Haki Awakening! (Please Vote)

"This is information about the One Piece I obtained. It tells of an underwater treasure that can grant any wish, located within the Navel of the Sea!"

Jango pulled a message bottle from his clothes. It was just a wine bottle with a piece of parchment inside.

"Please examine it, sir!"

Ling Donglai accepted the bottle, took out the parchment and gave it a cursory glance, then put it back.

You might not believe it, but Ling Donglai was illiterate...

The pirates' writing included English, Japanese, and all sorts of strange ancient scripts. Ling Donglai recognized none of them. Even English only looked familiar to him; its pronunciation and word construction were different.

And in this world, compulsory education did not exist. Only citizens of major nations and large cities enjoyed the privilege of attending school.

Sixty percent of people were illiterate, while eighty percent of pirates were illiterate. At most, they could read newspapers and write common words, having been introduced to literacy through childish picture books.

Unfortunately, Ling Donglai was one such illiterate. He had only been taught through children's books and could merely understand and read the contents of newspapers.

"I'm not interested in treasure, so don't think you can buy me off with some secret treasure location. Do you have anything more practical? Money, for example."

Ling Donglai had no interest whatsoever in treasure locations. Some One Piece locations were bizarre and required a ship to reach, making transportation extremely inconvenient for him.

Rather than wasting time hunting treasure, he might as well get more money and buy meat to sustain his training.

"I traded all my money for shipbuilding materials. I don't have a single coin left on me," Jango said hesitantly.

Ling Donglai looked around. Sure enough, he saw only a huge pile of industrial parts and no stockpile of treasure.

Ling Donglai said, "Then I can't think of any reason to let you go."

Jango said, "Then let me tell you that reason!"

Jango suddenly raised his head, pulled a dagger from his clothes, and stabbed it straight into Ling Donglai's stomach.

The distance was too close. He got hit!

"Ha ha ha! Devil Fruit users are nothing but trash! I'm a pirate—being despicable and shameless is the highest praise I could receive! This dagger is coated in deadly poison. Get on the ground and beg me for the antidote, you bastard ability user!"

"Your stupidity has truly opened my eyes!"

Ling Donglai covered the wound in his abdomen where the dagger had pierced him. Electricity coiled around his body, and the fleeting arcs within his pitch-black eyes foretold the violence in his heart.

"I'm an ability user who can generate electricity by using willpower to rub my cells together. How could you naïvely believe that a mere poisoned dagger could make me submit to you?"

The instant the foreign poison entered his body, his cells detected it and his body's automatic detoxification process eradicated it completely.

Ordinary poison could not even get past his white blood cells!

One hand brutally seized Jango by the head while the other pulled out the dagger and tossed it to the ground with a clatter.

Current Drive: Discharge!

Electric light spread from his hand into Jango's brain. By the time Ling Donglai released him, Jango's heart had already stopped beating.

When he lowered his head to inspect his own wound, it had already stopped bleeding and scabbed over.

Current Drive enhanced the body beginning at the cellular level.

"I originally thought he was someone who could be cultivated into a scientist. I planned to intimidate him like they did in novels before recruiting him, but it seems I should forget it. It's not like I'm taking the pirate route anyway."

Ling Donglai felt utterly depressed after suffering a small setback at the hands of an unknown pirate like Jango. Even Arlong had never managed that.

"All right, you're free now. The remaining pirates on the island aren't much of a threat."

Ling Donglai tore apart the chains imprisoning the villagers with his bare hands.

"Thank you very much for helping us, but we have nothing worthwhile left to offer as a reward." A bespectacled villager who looked like an educated man thanked Ling Donglai.

"It doesn't matter. I already collected my reward beforehand, but..."

Ling Donglai grabbed the Sea Dragon by the neck. "Does anyone know how to eat this thing? Is it poisonous?"

Sea beasts were certainly not rare, but Ling Donglai had never eaten one.

Although Ling Donglai craved seafood, eating the wrong thing had unpleasant consequences. With bad luck, it could even kill someone. He did not have something like a nautical ingredient guidebook, so he had never tried sea beast ingredients and only ate ordinary food.

"This Sea Dragon is edible. If you don't mind, I can prepare it for you." A well-informed villager stepped forward.

These island villagers knew far more about the food around them than Ling Donglai did.

"That would be perfect!" Ling Donglai grabbed the Sea Dragon, hoisted it up, and carried it over his shoulder, looking rather like little Goku carrying a giant dinosaur to eat.

Processing Sea Dragon meat the size of a house took quite a while, after all. These villagers had rather average strength and endurance.

By the time they actually ate the meat, it was already evening.

The flesh of a gigantic sea beast truly could not be compared to ordinary meat. The energy it provided utterly crushed that of normal meat. Ling Donglai instantly digested it, and amid flashes of electricity, his cells were rubbed again and again.

It was as if something had been squeezed out. Ling Donglai sensed an invisible field of vision. He instinctively closed his eyes, yet he could still perceive this "world." All color had vanished, leaving only dull, blurry outlines. Unless he focused on sensing them, he could barely notice those outlines at all.

Those outlines were...

Ling Donglai opened his eyes. The villagers were holding a lively feast, celebrating their escape from the pirates.

There was no mistake. This was the legendary Observation Haki!

As an extension of bodily perception, the first Haki Ling Donglai awakened being Observation Haki was only natural. After all, the Human-Human Fruit excelled at little besides developing the body's potential.

"Big brother, thank you for saving my father and the others!" Merika, the little girl he had met before, ran over and bowed.

"Think nothing of it." Ling Donglai patted her head and looked down the path she had come from. Her father was the refined man wearing glasses.

"Very good. I already possess the initial power to change others. Keep it up—first, gain enough power to marry a wife!"

Ling Donglai was full of confidence in his future.

From now on, he would definitely make it so that his enemies either fled before him or suffered crushing defeat!