Darkness, that's all he saw, his skin felt cold, and he couldn't hear anything.
How did I get here? Who am I? Is this a nightmare? Was I dead? Those were the only thoughts going through his head, when suddenly he felt a distinct pain all over.
He woke up with a gasp, his body full of sweat as if though he'd been working nonstop for days, it hurt everywhere.
"Where am I?" He questioned himself as he tried to stand, only to fall back down due to the weakness in his legs.
Finally he managed to stand up, he was in a bed, the sheets worn down and dirty from age, the room was dark with a single candle lighting it.
"That's right, I was studying for the final exam"
He murmured to himself before looking around.
"This isn't my house, and it doesn't look like a hospital either, have I been kidnapped?" Adam thought to himself while looking around.
The room wasn't anything special, with only a bed and small wooden desk that had some notes and trash on it on one side, while the other had a small drawer.
Adam walked over to the desk groggily, his whole body still hurting, there was a small mirror, some notebooks and a compass on the desk.
The moment Adam saw his reflection on the mirror his eyes widened, "what the fuck"
In that moment it was as if he's mind had been shattered and rebuilt, memories that didn't belong seamlessly mixed in.
He hurriedly grasped the small mirror and brought it up just in front of his face, the face that should have looked no different than it always did, today looked like someone else's.
*DING* "congratulations to host for dying, the beyonder system has been unlocked"
"Holy shit I've transmigrated, with a system to boot" Adam said in amazement, watching an illusionary tab appear in front of his face.
After a moment to calm down, he started going through the memories. He transmigrated into the body of Markus Jackler, a young man 17 years of age.
He was born and raised in a small island, his father dying before he was born and his mother passing away a few years back. He made a living by running his family farm which consisted of some sheep and cows.
The year was 963, exactly 15 years after the death of Gold Roger… "wait… Gold Roger? Holy shit I'm in one piece" Adam exclaimed excitedly.
One piece had always been his favorite manga, and he was fully caught up until the start of elbaph before transmigrating.
"Please click next to continue"
Adam slowly turned his attention to his cheat, the system and clicked on the next button.
"The beyonder system allows the user to become a beyonder and advance through the ranks! The user can now choose between one of the 22 available pathways, but be warned that there's no going back once you choose a pathway!"
Adam's eyes widened again, memories of a novel he had read years ago resurfacing, "Beyonder? As in the beyonders in Lord of Mysteries?"
Adam clicked next once more, suddenly the system tab widened, 22 symbols with names appearing, "this confirms it, these are the 22 pathways of becoming a god from lord of mysteries" Adam said in amazement
"But how did I transmigrate? I don't remember dying, it was an average night going to bed after studying."
"How did I transmigrate system?" Adam said, hoping for an answer but not expecting anything.
…
"It's just as I thought, it's just an automated system with no thinking function"
"Im going to wait a bit before picking anything." Adam thought to himself before deciding to investigate more of the room.
He started rummaging through the papers on the desk, there were a lot of newspapers that were somehow written in English,
"that's good at least, can't imagine what would happenif I couldn't speak the language here" Adam grinned to himself slightly.
He finally found the newest looking newspaper and started flipping through it, his eyes widening when he saw the headline.
"Navy vice admiral Borsalino has been officially promoted to the rank of Admiral, with the new epithet of "Kizaru"
"There's still nearly 10 years before the start of the show" Adam thought to himself, knowing that Luffy started his journey around 24 years after Roger had been executed.
"Hmm let's see" Adam mumbled before looking back at the illusory tab floating in front of him.
"The pathway I pick will decide my whole journey, I need to think about it" Adam thought, his brows knitting together as though he was really putting all his thoughts into this choice.
"I've got to make a plan both for the short term and the long term"
"Seeing as how the system said I will have to follow the path I choose, then there's no mixing in non adjacent pathways." Adam said after thinking for a while
"While there are some very good low sequence options in other pathways, I'll have to throw away anything that's not part of the Lord of the Mysteries or God almighty AtS"
"Because I won't settle for anything less than a pillar" Adam grinned again, still half shocked from the situation he found himself in.
"And there's no point in even thinking about the Mother Goddess of Origin pathways, definitely not" Adam really didn't want anything to do with things related to MGoD
"As much as it pains, and as much as I loved the error pathway, I'm going to have to cross out the Lord of the Mysteries, God Almighty is just too good to pass up, I love all of the pathways in it"
Adam finally reached the end, now all there was to do is to pick one of the 5 out of
"White Tower" "Visionary" "Hanged Man" "The Sun" and finally the "The Tyrant"
"The White Tower and The Hanged Man are out first, because while both are very strong in later sequences, White Tower relies a lot on studying other pathways beyonders, and while there's a chance of being able to copy devil fruit techniques, I don't want to risk it"
"On the other hand, most of the strength from a below demigod level Hanged Man pathway comes from sequence 5 Shepard, which again would need other beyonders around and I don't know if I'll be able to graze devil fruit users"
Adam went through his memories, trying to remember the abilities of each pathway as best as he could
"Visionary is absolutely broken in the later sequences, but in a world like one piece the lower ones wouldn't be of much help, I don't know if I'd be able to affect people with more advanced observation haki, I don't think lower sequence hypnosis would work that well against them"
Adam had finally reached the last two sequences, "The Sun" and "The Tyrant"
"As much as I want to be the next "Ancient Sun God" there's already a sun god in this universe, "Nika", and The Tyrant is the most obvious choice, I mean the world is quite literally pirates vs navy"
Finally, letting out a deep breath, Adam clicked on "The Tyrant" with a determined gaze.
"DING" "The Tyrant pathway has been chosen, good luck!" The system wrote down before transforming.
"DING" "New Main Quest issued, "Become an adventurer, pirate, marine or bounty hunter and set sail!"
"Reward: sequence 9 sailor potion"