Vice Captain of the Straw Hat Pirates

"What am I going to do now? I feel weird."

Liam spoke.

"What happened? Didn't Chopper just check your injuries?" Zoro asked.

"Yeah, he did. But that's why I feel weird. Luffy and I fought the Admirals at the same time. Both of our fights were dangerous, but I made it out of the battle without injuries, and Luffy is wrapped like a doughnut."

Liam said while pointing at Luffy, who was completely wrapped in bandages except for his face.

"According to Chopper, Luffy suffered a lot of skin injuries and internal injuries from the dangerous components of the magma."

"Look at me! I have almost no injuries."

Hearing that, Zoro chuckled and said.

"How is that a problem? Didn't that shitty cook got cooked by his opponent until I jumped in and saved his ass?"

Liam paused and gave Zoro a weird look.

"Did you just praise Sanji?"

As soon as he said that, Zoro angrily replied.

"When did I praise him? I just said he was badly injured by an opponent weaker than him."

"Come on, admit it! You just praised Sanji for being stronger than me. Though I admit I am now stronger than Luffy."

Liam proudly stated. His nose almost flew out of his face.

The five-time boost he got was much stronger than he expected. If he had to fight Kizaru again, he knew he wouldn't be embarrassed at all.

Hearing that, Zoro pointed at the broken arm next to Luffy and said.

"Are you sure?"

"Uh!"

Liam suddenly felt stuck. Even though he got five times stronger, he wasn't able to cause permanent damage to Kizaru.

During their battle, Kizaru and Akainu were similar in strength. So, he wasn't the only one who got stronger in the battle.

Luffy awakened his Devil Fruit and unlocked Gear Fifth.

In Gear Fifth, Luffy had surpassed the strength of an Admiral, getting at least ten to twenty times boost in his strength.

That was just a lowball compared to what Luffy could do with his imagination.

Although most of it would still be restricted by his rubbery powers, Luffy had indeed reached the level of an Emperor.

Of course, he wasn't that behind.

Just like how Luffy had gears, he also had Fire Demon Mode.

'My Devil Fruit just talked to me. I am completely confused now. Is this fruit a Golden Finger for the protagonist? Otherwise, how could it be able to talk like that?'

'Could it be that my Fruit is mysteriously a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit like Luffy?'

Liam was truly confused by the nature of his Devil Fruit.

The ability of his gambling Fruit was truly weird in the sense that it didn't make much sense.

After all, out of millions and millions of people in the world, fewer than a thousand people could learn Advanced Armament.

And, he just did it. Because he made a bet.

And that was Advanced Armament. He also did the same thing with Future Sight and Advanced Conqueror Haki.

And, he succeeded. He obtained both of these advanced forms of Haki simply because he made a bet in his mind.

Did he have the fear of losing that bet?

Absolutely! But even so, the content he got out of the bet was so ridiculously high that sometimes it just didn't make sense.

Especially with those bets where he could get the fruit's ability of others just by pressing their Willpower and the Fruit's Willpower with his Conqueror Haki.

It didn't make much sense, but what could he possibly do? He couldn't just research his Devil Fruit.

It never existed before. He hadn't seen it in the Anime.

It was something that came with… him.

'Wait? What if this Devil Fruit did come with me?'

Liam's eyes widened.

His hand shook a bit.

"Hey, Liam, what's wrong with you?"

Zoro frowned and asked. He saw the changes in Liam's expression, and he couldn't understand what could make him so frightened.

Liam slowly came to his senses and took some deep breaths. He shook his head and said.

"No, I just thought of something. It is not that important anyway."

"You sure?" Zoro asked.

Liam patted his chest and said.

"Trust me! We have a much more important job to accomplish. We have only four days before the war starts. It's gonna be chaotic there."

"We have to be much more prepared than we are. I am going to teach you Advanced Conqueror now."

At this moment, Sanji suddenly jumped from his body and shouted.

"No, don't take Mosshead alone for training."

Unfortunately, his eyes were closed. Only after the move he made, he seem to have woken up.

He rubbed his eyes and yawned.

"Huh? Why am I here?"

He saw Liam and Zoro looking at him with a weird gaze.

"What happened? Did I sleepwalk?" Sanji asked, not understanding why they were looking at him with such a weird gaze.

Liam walked up to Sanji and said.

"You woke up at the right time. I was just talking to Zoro about his next training."

Hearing that, Sanji smiled and said.

"Then, I did wake up at the right time. So, what training are we going to do?"

Liam shook his head, turned toward Zoro, and tried hard not to laugh.

Sanji just called out Zoro while sleeping, whether by instinct or coincidence.

And, he also kept the content right.

They truly had an interesting connection with each other. After controlling his laughter, Liam turned around and asked.

"Are you feeling good? I need Chopper's confirmation before I can take you out for training."

Sanji tapped different parts of his body and said. His expression was a bit too indifferent.

"Don't worry, I feel alright. It's like something inside of me has changed."

"Germa Genes!"

Liam replied.

Sanji nodded, seemingly disgusted by those genes.

Liam knew just how much Sanji hated his family and those genes. But he had to make sure Sanji could accept those genes.

Unlike the original timeline, where Sanji had to go through several events, especially from leaving the Straw Hats, to asking Luffy for help, to saving his family, and finally accepting those genes.

His progress was gradual, but it was there.

Now, Sanji had nothing but hatred for his family.

So, it was naturally impossible for him to accept that family so easily.

Unfortunately, he didn't know that Germa was already scrambling around to find Sanji.

During Enies Lobby, Germa already knew about Sanji's existence. Because they had a connection with the World Government, they tried to bring back Sanji, especially after seeing his strength.

But the World Government rejected their request.

If the Straw Hats weren't so famous, they might have rejected this request. But the Straw Hats were not only powerful but also dangerous to the World Government.

The moment Sanji joined this crew, his fate was sealed.

So, Germa, especially Sanji's father, decisively abandoned Sanji and continued with his life.

Until this morning, when they learned about the Straw Hat crew's recent action.

Because this time, the news was much more shocking to the world.

Two Admirals! Five CP0 Agents! Ten Pacifista!

CP0 agents all died. Pacifistas were destroyed.

Admiral Kizaru was seriously injured and barely made it back to the headquarters.

Admiral Akainu had one of his arms chopped off.

It was said to be the most devastating defeat for the World Government and the Marines.

Surprisingly, Luffy and his crew didn't have any increase in their bounties.

The top-level people knew World Government was planning some kind of eradication plan for the Straw Hats.

But the top level didn't think World Government could do that.

Not only because the Straw Hats hadn't challenged the World Government like the Revolutionary Army, World Government hadn't even gotten rid of the Revolutionary Army.

So, Judge wanted to get Sanji back. He didn't think he could force Sanji back because that would only cause problems for his kingdom.

But he could indeed threaten Sanji as long as he finds something important to Sanji.

Judge asked his clone army to find every single detail of Sanji's life, and surprisingly, it was a very smooth journey for him.

After all, the Straw Hats were celebrities at sea. Many people had already started to gather information about them.

After finding out about the presence of Zeff from East Blue, he wanted to use this man to threaten Sanji.

Unfortunately, he didn't know Liam had already made some preparations for that.

After all, it wasn't just Germa gathering information on them. There were many other crews and agencies.

So, he had left a part of the Baroque work on the east blue to keep tabs on the islands of the Straw Hat pirates.

"Don't worry about it! You need its help if you want to learn Advanced Conqueror. Your Willpower isn't comparable to Zoro's."

"If you want to learn Advanced Conqueror, you need to resist a lot of beating. So, just pray that your Germa Genes work perfectly."

.................

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