You can read ahead up to 30 chapters on my patreon and I’ve also activated (date to date) subscription model on my patreon https://www.patreon.com/marvel6395
In the dark, Robin couldn’t see Liam’s reaction, but she heard him say enviously, “That guy sure eats with an appetite…”
Robin smiled slightly.
**B.I.B.** carried the two of them, flying upward through the darkness. It soon passed through the closed petals of the island like a ghost, and suddenly their surroundings brightened, restoring their vision. They were now looking out at an endless, clear blue sea.
Robin pursed her lips and controlled her expression. Glancing to the side, she saw Liam looking down at the island below.
“So this *is* the place…” he murmured.
Robin followed his gaze.
The island they had been on now looked like a giant garlic bulb floating in the sea. Looking further, she saw a whole row of similarly sized, strange islands. However, these other islands were not enclosed, but were floating peacefully on the sea like giant lotuses… Each of these massive flower-like islands was covered with deep, dense jungles and blooming with all kinds of strange plants. The air was filled with a tantalizing aroma of food, carried by the sea breeze from the islands…
Robin even saw a Sea King, attracted by the scent, climb onto one of the islands. Soon after, that island began to fold in on itself, just like the one they had just left, rumbling as it closed…
“Now I remember.” Robin brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, noticing it had grown longer recently. “This isn’t an island – it’s a carnivorous plant known as ‘Gullet Count.’ I read a brief description in a book, but I never imagined it would look like this…”
Liam said, “Then let’s hurry and find a more stable *Count* here. If we don’t find some food soon, I’m going to starve…”
Robin turned her head and noticed that Liam still hadn’t fully recovered. He was slumped against the wall of the castle’s opening, looking paralyzed, staring at the surrounding “Gullet Counts” with saliva almost dripping from his mouth as he sniffed the wafting aroma of food…
Soon, **B.I.B.** brought them to another “Gullet Count,” fully open and floating on the sea. As soon as they landed, Liam, like a starving zombie, pounced on a tree and grabbed a bunch of unknown fruits, devouring them, with juice dripping from his mouth.
**Whiz! Whiz! Whiz!**
Suddenly, a thick stone pillar came spinning toward Liam, who was still eating frantically in the tree.
“Watch out!” Robin cried out in alarm from the ground.
Busy stuffing his face with all sorts of fruits, Liam saw the spinning pillar approaching and swiftly kicked out in a crescent arc.
**Slash!**
The spinning pillar was split in half by Liam’s *Rankyaku – Youth Version*, and the two halves fell to the ground.
Robin looked toward the figure emerging from the jungle who had thrown the pillar. The attacker wasn’t very tall and wore a strange, beetle-like black helmet that covered his entire face. His furry collar looked like a thick, beige mustache, and his round body and thin limbs made him resemble a bipedal beetle…
The beetle-man crossed his arms and pointed at the fallen pillar on the ground, saying to Liam, “Young man! If you need to restore your stamina, you should be eating that instead!”
‘Huh?’ Robin glanced back and noticed Liam had already jumped down from the tree. It was only now that he realized what the so-called “stone pillar” actually was…
Its cross-section revealed meat fibers…
“It looks like a stone pillar, but it’s actually meat!” The man in the beetle helmet explained. “The food on the Boin Archipelago is quite different from other places!”
Liam started gnawing on the stone-like meat pillar.
It seemed this strange person wasn’t an enemy… Robin asked, “May I ask who you are?”
The beetle-man replied, “I am Heracles! I live on the Boin Archipelago.”
Liam, who had nearly finished devouring both halves of the stone pillar, glanced at the comic strip brought over by **B.I.B.**. He suddenly realized that this old man was indeed the same person who had trained Usopp during the “two-year period.”
“You look like some masked superhero in that getup!” Liam commented.
“Masked superhero?” Heracles was puzzled. “What’s that?”
Liam replied, “Whatever it is, it’s pretty cool…”
“Is it?” Heracles walked over to a patch of ground that looked slightly different in color. Using his weapon, he made a small cut on the surface, and rich meat juices flowed out. He explained, “This looks like ground, but it’s actually meat… I am the masked superhero, Heracles!”
Robin: “…”
“This tree looks like a tree, but if you cut open the trunk, it’s all meat inside!… I am the masked superhero, Heracles!”
“…”
—
“These flowers may look like flowers, but if you pick off the petals, what’s left is a straw, and underneath is sweet, delicious juice!… I am the masked superhero, Heracles!”
“…,” Robin was left speechless, unsure of how to even respond. Liam, on the other hand, followed Heracles, eating as they walked, laughing, and saying, “You’re actually pretty funny Heracles!”
“I am the masked superhero!”
“Hahaha, Heracles!”
“Masked superhero!”
“Heracles!”…
Robin smiled slightly as she followed behind them.
Thanks to Heracles, the experienced guide, Liam ate to his heart’s content on this Gullet Count. By the time he sat down, his belly was completely round.
Robin extended a finger and poked his belly, causing it to cave in. Then, with a light push, Liam began rolling back and forth on the ground like a ball, eventually rolling away…
“Haha!” Robin laughed.
“Don’t roll that way… don’t roll that way!” Heracles called out, reaching his hand out. “The closer you get to the edge of the island, the fiercer the beasts become!”
*Gulp, gulp…* Liam rolled, and suddenly, a massive black beetle beast, larger than an elephant, leaped out of the jungle. It snarled, baring its teeth as it stared menacingly at the chubby human who had rolled to its feet.
“Oh, I stopped. Thanks!” Liam said, lying on the ground with his large belly, looking up at the giant black beetle beast blocking his path. “Hmm? What’s with that look? You want to fight?”
“Roar!!”
The black beetle beast opened its massive jaws and lunged toward the human at its feet.
*Boom!*
Out of nowhere, it was punched square in the face, and its shell shattered!
The giant black beetle beast looked bewildered. Then, in panic, it realized that something had grabbed its horns, and then…
**B.I.B.** grabbed the beetle’s horns and effortlessly tossed it away.
Liam’s round belly slowly shrank down… **B.I.B.** extended a hand and pulled his real body up from the ground.
“That was amazing!” Heracles hurried over, glancing briefly in the direction where the massive beetle beast had been thrown, then turned to look at Liam, exclaiming, “Your strength is truly astonishing!”
Liam noticed that Heracles seemed to be addressing his remarks to **B.I.B.** standing beside him.
…
“It’s no wonder you can see him!”
On one of the Gullet Count islands of the Boin Archipelago, Liam extended a finger and pierced the forehead of a charging beast with a single **Hell Thrust**, leaving a hole right between its eyes.
The beast slowly collapsed to the ground. Liam remarked, “Heracles, you live off the wind and dew— just like a real immortal sage…”
As CP-9’s Kumadori once said: “I have lived on mountains and by the sea for a thousand years, enduring immortal-like training of wind and dew, and ha! Yo-ho-ho~~~ the technique I mastered is this **Life Return**!”
Though Kumadori was full of hot air, it was clear that Heracles was not.
……
You can read ahead up to 30 chapters on my patreon and I’ve also activated (date to date) subscription model on my patreon https://www.patreon.com/marvel6395
Support me on Patreon for extra chapters