He's a pirate, but also a Pokémon Master.

Alabasta, with its capital Arubana.

night.

Inside the palace kitchen, the culinary team is currently working busily.

Some were chopping vegetables, others were stir-frying dishes; the atmosphere was lively and bustling.

"Speed ​​up!"

"Remember, make sure to cook a good meal tonight!"

"The people we are serving are national heroes. We cannot afford any mistakes and must not bring shame to the royal family!" the chef shouted.

"Yes!" the chefs replied in unison, their faces showing determination.

They had to risk their entire culinary careers to make this banquet a success, or they would be sinners who had let down the people of the whole country!

The people they were serving tonight were none other than Guxin and his group.

Since Crookdar's death, which was widely reported in the news, the people of Alabasta have learned the truth.

The so-called "hero" is nothing more than a cold-blooded crocodile that knows how to disguise himself; Guxin, who defeats him, is the real hero.

He not only dealt with the mastermind Crocodile, but also spent nearly three months bringing rain to various parts of Alabasta, saving countless lives.

Because the effects of the dancing powder will last for a while.

In Alabasta, large areas will remain without rainfall for some time, leaving millions of people suffering from severe water shortages.

Considering the royal mandate and the fact that Crocodile had treasures hidden in other cities, Gushin seized the opportunity to divide his forces into four groups and bring rain to various places as quickly as possible.

In this way, Gushin established an extremely high level of prestige among the people of Alabasta.

After the matter was over, Guxin and the others finally returned to the palace today, and this banquet was also a thank-you dinner for them.

Banquet hall.

In the spacious hall, rows of candles burned on the walls, and in the center was a long dining table laden with all kinds of delicious dishes.

Gushin and his companions are having dinner with King Cobra, Princess Vivi, and their Pokémon.

Although there aren't many of them, there are quite a few who can eat a lot, such as Snorlax.

If you're not careful, the plates in front of Snorlax will pile up high, so the staff must keep an eye on it and replace the empty plates with new dishes.

Snorlax has already shown great restraint; with its powerful stomach, it could actually eat the food plate along with the plate.

Meanwhile, Yi Xiao, Gu Xin, and others also had enormous appetites.

So the kitchen was basically working non-stop tonight, serving dishes continuously from the start of the banquet.

"Mr. Guxin, are you satisfied with tonight's dishes?" King Cobra asked with a friendly smile as he approached, raising his wine glass.

Cobra, Vivi's father, is a kind and compassionate man who loves his people like his own children. He is a rare and outstanding leader in the entire pirate world.

Gusin put down his knife and fork, raised his wine glass to clink with Cobra's, and smiled, "Of course, my companions and I are very satisfied."

"That's wonderful, it's what we should do," Cobra said gratefully. "Although I've said it many times before, I still want to say it again, thank you."

"You saved this country; compared to you, I am not even worthy to be king..."

Gu Xin agreed to Weiwei's request, but ultimately did not ask for any reward, only taking a symbolic amount of money.

This amount of money is utterly insignificant compared to what he did for Alabasta.

This left Cobra unsure how to repay the favor.

Gu Xin didn't say much about it.

He defeated Crocodile and exposed the dark truth not to ask the royal family for any reward, but simply because he acted on his own whims.

He can do what he wants to do; no one forces him to do what he doesn't want to do.

This is what he is pursuing.

He did these things to become stronger, and because he couldn't bear to see the suffering of people, not for the reward.

Today, his wealth has reached a full billion Berries... equivalent to two million Choppers.

At the same time, the Nefit royal family also gave him a lot, not only money but also privileges, which made it easier for him to act.

During this time, he conducted an interesting experiment.

By chance, he realized that Gengar had a different dimension inside its body, which could be used to steal Devil Fruits.

Secondly, [Shadow Possession] can also control the dead and inherit their strength from their previous life.

So, suppose someone eats the Fried Fruit first, then kills them and retrieves the fruit, then you can easily obtain the corpse of a Fried Fruit user.

By repeating this process, one can virtually replicate the Sticky-Fry Fruit user indefinitely, creating a team of corpses.

To this end, he conducted experiments on some serious criminals who should have been sentenced to death.

The conclusion was that it wouldn't work.

A single Devil Fruit can only have one living user and one corpse user at most; there can be no third.

If you kill the living Devil Fruit user, the corpse you get won't have any Devil Fruit abilities; only the first corpse has them.

If you want to switch to another corpse with the ability, it's simple: destroy the first corpse so that it can no longer meet the conditions for [Shadow Possession].

Then, by repeatedly eating a Devil Fruit and killing another person, the power can be transferred to another corpse.

The experiment was unsuccessful, but it was not without its rewards.

Gushin discovered that Gengar can develop the abilities of the deceased and increase the potential of the corpse when it inhabits another's body.

Although this progress is relatively slow, it is still a decent ability as Gengar's strength increases.

In summary, whenever he obtains a new Devil Fruit, he can choose a character to eat it and kill them, thus creating an extra corpse for future use.

It doesn't matter if the deceased was weak in life; Gengar can take over the development.

Besides the Devil Fruits that already had corpses, Gushin selected several physically strong individuals from among the hardened criminals to be corpse users. These corpses were usually stored in Gengar's alternate dimension.

Fortunately, Gengar is an A-rank creature, and its alternate dimension is about the size of a bedroom, easily capable of housing a dozen or so corpses.

This experiment further confirms Gengar's nicknames as the "corpse collector" and "necromancer".

After a brief chat with Kobra, Gusin sat down to continue enjoying his dinner.

The person next to me was eating ramen.

That was made especially for Ichisho by Gardevoir.

During their time in Alabasta, Yixiao accompanied them the whole time and also tasted Gardevoir's cooking along the way.

Since then, he has been particularly fond of Gardevoir's ramen.

"Three hundred and sixty million, that's quite an impressive number," Yi Xiao said to Gu Xin in a casual, conversational tone, swallowing a mouthful of noodles.

Just recently, the new bounty for Guxin and his gang was also made public.

As the captain, Guxin naturally had the highest bounty and also the largest increase, jumping from 110 million to 360 million.

At this point in time, this number already represents a formidable force renowned throughout the seas, especially during the Paradise phase.

"And Van Auger's has also risen from 59 million to 85 million Berries, which is also a good number."

At this point, Yixiao paused for a moment, then silently continued eating her noodles.

Chopper, his eyes brimming with tears, pulled out a crumpled wanted poster and pointed to the number on it, his voice trembling with sobs, "But why do I only have 50 Berries?"