Confrontation

Hody Jones snapped out of his daze and turned to look at the Tamatebako in his hand.

After consuming a single Monster Cells, Hody Jones was filled with greed for all the Monster Cells in the Tamatebako. Although he had heard that the drugs in the Tamatebako were used to stimulate life force in exchange for power, the feeling after consuming the Monster Cells was completely different.

"Damn Neptune! He must have lied to us! This drug is clearly for body modification and evolution, it has nothing to do with burning life force!"

A strange thought flashed through Hody Jones's mind. He couldn't help but think that if he had only taken one pill, he would have become so powerful. If he had taken them all, wouldn't he have become incredibly strong?

"No, no, we have to leave it for others! To overthrow Ryugu Castle and control the entire Fish-Man Island, we must strengthen all the Fish-Man. At least my subordinates and elite combatants need to be strengthened!"

"Once we have complete control of Fish-Man Island, we can work for our great master. At that time, Monster Cells and the like will be as plentiful as we want!"

"Wait, the great master... who is the great master? Ah! I remember now, the master is Dr. Vegapunk! How could I have forgotten all of this?"

"For the sake of our great master, we must control all the Fish-Man!"

Hody Jones's eyes showed confusion again, but he regained his senses after a moment. By this time, he had transformed from a racist who believed Fish-Man were superior into a loyal henchman of Vegapunk.

Even though Vegapunk has not appeared before him yet, and he has never even seen Vegapunk once, he is still completely controlled by Vegapunk.

Consuming Monster Cells is equivalent to planting Vegapunk's backdoor in one's own body. Vegapunk can use this bloodline connection to locate the host's location, access the host's memories, and even control the host's emotions and modify the host's memories.

Of course, Vegapunk was able to do all this so easily to Hody Jones because Hody Jones himself wasn't very strong, and he didn't even know how to use Dual-Color Haki.

The stronger someone is, the more difficult it is for Vegapunk to control them. However, no matter how strong someone is, as long as they have completely digested the Monster Cells, they will be able to control Vegapunk to some extent, it's just a matter of degree.

Hody Jones, now completely under Vegapunk's control, glanced at the Fish-Man below who were stunned by his transformation and shouted:

"Can you feel it? This is power! I am ten times stronger than I have ever been before!"

As he spoke, Hody Jones threw a punch, and the force of the Fish-Man Karate instantly blasted a dilapidated building in the distance to smithereens.

The Fish-Man below looked at Hody Jones with shining eyes, even though Hody Jones's appearance had changed quite a bit and he looked somewhat ferocious.

But for Fish-Man, this is not a flaw at all; in fact, it could be said that their more ferocious and grotesque appearance is a sign of Fish-Man power and majesty.

After all, Fish-Man have fish heads, so most Fish-Man don't care about their appearance. Only mermaids pay more attention to their looks.

In contrast to the Fish-Man's indifferent attitude towards appearance, Hody Jones' strength has increased far too much!

Although Hody Jones instigated the rebellion, frankly speaking, his strength was by no means particularly great.

Considering that Hody Jones once idolized someone like Arlong, you can see just how strong he is. Compared to ordinary Fish-Man, he is naturally much stronger, but compared to strongmen like Jinbe, Hody Jones, who doesn't even know Dual-Color Haki, probably wouldn't even be able to withstand a single move.

Now, Hody Jones possesses the strongest strength among the Fish-Man Race. The magnitude of his increase in strength has drawn the attention of all the Fish-Man to the Tamatebako in his hand.

"Everyone! Once you consume this divine medicine, you will possess the same power as me! You will be able to truly overthrow the Ryugu Castle and become your own masters! What are you still hesitating for?"

A group of Fish-Man stared with fervent eyes. Compared to mermaids, Fish-Man worship power more, and those who could follow Hody Jones were the radicals among the Fish-Man, naturally craving power even more.

Now that the path to power is right before their eyes, how could these Fish-Man possibly resist?!

"Give it to me! I want to eat it!"

"Power, even greater power!"

"After taking the divine medicine, we will defeat the Ryugu Castle!"

Hody Jones smiled with satisfaction, looked at the strongest of his Fish-Man, and threw the Monster Cells at them.

After the Fish-Man executives snatched the Monster Cells, they immediately swallowed them whole. They then felt as if magma was flowing through their bodies, their muscles swelled, their skin tore, and their height and weight increased dramatically in an instant.

The stronger someone is to begin with, the more powerful they become after consuming Monster Cells. Of course, Monster Cells are also toxic, and even after Vegapunk's modifications, they are practically poison to ordinary people.

Fortunately, Fish-Man are physically stronger than ordinary people. The Fish-Man who followed Hody Jones were even stronger than ordinary Fish-Man because of their combative nature and frequent fights. In addition, those who initially consumed Monster Cells were mostly executives, so they basically survived the transformation by the Monster Cells.

As the roars subsided, hundreds of Monsters Fish-Man, five or six meters tall, with bulging muscles and extremely ferocious appearances, emerged. Just by their aura, they had already reached the threshold of Demon-Level Threat.

"Let's go, let's break through the Ryugu Castle and completely occupy the entire Fish-Man Island!"

Hody Jones looked at his companions, who had turned into Fish-Men Mutants, and a ferocious smile appeared on his face. With a wave of his hand, the other Fish-Men Mutants immediately followed behind him and rushed directly towards the Ryugu Castle.

If these Fish-Man were merely misled by Hody Jones before, now Fish-Men Mutants are completely aligned with Hody Jones —they have also become Vegapunk's tools.

Those Fish-Man who managed to seize the Monster Cells and transform into Monsters were basically powerful and prestigious figures in Fish-Man District. With these Fish-Men Mutants as the backbone, Hody Jones, or rather Vegapunk behind him, had already taken control of the entire Fish-Man District.

Now, if we just teach Ryugu Castle a lesson, we can pretty much take control of the entire Fish-Man Island.

Vegapunk didn't really intend to completely overthrow Ryugu Castle. As a normal human, he despised the radical faction of the Fish-Man. However, Neptune of Ryugu Castle did indeed have little control over his Fish-Man.

In that case, let's just make Neptune a mascot and keep the Fish-Man under our control.

In the very center of Fish-Man Island, at the Ryugu Castle, Neptune looked down at the chaotic Fish-Man below with a worried expression.

Although they called it a rebellion, in reality, because key figures like Hody Jones were absent, these Fish-Man were more like protesters marching and demonstrating than rebelling. At most, they had some physical clashes with the guards of the Ryugu Castle, but there were no real casualties.

In reality, although these Fish-Man are much stronger than ordinary people, under normal circumstances, they probably couldn't even defeat the guards of the Ryugu Castle. Even with the addition of executives like Hody Jones, they still wouldn't have much of a chance of winning.

In the original story, if Hody Jones and his subordinates hadn't been on drugs, the so-called rebellion would have been nothing more than chaos.

Not to mention, Jinbe, one of the Shichibukai Jinbe, is still here in Ryugu Castle. He alone could probably beat all these Fish-Man to a pulp!

However, for King Neptune, directly attacking the Fish-Man would undoubtedly be the worst possible strategy, only exacerbating the conflict and division between Fish-Man and mermaids.

Fish-Man Island is already in crisis due to environmental problems. If racial conflicts were to break out, it would be a huge disaster for the entire Fish-Man Race.

Not to mention that Neptune himself inherited the "good qualities" of a good king in the Pirate World —indecisiveness, blind kindness, and lack of independent judgment. Under such circumstances, it was even less likely that he would coldly suppress all the Fish-Man.

"Ugh... what should I do?"

Neptune sighed slightly, a look of helplessness on his face. At this moment, Jinbe, one of the Shichibukai, stepped forward and spoke:

"Your Majesty Neptune, the reason my compatriots have rebelled must be because someone has instigated them. If we arrest the ringleaders and explain the situation to our fellow Fish-Man, we should be able to quell this conflict."

Upon hearing this, Neptune's eyes lit up, and he looked at Jinbe, bowing deeply.

"Mr. Jinbe, in that case, I'll leave it to you! You can freely mobilize the guards of Ryugu Castle, as long as it doesn't cause too many casualties among the people."

Jinbe nodded. Given his personality and strength, he was unlikely to cause any major casualties. The only problem was finding the leader of these Fish-Man.

Just then, a chaotic and violent aura suddenly rushed over from Jinbe's Observation Haki, and his expression changed slightly as he turned to look behind the group of Fish-Man.

A group of tall, powerful Fish-Man with ferocious and imposing faces rushed towards them with maniacal laughter. Judging from their expressions and actions, they were definitely not the same kind of Fish-Man who were protesting around the Ryugu Castle.

The Fish-Man were originally surrounding the Ryugu Castle were so frightened when they saw the Fish-Man coming from behind that they quickly made way for them. Hundreds of Fish-Men Mutants came to the outer perimeter of the Ryugu Castle. Hody Jones, who was in charge, looked up at Neptune and grinned coldly.

"Neptune, you disgraceful bastard! Fish-Man Island has been destroyed like this by humans, and you still fawn over the culprits. Doing such a thing, do you still deserve to be the king of Fish-Man Island?"

Upon hearing this, Neptune was furious. He looked down at the Fish-Men Mutants and said through gritted teeth:

"Everything I've done is for Fish-Man Island! The aftershocks of their battle on the Red Line alone could turn Fish-Man Island upside down. If they were to make their move on Fish-Man Island, that would be true annihilation!"

"And what kind of Fish-Man are you? Who are you anyway?!"

After Hody Jones consumed the Monster Cells, the entire fish underwent a tremendous change. Although it was still clearly Fish-Man, Neptune couldn't figure out which race of Fish-Man it was.

Could it be some ancient, extinct Fish-Man race that has suddenly reverted to its ancestral form and become active again? But why is there such a large group of them? These Fish-Man look much more terrifying than normal Fish-Man!

Because the reproduction of the Fish-Man Race is quite strange, the children born from two Fish-Man may be completely different from their parents' race and will randomly inherit the bloodline of any Fish-Man ancestor. Therefore, some extinct Fish-Man races may suddenly reappear.

But the sudden appearance of so many Fish-Man, and the fact that they all seem to be fierce and powerful races, is certainly not a coincidence.

Neptune was skeptical of the Fish-Man's origins when Hody Jones looked up and burst into laughter.

"Hahaha, Neptune, don't you recognize me? I'm Hody Jones! I used to be a guard in the Ryugu Castle!"

"As for why we became like this? It was the Tamatebako) we obtained from your Ryugu Castle that fully unlocked our power!"

Tamatebako? Neptune's mind raced, and he immediately realized what it meant. He looked at Hody Jones in surprise and exclaimed in shock:

"The Tamatebako was stolen back then, it turns out it was you who stole it."

About ten years ago, Hody Jones served as a guard at the Dragon Palace, but he left after a short time. Around the same time, the Tamatebako was stolen. Now Neptune has finally realized that he was the mole who stole the Tamatebako.

"That's right. I have now obtained the secrets of the Tamatebako and shared them with my companions. We are completely different from before!"

Neptune shook his head and said with a sigh:

"Don't be silly! The Energy Steroids in the Tamatebako only temporarily grants you power by burning your life force. It's just a false power, and it will even accelerate your aging!"

"You've only become stronger temporarily. Once time passes, you'll become weaker and older!"

Although he said that, Neptune also felt something was strange. According to the records of his ancestors, even if the Energy Steroids had a slight effect on changing appearance, it was only to change the color of the eyes and hair and to expand the muscles. Could the Energy Steroids really have done something that completely changed the race?

Hody Jones sneered and looked at Neptune:

"Oh? You think we'll believe you just because you say that?"

"Just wait! You'll soon find out whether the power we've obtained is a false one!"