[OPFS] Chapter : 3

The next morning, I woke up feeling a bit drowsy at 6 a.m., as going through all the new memories took more time than I expected. I decided to explore the town for a bit and also the layout of the island as I was excused from the duties for the day.

Yesterday, I didn't get the chance to actually observe the people or the town, as I was mostly either exhausted from the work or dazed because of being transmigrated.

But today I'm going to take full advantage of being free of all the responsibilities of my previous life and this life (I don't have any as of now) and explore to my heart's content.

Going out after getting freshened up, I was wearing a simple V-necked green t-shirt and blue shorts that went till just below my knees, and a marine cap. First I went to the docks and the beach; there were a lot of ships anchored, and seeing a ship for the first time blew my mind away. The size of it was unfathomable to someone such as me, as I had never seen a ship in my previous life, and this only had a single mast. I wondered how huge galleon ships and ones like Moby Dick would be... The seawater on the beach looked so blue, it felt like I was on one of the getaway islands in the Caribbean or Hawaii.

It was such a surreal experience standing on the beach and looking at the rising sun. I felt like maybe I could just live here peacefully, going up in ranks only until captain level and then settling down. East Blue is very peaceful, according to what his father said in his memories of the kid.

Even with pirates stopping continuously here, there was not much violence because of the marine presence. Then the faces of Luffy and the crew enjoying sights like Laboon the Island Whale, Sky Island, Fishman Island, and the Gates of Justice came to the forefront of my mind, and I immediately let go of my previous thoughts. Only the strong can enjoy such sights without fear, so I had to get strong and leave this place to enjoy this opportunity to its fullest.

By the time I returned to the town, it was nearing 9 a.m., and I had to put some food into my stomach as it was already rumbling. Entering one of the nearest restaurants and looking at the menu, most of it was seafood and meat; some were cheap, some were pricy; the one that said sea king meat cost my 3 months' salary. After eating five plates of meat and fish, I was on my way out to see the famous execution stage of Gol D. Roger. I reached the stage and remembered the pirate king's final words and his inspirational speech at the start of the anime. I was having goosebumps, and my whole body shivered with excitement and awe.

After that, I went towards the outskirts of the town, further inland, to see forests and mountains. Even though it wasn't huge, like the size of Greenland, the island was known to be pretty big—maybe a quarter of Ireland.

Later that day, after exploring as much as possible before sundown, I went back to the base to talk with the doctor, and what I found from our discussion was astounding and a piece of great news for me. People in this world have varied musculature and biological make-up, even though people with huge bulging muscles get defeated by normal-sized ones.

What I found was that based on the person's genes, he would have a different ratio of muscle fibers, which can enlarge hugely and take a high amount of pressure, and ones that do not enlarge as much but can take even more pressure on them. And the most shocking revelation was that they haven't found a maximum limit of pressure a person's body can take perfectly, because as long as a person gets stronger and breaks his limits continuously, he can get even stronger.

So the goal I set for myself was attainable, but the key here was breaking my limits and exceeding them; that was the most important point here. So based on this, we created a training regimen for myself, which was the same workout I was doing currently but with an increase of 10 kilos of weight every week in all the exercises I do. This was to continue for 6 months from that day.

After the talk with the doctor and having a physical checkup, I left his office and went to the training grounds to see what was going on currently. It seems a batch of Marines are having their daily workouts and training going on now. On one of the empty grounds, I saw Captain Smoker doing his own training, running with a weight of 500 kilos on his back. After watching for nearly 30 minutes, I left for the dining hall, chatted with some of the marine friends of my dad and some that were near my age; it seemed Tashigi was still training, so I couldn't meet her, and then left for my apartment.

Lying back on my bed, I thought, 'I still have a long way to go to reach even Smoker's strength without his devil fruit powers' and then told myself one step at a time and went to sleep.

The next morning, I followed the same routine as the first day, but with 10 kilos of extra weight on my back and an extra 10 plates of food. And I have also started wearing around 15 kilos of weights strapped to my ankles, wrists, and chest while not training.

It was not as easy as I thought it would be. I knew it would be tough, but the mental pressure was on right from the start. Thoughts were running around in my head like

'hey, I can continue with the same weight as the first day for this week and increase it from the next'

'Maybe adding wrist and ankle weights is too much; for now, it is tough to even do the chores in the stipulated time, let alone train with the bokken.'

'Let's decrease the rounds as I am wearing more weight for now and gradually increase the rounds'

All the above thoughts seemed reasonable, but I knew if I started listening to them, I would not be able to make any progress, and the time would be over in a jiffy. The pit of procrastination is a steep one, and that is a life lesson that I will never forget.

By dinner time, I could not move a muscle and felt light-headed, with light bruises on my body from Tashigi's bokken, which was the last training I did. Tashigi, taking pity on me, helped me to the dining hall, where I again ate like a ravenous beast and went back home and slept like a log.

**4 days later**

I walked towards the base leisurely, as there was still a lot of time to report today. Thinking of the training and its results till now, it feels as if I have already gotten used to the wrist and ankle weights, but from today onwards, I decided to take off the weights while sparring with tashigi, or else there will be no improvement in my sword technique, as the weights are going to increase as soon as I get used to them, which means getting beat up repeatedly.

**1 month later**

I am very satisfied with my progress in the 5 weeks since I started the new training regimen. I and the doctor decided that training with incrementing weights should be done for 4 weeks straight and one week of training without any extra weight to synchronize my mind-eye-body coordination and also rest the body for a bit; otherwise, it might be harmful to me later in fights or my body might breakdown due to excessive stress, so for the past week I didn't have any weights strapped to my body, and the surprise and pain on Tashigi's face when a hit landed on her shoulder was all the reason for me to continue with my training. The euphoric feeling of surprising and exceeding others' expectations was like no other.

'Okay, well, not like no other; maybe a little bit less than sex. But it still felt pretty damn good.'

While I was doing my chores and mopping the floor, Mashikaku, a petty officer, approached and stood in front of me.

"Hey Logan, Captain Smoker asked you to meet him in his office now!" said Mashikaku.

"Yes sir!" I saluted him.

"Sir, do you know what he needs from me?" I asked.

"Not sure, but you need to hurry; Captain Smoker looked very serious," he told and went on his way.

I am not particularly sure why Smoker took an interest in me. I started walking towards the captain's office while speculating what might be the reason.