Chapter One: Of The Lost, Of The Forgotten, Of The Forsaken

A young man plopped down on a sandy beach, letting out a sigh of relief and mild pain as he sat down, watching the waves of a bright blue ocean lap at soft white sand.

The young man wore simple clothing. A black hoodie, a black t-shirt without any branding or markings on any of the clothing, not even a tag. His feet were bare, muddy and covered in thick dirt from his jaunt through the forest he found himself in. He completed the outfit with scuffed and torn up air of jeans.

The young man was admittedly a mess. His hoodie was torn, his ribs were blazing in heat and pain, and his worst wounds were two fresh lacerations on his face. Curtsey of some foul baboon or monkey in the forest he woke up in. They were leaking blood still, even after he washed them with salt water from the ocean.

The young man sighed, letting his breath even-out as he tried to...Think.

It was hard when one's memories were so fractured and shattered, to the point of not even knowing his name or family's faces, but wholly remembering yesterday's class and what he ate for breakfast the previous day.

He resisted the urge to reach up and touch his two new wounds on his face, thankful to the extreme that the monkey's nails hadn't gouged out one of his eyes. His reflection in the waves, as refracted as they were showed he'd have a nasty scar on his upper lip, with a small wound on his lower lip and nose. He knew right away that was going to be a pain to eat things with, especially considering for all he knew his current diet might be strange fruits.

He looked down to the fruit he'd managed to steal from the monkey as it savaged him. Why and what possessed him to grab the fruit, he hadn't a clue, but it was an instinct that had gotten him lunch.

'Or is it dinner? Breakfast? Fuck, I dunno anymore.' The young man sighed, his energy spent.

'Is it strange that I don't feel like panicking? That I am wholly okay with suddenly not remembering most of my life, most of my memories and the things and people who made me...me?' The young man thought as he inspected the fruit in his hand. 'Wait. The fuck?'

He jerked back, really taking in the strange confectionery and wondered how in hell's name he hadn't noticed what exactly he had in his hand.

The fruit he had in his hand was some unidentifiable round fruit that could really be anything. Apple, Pear, Orange, Tangerine, it was hard to tell, especially what with its markings and design.

'Swirls, those damned swirls.' The bloodied face of the young man went from several emotions. First was confusion, then slow realization, then dread, and finally a queer understanding and shaky determination.

'One Piece.' The young man thought as he inspected the fruit. It was a black fruit with a fractured 'swirl' pattern that reminded him distantly of Kintsugi, a Japanese art that highlighted imperfections. Its stem meanwhile was a dark black and sturdy piece of wood, his finger could hardly bend the damn thing and it was in the shape of a hook or curved blade.

'Likely a Paramecia or Zoan, most likely a Mythical if its a Zoan with these colors.' The young man thought. High hopes, but it didn't take the brightest of bunches to figure out what some fruits did or at least what they connotated towards. Sadly, this one was more of a mystery.

He was brought out of his inspections by a voice sounding out in his head. Jerking around, he focused on what it was saying when he saw no source.

{System Online.} Stated a monotone male voice. {Analyzing Current Progress...Complete. Starting Tutorial.}

{QUEST ISSUED!

Where am I? Who am I?

You have been displaced somewhere strange and far. Find out where you are, even in the most limited of senses, and determine who you are in this strange place.

Progress:

Where am I? Complete!

Who am I? Incomplete.

Complete The Tutorial. Incomplete.

Rewards: 100 EXP}

The young man listened to the voice rattle off, soon finding a screen written with gold text on a black background when it issued the quest.

'What in god's name?' He wondered, tapping on the board, only for his hand to phase through.

{Hint! Think or Say "Status".} The voice was far more emotive now.

'uh, Status?' He thought with focus. A screen popped up, this one far more populated.

{Name: Victor 'Vic' Vici

Title: Of The Lost

Age: Fourteen

Race: Human

Level: 1

0%

Status: Healthy

Attributes:

Body: 0.4

Mind: 1.3

Spirit: 0.2

Skills:

-Martial Path-

!NEEDS ATTENTION!

Swordsmanship: -/100

The Path of the Sword, one of warriors and legends.

Axemanship: -/100

The Path of the Ax, one of warriors and berserkers.

Macemanship: -/100

The Path of the Mace, one of warriors and destroyers.

Spearmanship: -/100

The Path of the Spear, one of warriors and soldiers.

Unnamed Martial Practice: -/100

The path of Martial Arts, one of warriors and fighters; brutish and wise both.

Life-Return: -/30

The ability to command one's body, to force it to obey to the will of it's master.

Six Powers: -/70

The powers and skills developed by the World Government and Marines alike.

-Technological Path-

Weaponsmithing: -/100

Shipwright: -/100

Marksmanship: -/100

-Spiritual Path-

Conqueror's Haki: -/100

Armament Haki: -/100

Observation Haki: -/100

Voice of The World: -/100

Devil Fruit: -/100

{Welcome, Victor! This is your status.}

Victor, as he was now named apparently, blinked at the message.

{Would you like a run down on your Status?}

"Uh, yeah." The young man nodded, the words making his lip burn in pain. His wound flaring at the words.

{Please, Guide the tutorial on elements you are confused on!}

"Okay...Title, then. Start there." Victor stated.

{Wonderful! Titles are gained through actions, circumstance, events, achievements, or quests! They have no real function other than being flavor for your current standing. You are 'Of The Lost', because you are Lost!}

"Level, next please." Victor wasted no time and got to the next option, not bothering with the screen's sass.

{Your level is how you progress! Defeating enemies, completing quests, manufacturing weapons, items, and more grants you 'Experience'. Experience is a numerical term that governs how far you have progressed in your level. Your progress to your next level is tracked by the percentage gauge. Upon a level up, you will gain 'Attribute Points' to attribute to your status. You will gain 1.5 attribute points per level to distribute as needed.}

Victor blinked and frowned, "What do my Attributes mean?"

{BODY: Body is a total representation of your physical ability! Reaction times, dexterity, agility, endurance, constitution, strength, speed, durability, and more is all governed and determined by this status! To raise this, is to raise everything related to BODY. A unique perk of the Gamer that no other creature holds as you sacrifice no attribute in favor of the other! Be as lean and mean as your heart's content!}

Victor hummed and moved onto Mind. "What is mind?"

{MIND: Mind is a total representation of your mental ability. This will govern creative thoughts, problem solving abilities, multitasking, strategic insights, learning ability, and more! Mind will not make you retroactively smarter or more intelligent, but will grant you more data and the ability to act on that data in a timely manner.}

"Okay..." Victor sighed. He was getting how this system worked. "Spirit, then."

{SPIRIT: Spirit is a total representation of your spiritual ability. This will govern the strength, endurance, and potency of your spiritual abilities. Haki is the most notable of these abilities. Greater Spirit, means greater, stronger, deeper, and denser Will.}

"Simple. I like that." Victor nodded, before he then started parsing through the Skills. "So, Skills. Martial says it needs attention. What's with that?"

{Skills: Skills function on a rating system. 1-25 is known as a Novice. 26-45 is an Apprentice. 46-55 is an Adept. 56-65 is Advanced. 66-75 is Expert. 76-85 is Master. 86-95 is Grandmaster. 96-100 is Legendary. This system of scale functions differently on several skills. It is to be of note that your skills don't apply to those of natives. A weak Observation Haki user could have unlocked an ability locked behind Expert level at a comparative Novice or Apprentice level of skill. To develop more 'advanced' abilities in a Skill, the user will need to achieve the needed level of Mastery to unlock that ability.}

{IMPORTANT: Natives don't scale to the Game. The Game is an Out-Of-Context utility, one formatted to fit inside the local reality.}

"Huh." Victor scratched his head. "Okay, once more, what's with the Martial Skill needing attention."

{The Martial Path requires a specialization of Path. You may choose a total of Two paths to walk down in the Martial Path.}

Victor put on a frown. "What about things like daggers? Weapons not listed."

{Would you like to choose the Unlisted Path of Daggers?}

"Oh, it's just unlisted." Victor noted. "Hmm. What would you recommend?"

{This world focuses greatly on the Path of the Sword and that of the Fist. You would find many teachers, foes, and weapons of great quality if you choose that path natively. The other paths would require you to focus on the Technological Path and Weaponsmithing to create a great weapon worthy of your hands and skill with them.}

"I'll...decide later." Victor waved the screen away, his hand passing threw it.

{Would you like to continue the tutorial?}

"Hmm, how do I learn skills? Any special way?" Victor asked after scanning the skills.

{To learn a skill, one must practice it. It is that simple.}

"....That told me nothing, and yet everything." Victor deadpanned at the screen floating by him.

Victor plopped down on his back, sun drifting away to his back as it set in the forest behind him. His eyes stared up at the sky, before he looked over at the fruit still in his hand.

"Any idea on what this fruit is, oh Game?" He asked.

{Mythological Zoan, Lich-Lich Fruit. An extremely powerful fruit, granting agelessness, a command over the deceased, a powerful noxious miasma that rots and corrodes those around it, and an undying body that knows no rest. This fruit is extremely mysterious and holds powers that are withheld from the user. Its potential is fathomless in the hands of a powerful and intelligent user. It's power comes at a cost. More than most. NOTE: While in Zoan form, empathy, emotions, and pain is muted.}

Victor's stomach rumbled, and without a second thought he ate the fruit. He swallowed without expression, not even reacting to the horrid taste of rot that filled his mouth.

"...disgusting." He muttered, spiting out his saliva and watching as the fruit in his hand returned to a normal...fruit. 'The fuck is this thing?' He wondered, not recognizing the fruit from his local super-market. He took another bite, finding the flesh was only slightly better than the actual devil fruit. 'Well, this is dinner, I guess.' He fell back onto the sand and decided to wake up and deal with everything tomorrow.