A cook, vice-captain of the Rocks Pirates?

He was no longer the inexperienced intern, but a phoenix soaring through the sky.

The blue-green wings of flame pierced the sky, each dive accompanied by the mournful cry of a submarine.

He didn't kill them, but precisely destroyed the submarine's propulsion system and weapons, turning the two steel hyenas into immobile iron coffins.

Gatz unleashed all his anger and frustration on the bounty hunters. He leaped onto the submarine's deck, the massive anchor swung wildly, smashing those who tried to resist until they were broken and screaming in agony.

"I'll show you how stinky you are! I'll show you how to hallucinate! I hate it when people do all this fancy stuff before I eat!"

He smashed things and cursed as he did so, looking just like a furious bull that had stormed into a china shop.

Chapter 115 Going to Borrow a Kitchen

Dorum examined the corroded deck with heartache, tapping here and there with a small hammer, his heart bleeding with each new damage he discovered.

He looked at the captured bounty hunters with the same gaze he would give a stack of walking repair bills.

Ultimately, the turmoil sparked by the exorbitant bounty was brought to a near-crushing end with a single, nonchalant flick of Ryan's finger.

On the deck, more than thirty bounty hunters were tightly bound with seaweed and piled up in a corner. The brothers Caribou and Coribou, who were in charge, were given special treatment and were tied to the main mast with seastone chains.

Caribou was still unable to speak, and could only look at the boy who was calmly wiping his fingers with a terrified gaze, as if he were looking at a demon from hell.

"Hahaha! That was great! That was so much fun!"

Newgate leaned back on his throne, finished the last sip of his drink, and let out a hearty laugh.

He looked at his crew with pride in his eyes.

Gatz's bravery, Marco's growth, Dorum's dedication, and... Renn's unfathomable strength.

This is the family he wanted.

A group of monster family members who can bring surprises in crucial moments and can rely on each other for support.

Marco flew back and landed next to Renn, looking at the boy who was about the same age as him with a complex expression in his eyes.

There was admiration, gratitude, and a touch of... relief. Relief that I was on his side.

“Raine… thank you, yOi.”

"You're welcome."

Renn nodded, then his gaze fell on his wings, which were burning with blue flames.

"The battle just now increased your flame activity by 3.7 percent and your control over energy is now more refined, which is a good thing, but it also consumed a lot of energy. I'll add a pineapple dish to your dinner tonight."

Marco: "...Thank you."

He always felt that the other person's focus was different from his own.

Just as everyone was cleaning up the battlefield and preparing for a celebratory banquet, an unexpected problem arose.

"Um... head chef..."

Dorum walked over with his abacus in hand and a long face.

"I just checked, and at least 70% of our food reserves have rotted from that guy's stench attack... We... we might be running out of food again."

The cheers on deck abruptly ceased.

All eyes turned to the group of bounty hunters tied up like dumplings in the corner.

Especially Gatz, whose eyes instantly turned dangerous, and a suspicious trickle of liquid even dripped from the corner of his mouth.

"I think... these guys look... kind of chewy."

Bounty hunters: "!!!!"

This sudden food crisis was ultimately resolved with a single sentence from Ryan.

"It's alright, the island ahead should have the ingredients we need."

Raine pointed to the faint outline of an island on the distant horizon and spoke calmly.

His Observation Haki had already detected that the island possessed an unusual life force, the kind that belonged to top-tier ingredients.

It was an island of spring, where the climate was pleasant all year round. Most remarkably, in the center of the island grew an unimaginably huge towering tree, its canopy like a giant umbrella, covering the entire island.

When the Moby Dick docked, they discovered that the island was not uninhabited, but rather an independent kingdom that appeared to be exceptionally prosperous.

On the dock, the king and his ministers, surrounded by guards, were already waiting. They seemed to have spotted the huge pirate flag on the Moby Dick through their binoculars and were now trembling with fear, as if facing a formidable enemy.

"My...my lords...may you gentlemen have come to our Kingdom of Spring Queen for some good purpose?"

The old king mustered his courage, stepped forward, and asked in a trembling voice.

Newgate didn't even bother to disembark; he simply looked down at the trembling king and said in an unquestionable tone, "Borrow some ingredients, and... while you're at it, borrow your kitchen."

"Food...ingredients?"

The king was stunned. He had imagined countless possibilities: being extorted for treasure, being asked to submit. But he never expected that the other party only wanted to borrow some food.

"Yes."

Newgate’s voice boomed: “Our head chef is preparing a dinner party. Send all the best ingredients from your island to the ship.”

This kind of brazen borrowing is no different from robbery.

The old king's face turned pale and then red, but looking at the several terrifying monsters standing on the pirate ship, he knew he had no choice but to comply.

"Yes...yes...I'll prepare it right away!"

The king, stumbling and crawling, led his men to plunder the best ingredients in the entire country.

Half an hour later, truckloads of top-quality ingredients, exuding an enticing aroma, were transported to the dock of the Moby Dick.

There are plump, colorful pheasants freshly hunted from the forest, snowflake beef raised on Wang's ranch that only drinks spring water, and all kinds of fresh, juicy vegetables and fruits that only grow on Spring Island.

Ryan stepped off the ship, calmly inspected the ingredients, and nodded in satisfaction.

"The quality is acceptable, barely enough."

He directed Gatz and Marco to load the ingredients onto the ship, while he himself carried a food box and walked straight towards the magnificent palace amidst the puzzled gazes of the crowd.

"Head chef, where are you going?"

"Gats asked curiously."

"Go borrow a kitchen."

Ryan's answer was concise: "The ship's kitchen is too small to cook the dishes I want."

In the royal kitchen, the chefs were staring in horror at the expressionless boy who had suddenly barged in.

Ryan ignored them, simply surveying the enormous kitchen, which was the size of a restaurant, as if he were inspecting his territory.

"The equipment is okay, but the kitchen utensils are poorly maintained. The knives are dull and the pots aren't clean, which will affect the taste of the food."

He shook his head, then laid out his kitchen knife and utensils one by one.

"Tonight, I will be in charge of the King's table."

Ray-En's tone was calm, yet carried an undeniable air of authority.

"You guys, you're my assistants."

The imperial chefs looked at each other, but none of them dared to resist.

Because they saw in the boy's eyes an absolute, almost religious, focus on cooking.

That night, an unprecedented feast was held in the royal palace of the Spring Queen's Kingdom.

But the main characters at the dinner table were not the king and his ministers, but the group of quirky pirates aboard the Moby Dick.

With his superb culinary skills, Raine perfectly combined the top ingredients of Spring Island with rare spices he collected from the Grand Line, creating a series of mouthwatering dishes.

The king and his ministers could only watch longingly from the sidelines, their mouths watering at the irresistible aroma.

At the end of the banquet, Raine carried a small plate of delicate chicken with pine nuts, made with the tenderest tenderloin of the rainbow pheasant, to the old king.

"This is payment for the ingredients you lent out."

The old king, his hands trembling, took the plate and carefully tasted a bite.

The next second, an unprecedented light burst forth in his cloudy old eyes, and two streams of hot tears flowed uncontrollably down his face.

He felt as if he had returned to his youth, to his first time ascending the throne, full of vigor and boundless hope for the future.

"God... God's cuisine..."

The old king muttered to himself, and when he looked up again, the terrifying pirate ship had already disappeared above the horizon.

Only a legend about a divine chef remains, quietly circulating on this island of spring...

Chapter 116 Joz, Vista

During our time sailing in the New World, time seemed to be both stretched and compressed.

During the day, it's a battle of wits and courage against unpredictable weather and giant sea monsters.

In the darkness, there is the boundless loneliness of the starry sea.

In the blink of an eye, another three months have passed.

The crew members' lives also underwent subtle changes during these three months.

Gatz was no longer satisfied with his one-sided beating-style training with Newgate. He became obsessed with the pressure point techniques that Rain used to instantly kill Carib that day.

Of course, he couldn't understand that exquisite technique, so he imitated it in his own way—using the huge anchor to try and pinpoint the fish flying at high speed on the sea surface.

As a result, every day the area around the ship was as if it had been bombed with depth charges, with water splashing everywhere, eliciting Dorum's hoarse roars.

"Gats! You stupid ox! That's a flamingo smuggled by the Don Quixote family! Not a target for you to practice skipping stones! Do you know how much that thing is worth on the black market? Enough for me to buy a brand new set of keel!"

"I'm practicing precision strikes! To protect the head chef, we must ensure we hit the enemy's vitals with a single blow!"

Dorrum was so angry he almost fainted. Now every night before bed he hugs his toolbox, muttering "my precious baby, I will try my best to live tomorrow," as if it were not a ship, but his critically ill son.

Marco had become a complete apprentice to Renn, and he was already adept at using the Phoenix Flame to maintain a constant oven temperature.

Under Renn's guidance, they even began to learn how to use the healing properties of fire to process ingredients that contained mild toxins but had extremely delicious meat.

He discovered that this precise control over flames opened up a whole new realm for his ability development.

Newgate continued to lie on his captain's throne every day, drinking and basking in the sun.

He just drank less often now. More often, he would watch these lively characters fooling around, his eyes deep and unfathomable. No one knew what he was thinking.

The bounty of 4.5 billion was like an invisible thorn stuck in the heart of this king of the sea.

Behind the glory lies the world's most greedy gaze, and he must think further ahead for his family.

And Renn is still the same Renn.

Without fail, he prepares three meals a day for the crew, and in his spare time he takes out his notebook and updates his food catalog.

That brief encounter with the hyena brothers also provided new material for his research.

[Experiment Report - Continued]

[Experimental subject: Caribou, a hyena and user of the Niff-Niff Fruit (already disposed of).]

[Attribute: Paramecia type, Niffler Fruit.]

[Ingredient Quality: Inferior. The stench generated by the ability severely contaminates surrounding food, causing it to rot rapidly and produce harmful substances. The user's own flesh, due to prolonged exposure to this stench, also develops a putrid odor that cannot be masked by any spices, resulting in an extremely poor taste. Consumption is not recommended.]

[Cooking advice: None. Any attempt to cook with it would be an insult to the cookware and the cook's sense of smell. It is recommended to use physical methods for humane disposal, or seal it in a sea stone container as a natural composting agent for food waste disposal.]

[Weakness Analysis: His abilities depend on breathing; sealing his lungs with acupressure can instantly neutralize them. He is mentally fragile and easily influenced by hallucinations. His greatest weakness... might be any dish I cook, because he'll never even have a chance to taste it.]

[Overall assessment: A walking biological weapon, utterly devoid of edible value. Its strategic value is limited to numbing the enemy. It has been packaged and shipped, along with its accomplices, to the Navy G-1 branch via cash on delivery, with an accompanying invoice to compensate for our food and emotional distress.]

After writing the last sentence, Ryan closed the notebook.

He looked up, about to check how well Marco had controlled the heat, when a peculiar scent, a mixture of mineral fragrance and floral aroma, unexpectedly wafted from the sea breeze.

The scent was faint, yet incredibly penetrating, as if it could penetrate directly into one's soul.

"Ok?"

Renn's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.

This aroma is a mixture of at least a hundred different substances, including the faint energy emanating from some kind of crystal mineral under the sunlight, the fragrance of flowers never seen before, and... two extremely vigorous, youthful auras full of vitality.