Pirate: I, Ace, am the King of Eclipse!

"Hahaha! There's no way around it, ordinary wild boars aren't enough to warm me up anymore."

Ace smiled and walked toward the water tank, preparing to wash off the bloodstains on his body, but suddenly stopped.

His Observation Haki detected a faint yet extremely tenacious life force in the wooden house, as well as a powerful aura that felt incredibly familiar to him.

A burly figure emerged from the shadows of the wooden house; it was none other than Garp, the naval hero who had just beaten him up in the back hills.

In Garp's hands, it was like carrying a chick—he was carrying a seven-year-old kid wearing a straw hat with a scar below his left eye.

Although the brat was being held in mid-air, his limbs were stretched out comically like rubber, and he was still shouting defiantly, "Let go of this old man! I'm going to be the Pirate King!"

Ace looked at the kid in the straw hat, his pupils contracted slightly, and then the smile on his lips gradually widened.

Luffy.

We finally met.

In the original work, ten-year-old Ace was extremely disgusted with his background and was full of hostility towards everyone. He even spat at Luffy when they first met.

But the current Ace wouldn't.

He possesses a mature soul and an ambition to devour the world. Moreover, he liked Luffy very much in his previous life. In his eyes, this brat who will stir up the entire sea in the future will be the most interesting witness on his way to the throne.

"boom."

Garp threw Luffy to the ground, pointed at Ace, and said, "Luffy, from today onwards you will live here. That's Ace, he's three years older than you, you'll be living with him from now on."

Before Garp could finish speaking, Ace had already strode up to Luffy.

Ten-year-old Ace, due to years of inhuman training, was already much taller than his peers. He looked down at Luffy, who was sitting on the ground, and the terrifying pressure made Luffy subconsciously stop shouting and nervously swallow.

"What...what do you want to do?" Luffy pressed down hard on his straw hat.

"One Piece?"

Ace looked at Luffy, but instead of mocking him, he grabbed Luffy's bouncy rubber cheeks and pulled them apart, then laughed, "Hahaha! Interesting! Although you're a frail rubber brat, you have pretty good eyesight!"

"Hey! Damn it!"

"Listen up, kid."

Ace released his grip, pointed at himself with his thumb, and grinned:

"From now on, if you want to follow me, then follow me. You can become the Pirate King if you want."

As for me—

"I want to become the king of the world."

"I will redefine the rules of this ocean sooner or later."

Upon hearing this, Luffy was stunned, and even Garp, who was standing next to him, widened his eyes in disbelief as he stared at the imposing young man before him.

……

Late that night.

The Dadan family was all snoring, and Luffy, who had been exhausted all night by Ace's welcoming ceremony, also fell into a deep sleep in the corner with his mouth wide open.

Ace was the only one who didn't sleep.

He only needs a short rest to fully recover his energy; his energy is unbelievable.

Ace pushed open the window and nimbly leaped onto the roof.

There, a blond boy with missing teeth, wearing a top hat and a blue vest, was already waiting for him.

"Sabo, what brings you here in the middle of the night?" Ace walked over and casually sat down next to Sabo.

"I came here to share information with you, you reckless fellow."

Sabo, also ten years old, sighed helplessly and pulled a crumpled wanted poster from his pocket. "Look, there's a rumor circulating in the East Blue's black market that a Devil Fruit has been discovered... Hey, are you even listening?"

"I'm listening."

Ace rested his hands behind his head, looked up at the starry sky, and his eyes shone with a depth that only adults could understand.

“Sabo, what would happen if someone ate two Devil Fruits?” Ace suddenly asked.

Sabo paused for a moment, then replied as if reciting a memorized text: "Is that even a question? A person's body can only house one demon. If you greedily consume a second one, your body will explode."

"That's right, that's the limit for ordinary people."

Ace sat up straight, turned to look at Sabo, and his smile appeared incredibly arrogant in the moonlight: "Because their souls only have one 'vessel'."

Sabo's heart skipped a beat. He looked into Ace's eyes, a crazy premonition rising within him.

"Ace...you wouldn't be thinking of..."

"Sabo, let's become stronger together."

Ace stood up, the wind whipping his black hair, and extended his hand to the future first mate: "Seven years! We'll spend seven years honing our physique and Haki to their peak! When we set sail at seventeen, I will prove to the world—"

"Whether they are high-ranking nobles or remnants of the old era in the new world, they are all just stepping stones for me to ascend the throne! I will make this entire sea submit to my feet!"

Looking into Ace's eyes, burning with a mad ambition, Sabo stared at him, feeling as if something had struck his chest hard. He knew that the boy before him was definitely not joking.

Garp had tried to push Ace towards the Navy more than once. But Ace knew very well that path wasn't for him. Above the Navy's justice lay the World Government. And above the World Government sat a group of Celestial Dragons who called themselves gods.

Given his personality, if he were to actually join that system, he would eventually tear down all those so-called rules and regulations.

If that's the case, why take the long way around?

In the end, the strong rule this world. He wanted to live freely and prevent anyone from bullying him, so he had to become stronger.

He was so powerful that no one dared to judge him, so powerful that even the rules themselves had to be written by him.

Chapter 3 The King of Corpo

Early morning, deep in the Colpo Mountains.

"Hahaha! You big idiot, did you not eat yesterday? Try harder!" Accompanied by laughter, an amazing scene was unfolding in the clearing in the forest.

Ten-year-old Ace, his muscular upper body bare, was engaged in a primal "wrestling match" with a four-meter-long Corpo bear. He used no knife, no technique, simply gripping the bear's shoulders tightly with both hands, his legs carving deep furrows in the mud. With superhuman strength and boundless energy, he forcefully subdued this tyrant of the forest.

"Roar!" The giant bear let out a low, frustrated growl, clearly exhausted.

"boom!"

Ace executed an over-the-shoulder throw, slamming the enormous beast hard onto the muddy ground. The giant bear was dazed and confused, its eyes rolling back, before it nuzzled against Ace's thigh in a conciliatory manner, lying down beside him like a wronged giant dog.

"Well done, I'll reward you with half a grilled fish later." Ace patted the giant bear's head and sat down casually on its soft belly.

"Ace! You're bullying the animals in the mountains again!" The bushes nearby were pushed aside, and ten-year-old Sabo and seven-year-old Luffy came running over, panting.

Each of them carried an extremely thick log on their shoulders, their bodies soaked in sweat, and they collapsed to the ground from exhaustion.

"Hey, what do you call bullying? This is called 'mutual sparring'!" Ace grinned and casually pointed around. At the edge of the clearing, several tigers, crocodiles, and gorillas, their faces bruised and battered, were lying there. These once ferocious beasts of the East Sea were now as docile as lambs in front of Ace.

"Come on, they were clearly beaten into submission by your fists..." Sabo complained helplessly, then rubbed his sore shoulders. "But seriously, those Marine Headquarters training methods you got from Garp are absolutely deadly."

That's right, Ace didn't engage in any strange or unusual training. He knew very well that the most systematic and demanding basic training methods in the world were mostly controlled by the Marine Headquarters.

From the age of eight, every time Garp returned to the East Blue, Ace would find various ways to trick him into revealing his secrets, eventually extracting all the information about the Marine Headquarters' grueling training methods, such as "weighted cross-country running, waterfall pressure resistance, and deep-sea diving." This program, originally designed to train elite adult marines, then became the daily routine for the three brothers.

"If I don't hone every muscle in my body to the extreme, how will I be able to roam freely on this ocean in the future?" Ace stood up, stretched his muscles, and a series of popping sounds came from his body.

"Luffy, have you rested enough? Go practice your resilience against that giant gorilla!" Ace kicked Luffy toward the giant gorilla that was rubbing its fists together.

"Aaaaah! Help, Ace!" Luffy screamed as the gorilla tossed him into the air like a ball.

Seeing Luffy's miserable state, Sabo swallowed hard and turned to Ace: "And what about you? You finished your basic training in the middle of the night, didn't you?"

"I?"

A smile of excitement appeared on Ace's lips as he looked at the several huge wooden stakes standing upright in the center of the open space.

"Today, I'm going to try to break down the old man's steps." As soon as he finished speaking, Ace's figure suddenly blurred in place.

"boom!"

A very faint sonic boom sounded beneath Ace's feet, and his body vanished instantly like an arrow released from a bow. The next second, he reappeared ten meters away in front of the wooden stake.

"This is...?!" Sabo's eyes widened in shock. "The teleportation that Garp used every time he beat you up?!"

"I stomped on the ground repeatedly in an instant, moving by the resulting reaction force." Ace grinned.

"The old man calls this thing 'Shave,' one of the six naval techniques."

This was a muscle-generating technique that Ace had keenly observed after being beaten countless times by Garp, thanks to his innate Observation Haki that allowed him to "hear everything".

Since we're going to build a foundation under Garp's tutelage, we absolutely can't just learn the basics.

He certainly wanted to learn all six techniques. In particular, the last one, known as "Life Return," was something he had been eyeing for a long time.

However, the three moves are still the most suitable for him right now.

Shaving is used to compensate for a sudden burst of energy.

Moonwalk allows him to master aerial combat in advance.

Paper drawing allows him to fully utilize his Observation Haki advantage.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Ace kept trying to exert his strength on the open ground. Although his movements were still a bit clumsy and the number of times he stomped the ground was far from the level of the commanders, his exaggerated physical talent had already allowed him to barely grasp the prototype of "Shave".

"What a complete monster!" Sabo exclaimed, watching Ace leave afterimages across the field.

He thought his talent was already quite good, but compared to Ace, it was like there was an invisible chasm between them.

"Stop spacing out, Sabo! Come and exchange a few blows with me!" Ace appeared in front of Sabo in a flash and threw a punch.

"Wow! You bastard, you're serious!" Sabo quickly raised the water pipe to block.

"Hahaha! If you can't even withstand my punch, how can you be my first mate in the future!"

As the sun sets, the sounds of children playing and wild beasts echo through the Colpo Mountains.

That evening, the three brothers sat around the campfire in the camp, eating the grilled fish and game they had caught during the day while talking about the future.

“Ace.” Sabo took a bite of meat and suddenly asked, “I heard Garp say when he was drunk that the truly top-tier fighters on this sea all possess a power called ‘Haki.’ When do you plan to have him teach you that?”

Upon hearing the word "domineering," even Luffy, who was busy grabbing meat nearby, perked up his ears curiously.

Ace swallowed the food in his mouth, casually wiped the grease from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, and stared intently at the leaping flames.