Back inside the wooden cabin, Carnes settled into a long wait.
When waiting for something you desperately hoped for, time always seemed to crawl by.
Three and a half hours into the system’s cellular restoration process, Carnes clearly felt that his body was undergoing earth-shaking changes.
Especially the lower right side of his abdomen, where the incurable wound had lingered for decades.
An unbearable agony suddenly erupted from there.
“GRAAAAH!!!” Carnes gripped the edge of the table tightly and let out a painful roar.
The overwhelming pain left him drenched in sweat.
Struggling, he removed his shirt once more and unraveled the bandages around his waist.
The missing section of his lower abdomen, the horrifying sunken area, was now visibly moving.
Like a beating heart, it expanded and contracted repeatedly.
And every expansion and contraction brought a surge of excruciating pain.
“Bzzzt!” At the same moment, Carnes’s thin and frail body suddenly swelled with muscle.
The atrophied muscles that had wasted away from years of inactivity began to recover.
“Bzzzt!” His entire physique expanded once again.
The scars covering his upper body started healing before his eyes.
Within moments, the old wounds scabbed over and peeled away.
In their place was healthy skin.
Smooth skin without a single scar remaining.
“Bzzzt!” His muscles expanded again.
For a brief moment, Carnes looked like a professional bodybuilder, his muscles grotesquely oversized.
Then, in the next instant, those muscles compressed violently.
His body returned to a more natural and balanced shape.
“Hummm!” The drastic transformation caused intense pain to spread through every inch of his body.
The moment the muscles compressed, they expanded again.
“Bzzzt!” Then compressed once more.
“Hummm!” The process repeated several times.
Expansion.
Compression.
Expansion.
Compression.
Only after several cycles did it finally stop.
The overwhelming pain that had enveloped his body gradually faded away.
“Haa…
haa…
haa…” Panting heavily, Carnes slowly raised his head and looked at his reflection.
The skeletal, emaciated figure he had grown accustomed to was gone.
In its place stood a powerful body packed with well-defined muscles and completely free of scars.
The horrific wound in his lower abdomen had vanished.
The wrinkled skin brought by age had become firm and youthful once more.
The signs of old age disappeared from his face.
At the same time, his white hair began changing at a visible speed.
Within moments, every strand had turned jet black.
[Ding!
Body restoration complete!] [Congratulations!
Host has returned to peak physical condition.] Hearing the system’s notification and feeling the long-lost strength flowing through his body, Carnes clenched his teeth.
His entire body trembled with excitement.
At this moment, his mind was filled with an overwhelming desire for battle.
A desire for slaughter.
Crackle!
Crackle!
Dark-red arcs of electricity suddenly danced around him.
His top-tier Conqueror’s Haki overflowed uncontrollably from his body.
“BOOM!” “CRASH!!” The wooden floor beneath his feet collapsed under the pressure of his Haki.
Crash!
The mirror in front of him shattered into countless fragments.
The walls, support beams, and every object inside the cabin cracked apart under the force of the Haki leaking from his body.
“Humm!” A sharp hum echoed through the air.
Carnes suddenly clenched his fist.
Stepping forward, he threw a punch at the nearby wall.
Whoosh!
Bang!
“BOOOOM!!!” A thunderous explosion echoed in every direction.
The wooden wall instantly disintegrated into dust beneath a punch infused with Conqueror’s Haki.
Even the entire cabin was torn apart by the aftershock.
“RUMBLE!!!” A dense cloud of dust surged skyward.
The cabin vanished completely.
Only scattered fragments remained, proving it had ever existed.
Within the thick dust stood Carnes.
Bare-chested.
His perfectly sculpted physique fully exposed.
“Haa…” Letting out a long breath, he casually waved his hand.
The dust surrounding him was swept aside.
After venting his emotions with that punch, the intense urge for battle finally settled somewhat.
Looking down at his hands and feeling the incredible condition of his body, Carnes couldn’t help but sigh in amazement.
“Ah…
this feeling…” “This long-forgotten feeling of being filled with power…
how many years has it been?” “Thirty years?
Forty?” “I’d almost forgotten what it felt like…” “Ever since I suffered that irreversible injury at God Valley, I’ve lived every day in pain.
My body deteriorated to the point where I couldn’t even handle ordinary physical labor.” “I had to rely entirely on Conqueror’s Haki just to deal with trash that I once could’ve crushed with a single finger.” “But now…” “I’ve returned.” “I, Carnes…
have returned!” As he spoke, dark-red lightning crackled around him once more.
Slowly turning his head toward the sea, his expression twisted into a savage grin.
His voice became low and hoarse.
“Garp…” “Are you ready?” “Are all of you ready to face the anger I’ve buried for forty years?” “Newgate…” “Are you ready as well?” “Ready to welcome your vice captain back?” “The vice captain…” “Has been very angry all this time!”