Li Ke swam until late afternoon. When he finally collapsed from exhaustion and was fished out of the water by Robin, he was more brine than man. As he lay shivering on the deck, Roger squatted beside him like a common street thug, clicking his tongue in mock disappointment.
"And here I thought a guy with powers like yours would be some kind of powerhouse," the Pirate King remarked, his shadow looming large over the gasping traveler. "Is this really all you've got?"
With a belly full of seawater, Li Ke spat a mouthful of brine right into Roger's face. Roger just roared with laughter, jammed a massive, meat-laden bone—the kind only found in the world of pirates—into Li Ke's mouth, and promptly kicked him off the ship once again.
"Use [Life Return]! Push yourself to the absolute edge! Your body hasn't reached its limit yet, kid—your will has! Hey, Sea Kings! Come out and greet the guest!"
Li Ke wasn't sure if Roger was right, but he found that if he truly forced himself, he could indeed squeeze out a bit more strength. Eventually, under the "encouragement" of the Sea Kings, he finally lost consciousness from exhaustion and was hauled back up by Robin once more.
"Hmm... this guy's body is surprisingly weak."
Roger poked at Li Ke's unconscious form, rubbing his chin in confusion. Li Ke's physical stats were barely better than an average teenager's; it wasn't the level of fitness a grown man should have in this world.
"Guess he didn't eat enough nutritious food as a kid, huh?" Roger mused, eyeing the fresh meat from the Sea Kings he had slaughtered earlier. "Well, if he knows Life Return..."
Li Ke was shaken awake from his stupor only to find Roger's ugly mug looming over him again.
"Yo! Time for dinner!"
Roger grinned and unceremoniously shoved a massive slab of fat into Li Ke's mouth. Without even checking if Li Ke's throat could handle it, he forced in another hunk of meat.
Li Ke felt like he was about to suffocate, but Roger just sneered.
"Is your Life Return just for show? Why are you so reluctant to use it?"
Li Ke was fuming, but since Roger's hands showed no sign of stopping, he had no choice but to activate [Life Return] with everything he had. He focused on expanding his esophagus while simultaneously cranking his digestive system to its maximum capacity.
This bastard Roger had only chopped the meat into pieces just small enough to swallow—not small enough to digest. Without pushing his stomach and intestines to the limit, he'd be finished. This kind of "feeding" would kill anyone who hadn't mastered Life Return!
The guy wasn't lying when he said he didn't know how to teach!
Just as Li Ke was about to widen his throat a bit more, Roger suddenly struck, interrupting his control.
"Don't expand your throat any further, kid! You won't have the skill to snap that bone back into place! Your control over your body is still far too amateur!"
Li Ke shuddered, quickly memorizing the physical sensation Roger had pointed out. But before he could even begin to feel grateful, Roger noticed his stomach bulging with the meal, scooped him up in a bridal carry, and—ignoring Li Ke's look of utter despair—tossed him right back into the ocean.
"Back at it, kid! Learn to truly use that body of yours! A human's potential is vast beyond measure!"
On the deck, Roger even took off his hat and gave Li Ke a mocking, courtly bow, looking thoroughly amused by the whole ordeal.
Li Ke was so choked up with meat and spite he couldn't even manage a curse, but he summoned his last shred of willpower to keep moving. He pushed his [Life Return] to the limit, juggling the dual task of digesting that massive meal while swimming fast enough to ensure that bastard Roger didn't summon any more Sea Kings.
However, despite his best efforts, the sheer drain on his physical and mental energy was too much. After three more hours of swimming, he blacked out and drifted once again.
This time, even Robin found it hard to watch. She had seen all kinds of training methods in her life, but Roger's "curriculum" was something else entirely. To put it kindly, it was a demonic regimen; to put it bluntly, he was trying to kill the boy.
She couldn't quite understand why Li Ke followed Roger's orders so obediently. He grumbled and swore, sure, but the moment the training started, he followed every instruction to the letter. She still felt the whole thing was unnecessarily cruel.
Roger, watching her haul Li Ke back on board, sensed her disapproval. Compared to the hardened souls Roger had known, Robin was still quite transparent.
"What? You think this is too much?" Roger adjusted his hat, flashing her a grin. "This kid hasn't breathed a single word of complaint, you know."
Robin nodded; that much was true. Li Ke cursed Roger out, but anyone in that position would. Once the actual training began, he never questioned the process itself.
"That's part of the reason I'm willing to teach him," Roger continued, his tone turning surprisingly thoughtful. "He might be a bit slow to catch on, but he's a smart brat. Little lady, I don't say 'yes' to everyone who asks for training. People who want the power but aren't willing to pay the price? They don't have the right to stand on this sea. But this guy you're fishing out... he might be dense, but he understands perfectly that to get something, you have to give something up. Or pay for it in blood. As long as he knows that, he might not be a 'Man of the Sea' yet, but he's damn well in the reserves."
Hearing such sophisticated words from the man the world portrayed as a barbaric Pirate King stirred a sudden impulse in Robin. She found herself wanting to ask the one question everyone in history had been dying to know.
"What exactly is the One Piece? And what is written on the Poneglyphs?"
Roger raised an eyebrow. "Well, you certainly have a thirst for knowledge, don't you?"
Robin let out a soft laugh. "I only ask because I know you won't tell me. You're just like this man—he clearly wants to sleep with me, yet he insists on waiting until I'm willing. To you, while the Great Treasure exists, it's something that has no meaning unless one claims it for themselves. So, you'll never say a word. Am I right, Mr. Pirate King?"
"Hm, you certainly understand men, little lady. It's true; what the One Piece actually is can only be known by the one who finds it. But, I can tell you one thing." Roger flashed a wicked grin. "The One Piece... is real!"
"Tsk."
Robin clicked her tongue in annoyance, while Roger simply roared with laughter and walked away as soon as Li Ke was hauled back on board.
For Li Ke, however, this was only the beginning of the nightmare. Every day he woke up to Roger's ugly face. If he wasn't swimming in the sea, he was on deck gorging himself on meat, only to collapse into sleep and do it all over again. During the entire voyage through the Calm Belt, he didn't even get to touch a single breast!
Yet, the results of this hellish training were undeniably spectacular. Li Ke had finally surpassed his own limits.
Whether it was the food of this world or his body fully adapting to the local human physiology, pushing himself to the brink over and over again triggered a strange transformation. His crooked childhood teeth became loose, and he could feel new ones growing in. When he activated his Blood Secret Arts, his capillaries no longer ruptured under the strain; a flow speed that would have shattered his circulatory system three months ago was now something he could maintain with ease.
He could now hoist a boulder ten meters wide and ten meters long with a single hand. Though he still needed to rest afterward, he possessed enough stamina to hold it aloft for half an hour. When towing the ship through the ocean, he could now endure for an entire day. When he unleashed his full power, he could shatter that same massive rock with a single kick. The heavy sword that once burdened him now felt as light as a feather.
In terms of raw physical state, he had already surpassed his peak in the 7 Days to Die world! Only his endurance and recovery speed remained incomparable—after all, that world was a literal glitch in reality.
When he finally dragged the ship out of the Calm Belt and collapsed, panting, onto a jagged reef, he looked up at Roger drinking on the deck. In his heart, he felt nothing but a profound sense of relief.
For three entire months, Li Ke hadn't spared a single thought for women, nor had he pondered the affairs of the Arad world. His days were consumed by a singular, grueling cycle: eat, sleep, and figure out how to move faster. He obsessed over becoming stronger, minimizing the self-inflicted damage of his Blood Secret Arts, maximizing his digestion, and repairing the dull ache in his internal organs.
And above all, he learned how to become one with the sea.
Spending ninety days submerged meant his mastery over Waterbending had shifted from practiced movements to raw instinct. He had learned the language of the water—the way it resisted, the way it flowed, and the subtle ripples of his own influence upon it.
The unique environment of the Calm Belt was the ultimate training ground. To a Waterbender from the Avatar world, this place would be a holy site, a sanctuary of absolute stillness and infinite depth. Li Ke no longer needed the specific martial forms or katas to command the waves. Those movements were merely mental anchors—and after living in the ocean for three months, he didn't need anchors anymore. He simply was.
With the constant, looming threat of Sea Kings as his motivation, his progress was nothing short of miraculous.
However, he knew his path wasn't repeatable. Not everyone had a body free of hidden injuries. Thanks to his Conceptual Healing items, he had pushed himself to the brink every single day without the permanent wear and tear that would have crippled a normal human. His physiology had finally fully adapted to the monstrous standards of the One Piece world; between the steady diet of Sea King meat and the relentless pressure of [Life Return], his physical stats had experienced an explosive surge.
"Your growth... it's honestly startling," Roger remarked, looking down at the panting Li Ke with genuine surprise.
Li Ke's rapid development reminded Roger of monsters like Kaido or Big Mom. It was as if his body were a hidden treasure chest that had finally been pried open. In just three months, he had gone from a weakling to someone capable of being an apprentice on Roger's old crew. Given another decade, he'd easily be a Supernova.
But he had started far too late.
"Though, right now, you're at best at the level of a Marine Headquarters Captain," Roger judged bluntly. "In a real fight, you'd probably collapse from exhaustion within an hour. So don't get cocky; you need to understand just how weak you still are."
Despite the harsh words, Roger looked at the boy standing on the reef—clothes in tatters, but eyes burning with a newfound, iron-clad resolve—and tossed him a bottle of rum with a grin.
"But you've graduated, kid!"
Roger roared with laughter as Li Ke caught the bottle. Truth be told, Roger still had no idea how to actually teach anyone. To him, there were no teachers on the path to true strength—there was only one's own Will.
Li Ke caught the rum, but his mind was elsewhere. "How long did it take?" he asked hoarsely.
He wanted to know exactly how much time he had spent dragging that ship through the doldrums.
"Three months. Why?"
Li Ke froze, his face pale with horror.
"I went... three months without touching a woman?! How is that even possible?!"
The realization was more terrifying to him than any Sea King he had faced.