The hunger in Mox’s stomach surged like a rising tide, wave after wave washing over the last remnants of his reason, almost drowning his consciousness completely.
Mox clutched his empty stomach and turned toward the restaurant the mayor had recommended.
He had barely taken three steps when an indescribably sour, rotten stench suddenly rushed into his nose.
The source was the filthy sackcloth shirt he was wearing, caked with mud and all manner of grime.
“Forget it.
Clothes first.”
Frowning, Mox turned into a small shop by the roadside.
A wooden sign above the entrance read:
“Sea Breeze Clothing Shop”
The moment he lifted the curtain, a shop assistant wearing a gray cloth apron came storming over, waving a feather duster.
“Where did this filthy beggar come from?!
Don’t touch my clothes!
Do you know how expensive this fabric is?
Can you even afford to pay for it if you get it dirty?!
Get out!
Get out!”
Mox glanced down at himself.
He couldn’t exactly argue.
The ragged hemp clothes he’d arrived in were already filthy enough to shine, and after spending the morning cleaning the garbage dump, he’d gotten himself covered in even more grime.
Calling him a beggar was practically flattering him.
He looked like he’d just been dredged out of a garbage pit.
Still, he couldn’t afford to lose face.
Mox slowly pulled out the money pouch the mayor had given him, pinched the opening, and gave it a gentle shake.
The coins inside jingled crisply.
In the quiet shop, the sound was especially loud.
The shop assistant’s expression changed as quickly as a page turning.
The frost on his face instantly melted into warm enthusiasm.
His tightly furrowed brows relaxed, a ridiculously exaggerated smile appeared, and he quietly tucked the feather duster behind his back before rubbing his hands together and approaching.
“Oh my!
Young miss, you must have just returned from the sea, right?
I knew it the moment you walked through the door—you’ve got such an extraordinary presence!
All the clothes in our shop are—”
“Stop.”
Mox raised a hand and interrupted him calmly.
“I know what I look like.
I really don’t look like someone who came here to buy clothes, so I don’t blame you.”
“And what’s with the ‘young miss’?”
The moment he finished speaking, his eyes suddenly lit up.
Wait.
I’m a Trash-Trash Fruit user!
The grease, dust, sweat, and grime all over his body—
Weren’t they technically “trash”?
And if they were trash, couldn’t he just decompose them?
“Hahaha!
From today onward, call me Mox’s Cleaning Ability!”
Delighted by his own genius, Mox immediately put the idea into practice.
First, he used his consciousness to lock onto every bit of grime on his body, from the mud clinging to his hair to the stains around his ankles.
One by one, he marked them.
Done.
Then he activated his Devil Fruit ability.
Invisible energy spread over the filth like a thin membrane.
Simple!
Finally—
Decompose!
Something strange happened.
The dirt clinging to his skin seemed to come alive, like tiny insects desperately peeling themselves away from his body.
They swirled through the air before breaking apart into fine particles and vanishing.
The pale, almost translucent skin beneath was revealed.
It worked perfectly.
In fact, the result was surprisingly effective!
But in the very next second, Mox’s smile froze.
A faint blue glow flashed.
Then—
Bzzzz!
The ragged hemp shirt he was wearing also disintegrated.
Countless tiny fragments of “trash” separated from the garment and were completely decomposed by his Devil Fruit ability.
Not even a single thread remained.
The clothes were so worn-out that the ability classified them as trash too!
The air instantly froze.
Mox stood there stark naked.
He stared at the shop assistant.
The shop assistant stared back.
The feather duster slipped from his hand with a clack.
Three full seconds passed.
Then the shop assistant covered his mouth and barely managed to suppress a laugh.
“Well now… Little brother, you’ve actually got quite a nice figure under those clothes…”
“Ghehehe…”
[Ding—]
The system notification sounded at the worst possible moment.
[Achievement “Accidental Cleansing” completed.
Energy +0.001.]
“Achievement my ass!”
Mox screamed internally.
This system definitely did that on purpose!
And only 0.001 Energy?
What am I supposed to do with that?!
“S-Sorry!”
He hurriedly grabbed a blue T-shirt, a pair of loose lantern pants, and some flip-flops hanging nearby.
Without even looking up, he dashed into the changing room.
He wanted nothing more than to find a hole in the floor and crawl into it.
This was the kind of humiliating moment that deserved a permanent place in his transmigration hall of shame.
After changing, Mox finally stood in front of the fitting-room mirror and got his first proper look at himself.
He froze.
The boy reflected in the mirror had a slender build and porcelain-white skin.
His shoulder-length black hair fell softly around his face, and there was something strangely familiar about his features.
Wait…
Isn’t this…
Isn’t this exactly like Rimuru Tempest from that anime, “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime”?
Mox had always liked Rimuru.
After all, who could resist such an adorable slime?
But this was the world of One Piece!
There were monsters everywhere capable of punching through ship hulls with their bare fists.
How many hits could this skinny body withstand?
“Forget it…”
“Luffy’s pretty skinny too, isn’t he?”
Mox comforted himself.
“He can take Kaido’s Thunder Bagua and keep going.
Why can’t I become stronger?”
“I’m a Logia user.
So what if I’m skinny?”
“So what if I’m cute?”
“Even if I really become a slime, I’ll become the strongest one!”
“I’m a man with a cheat ability!”
[Host has developed an intense desire to “become a slime.” Condition for acquiring a natural-form transformation of the Trash-Trash Fruit fulfilled.]
[Slime Form unlocked.]
“Mox!”
“Hey!
System Grandpa, don’t mess with me!”
“I was wrong!
I was just talking nonsense!”
He nearly jumped out of his skin.
But the system gave him no opportunity to retract his words.
The cold mechanical voice sounded like a judge delivering a sentence.
[Current Logia transformation updated to: “Slime Form.”]
“Forget the Trash-Trash Fruit…”
“And now I have a slime form too…”
“Just destroy me already.
Get it over with.”
Mox covered his face.
His path to becoming powerful after transmigrating was clearly destined to be a difficult one.
Still, there was no one else inside the changing room.
So he gritted his teeth.
There’s no harm in testing it.
What if this form actually hides some ridiculously powerful ability?
Maybe, like Rimuru, I can devour things and obtain their power.
Wouldn’t that make me unstoppable?
He focused his mind.
Slime Form.
His clothes suddenly slid to the floor.
In their place appeared a half-meter-tall, oval-shaped blue gelatinous body.
Its surface shimmered faintly.
It looked almost exactly like a miniature version of Rimuru.
New information immediately flooded into Mox’s mind.
Ability One: Immune to ordinary physical attacks.
Can alter its size, with a maximum height of five meters.
(The stronger the user’s Physical Strength, the higher the limit.)
Ability Two: Can envelop objects and analyze their material structure and properties.
Ability Three: Can absorb waste particles from the air and purify it.
Mox stared blankly.
“…Purify the air…”
“Isn’t this just a bargain-bin air purifier and air freshener rolled into one?”
“What the hell is this?!”
He screamed internally.
“I want combat power!”
“I want an ability that lets me beat people up!”
“What’s the point of growing bigger?
So I can become a giant target for everyone to hit?!”
…
Well.
Maybe it wasn’t completely useless.
He could probably scare people with it.
As he stood there in confusion, his stomach suddenly growled thunderously.
That pulled him back to reality.
Forget it.
Food first.
Mox hurriedly returned to human form, put his clothes back on, and walked out of the changing room.
The shop assistant’s eyes seemed glued to him.
He kept praising him nonstop.
“Oh, young man!
You look absolutely amazing in our clothes!”
“How about taking a picture?”
Mox paid 900 Berries and fled the clothing shop.
He hurried to the restaurant the mayor had recommended, the Fresh Flavor Bistro.
He ordered a table full of the restaurant’s signature dishes.
Unfortunately, aside from the fried rice—which was barely edible—the rest of the food made him shake his head repeatedly.
As someone from Sichuan in China who had spent years studying food, Mox couldn’t accept it.
The grilled fish still had a strong fishy smell.
The braised meat was so sweet it was cloying.
Even the restaurant’s signature seafood soup was bland as water, with barely any salt.
“I really should just cook for myself.”
Mox sighed.
At least all those years he’d spent learning to cook hadn’t been wasted.
Even so, he devoured enough food to feed three adult men.
Only then did he understand that Luffy’s constant hunger wasn’t without reason.
This body burned through energy at an absurd rate.
Afterward, he found a small inn called Gull’s Rest Inn and rented a room.
Lying on the bed, Mox tossed and turned while studying the system panel.
He invested all his remaining Energy into Physical Strength, finally raising his Physical Strength to 5.
However, the gray “Trash Synthesis” section of the panel remained inactive.
The values representing the decomposed materials beneath it also appeared to be locked.
[System Panel]
Host: Mox
Basic Attributes:
Physical Strength: 5
Note: Armament Haki requires 1,000 Physical Strength to unlock.Energy: 0.701
Ability System:
Devil Fruit AbilitiesTrash ManipulationTrash DecompositionTrash Synthesis (Inactive) Personal Abilities (+ indicates Energy can be spent to enhance the ability)Observation Haki: Beginner +
Resource Storage:
Decomposed Material Storage:
Iron: 80 unitsCopper: 6 unitsGlass: 421 unitsCotton Fiber: 324 unitsWood Fiber: 897 units…
After studying the Physical Strength section, Mox felt both excited and frustrated.
He could actually awaken Armament Haki.
But the requirement was a Physical Strength of 1,000 just to unlock its initial stage.
“How much garbage am I going to have to pick up for that?!”
He groaned.
Then another piece of information shocked him.
Observation Haki had already awakened.
“Could it be an inherent effect of the Trash-Trash Fruit?”
He stroked his chin thoughtfully.
“After all, even dust particles in the air count as trash.”
“If the fruit’s analytical abilities gradually evolved into sensory perception, I suppose it makes sense…”
“It’s just that the range is way too short.”
“I’m probably only a little more perceptive than an ordinary person.”
“Damn it…”
“System, are you here just to make a fool out of me?!”
Mox pulled the pillow over his face.
The road to becoming powerful was clearly going to be long and difficult.
The next day at noon, Mox woke up and ate a bowl of bland seafood noodles downstairs at the inn.
Then he headed straight to the mayor’s house to gather information.
The mayor was sitting in the courtyard repairing a fishing net.
When he saw Mox, he smiled and handed him a cup of coconut juice.
“What would you like to know, kid?”
“Fallen Gull Town may be remote, but we’ve got pretty good sources of information.”
Mox asked about the current date and his location.
He learned that it was currently the latter part of 1520 in the Sea Circle Calendar.
That meant there was still more than a year before Luffy would set sail.
They were in Fallen Gull Town, located on a remote island in the East Blue.
Sailing east for two days would bring them to the Baratie.
The nearest other islands to the south, however, were a full five days away by sea.
“The Baratie?”
Mox’s eyes lit up.
“Is that the floating restaurant shaped like a fish’s head?”
The mayor nodded.
“That’s the one!”
“I hear the cooks there are incredible.
The owner has a strange temper, though.”
“And apparently he’s especially good to women.”
Mox immediately made up his mind.
“I have to go see it!”
And it wasn’t just because he wanted to taste Sanji’s cooking.
The Baratie was a busy place, with people constantly coming and going.
He might be able to hear more information about the world of pirates there.
And if he traveled across the sea by boat, he’d undoubtedly encounter plenty of “trash” along the way.
That would give him a chance to accumulate Energy and increase his Physical Strength.
He couldn’t stay a glorified air purifier forever, could he?
Once he’d made up his mind, Mox thanked the mayor and headed toward the docks.
First, he needed to buy a fishing boat.
Even the crudest one would do.
Several small fishing boats were moored along the harbor.
An old fisherman with dark, weathered skin was squatting on one of them, repairing a net.
Mox walked over and asked about the price.
The old fisherman looked him over twice.
“This boat was built by my son when he was young.
She’s sturdy as an ox.”
“If he hadn’t gone to sea aboard a merchant ship, I wouldn’t even be willing to sell her.”
“Five thousand Berries.
That’s my final price.”
Mox touched the money pouch.
He still had more than 20,000 Berries left.
Five thousand was affordable.
But then he suddenly remembered something.
I don’t know how to sail!
He glanced at the surrounding discarded materials.
An idea immediately came to him.
“Old man.”
He pointed toward the edge of the fishing boat.
“Could you install a propeller using some discarded materials?”
The old fisherman froze for a moment.
Seeing that Mox didn’t appear to be joking, he simply nodded.
“Sure.”
“As long as you pay for the work, I’ll do it.”
“Five hundred Berries at minimum.”
“I guarantee it won’t break unless you run into strong winds or heavy seas.”
The old fisherman scratched his head.
“Don’t know why you want to use scrap materials, but that’s none of my business.”
“I’ll have it done by morning.”
Mox grinned.
“Perfect!”
Half a day later, the old fisherman efficiently collected 5,500 Berries.
He even threw in a simple nautical chart for free.
“Head east and follow this current.”
“You’ll reach the Baratie in two days, guaranteed.”
Mox jumped aboard the fishing boat and inspected the newly installed propeller and the wooden barrels used for storing water.
Only then did he finally relax.
The Baratie.
Sanji.
And all those names he’d only ever seen in the manga.
His journey through the world of One Piece had only just begun.