“Such a textbook potato chip.
The curvature from center to edge is practically the golden ratio…”
“The surface is evenly cooked, the color transitions beautifully, and the size and distribution possess a harmonious beauty within the randomness…”
“Textbook.
Absolutely textbook.
Worth collecting…”
The setting sun spread a shimmering gold foil across the sea.
Moren sat cross-legged on the slightly worn gunwale of the Bang-Bang Orange, his body swaying gently with the waves.
He pinched the last chip in the bag, his ink-dark pupils reflecting an almost reverent focus, as if what he held wasn’t cheap snack food but an extremely rare treasure of the world.
A moment later, with the faintest movement of his will—
Whir!
A barely perceptible ripple spread outward.
The golden chip instantly turned ethereal, transforming into a sticker with a soft white glow at its edges, which quietly drifted down onto his open left palm.
The sticker’s design was a perfectly curved fried potato slice.
Beneath it appeared a line of clear text:
[Deep-fried Potato Slice with Perfect Curvature – Status: Intact]
“This is number 109, worthy of being collected.” Moren said with satisfaction, as if he had just completed a very important classification.
He pressed his right hand against empty space beside him, and a heavy leather-bound tome materialized out of thin air: his Collector’s Compendium.
He pressed the chip sticker onto a blank page.
It slowly melted into the page like a drop of water, fixing itself in place.
Then, with another thought, it immediately turned into flowing motes of light and dissipated into the air.
This compendium existed only within his perception and would only manifest at the moment of summoning.
It was the manifestation of the ability he had gained a month ago after eating the Collect-Collect Fruit.
“Collecting your treasures again, Moren?” a cheerful yet slightly weary voice called from behind.
Moren turned around.
It was Captain Lyle, a grizzled sailor in his forties, his face carved with deep grooves by the sea wind.
He held a pipe in his hand, and his eyes carried a mixture of tolerance and gratitude toward this “eccentric” passenger.
“Captain Lyle,” Moren said as he stood up and brushed the dust off his pants.
“The sunset, the sea breeze, the perfect snack…
these beautiful moments are truly one of a kind.
It is a pity that I cannot collect them all.”
Lyle laughed, walked to his side, and gazed toward the horizon.
“Sabaody Archipelago is coming up.
We are actually two days ahead of schedule.
We have you to thank for this past month.”
“I should be the one thanking you, Captain,” Moren said sincerely.
“If it weren’t for you and the Bang-Bang Orange, I would probably already be Sea King chow by now, or swollen up like a sponge.”
A month ago, after being struck by a bolt of lightning, Moren had woken up clinging to a piece of driftwood, drifting on an endless sea.
Just as his consciousness was fading and he was about to give up, Lyle’s merchant ship discovered him.
At that time, wearing mismatched clothes and muttering nonsense about “overtime,” “KPIs,” and “the client from hell,” the crew had taken him for a poor madman who had survived a shipwreck.
What helped him recover, aside from the pirates they encountered and the newspapers he read, was eating the purple fruit covered in spiral patterns that had accompanied him through the void.
That was when he learned that this thing was actually a Devil Fruit.
At that moment, Moren finally confirmed that he had truly come to the world of One Piece.
“Your strength and skill have helped us deal with a lot of trouble,” Lyle said as he blew out a smoke ring, recalling the first time Moren had acted.
Three pirates had charged at them.
This seemingly frail young man, in panic, grabbed a rope and swung it with such force that he directly swept all three of them into the sea.
The force was inhumanly strong.
“Hey, I am just a bit stronger than average,” Moren said with a smile.
The transmigration seemed to have reshaped his body.
Not only had it removed his poor health from his previous life of late-night overtime work, but his strength, endurance, and recovery had all become far beyond that of normal humans.
So even though he did not know any advanced martial arts, brute force alone, combined with his gradually mastered “collecting ability,” was more than enough to deal with ordinary pirates.
As he stared at the distant sea while listening to Captain Lyle talks about the Sabaody Archipelago, Moren’s heartbeat could not help but quicken.
Bubble cars, mangroves, the Lawless Zone, the auction house…
Fragments of memories from watching the anime in his past life surged into his mind.
Sabaody Archipelago—a place where dreams and sin intertwined, where miracles and cruelty coexisted.
“Excited, aren’t you?” Captain Lyle noticed the anticipation and light in his eyes, then slowly let his smile fade and became serious.
“But I still have to remind you again.
Sabaody is beautiful, but it is also a den of danger.”
“Marines, pirates, bounty hunters, World Nobles, slavers…
all kinds of forces are tightly entangled there.”
“Especially the ‘Celestial Dragons,’ those people wearing bubble helmets.
You absolutely, absolutely must not provoke them!”
“The moment you see them, run as far and as fast as you possibly can.”
As he spoke, Captain Lyle seemed to recall something, and a deep flash of disgust and sorrow struck his worldview.
Moren nodded seriously and said, “I understand.
I have been reading the newspapers all this time to understand the situation.”
The articles in the World Economic News about Celestial Dragon privileges, slave auctions, and the movements of major pirates in the New World constantly shattered his perception, slowly merging his manga memories with the reality before him.
Reality was different from the manga.
When he had watched the anime before transmigration, his focus had always been on the protagonist.
But after truly arriving here, he finally understood how cruel the world outside the protagonist’s perspective really was.
During this past month alone, Moren had helped Captain Lyle repel several pirate attacks.
These pirates were not after “One Piece.” They were after your life and the cargo on your ship.
As Moren and Lyle were speaking, a shout suddenly came from the crow’s nest:
“Pirates!
Three o’clock to starboard!”
“It is…
it is Scar-Hawk’s ship!
Scar-Hawk, bounty 12,000,000 Berry!”
The atmosphere on deck instantly froze.
Captain Lyle’s expression stiffened, and his pipe nearly fell from his mouth.
“Scar-Hawk…
what is that madman doing on this route?!”
He immediately turned around and roared orders:
“All sails!
Hard to port!
Now!
Open distance!”
The sailors scrambled into action with practiced urgency, but the black three-masted pirate ship was clearly faster.
The figurehead of the pirate ship was a grinning skull with a huge exaggerated scar across one cheek.
Like a shark that had caught the scent of blood, it kept tightly fixed on the merchant ship, cutting through the waves at high speed, closing in rapidly.
“Too late…
prepare for boarding combat!” Lyle gritted his teeth, gritting his teeth as he drew his cutlass, despair flashing across his face.
Twelve million Berry.
A pirate of that level was far beyond the tens or hundreds of thousands Berry scum they had faced before.
Moren took a deep breath and drew the long blade he had “confiscated” from a previous pirate leader.
The cold grip steadied him slightly.
At the same time, his consciousness fully immersed itself into the Collector’s Compendium, flipping through its pages in his mind.
His collection was not limited to things he personally liked or admired.
It also included weapons he had gathered over time, as well as items he believed could be useful in combat.
These things might seem ordinary, but under his ability, if used properly, they became unpredictable weapons.
“Stay steady!
For our families and our cargo!
Do not let these bastards look down on us!”
Lyle roared, trying to raise morale, but the crew’s hands still trembled slightly as they held their weapons.
BOOM!
CRASH!
The pirate ship entered firing range.
Cannonballs roared through the air, exploding into towering water columns around the Bang-Bang Orange.
Then grappling hooks attached to ropes were thrown from the pirate ship and firmly hooked onto the merchant vessel.
“Boys!
Take everything!
Kill them all, take every piece of valuable cargo!”
A bald, muscular man with a terrifying scar across his face and a single eye gleaming with vicious light was the first to leap onto the rope.
This was Scar-Hawk.
Behind him, dozens of ferocious pirates howled and followed him.
Lyle’s eyes turned red as he led his men to meet the attack.
Moren did not rush forward immediately.
He stayed behind the mast, his sharp eyes scanning the battlefield.
He needed to observe.
He needed timing.
He needed to use every piece of his collecting ability at the perfect moment to catch them completely off guard.
Add the novel to your collection so you don’t miss future chapters.