NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 3: Chapter 3: The Cannon’s Mercy
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### **Red Port – Auction House**
The auctioneer's voice boomed like a funeral drum. "Sold! To the gentleman in the plague mask!" Chains rattled as a young girl was dragged offstage, her whimpers drowned by applause. Zayn stood next in line, his branded shoulder throbbing. Saint Marcellus smirked from his private box, swirling wine in a goblet shaped like a slave's screaming face.
*"Lot 47!"*
Zayn's chains clanked as guards shoved him forward. The crowd leered—pirates with gold-capped teeth, warlords in opulent silks, a man in a raven-feathered cloak scribbling notes. The plague-masked buyer leaned forward, his gloved fingers twitching.
"Prime stock!" The auctioneer yanked Zayn's head back by his hair. "Defiant. Unbroken. Perfect for—"
**BOOM.**
The wall exploded.
Wood splinters and cannon smoke choked the air. Pirates screamed as debris rained. Through the dust, Zayn glimpsed a straw hat.
*Luffy.*
Chaos erupted. Buyers stampeded. Guards drew swords, shouting about "Straw Hat's madness." Zyn didn't hesitate.
*This is my chance.*
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### **The Escape**
Zayn slammed his chains against a shattered pillar, seastone cuffs biting into his wrists. No use.
"Need help?"
A boy crouched beside him—mute, storm-gray eyes familiar. *Kai.* He pressed a seastone shard into Zayn's palm, miming a stabbing motion.
Zayn jammed the shard into the lock. Sparks flew. The cuffs snapped.
"You're coming with me," Zayn said, gripping Kai's hand.
They sprinted through panicked crowds, dodging Marine rifles and Luffy's ricocheting punches. At the docks, a fishing boat bobbed, unattended.
"Get in!" Zayn urged, untying the ropes.
Kai froze, staring at the horizon. A storm brewed—black clouds swirling like a maelstrom.
*Too late to turn back.*
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### **The Storm**
The sea turned savage. Waves clawed at the boat, tossing it like a toy. Zayn clung to the mast, vomiting seawater. Kai lashed himself to the helm, hands trembling.
*CRACK.*
The mast snapped. Zyn lunged, grabbing Kai as the boat capsized.
"Hold on!" he screamed, but the storm stole his words.
A shadow loomed beneath the waves—a seaking, its maw wide enough to swallow islands.
*No. Not like this.*
Zayn's terror ignited something primal. Pressure surged from his core, a roar tearing from his throat:
**"STAY BACK!"**
The seaking recoiled as if struck. The waves stilled. For a heartbeat, the storm held its breath.
Then the memories *flooded* in.
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### **Awakening**
*Luffy's grin. Ace's funeral pyre. Whitebeard's last stand.*
Zayn gasped, seawater burning his lungs. *I'm in One Piece. I'm* ***in*** *One Piece.*
Kai shook him, pointing frantically. The storm raged anew, the seaking rallying.
*Think! What would Luffy do?*
But Zayn wasn't Luffy. He was a slave with a seastone shard and half-remembered manga panels.
The seaking lunged. Kai shoved Zayn aside, taking the brunt of the bite.
*"NO!"*
Blood dyed the waves. Kai's hand brushed Zayn's cheek—*live*—before the sea swallowed him.
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### **Isle of Ashura**
Zayn washed ashore at dawn. The island was a graveyard of petrified trees, their branches clawing at a sulfur-yellow sky. His body trembled—from cold, grief, or the seastone shard still clutched in his fist.
*Kai's gone. Because of me.*
He stumbled inland, following the stench of rot. A cave yawned ahead, its entrance carved with archaic symbols. Inside, murals depicted a fruit splitting atoms, its vines strangling a throne.
*Mole-Mole Fruit. Paramecia. Molecular manipulation.*
Zyn's stomach growled. Three days without food. The fruit pulsed, a sickly sweet aura beckoning.
*I'd rather die than be powerless again.*
He bit.
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### **Devil's Bargain**
The fruit tasted like corpses and honey. Zayn retched, collapsing as his veins lit with frost. Visions assailed him—Ace's fist melting Akainu's magma, Blackbeard's void swallowing Whitebeard, a throne room where a shadow with *twenty eyes* watched.
When the spasms ceased, Zyn crawled to a brackish puddle. His reflection stared back—grey hair streaked white, gold-green eyes blazing.
*What did I just eat?*
He dipped a hand into the water.
*Sink.*
His arm plunged like an anchor. Panic seized him—he couldn't swim.
A voice echoed, neither male nor female: *"Welcome to the game, Player Two."*
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### **First Blood**
Hunger drove him to the shore at dusk. He pressed a palm to the sand, recalling the fruit's name.
*Molecule… manipulation.*
Focus. *Water.*
A marble of ice formed in his palm. Then another. He trapped raindrops in them, drinking greedily.
*CRUNCH.*
Footsteps. A Marine captain emerged from the trees, pistol aimed.
"Slave scum. That fruit's WG property."
Zyn's rage flared. Ice marbles levitated around him.
"Try taking it."
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### **The Fight**
The captain fired. Zyn disassembled the bullet mid-air, lead dissolving into dust.
*"Demon!"* The Marine lunged, sword raised.
Zyn froze the blade, shattering it with a punch. The man fled, screaming of "Yomi's wrath."
Zyn collapsed, trembling. His stomach churned, but he laughed—wild, disbelieving.
*I can fight back.*
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### **Epilogue: The Architect's Gaze**
**Mariejois – Holy Chamber**
A figure cloaked in shadows watched a Den Den Mushi screen. Zyn's fight played on loop.
"Fascinating," the Architect murmured, stroking a scaled creature on his shoulder. "A reincarnated soul with meta-knowledge. How… *unfair*."
He tapped a key, erasing Zyn's existence from WG databases.
"Let's see how far your principles take you, *Player Two*."
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**End of Chapter 3**
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