Chapter 1: The Woodcutter Boy on the Island

Sea Circle Calendar Year 1499

Paradise, the first half of the Grand Line—Maple Leaf Island.

This island got its name due to its resemblance to a maple leaf and its abundance of trees with red leaves that grow across the island.

The people of Maple Leaf Island were simple and honest folk, with nearly half of them working professionally as lumberjacks or as gardeners who cultivated the red-leafed trees.

Thanks to the climate, these special red-leaf trees grew particularly well here.

Once they reached a certain age, the wood from these trees became excellent shipbuilding material, and so most of the island's residents made their living from it.

In a grove of red-leaf trees near the coast, a black-haired boy was swinging an axe with all his might, relentlessly hacking away at the thick trunk of a tree before him.

However, whether due to poor technique or because the axe itself seemed to be working against him, the boy couldn't strike the same spot twice with any consistency.

For someone born and raised on Maple Leaf Island, it was acceptable not to know how to drink or brag, or even to lack martial skill—but not knowing how to chop wood properly? That was unforgivable.

Had there been anyone else around, Wood's current display of axe work would have made him the laughingstock of the island—worse even than the untrained local children.

Wood was already fifteen years old, which by this world's standards made him an adult.

And yet his woodcutting skills were inferior even to some of the smaller kids.

But he couldn't be blamed for that—because Wood wasn't originally from this world.

Or rather, while this body truly was that of Maple Leaf Island's native Wood, the soul inside it had already changed.

『Ding. Task complete: 1000 axe swings, 5 red-leaf trees felled. Rating: below average.Congratulations, you have earned one chance to use the Life Simulator.』

That's right—Wood was a transmigrator, and like many transmigrators, he had a cheat: a system. His was none other than the "Life Simulator," once a popular mini-game back in his previous world.

The reason Wood had been throwing himself so desperately into chopping trees wasn't because he was hoping to get rich. He wasn't some poor fool being chased by bears every day like Bald Qiang from that cartoon.

The real reason he was doing this was because the system had issued him a mission.

[Task Name: The Woodcutter of Maple Leaf Island][Task Requirements: Use the designated axe to strike red-leaf trees 1000 times. The more trees felled, the higher the rating.][Completion Standard: At least a "Medium" evaluation. No time limit.[Task Reward: One chance to activate the Life Simulator]

Seeing the completion message, Wood finally put down the axe and let out a long sigh.

His still-young hands were already worn out from gripping the axe for so long, and several painful blisters had formed.

The system insisted this was an easy task meant for beginners, but Wood completely disagreed.

He'd been chopping trees in this forest for days on end—no, for months.

From not even knowing how to hold an axe at the beginning, to now completing the task—it had taken Wood over three months of cutting red-leaf trees.

When he first started, his physical strength was so low that he couldn't even manage 1000 full swings in a day. It took more than a month just to reach that standard.

For the remaining two months, although he managed to hit 1000 swings daily, he either barely felled one tree or sometimes none at all.

If he didn't earn at least a "Medium" rating, the task wouldn't complete. So Wood could do nothing but mindlessly repeat the same tree-chopping every day.

Thanks to the special nature of this world—or perhaps because the people here naturally had better physiques and recovery rates—even though Wood was exhausted each day, he was always full of energy again by the next morning.

And because the task had no time limit, this so-called "easy" mission might as well have been a death sentence had that not been the case.

Wood had been in this world for over a year already, but the system only activated six months ago.

At first, Wood had no idea what kind of world he'd ended up in. The people of Maple Leaf Island were honest and the island itself had no powerful figures, so he initially assumed he had arrived in a peaceful, ordinary world.

Though its technology was clearly behind the world he came from, the clean air and natural way of life were incredibly relaxing.

And just when Wood began to think he could get by with a bit of knowledge from his past life—living modestly and peacefully until the end of his days—a piece of news shook his plans to the core.

"Do you want my treasure? If you want it, you can have it. Go find it. I left everything in that place."

This was the headline on a newspaper delivered by a News Coo. The cover featured a man with black hair, kneeling on a public execution platform with a calm and composed face. The article was so long, it took up more than half the page.

Sea Circle Calendar Year 1498—Gol D. Roger, the Pirate King, was executed. But his final words stirred the entire sea, luring countless people to chase after his treasure. Thus began the so-called "Great Pirate Era."

It was only after reading that report that Wood finally, belatedly, realized what kind of world he had actually transmigrated into.

This wasn't a peaceful world at all. The only reason it had seemed calm was because his birthplace was so remote and weak.

Roger's fall marked the dawn of the "Great Pirate Era." And within just a few months, the tides of this new era had already reached Maple Leaf Island.

Why? Because with the rise of piracy, everyone now wanted to go to sea—which meant ships.

And to build ships, you needed not only skilled shipwrights, but also high-quality wood.

Unfortunately, red-leaf wood from Maple Leaf Island was one of the best materials available. So as the era surged forward, wave after wave of pirates descended upon the island.

The peaceful islanders, unused to such violence, stood no chance.

Three separate pirate crews raided the island in a single month. The finest lumber from most households was looted completely.

Wood's family, ironically, was spared—because he didn't know the first thing about cutting trees and hadn't stored any valuable lumber.

The pirates didn't stop at stealing. They would kill at the slightest provocation.

Wood had witnessed a young girl nearly killed before his eyes. Unable to bear it, he had mustered his courage and sneak-attacked a pirate thug from behind. That was the moment his system had finally activated.