Sea Circle Calendar, 1520
A cold wave slammed directly into his face.
“Cough!
Cough!”
Mox jerked violently as seawater rushed down his throat.
His hazy mind slowly cleared, dragging him back from the edge of unconsciousness.
With trembling, numb arms, he pushed himself upright.
The sand beneath him was freezing.
The lower half of his body was still sitting in the shallow seawater left behind as the tide withdrew.
“Seriously?
All I did was have a couple extra drinks with my classmates.
Was it really necessary to dump me on some godforsaken beach like this?”
Rubbing his groggy head, his fingertips first brushed against something soft.
Long hair, reaching down to his shoulders.
It was damp and plastered against his neck, carrying the unmistakable smell of the sea.
“Long hair?”
Mox’s heart skipped a beat.
In a panic, his hands fumbled down toward his waist.
He breathed a sigh of relief, only to become confused again.
It was smaller than he remembered by quite a bit, but at least it was still there.
He looked down at his body.
He was completely transformed into a tiny kid who looked around fourteen.
Then he looked at his clothes.
His black T-shirt was riddled with holes, with three charred openings exposing the flesh beneath.
Two strips of fabric dangled precariously from the hem.
His original long pants were unevenly torn as well.
The left pant leg ended at his knee, while the right only reached his calf.
The edges were blackened and burned.
Annoyed, Mox tore off the one remaining canvas shoe from his foot and hurled it into the sea.
“Go find your friends!”
His heart immediately sank.
“If this isn’t a dream… then I’ve really been transmigrated?”
“A weakling-to-overpowered-protagonist story?
I’m familiar with this.
A broken engagement?
A destroyed clan?”
At least give me a decent starting point!
He swept his gaze across his surroundings.
There were no majestic mountains shrouded in energy.
Only an endless expanse of blue stretched before him, with the sea and sky merging into one dizzying horizon.
Not far away, a waterlogged newspaper floated on the surface, along with several leaky wooden barrels and a few broken pieces of wood covered in seaweed.
The harbor behind him was even more of a disaster.
Where ships should have filled the berths, only several broken masts remained, jutting crookedly from the murky mud.
Wood chips and scraps of torn sails were scattered all across the shallows.
Then Mox’s gaze suddenly locked onto the newspaper.
Printed in one corner was a skull with a red nose.
Beneath it were the words:
“Buggy’s Delivery.”
And beside it was the partial outline of a Wanted poster.
“B-Buggy?!”
His voice trembled as his fingertips dug into his palm.
“This is… the world of One Piece?”
As a veteran fan who had followed hundreds of episodes, he was far too familiar with the Wanted posters of One Piece.
“By all rights, there should be a ‘ding’ right about now, shouldn’t there?”
“Where’s the cheat ability that comes standard with transmigration?
A system?
An old man granting me power?
I’d even settle for a bottle of stamina potion!”
Other transmigrators either possessed extraordinary talent or had a system backing them up.
At the very least, they got some shabby little hut to start with.
And him?
His clothes were torn to shreds, he didn’t have a single Berry to his name, and his body felt like it could kick the bucket at any moment.
Thankfully, he was on shore.
If he’d woken up in the middle of the sea, he’d already be shark food.
“Is this some kind of joke?”
Mox wailed at the ocean.
“I’d even settle for being Luffy’s neighbor!
What the hell am I supposed to do as some scrawny kid who could drop dead at any moment?!”
He screamed until his voice became hoarse.
The growling of his empty stomach was louder than the waves.
And then—
A cold, mechanical voice suddenly exploded inside his head.
[Ding!
Host summons detected.
Chinese soul compatibility: 50%.
Supreme System binding in progress…]
“System?!”
Mox’s eyes instantly widened.
He nearly stumbled into the sea.
He hurriedly braced himself against the ground, so stunned that he even forgot to breathe.
“I knew it!
System!
Hurry up and give me Conqueror’s Haki!
A Logia would work too!
The Gura Gura no Mi would be even better!”
[System binding in progress…]
[Host’s bloodline contains a seal.
System binding failed.]
The mechanical voice contained not the slightest hint of emotion, as if it were reading out a death sentence.
The smile on Mox’s face instantly froze.
The corners of his mouth were still pulled upward, but his eyes had gone completely blank.
“Bloodline?
I have that thing?”
“System, did you forget to pay your phone bill?
Try again!
It must be because I’m standing wrong!”
[Binding failed.]
“You piece-of-trash system!
Did you come from some discount store?
You failed to bind and you still have the nerve to act all high and mighty?!”
[System self-destruct sequence initiated.]
“Self-destruct?!
Hey!
It’s a new account!
Don’t do this!”
A panel suddenly appeared before his eyes, glowing with an eerie green light.
There was only one glaring line of text:
[Self-destruct countdown: 60, 59, 58…]
Mox nearly jumped out of his skin.
He unleashed every swear word he’d learned in his life.
He cursed the system’s terrible quality, then cursed its “parents” that probably didn’t even exist.
In the end, he could only close his eyes and pray.
“Make it powerful!
Don’t let me survive half-dead and suffer!”
10… 9… 8…
[Warning!
Host’s insult of the system as a “trash system” has triggered the Trash System’s forced binding and ultimate punishment!]
[Trash System binding in progress…]
[Forced binding successful.]
[Punishment: Forced awakening of a Devil Fruit ability—Logia-type: Trash-Trash Fruit (Gomi Gomi no Mi).]
[Ability: Control, decompose, and reconstruct—all substances defined by nature as “trash.”]
[Includes discarded objects, decaying organisms, residual energy, etc.
Living beings and items that have not been discarded are excluded.]
[Side effect: Hated by the sea; unable to swim.]
The curse died in his throat.
Mox stood completely rigid, as if he’d just been struck by lightning.
A Logia…
A Trash-Trash Fruit?
System, do you want to listen to yourself for a second?
The three Admirals had powers that could incinerate steel with magma, freeze the sea solid, and fire lasers through the clouds.
“And me?”
“Control trash?
Decompose trash?”
He could already picture the Marineford War.
Someone else would unleash a gigantic magma tsunami while he threw a pile of stinking rotten fish bones.
Never mind hurting the enemy.
His own allies would probably run away covering their noses first.
“You’re trying to make me die of embarrassment!
This is murder by another name!”
Mox completely lost it.
“I’d rather have no Devil Fruit at all than this piece of crap!
Give me another one!
Hurry up and change it!”
[System notification: Devil Fruit abilities cannot be changed.
Further insults will trigger an additional punishment—]
[For example: rendering the host permanently incapable of decomposing trash, forcing the host to absorb it passively instead.]
The words he was about to say immediately died in his throat.
Mox nearly choked on his own saliva.
Passively absorb trash?
Wouldn’t that turn him into a walking garbage can?
He stared at his hands and concentrated.
Trash.
Nothing happened.
“Could this Devil Fruit be expired?”
Just as he was muttering to himself, an empty rum bottle drifted over from the distance, seaweed still clinging to its surface.
With the mindset of someone trying a desperate last resort, Mox stared at the bottle and silently commanded:
“Come here.”
The next second, the bottle seemed to be pulled by an invisible rope.
It wobbled through the air and floated toward him before hovering in front of his face.
Mox reached out and grabbed it.
Then he silently commanded:
Decompose.
The bottle instantly transformed into gray powder.
It fell onto the wooden planks in a soft shower before vanishing without a trace.
[Absorbed “Discarded Rum Bottle” (Trash).
Obtained “Glass Molecules.” Energy +0.001.]
[Note: Energy can be used to increase the host’s physical attributes.]
“It can increase my physical stats?”
“If you’d told me that earlier, I wouldn’t have been worried!
In the world of One Piece, physical strength is king!”
Mox raised his head and looked toward the nearby harbor.
A small mountain of garbage had accumulated along its edge.
Rotten fish.
Torn fishing nets.
Broken blades.
The stench could probably travel for miles.
Yet the refuse everyone else avoided like the plague was now his only source of “resources.”
“The ‘Trash-Trash Fruit’ is way too embarrassing.
I need a more imposing name…”
Mox rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
“The ‘Gomi Gomi no Mi’?
Hmm… That actually sounds pretty badass!”
He took a deep breath.
Luffy could turn the Gomu Gomu no Mi into the power of Nika.
Chopper could push the Hito Hito no Mi to its absolute limits.
So why couldn’t he turn the Trash-Trash Fruit into something extraordinary?
“It’s just trash, isn’t it?”
Mox licked his cracked lips, a hint of ferocity appearing in his eyes.
“One day, I’ll make everyone who looks down on this Devil Fruit understand something—”
“Even from a pile of garbage, a King of Junk can rise!”
As he stared at that mountain of “treasure,” Mox suddenly felt that surviving in the world of One Piece might not be so difficult after all.
At the very least, he wouldn’t have to worry about finding resources to absorb.
And besides…
His eyes suddenly lit up as he stared at the mountain of garbage.
Collecting trash!
In his previous life, even the scrap collectors could afford to buy houses.
Who knew?
The “scrap” in the One Piece world might be worth even more!
He nearly blurted out, “Buying used phones, old computers, refrigerators, televisions, and washing machines!”
But he quickly swallowed the words.
This world didn’t have any of those things.
Mox gazed at the mountain of garbage before him.
A “brilliant idea” had just occurred to him.
The corners of his mouth slowly curled upward.
“Being in the world of One Piece and starting out as the King of Junk…”
“Doesn’t sound so bad.”