Chapter 4: Swallowing the Devil Fruit

  "Ahhh... Uggghhhhh!!!!!!"

  Inside the Beggar's research room, a sudden and earth-shattering scream pierced the air. If it weren't for the fact that the doors were tightly closed at this moment, the mournful sound would have spread throughout the entire institute.

  "Ensign, Ensign... snap out of it!" Gal was completely flustered and didn't understand how the ensign had suddenly collapsed and started screaming just a second after being fine. For a moment, he thought of the various rumors about the Devil's Fruit and became somewhat at a loss.

  Lieutenant, if you die, how can I escape?

  The pain came without warning, in an instant, Hobodi felt his entire body being torn apart from all sides as if by a machine, and then a strange power that he could clearly feel inside him made his torn body start to expand, filling the gaps with energy.

  "Captain! Captain! Captain......? Huh?"

  Projected into Gare's eyes, he saw an extremely eerie scene, where the officer in his eyes was constantly expanding outward.

  A pair of hands grasping the ground were transforming into a pair of sharp beast claws, and his legs were doing the same. His body was constantly lengthening, covered in pink scales. Lieutenant's face was also twisting and deforming at this moment, and it seemed that something was protruding from his forehead... horns?

  Finally, a pink eastern dragon about five meters long was coiled in the research room. When Gal saw that scene, his lips couldn't help but tremble.

  "This feeling... my whole body is filled with power that can't be exhausted..." The Eastern Dragon Hobodi, who was lying on the ground, clenched his own claws.

  Taking a few steps, Hopodi discovered that he was now on all fours, but it didn't feel any different from walking on two legs. "It's truly amazing, Devil Fruit!"

  Then he glanced at Gal, who was shaking with fear in front of him: "Hey, we should go."

  "Wow...... carp...... a huge carp is talking!" Gal's eyes were about to pop out, and he shouted with his mouth agape.

  Bam!

  Five-clawed fist, body swaying and spinning around, one punch landed on Gare's head, Hobodi stared at him and said: "You little guy also has this kind of reaction."

  "Ensign?" Garl stammered.

  "Hurry up, aren't you trying to rescue your companions?"

  "Huh......? Yeah!"

  The two left Begabong's research room and headed towards C building next to D building, all the way to B building, A building, and their faces became increasingly unsightly along the way.

  The bodies of the naval soldiers and dead prisoners were scattered all over the ground, with signs of fierce fighting everywhere. Only a few barely survived, most of whom had pale faces, rapid breathing, and rolled-back eyes, which was clearly a sign of inhaling too much poisonous gas.

  "Ensign, this..." Gal hesitated and didn't get a response from Hopodi, couldn't bear it anymore. Immediately ran to a seriously injured comrade's side, squatted down and shouted: "Hey, are you still conscious? Hold on!"

  Although Hobodi didn't care about the lives or deaths of the naval soldiers in this research institute, he had previously used Barrett's sniper rifle to secretly kill them all and bury his secret underground. However, seeing those miserable and wailing soldiers on the ground, including some officers with ranks not lower than his own, he couldn't help but feel a chill of sympathy for the dead.

  I'm afraid that at the time of the explosion, apart from the unit that escorted Begabongk to escape, most of those who remained in the institute were abandoned.

  "Let's just count ourselves lucky and head back the way we came." Hobodi sighed, saying this as he approached two naval soldiers, hoisting their bodies onto his shoulders.

  "Go, Gal!"

  Gare lifted up a seriously injured sailor and nodded. Behind them, several soldiers who were also seriously injured lay on the ground, unable to move. One soldier stretched out his hand with difficulty, looking at the two with pleading eyes, weakly saying: "Save... save me!"

  Gale's body shook violently, Hobodi's face was expressionless, and the three naval soldiers rescued by the two were silent for a moment. Everyone knew that they couldn't save these seriously injured naval soldiers.

  The soldier saw that the two did not turn back, and his despair grew even more intense. In the end, he could only choke back tears and say: "Then... help me take care of my wife and daughter in our unit... their names are..."

  "Hmph!"

  Suddenly a sound, only to see a sword slash suddenly attacking, the soldier's outstretched hand struggled, the name he wanted to shout in his throat couldn't be said.

  A large chopping knife had cut through his neck, the soldier's eyes gradually lost their luster and he fell to the ground with his eyes wide open.

  The newcomer was a tall, burly man with a large chopper in his hand, wearing prisoner's clothes, and his curly brown hair covered his face, with a long, hideous scar.

  "'Big Chop' Ron!" Gal roared in anger, this pirate had killed his own companion right before his eyes, and not even mentioned the name of his companion who had died to protect his wife and daughter.

  "Hahahaha, I didn't think this research facility still had living sailors, let alone an officer!" Ron gazed at Hobodi with ill intent, who was wearing a naval cloak.

  Hoboodi put down the two naval soldiers on his shoulders, turned around and looked at the tall man opposite him. This guy was replaced by Trafalgar Law with spider legs four years later, and then he was killed in one move by Monkey D. Luffy because he saw that his legs were not animal legs.

  However, for that kind of terrifying freak who can be killed with one move, it is also a huge obstacle for him in the current research institute filled with poisonous gas.

  "You really don't hold any hope of escaping the research facility?" Whether it was Dolon from before or this guy in front of him, they always seemed to appear at critical moments to hinder his progress.

  "Ha ha ha, Navy! You don't have to repeat that nonsense from before in Building D. Those idiots from the Multon group actually believed you and were ultimately killed by you. Don't think I'm some kind of simple-minded fool. Are you trying to escape? Ha ha ha, I won't let you leave, come die with me... Navy!"

  "Hopody raised an eyebrow: "Oh? You've been to D Town?"

  "That's right, no matter where the navy and pirates are, they were all killed by me. And as for the survivors of this naval research base, I will kill every single one of you!"

  When Ron wiped out everyone in Block D, Hobodi breathed a sigh of relief, so his sniper rifle secret wouldn't be exposed. Of course, for this pirate in front of him, he had been to Block D and must know some information about himself.

  With a flicker, Hobodi's eyes changed and his whole body felt the pain he had experienced before in Begabong's laboratory. In an instant, Hobodi transformed into a five-meter-long pink Eastern dragon. With a kick of his hind legs, his entire body shot forward like an arrow, directly attacking Lorne.

  Ron calmly raised the large chopper in his hand and swung it towards Hobodi's direction: "Foolish, even if you have the power of the Devil Fruit, no one dares to face my chopper head-on!"

  "Is that so?" Hoboldi couldn't deny it, a sweeping explosion, one dragon claw grasped fiercely at the same time, and in an instant, the strange power inside his body seemed to gather on the dragon claw. This feeling was like an illusion, but Hoboldi had no time to think about it now.

  The enemy was right in front of him, facing that large chopper, and he didn't show the slightest weakness for his own dragon claw.

  Whoosh!

  The direction of the big knife falling down, Hobbit's dragon claw hard buckle went up, and the powerful claw strike swung in the air, drawing a strong wind.

  Clang!

  It was as if two metals had collided, and a sound rang out in the research institute, spreading through the poisonous gas, stirring up a wave of air about five feet in diameter.

  Creak...

  "Hmm...hahaha..." Hearing this, Luo En couldn't help but burst into crazy laughter: "Navy, your dragon claw is indeed very hard, but..."

  Hobbit: "But your knife is sharper!"

  As his words fell, a strange scene unfolded in the arena. The massive chopper began to emit a faint creaking sound, not the sound of Ron's knife chopping through the dragon's claws as he had imagined, but rather the sound of the dragon's claws tearing through his large chopper.

  "This...this can't be!" Ron's eyes widened in shock, staring at the fragments of his great sword falling to the ground, leaving only a hilt behind.

  Hobbit's face was expressionless as he stared at him: "I'm busy and don't have time to bother with you, get lost!"

  The dragon's claw stretched out again, grasping Ron's head and throwing it against the iron wall not far away. Ron's body flew out, hitting the iron wall with great force, indenting into it, his eyes rolled back, and he had already fainted.

  Hopper and several other naval soldiers in the rear were shocked by this scene until Hopper returned to human form.

  "Let's go!" Hobodi picked up the two naval soldiers who were carrying him on their shoulders, pale and quick, rushing towards Building R66, with Gal following closely behind.