Devil of the Sword?

"What's this? So weak, and you're so big for nothing."

Lina sighed, looking at the flame in his hand with disappointment.

"I thought I'd get an elite monster, damn it, you piece of trash!"

Lina's Devil Fruit is the Mythical Zoan type, Human-Human Fruit, Model: Lich Lord.

In addition to enhancing physical fitness and three transformation stages, it allows him to acquire the body templates of others through touch, thereby creating undead creatures.

The undead have identical stats to their templates, and while they cannot inherit Devil Fruit abilities, they retain certain characteristics and techniques.

Unfortunately, the stronger the target, the longer it takes to collect, and he cannot collect targets whose strength far surpasses his own.

Otherwise, before he set sail, he would have definitely created an immortal Garp plus.

"I'll just wait for Zoro's template. I've been wanting his body for a long time."

Lina withdrew his thoughts and looked towards the center of the training ground in the distance. No one seemed to have noticed him yet, so he turned and walked into the Marine base.

After a quick tour to retrieve Zoro's swords, he then called Luffy and Zoro to slip away.

Inside a tavern in the small town.

"Hic... I knew lasting a whole month was too much to ask."

"Speaking of which, are you two both Devil Fruit users?"

Zoro leaned back on the sofa after finishing his meal, asking while chewing on a toothpick.

Luffy stretched his cheeks and grinned proudly, "That's right, I'm a rubber man who ate the Gum-Gum Fruit."

"That one's easy enough to understand."

Zoro nodded, then turned to look at Lina, "Your ability seems a bit strange?"

"It's not that complicated, actually."

Lina tapped the ash off his cigarette, stood up, and placed his hand on Zoro's shoulder. "Hold still."

As he spoke, a blue flame emerged from his palm, covering Zoro's entire body.

"What is this!?"

Zoro exclaimed in surprise and instinctively tried to break free, but finding no heat from the flames, he calmed down.

About three minutes later, the blue flame retreated back into Lina's hand, transforming into a flickering flame.

"The overall data is comparable to Luffy's? Even his arm strength is slightly higher!"

Lina marveled at the information contained within the flame in his hand.

However, he quickly understood. Zoro had trained rigorously since childhood, so it was understandable that his physical fitness could approach Luffy's.

He couldn't help but look at Zoro again. As expected of a swordsman, his terrifying arm strength was probably only rivaled by Arlong in the East Blue.

Lina had already had an idea for Zoro's template. With a thought, a void rift appeared out of thin air.

A dark figure slowly walked out of the void.

It stood just over two meters tall, with a sturdy build, wearing a black hat and a black suit, with a large black trench coat draped over it.

If you didn't look at its head, it would appear as a mysterious and handsome black-clad humanoid.

However, hidden beneath the hat was a ferocious and terrifying face, with sharp teeth in a gaping maw, and a long sword piercing through its forehead and extending forward.

Its hands also held two long swords, their tips dragging on the ground, gleaming coldly. The ends, instead of having handles, were fused with its arms.

That's right, Lina had modeled it after the 'Blade Devil' from Chainsaw Man. Although only the appearance matched, Zoro was a Three Sword Style user, so the template's compatibility was extremely high.

"What is that thing!?"

Zoro exclaimed upon seeing the Blade Devil, "Wait, is this what you just took from me?"

"Wahahaha~~ So cool!" Luffy shouted excitedly, his eyes sparkling.

This was the reason Luffy had been so enthusiastically inviting Lina to join his crew after witnessing Lina's Devil Fruit ability back then.

He really didn't know how his brain developed; the more bizarre things were, the greater their appeal to him.

"That's right!" Lina admitted directly.

"I'm a Devil Fruit user. By using methods like the one just now, I can acquire others' body data to create undead."

His ability could create all sorts of undead, but they couldn't deviate from the template's characteristics. Creating a humanoid skeleton using a dog as a template would result in something that couldn't even stand steadily.

Creating a template that matched the original allowed for the greatest possible display of strength.

Lina put the Blade Devil away. "Luffy, where are we going next?"

"I don't know!"

Luffy grinned shamelessly, "Why don't you decide, Lina? I don't recognize any of these places anyway."

Lina: "..."

Zoro: "..."

"Is this captain really reliable?" Zoro muttered speechlessly.

Lina, however, remembered that in the original story, Luffy would go to the town where Buggy's stronghold was located next and meet Nami there, but he didn't know the name of that town.

"Well, you point one out up there."

Lina spread out the map and pointed to a spot on it, saying:

"We are here now. You can just pick a place around here as our route."

Lina decided to rely on Luffy's incredible luck. If they didn't meet Nami, they would just go directly to Cocoyasi Village.

Zoro: "???"

Zoro slammed his hand on the table, his face full of shock. "Wait a minute! Your logistics seem a bit off too, don't they?"

Lina chuckled and said, "Don't be so jumpy. It's not wrong to leave the route to the captain."

"That's normally true!" Zoro paused. "But are you guys normal?!"

Lina sheepishly took the blueprint and looked at where Luffy's finger was pointing.

"Syrup Village?"

Lina pondered for a moment, vaguely remembering that this seemed to be Usopp's hometown.

It would be a good opportunity to recruit Kuro.

Soon, the three, having eaten their fill, left the restaurant and came to the port.

"This is the ship you were talking about?"

"Yeah, what's wrong?"

"A pirate ship?"

Zoro looked at the small sailboat moored at the port, tied to a wooden stake with ropes, and stroked his chin in thought.

He considered the feasibility of cutting down Luffy right now, then sighed, "Sigh~ Forget it, I should have expected this."

Actually, this was already much better than the small raft Luffy originally planned to use. At least it had a cabin to shelter from the wind and rain. Lina had saved up money to buy even this.

Being in charge of logistics on Luffy's ship was like being both a father and a mother.

Meanwhile, in Orange Town, where the Buggy Pirates were stationed, a chase was unfolding on the streets.

"Stop, you bastard!"

"You thief! Don't run!"

A girl with short orange hair, a delicate face, and a petite but not small figure ran while taunting those behind her, "Come and catch me, idiot."

The girl was named Nami, a thief who specialized in stealing from pirates. Today, she had infiltrated Buggy's stronghold and stolen his Grand Line navigational chart.

The pirates chasing her were Buggy's subordinates. They were lucky enough to find Nami first, and capturing her would be a great contribution.

However...

"Damn it! Why is she running so fast?"

"If we don't bring her back, the boss will be angry."

Seeing the girl gradually widening the distance, the pirates felt extremely anxious. That navigational chart was a treasure their captain valued greatly.

If they failed the mission, they would definitely be used as test subjects for special cannonballs.

"Damn it, stop!"

Chasing her all the way to the port, the pirates watched helplessly as Nami jumped onto a small boat and slowly sailed away from the shore.

"See ya~" Nami playfully waved at the port, instantly earning their hatred.

Watching Nami gradually disappear into the sea, the pirates couldn't help but show despair.

"Ouch~~"