61: Chapter 61 Monsters... They're all monsters!

"Oh? Finally, some big guys worth punching?"

Facing the terrifying attack that felt like Mount Tai pressing down, Luffy adjusted his Straw Hat, his mouth splitting into an incredibly wild grin.

"Ace, that big snowman holding the club is mine! You take care of those cannon fodder with horse legs behind him!"

"No problem! Let's see who finishes first!"

Ace laughed loudly, his figure instantly transforming into a white streak of fire as he charged directly into the army of Centaurs!

"Enjō Kō: Cross-White Fire!!!"

Ace swung his arms, and two pure white flames, shaped like the Grim Reaper's scythes, crossed in a slash. With a shrill whistling sound, it instantly swept across a range of hundreds of meters!

"Aaaah!"

Screams rose one after another!

The Centaur troops didn't even have a chance to fire their guns. As long as they were slightly grazed by the white fire, both they and their guns were instantly melted into a pile of molten iron!

A one-sided mowing down!

On the other side, facing the giant spiked club smashing down, Luffy didn't dodge. Instead, he leaped up to meet the terrifying force head-on!

"Gear Second! Armament Haki hardening!"

Luffy's right arm instantly inflated into a giant fist as black as ink. On the fist, a wisp of violent dark red electric sparks was faintly entwined!

After half a month of consolidation, Luffy's application of Haoshoku infusion had become increasingly masterful!

"Rubber-Rubber—Haoshoku Elephant Gun!!!"

"Boom!!!"

Two attacks of extreme disparity in size collided violently in mid-air!

"Pfft!"

The older of the Snowman brothers, Rock, let out an extremely shrill scream.

Luffy's fist, its momentum undiminished, smashed directly with unstoppable force into his mountain-like chest!

His massive body was sent flying like it had been hit by a large truck, crashing back over a thousand meters. It smashed through the thick outer wall of the research institute, and together with his younger brother, Scotch, they were both buried deep underground, vomiting blood and passing out on the spot!

Caesar, in the surveillance room, watched this one-sided slaughter on the screen and was scared to the point of wetting himself.

"Mon... Monsters... They're all monsters!!!"

Caesar collapsed on the ground, covering his head in despair: "That bastard Doffy! He's using me as cannon fodder!"

...

Just as the fighting outside the institute was turning things upside down, in the deepest, most hidden "Biscuit Room" of the institute...

Hundreds of children kidnapped by Caesar were locked up here. Their bodies had undergone varying degrees of gigantism due to long-term consumption of poisonous candies containing experimental drugs.

Hearing the earth-shattering roars from outside, the children huddled together, trembling with fear.

Among these children, an eight-year-old boy wearing a kimono with a samurai topknot was hiding in a dark corner piled with discarded equipment. It was the young master of the Kozuki Family of Wano Country, Momonosuke!

"Stomach... so hungry... I..."

Momonosuke clutched his shriveled stomach, his eyes swimming with hunger. To avoid the bad guys catching him, he hadn't eaten anything for two days and two nights.

Just as he was about to faint from hunger, his gaze suddenly fell on a dusty glass display case nearby.

Inside the glass cover, a man-made Devil Fruit with strange swirl patterns on its surface and a faint pink color rested quietly!

This was a defective Mythical Zoan fruit left behind by Vegapunk when he was conducting Lineage Factor experiments here.

To the starving Momonosuke, this fruit looked like a peerless delicacy!

"Can't worry about that anymore... As long as I can fill my stomach, I..."

Momonosuke gritted his teeth, picked up a stone, smashed the glass case, grabbed the fruit, and shoved it into his mouth, devouring it skin and all.

"Ugh... so gross!!!"

The extremely disgusting taste made Momonosuke almost throw up, but he forced himself to swallow it down.

"Aaaahhh!"

A strange power, extremely violent and completely uncontrollable, suddenly erupted from within Momonosuke's body!

His bones made a violent grinding sound, and fine pink scales quickly grew on the surface of his skin!

In a flash of dazzling pink light, the eight-year-old boy disappeared. Replacing him was a strange little dragon, about five or six meters long, entirely pink, with two dragon whiskers!

"This... what's going on?! I... have I become a monster?!"

Momonosuke, now a little dragon, looked at his claws in horror. Terrified, he scrambled wildly around the small room, smashed through the door, and stumbled as he flew toward the depths of the research institute.

On the other side, Carl was not participating in the boring battle. He found a chair from somewhere and lay on it comfortably, with a translucent system light screen emitting a faint glow floating in front of him.

[God-level Item: Elder's Gaze (Dead-Angle-Free Surveillance Version)]

What was displayed on the light screen was the real-time footage inside the research institute.

When Carl saw the footage of the kid in the kimono swallowing the artificial Devil Fruit and turning into a pink little dragon scrambling in the corridor...

"Oh?"

A smile curled at the corner of Carl's mouth. He stood up and shouted to Luffy in the distance:

"Luffy! Forget about that cannon fodder!"

Carl pointed his finger directly at the deep part of the institute where a large hole had been smashed.

"The main ingredient for tonight's dinner, an extremely rare little pink dragon, is wandering around on the second basement level ahead!"

"Within ten minutes! Catch it alive for me!"

Hearing Carl's call, Luffy, who had just punched the last Centaur away, instantly had hearts in his eyes!

"A pink little dragon?! Meat!!!"

"Rumble—!"

Accompanied by a thunderous explosion!

The half-meter-thick super-alloy isolation door of the Punk Hazard underground research institute was like fragile tofu, blasted open by a heavy fist covered in pitch-black Armament Haki, creating a huge hole!

Twisted metal fragments splattered everywhere, sparking against the walls.

"Pink little dragon! Meat! Where are you! Get into my bowl quickly!!!"

Luffy, drooling like a waterfall, plunged into the core area of the research institute. His eyes had long since turned into two giant meat-on-the-bone shapes, and his Observation Haki was frantically scanning the surroundings.

Ace followed closely behind, strolling through the ruined door, faint wisps of white steam still rising from his body.

"Luffy, you idiot, slow down! It's like a maze with passages everywhere, don't get lost!" Ace called out helplessly.