Three Hearts at the Start, Leaving Mom Linlin Dumbfounded

Starting Out with Three Hearts, Shocking Old Mom Linlin

Rektol opened his eyes.

His vision was blurred by a sticky liquid with a turbid red tint. He smelled a heavy scent of blood, mixed with a pungent, sweet, and burnt caramel odor.

There was a loud roar of waves smashing against wooden planks beside his ears. The entire space was shaking violently.

He instinctively wanted to raise his hand to rub his eyes. A short, pale, and amniotic-fluid-covered arm waved before his eyes.

Rektol froze. He found himself curled up in a narrow wooden cradle.

A huge dark shadow loomed from overhead, blocking the light of the oil lamp.

Rektol raised his head.

What came into view was an exaggeratedly huge face. A young woman. A head of pink long hair was wildly scattered. She wore a Napoleon bicorne hat, and her mouth was split wide, revealing two rows of jagged, sharp teeth.

Charlotte Linlin.

This name smashed directly into Rektol's mind. In the world of One Piece, Big Mom during the era of the Rocks Pirates.

"Wa—" A cry came from beside him.

Rektol turned his head and saw that another strip-shaped infant was lying on the other side of the cradle. That was the newborn Perospero.

Linlin was grabbing a charred, giant sea beast hind leg in her hand. She bit off large chunks of meat with bloody traces, and the bones were chewed with a crunching sound. Grease dripped down her chin, hitting the bedsheet beside Rektol.

She lowered her head to glance at the cradle, without the slightest warmth in her gaze.

"So tiny. How truly boring." Linlin muttered incoherently.

She casually wiped her mouth with the back of her oil-stained hand. The sound of pirates drinking and the muffled sound of a flintlock misfiring came from the deck outside the cabin.

Linlin felt somewhat irritated. She kicked the leg of the cradle.

The wooden frame tilted sharply. Perospero cried even louder. Rektol's back hit the guardrail, and the pain was real and clear.

Too weak.

Rektol felt this infant body. The bones were soft, the air in his lungs was pitifully small, and even breathing took effort.

In this era where Rocks ran rampant and human life was cheaper than grass, this kind of starting out was no different from waiting for death.

Right at this moment, deep inside Rektol's chest cavity, a twitch occurred.

This was not ordinary pain. It was as if a branding iron had been directly shoved into his heart.

Immediately following that, a muffled sound exploded inside the cabin.

"Thump!"

The sound was not loud, but its penetrating power was extremely strong.

Linlin's chewing motion stopped. She lowered her head and looked around in all directions, thinking that the cannons outside had fired.

But in less than two seconds, a second sound rang out.

"Thump!"

This time, the wooden planks of the cradle distinctly shook along with it. Rektol stared wide-eyed, opening his mouth wide as he gulped down mouthfuls of air.

He felt his chest cavity expanding outward.

Beside that tiny heart on the left side of his chest, muscle fibers were forcefully torn apart, and his bones emitted a fine crunching sound. A second heart was currently taking shape.

Immediately after came the right side of his chest.

His blood seemed to have boiled over in his blood vessels. A scorching temperature surged straight from his torso to his limbs and bones.

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

Three heartbeat sounds, without the slightest disorder, completely overlapped.

It was as if a giant were swinging a siege ram and fiercely striking an ancient battle drum.

The sonic wave became materialized. The glass wind chimes hanging above the cradle shattered into powder with a pop.

Rektol's skin turned crimson at a speed visible to the naked eye. A visible cloud of white steam gushed out from his crown and pores.

Three hearts pumped blood simultaneously. This was a distortion defying biological common sense.

The violent vitality was like floodwaters from an opened gate. Rektol felt that weak and powerless sensation instantly washed away cleanly. The infant's fragile muscle fibers completed several rounds of tearing and reorganization within a few seconds.

"Crack!"

The wooden planks beneath him could not withstand this terrifying weight of physical vigor and directly cracked open a fissure.

The sea beast leg in Linlin's hand dropped to the ground. The chunks of meat rolled and became covered in dust. She completely ignored them.

Her bloodshot eyes stared fixedly at Rektol in the cradle.

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

The sound of the heartbeats grew louder and louder, the frequency faster and faster.

The air inside the cabin was shaken into ripples. The flame of the oil lamp swayed frantically, then went out with a puff.

Only the dark red blood qi emanating from Rektol's body rolled in the darkness.

The cradle completely fell apart. Wood chips splattered everywhere. Perospero nearby was blown away by the blast of air, falling onto the carpet in the corner, even his crying completely drowned out by the roaring sound of the heartbeats.

Rektol lay in the ruins.

he felt better than ever before. three hearts pulsed like three miniature nuclear reactors, providing an endless supply of destructive energy. the Godly Mutant Physique was completely activated.

he raised his hand and clenched his fist hard. the sharp sound of air being crushed popped between his knuckles.

absolute silence.

only those three overlapping heartbeats echoed in the cramped cabin.

"Mamamahaha!"

Linlin suddenly burst into loud laughter. her laughter was sharp and crazy, rattling the iron nails on the bulkhead until they popped outward.

she strode over, and the wooden floorboards sank under her weight.

that fan-like giant hand reached straight into the ruins, grabbed one of Rektol's legs, and hoisted him upside down.

Rektol didn't cry or make a fuss. he just hung upside down quietly, watching this woman who had fallen into wild joy.

"A monster... I've given birth to a true monster!"

Linlin leaned in closer to look. thick breath puffed from her huge nostrils, blowing onto Rektol's face.

she could clearly see the rise and fall of three different spots on the infant's chest. that startling heat was hot enough to soften the calluses on her palm.

"This body... this kind of vitality!" Linlin stuck out her tongue and licked around her lips, and drool dripped to the floor, stretching into long strings.

she didn't care if the child was in pain, nor did she care if he was anfreak.

in the Rocks Pirates, a monster meant strength. strength meant everything.

"You're my greatest masterpiece!" Linlin lifted Rektol high above her head with one hand, as if displaying a priceless weapon.

Rektol hung suspended in mid-air, his three hearts still maintaining a war-drum-like rhythm. he could feel that overbearing, freakish strength transmitting from Linlin's fingers.

just as Linlin prepared to loudly announce this good news to the entire ship...

the laughter stopped abruptly.

the heavy wooden door of the cabin let out a harsh scream, and hinges and wood alike were kicked to pieces by a single blow.

wood chips flew past Linlin's cheek, nailing themselves to the wall behind her.

ocean wind poured backward from outside. the cabin, which had just turned scorching hot from Rektol's blood- Qi outburst, instantly dropped to freezing point.

a strong smell of ozone filled the air, along with an unshakeable stench of blood.

a tall, thin figure walked in over the shattered wood planks.

the dark red captain's coat whipped loudly in the wind. his black hair exploded outward like a hedgehog's spines.

the man didn't look at Linlin, nor did he look at Perospero crying in the corner.

he stopped two steps away.

Rocks D. Zebek.

Rocks tilted his head slightly.

his gaze pierced through the dim light, slamming straight into Rektol, who was being held aloft in mid-air by Linlin.

there wasn't a shred of human emotion in those eyes. his Adam's apple rolled up and down. it was just like a wild dog that had gone hungry for ten days, finally digging up a piece of fresh meat stained with blood out of the snow.