Bob was a lowly fisherman, born and raised in the east blue, all he did from when he was four was go out fishing with his father and later inherit his job. Bob hadn't had much luck in the romance department or anything but fishing. He had no friends, not real ones anyways, no family after his parents died. He was an outsider even in his own village. Sadly, this fact made him the perfect target for the reaper of the sea.
The reaper of the sea was a pirate, his bounty was at 5 million berry, no one knew his real name but still everyone knew what he did. He targeted the ones who wouldn't be missed and dried them of their blood. No one had seen his face and lived to tell the tale. The only sign of the reaper was his insignia, the fanged mouth, which he drew onto his victims bodies.
That reaper? He is me…
I have been reincarnated into this world close to a year ago. Back then, I was weak, only the masquerade system at my side. The masquerade system was my cheat. It allowed me to unlock powers based on the ttrpg 'Vampires: the masquerade', fueling them by blood but even after a year of ravaging the sea, I only had unlocked one ability 'Blood buff', which multiplied my strength by ten. Back when I was still weak, it gave me the powers of an ordinary fishmen, though, through my training, now, with the blood buff, I was a little stronger than Luffy at the start of the series, stronger than even Arlong, though by far not as strong as Gear 2 Luffy.
I crept onto the ship, silent as a mouse and stalked over to the man, sitting in his boat, rod cast out to the sea. He didn't even notice me until I sank my fangs into his neck and started draining him. Just like the kiss in vampires: the masquerade, my bite was orgasmic unless I willed it to be painful. I can say with certainty that all those who I have killed have enjoyed it.
Basic Fishing skill absorbed
Yes, that was another benefit of drinking blood. If I drink half or more of the person's blood, I had the chance of getting one of their 'skills' which could be anything from fishing to the broken devil fruit abilities. It was totally random, I had no control over it.
"Status"
Max D. Cain
Blood points: 85
Blood skills:
Blood buff 1(Multiply your strength by ten)
Absorbed skills:
Basic navigation
Basic cooking
Basic craftsmanship
Basic swordsmanship
Basic fishing
"Only five blood points? These civilians truly have impure blood", I tsked. Blood points were determined by the quality of the blood. A civilian would give anywhere between 2 and 5 blood points, an east blue pirate -just a random one, not any of the big players- would give me about 50. I had only killed one pirate in the entire year I was in the east blue. Feeding on civilians was much easier for now.
"You really think I can become a marine?", a timid voice asked.
My eyes snapped to the origin of the noise and I saw… Coby and Luffy. So the story had finally begun. I definitely wanted to be a straw hat, it would give me plenty of strong opponents to drain. I didn't want to be king of the pirates, no, I wanted to be the world's strongest man and in the crew of the future pirate king, that dream didn't seem so outlandish.
"Hey there, you two", I waved over to them, "I am a bit lost, can I join you guys? I'll give you some fish for it"
"You would give me food? I like you, sure, come aboard", Luffy patted the boat and I jumped down, carrying a barrel of salted fish on my back.
"I'm Max D. Cain", I bowed slightly, "future strongest man in the world"
"Strongest man in the world? I must have you on my crew! I'm Monkey D. Luffy, future king of the pirates. Want to join my crew?"
It was that easy?
"Sure"
"You are both insane!", Coby sputtered, "King of the pirates? Strongest man in the world? Those are pipe dreams!"
"And what would your dream be? You must have one, right? Without a dream, a man is nothing but a marionette", I asked him, taking a bite of the fish.
"I- I- I want to be a great marine!" Coby closed his eyes, "I want to uphold justice and protect the weak"
"A good goal, though it will take a lot of hard work to make someone like you into a marine", I nodded.
"R- really? Y- you think I could do it?"
"Certainly, with hard work any dream is achievable"
""hy do you want to become a pirate? Y- you seem so nice… both of you"
"The king of the pirates is the freest man in the world and getting to the one piece will be one heck of an adventure", Luffy grinned, "Also, I promised to someone very special that I would become a great pirate, I can't let him down"
"I don't intend on becoming a pirate, I already am one", I smiled, lifting my shirt to reveal the small tattoo on my left pack, a fanged mouth.
"T- t- the reaper of the sea?!"
"Is he famous or something?" Luffy picked his nose, looking at Coby.
"Infamous… the reaper of the sea drains his victims of all their blood and leaves a fanged mouth on their body as his sign. No one knows what he looks like. If- If Cain truly is the reaper of the sea, he is a very dangerous man", Coby shifted away from me but Luffy had sparkles in his eyes.
"Suge! Do you have a bounty?"
"Indeed", I pulled out my wanted poster, which just had my symbol on it and the amount of berry I was worth, five million.
"Suuuugeeee!"
Coby shook his head, looking at me terrified.