Blue-Eyes White Dragon—
the thing Karl drew on his third egg smash.
Blue-Eyes White Dragon, a monster card from "Yu-Gi-Oh!", of which there are only four ultra-rare copies in the world.
In Karl's previous life, a pure-gold commemorative Blue-Eyes card even sold for eighty-seven million.
Karl never owned one, and now he'd just drawn that very "eighty-seven million."
Like the mysterious spear, the Blue-Eyes bound to Karl's soul in card form; like a Pokémon, it could be summoned at any time to fight alongside him.
Even if it fell in battle, it could revive within the card housed in Karl's body.
So long as the host lives, it will not die.
Beyond that, the soul-bond granted Karl and the Blue-Eyes a linkage ability.
That linkage is called—"Sharing."
As the name implies, Karl and the Blue-Eyes can share each other's abilities.
Karl shares the Blue-Eyes' light-attribute power; like Kizaru's Glint-Glint Fruit, he can spend stamina to use the dragon's light power.
Beyond that, Karl shares his physique.
The Blue-Eyes' physique can't really compare to Karl's, so that part is basically negligible.
But the reverse is different for the Blue-Eyes.
It not only shares Karl's monster physique, gaining an iron, blade-proof body.
Its already mighty draconic frame now also carries the iron-body trait.
At the same time, it shares Karl's two colors of Haki.
Add in elemental light power, and the Blue-Eyes becomes a major trump card for Karl in an instant.
Especially with this sharing—so long as Karl keeps growing stronger, the Blue-Eyes keeps growing stronger.
Man and dragon together are absolutely more than the sum of their parts.
Most crucially, the Blue-Eyes fixes Karl's weakness in aerial combat.
After absorbing all that information, Karl couldn't help but grin. "Five years well spent—another perfect draw."
"Come forth, Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"
He closed the egg-smash system, now back on a five-year cooldown, and a card appeared between the fingers of his right hand.
Fwoosh—
A beam of light shot from the card and became a pure-white, not-even-half-a-meter-tall little white dragon.
The moment the little dragon appeared, it flapped its tiny wings, pounced on Karl, and licked his face with its tongue.
"Go on."
Linked mind to mind, Karl patted its head with a smile.
"Gryaah…"
The little dragon let out a baby-dragon cry, then beat its wings and blurred into a white afterimage, diving into the budding foods all around and devouring with a speed not inferior to Karl's.
Karl lowered his head to the card in his hand. The artwork of the Blue-Eyes was gone, but its data remained beneath.
His gaze fixed on the level line.
A single star there flickered, light rising from bottom to top as if charging.
When the energy filled that star, the phenomenon would stop.
From the system's info, Karl knew the Blue-Eyes was leveling up.
It hadn't bound at full power; this was a zero-star state.
Though sharing Karl's physique pushed its actual strength well past a mere zero-star, its body was still that of a little chibi dragon.
Only at eight stars would it become the true, towering Blue-Eyes.
Indeed, by sharing Karl's infinite-evolution monster physique, it might keep evolving—surpassing even Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and standing on par with the Three Egyptian Gods.
This is why Karl called it a perfect draw.
The linkage means man and dragon will never lag behind each other; neither will drag the other down.
Of course, aside from his monster physique, Karl still has the mysterious spear; overall he's far stronger than the Blue-Eyes.
"Looks like people will have to start calling me 'Dragon Knight' from now on."
Watching the little dragon happily stuffing its face, Karl spoke to himself, then clenched his power-filled fists with a confident smile. "At this point I shouldn't be weaker than the top of the Seven Warlords, right?"
Power tiers in this world are easy enough to define.
City-levelling, nation-annihilating, island-destroying.
First-rate fighters can erase a city without breaking a sweat.
The Seven Warlords possess catastrophic destructive might, power on par with a nation.
A few among them are disasters who can topple a country outright.
Island-destroying marks the monsters who stand atop the seas.
Each of those can rewrite maps—go all out and an island sinks.
After his first evolution, Karl belonged solidly in city-levelling.
Now, after a second evolution—and with the mysterious spear and the Blue-Eyes as two trump cards—Karl believed wiping out a nation was nothing to him.
Compared with those who've honed Haki and technique to the extreme, or stand at the pinnacle in body, Fruit, and Haki alike, he wouldn't be outclassed at all.
Once his Haki catches up, surpassing them will be easy.
Ever since gaining his monster physique, Karl chose a target to chase and overtake.
A legendary super-strong man who never truly fought on-page in the original—"Marine Hero" Monkey D. Garp.
The guy who flattened eight mountains in his youth just to train his fists—he's the ceiling of pure physical might in this world.
Surpass Garp at his peak, and Karl becomes number one in hand-to-hand.
Of course, Garp didn't have Karl's or Charlotte Linlin's inborn physical gifts.
To become a super-strong man, beyond physique you need Haki at its summit.
So Karl's next goal is to raise his Haki to match his body.
It's worth noting…
after Karl's second evolution, the capacity of his Haki skyrocketed.
He's not short on the pool—what he lacks is higher-order use.
Like future-sight in Observation, or internal destruction in Armament…
"It's about time to go pay visits to some legends."
Karl grinned, eyes blazing with fighting spirit.