"Not bad at all! Hahaha..."
Bardock clapped his hands and laughed, beaming like a kid on Christmas—which, to be fair, he currently was. He was absolutely thrilled with this fruit, and this was only its full Beast Form. Zoan-type Devil Fruits typically granted three standard forms: Human Form, Beast Form, and Human-Beast Form.
He thought of Chopper—the ultimate mascot of the seas, whose very first bounty would be a measly fifty Berries. Using his homemade Rumble Ball, Chopper could unlock multiple extra transformations for his Human-Human Fruit. Bardock made a mental note to track the little reindeer down when the time was right. With his enhanced Fiery Golden Eyes, he might just figure out a way to replicate that research and unlock some hidden forms of his own.
'Let's test out the hybrid form next,' he thought. 'I wonder what the Human-Beast Form looks like?'
As he activated the power, Bardock felt his body stretch and bulk up. He grew a full head taller than his base human height, his muscles thickening with raw power. Aside from his face, neck, chest, hands, and feet, the rest of his body was now covered in brilliant, shimmering golden fur.
'Holy crap, this is literally Super Saiyan 4!' he realized, staring down at his furry arms. 'Well, except the fur is gold, and I'm definitely lacking in the muscle department. Yeah, I need to train hard and get absolutely ripped, otherwise I'm just disrespecting this form.'
The Human-Beast Form was the perfect middle ground. Once he mastered it, he'd be able to pinpoint exactly how much beastly power to draw out. He could use all his Beast Form abilities in this state, though the effects felt slightly diluted. Or maybe that was just because he had eaten the fruit a few hours ago and hadn't trained it yet.
"Alright, time for a jungle expedition. Let's go!"
Bardock shifted back into his Monkey King Beast Form to maximize his defenses. Gripping his salvaged pocketknife, he slipped quietly into the dense foliage. The knife was purely for carving up whatever he hunted; as a weapon, it didn't hold a candle to a bare-knuckle punch. Even though he felt immensely powerful, he reminded himself not to get cocky. 'I have zero intel on this island. Play it safe. Don't do anything stupid.'
"...Thirty-four, thirty-five, thirty-six."
Bardock carved the final stroke of a tally mark into a wooden plank and sighed, staring blankly at the thirty-six completed clusters. Every morning after breakfast, he would carve a single line. Five lines made a full tally. Before he knew it, nearly half a year had passed, and he was still stranded on this godforsaken rock.
He didn't live in that flimsy beach shelter anymore. His current home was a massive, dry cavern right in the center of the island. It used to belong to the beast that had roared at him on his first day—a colossal tiger standing three meters tall at the shoulder, acting as one of the apex predators of this jungle. It had made for a very filling meal. Bardock had even fashioned its pelt into a crude set of clothes. He had no other choice, really; his original outfit had been shredded to rags after months of trekking through the thorny underbrush.
Over the past six months, Bardock had mapped every inch of the island on foot and surveyed it from the sky using his Flying Nimbus. It wasn't a large island, and it was completely uninhabited. There were no natives and no other shipwreck survivors. He was the only human alive here. As it turned out, the beach he had washed up on was the only stretch of sand on the entire island; the other coastlines were surrounded by sheer, jagged cliffs. He had gotten incredibly lucky that day.
'I don't even know where this stupid island is on the map,' he grumbled internally. 'Half a year, and not a single ship has sailed past. My Fiery Golden Eyes can see miles past the horizon! If I'd spotted even one vessel, I would have hopped on my Nimbus and flown straight to it.'
It wasn't that he hadn't considered flying out to sea blindly to find a ship, but he knew absolutely nothing about navigation. The Grand Line's weather was notoriously psychotic. If he got lost out there—suspended over the ocean with no ship in sight, no island to land on, and his stamina completely drained—it would be a permanent game over.
'It all comes down to me just being too weak. I can't see far enough, and my stamina still has a limit. If only I could see straight from this island to the next one.' He shook his head and slapped his cheeks. 'Training. Keep training! Time for two thousand push-ups.'
If the Bardock of six months ago was a scrawny, frail kid, the current him was built like a tank. He had grown taller, and his previously thin frame was now packed with dense muscle. He wasn't absurdly bulky like a bodybuilder, but his streamlined physique radiated explosive, coiled power. It was exactly the kind of build he wanted.
Before his transmigration, Bardock had never learned how to actually fight. The only "martial arts" he knew was the basic Five-Stance Form he'd been forced to take for a PE credit in college. Honestly, it was less of a combat technique and more of a synchronized gymnastics routine. Still, repeating those basic stances relentlessly over the past months had made his body incredibly limber. His coordination was flawless now, and channeling power through his punches and kicks felt smooth and natural.
In the world of One Piece, you could conquer the seas with martial arts, masterful swordsmanship, or overpowered Devil Fruits. But the absolute foundation of all three was stamina. The top-tier monsters in this world could casually brawl for days on end without stopping. Knowing this, Bardock had focused nearly all of his training on raw endurance.
He recalled the brutal four-part training regimen used for recruits at Marine Headquarters. First: two thousand push-ups, a mandatory entry requirement just to weed out those who couldn't survive the later hellish routines. Second: climbing a vertical rope up and down a hundred times. Marines fought on the ocean, and boarding enemy ships was a basic necessity, so this drilled skill, stamina, and willpower all at once. Third: a two-hundred-lap long-distance run. Bardock didn't know the exact square footage of Marineford's training grounds, but running two hundred laps around it would literally kill a normal person. Finally: sparring. Not friendly martial arts exchanges, but brutal, all-out brawls that only ended when one person was knocked unconscious.
And the craziest part? The Marine soldiers who survived this daily torture were still considered absolute fodder in the Grand Line. This world's power scaling was terrifying.
Bardock's personal training menu was a massive mash-up. He combined his basic modern fitness knowledge with the Marine recruit regimen, sprinkled in some of Might Guy's insane workout logic from Naruto, and wrapped it all up in the core philosophy of the Turtle School from Dragon Ball: work hard, study hard, eat well, rest well, and play well. His daily routine consisted of push-ups, crunches, squats, pull-ups, distance running, jump rope, and rope climbing.
"...1,998, 1,999, 2,000!"
Bardock pushed himself off the dirt and wiped the sweat from his forehead with a satisfied grin. For an eight-year-old kid who had only been figuring out his own training routine for six months, his stamina was absolutely monstrous. And the most impressive part? He always did his physical conditioning in his base human form.
He shook out his arms. "Alright, muscles are recovered! Next up: running laps around the island. Let's go!"
There hadn't been any paths on this island originally, but after running the exact same circuit every single day, Bardock had literally carved a dirt track into the jungle floor. The local wildlife knew better than to come anywhere near his path. Any beast stupid enough to wander onto his track ended up in his stomach.
Time flew by in a blur of sweat and pumping legs. Bardock ran continuously until the sun hung directly overhead. His stomach let out a thunderous rumble, signaling noon. This gnawing hunger was the biggest reason he wanted to get off this rock. If he were in a normal town, he could just stroll into a restaurant and gorge himself. Out here, he had to ignore his protesting stomach and go hunt, butcher, and cook his own meat.
Over the past half-year, he had become an absolute master at wilderness survival. Friction fires, making charcoal, boiling seawater for salt, and roasting meat—he could do it all with his eyes closed. He'd scavenged wild herbs for seasoning and even found a beehive for honey. Thanks to the microscopic vision granted by his Fiery Golden Eyes, he could perfectly gauge the temperature and cooking time of the meat, making him a phenomenal chef. So, despite his starvation, he wasn't in a rush. Cooking was one of his very few forms of entertainment, and he actually looked forward to it.
After stuffing his face with a beautifully roasted steak, Bardock rested for a few minutes. Almost instantly, the deep muscle fatigue from his morning workout vanished without a trace. Mythical Zoans really were a cheat code for recovery.
Rejuvenated, he shifted into his Monkey King form and coughed out a puff of white cloud. It quickly expanded into his Flying Nimbus. He hopped on and directed it upward, soaring high above the jungle canopy. Being this high up gave him a ridiculous vantage point, and when combined with his Fiery Golden Eyes, his range of vision was staggering.
He scanned the blue horizon idly, expecting the usual empty ocean. Suddenly, he froze.
"Ah... I see one! A ship! Hahaha!"
Bardock burst into ecstatic laughter. He locked in on the ship's exact coordinates and distance, then immediately piloted the Nimbus in a steep dive back to his cave. He grabbed his go-bag—a large sack he had pre-packed months ago containing cured pelts, massive tiger fangs, and anything else he thought he could sell for some quick Berries. Tossing the sack over his shoulder, he launched himself back into the sky, rocketing straight toward the distant speck on the horizon.
He didn't care whose flag it was flying. Marines, pirates, or a civilian merchant ship—it didn't matter. He was finally going back to human civilization!