The Terror of the Pirates

"I... am I alive?"

Alex opened his eyes and sat up abruptly, surprised to find himself lying on a simple wooden bed.

Before he could check his surroundings, his head suddenly began to throb.

Images with fine lines flashed through his mind.

Unfamiliar.

Clear.

Blurry.

The jumbled memories seemed to be the cause of the throbbing pain in his head.

"I clearly already..."

In addition to the throbbing pain, Alex's eyes were filled with a dazed look.

He clearly remembered that during the commotion in the Hunter Association Hall, he had unfortunately been affected by the power of the Wish-Granting Machine used by the enemy Hakka.

Including him, even the main cast of the Hunter World and many powerful people from the Hunter Association were not spared.

In the face of an unreasonable power that seemed to be able to break through the dimensional barrier, he was shot even though he had clearly done nothing.

Almost instantly, without even having the chance to resist, his body was twisted into a rope.

The change came quickly and suddenly, but the intense pain remained, forming a shadow of death that enveloped Alex's thoughts.

For a moment, he could faintly feel the tearing pain from his skin.

After a long time, the negative feelings brought on by the shadow of death slowly faded away.

He was still alive.

That was enough.

It was also at this time that Alex had the energy to check his surroundings.

It was a wooden room with less than ten square meters of space, and the air was filled with a faint musty smell.

Cracks were visible to the naked eye on the wooden walls and even the floor.

The furnishings in the room were extremely plain. Apart from the single bed on which Alex was lying, there was only a plain wooden table and chair set and a mirror on the wall.

A low-wattage incandescent lamp hung from the ceiling, providing a limited source of light.

Apart from that, there was nothing else in the room, not even a window.

His gaze slowly swept over the heavily-dusted table and chairs, and finally settled on the thinly-dusted mirror on the side.

Through the reflection in the mirror, Alex saw a strange dark-haired teenager.

The teenager in the mirror was about fifteen or sixteen years old, and his facial features were not handsome, but they were clean and pleasing to the eye.

There was a circle of blood-stained bandages wrapped around the teenager's forehead, and his face was pale and sickly, looking weak and feeble.

Alex looked blankly at the "himself" in the mirror, and the unfamiliar memories in his mind gradually became clearer.

After a brief shower of these unfamiliar memories, Alex endured the tingling sensation, and the uncertainty in his eyes became more and more obvious.

"So that's how it is..."

He had time-traveled again.

And this time, he didn't time-travel in his body, but in his soul.

So, he had survived in this way.

Exhaling slowly, Alex was in no hurry to get out of bed to find out more about where he was.

Instead, he closed his eyes and slowly accepted the remaining memories of this body, attempting to extract useful information from them.

After a long time, Alex opened his eyes, and fine beads of sweat slowly trickled down his pale face.

"Slave ships and pirate ships..."

He gently wiped the sweat from his cheek with his index finger and muttered to himself with his head bowed.

He figured out the origin of this body.

The previous owner was from a merchant family, but was unfortunately robbed by pirates while transporting goods.

On the merchant ship, apart from young teenagers like the previous owner, all the adults were slaughtered by the pirates, including the previous owner's parents.

After that, the previous owner was sold to a slave ship and locked up in a room with a floor covered in hay with a group of young people.

A few days later, the slave ship was suddenly attacked, and a cannonball blasted open the room where he was being held.

His recent memory ended there.

After that...

Alex touched the bandage on his forehead. The wound didn't hurt much.

He had no recollection of how he had ended up in this room.

But he was overjoyed to have escaped in such a way.

"Pirate, pirate... Could it be the world of the Pirate King?"

Alex pondered.

He was a little unsure.

But the only thing that was certain at the moment was that everything had to be started over.

"If only my abilities were still there,"

Alex thought silently.

When the thought arose, without warning, a thin black notebook appeared in his hands out of thin air.

On the cover of the black notebook were two large Chinese characters outlined in silver—猎人 (Hunter).

Below the two characters [Hunter], there were four parallel silver lines, and an inkless goose feather pen was stuck to the spine of the notebook.

Alex's eyes widened as he looked at the manifested black notebook and goose feather pen.

He clearly had no psychic powers, yet his ability had activated.

Moreover...

Alex looked at the blank spaces on the parallel silver lines.

There should have been four types of text reflecting his [needs] on those silver lines, but now they were empty.

Alex opened his notebook.

What met his eyes was still a blank page.

Rustling——

He turned over the second page, the third page...

It was still blank!

The original pages recorded the results of his low-key [hunting] in the Hunter world for four years, but now it was all gone.

"Has it been reset? No wonder I can't feel any 'gain'."

Although the hunting results were reset to zero, the ability was still there, which was enough to make Alex ecstatic.

Hunter's Notes is a growth ability that Alex developed with great difficulty when he was a full-time Hunter in the Hunter World in order to maximize the intelligence advantage of the Travelers, so as to turn intelligence into strength to the greatest extent.

To activate the ability, one must complete five steps:

Determine the hunting requirements → find the hunting target → prepare for the hunt → complete the hunt → reap the rewards of the hunt.

The first step is to record on the silver thread the four different requirements according to your own needs. The four requirements that Alex originally recorded were: ability to recite techniques, heart-drop hearing, potential qi, and manifest qi.

However, in the world of One Piece, these requirements obviously won't work.

However, some requirements can be common.

For example, physical skills, swordsmanship, physical strength, Devil Fruit ability experience, and domineering experience...

After recording the [needs], as long as you write the target's name in the notes page and generate the target's appearance in your mind, you can complete the second step of finding a hunting target.

The third step of hunting preparation afterwards is to record the correct ability information of the target in all aspects.

As long as the recorded information is more detailed, the results will be more abundant after you personally hunt and kill the target.

If you still have the ability, you can grow up quickly even if you start over.

Alex was very excited, but quickly calmed down.

He realized a problem.

Although the hunter's notebook was still there, he wasn't sure if it was applicable to the current world.

If it wasn't applicable, it would be a waste of time.

Slowly closing the hunter's notebook, Alex muttered to himself, "It's always a good start, but for now, I have to figure out the current situation as soon as possible."

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a sudden gunshot outside.

Alex's eyes narrowed, and he reflexively rolled off the bed and looked warily at the closed door.

Then the gunshots became more and more intense, like the sound of frequent fireworks in the distance, but from some distance away.

Hearing that the source of the gunshots was not inside the house, but somewhere outside, Alex did not let his guard down, and subconsciously clenched the hunter's notebook.

In his current state, if he encounters an emergency, he will be like fish on someone else's chopping board, at their mercy.

The gunfire outside continued back and forth for a full five minutes before gradually subsiding, and Alex also stared at the door for more than five minutes.

The gunfire just now gave him a preliminary taste of the chaos in this world.

Clenching the Hunter's Notes tightly brought no sense of security.

Because the Hunter's Notes are now useless, and the only way to get a tangible benefit is to successfully complete a hunt.

Thud, thud—

Soon after the gunshots stopped, Alex heard footsteps approaching from outside the door. His pupils constricted slightly, and he withdrew the Hunter's Notes.

Then, he quickly got up, walked lightly, and leaned his back against the wall to the right of the door.

In the face of the unknown, being on the side of the door was a more advantageous position than crouching low next to the empty wooden bed.

Soon, the sound of footsteps approached.

Alex tilted his head to the right and held his breath, waiting.

Crack!

The wooden door was pushed open with an ear-piercing sound.

However, no one entered the room, but instead, a black muzzle was poked out.

And the muzzle was pointed at Alex at a strange angle.

For a split second, Alex's heart skipped a beat.

In his current body, he would be finished if he were shot.