A cook, vice-captain of the Rocks Pirates?

He picked up a piece of ordinary beef from the cutting board, a strange glint in his eyes.

"I can prepare some special pre-meal snacks for you to help you... warm up properly."

Rocks and Newgate exchanged a glance, both seeing a hint of surprise in each other's eyes.

They all keenly sensed that this junior head chef seemed to have undergone some kind of amazing transformation in that instant.

……

G-8 Naval Fortress, this supposedly impregnable steel fortress, is now on high alert.

The alarms on the watchtower blared mournfully through the sky, and countless naval soldiers, under the command of officers of all ranks, rushed to the gun emplacements and defensive walls. The dark muzzles of the cannons, like a forest of steel, were all aimed at the lone ship that was slowly and deliberately approaching.

Inside the command tower, Vice Admiral Will, commander of the G-8 branch and head of the Navy Headquarters, held up his binoculars, his brow furrowed.

"One ship? Just one ship?"

He muttered to himself, his face full of solemnity.

"Rocks... Edward Newgate... what are these two monsters up to?"

He couldn't understand it, but his beastly intuition told him that this was by no means a reckless suicide attack.

The other party's calmness itself exudes the most terrifying sense of oppression.

"All personnel on high alert! Do not let your guard down! Once they enter the A-3's firing range, immediately launch a saturation barrage!"

Will gave the order in a deep voice.

On the sailboat, which was being aimed at by countless cannons, the atmosphere was the complete opposite of the tension on G-8; it could even be described as... somewhat leisurely.

The crew members gathered around the kitchen door, like a flock of fledglings waiting to be fed, watching the busy little figure inside with eager eyes.

Ryan stood in front of the stove, his movements completely different from usual.

If Ryan used to be synonymous with precision and efficiency, now every movement of his is filled with a certain indescribable rhythm.

Raine wasn't cooking; he was creating, dancing with the soul of the ingredients.

He picked up a piece of high-quality beef that he had previously captured from the navy, and instead of cutting it with a knife, he gently tore it apart with his fingers along the grain of the meat, and the whole piece of beef was perfectly separated.

Raine infused a wisp of his will, a pure, berserk soul yearning for battle and destruction, into the beef.

Instantly, the beef turned an even brighter red, as if lava was flowing within it.

Ryan placed it on the scorching hot iron plate, and after only three seconds, a thin crust formed on the surface of the beef before immediately picking it up and skewering it with a wooden skewer.

"Gats, yours."

Ryan handed over the seemingly ordinary, even slightly undercooked, beef skewer.

Gatz took it and swallowed it without hesitation.

The next second, his eyes widened suddenly, and his muscles bulged and swelled at a visible speed, with a faint red glow even appearing on his skin.

"Roar!"

Gatz couldn't help but let out a roar that sounded inhuman. He felt as if a ferocious beast had taken up residence in his body, and every muscle fiber was yearning for destruction and tearing!

"Power! I feel boundless power!"

He clenched his fist, and a muffled burst of air filled the space.

Next, Raine picked up a small piece of Leviathan fish meat and soaked it in ice water until it became crystal clear.

He infused it with a sense of stillness, and the fish meat seemed to lose all its presence, becoming like transparent jelly.

"Silver".

Silver took the paper-thin slice of fish and put it in his mouth.

The fish melted in his mouth, without any taste, but in the next second, Silver's figure blurred on the spot, and his aura completely disappeared, as if he had merged into the air.

If you didn't see it with your own eyes, you would never have noticed that there was someone standing there.

"This is……"

Silver's eyes were filled with awe; he felt as if he had become one with his surroundings.

Dorum received a rock-hard biscuit made from a mixture of special mineral powder and flour.

Raine infused it with a spirit of sturdiness.

Dorum took a bite, and with a crunch, he felt his teeth almost break. But then a powerful surge of energy flowed through his body, and when he tapped his chest, it produced a metallic clanging sound.

"My body... feels like it's turned to iron!"

Finally, Raine reheated the small pot of concentrated broth left over from cooking the Leviathan of Thunder Abyss. He didn't infuse it with any specific soul, but instead poured his understanding of the battle itself into it.

The soup became crystal clear, yet it seemed to contain the stars and the sea.

"Lox, Newgate."

The two of them each took a bowl and drank it all in one gulp.

The moment the soup entered their mouths, they simultaneously felt their already unparalleled domineering aura being ignited, becoming more refined, wilder, and more unrestrained.

"Gurarararar! Interesting! This feeling is really interesting!"

Newgate laughed.

Lox looked at Renn with a burning gaze that seemed to melt him.

"Raine, you've given me another huge surprise."

That's what makes master-level culinary skills so terrifying.

A simple appetizer instantly boosted the Rocks Pirates' fighting power by several levels.

At this point, the ship had entered the A-3 firing range of the G-8 fortress.

"Fire!"

Lieutenant General Will's cold voice echoed through all the gun emplacements via Den Den Mushi.

Rumble!

Hundreds of heavy cannons roared simultaneously, and countless shells formed an impenetrable net of death, enveloping the small sailboat.

Faced with this attack that could destroy everything, Lockes slowly walked to the bow of the ship. He glanced at the crew members beside him, whose auras were surging and whose fighting spirit was boiling, and then at the so-called fortress that would never fall.

Then, he let out a wild, arrogant laugh that seemed to look down on the world.

"Wahahahahaha!"

"My lords! Let the world hear our voice!"

"Tear down this piece of junk!"

Chapter 33 Landing on the Island

The first to respond was Gatz, who was already itching for a fight.

"Oh oh oh!"

The half-cooked beef, imbued with a raging spirit, transformed into a blazing fire in his stomach, burning away his last shred of sanity.

His eyes turned bloodshot, his muscles bulged and knotted, and dark red, magma-like patterns appeared on his skin. He looked like a primordial beast crawling out of the depths of hell.

He didn't even wait for the ship to get close before he kicked off the deck with both legs.

boom!

The deck that Dorum had specially reinforced was dented by his footsteps, and his huge body, like a black meteorite, carried an unparalleled ferocious momentum as it crossed hundreds of meters of sea surface and crashed into the steel outer wall of the G-8 fortress!

"Roar!"

In mid-air, Gatz let out a roar that sounded inhuman as he aimed his fist, the size of a sandbag, at the barrage of incoming shells.

There was no dodging, no parrying, only the purest and most savage head-on clash!

Bang bang bang!

Heavy cannonballs, powerful enough to tear a ship apart, shattered like fragile eggs the moment they touched his fist!

The steel bullets were twisted and deformed by his punch, and some were even punched back by him, hurtling towards the fortress's gun emplacements at an even faster speed!

Inside the command tower of G-8 Fortress, Lieutenant General Will saw this scene through his binoculars. His mouth involuntarily opened wide, and the cigar in his hand fell to the ground.

"What...what kind of monster is that? It blows up cannonballs with its fists?"

His adjutants and staff were collectively speechless, as if they were witnessing the most unbelievable sight in the world.

However, this is just the beginning.

Just as everyone was captivated by Gatz's rage, a shadow, almost invisible to the naked eye, silently slipped off the ship.

Silver's figure rose and fell on the sea surface several times, completely blending into the water mist and shadows stirred up by the exploding shells.

The piece of fish meat, imbued with the spirit of silence, made him feel as if he had been erased from the world, his breath, voice, and presence vanishing completely.

He was like a real ghost, strolling leisurely through the hail of bullets.

No navy unit could detect him, and no surveillance Den Den Mushi could track his movements.

When he reappeared, he was already standing on top of the first defensive wall of G-8 Fortress, appearing like a ghost behind a main gun emplacement.

The naval soldiers inside the gun emplacement were still frantically loading and firing, completely unaware that death was already standing behind them.

"Good night."

A cold voice rang out, like the whisper of death.

The next second, a flash of silver light appeared.

Silver's spear moved like a dragon, leaving a trail of afterimages in the cramped space of the gun emplacement.

He didn't kill anyone, but the tip of his gun struck each sailor precisely in the wrist, knee, and back of the neck.

bang bang bang...

After a series of dull thuds, the naval soldiers on the entire fort collapsed to the ground like felled wheat, losing their fighting ability.

Silver did not linger; his figure vanished again, and he stealthily made his way to the next emplacement, repeating the same method.

On the pirate ship, Dorum also had his moment of glory.

He ate the mineral biscuit containing the spirit of solidity and felt his body become harder than the keel of the ship.

Dorum stood tall at the bow, facing the stray shells without flinching.

"Come on! Let me see if your cannonballs are harder, or my bones are harder!"

clang!

A shell struck him squarely in the chest.

The expected scene of carnage did not occur.

The shell seemed to have struck an unshakeable anvil; the warhead deformed instantly and then fell helplessly into the sea.

Dorum had only a faint white mark on his chest. He patted his chest, making a metallic clanging sound, and a smile of extreme satisfaction appeared on his face.

"Hmm, not bad, I'm getting the hang of it, let's do it again!"

He was like a mobile steel fortress, blocking all the shells fired at the ship with his body. This scene made Lieutenant General Will's eyes twitch wildly in the distance.

"Madmen! These people are all madmen!"

If Gatz, Silver, and Dorlum's performances were beyond the realm of reason, then Rocks and Newgate's actions were almost divine.

Newgate simply swung his naginata forward casually.

Click!

The space in front of me was like a giant pane of glass, instantly covered with spiderweb-like cracks.

All the shells flying toward the right side of the ship deflected their trajectories upon entering the shattered space, colliding and detonating in mid-air, creating a spectacular display of fireworks.

As for Lox, he didn't even bother to lift his hand.

He simply stood there, and an invisible, distorted gravitational field radiated outwards from him.

All the shells flying to the left were suddenly slowed down as they approached within 100 meters of the ship, as if grabbed by an invisible hand.

Then, drawn by a gentle yet irresistible force, it traced eerie arcs before silently sinking into the sea.