"Where… where am I?"
Lin Xuan slowly opened his eyes, his mind still foggy.
One glance around, and he froze.
He was locked inside a cage. The surroundings were dim, but he could faintly make out several others imprisoned in cages like his own.
It looked like… a dungeon!
And worse—his hands and feet were shackled, with an eerie collar clamped tightly around his neck!
"What the hell…?" Lin Xuan was completely dumbfounded.
How did he end up here? Why had he woken up chained in some underground cell?
Was this a dream?
He pinched himself—hard. The sharp pain nearly made him yelp.
Before he could figure things out, a mechanical voice suddenly echoed in his mind:
"Ding! Congratulations to the Host for successfully transmigrating. The Transdimensional Reincarnation System has been activated!"
"Wha—what? A system?!"
Lin Xuan almost shouted aloud.
That familiar notification sound could mean only one thing—this wasn't a dream. He had actually transmigrated! And he had a system, too!
Excitement surged through him, but he quickly forced himself to calm down.
Because his sudden movement had drawn attention.
In particular, a giant built like a mountain turned his gaze toward him. Those eyes alone were enough to make Lin Xuan feel as if the air itself was crushing him.
He swallowed hard, terrified that the giant might just reach over and crush him like an insect.
Taking a deep breath, Lin Xuan steadied himself. Like every web novel protagonist he'd ever read about, he asked silently in his mind:
"System?"
"I am here, Host."
Hearing that voice again, Lin Xuan felt both thrilled and reassured.
He immediately began complaining:
"System, why is it that when other people transmigrate, they end up as overpowered geniuses or at least free men—yet I show up as a prisoner?!"
The system's tone was calm and factual:
"Host, the transmigration location is random. Your current state has nothing to do with this system. When you arrived in this world, you were gravely injured and unconscious. You happened to fall in front of a group of slavers, who captured you. In short—bad luck."
"…"
Lin Xuan fell silent.
Thinking back, he vaguely remembered fragments of that—though he'd thought it was just a dream.
Now it turned out to be real.
Accepting this bitter truth, he asked again:
"Then what world is this? What kind of place did I end up in?"
"Host is currently in the Pirate World."
"Oh?"
Lin Xuan's eyes lit up instantly.
He'd actually landed in one of his favorite worlds—One Piece!
Looking around more carefully, he realized with a jolt—this place looked exactly like the Human Auctioning House's dungeon on Sabaody Archipelago. No wonder it felt so familiar!
Wait a minute…
A sudden realization hit him. He glanced toward the other prisoners, and when his gaze landed on an old man with white hair sitting quietly in the corner, his pupils contracted.
That was—Silvers Rayleigh, the "Dark King"!
Any One Piece fan would recognize that name. Rayleigh—the legendary first mate of the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger—the man once called "the right hand of the Pirate King."
After Roger's execution, Rayleigh had gone into hiding, working as a ship coater on Sabaody Archipelago. His coating skills were top-notch, but his laziness and love for drinking kept him constantly short on cash.
At one point, he even thought of selling himself to make ends meet.
"So… even he's locked up here. Does that mean the plot has already reached the part where the Straw Hat Pirates cause chaos on Sabaody Archipelago?"
But something didn't quite fit.
Aside from Rayleigh, Lin Xuan didn't see any of the other familiar captives who were supposed to be here.
Where was Camie, the mermaid the Straw Hat Pirates tried to rescue?
Has she not been captured yet? Or was the auction already underway, and she'd been brought out for bidding?
Lin Xuan frowned, puzzled.
Still, he quickly pushed those thoughts aside. There was something far more important to focus on.
"System," he asked in his mind, "what exactly can you do?"
That was the key question—because his entire future depended on how powerful this "golden finger" was.
"This system's core function," the voice replied, "is Transdimensional Reincarnation. Through Transdimensional Impure World Reincarnation, you can summon powerful beings from other dimensions into your current world to assist in your growth."
"Transdimensional… Impure World Reincarnation?!"
Lin Xuan was stunned.
"Wait, you mean—you can actually summon people from other worlds, like from Naruto's world, into One Piece to help me attack Marine Headquarters?!"
He definitely knew what Impure World Reincarnation (Impure World Reincarnation) was—an S-rank forbidden technique invented by the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama.
It allowed a summoner to bring the souls of the dead back to the living world, reviving them in physical form under the summoner's control—though the control could be released at will.
If his system could actually Impure World Reincarnation characters from other universes… then even summoning a few of the stronger ninja from the Shinobi World alone would be enough to crush the One Piece world!
The system replied matter-of-factly:
"That's entirely possible."
Lin Xuan's fists clenched in excitement.
Then, suddenly realizing something, he quickly asked,
"Wait—doesn't Impure World Reincarnation normally require the DNA of the person to be resurrected? Don't tell me your Transdimensional version has that same restriction?"