{BEFORE YOU READ - THIS IS JUST A STRAIGHT UP SMUT NOVEL SO DON'T EXCEPT PLOT AND STUFF LIKE THAT, JUST SEX CHAPTER 80% OF THE TIMES AND YES, THIS IS NOT BAIT TAG NOVEL WHERE THERE IS NO SMUT TILL AGES, AS THERE IS ONLY SMUT IN THIS NOVEL SO ONCE AGAIN DON'T COMPLAIN TO ME ABOUT HAREM BEING ABSURD OR ONE PIECE GIRLS ACCEPTING IT AS THERE'S BETTER FANFICS FOR SUCH TOPIC UNLIKE THIS WISH FULLFILMENT SMUT FANFIC}
Cold water filled my lungs.
That was my first sensation in this new existence. Not a gentle awakening or a slow transition from sleep. Just the sudden, brutal, terrifying reality of drowning in dark water.
My eyes flew open to endless blue. Water pressed in from every direction, heavy and cold, dragging me downward into an abyss I couldn't see the bottom of. Panic exploded through my chest like a bomb going off. I thrashed wildly, arms and legs flailing, bubbles streaming from my mouth as the last precious air escaped my lungs.
Can't breathe. Can't breathe. Oh god, I can't breathe.
Which way was up? Which way was the surface? Everything looked the same. The same deep, endless blue stretching infinitely in every direction. No sunlight filtering down to guide me. No bubbles rising to show me the way. Just cold and pressure and the desperate, screaming need for oxygen.
My lungs burned. My chest convulsed, every instinct demanding I open my mouth and inhale. My brain knew that would kill me, but my body didn't care. It wanted air. It needed air. And there was no air to be had.
Pick a direction. Any direction. Just move.
I kicked. Hard. Pulling with my arms, fighting against the weight of my waterlogged clothes that dragged at me like anchors trying to pull me to my grave. Black spots danced across my vision, multiplying with each passing second. The edges of my consciousness began to blur and fade.
Don't die. Not like this. Not here. Move. MOVE.
Time lost all meaning. I don't know how long I struggled. Seconds, maybe. Minutes. An eternity compressed into a single desperate moment. All that existed was the next stroke, the next kick, the fading hope that I'd somehow chosen the right direction.
Then my hand broke through.
I erupted into open air with a ragged, gasping scream, coughing so violently I thought my ribs might crack. Salt water burned my throat and nose as I expelled it, flailing wildly to keep my head above the waves. The sun hit my face like a physical blow, blinding me after the darkness below.
For several long seconds, I couldn't do anything but float and breathe. Just breathe. In and out. In and out. The simple act of drawing air into my lungs felt like the greatest miracle I'd ever experienced.
When my vision finally cleared and my heart stopped trying to hammer its way out of my chest, I looked around.
Ocean. Nothing but ocean in every direction.
Waves rolled endlessly under a cloudless sky. Blue water stretched to every horizon, broken only by the occasional whitecap. No land. No ships. No floating debris. No sign of anything that might explain how I'd ended up here.
"What the hell..."
My voice came out as a raw croak, barely audible over the sound of the waves. Not that it mattered. There was nobody to hear me anyway.
The last thing I remembered was my apartment. My bedroom. Lying in bed with my phone, scrolling through videos before sleep. A completely normal night at the end of a completely normal day. Nothing strange. Nothing unusual. Nothing that could possibly explain waking up drowning in the middle of a vast, empty ocean.
Is this a dream? Am I dead? What the hell is happening?
The water was cold. The sun was hot on my face. The salt stung my eyes and my throat ached from coughing. Everything felt too real to be a dream. Too vivid. Too painful.
Before I could spiral further into confusion, something appeared in my vision.
Blue translucent text, floating in the air like a video game interface. Not projected onto the water or hanging in the sky. Actually inside my vision, as if displayed directly onto my eyeballs.
[SYSTEM INITIALIZING...]
[INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]
[WELCOME, HOST, TO THE DUAL CULTIVATION SYSTEM]
I blinked several times. The text didn't go away.
"What the hell is this?"
More words scrolled into existence, calm and clinical.
[HOST STATUS: CRITICAL]
[YANG ENERGY: 3/100]
[BODY DEGRADATION: 12%]
[TIME REMAINING: 168 HOURS]
[WARNING: OBTAIN YIN ENERGY OR HOST WILL EXPIRE]
"Expire?" I sputtered, accidentally swallowing a mouthful of seawater. "What do you mean expire?"
The system responded with a wall of text that explained, in cold mechanical terms, exactly what had happened to me. I'd been transported from my original world to this one. During the transfer, my body had been modified to integrate with something called the Dual Cultivation System. This modification required a balance of yin and yang energy to function properly.
Currently, my yang energy was critically low. Without yin energy to balance it, my body would continue to degrade until complete system failure occurred.
Time limit: 168 hours. Seven days.
The method to obtain yin energy: dual cultivation with compatible female partners.
I read that last part three times, certain I must be misunderstanding something.
"Dual cultivation," I said slowly. "That means sex, doesn't it?"
[CORRECT]
[DUAL CULTIVATION: THE EXCHANGE OF YIN AND YANG ENERGY THROUGH INTIMATE PHYSICAL CONTACT]
[SEXUAL INTERCOURSE WITH COMPATIBLE PARTNERS WILL RESTORE HOST YANG ENERGY]
"So I need to have sex within seven days or I die."
[CORRECT]
"While floating in the middle of the ocean with no land or ships in sight."
The system didn't respond to that. Apparently it wasn't programmed to acknowledge sarcasm.
I laughed. It wasn't a happy sound. More like the noise a person makes when reality stops making sense and they've got nothing left but bitter amusement.
"Okay. Fine. Let's say I believe all of this." I took a deep breath, forcing myself to think past the absurdity of the situation. "Where am I? What world is this?"
[HOST LOCATION: EAST BLUE]
[WORLD: ONE PIECE]
For a moment, I forgot to tread water.
One Piece. The manga I'd read obsessively as a teenager. The anime that had been running for over two decades. A world of pirates and marines, devil fruits and legendary treasures. Monkey D. Luffy stretching his rubber arms and punching bad guys in the face.
I was in the world of One Piece.
The realization hit me like a truck, and I actually laughed again. This time with a hint of genuine amusement mixed into the hysteria.
If I have to be stuck with a perverted survival system, at least it's in a world with Nami. And Robin. And Hancock. And about a hundred other gorgeous women scattered across the seas.
But that was a problem for later. Right now, I needed to not drown.
"System. Is there any land nearby? Any ships?"
[SCANNING...]
[NEAREST VESSEL: 8.7 KILOMETERS WEST]
[NEAREST LANDMASS: 12.3 KILOMETERS NORTHEAST]
Ship was closer. I oriented myself as best I could, picked what I hoped was west, and started swimming.
Hours passed. The sun crawled across the sky.
Swimming in the open ocean was nothing like swimming in a pool. The waves fought me constantly, pushing me off course, slapping water into my face. My clothes dragged at every stroke, heavy and waterlogged. And the weakness...
The weakness was the worst part.
It wasn't just normal exhaustion, though there was plenty of that too. This was something different. Something deeper. A heaviness that seeped into my bones, making my arms feel like lead and my legs feel like they were wrapped in chains. Every stroke took more effort than the last.
Body degradation. That's what the system called it. My body is literally falling apart because I don't have enough yin energy.
I tried not to think about it. Tried to focus on the rhythm of swimming. Stroke. Stroke. Breathe. Stroke. Stroke. Breathe.
But the morbid curiosity eventually won out.
"System. Show me my current status."
[YANG ENERGY: 3/100]
[BODY DEGRADATION: 15%]
[TIME REMAINING: 164 HOURS]
The degradation had increased by three percent in just a few hours. At this rate, I'd be dead long before the seven days ran out.
Don't think about it. Just keep swimming.
Stroke. Stroke. Breathe.
The sun passed its peak and began descending toward the horizon. My arms burned. My legs cramped. Several times I had to stop and float on my back just to rest, staring up at the empty sky while my muscles screamed.
I'm going to die out here. I survived drowning just to die slowly in the middle of the ocean.
Then I saw it.
A dark shape on the horizon. Small at first, but growing larger as I watched. Sails catching the wind. A ship.
Hope surged through me like electricity.
"HEY!" I waved one arm frantically, nearly going under in the process. "OVER HERE! HELP!"
My voice was barely a croak, pathetically weak. There was no way they could hear me from this distance.
But I kept waving anyway. Kept shouting until my throat burned. Because the alternative was giving up, and I wasn't ready to do that yet.
The ship altered course.
Someone had seen me.
Thank god. Oh, thank god.
I swam toward the ship with renewed energy, closing the distance as fast as my exhausted body could manage. It was a merchant vessel, I realized as I got closer. Wooden hull, white sails, modest size. Not a warship or a pirate vessel. Just honest traders going about their business.
A rope splashed into the water nearby. I grabbed it with numb fingers, wrapping it around my wrist because I didn't trust my grip.
"Hold on!" someone shouted from above. "We're pulling you up!"
Strong hands hauled me over the railing, and I collapsed onto the wooden deck in a heap of exhaustion and relief. For a long moment, I just lay there, cheek pressed against the sun-warmed planks, breathing.
"Well, I'll be damned." A weathered face appeared in my field of vision. Middle-aged, kind eyes, salt-and-pepper beard. "He's actually alive."
"Barely," someone else muttered.
The kind-eyed man knelt beside me. "Easy there, lad. You're safe now. I'm Captain Harkon of the merchant vessel Morning Tide. Can you tell me your name?"
"Kai," I managed through chattering teeth. "My name is Kai."
"Well, Kai, you're one lucky bastard. We almost didn't spot you out there." He gestured to someone behind him. "Get him a blanket and some fresh water. And see if the cook has any broth. This poor sod looks half-dead."
More than half, I thought, but I didn't say it. Just lay there on the deck, letting the relief wash over me.
I was alive. For now.
Two days on the Morning Tide.
The crew was kind to me, kinder than I had any right to expect. Tomas, a young deckhand with a friendly smile and an easy laugh, took it upon himself to check on me regularly. He brought me food, made sure I had water, and kept me company when I was awake.
"What happened to you?" he asked on the first evening, genuine curiosity in his voice. "Shipwreck?"
"Something like that." The lie came easily. "I don't remember much. One minute I was on deck, the next I was in the water. Everything between is just... blank."
Tomas nodded sympathetically. "Trauma can do that. My uncle fell from a mast once. Hit his head. Couldn't remember his own name for three days." He clapped me on the shoulder. "Don't worry. We'll get you to port, and you can sort yourself out from there."
"Thank you. Really. I owe you all my life."
"Don't mention it. Captain Harkon isn't the type to sail past a drowning man."
Captain Harkon himself checked on me twice a day. He asked questions I couldn't honestly answer and seemed satisfied with my vague non-responses. A good man. The kind of man who deserved better than what was coming.
But I didn't know that yet.
What I did know was that my condition was getting worse.
The degradation didn't stop just because I was out of the water. If anything, it accelerated. The weakness spread deeper with each passing hour, seeping into my muscles, my joints, my bones. Simple tasks like sitting up or walking across the deck left me winded and trembling.
I checked the system on the second night, after everyone else had gone to sleep.
[YANG ENERGY: 1/100]
[BODY DEGRADATION: 22%]
[TIME REMAINING: 147 HOURS]
[WARNING: DEGRADATION RATE INCREASING]
[SCANNING VESSEL FOR COMPATIBLE PARTNERS...]
[NO COMPATIBLE PARTNERS DETECTED]
[ALL CREW MEMBERS ARE MALE]
All male. Of course. My luck continued to be absolutely spectacular.
But port was close now. Just one more day. Captain Harkon had said we'd arrive by tomorrow afternoon. I just needed to survive one more day, and then I could find someone. Anyone.
I fell asleep clinging to that hope like a drowning man clinging to driftwood.
I woke on the third morning to the sound of screaming.
"PIRATES! PIRATES APPROACHING FROM THE EAST!"
My eyes snapped open. For a moment I was confused, disoriented, unsure where I was or what was happening. Then the second round of screaming started, and everything clicked into terrible focus.
I scrambled up the ladder to the main deck, my weakened body protesting every movement. What I saw when I emerged made my blood turn to ice.
Another ship was bearing down on us, larger and faster than the Morning Tide. Its sails were black. Its hull was painted with crude skulls and bloody handprints. And flying from its mast was a flag I recognized all too well. Black background. White skull. Crossed bones beneath.
Pirates.
"That's the Black Fang," Tomas whispered beside me, his face pale as chalk. "I've heard stories. They don't leave survivors."
Cannons boomed from the pirate ship. A moment later, an explosion ripped through our bow, showering the deck with splinters. Men screamed. Some fell.
"All hands!" Captain Harkon roared from the helm. "Prepare to repel boarders!"
But it was a futile command. We were a merchant vessel with a skeleton crew. No soldiers, no marines, no one trained for combat. Just sailors and traders armed with whatever makeshift weapons they could find.
Grappling hooks flew through the air, biting into our railings. Ropes went taut. And then the pirates came.
They swung across the gap between ships like demons from hell, armed with swords and axes and pistols. Their faces were twisted with savage glee. These weren't men looking for treasure. They were men looking for blood.
Their captain was the last to board. A massive figure with a scarred face and dead eyes that seemed to reflect nothing at all. He surveyed the deck with cold disdain, taking in the cowering merchants like a wolf appraising a flock of sheep.
"I am Blackwood," he announced, his voice carrying over the chaos. "Captain of the Black Fang. And this ship now belongs to me."
Captain Harkon stepped forward, his hands raised in surrender. "Please. We're just merchants. Take whatever cargo you want. Just spare my crew."
Blackwood smiled. It was the most terrifying thing I'd ever seen. Empty and cold, like a skull grinning at a corpse.
"I always take what I want," he said. Then he drew a pistol and shot Captain Harkon in the chest.
The report was deafening. The bullet punched through Harkon's heart and out his back, spraying blood across the deck behind him. He crumpled without a sound, dead before he hit the ground.
Someone screamed. Maybe it was me. I don't know.
And then the massacre began.
The pirates fell on the crew like starving wolves. Swords rose and fell, painting the deck red. Men tried to run, tried to fight, tried to surrender. None of it mattered. The pirates cut them down regardless, laughing as they killed.
Tomas died three feet away from me. A pirate ran him through the stomach, and he collapsed with a look of confused surprise on his face. His eyes found mine as the light faded from them.
Then the pirate turned toward me.
"Well, well. One more little mouse."
He advanced, sword dripping with Tomas's blood. I backed away, my mind racing. I had no weapon. No training. My body was so weak I could barely stand.
I was going to die.
Emergency protocol, the system whispered in my mind. Temporary strength boost available. Warning: will accelerate body degradation.
The pirate raised his sword.
ACTIVATE!
Energy flooded through my limbs. Borrowed strength, burning through reserves I couldn't afford to lose. But it was enough. Enough to duck the swing. Enough to grab a loose rope and lash it across his face. Enough to run.
I sprinted across the deck, dodging bodies and blades. Someone fired a pistol at me and missed. Someone else tried to grab me and got an elbow to the nose instead.
The railing was right there. The ocean beyond.
I didn't hesitate. I vaulted over the side and plunged into the water below.
Cold swallowed me. I kicked toward the surface, broke through, and started swimming. Away from the ship. Away from the screams. Away from the slaughter.
Behind me, gunshots cracked. Bullets splashed into the water around me, but none found their mark. I kept swimming, putting every ounce of borrowed strength into creating distance.
When I finally looked back, the Morning Tide was burning. Flames climbed the masts and consumed the sails. Smoke billowed into the sky like a funeral pyre.
The screaming had stopped. Everyone was dead.
The emergency strength faded all at once, leaving me weaker than before. My arms felt like they were made of wet paper. My legs could barely kick. The system informed me that my degradation had jumped from 22% to 28% in the space of seconds.
But I was alive.
And on the horizon, past the smoke and flames, I could see land. An island rising from the sea, maybe a few hours of swimming away.
I turned away from the burning ship and started toward shore.
Don't die. Keep moving. Find someone. Survive.
The countdown ticked away in the back of my mind. Less than six days now. Six days to find a woman willing to save my life.
Six days before my body gave out completely.
I swam.