Year 1498 of Sea Calendar, on the skies above the West Blue.
When Sakura opened her eyes again, the wind from the fall stung her cheeks, and her ears were filled with the roar of airflow.
Sakura found herself hundreds of meters in the air once more.
"Eh, why did I say 'again'?"
Faced with the familiar scene, Sakura was speechless.
She adjusted her posture, using Chakra to perform Geppo and slow her descent.
[Notice, Survival achievement timer started… Current days: 0]
"System, you $*%#@!"
The long-awaited sea breeze carried freedom, and Sakura's good mood had just risen, only to be ruined by a certain scammer-like system.
'I was here for adventure, but this damn thing shoved a task in my face, instantly giving me the feeling of going to work.'
Sakura, whose good mood has been ruined, is doing her best to use the system to explore the possible boundaries of 'beautiful language'.
Not far away in the sea, a dilapidated large ship was being pursued by a vessel flying a skull flag.
"Boss, look ahead!"
A bandana-wearing lackey on the pirate ship raised his hand, pointing at the petite figure walking in the sky.
"Hah? Someone walking in the sky? No, that's CP's Geppo!"
The man called the leader watched as Sakura descended from the sky as if walking down stairs, his eyes bulging.
Panic lasted only a moment on the man's face before a brilliant idea struck him.
"Hey, if we kill a government agent, can we instantly become famous on the sea?"
The captain's words made the pirates around him break into crazy smiles one after another.
Yeah, this was the Great Pirate Era opened by Roger.
Wealth, fame, power... everything in the world awaited their plunder. Just the World Government?... Screw them!
Driven by fanatical fervor, the pirates cheerfully adjusted their cannons toward the distant figure.
"Gyahahaha, die, government brat!"
The man ferociously drew his sword and pointed it at Sakura in the sky, shouting orders.
"Fire, fire! Fire!!!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Cannons fired in unison, the sound waves humming!
On the old merchant ship ahead of the pirate vessel, a white-haired woman in a windbreaker showed a shocked expression.
"Not good! The scum behind us are targeting an innocent person!"
"But we have no long-range weapons, Dr. Nico!"
The wind blew off the crew's hats and carried his voice to the stern.
Hearing this, Nico Olvia, who is at the stern, frustratedly hammered the railing, her brow furrowed, "Dammit!"
Just as a gloomy atmosphere spread among the scholars on board, a clear voice rang out across the sea.
"Divine Departure!!!"
The light across the sea was instantly plundered. A blazing cyan blade light sang out proudly.
Clang-!
Black lightning rampaged across the sky. The blade light crushed the phosphorescent glow reflected on the sea inch by inch.
Amid the bold laughter, the pirate ship was cut in two by this violent strike.
Blood fell like a storm. Screams and wails were swallowed by the split sea and roaring waves.
"Eh!!!"
"Cut through???"
On the dilapidated merchant ship, the eyes of thirty-three scholars spiraled and bulged out of their sockets.
A petite pink-haired girl strolled through the air and landed lightly on their ship.
Clang!
Sakura spread her arms open toward the stunned scholars, as if a magic performance had succeeded and she was asking for flowers and applause.
"A... a child?"
The reacting scholar instinctively took a step back. After all, the flying slash that had spanned the sea was utterly terrifying.
Even though Sakura appeared harmless, the most important thing when sailing on these seas was vigilance!
"Was that slash just now... from you?"
Pushing through the crowd, Olvia, the person in charge, stepped forward.
"Yeah! So, am I amazing? Can I join you?"
"I smell achievements... ah, no, adventure on you."
The girl sat cross-legged on the deck, hands on her ankles, swaying her body with an innocent smile.
"Sorry, although we're very grateful for your help, we can't let you join."
Olvia crouched in front of Sakura, taking out a handkerchief to gently wipe the seawater from her face.
"Everyone on this ship is a scholar. Without sufficient knowledge, you can't join our work."
Olvia spoke to Sakura in a tone used to coax children.
Even if the girl before her had the superb swordsmanship to cut through ships, as a mother facing a girl about the same age as her daughter, how could she treat her as an adult?
"Huh? Knowledge? I have that! I can read Ancient Giant script!"
As soon as Sakura spoke, her Observation Haki detected a bespectacled scholar rushing into the cabin.
After sounds of rummaging through boxes, he rushed back to Sakura with a pile of documents.
"Child, can you help translate this?"
He pointed to one of the drawings and the text on it, his eyes full of hope.
"Sure, let me see."
Sakura took the document and spread it on the deck.
It was a depiction of a giant red snake, with many characters written on its body, though most had become blurred due to time's wear.
Sakura could only translate by piecing together the few remaining characters.
"Snake of purgatorial flames... seawater... world, the Great Kingdom?"
Hearing Sakura's translation, the bespectacled scholar quickly recorded the content and compared it with some documents they already had.
"Olvia, this child really can read Ancient Giant script. Why not let her join?"
The bespectacled scholar turned his head mechanically, seriously proposing to the woman behind him.
"How can we do that, you old fool!"
Olvia, showing angry shark teeth, punched the scholar on the head.
"What's the big deal? You're already stuck in a bottleneck with your research on the Void Century. Letting me join might help push it forward."
As Sakura's words landed, the atmosphere on the merchant ship froze.
The scholars, who had just been delighted about translating precious documents, now felt as if plunged into an ice cellar.
One by one, scholars with knowledge far exceeding ordinary people stood with their mouths agape, speechless for a long time.
In this world, touching that period of history was an absolute taboo strictly forbidden by the World Government.
Now, their secret was exposed to this girl.
Olvia gritted her teeth, unsure how to handle the girl.
Fight? They couldn't win. Ignore her? That would bring uncontrollable risk to all the scholars.
Just as the ship reached the peak of dead silence, the pink-haired girl before them suddenly spoke.
"Ah, I forgot to introduce myself."
Sakura stood up, stuck out her tongue, and lightly tapped her head with her fist.
"My name is Haruno Sakura. I'm a pirate, a crew member of the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger."
"So, scholars chasing history, may I join you?"
These words caused the scholars, whose nerves were stretched to the limit, to have their brains overheat. Their colors drained, turning them snow-white.
"Hah???"