The Source of Her Power

"Oh, isn't this our intern? What brings you here today?"

Not long after Oak entered the estate, before he could knock, the doors of the Cake Chateau were pushed open from within. A short figure emerged—it was Streusen himself.

Streusen looked at Oak with an amused, teasing smile and asked what business had brought him here.

Oak did not beat around the bush and stated his purpose directly.

"I came to ask you something. You seem to have been with Linlin for a long time, so do you know how she obtained the powers of the Soul-Soul Fruit?"

The instant he heard the question, Streusen's faint smile vanished. He narrowed his eyes, and a dangerous aura radiated from him.

"Why are you asking that?"

The circumstances behind Linlin obtaining the Soul-Soul Fruit powers were a secret. Or rather, he might have been the only person in the world who knew them. Even Linlin herself did not know.

He had buried that secret deep in his heart and never told anyone. Yet Oak had suddenly come to ask about it today, making Streusen sense that something was unusual.

"I want to investigate something."

Feeling the pressure radiating from Streusen, Oak patted the Seven Star Sword and replied calmly.

Streusen might have been the weakest among the official members of the Rocks Pirates, but that was only in comparison to the monsters of the Rocks Pirates.

Out on the open sea, he was still a rare master. That much could be seen from his actions on Whole Cake Island in the future.

When the Tamatebako exploded and the Cake Chateau collapsed, the ninety-two-year-old Streusen had saved the day at the last moment, splitting the thousand-meter-tall Cake Chateau in half with one sword strike and turning it into a cream cake.

More than ninety percent of the swordsmen on the sea could not achieve such swordsmanship.

But Oak was not afraid of him. With his current physique, Haki, and the powers of the Mythical Zoan Vampire Fruit, he was absolutely confident he could suppress Streusen. Naturally, he did not bother speaking politely.

When Streusen asked again what he wanted to investigate, Oak answered impatiently.

"Just answer what I ask. The rest is none of your business."

To Streusen, that impatience was arrogance, and a hint of anger surfaced on his face.

This brat!

Streusen looked at Oak with icy eyes.

"Do you not understand your own position? An intern should speak to me with some respect. Otherwise, I wouldn't mind teaching you a lesson on everyone's behalf and making you recognize your place!"

As he spoke, Streusen placed one hand on the hilt of his short sword. He had already decided that if this brat kept speaking to him with that attitude, he would teach him a proper lesson.

But the moment his words fell, Oak gave a cold laugh.

"Teach me a lesson? You?"

The next instant, Oak drew the Seven Star Sword and vanished from the spot. By the time Streusen sensed that something was wrong and tried to draw his weapon, it was already too late.

Oak, in his Vampire hybrid form, had appeared before him, the sharp edge of the Seven Star Sword pressed against his neck.

"I think you're the one who doesn't know his place. You think becoming an official member just because you've lived longer makes you something special?

If I wanted to, I could cripple you whenever I pleased!"

With his cold expression, blood-red short hair, and scarlet eyes, Oak looked like a demon at that moment. His words were utterly merciless, leaving Streusen no room to save face.

Streusen's face shifted from green to white. Being treated like this by an intern was the greatest humiliation he had ever suffered.

"You brat!"

He still wanted to draw his sword, but Oak seized the hand reaching for it. The tremendous strength made it impossible for him to pull the blade free. At the same time, Oak pushed the Seven Star Sword forward another fraction, and thin streams of blood dripped from its edge.

"Can you talk now?"

Oak demanded coldly.

Streusen no longer dared to move recklessly. He could feel the razor-sharp edge against his neck; it could absolutely sever his head in an instant.

"Let's talk this out."

The next moment, he forced out a smile uglier than crying and decided to submit for now, consoling himself that a real man knew when to bend and when to stand tall.

"Linlin obtained the Soul-Soul Fruit powers when she was six years old. It was at Sheep's House near Elbaf, on her birthday..."

Streusen recounted, piece by piece, what had happened on the day Linlin gained her powers.

Oak listened carefully. At first, the details were largely the same as the original story, with nothing unusual. But in the parts that had never been shown in the original work, there were some differences.

According to Streusen, he had witnessed the entire event that day. After Linlin's Hunger Pangs flared up and she entered a frenzied state, she began madly destroying everything around her when the sweets ran out.

The buildings of Sheep's House were reduced to ruins by just a few of her punches. In the end, she went so mad that she wanted to devour everything she could grab.

The children of Sheep's House were terrified and fled in every direction. The nun was the same.

And the nun had originally been able to escape, because her Homies, Prometheus the sun, was still there. Prometheus could have carried her away, and could even have taken the children of Sheep's House with them.

But for some reason, when the nun jumped onto Prometheus and glanced back at Linlin, she changed her mind. Instead, she returned to the scene with a strange smile on her lips and allowed events to develop in the worst possible direction...

In the end, Linlin swallowed everything around her, including the entire Sheep's House and the nun.

After swallowing it all, a terrifying soul fluctuation suddenly erupted from Linlin's body, and she fell unconscious. When she woke up again, she remembered nothing!

"At the time, I suspected that the nun had used the Soul-Soul Fruit's special power to take over Linlin's body. But when Linlin woke up, she was still Linlin. She retained that innocent nature of hers and was no different from a child. Only then did I reveal myself and decide to keep her by my side.

"And for some time afterward, Linlin showed no abnormalities. It was just that her Hunger Pangs attacks became increasingly frequent.

"The destruction they caused grew worse and worse, and during those Hunger Pangs episodes, her body would become weak. Her Steel Bone Balloon physique would develop weaknesses.

After repeated Hunger Pangs attacks, her personality began to turn violent, gradually becoming what it is now!"

After hearing everything Streusen had said, Oak fell into deep thought.

There really had been something wrong with how Linlin obtained the Soul-Soul Fruit powers.

Judging from all the evidence, it truly was highly possible that the nun had possessed her.

But the possession did not seem complete, because Linlin had retained some of her own memories and personality.

Oak did not know whether the nun's possession had gone wrong or whether there was another reason. He could only wait until he possessed a way to examine souls and investigate it properly someday.

If he could restore Linlin to the way she had been as a child, Oak felt that he would gain another ally in the future. At the very least, compared to the Linlin of today, the Linlin of the past was far more trustworthy.