A dazed Luffy opened his eyes, looked at the pale blue sky above, and shook his head.
"Eh!? I'm not dead yet?!"
"You're awake, Straw Hat."
Hearing a voice by his ear, Luffy immediately looked up and found himself lying on the deck of a large ship. Beside him, a lively girl with orange hair was looking at him with curiosity.
"Hello! Who are you? Where is this? And where is that Giant Dragon?!"
Luffy jumped to his feet, leaving Nami dumbfounded. It was important to note that when he was first brought on board, he was practically medium-rare. Yet after lying down for a few hours and receiving some nutrient injections, he had completely recovered?
Is this guy really human? Isn't he the reincarnation of an earthworm or a starfish or something?
After hearing Luffy's question, the surprised Nami finally snapped back to her senses and replied with a grin.
"That Giant Dragon! It's already gone; it seemed to just be passing through! As for me, my name is Nami! This is my boss's ship!"
Blinking his eyes, a look of obvious disappointment appeared on Luffy's face.
"So it's already gone. Man, I really wanted to find a Giant Dragon to be my companion!"
Nami looked at Luffy with a strange expression.
"Companion? Do you mean you want to be the Giant Dragon's emergency food supply companion?"
"Emergency food companion, hahahaha! That sounds so interesting!"
"I'm talking about you! Aren't you afraid of being eaten by the dragon in one bite?"
"Huh!?" Luffy's smile froze, and a look of surprise appeared on his face.
"So the emergency food was me!"
With a long face, Nami directly retorted.
"What did you think? Did you want to treat that Giant Dragon as emergency food?"
As soon as she finished speaking, Nami saw drool pouring from Luffy's mouth like a waterfall. She immediately clutched her head, speechless.
"Dragon meat... it must be delicious! Uh, I'm getting a bit hungry. Is there food on the ship?"
Although he was asking a question, Luffy's actions were not polite at all. He stood up and wandered directly toward the kitchen.
As he walked, he sniffed his nose, seemingly smelling the aroma of food.
"Hey, you! At least be a little polite!"
Nami grabbed one of Luffy's hands, trying to pull him back. However, that hand stretched longer and longer, reaching over ten meters. Luffy continued walking toward the kitchen like a zombie. Seeing the kitchen door locked, he blinked, and his head stretched right through the window.
"This guy... what kind of hungry ghost reincarnation is he?!"
Seeing this scene, Nami didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She let go, and Luffy's stretched arm snapped back, flinging him toward the window and getting him stuck right in the middle.
"What's going on here?"
A faint questioning voice came. Vegapunk, holding a large syringe, walked over with a strange look, staring at Luffy's butt stuck in the window.
Normally, with the rubber-rubber fruit's ability, getting stuck wouldn't be a big deal; he could just stretch and deform to get out. However, in Vegapunk's eyes, Luffy's belly was expanding rapidly at a visible rate. With cracking sounds, it squeezed the window frame until it sounded like it was about to break.
Pushing open the kitchen door, Vegapunk looked speechless at the messy, sanity-draining scene inside.
Luffy's head had stretched out like a long snake and was devouring the bread, sausages, and canned goods stored in the kitchen, as if he intended to clear everything out. A large amount of food flowed down his neck into his belly, which was why his stomach was expanding so fast.
Since he was a child, Garp's training for Luffy was unreliable, but the results were indeed good. Even though Luffy hadn't learned the Six Powers himself, he already possessed the basic Life Return ability, allowing him to recover rapidly even from serious injuries.
The price was a massive consumption of nutrients in his body. Even though Vegapunk had given him nutrient injections earlier, they couldn't truly make up for the physical deficit. This was one reason why Luffy had turned into a gluttonous demon.
Ignoring the ravenous Luffy, Vegapunk closed the door, walked to Luffy's rear, found a vein on his thigh, and stuck the needle in.
"Awooo!!!"
With a scream from Luffy, Vegapunk quickly finished collecting the blood. He flicked the giant syringe and, with a wave of his hand, placed it into a pocket Space bubble.
"It hurts, it hurts! What happened?!"
Forcing himself out of the window, he left a large hole in the wall. The window frame was stuck around Luffy's body like a lifebuoy, making him look quite hilarious.
Luffy turned his head, looked at Nami, and then at Vegapunk.
"What just happened? It felt like something poked me!"
"It's nothing, just a large hornet stung you."
Vegapunk waved his hand and said dismissively.
"I see. Where's that hornet?"
"That hornet! I already chased it away."
"Is that so? Then thank you very much!"
Nami slapped her forehead. This simpleton—he's being sold and still helping to count the money! He's being played like a fiddle! Can't he use his rubber brain to think? Where would hornets come from on the ocean?
However, Nami wasn't Luffy's crew member yet, so she just found his denseness amusing and wasn't actually angry.
"By the way, who are you?!"
Only then did Luffy react and ask Vegapunk.
"You idiot, didn't I tell you? This is our boss's ship! He is, of course, my boss, Dr. Vegapunk!"
Nami grabbed Luffy's ear and shouted, startling him so much that he hurriedly rubbed his ear.
Then, Luffy looked around. This large ship was much better than his small boat, which gave him an idea.
"So you're the boss. In that case, would you be willing to become my companions and search for the Great Treasure with me?"
"I'm the man who's going to be the Pirate King! Gulp..."
Although Luffy's words were forceful, considering he was biting a chicken leg, the effect was more hilarious than imposing.
Vegapunk curled his lips slightly.
"Becoming your companion to find the Great Treasure is fine, but... Straw Hat, whose ship is this?"
"Um, it's yours!"
"Whose food are you eating?"
"Ah, it's yours too."
"Then do you know navigation?"
"Uh... no!"
"Then who do you think should be the Captain?!"
"Me, of course!! I'm the man who's going to be the Pirate King! How can the Pirate King not be the Captain!"
Vegapunk opened his mouth and laughed in spite of himself.
"Fine! Trying to argue with a rubber head like you was my own mistake."
"But never mind. Although I'm somewhat interested in the Pirate King's Great Treasure, scientific experiments are clearly more suited for me!"
"Rubber boy, since I saved your life, it should be fine for you to do an experiment to repay me, right?"
Seeing the glint in Vegapunk's eyes, Luffy shuddered. He looked around mysteriously but found nothing.
Then, the carefree Straw Hat threw the feeling to the back of his mind, patted his chest, and said boastfully.
"Don't worry, no matter what kind of experiment it is, I'll cooperate with you!"
..."No, help! I can't eat anymore, I really can't eat anymore!"
In the laboratory inside the cabin, Vegapunk looked with a smile at the ball-shaped object about ten meters high in front of him.
"How can you not eat more? I've already calculated it. With your Devil Fruit development and Life Return ability, you should be able to eat another 200 kilograms of High-energy food!"
"Don't worry, I've built a special Training Pod for you. Your digestion will be very fast. For the next half month, I'll feed you until you're stuffed every day!"
"To achieve Devil Fruit awakening, physical fitness is a crucial hurdle. It's lucky your body has rubber properties, allowing for this extreme nutritional supplementation and high-intensity training. You should cherish this!"
"Help... I'm going to die!"
With a smile, Vegapunk force-fed Luffy another pile of High-energy food, then dragged the ten-meter-high ball-shaped Luffy to a giant pit and kicked the giant Luffy-ball down.
Luffy fell to the bottom and bounced twice. Vegapunk activated his Electromagnetic ability, and a giant lid descended over the pit. Then, the entire pit filled with intense Shockwaves that began to vibrate Luffy's flesh, bones, and the food inside him.
"It hurts, it hurts, it hurts! What's happening? My bones are breaking! My organs are melting!"
The intense Shockwaves shattered Luffy's rubberized muscles, bones, and nerves, making him scream in agony.
However, the High-energy food Vegapunk made in Luffy's belly turned into pure nutrition and recovery energy under the vibration of the Shockwaves, beginning to rapidly restore his body.
So, amidst the intense pain, there was also an unbearably strong itching sensation. That was the feedback to the nerves as all the cells in Luffy's body recovered rapidly.
"It's so itchy, so itchy! Why is it so itchy? My bones and organs are all itching!"
Compared to the pain, this itching was clearly harder to endure. Luffy, who had turned into a ball, rolled around on the spot for over a dozen laps. The Luffy-ball grew smaller and smaller, and after about an hour, it shrank back to its original size, revealing a much leaner and stronger-looking Luffy.
However, Luffy's entire body had turned bright red; that was the result of waste blood and tissue being expelled from his pores.
With a click, the lid over the pit returned to its position, revealing a soul-shaken Luffy who looked like he was about to kick the bucket.
However, Vegapunk had no intention of being sympathetic and poured a bucket of cold water over his head, instantly bringing Luffy back to his senses.
"You guy, what are you doing?!"
Shouting angrily, Luffy leapt up, but to his utter surprise, he hit the ceiling directly, even leaving a small dent in it.
"Ouch... wait, it doesn't seem to hurt much!"
"My body feels so much lighter, and my strength has increased!"
Noticing the change in his physical fitness, Luffy clenched his fists, a look of extreme surprise on his face.
"What's going on? I've become so much stronger!"
"Don't worry, you'll continue to get stronger!"
Vegapunk said with a face full of smiles. At the same time, he opened a pocket Space bubble, and various High-energy foods, measurable in tons, piled up in front of Luffy again.
Even with Luffy's thick nerves, seeing the food in front of him made his legs go weak with fear.
"Wait... wait a minute... I'm not hungry at all right now..."
"Whether you're hungry or not isn't up to you! Come here and keep eating!"
With a smile on his face, Vegapunk reached out, and a powerful attraction immediately dragged Luffy over.
Then he took out a small ball from his hand and placed it in Luffy's mouth. The ball immediately turned into a ring and expanded to the size of a basketball hoop, making it impossible for Luffy to close his mouth, only allowing him to make 'ah ah ah' sounds.
As the ring in his mouth released Sea Stone waves, Luffy, who had been trying to escape, immediately slumped to the ground. He watched helplessly as Vegapunk took out an iron shovel and dug into the ten-meter-high mountain of food.
"Wooo wooo wooo wooo wooo!"
Seeing the shovel getting closer, Luffy wanted to shake his head frantically, but Vegapunk stepped on him. He could only watch as a shovel-full of High-energy food was shoved into his mouth, sad tears streaming from the corners of his eyes.
"Burp... why do I feel like this time... I'm eating... even more food, I feel like my stomach is going to explode..."
Removing the ring from his mouth, Vegapunk snapped it onto Luffy's throat so he couldn't spit out the food that had reached his throat, then leisurely went to wash his hands.
Hearing Luffy's complaint, Vegapunk chuckled.
"Of course, as your physical fitness improves, the amount of food must also increase! Theoretically, in half a month, the amount you eat each time should increase by more than five times!"
"Five... five times!!! Help!"
Luffy wailed with snot and tears. This was the first time in his life he felt such fear toward eating; he was going to be stuffed to death!
"Alright, the next round of training is about to begin! Let's go, Luffy!"
Dragging the Luffy-ball, Vegapunk walked toward the training machine with a smile. The dragged Luffy had a face like he'd been broken, his eyes losing their light.
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