"Ding. Congratulations, host — you have survived to adulthood. The God-Tier Treasure Chest System is now online!"
"Ding. Congratulations, host — you have obtained the Coming-of-Age Exclusive Chest!"
At dawn on New Year's Day of Sea Year 1518, Ian Adrian — who had been a green naval recruit just yesterday — was jerked awake by an abrupt system chime in his sleep.
Out of nowhere a golden "system chest" materialized in his field of vision, glittering like some dreamt-of relic and locking onto his eyes like a living thing.
Was this a hallucination? Ian stared at the floating chest in disbelief. Moments later a string of information blinked before him:
[Exclusive Chest: Coming-of-Age Tribute]
[Chest Rank: Unrated]
[Unlock Condition: Survive your youth in an age ruled by pirates]
[Chest Inscription: Hoist the sails and press ever forward!]
So it wasn't a dream — it was real.
Ian could hardly believe it. Eighteen years of life, and he had finally been handed the golden "cheat" he had always wanted: a gift of fate, late but real.
Eighteen years.
System Chest: Do you know how I survived those eighteen years?
Sea Year 1500 — the Great Pirate Era began, and Ian was reborn into this oceanic world.
He hadn't gotten Mary Geoise household registration — local citizen status, not immigration papers — but he'd been lucky enough to be born in a rear town behind Marine Headquarters, just next to the Holy Land.
Three generations of his family had served in the Marines.
Out on this treacherous sea, ordinary people had to fight tooth and nail just to stay alive. The rear towns behind Marine HQ offered a measure of security you didn't get elsewhere.
But it seemed Ian had blown all his luck in the rebirth lottery. His "golden finger" hadn't appeared for him.
When he reached the age for formal training, Ian finally let go of childish fantasies of "dragons," "systems," and "superpowers."
He made a pragmatic decision: study hard, train his body, and follow his ancestors — enlist in the Marines.
Knowledge of the sea. Strength for the sea.
Even the weakest, most pathetic navy recruit still had a tailored cheat if they wanted it: "two-hundred-times effort" mode — activated.
Ian entered Naval Academy at sixteen and trained like a man possessed. At seventeen he joined the elite recruits' training camp and graduated with top marks.
If nothing went wrong, at eighteen he would skip the ranks of "recruit" and "corporal" and go straight to becoming a commissioned officer at Marine Headquarters — the normal reward for an excellent training-camp graduate.
Ian's next life goal was simple: work hard, make money, and secure a powerful Devil Fruit.
The famed sea teacher, Kaido of the Beasts, had once said, "Only Haki rules over everything." But then again — he himself had eaten the Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Azure Dragon, and soon after proclaimed that very sentence before letting fly his ultimate "Flame Dragon Blaze."
And the man who actually beat Kaido had eaten the Mythical Zoan fruit, Model: Nika.
The other notorious villain, Blackbeard Teach, taught a different lesson: "Compared to defects, Devil Fruits offer more benefits." Of course, he meant the strong ones — the idea that "there's no trash Devil Fruit, only trash users" was just lukewarm motivational garbage.
Devil Fruits clearly have tiers. A magma fruit outclasses a simple flame fruit. Even among Logias, a magma user can punch through a fire user.
Ian didn't hate powerful fruits. Elemental types were fine. Rule and Concept types were even better. Mythical Zoans were the dream.
Ian understood better than anyone what counted as a "version answer."
But up until now, all he had was the civilian-grade "two-hundred-times effort" mode and a long, grinding stretch of sacrifice.
System Chest: It's here?
Ian snorted. Well, it's here now.
He forced a grin that nearly split his face and began probing the chest's capabilities.
In little time, everything became clear.
The System Chest had two functions. First, it could grant Ian the thing he most desired in his heart. Second, the chest's "stars" could be spent to raise his personal attributes.
Normally the two couldn't be had together — though some special chests provided both.
And there was only one way to obtain System Chests: by fighting. The stronger the opponent and the more intense the battle, the higher the chest's rank would be.
In Ian's interpretation, the System Chest was a combination of "wish-granting" and "stat points."
He looked at the Coming-of-Age Exclusive Chest. It was a specialty chest with no "stars," which meant it couldn't be used to add stat points — but it could be used to grant a wish.
Calling it a starter chest was polite. In reality, it was a new recruit's welcome gift.
Ian didn't rush to open his "newbie loot box." Instead, a little awkwardly, he summoned up his personal status panel with a thought.
[Ian Adrian]
[Physique: ★★☆]
[Haki: Locked]
[Comment: A navy recruit who has been training obsessively — would qualify to be one of the 100,000 Marines who besieged Whitebeard in the Summit War]
Ian wasn't sure how strong a "★★☆" physique really was. Looking at the comment…
High-empathy reading: he's not very strong yet.
Low-empathy reading: weakling.
He scrolled further.
Both Physique and Haki had three subattributes. Haki, of course, split into Armament, Observation, and Conqueror's Haki.
Physique's three branches were:
[Strength: ★★☆]
[Speed: ★★☆]
[Stamina: ★★★]
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