear, Stepping Clouds, had been disguised by the space and now looked like nothing more than an ordinary pair of shoes.
After a bit of analysis, Kurosaki Rei more or less understood why he'd been given such a starting identity.
Strictly speaking, his overall strength shouldn't qualify him to operate in such a dangerous place as the New World. But by sheer coincidence, before entering the One Piece world, he had already mastered Haki—the New World's baseline skill set. And his Armament Haki was already at a fairly high level, respectable even by New World standards.
Moreover, this identity's experiences were likely influenced by his two titles.
According to the Terminus Space's earlier evaluation, the Reckless Brute title meant charging in headfirst, fearless and impulsive—hence challenging Kaido without hesitation.
And Kaido just so happened to be an oni. That neatly matched his Oni Slayer title, prompting him to go after Kaido specifically.
The result, naturally, was becoming a prisoner.
Finally, when he looked at his missions, everything made sense.
He had no main quest—only a side quest called Fruit Hunter.
This was Kurosaki Rei's first time encountering a derivative world without a main quest. The Terminus Space explained that One Piece was a large open-development derivative world. Explorers were free to explore it, without being bound to a fixed main storyline.
Of course, the stay wasn't unlimited. There was a three-month time limit, after which the space would forcibly extract all explorers.
Nor would the Terminus Space allow explorers to live too comfortably. It clearly stated that their overall evaluation in the mission world depended on how much Exploration Progress they gained.
Kurosaki Rei had analyzed this system before. Killing key figures, altering the course of the plot, or interacting with important characters could all grant exploration progress—the amount depending on the impact.
One thing was certain: sitting in one place and rotting away would never earn any.
And once explorers started moving, danger was inevitable.
This world was chaos incarnate. Pirates were everywhere, and encountering them meant fighting. Even if you didn't run into pirates, meeting Marines didn't necessarily mean safety.
Kurosaki Rei had read the latter half of the manga back in the space. To him, the World Government increasingly felt like the true villain… and the Marines were doing more and more inhumane things.
In such a vast world, even the East Blue wasn't necessarily safe—let alone the New World where he currently was.
Wano Country was a high-level map. Though he couldn't see the upper limit of its difficulty, it was probably above level 40, perhaps even 50. Even the prison wardens in Udon were enemies he might not be able to defeat.
Fortunately, as long as he didn't attempt a jailbreak, his life shouldn't be in immediate danger. And although the prisoner identity was awful, it wasn't without its perks.
After all, Udon Prison was effectively the "preschool division" of the Hundred-Beasts Academy.
This place offered access to advanced Haki techniques—Ryuo.
And because it was a high-tier map, most people here knew Haki. Not only could he learn Ryuo, he could also pick up Observation Haki.
Submitting to Kaido and becoming a Waiter was not something Kurosaki Rei was willing to do. Jokes aside, Kaido was undeniably a brutal tyrant. Kurosaki Rei had no desire to work under him, nor did he want to eat any artificial Devil Fruits.
After sorting out his thoughts, he decided to observe the situation in the prison for a while. His plan was to find Old Man Hyogoro, learn Haki from him, and only then consider how to escape.
He wasn't worried about the Sea-Prism Stone shackles. Whether due to his improved luck or riding on Snow Wind's coattails, he happened to possess a Universal Key—more than enough to unlock Sea-Prism Stone restraints.
Once the timing was right, he could leave at any moment.
Just as he was thinking this through, Kurosaki Rei heard approaching footsteps.
Soon, a prison guard appeared at the door, followed by another prisoner shackled in Sea-Prism Stone.
However, unlike the filthy labor convicts Kurosaki Rei had imagined, this prisoner was a tall, young woman with long, gradient-white hair. She wore a sleeveless, form-fitting white kimono, with a massive shimenawa rope tied around her waist.
Her forehead was wrapped in a Supreme Bandage. Her youthful face was filled with displeasure, and as she walked, the side of her chest subtly trembled into view at the kimono's opening.
The guard opened the door and spoke with an unusually respectful expression.
"Young master, please go in."
Judging by his demeanor, this hardly looked like escorting a prisoner—it was more like waiting on a pampered young lady.
🌟 The story is already written… waiting to be unleashed.Part One is officially complete — and it's now available
Go check it out and dive into the full experience.
Claim early access here: [email protected]/voidink08
🔓 You hold the keys to bonus chapters:💬 10 reviews unlock 1 bonus chapter🔷 100 Power Stones summon another
🔥 Your power determines how fast the tale unfolds.
🌟 The story is already written… waiting to be unleashed.Part One is officially complete — and it's now available
Go check it out and dive into the full experience.
Claim early access here: [email protected]/voidink08
🔓 You hold the keys to bonus chapters:💬 10 reviews unlock 1 bonus chapter🔷 100 Power Stones summon another
🔥 Your power determines how fast the tale unfolds.