At Hody Jones's repeated insistence, the Fish-Man minions still brought him the Drug ES.
This drug greatly enhances one's abilities, but correspondingly, it has even greater side effects, rapidly shortening the user's lifespan.
Moreover, this attenuation is visible to the naked eye; compared to the energy expenditure of Luffy's Gear Second and Gear Third, it's practically instantaneous.
Hody Jones looked at the red and black capsule in the hand of the Fish-Man minion and a chilling smile appeared on his face.
He was completely immobile except for his head, so he roared at the Fish-Man holding the medicine.
"What are you standing there for?! Put the medicine in my mouth!"
Startled by Hody Jones's fierce rebuke, the Fish-Man nearly spilled the Drug ES on the ground. Trembling, he approached Hody Jones's window, picked up an Energy Steroids, and put it in his mouth.
As soon as the medicine entered his mouth, Hody Jones immediately began to chew it vigorously. (Tianlai Novel Network)
With a gulp, he swallowed the Drug ES. His eyes widened suddenly, and his body swelled up so much that the bandages began to fall off.
Sensing the surging power within him, Hody Jones's smile grew increasingly sinister as he shouted,
"Not enough! More!!"
"Hody, taking too much of this medicine can be dangerous. You'd better..."
"I said again! Do you want to die?!"
Hody Jones was now completely absorbed in the surging power within him, and he couldn't wait to go to the Ryugu Palace and kill that damned human.
However, he still had some sense of reality and knew that it was unrealistic to expect to kill that human with just one Energy Steroids.
Therefore, he needs more!
The Fish-Man swallowed hard, then reached for Hody Jones's mouth again.
Hody Jones had long been fed up with this guy's dawdling. Having swallowed an Energy Steroids, he was now able to move. He suddenly opened his mouth and bit the Fish-Man's hand, swallowing a large amount of the Energy Steroids along with it.
The room was instantly filled with the screams of the Fish-Man. A large part of his hand was missing, and blood gushed from the wound like a fountain.
However, no one in the room looked at the pitiful Fish-Man whose hand had been bitten off; their eyes were all on Hody Jones had swallowed a large amount of Energy Steroids.
Hody Jones let out a few muffled groans of pain as his body swelled up again, shattering the bandages and revealing his strong muscles, along with the previous wounds.
His hair also turned from jet black to white, just like in anime.
But then, his white hair quickly fell out, and soon Hody Jones's head was completely bald, looking perfectly smooth.
Hody Jones ignored the hair that had fallen to the ground, and roared to the sky with a voice as loud as thunder, showing no trace of his previous weakness.
Feeling the power within him several times greater than before, Hody Jones grinned from ear to ear, feeling as if he could shatter Ryugu Palace with a single punch.
The other members of the New Fish-Man Pirates in the room became excited upon seeing Hody's transformation. They were, after all, a group of outlaws, and their thirst for power was deeply ingrained.
How could they not be excited about such readily available power?
They all shouted at Hody Jones.
"Hody! We need to take the Energy Steroids too!"
Hody Jones, seeing the excited crowd, waved his hand and sent someone to fetch all the remaining Energy Steroids, distributing them to the officers of the New Fish-Man Pirates.
Before long, the room was filled with shiny bald heads.
Hody Jones looked at his New Fish-Man Pirates with satisfaction; his ambition had now swelled to unprecedented heights thanks to the Drug ES.
He raised a thick arm and shouted,
"My men! Follow me to the plaza. There I will declare Fish-Man Island ruled by our New Fish-Man Pirates! To hell with those weak royals!!"
"Oh!!!"
In an instant, Fish-Man District descended into chaos as large numbers of Fish-Man, armed with weapons, emerged from their homes and joined Hody Jones's ranks, marching in a massive horde toward the plaza.
On the other side, Ryugu Palace,
Senga, who was eating, suddenly stopped and a meaningful smile appeared on her face.
He put down his cutlery and then very elegantly picked up a tissue to wipe the corner of his mouth.
Sitting next to Senga, Shirahoshi, who was still focused on eating, noticed Senga's actions and asked curiously.
"Lord Senga, are you not going to eat? Is the food not to your liking?"
These words made Neptune's heart tighten, and he immediately thought of 108 ways to punish the chef in charge of today's meals.
Senga was certainly not dissatisfied with today's meal; the reason it ended so early was because his Heavenly Net had already detected the commotion outside.
A large number of Fish-Man thugs had occupied the square, and Hody Jones had even begun his "passionate" speech.
Listening to Hody Jones's speech, Senga couldn't help but laugh. With this level of skill, he was nowhere near as good as some failed art student from Blue Star. It even sounded funny to him.
The speech was nothing more than praising the nobility of mermaids and Fish-Man, while also criticizing himself a few times; he seemed to want to tear himself to pieces.
Seeing that Senga didn't reply but instead inexplicably laughed, Shirahoshi became worried about Senga's mental state and quickly tried calling Senga's name.
"Lord Senga? What's wrong?"
Senga snapped out of his daze and saw Shirahoshi's worried face. He replied,
"I'm fine, I just found it funny to hear a bunch of clowns talking."
"The clown? Where is he? I can't see him."
"Don't worry, someone will come to inform you soon, we're in the square."
No sooner had he finished speaking than a mermaid guard rushed into the hall in a panic. Neptune frowned and reprimanded him.
"What kind of behavior is this, all flustered and disrespectful?! Can't you see we have important guests?"
The merman guard quickly caught his breath, ignoring Neptune's reprimand, and hurriedly shouted,
"Your Majesty, something terrible has happened! Hody Jones has led a large number of Fish-Man to occupy the square, and they are now inciting the crowd to attack the Ryugu Palace!!!"
"What!?"
Neptune, who had just been lecturing the mermaid guards, changed his expression upon hearing this news.
He had known before that Hody Jones harbored malicious intentions, but he hadn't ordered his capture because he knew Hody Jones was also acting in the name of the Fish-Man Race.
But what's happening now fills Neptune with regret. Hody Jones rebelled, fine, but why did he have to choose to launch the attack when Senga arrived? Wasn't this clearly targeting Senga?
If we anger Senga, will Fish-Man Island still have the bright future foretold in the prophecy? Hody Jones is simply a complete madman!
Jinbe, also furious, stood up from his seat and went to Neptune's side, saying in a deep voice,
"Your Majesty, let me go. It's my fault for not disciplining those guys from Fish-Man District properly."
Neptune agreed without hesitation. His understanding of Hody Jones's strength was still based on his previous experience. He thought that he, Jinbe, and some soldiers would be enough to quell the rebellion, so he didn't want to trouble Senga.
However, Senga, who had been silent from the beginning, suddenly spoke up.
"I'll go too. That Hody Jones is insisting on proving himself with my head. How can I miss out?"