Multiverse Gourmet Hunter

Haruto raised one hand like a blade and gave a low command.

"Knife."

The Nen surrounding him surged wildly.

In the span of a heartbeat, a massive phantom kitchen knife more than a kilometer long condensed beside him.

The eel-like Sea King beneath Haruto seemed to sense the sudden threat to its life.

Its enormous body began writhing uneasily, its broad head swinging from side to side and churning the surrounding water into violent waves.

Its vertical pupils swept across the sea in alarm, yet it could not identify the source of that deadly pressure.

Then Haruto brought his hand down.

There was no earth-shattering explosion.

The enormous phantom blade simply passed through the Sea King as easily as a knife slicing through tofu.

Its resilient hide offered no resistance.

Neither did its dense flesh.

Even its massive skull failed to slow the blade in the slightest.

The phantom knife pierced straight through the Sea King’s brain.

Its enormous body abruptly stiffened.

All strength vanished from it in an instant.

The five-hundred-meter creature collapsed onto the surface of the sea with a tremendous crash, throwing waves dozens of meters high into the air as dark-red blood slowly spread through the water.

Naturally, the commotion alerted every Sea King nearby.

Before any of them could react, however, Haruto was already moving.

He concentrated Nen around his feet and lightly pushed off from the dead eel Sea King.

His body shot forward like a cannonball, leaving behind a blur almost too fast to see.

In the blink of an eye, he appeared above the enormous manta ray Sea King.

Without hesitation, Haruto repeated the same motion.

The phantom kitchen knife descended again and pierced cleanly through a vital point.

The instant the manta ray died, Haruto planted a foot against its body and kicked off again, changing direction in midair as he shot toward the blue frog-like Sea King.

This one, however, proved unexpectedly perceptive.

It seemed to possess the same exceptional motion-tracking vision as an ordinary frog, only magnified to an absurd degree.

The moment Haruto came within range, its cheeks swelled dramatically.

Then—

Whip!

A tongue dozens of meters long shot from its mouth like lightning, coated in thick, sticky mucus.

Haruto was already airborne.

His previous burst of momentum had nearly run out, and there was nothing beneath his feet to push against.

The tongue wrapped tightly around his body before he could reposition.

A tremendous pulling force followed.

Haruto was yanked straight into the Sea King’s enormous mouth.

Darkness swallowed him instantly.

A foul, fishy stench flooded his senses, strong enough to make breathing unpleasant.

Haruto did not panic in the slightest.

He simply swung his hand.

The phantom knife erupted outward from inside the frog Sea King.

Its blade tore through the creature’s thick skull and massive chest and abdominal muscles, carving a huge wound that stretched from beneath its jaw all the way down its belly.

Haruto shook some of the slime from his clothes, then jumped out through the opening he had created.

Unfortunately, that brief delay had given the remaining twenty-odd Sea Kings enough time to react.

Three of their kind had died in moments.

That was more than enough for the survivors to understand just how dangerous Haruto was.

It also drove them into a frenzy.

One after another, the Sea Kings twisted their massive bodies and closed in, jaws opening to reveal rows of terrifying teeth.

Haruto raised an eyebrow.

Truthfully, he wanted all of them.

There were far too many excellent ingredients surrounding him to simply let them go.

If he could collect every one of them, he would have enough premium Sea King meat to last an absurdly long time.

But Haruto also understood the practical problem.

Even if he could defeat more than twenty Sea Kings in a direct fight, doing so would take some effort.

And that assumed none of them tried to flee.

Worse, a battle on that scale could attract even more Sea Kings.

Haruto had no particular concern about creatures measuring a few hundred meters.

But if one of the truly enormous Sea Kings several kilometers long appeared, even he would have to put in serious work to kill it.

After weighing the pros and cons, Haruto abandoned the idea of wiping out the entire group.

"Get lost."

His voice was quiet.

The next instant, a terrifying aura belonging to an apex predator erupted from his body.

Behind Haruto, the vague outline of something enormous and vicious seemed to materialize.

The air itself appeared to freeze.

Even the turbulent sea seemed to calm slightly under the pressure.

The Sea Kings that had been preparing to attack all stopped dead.

For several seconds, the enormous creatures stared at Haruto.

Then, one after another, they began sinking beneath the surface.

Within moments, every surviving Sea King had disappeared into the depths.

Only the restless water and three enormous corpses remained floating on the sea.

Haruto watched until the final shadow vanished into the darkness below.

Then he withdrew his aura.

Turning back toward the three dead Sea Kings, he broke into a delighted smile.

"Only three this time, but with bodies this big, I’d still call that a fantastic haul."

After admiring his prizes for a moment, Haruto stored all three corpses inside the Gourmet Restaurant.

He then pulled out Charizard’s Poké Ball.

A flash of red light appeared over the ocean, and Charizard materialized in midair.

Haruto jumped onto its broad back and patted its neck.

"Let’s keep moving."

Charizard answered with a roar and flew onward.

After another hour or so, Haruto descended to the sea again and decided to hunt a second batch of Sea Kings.

Having already succeeded once, he now knew exactly what to do.

He repeated the same process, lured another group to the surface, and this time managed to kill four before driving the rest away.

Another excellent harvest.

Unfortunately, when Haruto flew farther and attempted a third hunt, things changed.

No matter how hard he struck the water or how powerful the vibrations he created, the surrounding sea remained completely still.

Not only did no group of Sea Kings appear—

Not even a single curious one surfaced to investigate.

That was obviously unusual.

Haruto’s best guess was that Sea Kings possessed some kind of long-distance communication method and had already warned one another about him.

He certainly was not going to underestimate their intelligence.

Still, while it was a little disappointing that he could not continue harvesting Sea Kings, Haruto was not the kind of person to obsess over it.

The One Piece world was enormous.

Sea Kings were only one kind of ingredient among countless strange and exotic foods he had never tried before.

There was no point getting hung up on one source.

Haruto stopped trying to hunt and had Charizard focus entirely on traveling.

What he did not expect was for the flight to continue for most of the day.

The sun went from high overhead to hanging low on the horizon.

Charizard was already showing clear signs of exhaustion.

Yet everywhere Haruto looked, there was nothing but endless ocean.

No islands.

Not even a passing ship.

More troublesome still, once the sun set, keeping track of direction would become much harder.

The Log Poses Haruto had bought in Loguetown were useless as well.

Since none of them had been allowed to record the magnetic field of an island beforehand, their needles provided no meaningful guidance.

With little choice, Haruto summoned another small wooden boat and recalled Charizard so it could rest inside its Poké Ball.

"Well... this is a bit of a problem."

Sitting in the little boat, Haruto looked out at the endless sea and sighed.

Then his stomach growled.

Finding the correct direction could wait.

Eating came first.

Haruto immediately entered the Gourmet Restaurant.

He cut away one of the hind legs from the frog-like Sea King.

The meat there was dense and firm, exactly as he had expected.

Haruto carefully trimmed the bone-in cut, removing excess connective tissue and sinew.

Next, he combined salt produced by Nacli with Dryad pollen and several other seasonings.

The mixture was rubbed evenly across the meat, worked thoroughly into every surface before being left to marinate so the aromatics could slowly penetrate.

Once seasoned, the bone-in meat went into a smoker fueled by Oran Berry wood.

Haruto kept the temperature low and let it smoke slowly.

A mild fruity aroma seeped deep into the meat, locking in its juices while laying down a subtle smoky base.

The smoked leg was then transferred into an oven and roasted slowly at 120°C.

At that temperature, the flesh gradually softened without drying out.

Golden fat began rendering from the surface as a rich aroma filled the kitchen.

Haruto continued roasting until a light poke with a chopstick was enough to make the meat naturally pull away from the bone, while clear juices shimmered between the joints.

Only then did he remove it.

The roasting juices were strained into a saucepan.

Haruto added Wuu Star Fruit, Tamato Berries, Moomoo Milk, and a spoonful of Combee honey, then simmered the mixture over low heat until it reduced into a glossy amber-red sauce.

He sliced open the roasted meat.

A tender pink cross-section appeared beneath the browned exterior, and steaming juices immediately ran down the blade.

The rich fragrance of roasted meat and rendered fat rushed into the air.

Haruto poured the warm amber sauce over the slices.

It followed the grain of the meat before pooling around the bottom of the plate.

Finally, he arranged pieces of Applin fruit, Wiki Berries, and Pecha Berries alongside it.

And with that, his Amber-Glazed Smoked Sea King Leg with Fresh Fruit was complete.

---------

Read 40 Chapters ahead and support me on patreon.

patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!