“THIS IS A ROBBERY!
I’m the captain of the Brain-Brain Pirates!
Men to the left, women to the right, and anyone in between stays in the middle!
Now, hehe… Hand over everything you’ve got!”
The salty reek of the sea mingled with the sharp stench of gunpowder, filling Ribera Sammy’s nostrils.
At that moment, he sat dazed at the bow of the ship, staring at the chaotic battle raging before him.
Men were fighting desperately for their lives, yet to Sammy, the whole scene felt strangely distant—as if he were watching a play that had nothing to do with him.
One of the sailors fighting nearby caught sight of the seemingly defenseless fool sitting at the bow.
“Perfect chance!”
With a vicious grin, the sailor slashed down his current opponent, then charged straight at Sammy.
His curved saber tore through the air with a wicked hiss, aimed directly at Sammy’s left shoulder.
Sammy reacted almost entirely on instinct.
He threw himself backward until his back hit the deck.
At the same time, his leg snapped upward, his foot smashing into the sailor’s sword hand and sending the weapon spinning into the air.
“You really know how to pick your opponents, don’t you?”
A grin tugged at Sammy’s lips.
The next second, under the attacker’s horrified gaze, Sammy sprang to his feet in one fluid motion, launched himself upward, and snatched the spinning sword right out of the air.
He landed heavily on the deck.
Sammy’s tall, imposing frame cast a shadow over the sailor as his cold eyes locked onto him.
The sailor’s vicious grin froze.
The moment Sammy’s icy gaze swept over him, it felt as though a Sea King had marked him as prey.
His legs began trembling before he could stop them.
“M-Monster!”
Sammy gave him no chance to recover.
He raised his leg and drove a brutal front kick straight into the man’s chest.
Thud!
The sailor was launched backward like a kite with its string cut.
He slammed hard into the base of the mast and collapsed unconscious.
Sammy casually tested the weight of the sword he had stolen.
His expression sharpened.
Then he finally joined the battle.
Every time Sammy blocked an attack, the impact left his opponent’s arm numb.
Whenever he swung his sword, the enemy either lost his weapon or stumbled backward under the sheer force behind the blow.
Amid the flashing gleam of his blade, one enemy after another went down screaming.
Some were knocked unconscious by the flat of his blade, while others had ribs broken by his kicks and could no longer continue fighting.
Sammy tore through them like a tiger among sheep.
Wherever he went, resistance crumbled.
Before long, even the last minor leader of the enemy crew was smashed to the deck by the back of Sammy’s blade and pinned down by several sailors.
The battle was over.
“Move!
Tie them all up!
And check whether any of them are pretending to be dead!”
Sammy didn’t even need to give the order.
The experienced sailors were already cleaning up the battlefield, using thick ropes to bind the unconscious and surrendering members of the enemy crew until there was no chance of escape.
Sammy returned to the bow.
A sailor who looked like one of the crew’s officers approached and reported respectfully, “Boss, we searched every corner of the Octopus Gang’s ship.
We cleaned the place out!”
Sammy nodded.
“Throw every captured member of the Octopus Gang into the lower hold.
As for the treasure…”
He paused.
His eyes swept across the nearby crewmen, all of whom had suddenly perked up and were listening closely.
A faint grin appeared on his face.
“Same rules as always.
Bring everything onto our deck first.
I’ll divide the loot myself.”
“OOOOOH!!!
LONG LIVE CAPTAIN SAMMY!”
Sammy watched the savage-looking men cheer wildly, their faces still flushed with excitement from the plundering and bloodshed.
His thoughts slowly drifted back to the past…
One year ago, his name had still been Lionel.
He had been nothing more than an ordinary senior high school student—right up until, on his way to school, he encountered that legendary guide to another world: transmigration.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself lying on a beach.
The body he woke up in wasn’t his own.
And neither was the world.
It wasn’t until he picked up several torn bounty posters scattered along the beach and saw the barely readable words “DEAD OR ALIVE” that the truth finally hit him.
He had transmigrated into the world of One Piece.
Following signs of smoke and civilization, he eventually reached a nearby town.
Strangely, the townspeople seemed to recognize the face he now wore.
They called him Ribera Sammy.
By piecing together bits and pieces from what the locals said, Lionel gradually learned about the original owner of this body.
The man had absolutely nothing.
No parents.
No partner.
No job.
He had been a complete and utter drifter.
Well… a drifter was still better than being dead.
Surviving came first.
That was what Lionel, and now Sammy, had told himself at the time, especially since his stomach was already growling painfully from hunger.
To make a living, Sammy started looking for work.
Unfortunately, the original Sammy had already ruined his own reputation around town.
As a result, no respectable employer wanted anything to do with him, leaving Sammy with only the hardest and lowest-paying manual labor.
Eventually, he found work carrying cargo at the docks.
He spent an entire day beneath the scorching sun, hauling crates until his shoulders were rubbed raw and covered in bloody blisters.
His reward was only a few hundred crumpled Berries.
Still, Sammy was thrilled.
At last, he had enough money to buy something to eat.
But just as he clutched the money in his hand and imagined finally filling his empty stomach, several burly men with venomous-snake tattoos swaggered over and blocked his path.
“Hey, kid.
You new around here?
Don’t you know the rules?
These docks belong to the Viper Gang.”
The scar-faced man leading them held out his hand.
His meaning couldn’t have been clearer.
Sammy instinctively tightened his grip around the money.
He had worked the entire day for this.
“T-This… I earned this…”
SLAP!
The blow struck so hard that his vision went black for a moment.
His cheek burned.
Before he could even understand what had happened, a heavy fist buried itself in his stomach.
“aaarghh…”
Sammy doubled over and collapsed to the ground.
“Earned it?
The only reason you’re allowed to earn anything on these docks is because we say so!
That’s the rule!”
Scarface planted his boot on Sammy’s hand.
He ground down hard.
Then, one finger at a time, he forced Sammy’s clenched fist open and snatched away the few hundred Berries.
The laborers working nearby quickly turned their faces away and hurried on with their jobs.
No one stepped forward.
Sammy heard only faint snickering and quiet whispers from the crowd.
Humiliation.
Pain.
But more than either of those, what shook him was the sheer brutality of this world—something he had never truly experienced in the peaceful society of his previous life.
His entire body trembled.
Then he remembered the Marines.
The Marines!
In the manga, they were supposed to represent justice!
Ignoring his injuries, Sammy rushed to the Marine branch in town and stammered out his story to the guard on duty, explaining how he had been robbed and beaten.
The Marine listened impatiently.
Then he sneered.
“The Viper Gang?
They keep order around the docks.
What’s wrong with collecting a little management fee?
Get lost!
Go on!
Stop blocking the entrance!”
Not only did the Marine refuse to help him, he shoved Sammy away and even kicked him twice, sending him tumbling down the steps.
Sammy landed in the dirt.
Before he could push himself back up, a shadow fell over him.
Scarface and the same group of thugs were leaning against the outer wall of the Marine branch, cigarettes hanging from their mouths as they watched him with amused smiles.
“Well, look at you, kid.
You actually came running to the Marines?”
Scarface crouched down and slapped Sammy lightly across the face.
“Don’t you get it?
Us and those fine gentlemen inside—we’re all on the same side.
Running here to complain about me?
Hah!
You’re just making this more entertaining.”
Then the beating started again.
Fists and boots rained down on Sammy.
This time, they hit harder.
And they kept going much longer.
All Sammy could do was curl into a ball and cover his head while the metallic taste of blood filled his mouth.
Eventually, after spitting on him several times, the thugs swaggered away as though nothing had happened.
And that was only the beginning.
In the days that followed, the same kind of abuse became routine.
Sammy tried hiding.
He tried finding different work.
It didn’t matter.
The Viper Gang’s reach seemed to extend everywhere.
Most of whatever he earned was taken from him.
A wrong look could earn him a beating.
An argument could earn him another.
Day after day, his dignity was crushed deeper into the mud.
The soul that had come from a modern, peaceful world slowly changed beneath the endless despair and rage.
Eventually, something inside him froze.
Hatred took its place.
“If this world has no fairness… no justice…”
Sammy stared at his battered reflection in the water.
His face was swollen and bruised.
The final trace of warmth disappeared from his eyes.
He was done enduring it.
He was done waiting for someone to save him.
So Sammy began putting the knowledge from his previous life to use—the countless ideas he had picked up from years of watching anime.
Ambushes.
Traps.
Weak points in the human body.
Psychological intimidation.
He observed the Viper Gang’s small hideout and memorized their guard rotations.
He learned the faces and habits of every thug stationed there.
He collected discarded nails and shards of broken glass.
With scraps of cloth and half a can of lamp oil he had found, he fashioned whatever crude weapons he could.
Then the night of revenge finally came.
Sammy slipped into the hideout like a shadow.
Using darkness, confusion, traps, and surprise attacks, he took down two isolated thugs before they could raise an alarm.
But there were far more people inside than he had expected.
It didn’t take long before the commotion drew a large number of enemies toward him.
Sammy fought while retreating, collecting several wounds along the way.
Then, as he turned a corner in one of the corridors, he nearly collided with three ragged men.
“Don’t kill us!”
The oldest of the three immediately raised his trembling hands.
Bruises covered their faces and bodies, and fear filled their eyes.
“Please… help us!
We’re victims too!
They did this to us!”
They had seen Sammy storm into the Viper Gang’s hideout alone.
They had seen how viciously he fought.
Now they desperately begged him for help.
Sammy breathed heavily.
“Help you?
I can barely keep myself alive right now.”
He glared at them.
“If you want to live, pick up a weapon and fight!
We might die either way.
If that’s how it ends, then drag a few of these bastards down with you!
That’s still better than kneeling here and begging for mercy!”
Maybe his words awakened the last bit of courage buried inside those three men.
Or maybe the hatred they had accumulated toward the Viper Gang had finally reached its breaking point.
Whatever the reason, they moved.
The three hurriedly grabbed whatever they could find from the floor—wooden clubs, broken bottles, anything that might serve as a weapon—and followed Sammy.
The four fought as they retreated through the maze-like hideout, desperately searching for a way out.
But by then, the entire Viper Gang had been alerted.
Enemies closed in from every direction.
Shouts echoed through the corridors.
The pounding of footsteps grew louder and louder.
“This way!
Hurry!”
With nowhere else to run, the four slammed through a heavy wooden door that had been left slightly open.
They rushed inside, threw their bodies against it, and dropped the heavy bolt into place.
Almost immediately—
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
Furious pounding and angry curses erupted from the other side.
They were safe.
For the moment.
But they had also trapped themselves.
The four leaned against the door, gasping for breath.
Sweat, blood, and dirt ran down their bodies.
Only then, beneath the faint moonlight slipping through a small ventilation window, did they finally get a proper look at the room they had stumbled into.
This was no ordinary storage room.
Boxes were piled everywhere.
Several had been left open, revealing the glitter of gold coins and jewelry within.
A few expensive-looking weapons and decorative pieces hung along the walls.
They had accidentally broken into the Viper Gang’s treasure room.
“M-Money… There’s so much money…”
One of the men stared blankly at the treasure.
Then the light in his eyes quickly faded.
What good was treasure now?
They couldn’t even get through the door alive.
“Stop staring at the money!
Search for weapons!
Guns!
Swords!
Anything we can use!”
Ignoring the pain from his wounds, Sammy frantically searched the room.
He kicked open several boxes.
Most contained gold and silverware, expensive fabrics, and other valuables.
He yanked open a drawer.
Nothing useful.
His eyes swept desperately around the room.
Then they stopped.
In one corner sat a beautifully crafted wooden box, separated from everything else.
Sammy rushed over and threw it open.
There was no sword inside.
No pistol.
Instead, resting quietly on a bed of dark velvet was a strange fruit.
Its entire surface was covered in swirling patterns.
It was an eerie shade of pink and shaped somewhat like a pomegranate.
The fruit didn’t look particularly fresh.
In fact, it seemed slightly shriveled.
But those bizarre swirls and unnatural colors seemed almost alive beneath the moonlight, pulling Sammy’s gaze toward it.
A Devil Fruit!
There was no mistaking something that strange.
It definitely wasn’t an ordinary fruit.
But what power did it contain?
He had no idea.
And eating it would mean losing the ability to swim…
BANG!
BANG!
CRACK!
The wooden bolt groaned under the pressure.
Cracks began spreading across the door.
The three men cried out in despair and desperately tried to reinforce the barricade.
There was no time left.
That unknown power…
It was the only thing in this room that might give Sammy a chance to break out of this hopeless situation.
Wait here and die?
Or gamble everything?
A wild light flashed through Sammy’s eyes.
He grabbed the pink Devil Fruit.
Then, staring at the cracked door and the shadowy figures of his enemies gathering behind it, he roared with everything he had.
“VIPER GANG!
YOU WANT MY LIFE?!
THEN COME AND SEE WHICH ONE OF US GOES TO HELL FIRST!”
Sammy opened his mouth and bit down hard.
The taste exploded across his tongue.
“Blurghhh…”
It was horrifying.
It was as though every rotten, foul, disgusting thing in the world had been mixed together and stuffed into his mouth.
His stomach violently twisted.
He almost vomited on the spot.
But Sammy clamped a hand over his mouth and forced himself to swallow.
One bite.
Then another.
BOOM—!
Something erupted deep inside his body.
Hot.
Strange.
Almost alive.
The unknown power surged through his veins and nerves like a raging flood.
At the exact same moment—
CRASH!
The warehouse door finally burst open.
Vicious Viper Gang thugs flooded into the room carrying swords, axes, and burning torches.
“There they are!
KILL—”
The shout abruptly stopped.
Every thug who entered froze in horror.
Their eyes were locked on the center of the room.
On Ribera Sammy.
His body was changing.
His skin had become partially translucent.
Even the outline of his body seemed to ripple and distort.
Thick, slick liquid continuously seeped from his fingertips and dripped onto the floor.
But the strangest part was his eyes.
In the darkness, they reflected a faint, eerie glow—like the eyes of some creature lurking in the deepest parts of the ocean.
“M-MONSTER!!!”
A terrified scream echoed through the warehouse.
Sammy slowly raised his changing arm.
He could feel the newborn power raging inside him.
His gaze moved across the faces of the men who had brought him endless humiliation and suffering.
Then his lips curled into a cold smile.
There was no warmth in it.
None at all.
…
No one ever learned exactly what happened inside that warehouse that night.
By the time nearby residents noticed something was wrong the following morning, the Viper Gang’s hideout had fallen completely silent.
Bodies lay scattered inside and outside the warehouse.
Every one of the men who had chased Sammy was dead.
Strangely, there were almost no obvious wounds from blades or other sharp weapons.
Yet their deaths were horrifying.
Their eyes were wide open and bloodshot.
Their faces were twisted by unbearable agony.
Their lips and fingernails had turned an ominous dark purple.
Their muscles had cramped and stiffened unnaturally, as though they had endured unimaginable torment in the final moments before death.
Ribera Sammy was gone.
So were the three men who had fought beside him.
A portion of the Viper Gang’s treasure had disappeared as well, along with a small boat.
Soon, rumors began spreading quietly through the town.
Rumors filled with fear and confusion.
No one cared much about where the insignificant homeless young man had gone.
All they knew was that one of the Viper Gang’s hideouts had been wiped out in a bizarre and terrifying manner.
And from that day onward, Ribera Sammy was truly born.
With his first followers at his side, he sailed away aboard the ship they had stolen and disappeared into the vast West Blue.
And now?
Sammy’s thoughts returned to the present.
His gaze settled on the pirate flag fluttering proudly above the bow of his ship—a skull wearing a jellyfish-shaped hat, with several tentacles extending from its sides and two crossed, curved swords beneath it.
Yes.
They had become pirates.
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