Great Kun's transformation

A month had passed since Lind last gave Charlotte Linlin her signature verse.

Over that month, besides training his subordinates, Lind had also finished all the signature verses requested by the higher-ups of the Rocks Pirates.

The gifts the officers sent were quite impressive, ranging from treasures to training manuals. Lind's stock of resources had multiplied several times over.

Today marked his final commission: Stussy's order.

Her gift was particularly useful-a Devil Fruit encyclopedia with extensive entries and very detailed descriptions.

Many of the fruits even had Stussy's own annotations. As expected of someone with a background in science, she had excellent habits.

Lind happened to have received several Devil Fruits over the past few days. He had originally planned to ask Rocks about them, but now he no longer needed to.

As expected of someone from MADS, her encyclopedia covered every Devil Fruit in Lind's possession. He quickly found all of them listed inside.

There were three Devil Fruits in total. The first was the Paramecia Grow-Grow Fruit that Charlotte Linlin had given him, which could aid plant growth.

Lind's luck had struck again, giving him a Devil Fruit that was a perfect match for his own abilities. Though he couldn't eat it himself, he could certainly use it to cultivate a powerful gardener.

The second was the Zoan Dog-Dog Fruit, Rottweiler Form, from John. It was a fairly decent Zoan Devil Fruit and could easily be used to develop a dependable officer.

The last was the Zoan Human-Human Fruit, Singer Form, from Shakky. Looking at this Devil Fruit, Lind immediately thought of an imposing figure from his previous life, along with Great Kun, who had followed him for two months.

Perhaps this was destiny!

Maybe the reason I've been so lucky since coming to this world, pulling legendary gold rewards at every turn and gaining all this strength, is that my idol has been blessing his follower in another world!

"I've got to raise Great Kun properly from now on. My idol is watching me from another world, and Great Kun might just be his incarnation!"

"With my idol's strength, Great Kun's future is bound to be bright. Maybe he'll even become an Admiral-level powerhouse!"

After rambling on like a man possessed, Lind took the Zoan Human-Human Fruit, Singer Form, out of his room and used a Den Den Mushi to call Great Kun back.

Over the past two months, Lind had been anything but stingy with Great Kun, his most trusted confidant, giving the bird all sorts of miraculous fruits.

After eating quite a few Divine Dragon Coconuts here and there over those two months, Great Kun's telekinesis had reached a respectable level. The bird had also learned many of the techniques Lind had developed and become considerably more intelligent in the process!

At the very least, operating a Den Den Mushi with telekinesis was no problem now.

Using telekinesis to accelerate, Great Kun returned to Lind's villa in just ten minutes.

"Boss, I'm back! What's the surprise?"

The moment Great Kun returned, the bird spoke excitedly, assuming Lind had another miraculous fruit to offer.

Lind's fruits were nothing like Devil Fruits. At the very least, they tasted wonderful, and who could resist delicious fruit with special effects?

Seeing how impatient Great Kun was, Lind brought out the Singer Fruit with a smile, eagerly anticipating the bird's expression after eating a Devil Fruit.

"This fruit is even more special than the others. You have to finish the whole thing to get its full effects. It's best to swallow it in one bite!"

As a seabird, Great Kun was still far behind humans despite becoming much more intelligent, and had no way of telling a Devil Fruit apart from the fruits Lind had provided before.

Hearing Lind's words, Great Kun opened wide without hesitation and swallowed the Devil Fruit in a single gulp.

The instant it went down, Great Kun's entire head began to twist and contort.

Clearly, humans weren't the only ones who couldn't stand the taste of Devil Fruits. Animals suffered just as much.

Seeing Great Kun's expression, Lind, who had experienced it himself, burst out laughing. At the same time, he took out two Divine Dragon Coconuts for Great Kun to help wash away the taste.

"Hahahaha! All right, that was a Devil Fruit. It tastes awful, but as one of the sea's secret treasures, eating it grants you miraculous powers!"

"Quick, see what special abilities you've gained!"

"Boss, I think I've gotten smarter, and I can transform now!"

As Great Kun spoke, the bird landed on the ground and transformed into a humanoid form.

When Lind saw Great Kun's transformed appearance, he nearly lost it.

"The resemblance! It's uncanny!"

Looking at the humanoid creature before him, so similar to the mythical beast that had swept the internet in his previous life, Lind couldn't stop marveling.

Great Kun's original form was a seagull with black-and-white feathers, so this transformation had even more of the right feel than that little yellow chick from his previous life.

"Those goofy eyes, that trademark little mouth, and those stubby arms and legs... Add a middle part and some overalls, and it'd be perfect!"

Lind stared at Great Kun, muttering to himself nonstop and leaving the bird utterly bewildered.

"Great Kun, the Devil Fruit you ate is the Zoan Human-Human Fruit, Singer Form. Do you feel any other abilities, like singing?"

"Squawk! Yes, Boss! I feel like my head's full of things about singing now. From now on, I'll be our ship's musician!"

"Hahahaha! Good! You can also try combining your singing with telekinesis and destroy enemies with sound. One song breaks the heart-where in this vast world can I find someone who understands?"

"Squawk, squawk, squawk! Whatever you say, Boss!"

Clearly, although Great Kun's intelligence had improved considerably again, the bird's youth still meant a lack of wisdom.

Lind decided to arrange for someone to give Great Kun a proper education and make the bird a cultured one.

"Now that you've eaten the Devil Fruit, there's nothing else to do. Spend some time getting familiar with your abilities. Stay home today!"

After briefly discussing how to develop Devil Fruit abilities with Great Kun, Lind left the bird to practice alone and departed the villa, intending to check on the Seventh Division's training.

Since Lind's subordinates were still in training, the Seventh Division had no other territory for the time being and was stationed entirely on Hachinosu. That made inspecting their progress quite convenient.

Soon, Lind reached a clearing on the southern side of Hachinosu, which Rocks had temporarily assigned to him as a base.

At its center was an enormous square paved with neatly laid stone slabs, with various training facilities scattered across it.

Around it stood rows of neat, attractive wooden buildings where the division's members trained and lived. Lind had built all of them with telekinesis during this period.

This display of powerful telekinesis had quickly won over most of the pirates. After all, as low-ranking pirates, most of them had never enjoyed much of a standard of living.

Especially on Hachinosu, a life this "refined" was hard to come by.

Every pirate threw themselves into training with boundless enthusiasm, hoping to prove their worth to their boss.

Arriving at the base, Lind felt very pleased as he watched the pirates train diligently under the supervision of several officers.

Over the past month, he had been so busy dealing with his "commissions" that he had barely overseen his subordinates' training, leaving almost everything to those officers. Seeing such results genuinely satisfied him.