Rebuilding the Grand Line, Starting with Becoming King

[Complete] Character art commissioned and posted on Weibo for anyone interested. Content warnings are at the very end of the blurb and in Chapter One. - My next book is open for advance reservations: [Hunter x Hunter] What’s So Bad About Reincarnating as a Chimera Ant?! Blurb: OP version: Sailors discovered a strange new territory had suddenly appeared on the Grand Line. The Marines and pirates alike wanted to investigate, but soon found out... what a joke. They couldn’t get a read on it at all. Rumor had it the island was called Little One Piece. Rumor had it a Fifth Emperor, personally recognized by the World Government, lived there. Rumor had it every one of the Fifth Emperor’s subordinates was someone you didn’t want to mess with. Like the Third Division Commander, who, much like Kaido, was always trying to kill himself. Or the Fourth Division Vice Commander, who blew up everything in sight while proclaiming that explosions were art. Or the powerful First Division Commander and Vice Commander, who were always making plans to go see the beauties on Fish-Man Island... Rumor had it the Fifth Emperor was a woman. Rumor had it the Fifth Emperor had an unusual relationship with Whitebeard’s Second Division Commander. Rumor had it the Fifth Emperor wanted to become the world’s top ruler. Rumor had it... Amy was speechless. Enough with the rumors. She was just trying to make money. -- Game version: In 2202, a game called One Piece: Conquest was released. Its polished production, expansive world, vividly characterized NPCs, and wide variety of gameplay drew countless players to line up for launch day. After the game came out, every player went wild with PVE and PVP... fighting monsters, leveling up, and battling both the main characters and one another. To raise their server-wide rankings and the bounties that represented them, players around the world were constantly fighting. The slightest disagreement was enough to start a brawl. Compared with the Conquest rankings, where players’ names fluctuated more wildly than stock prices, those who chose to focus on construction had a positively peaceful time. Every day they logged in and asked each other on the small-world chat: Have you eaten? Have you harvested the crops? Did you upgrade your little cabin? Did pirates steal your supplies today? The construction rankings hardly ever changed. The top spot in particular was held firmly by a player called “A,” who seemed permanently cemented in place as the Construction Overlord. Until one day... the player in first place suddenly vanished. They hadn’t merely dropped off the rankings; they had disappeared altogether. The laid-back construction buddies: ??? Where’s our big shot? What happened to them? Much later, a player called “A” suddenly appeared on the Conquest rankings, soared past every other player, including the powerful story characters ranked among the players to make the game feel more realistic, and charged straight to the top of the entire server. The Conquest players, busy fighting one another: ??? Who’s that? How did her bounty just surpass Kaido’s, the highest one so far? Is this a bug? The construction players: ??? Isn’t that the big shot who disappeared from our rankings ages ago? You have to understand, the NPCs in the world of the Grand Line were all freakishly powerful. The top ranks were always occupied by NPCs, and even the best players, with their top-tier spending and skills, could barely make it into the teens. Players: Give me everything there is to know about this woman. Three minutes. Amy, the woman everyone was talking about, had this to say: Stop looking. She’s in another world :) Amy had been about to quit the game when she was suddenly dumped into its world. She looked at the game’s starting island and the axe in her hand. The game’s System chimed in her ear. [Ding! This is a world of seafaring. Fame, wealth, power, and strength: these are things everyone wants. You now have a starting weapon in your hand. You decide to use it to, ] A: Set sail and become a pirate. B: Kill a pirate to raise your bounty, then become a pirate. C: Become a pirate on the spot. Amy: ... Amy chose to chop down a tree with her axe. Years later, a reporter from the world’s largest news group came to interview the youngest queen in history. Reporter: How did you become ruler of the world? Amy was silent for a long time, then slowly began: First, it all started when I picked up a man... #The CP is listed in the tags #Career-focused, with career and romance making up a 7:3 ratio #The heroine’s personality differs somewhat from the blurb; she’s more reserved and believes in fair, reciprocal exchanges. #Construction and maritime conquest. The heroine is not a pirate in the traditional sense. #Ensemble cast. Most crossover characters are here as hired help. Whether they receive detailed development depends on the length of the story; their main purpose is to fill the roles of original supporting characters. Primarily One Piece. The construction mode covers a lot of ground and isn’t conventional base-building. The chapters around the start of paid serialization are controversial and contain foreshadowing, so they won’t be revised. If you can’t accept them, please just drop the story without telling me. Thank you. #The plot aims to rely on brains. #A strong female lead with no melodramatic romantic entanglements. She will be the one and only ruler in the end. Blurb posted on 2022/10/30 Next book, open for advance reservations: [Hunter x Hunter] What’s So Bad About Reincarnating as a Chimera Ant?! (Story-focused, two male leads) Synopsis One: [Imagine the story is a video game quest] [You have reincarnated as a Chimera Ant living on the Dark Continent. You decide, ] A: What?! I’m the protagonist now! Give me the Ant King’s throne! B: Whatever animal you’re born as, you should fulfill its duties. I’ll gladly become one of the queen’s soldiers and protect Her Majesty with my life! C: What? I can’t even be human anymore? I might as well die. D: You have a better idea. [The Ant Queen sees that you’re different and decides to kill you before you can threaten her position. You decide, ] A: You think you’re all that, Ant Queen? I’m calling the cops! B: Waaaaah, Mom, Mom, please spare me! I’m your most obedient child! C: What? The Ant Queen wants to kill me? I might as well die. D: You have a better idea. [You begin your solitary life on the Dark Continent. You decide, ] A: You firmly believe you’re the protagonist of a wish-fulfillment novel and can become the continent’s ruler in no time, so you do absolutely nothing. B: You firmly believe you’re the heroine of a romance novel and will meet plenty of love interests on the Dark Continent, all of whom will fall for you at first sight and protect you, so you do absolutely nothing. C: What? A hellish solo mode? I might as well die. D: You have a better idea. [After countless hardships, you finally make it back to human civilization. If you want to become human, you need to obey society’s rules and behave in a civilized manner. So you decide, ] A: Grab some random man, woman, or child and have a bite. B: Kill some random man, woman, or child for fun. C: Pick a random target and give in to your beastly instincts. D: Maybe you should start by making friends. [The world is full of surprises. Someone proposes to you, even though they know you’re not human. You decide, ] A: Your nonhuman fetish goes wild. B: Your nonhuman fetish goes a little wild. C: Your nonhuman fetish stays dormant. D: One isn’t enough. You want a harem. Synopsis Two: [Reality isn’t a game quest you can rewind or choose your way through. It is a test of survival and death, over and over again.] Q: What’s it like to start out as a nontraditional protagonist? A: Thanks for asking. I was just born, I’m on the Dark Continent, and I’m running around in every direction trying to stay alive. The Dark Continent is the ruins of human civilization from ages past. Now there are no humans here, only countless powerful, terrifying, and uncanny dark creatures. You have a human soul, and surviving here will take more than a strong will and the ability to endure the loneliness of your soul. If you want to preserve the soul you started with, you must also be careful never to let the darkness swallow you and turn you into part of itself... Synopsis Three: [To become the ruler of the Dark Continent, you have one final task: gather subjects of your own and establish a new kingdom on the Dark Continent.] Theme: The right person will always become your guiding light when you lose your way.