Before he knew it, a whole week had passed since Mosen awakened the Frozen Lineage Factor and regained the memories of his previous life.
One of the two prisoners who had tried to take advantage of Mosen had been sealed inside an ice flower and had long since frozen to death. The other had been torn to pieces by the Military Wolves and devoured.
After a week of getting used to it, Mosen discovered that his use of the Frozen Lineage Factor depended on his stamina. It was like Marco the Phoenix's flames: as long as he didn't run out of stamina, he could keep using it.
Unfortunately, because he had undergone a Lineage Factor modification, his body hadn't fully adapted to the Mechanized Heart. His physical condition was extremely poor, and his stamina was naturally no better.
So Mosen set himself the short-term goal of improving his physical condition as quickly as possible.
With Life Return, the best way to improve his physical condition was to eat. Mosen followed Luffy's example and began eating like crazy, converting the food into life energy to strengthen his body.
As a result, after a week, the food in Mosen's room was almost gone.
Originally, that food was supposed to last him two months. Mosen had only been in Extreme Cold Hell for a month, yet he had already eaten nearly all of it.
When Mosen had first arrived at Impel Down 5th Layer, his body still hadn't adapted to the Mechanized Heart, and even eating was difficult. He had relied entirely on Life Return to force his body to absorb nutrients from the food and maintain its normal functions. That was why it had taken him over half a month to eat less than a fifth of his supplies.
But with the awakening of the Frozen Lineage Factor, Mosen had finally achieved "unity of body and mind." The Mechanized Heart was no longer a burden. On the contrary, it could gradually enhance Mosen's Frozen Lineage Factor and make him stronger, little by little.
Of course, the prerequisite for getting stronger was having a strong enough body to support it. That was the only way to speed up the evolution of the Frozen Lineage Factor.
With the two working together, Mosen had eaten almost all of the remaining four-fifths of his food in just one week.
Fortunately, after a week of "food therapy," Mosen's body had started to develop some muscle definition. He no longer looked so frail and scrawny.
Besides that, Mosen had discovered something else: a rusty key hung around his neck. Its design made it obvious that it wasn't from this world.
Mosen recognized the key. He had picked it up at a street stall a few days before he crossed over.
At first, the stall owner had asked for 500 yuan. Mosen had thought the key was an antique, and after some haggling, he got it for 100. At the time, he'd thought he'd gotten an incredible bargain.
Afterward, Mosen had excitedly taken the key to an expert from a daily antiques appraisal show. But the expert told him it was just a deliberately aged key with no collectible value.
That was when Mosen realized the stall owner had conned him. Taking the lesson to heart, he threaded a red cord through the key and hung it around his neck, figuring he'd paid for a lesson.
But Mosen had never imagined that the key would cross over with him.
After awakening the memories of his previous life, Mosen had been startled when he saw the key.
He had been reborn, and the key had come along too. It didn't take much thought to realize that it couldn't be ordinary.
So Mosen examined the key in his spare time while training, but he never found anything unusual about it.
Today, on a whim, Mosen had even cut his finger and tried a blood-binding ritual, but nothing happened.
Mosen simply tossed the key aside. Compared to investigating it, he thought replenishing his food was much more important.
Without food, his growth would be held back, and his body's recovery would suffer too.
With that in mind, Mosen left his room. After figuring out which way to go, he headed for the exit of Extreme Cold Hell.
Along the way, Mosen saw many prisoners shivering in the cold. They were all Great Pirates with bounties of over a hundred million, and quite a few were Devil Fruit users. They glared viciously at him as if they might pounce at any moment and tear him apart.
Mosen had grown used to it. After a week of getting accustomed to the place, he had more or less figured out why the prisoners kept staring at him.
The reason was simple: in the past, there had been no guards in Impel Down 5th Layer. It was so cold that even Den Den Mushi couldn't be left exposed to the blizzard for long, let alone people.
The room Mosen lived in had been built after he arrived, on the orders of Vice Director Magellan. Seastone had been mixed into the walls, doors, and windows to reinforce them and keep prisoners from breaking in.
In this world covered in ice and snow, having a room that could keep out the wind and snow meant having a chance to survive.
So on the very first day the room was finished, the prisoners had tried to take it over. But they soon discovered that it was exceptionally sturdy and impossible to break into by force.
In that regard, Magellan had shown considerable foresight.
So the prisoners set their sights on Mosen, the room's owner. If Mosen died, the room would be theirs. The two prisoners who had watched him so closely when he'd first awakened his memories of his previous life had wanted the same thing.
As for why the prisoners didn't simply steal the key to the room, it was because of the Military Wolves that were kept there.
Wolves were extremely intelligent animals. They knew that the guards from Impel Down brought them food. If the guards died, their only source of food would be hunting the prisoners.
Besides, Impel Down had its own ways of making the Military Wolves protect the guards.
So although Mosen couldn't control the Military Wolves, they would still protect him on their own. If any prisoner attacked him, the wolves would pounce without hesitation and kill them.
The prisoners were wary of provoking them, so they didn't dare attack Mosen. All they could do was hope he would freeze to death soon, or that some other accident would befall him. Then they could get the key to his room.
But things hadn't gone their way. Mosen hadn't frozen to death; his body had grown stronger by the day.
The prisoners watched Mosen, full of energy, and ground their teeth in frustration. If not for the Military Wolves, they would have swarmed him and killed him long ago.
Mosen had some idea what the prisoners were thinking, but he remained completely calm. He had now fully adapted to the Frozen Lineage Factor and developed a few new skills. With the Six Powers and his awakened Frozen Lineage Factor, Extreme Cold Hell was his home ground.
Against prisoners who had been locked up in Extreme Cold Hell for who knew how long, with less than a tenth of their strength left, he couldn't say for certain that he would win. But he could definitely protect himself.
And with the Military Wolves always at his side, Mosen was even confident he could turn the tables on any prisoners who dared attack him.
The key is the protagonist's Golden Finger, but it has nothing to do with making him stronger. In this novel, the protagonist gets stronger through the Lineage Factor. Please recommend and bookmark my new novel. Thank you all for your support.
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