The meat sizzled in the pan.
Hancock happily flipped the steak with a pair of chopsticks, browning both sides.
After turning the steak over, she secretly glanced back at Reddy sitting at the dining table. Seeing him "gazing at her with love," her heart swelled with sweetness.
"Which gene sample should I use?"
Reddy had no idea how much drama was going on in Hancock's mind as she volunteered to be the chef. Right now, he was troubled by a happy dilemma.
A series of victories had added many excellent gene samples to his gene bank.
For example, the gene samples of the Devil Fruit users from the Donquixote Pirates.
Or the gene sample of the world's greatest swordsman, Dracule Mihawk.
And then there was the gene sample of the Marine hero, Monkey D. Garp.
There were too many useful gene samples, but unfortunately, he was severely lacking in energy at the moment.
After continuously eating over this period, he barely had enough to create a clone that couldn't be equipped with top-tier enhancements.
"Decision made."
Reddy stared at the interface, then took Garp's gene sample from the gene bank and moved it into the Gene Analysis Lab for parsing.
Soon, he saw the results.
"Huh?"
Reddy froze, staring blankly at the double-helix gene chain displayed on the interface.
A golden segment had appeared on the gene chain.
This was the first time he had ever seen a golden gene fragment on a gene chain.
What surprised him even more was that the system didn't label the effect of this gene fragment.
"Golden legend?"
Reddy internally mocked the term, but his curiosity about the golden gene fragment grew. He immediately moved the gene sample into the Gene Editing Lab and extracted the golden gene fragment.
After a brief hesitation, he decided to play it safe.
He sent his own gene sample to the Gene Analysis Lab, then embedded the golden gene fragment into it and sent it back for parsing.
"Level 1?"
The result left Reddy baffled.
Was this golden legend completely useless?
Wait!
Reddy soon noticed that the displayed gene chain didn't include the golden gene fragment. He was momentarily confused.
Did the system glitch?
Where did the golden gene fragment go?
Unwilling to give up, Reddy carefully checked again.
The result was the same.
The golden gene fragment was indeed missing from the gene chain.
Reddy frowned and re-extracted Garp's gene sample from the gene bank, sending it to the Gene Analysis Lab for parsing.
"The golden gene fragment does exist?"
Confirming that he hadn't imagined it, Reddy's frown eased. He was now certain that this golden gene fragment would bring him a pleasant surprise.
By this point, he had a rough idea of the nature of the golden gene fragment.
"Unless I'm mistaken…"
Reddy's eyes brightened. "This must be the gene fragment representing Conqueror's Haki!"
He immediately searched through the system messages he had previously ignored.
Sure enough.
He found a line he had overlooked.
[Discovered Conqueror's Haki module. Transferred to the Chip Lab.]
Reddy quickly switched to the Chip Lab.
[Conqueror's Haki Module (Undeveloped)]
He tested it and was immediately shocked by the development cost.
Developing the Conqueror's Haki module required a whopping 1,000,000 energy points.
What could Reddy do? Of course, he had to develop it immediately.
1,000,000 energy points were consumed.
Reddy was back to being broke. Looking at the remaining 200,000 or so energy points, he helplessly rubbed his temples.
Funding for developing his territory was no longer an issue, but the efficiency of energy accumulation remained frustratingly slow.
"Is there any Devil Fruit ability that can speed up energy accumulation?"
Reddy stared at the slowly progressing module development bar and fell into deep thought.
After searching his memories, he came up with two likely leads.
The first was the ability to devour anything, the Munch-Munch Fruit. The second was Charlotte Smoothie, one of the Sweet Commanders of the Big Mom Pirates.
The former could devour everything, so it logically should improve energy accumulation efficiency.
The latter's Devil Fruit ability allowed her to extract juice from living beings.
Based on Reddy's understanding, this special juice should be a highly concentrated form of energy.
It was probably equivalent to something like concentrated nutrient solution.
"The plan to go to Totto Land needs to be moved up."
At the moment, Reddy didn't have a better way to extract Devil Fruit abilities from the system, making Smoothie the best option available.
Mainly because he could mass-produce Smoothie clones to manufacture highly concentrated energy juice.
Since a long-distance trip was necessary, hunting for the Munch-Munch Fruit ability along the way was also reasonable.
Reddy noted this matter and refocused on the golden gene fragment.
This special gene fragment had genuinely piqued his interest.
It existed in Garp's gene chain but was absent in the gene chain based on Reddy's own blueprint.
Reddy speculated that this special gene fragment might be one that could switch between dominant and recessive states.
"Probably not a free switch."
Reddy fell into thought.
This characteristic was truly a treasure.
Just as a random example.
Take the truly perfect artificial Devil Fruit serum.
Previously, the artificial Devil Fruit serum he had assigned Hill to develop only achieved the human-beast transformation of Zoan-type Devil Fruits by reverse-transcribing animal genes through RNA viruses.
This process was irreversible.
But if the properties of the golden gene fragment could be integrated into the artificial Devil Fruit serum, allowing users to freely switch forms, it would essentially be equivalent to a real Zoan-type Devil Fruit.
"Hancock, is it not ready yet?"
Reddy glanced at his remaining 200,000-plus energy points and looked up at Hancock, feeling a headache coming on.
Having the world's most beautiful woman, the Pirate Empress Boa Hancock, personally cook for him was enjoyable. Unfortunately, this beauty was a terminal perfectionist, insisting on making all sorts of fancy gourmet dishes.
And she refused to let other chefs interfere with his meals.
This made him regret agreeing to Hancock's request to strengthen her presence.
"It's almost done!"
Hancock drizzled the carefully prepared sauce over the steak and personally served it to Reddy, then watched him expectantly.
However, Reddy was only focused on eating more to accumulate energy and didn't care about taste. In a few bites, he devoured the nearly one-pound steak with Amazon Lily's secret sauce.
"Another serving, please. Quickly. Thank you."
Reddy handed the plate back to Hancock, forcing a gentle smile.
"Leave it to me."
Seeing Reddy's apparent eagerness for her hand-cooked steak, Hancock beamed and returned to the kitchen. She took another steak from the fridge and energetically started cooking again.
Meanwhile, Reddy fell into another dilemma.
According to the original plan.
The operation to conquer Totto Land was inevitable.
However, Big Mom's "Iron Balloon" physique was a bug.
Although clones like Pyo had significantly improved in strength after the battle with Garp and refined their mastery of Ryuo, Reddy still wasn't sure if the clones could break through Big Mom's defense.
If they couldn't deal damage, nothing else mattered.
Thus, his plan was to first create one or two more top-tier clones before attacking Totto Land.
But the discovery of the golden gene fragment made him reconsider.
Researching the special properties of the golden gene fragment would consume a considerable amount of energy.
After agonizing for a long time, Reddy frowned. "Maybe this time, I should continue sneaking in quietly without making a scene?"
It had been a while since he last hunted covertly.
Now that he had an image to maintain, continuing to hunt secretly seemed unbefitting of his status.
"Lord Reddy…"
Jinbe walked into the dining room with a grave expression and handed Reddy an invitation. "Big Mom has sent you an invitation to her tea party.