Chapter 1
Sea Circle Calendar 1510, autumn night. East Blue, Loguetown, Rose Street.
"Verus! Don't push your luck! If we really fight, you won't come out of it alive!"
The notoriously ugly and towering female pirate known as the "Most Evil Woman," Catarina Devon, glared viciously at the man in front of her.
The man had neat, short black hair and a cigar clenched between his teeth, smoke curling upward. His handsome, sharply defined features stood out in the dim light.
He wore a blood-stained white Marine justice cloak. In his hand was an unnamed silver supreme-grade sword.
Blood droplets clung to the blade — all of it from Catarina Devon's crew.
An unusually cold ruthlessness gleamed in his eyes.
Just standing there motionless, he exuded a sinister, oppressive presence, like a shura risen from hell.
He was Caesar Verus, temporary Admiral of the East Blue, known as the "White Reaper." Three years ago, he had transmigrated here — a man whose original fate had been nothing but misery.
The day he was born, a fortune teller declared he would one day wear the yellow robe of an emperor.
Instead: Father dead at age 3, mother dead at age 7, and by age 12 he had lost an entire household register's worth of family.
He finally scraped through to age 18, got into university, studied by day and delivered food by night.
After four grueling years, just as graduation was in sight… He heroically saved an injured girl and took her to the police station.
The next day, he was cornered and beaten to death by a privileged second-generation thug. Then — blackout. Transmigration.
He awoke in this brutal Great Pirate Era, a world with no harmony or kindness.
Black-hand syndicates everywhere, pirates who burned, killed, and looted without restraint, bullies who preyed on the weak, exploitative nobles and bureaucrats.
Even the "justice" of the Marines refused to save the poor.
In this world, the weak had no right to dream. Without a protagonist's halo or a powerful father, you could only grovel beneath the strong.
Your choices were simple: climb over the corpses of others, or become someone's dog and get killed.
Faced with those two paths, Verus chose the first.
He had read The Adventures of Prince Luffy (though he dropped it during that damned Wano arc).
Using his foreknowledge, he seized the chance to join a Marine branch.
For a commoner like him, the Marine system offered the safest and fastest way to grow strong.
Once enlisted, he trained like a madman.
During his first pirate kill, he awakened a pay-to-win system that let him grow stronger by spending money.
From that moment on, he pursued power and wealth with ruthless abandon.
After three years of blood and struggle, he had become the feared Emperor of the East Blue.
His swordsmanship was transcendent, his battle record illustrious, he mastered the Six Powers, and he had even become a Devil Fruit user.
The fruit he ate, however, was widely considered trash.
The Silence-Silence Fruit — it erased sound within a certain range.
Its previous owner, Donquixote Rosinante, brother of Doflamingo and adopted son of Admiral Sengoku, had been beaten into the ground.
Every known Silence Fruit user in history had been useless.
Yet when Verus obtained it — half-dead at the time — he swallowed it without hesitation.
He believed it was fate.
There is no weakest fruit, only weakest users.
And because he had nine years of compulsory education: sound is produced by vibration. So the Silence Fruit's true power was to eliminate vibration.
If he could eliminate vibration… and eventually eliminate kinetic energy itself…
Then this was a god-tier fruit.
He had bet correctly.
He had already developed it to the second stage: nullifying kinetic energy within his domain.
Sword slashes, bullets — anything that entered his field weakened dramatically or simply fell apart.
He was even touching the threshold of the third stage.
…
"Huu~"
Hearing Catarina Devon's threat, Verus took a drag on his cigar.
He narrowed his cold eyes and exhaled a dragon-like plume of smoke.
"Can your crimes be wiped away just because you claim you're retiring?"
"Crimes? Hah!" Catarina Devon's eyelid twitched, her lips curling in scorn. "Of everyone in the East Blue, you — the corrupt Marine scum — are the last person qualified to say that word."
"Everyone knows you're greedy, lecherous, despicable, and murderous. In these three years, at least eight or ten thousand people have died by your hand!"
"You're not wrong."
Verus narrowed his eyes further, leisurely blowing a smoke ring.
Then his tone shifted, a twisted, arrogant, and sinister smile spreading across his face.
"But the ones I killed were all filthy pirates. Vermin like that — isn't the world better off with them dead?"
"Yet you haven't only killed pirates."
Catarina Devon met his gaze coldly, her aura rising steadily.
"Not to mention the civilians who died because of you — the entire East Blue knows you murdered the previous East Blue Admiral. The investigators from Headquarters are here for you."
"True."
Verus slowly drew his famed blade, his eyes shifting to the white mist rising behind Catarina Devon.
"But none of that matters anymore. I've decided you die here tonight — to atone for the crime you committed two days ago."
"Two days ago?"
At those words, Catarina Devon's pupils contracted sharply.
"I didn't do anything two days ago! Stop pretending, Verus! Let me go and I'll give you 50 million berries. Otherwise—"
"Fifty million? Heh."
Seeing her still trying to bribe him, mockery flashed in Verus's eyes.
He would have loved to take it.
Unfortunately, his broken system only accepted money earned through "official" channels. Being a Marine also forbade side income — otherwise he'd already be invincible.
This woman was infamous for never keeping her word.
More importantly, he had reliable intelligence: she had come to the East Blue seeking a legendary Devil Fruit — the Dog-Dog Fruit, Mythical Zoan Type: Nine-Tailed Fox.
In Eastern mythology, it was one of the top divine beasts.
In Japanese and Korean myths, it was practically unmatched.
If she escaped and ate that fruit, he would be the one at a disadvantage.
Huu—!
After a brief moment of thought, Verus took a deep drag and stepped forward. His white justice cloak billowed.
The tip of his gleaming blade scraped the ground, carving a long groove and producing a grating, nerve-racking screech.
Krrrr—!
"Verus!"
Facing the overwhelming pressure, Catarina Devon involuntarily stepped back half a pace.
"You really think my bounty is just for show? Underestimate me and you'll die!!"
"Is that so?"
Seeing her retreat that tiny step only strengthened Verus's resolve to kill her.
A remnant of the old era, bounty 12 million berries — a major pirate.
That merit alone would secure his promotion.
Once he became a base commander, he could amass even more wealth.
And with that money, he would finally reach the 1 billion berries needed.
Three long years!
He had waited far too long for that monstrous Giant Clan physique!!