"This is our new crewmate. I'm sure you're all familiar with her."
After recruiting Hancock, Link immediately took her to meet up with Carina and the other girls and introduced her to them.
Nami and the others' mouths dropped open, staring dumbfounded at Hancock:
"Bo... Boa Hancock!"
"The world's most beautiful woman, the Pirate Empress, is our new crewmate?!"
Carina and the others thought Link had just left suddenly to take care of something; they never expected him to go recruit a new member—one of the Warlords of the Sea, the publicly acknowledged most beautiful woman in the world.
Looking at Hancock, who stood 1.91 meters tall and was close to two meters in her high heels, making her slightly taller than Link, even Nami and the others, whose beauty and figures were also top-tier—including the fully mature Robin—felt a sense of inadequacy.
It wasn't because Hancock was taller, nor because her chest was larger, and certainly not because she was stronger.
In terms of aura, Hancock completely dominated them. Only Carina in her Human-Beast form was slightly inferior to Hancock.
Others have one or two types of aura, which need to be switched and amplified with matching outfits. But Hancock possessed multiple auras. Without needing any specific clothing, just a single gesture or a glance could be amplified to the extreme by the Paramecia-type Love-Love Fruit.
A great beauty with a stunning face and a fiery figure, coupled with a multifaceted aura—she was simply a perfect goddess blessed with all of heaven's favor.
Never mind men, even women would be moved by her, falling for Hancock's charm.
"I am Boa Hancock. You may call me Hancock."
Hancock also took the initiative to greet Carina and the girls, but her tone was extremely cold and stiff.
Although Link had easily blasted open the doors to her heart, causing her to surrender instantly.
But in front of others, Hancock was still the high and mighty Pirate Empress.
If she hadn't been ignorant of the matters between men and women, and hadn't recognized her own heart, Hancock would likely have been full of hostility towards Carina and the others.
Even now, Hancock subconsciously felt a sense of exclusion towards them.
Fortunately, that sense of exclusion did not last.
As one of the hardest yet easiest female characters to win over, Hancock was not only clueless about love, but like Robin and Perona, she was also a woman who was very starved for affection.
Kidnapped as a slave in her childhood, she became an empress after growing up, and even her two younger sisters treated her with reverence and fear.
From childhood to adulthood, Hancock never had any so-called friends.
On Amazon Lily, no one would dare to befriend Hancock.
So, when the sociable Robin and Carina led Nami and the others in showing goodwill towards Hancock, this ice queen, experiencing interaction with peers for the first time, quickly melted and rapidly transformed into a goofy goddess.
In just five days, Hancock had become one of the girls, replacing Robin as the 'big sister' of the group.
Carina and the others, who had figured out Hancock's personality and character in no time, felt not the slightest dissatisfaction or aversion to this 'big sister' who had dropped in from the sky.
Because, just like the Kuja warriors of Amazon Lily, they too were captivated by Hancock's charm and simply couldn't get angry at this older sister.
Carina and Nami were self-aware. Hancock, who also possessed all three forms of Haki and was incredibly strong, was more suited to be Link's second-in-command than them.
From then on, the position of vice-captain of the Impaler Prince Pirates was filled.
The time came on the day that the bounties for all members of the Impaler Prince Pirates and the Blackbeard Pirates were issued, spreading across the world.
"Link, you have a bounty! Wow... so many zeros! Your and Teach's bounties have both broken records."
"I have a bounty too! But my title is 'Cat Burglar', while Carina's is 'Nine-Tailed Fox'? My bounty is only 50 million Beri, but that vixen has 250 million Beri? That's a whole 200 million more than me!"
"Damn it! When that vixen gets back, she's definitely going to mock me mercilessly!"
The ship sailed on the vast, boundless sea. Link was swimming in the open-air pool. Hancock wanted to look but didn't dare to do so openly, only stealing glances from time to time, looking incredibly cute with her contradictory shyness.
Meanwhile, Nami was holding today's World Economic Journal, which contained the bounty posters tucked inside. She first reported the good news to Link, then went into a frenzy.
Robin, sitting under a sun umbrella and flipping through a book, smiled without looking up and said, "It's probably because your Rumble-Rumble Fruit hasn't been exposed. After all, Carina's and Nojiko's Devil Fruits were displayed in front of the whole world."
"That must be it!"
Nami nodded forcefully, saying, "If my Rumble-Rumble Fruit powers were exposed, that vixen's bounty would definitely not compare to mine."
Creeak—
"Whose bounty can't compare?"
Just then, a door of air appeared out of nowhere. Carina, changing from her Beast form back to her Human-Beast form, walked out and asked curiously.
Behind her was a smiling Nojiko.
At this moment, Nojiko was holding a Devil Fruit in her hands.
Fearing Carina would mock her, Nami quickly walked over to Nojiko and changed the subject, asking, "Is that Devil Fruit the artificial one your wood clone found in the New World?"
Robin also finally put down her book, walked over, and looked at the Devil Fruit in Nojiko's hands, remarking, "To think it can be artificially created without being a Treasure of the Sea. The person who made this Devil Fruit must be a truly great scientist."
Watching Link get out of the open-air pool and take a towel from Hancock to dry himself, Carina couldn't help but ask, "Link, do you know the ability of this artificial Devil Fruit?"
"Ah..."
Link, wearing only a pair of swimming trunks, tied the towel around his waist, then took the Devil Fruit from Nojiko and said with a smile, not hiding anything: "This is an artificial Mythical Zoan. It's the artificial Fish-Fish Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Azure Dragon, created by the scientist Vegapunk by extracting the Lineage Factor of the Emperor Kaido!"
Hiss...
Hearing this, Carina and the other girls instantly sucked in a cold breath.
They never imagined that an artificial Devil Fruit could have such an astonishing ability and origin.
Link didn't give them a chance to comment, issuing a captain's order: "The most crucial Devil Fruit is finally in our hands. Now, we should go recruit its most suitable host!"
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