Grand Line, New World.
In the dangerous seas surrounding the Wano Country, there was a primeval island shrouded in dark clouds.
No one knew how long this island had existed. From the outside, it looked like a massive egg wearing a black hat. Within it grew all kinds of colossal trees. Even the shortest ones were over a hundred meters tall, while the tallest stretched thousands of meters high, piercing the clouds and drawing power from the thunder above to sustain the island itself.
Deep within the dense, shadowy forest lived countless terrifying beasts. They were enormous, with thick hides and flesh, and the dark environment had long accustomed them to slaughter, making them incredibly ferocious.
Because of this, not even a powerful samurai nation like the Wano Country dared to approach this island.
But over the past three months, this island, once filled only with the sounds of thunder and wild beasts, had begun to echo with strange, foreign noises from time to time.
Like now…
"Worororo..."
The entire island shook with deafening rumbles.
Boom!Boom!Boom!
Startled, the ferocious beasts on the island scattered and fled in all directions.
Though it was pitch-black in this shadowed world, flashes of lightning occasionally illuminated the scene, revealing a massive, serpentine creature rampaging through the ancient forest.
It was a gigantic azure dragon, easily over a thousand meters long and nearly a hundred meters wide, dominating the island as it tore through everything in its path. Gigantic trees, solid mountains, even the thunder descending from the sky could not halt its rampage.
After a long while, the rampaging beast finally stopped, seemingly satisfied. It slowly raised its massive dragon head, and in its lantern-sized vertical pupils flickered wild excitement. Staring out at the dark sea beyond, it opened its abyss-like jaws, flames roiling within.
Boom!
A searing blast of heat breath several kilometers long erupted over the ocean, lighting up the world and making the sea boil and steam.
A full minute passed before the flames extinguished. The massive body began to shrink, transforming into a seven-meter-tall man with a towering, muscular build, gripping a black kanabō in his hand.
With each swing of the kanabō, dark red lightning crackled around him as terrifying techniques were unleashed one after another, causing the entire island to quake.
"Raimei Hakke..."
"Descending Three Worlds: Hell's Descent..."
"Vajra Arrow..."
"Drunken Thunder Bagua: Hell's Descent..."
"Gundari: Dragon War Formation..."
"Roaring Thunder Bagua..."
"Daivajra: Raimei Hakke..."
…
If he hadn't already restrained much of his strength and Haki, the entire island would have long since been obliterated. But even so, the catastrophic power that surged like a natural disaster still left the island looking as if it had been hit by a level-twelve typhoon. The terrifying beasts could only crawl on the ground, paralyzed with fear.
After nearly three hours of venting, the figure finally stopped. That massive, towering body plopped down onto the ruined earth, then picked up a gigantic sake gourd and began gulping it down.
Beneath the gourd, there was a bounty poster pressed against the ground:
Monkey D. Luffy, Bounty: 30 million Berries.
At the same time, cheerful laughter echoed once more.
"Worororo... this is amazing... truly amazing... As expected of one of the Four Emperors of the New World, the man known as the King of Beasts and the strongest creature in the world, Kaido's body. Whether it's this indestructible physique, or the top-tier Mythical Zoan, Uo Uo no Mi: Azure Dragon form, or the monstrous Haki, it's all unbelievably powerful..."
At this moment, if any of the Beasts Pirates were present, they would have been utterly stunned by their captain's words.
Because they could never imagine that their captain was no longer the original Kaido of the Beasts. He had been replaced by a transmigrator from Earth, a man named Ryu.
Three months ago, Ryu was just an ordinary office worker on Earth. He lived a standard 9-to-5 life, and his only form of relaxation was watching anime, catching up on shows, and browsing web novels.
Naturally, as one of the "Big Three" shounen series, One Piece was among his regular reads.
But ever since the Wano arc began, with its increasingly twisted characters and endless sit-ups, Ryu's passion for One Piece started to wane. His admiration for the Straw Hats began to fade, and instead, he started to feel a strange sympathy for Kaido, the arc's main antagonist. Still, he knew that villains losing to the heroes was inevitable, so he didn't have any strong emotions about the ending.
That was until three months ago, when the anime aired the episode where Marine Hero Garp soloed Hachinosu Island to rescue the hard-working King of Effort, Koby. Ryu watched it for just a moment and felt completely disgusted.
Sure, in a hot-blooded shounen, power scaling inconsistencies are common. But having a clown-like character humiliate so many previously established, well-crafted ones? That was something else.
Koby's existence turned all of Oda's once powerful creations into jokes and punchlines.
The most ridiculous among them was one of the Straw Hats: Zoro.
When compared side by side, one couldn't help but question, was Zoro's decade of effort just for show? Was he just performing some glorified cosplay while Koby got to "try hard" for two years and suddenly defeat Pirate King-level enemies, become a Marine Hero, help capture the Warlord Boa Hancock, and even land a punch that took out one of the Blackbeard Pirates' arms?
That's when Ryu finally understood why some villains in novels always want to destroy the world.
Put yourself in their shoes. If you were a villain who suffered endlessly, trained relentlessly, lost everything, and it still wasn't enough to overcome the 200x effort boost and protagonist halo of someone like Koby, you'd despair at the world too.
That was when Ryu first felt true disgust toward One Piece's entire storyline.
He even began fantasizing that if he became Kaido, he would crush the Straw Hats the moment they set foot in Wano, and then wipe out the world. After all, what good was a world that could be saved by such ridiculous protagonists? Even if saved, nothing would truly change.
Just like Naruto and Boruto.
Of course, he knew this was impossible. After all, One Piece was Oda's creation. He was just a measly reader.
But then, the unbelievable happened.
The next morning when he woke up, he discovered that his fantasy had come true. He had actually transmigrated into the world of One Piece, and had become Kaido of the Beasts.
What came next, after his initial excitement faded, was Ryu's complete understanding of what it meant to "envy the dragon".