Chapter 1: Ashes and Beginnings
The end came not with fire, nor glory—only silence. Cold, slow, still.
He had lived a life like many others. Mediocre. Forgettable. His death was no different. Pain in his chest. Lights blurring into darkness. And then—a void.
No heaven. No hell. Just an endless, formless dark.
Until something spoke.
A voice like wind rustling in a dead forest. Timeless. Detached.
"You have died."
He didn't scream. Didn't plead. He had felt too little in life to feel much now.
"You get one wish."
He could've asked for immortality. Power. Revenge. Peace. But something darker bloomed in him.
"Give me a growth system. With a store."
The voice paused, as if amused.
"You don't ask where you'll go?"
"I don't care. I'll build from nothing."
A silence.
"Then nothing you shall begin with."
---
The world burst into life with wails.
He screamed with a newborn's lungs, but his soul remembered. The sea wind. The biting air. Foreign voices shouting. Coarse laughter. He was swaddled roughly. Handled like a thing, not a life.
He was a baby.
He couldn't move. Couldn't speak. But his mind slowly reformed itself behind dull eyes.
And the world he saw, the words he caught—it was wrong. Familiar. Yet warped.
Talk of Devil Fruits. Of bounties. Of chaos. Of pirates so cruel the seas themselves seemed to fear them.
A name echoed again and again: Rocks D. Xebec.
His blood turned cold.
He had watched One Piece. Known the legends. The eras. The rise and fall of giants.
But this wasn't the time of Whitebeard or Roger.
This was before them.
Before the world burned under Rocks.
And then he heard it. Saw the way people looked at another infant in the same room—wild eyes, broad shoulders, an aura even as a child. It was him.
Rocks.
"Born the same day, same hour." "Could be twins." "Though they don't even look alike."
No, they didn't. Rocks was chaos wrapped in flesh. Charisma in raw form. The kind of person people followed, even to ruin.
But he was different. Smaller. Quieter. Sharper.
And older—within.
He didn't cry after the first night. He watched.
He listened.
He learned.
---
Their world was a pirate camp on some forgotten rock. The strong ruled. The weak served—or died.
Rocks laughed often. Loudly. Fought with fists even as a child. Drew others to him.
He didn't. He stayed on the edge, unnoticed when possible. He saw Rocks for what he truly was: a monster that would one day set the world aflame.
And he made a choice.
He would not follow him.
He would not help him.
He would outlast him.
Rocks grew in influence quickly. His arrogance matched only by his violence.
But the other twin? He was just another child in the shadows. Beaten often. Ignored more. But he endured.
The growth system—the only thing he had asked for—remained asleep.
No abilities. No sudden strength. No cheat sheet.
Until he nearly died.
Left bleeding in a mud pit after a beating from a drunk pirate, his vision swam. Bones cracked. Breath shallow.
And then...
[SYSTEM ONLINE] [GROWTH MODE ACTIVATED] [STORE: LOCKED | STATS: MINIMAL | TOKENS: 0]
Pain had awakened it.
Desperation fed it.
No sudden power. No miracle.
Just the path.
He healed. Slowly. Imperfectly. But something inside had shifted. Each struggle now meant something. Pain meant progress. His body was learning. His instincts sharpening.
He smiled, barely.
Not from happiness.
From confirmation.
He wouldn't win by being liked. He wouldn't gather allies. There'd be no grand speeches or noble causes.
He would grow. Slowly. Viciously. Patiently.
One broken bone at a time.
One bloody lesson after another.
He trained in silence. Picked fights he could barely win. Took beatings with gritted teeth. Each one fed the system. Each loss made him a little less weak.
And as Rocks started gathering followers, building his legend one brawl at a time, the other twin remained in the shadows. Unseen. But never still.
He studied Rocks. Knew his fire, his rage, his madness.
He knew how it would all end.
But he had no intention of changing it.
Let Rocks burn the world.
He would feed on the ashes.
No romance. No mercy. No distractions.
Just the climb.
From nothing.
To nightmare.