Chapter One: The Terrifying Three-Masted Ship

“Hiss! Hiss! Hiss! Buffon, after you finish stitching up the one at hand, could you please take care of the little newcomer they've just brought in? Only your craftsmanship can handle such delicate work!” Hogback said.

“Alright,” Buffon replied, glancing up at Hogback but never once slowing the movement of his hands as he stitched the corpse before him.

With one hand, he worked the forceps to pinch the split skin together; with the other, he swiftly sewed the two edges closed. In just a few seconds, he had finished stitching up the wound. The stitches were as neat as if made by a sewing machine, each perfectly spaced, a far cry from the clumsy work depicted in pirate sketches. He finished tying off the thread in one smooth motion.

Hogback stared at the freshly stitched corpse, his face openly filled with admiration and amazement. “Truly perfect! Buffon, you are a born artist! Even corpses become works of art in your hands. Truly perfect!”

In Buffon’s mind, the Character Compendium flipped to a fresh page, and the information of the corpse slowly surfaced:

[Name: Kurozoi]
[Level: T8]
[Faction: Pirate]
[Bounty: 500,000 Berries]
[Obsession: 93%]
[Current Obtainable Reward: Physique +7 → 105 (Second Lieutenant, Level 2)]

“My physique has leveled up?”

Buffon stood and turned to the mirror, feeling the thick muscles in his neck crack beneath the surface. In the reflection, a pair of deep blue eyes, a prominent nose, and a face covered in stubble stared back—a typical European visage. Nearly two meters tall and packed with solid, sinewy muscles, this was the body Lin Liang had inherited after crossing over.

Castie Buffon, nineteen years old. A member of the Thriller Bark Pirates, assistant to Hogback—one of Gecko Moria’s three monsters—and responsible for transforming the dead, along with Hogback, into zombies for Moria’s zombie army.

Lin Liang, well-read in online novels, had long grown accustomed to the idea of transmigration; in his past life, he had rehearsed such scenarios countless times in his mind. This time, he was simply following a storyline he had already imagined, especially since it was the world of the manga he’d followed for nearly twenty years—One Piece.

And in the year 1511 of the Pirate Era, it was about a decade before Luffy would set sail. By that reckoning, ten years of development lay ahead, after which he could simply wait for Luffy to arrive and send him and the Sunny flying back to Laboon with a single slap. Brook would reunite with Laboon, the Binks’ Sake chorus would play—and the story would end.

Of course, that was just idle fantasy. If things ended so simply, what would be the point of coming to this world at all?

Buffon walked over to Hogback and accepted the small coffin, barely thirty centimeters long, from his hands. In his heart, he silently recited: “Tontatta Tribe!”

“Buffon, I want to give Perona a gift. Only you in this world can help me.” Hogback gazed at Buffon with hopeful eyes. “This is the body of a Tontatta Tribe squad leader. Show me your artistry once more.”

“Alright,” Buffon replied, as taciturn as ever.

He opened the coffin and placed its contents on the operating table, taking in the full appearance of the corpse. Barely over twenty centimeters tall, the head was grotesquely disproportionate to the body, almost half its entire size, with a fluffy, pale-gray tail at the rear. Wounds from sharp weapons covered the corpse, some so deep the bone showed, and one of the slender little arms had been severed entirely. The cut was clean and smooth, indicating the weapon responsible was extremely sharp.

“This was Doflamingo’s doing!” Buffon said with certainty.

He deftly replaced the IV bottles, inserted the needle into the Tontatta body, and began the transfusion. One bottle held a special preservative, ensuring the corpse would never decay and its functions would remain lifelike; the other contained a strengthening liquid, which, for now, only enhanced the skin—a concoction Hogback had recently developed.

Buffon quickly slit the corpse’s clothing with a scalpel, then used tweezers to pick up the tiny hand bone, just barely thicker than a toothpick.

“No steel pins small enough for this—guess I’ll have to glue it for now, and redo the job when Hogback comes up with a bone-strengthening serum.”

With that thought, Buffon began his work. The curved needle danced up and down through the corpse’s gossamer skin, his speed undiminished by the delicate scale of the task.

More than ten minutes later, the Character Compendium in Buffon’s mind flipped again, displaying the corpse’s information:

[Name: Rem]
[Level: T6]
[Faction: Pirate]
[Bounty: 3,200,000 Berries]
[Obsession: 86%]
[Restoration Participation: 100%]
[Current Obtainable Reward: Acuity +75 → 127 (Second Level, Quick)]
[Devil Fruit Ability Available for Replication: Stitch-Stitch Fruit]
[Skill Obtainable: Advanced Stitching – Rainbow Patchwork]
[Claim rewards?]

A Devil Fruit? So it’s finally here!

“Judging by the name, it’s a Paramecia, and doesn’t seem all that useful. Should I copy it?” Buffon mused, searching his memory of the original story.

After thinking for a moment, Buffon realized—wasn’t this the fruit owned by Leo, the Tontatta warrior? Comparing the name as well, this Rem was likely Leo’s elder. Thus, the power of this Paramecia Devil Fruit allowed its user to produce thread, sewing anything together without a mark, but requiring a needle as a medium for the ability.

If he copied this power, it would be like upgrading his golden finger by a notch. As for the infamous Devil Fruit weakness of being unable to swim, Buffon couldn’t care less; not once in the manga had a Devil Fruit user actually drowned. To his mind, this was a plot device just to give the Navy’s Seastone weapons a bit more weight—nothing to worry about.

Without further hesitation, Buffon claimed the reward and replicated the ability. At that moment, he felt his fingers become even more nimble, and could now produce threads finer than hair from his fingertips. He tugged at the thread with force, but it showed no sign of snapping—if memory served, this thread could even bind a Devil Fruit user.

With this new power, Buffon decided to test it out. He unstitched the body he’d already sewn up and, using his ability, began anew. He activated the skill: Rainbow Patchwork!

With the combined boost of the fruit and skill, Buffon perfectly reattached Rem’s previously glued bone without a trace of the seam, then moved on to the muscle and skin. Not only that, his stitching speed rose to a new level—he finished in less than ten minutes. The aesthetic of his work improved as well. Previously, the wounds, though regular, still showed the stitches and a slight raised edge to the touch. Now, the seam was as smooth as if pressed by an iron, flawless and new.

The Character Compendium appeared again:

[Name: Rem]
[Level: T6]
[Faction: Pirate]
[Bounty: 3,200,000 Berries]
[Obsession: 93%]
[Current Obtainable Reward: Acuity +8 → 135 (Second Level, Quick)]

“So perfect, yet still only ninety-three percent?”

“Character Compendium! Can’t you understand the pain of a perfectionist? My handiwork has elevated those grotesque originals from the manga into art—yet you still only give me ninety-three percent?”