At night, a welcome banquet took place. The employees of Push City gathered together. From Director Magellan down to the ordinary guards, everyone came together to enjoy a feast. The protagonist of this welcome banquet was, of course, the new head jailer of Red Lotus Hell, who was about to take office! After a brief introduction, Sturm managed to integrate into the group of employees at Push City.

“Sturm, the work inside Push City is quite tough,” Magellan, the director, raised his glass to the newcomer. “We warmly welcome your arrival!” Magellan had a good initial impression of Sturm because he knew that Sturm had actively applied to work at Push City! What a great young man! He was countless times better than the likes of Hannibal.

However, before Magellan could take a sip of his drink, Hannibal stood up and pointed at the director, spouting off. “Magellan! Don’t sit here! Go to the table next to us!” “Huh?” Magellan, holding his glass, looked at Hannibal in confusion. “This is a banquet! A banquet! How can you make the director sit at another table?”

“Well, you’d better get down from the director’s seat quickly!” Hannibal inadvertently revealed his ambition again. “I misspoke; what I meant was—get away quickly!” “Hannibal, you are going too far.” Magellan closed his eyes and sighed deeply. “How could I have such an ungrateful subordinate like you…”

A wisp of light purple smoke erupted from Magellan's mouth, spreading immediately. Sturm felt someone grab his arm and forcibly drag him away from the dining table. He turned to see that it was a lady with long blonde waves—Domino, the current vice warden of Push City.

“The director is a user of the Poison-Poison Fruit; he’s a poison man,” Domino softly reminded Sturm when she noticed his gaze. “Be sure to be cautious when interacting with him. Even the gas he exhales is genuine poison.” Just as Domino warned Sturm, Hannibal quickly covered his mouth and nose to avoid inhaling the poison. “Magellan! You released poison again!” “Hahaha!” Magellan seemed unbothered, mocking Hannibal. “You’re right! Serves you right! Idiot subordinate!”

Hannibal’s forehead instantly showed several bulging veins, making him look even more terrifying. “You bastard! How infuriating!” Sturm watched the intense “workplace struggle” between Magellan and Hannibal with great interest.

The false workplace war: strategizing from the shadows, moving decisively. The real workplace war: poisoning someone to their face! Breaking a comrade’s leg for a promotion! At that moment, a certain saying seemed to materialize in Sturm's mind—everyone in Push City is talented and speaks well!

Just then, a cold voice came from the side. “Boring farce.” Shiryu stood up and coldly turned to leave, ignoring everyone else present. Magellan and Hannibal, who were still in their playful sparring, stopped when they saw Shiryu leaving. “Shiryu!” Magellan's expression suddenly became serious. “Where are you going?”

Shiryu stopped but did not turn around. “Going down to do some activities.” “Do not harm—” Magellan was about to say something when he was directly interrupted by Shiryu. “Magellan!” Shiryu turned around, placing his hand on the hilt of his famous blade, Thunderstorm, and looked at Magellan indifferently. “I am the vice director of Push City! My actions do not require your orders.”

The eyes of Magellan and Shiryu clashed, and it seemed as if sparks flew in the air. Even the playful Hannibal couldn’t help but shut his mouth tightly, afraid to make a sound. Magellan stared at Shiryu, but in the end, he did nothing. Shiryu left.

Magellan slumped back into his seat. “I’m sorry, Sturm.” The director forced a smile at the new head jailer. “You’ve witnessed a joke. Everyone, continue eating and drinking.” However, after such an incident, the atmosphere of the welcome banquet was severely disrupted, and it ended hastily.

After the banquet ended, Sturm bid farewell to everyone and returned to his exclusive room—a head jailer is still entitled to a single room. Inside, Sturm recalled the conflict that had just occurred. “When exactly was Shiryu thrown into Infinite Hell by Magellan?” After some contemplation, Sturm couldn’t remember any useful information.

He only recalled that when Luffy caused a ruckus in Push City, Shiryu had already become a prisoner of Infinite Hell. At that time, Hannibal was not the “warden” but the “vice director.” This indicated that Shiryu had been imprisoned in Infinite Hell in recent years! “I want to go to Infinite Hell too…” Sturm shook his head, casting the thought aside.

He summoned the silver trophy he had obtained earlier. Since he was going to attend the welcome banquet, Sturm had not rushed to utilize the three-star trophy he won by defeating the blue gorilla. Now that the banquet was over, he naturally wouldn’t miss out on this silver trophy. Sturm was already aware of the ability enhancement effects of the trophy. He hadn’t tried its wish function yet. However, Sturm didn’t want to use the trophy to make a wish right now.

The teachings of Zephyr surfaced in his mind. Only physical strength is foundational. Next, Sturm recalled Kaido of the Beasts’ words. Only Haki transcends all. At this stage, Sturm did not have a high demand for Haki. Moreover, he reasonably suspected that Haki required sufficient physical fitness to exert its corresponding effects. “It’s best to continue enhancing my physical strength! Let’s boost my physique!”

Sturm summoned his own trophy.

[Strength: ★★☆]

[Speed: ★★☆]

[Endurance: ★★★]

A three-star silver trophy. It could help Sturm raise his Strength or Speed to three stars, or it could help break through the current bottleneck of his Endurance attribute! After thinking for a moment, Sturm made a decision. He directly smashed the silver trophy into his Endurance attribute.

As Sturm watched, the stars behind his Endurance attribute fluctuated and then changed to—[Endurance: ★★★☆]. From the original “three stars” to the current “three and a half stars.” “I just need one more silver trophy to elevate my Endurance to four stars!” Sturm clenched his fist, a thought flashing through his mind. “I need more blue gorillas!”

The next moment, Sturm suddenly felt an intense hunger. It was as if every cell in his body was sending out neural signals of “hunger.” Hungry! So hungry! Sturm stood up, his eyes turning green. He quickly searched the room. But in a newly occupied room, where would there be food stockpiled? Sturm could not contain this overwhelming hunger. He dashed out of his room, retracing his steps back to the guard cafeteria of Push City.

The welcome banquet ended abruptly, and there was still plenty of food left in the guard cafeteria. Sturm immediately grabbed a plate of roasted meat. Then a second, a third, a fourth… After a whirlwind feast, Sturm let out a loud belch. It was then he realized that he had just eaten several times more than usual! “Is this the effect of increasing Endurance? The effect of boosting my physique?” Sturm rubbed his round, stuffed belly. “So I’m turning into a bottomless pit?”

The next day, Sturm confirmed this guess. He found another blue gorilla and acquired a silver trophy. Then he smashed it into his Strength attribute. The familiar hunger returned. Sturm rushed into the guard cafeteria, frantically sweeping away all the food in front of him.

After increasing his physique attribute, Sturm's body immediately became stronger. But for a period afterward, his appetite would also become unprecedentedly large. It seemed he needed to fill the gap caused by his body’s sudden “growth” through external food intake. Just like using the trophy to increase ability levels. The trophy’s “enhancement” raised the limits of both his physique and abilities. But the specific strength changes still required Sturm to exercise and improve himself.

There was an implicit beauty of “fantasy science” to it. A week swiftly passed. Sturm's life in Push City was very fulfilling. His daily routine consisted of—enhancing, eating, sleeping, and battling blue gorillas. The rhythm of life was a very positive cycle.

Supported by the blood and tears of the blue gorillas, Sturm quickly harvested a large number of silver trophies. Through these silver trophies, Sturm not only elevated his physique attribute directly to ★★★★, but he also raised the level of the Clay-Clay Fruit to four stars! It’s no exaggeration to say that Sturm felt he could take on ten of his former self from a week ago!

One day, Sturm was just about to continue summoning blue gorilla troops for his daily training. However, when he knocked out a blue gorilla, he unexpectedly discovered that the quality of its trophy had actually decreased!

[Bronze Trophy: Bruceli]

[Trophy Star Level: ★★]

“What? How can it change?” Sturm was a bit confused, then he found another blue gorilla. But this one also provided a trophy with only two stars. Sturm communicated with the real trophy and received a response—repeatedly farming the same object’s trophy within a short time would result in a negative effect of quality drop. Sturm then realized the problem. Every member of the blue gorilla troop had been beaten by him! Some had been beaten more than once! It was time to find a new source of trophies!