One Piece: Starting with the execution of Pirate King Roger

Finally, when the steaks were grilled to a perfect golden brown, Ryan handed them both steaks.

Smoker and Rosinante no longer cared about dignity or restraint; they reached out and took the scalding hot roast meat, biting into it fiercely.

tasty--!!

The moment their teeth broke through the crispy outer layer, the two felt as if their souls were flying!

The scalding hot, rich meat juices exploded in their mouths. The tender meat, which required almost no chewing, combined with the pure saltiness of the sea salt and the perfect touch of spices, created a delicious torrent that instantly overwhelmed all their taste buds!

The two could no longer utter a word. They were like wild beasts that hadn't eaten for three days and three nights, frantically tearing at the roasted meat in their hands, their mouths greasy, and their faces showing an expression of happiness they had never seen before.

This was the first truly delicious meal they had since arriving at the training camp.

Just as the two were enjoying their meal, Ryan sighed, his dissatisfaction written all over his face.

He cut off a piece of the tenderest pork tenderloin, took a bite, and frowned: "Sigh, it won't do. The cooking time is a bit off, and the spices aren't complete enough."

"Most importantly... why doesn't this dish glow?"

Smoker and Rosinandi stopped moving at the same time. Their mouths were stuffed with roasted meat, and they stared blankly at Ryan with the look of utter disbelief.

Glowing? Why does the food glow?

Chapter 28 Let's Make a Deal

A few kilometers outside the cave, at a temporary campsite.

Hina and her two female teammates were gathered around a campfire, staring expressionlessly at the charred seabird beside the fire.

Without seasonings and with the cooking time not properly controlled, it tastes dry and tough, and has a lingering fishy smell.

But on a deserted island, this is the easiest source of protein to find.

Just then, a gentle evening breeze, carrying an incredibly rich and domineering aroma of meat, drifted over.

"Hmm?" A short-haired female soldier suddenly stopped chewing. She sniffed the air hard and looked at Hina in confusion. "Hina, you...you must have some secret seasoning hidden in your mouth. Why does it suddenly smell so good?"

Another female soldier stopped as well, a look of rapture on her face: "Yeah... what is this smell? Just smelling it makes my mouth water."

Hina herself had already stopped what she was doing.

Her eyes, which always carried a hint of languor and composure, were unusually wide open at this moment.

She slowly raised her head, her nostrils flaring slightly, and followed the seemingly magical fragrance, looking towards a certain direction in the jungle.

That aroma, a blend of pure meaty fragrance and the smoky aroma of roasted fat, seemed like an invisible hand, forcefully gripping the taste buds of all of them.

The three of them, without prior agreement, focused their gazes on the dark, unpalatable piece of "charcoal" beside the fire.

silence.

The next second, the three of them, with perfect coordination, simultaneously threw the "food" in their hands into the fire.

"I can't take it anymore!" The short-haired female soldier was the first to stand up, her face filled with craving and resentment. "I have to go see! Who is it that can make such heavenly food on this deserted island!"

"Hina, we really need to go and scout it out." Hina also stood up, extinguished the campfire, and her eyes sparkled with unprecedented curiosity.

The three women, like three cheetahs lured by a fragrance, followed the scent carried on the wind and plunged into the dark jungle.

They crossed streams and ravines, but were eventually stopped by the sound of a waterfall.

The source of that fragrance that haunted their dreams seemed to be behind the waterfall.

The three exchanged a glance, then carefully circled around to a high point on the side of the waterfall, parted the damp bushes, and looked down.

Then, a scene unfolded that shattered their worldview—

Behind the enormous waterfall, a warm campfire burned in a dry, bright cave.

Around the campfire, three figures sat together. Two of them were tearing at large, golden-brown, juicy ribs of meat with the ferocity of starving ghosts.

The third figure was leisurely leaning against a cot that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, slowly cutting a small piece of roast meat with a knife and fork, and even had a drink placed next to him!

Hina recognized the three people.

Smoker, Rosinante, and Ryan, whom Hina is very curious about.

After calmly weighing the options for a moment, Hina led her teammates out from the front, through the rushing water curtain, and appeared at the edge of the campfire's glow in the cave.

"Who goes there?!"

Smoker and Rosinante were startled by the sudden appearance of the three figures and jumped up almost instinctively.

Rosinandi frantically searched for his weapon, but tripped over his own foot and almost fell.

Smoker stepped in front of the campfire, his mouth still stuffed with meat, and assumed a fighting stance, his eyes instantly turning incredibly fierce.

Renn didn't even raise his head.

His Observation Haki had already captured everything.

Upon noticing the arrival of the person, he continued to slowly and methodically cut his piece of roast meat with his knife and fork, as if he had expected it all along.

Just as the atmosphere was about to explode, Smoker saw the face of the person who came in. His tense fighting posture instantly relaxed, replaced by a kind of irritability mixed with displeasure and headache.

"Tsk, it's you, Hina." He mumbled indistinctly, but didn't completely let his guard down.

"Relax, Hina means no harm."

Hina raised a hand to indicate that they meant no harm.

Her eyes, which always carried a hint of laziness, swept over the wary Smoker and the clumsy Rosinante beside him, before finally settling on that excessively relaxed figure.

"Hina just followed a scent that shouldn't be on this deserted island; she didn't mean to steal your dinner."

She paused, a playful smile curving her lips, and finally revealed her true thoughts.

“However, Hinai was indeed surprised. It seems that some people’s survival training is more comfortable than their life in Marineford.”

"What are you looking at?!" Smoker finally swallowed the roast meat stuffed in his mouth, grabbed a large rib still dripping with oil, and brandished it like a spiked club. "This is our roast meat!"

Raine didn't even look at him, but calmly raised her hand, making a "calm down" gesture.

This simple action, however, forced Smoker to suppress his impending outburst of arrogance.

Hina's gaze didn't linger on Smoker, but slowly swept over the tents, cookware, and sleeping bags on the ground, finally landing on the seemingly ordinary little backpack next to Rein.

“We originally came here following the smell of delicious food, but now, Hina is more curious,” she turned her gaze back to Renn, “how did you manage to move a logistics warehouse to this deserted island?”

Raine used the same trick again, pointing to the backpack with an innocent look on his face, and giving an explanation that sounded like an insult to one's intelligence: "I'm just... better at packing."

This answer, which sounded like it was meant to fool a fool, caused Hina's brow to furrow almost imperceptibly. Her two teammates behind her wore expressions that said, "Are you kidding me?"

"Gurgle gurgle~~~~"

A loud and long rumbling sound suddenly rang out in the quiet cave.

The atmosphere instantly became incredibly awkward.

The two female soldiers behind Hina blushed instantly, wishing they could disappear into the ground on the spot.

Their eyes, however, remained fixed on the sizzling, oily roasting meat over the fire, and they swallowed their saliva frantically.

Raine picked up his fine knife and, amidst the tense stares of Smoker and Rosinandi, who cried out "Mine! Mine!", took the initiative to cut a large, fragrant, and succulent rib from the roast pig.

The "crack" sound of the knife slicing through the crispy outer layer and the "sizzle" sound of the juices being squeezed out seemed to become the most beautiful music in the world at that moment.

He placed the piece of roasted meat, enough to drive anyone crazy, on a "plate" made of huge leaves, but did not hand it over. He simply held it in his hand and calmly looked at Hina.

"Want some? If you do, let's make a deal."

However, Hinai's reaction completely exceeded Renn's expectations.

Instead of stepping forward, Hina took a step back in a flustered manner. A strange look flashed in her usually languid eyes, and a faint blush even appeared on her cheeks.

“Hina wants to remind you,” she said, arms crossed, in an extremely subtle tone, “that even if you’re a great cook and…and quite handsome, don’t think you can get away with just a piece of grilled meat…”

Chapter 29 No work, no food

Hina didn't finish her sentence, but the meaning was already self-evident.

"Pfft—cough cough cough!"

Rosinandi, who was standing next to him, immediately spat out the meat he was eating.

Even Renn, who maintained a calm and collected demeanor, couldn't keep his composure any longer.

"What...what are you saying?!" For the first time, Renn's eternally calm voice cracked. "Who said they wanted to trade your...what?! What kind of nonsense are you thinking?!"

The moment he lost his composure, a murderous aura, as if it wanted to tear him to pieces, rose from behind him.

Without turning around, Ryan knew it was Smoker's gaze.

"Damn it, I overdid it." Ryan's heart skipped a beat. He had no doubt that if he had simply nodded and said "uh-huh," Smoker would have rushed over and splattered him with blood.

He dared not pretend any longer, quickly coughed twice, forcibly steer the conversation back on track, and put on a serious expression:

"What I mean is, this meal wasn't free."

He glanced at Hina, then at his two teammates, and said in a deep voice, "Do you think this island survival trip is just a vacation for us? Don't be naive. Judging from Chief Instructor Zephyr's style, those instructors will definitely drive all the pirates in the nearby waters to this island like livestock to be our sparring partners."

“My conditions are simple.” Rein’s gaze finally fell on Hina. “What you have to do is capture pirates, alive. Then bring them here to me in exchange for food.”

"Catch pirates?" Hina's doubt deepened upon hearing this. She took a step forward, her sharp gaze locking onto Rein. "Although Hina can't see through you, you should be stronger than all of us, right? Why don't you do it yourself?"

Upon hearing this, Rein didn't rush to answer, but calmly asked in return, "Strong? Hina, do you remember what my Dao power value was in the entrance exam?"

Hina's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly: "256."

“Smoker is 602.” Rein shrugged, a helpless expression on his face. “So, you’re saying that I, with a Dominance of 256, am stronger than Smoker?”

This rhetorical question left Hina speechless for a moment.

She could not refute the irrefutable facts.

But she trusted her intuition more—this man in front of her was definitely not as simple as he appeared.

“But you…” she chose her words carefully, pointing to the backpack beside her, “…your unbelievable methods…”

“Those?” Renn gave a troubled smile and sighed.

"Those are just tricks to survive, not for fighting. In terms of direct combat, I'm just a barely passable recruit."

He looked at Hina's still suspicious eyes and changed the subject.

"Besides, this is training for all of us. If I do everything myself, what are you all doing here? As spectators?"

This reason is irrefutable.

Hina was silent for a moment before finally asking the last question: "So, what exactly do you want to do by capturing pirates?"

Renn slowly lowered his head, his voice becoming deep and filled with a sense of vicissitude beyond his years.

"I am an orphan who lost my family because of pirates."

"To catch pirates, of course... you have to kill them all by yourself, one by one."

This is not a lie, after all, the original owner did become an orphan because of pirates.

……

The next morning, in the cave behind the waterfall.

A small pot was placed on the fire, bubbling and simmering with a fragrant meat porridge, which Raine had made with leftover porcupine meat and some rice from last night.

Rosinandi was awakened by the fragrance. He rubbed his eyes, crawled out of his warm sleeping bag, and smelled the fragrance in the air, a happy, silly smile spreading across his face.

Smoker sat cross-legged on his sleeping mat with a dark expression and a complicated look in his eyes.

He slept soundly last night, but also felt suffocated. He slept soundly because the sleeping bag was soft, the cave was dry, and there were no wild animals to disturb him; he felt suffocated because all these blessings came from the monster who made him question his existence with a single punch.

As Ryan leisurely ate his breakfast, he noticed the longing looks in Smoker and Rosinandi's eyes.

Renn, busy eating and too busy to reply, simply nodded his chin toward the pot.

Rosinandi immediately ran over excitedly and filled a bowl for himself. Smoker hesitated for a moment, but ultimately, despite his stomach's protests, reluctantly picked up the bowl.

After breakfast, Raine began assigning tasks to the two: "Hunting, gathering, or piracy, you two have to keep busy. No work, no food."

Smoker frowned as he looked at the relaxed Ryan and asked, "Shouldn't we go work too?"

“Otherwise?” Ryan looked up and glanced at him. “You think this breakfast is free?”

Smoker was instantly speechless. Indeed, he was indebted to the man who had paid for his meal, and he couldn't utter a single word in rebuttal.