Free Web NovelChapter 306: 305: Cook of Germa 66 — Recruitment
May 10, 1504, Age of the Sea Circle
After saying goodbye to his traveling companions three days earlier, Orion arrived on Higo Island, where his new adventure would begin. He had also recruited a good portion of the inhabitants of Gourde—whom he had unintentionally abducted into his Pocket Dimension while escaping from Blackbeard—and sent them to his kingdom in the South Blue as well.
Even so, not all of the inhabitants of his new subordinate Basil Hawkins’ home island had wanted to abandon their homeland, so Orion simply gave them several ships from his inventory and wished them good luck on their journey home, as he had no intention of accompanying them back.
He had already saved their lives—although in reality it had been his apprentice Law who had done so—by curing them of the deadly disease they had contracted because of Doc Q, so he did not feel that he owed them anything for the inconvenience of having been taken far from home during his escape from Blackbeard.
As for Olive and her pirate crew, Orion had also sent them back to the South Blue, despite the beautiful pirate’s desire to remain in the North Blue a while longer and attempt to conquer it just as she had previously conquered the South Blue, where she was undoubtedly the strongest pirate in the region.
It was not that Orion opposed her plans for expansion, but at the moment he was somewhat concerned about the presence of Blackbeard and his crew in the area. According to the information he had received from Stussy, Teach’s crew had not left the North Blue at all—instead, they had ventured even deeper into it.
For that reason—and also because Orion did not want his wife on the other side of the world, where visiting her regularly would be far more difficult—he had sent them back to the South Blue together with Law, Monet, and the others.
Although both the self-appointed maid Monet and his other companions had wanted to remain by his side until the very end of the journey through the North Blue, Orion had remained firm in his decision. He now had an important mission to complete, and for the next month he needed to focus entirely on it without having to look after anyone else.
The mission required a certain degree of discretion, so Orion had to proceed alone toward the base of Germa 66, which meant that the North Blue journey had officially come to an end for Perona and the rest.
Three days earlier, Orion had sent everyone back to the South Blue through his Space Gate, which, after several days of being unusable due to Blackbeard’s attack destroying the portal, had finally become operational again.
The last thing Orion had done before leaving was say goodbye to Mitsu, who remained completely paralyzed. He had promised her that within a month he would cure her completely and restore her to perfect health. Furthermore, both Law and Perona had promised to personally take care of the little clone, once again demonstrating the strong friendship they had developed during the months they had spent traveling together.
With the newly recruited Hawkins—who simply accepted everything Orion told him with great interest—the group had returned to Pacific Kingdom, while Orion now stood on the verge of beginning his infiltration of Germa 66’s mobile castle.
To do so, he had traveled to this island known as Higo, where recruitment for new employees of the famous Germa castle was taking place today.
Looking around, Orion could see a large number of applicants gathered there, although the overwhelming majority appeared to be people desperate for a meal rather than elite candidates.
The situation in this region of the North Blue had become quite difficult due to the presence of numerous pirates as well as territorial wars between several local kingdoms. As a result, if there was one thing this corner of the world certainly did not lack, it was people searching for a better future—something that joining Germa 66 would supposedly guarantee, or at least that was what they believed.
While waiting for the officials in charge of recruitment to call them forward, Orion reviewed once again the new mission he had received from the system.
*Mission 27 – Cook of Germa 66
Description: Germa 66 is a famous landless kingdom led by Judge, who dreams of conquering the North Blue just as his ancestors once did. There, only the strong have a place, while manual professions such as cooking are scorned as work fit only for inferior people.
Objective: Join Germa 66 as a cook and remain there for one month, performing that profession and experiencing the life of an ordinary cook.
Reward: SP, one-level increase to the skill "Cooking," complete information regarding Judge’s scientific research.
(Depending on your actions during your month in Germa, it may be possible to obtain additional rewards.)*
This was not the first time he had received a mission related to a profession. Previously, he had undertaken a similar mission centered around acting. In the end, not only had Orion completed that mission successfully, but he had also established his relationship with Victoria Cindry in the process.
Even so, missions requiring such a lengthy completion period—an entire month—were relatively uncommon. Orion, however, had no objections whatsoever, because the most important thing to him was the fact that upon completing the mission, he would obtain the information necessary to cure Mitsu.
Before receiving this mission, Orion had been planning to infiltrate Germa 66 and steal the information he needed, but that plan would have been far more complicated, especially because he could not be certain that Judge had all of his research written down and available to be stolen in such a manner. In fact, the most likely scenario was that he did not.
Now, however, Orion knew he could obtain the information he needed directly from the system, and all he had to do was maintain a low profile as a cook in the Kingdom of Germa for one month, which was undoubtedly much simpler from his point of view.
"Attention! We’re about to begin the recruitment interviews!"
Suddenly, a voice echoed in the distance, pulling Orion out of his thoughts. Raising his head, he saw a bespectacled man who looked every bit the part of a butler. The man had appeared on the scene and was calling the prospective recruits forward to begin the "recruitment interviews."
Orion walked toward the entrance of the building the butler-like man had just entered, but he was unable to follow him inside. Two completely expressionless soldiers stopped him at the door and instructed him to take his place in line and wait his turn.
With no other option, Orion let out a faint sigh and moved to the back of the queue that was forming, patiently waiting to be called by the recruiter who would evaluate him.
Finally, nearly two hours later, he was allowed into the building and his interview began. To his surprise, it was much simpler than he had expected—or at least the initial stage was.
The interviewer merely asked a few basic questions, such as his name—he gave the name Orion Lavender on this occasion—his age, and his proficiency in fundamental skills like reading, writing, and mathematics.
After that, he was asked about his specific abilities and whether he possessed any special talents, to which Orion simply replied that he was a good cook. After all, the system mission required him to enter Germa as a cook rather than in any other role, so he deliberately refrained from mentioning his other abilities, just in case.
Orion’s "Cooking" skill was currently at Level 6, which meant he was far more than merely a "good cook." After all, Level 7 was the highest level an ordinary cook could achieve before entering the realm of chefs whose abilities bordered on the magical or miraculous. In practical terms, this meant that Orion was already an elite chef by the standards of this world, only a single step away from the peak of normal culinary mastery.
Even so, Orion had no desire to stand out too much during his recruitment interview with Germa 66, as doing so could be counterproductive to his mission. Therefore, he simply stated that he was a good cook without boasting excessively about his abilities.
In any case, the interviewer seemed quite pleased to discover someone with Orion’s qualifications. The overwhelming majority of the applicants who had shown up that day were little more than refugees with no notable skills or professions, and many of them were in terrible physical condition due to malnutrition and poverty.
Germa 66 was a landless kingdom, but that did not mean it lacked inhabitants. Its enormous mobile castle housed a large population, although most of them were clones created by Judge—a fact unknown to the general public.
Even so, the clones could not fulfill every logistical role within Germa 66, as they were primarily employed as expendable soldiers. For that reason, the kingdom held recruitment drives once or twice a year to fill the various positions necessary to sustain everyday life. Occupations such as cooking were among the most important roles they needed to recruit, even if those professions enjoyed little prestige within the kingdom itself.
For the interviewer, who had spent hours assessing all manner of nearly worthless refugees, encountering a man like Orion—healthy, educated, and in possession of a useful profession—was genuinely something to be happy about. As a result, his attitude toward him throughout the interview was notably favorable.
Eventually, the man who appeared to be a butler asked a question that would prove crucial to Orion’s future:
"Do you know how to prepare medicinal food?"
Orion simply assumed that perhaps someone in Germa 66 was ill and required a special diet, so he did not attach much importance to the question and answered affirmatively. Given his knowledge of both cooking and medicine, he was capable of preparing medicinal dishes of the highest quality.
What he did not know, however, was that answering this specific question positively would completely change his role within Germa 66, and naturally the focus of his mission would change along with it.
"Excellent! This is exactly the kind of promising young man Germa 66 needs!" the interviewer exclaimed with a smile as he rose from his chair and approached Orion to shake his hand.
"I’d like to welcome you to your new home. However, before that, there is one final physical examination you must undergo, simply to verify that there are no issues with your health..."
Orion could sense that the man was not being entirely truthful, but he chose not to comment on it. His objective was to enter Germa as a cook and complete his mission, not to attract negative attention or provoke an incident.
Afterward, a group of soldiers emerged from deeper within the building and escorted him to a laboratory, where a doctor greeted him with a friendly smile and, after conducting a routine medical examination, took a sample of his blood.
"The external examination reveals no problems with your health, but we will still conduct a blood analysis before confirming your recruitment. The results will be available this afternoon, and at that point you will be informed whether you have been accepted," the doctor said without losing his kind and professional smile.
Orion stared at him, sensing through his Observation Haki that the man was also being insincere, and nodded before getting up from the examination table where he had been sitting, intending to leave and return later in the afternoon to obtain the results.
However, before he could do so, the doctor stopped him, saying,
"Wait a moment. Perhaps they didn’t tell you during the recruitment interview, but there is still one more physical examination you need to complete. Come this way."
The doctor left the laboratory through a different door from the one he had entered through, leading Orion even deeper into the building controlled by Germa 66. After a few minutes, they arrived at a suspicious-looking room, and Orion was guided to a chair positioned in the middle of it while the doctor pulled a syringe filled with a yellow liquid from his lab coat.
"For this final physical test, we are going to inject you with a medicine that will help relax your mind, preventing issues such as dizziness or headaches during the procedure," the doctor said, still maintaining his friendly smile, though combined with the gloomy atmosphere around them, it appeared somewhat sinister.
Orion looked at him steadily for a brief moment and nodded, extending his arm so the doctor could administer the "anti-dizziness medicine."
Naturally, he knew the doctor was lying, but he felt no concern whatsoever about whatever was about to be injected into his body. Earlier, he had briefly activated his Prism Eyes to determine whether he sensed any danger coming from the liquid inside the syringe, but his senses had shown no reaction.
His physique was incomparable to that of an ordinary person and was probably even stronger than that of a modified clone like Mitsu, so he knew the chances of being dangerously affected by a drug were extremely low.
And even if he were somehow affected, he could simply treat himself using his medical knowledge, or retreat into the Pocket Dimension and abandon the mission related to Germa 66 altogether, though that would undoubtedly be the worst possible outcome from his perspective.
The doctor injected the syringe into Orion’s arm, administering the drug he had prepared beforehand, and Orion immediately felt both the effects the substance was having on his body and the doctor’s true objective.
Essentially, the drug they had administered was a truth serum designed to strip away the mind’s defenses while simultaneously inducing a state of mental confusion. It was a substance widely used by spies, and Orion had encountered it during his time on Guanhao, the Cipher Pol training island.
Even so, the potency of the drug he was experiencing now was far greater than the version used by Cipher Pol, meaning it was most likely an improved formula developed by Judge and his team of scientists.
Unfortunately for them, Orion not only possessed the "Strong Body" skill, which greatly reduced the drug’s effectiveness on him, but also another passive skill called "Strong Mind," which was actually one level above "Strong Body," having reached level 8.
This meant that Orion could resist almost any mental attack. Even Galus’s Devil Fruit—whose power consisted of creating illusions to confuse an enemy’s mind—or Gloriosa’s hypnotic abilities had almost no effect on him, making the drug that had just been injected into him nearly useless.
Even so, Orion did not want to attract unnecessary attention, and he was also curious about the intentions of these Germa 66 employees. Therefore, using his acting skills, he feigned a vacant, unfocused stare and pretended that the drug had affected him successfully.
"This is the best recruit we’ve had in quite a while, but he’s still somewhat suspicious," the doctor said, no longer smiling.
"You suspect he could be another World Government spy?" asked another man who had just entered the room, revealing himself to be the butler-like interviewer.
"Yes. Lately they’ve been sending more and more spies. They must be desperate to learn about the progress of our king’s research."
"Perhaps Vegapunk isn’t making progress on creating the perfect soldier they want. After all, he’s famous for being stubborn and difficult," the butler remarked thoughtfully.
"If he were truly difficult, would he have sold himself to the World Government like he did?" the doctor replied with a look of disdain, clearly unimpressed by the famous scientific genius’s personal decisions.
"In any case, let’s proceed with the interrogation. If he checks out clean, we’ll truly have won the lottery this time!" the doctor continued.
"Mm? It’s unusual to see you this excited. It’s true that finding someone competent during these recruitments is rare, but I don’t think that alone is enough to get you worked up like this," the butler said curiously as he observed the doctor’s attitude.
"Bah, who cares about his skills as a cook? This guy has an incredible body! I ran a few simple tests, and the values were far above average. Maybe he’s part fish-man, or perhaps he has some favorable mutation!
In any case, I drew a sample of his blood that I intend to analyze in detail later. Maybe we’ll be able to use him as a guinea pig afterward—or even use it to create high-level clones!"
The doctor spoke passionately about his future plans, completely unaware that he was digging his own grave in the process, because Orion could not afford to attract this kind of attention. Otherwise, his infiltration mission as a cook in Germa 66 would be ruined.
"Sigh, I guess I’m going to have to take some slightly drastic measures," Orion thought as he planned his next moves.
In the end, the doctor and the butler interrogated Orion, confirming that he was not a spy, and Orion’s recruitment process into Germa 66 was completed, with him being accepted as a cook aboard the floating castle of the landless kingdom.
"Congratulations on being accepted! A bright future awaits you as a citizen of our glorious kingdom!" the interviewer said after handing Orion a set of documents indicating his new status as a citizen of Germa 66.
"Thank you very much for your kind words," Orion replied with a smile that did not reach his eyes as the afternoon sun fell across his shoulders, casting a rather gloomy shadow over his expression.
"It’s a shame that I can’t leave any loose ends, so this is where we part ways," Orion continued, extending his hand toward the horrified interviewer with the appearance of a butler.
...
May 11, 1504, Age of the Sea Circle
The following morning, a ship arrived at Higo Island to collect the recruits who would be transported to Germa 66’s castle-ship, and the butler-like interviewer handed the Germa representative who had come to the island the list of recruits for this semester.
Germa 66 held recruitment drives twice a year, although they did not always manage to find decent talent, and most of the time the recruits ended up being little more than experimental subjects for Judge and his team of scientists, deceived by the hope of escaping the poverty in which they lived.
"Any outstanding talents this time?" the Germa 66 representative asked as he took the stack of documents containing information on the new recruits.
"Nah, just a pile of trash this time, though there are two or three who might be useful because of the skills they have in their trades," the butler replied with a disinterested expression.
"Mm, that’s disappointing, but it’s a fact that finding good recruits gets harder every year. Maybe word is spreading that most of them end up as corpses on an operating table," said the man who had come to collect the recruits. Shaking his head, he added,
"In any case, I’ll see you again at the end of the year."
The Germa 66 representative raised a hand in farewell to the butler-like interviewer before turning around and returning to his ship, where the recruited individuals were boarding to begin their journey to Germa’s castle.
"I suppose this should be enough," Orion said with a light sigh, thinking that fortunately his infiltration mission as a cook in Germa 66 had not been ruined.
"Who would have thought getting in without attracting attention would be so complicated? I suppose the moment my blood was analyzed, keeping a low profile became impossible," Orion muttered as his appearance returned to normal and he discarded his previous disguise.
"I’d better hurry if I don’t want to attract attention again," Orion finally said as he changed clothes and ran toward the ship that would carry him to Germa 66.
Meanwhile, the corpses of the interviewer and the doctor who had drawn his blood rested on the bottom of the sea after Orion had been forced to dispose of them to prevent them from interfering with his mission in Germa 66.
Not only had Orion eliminated the two threats, but he had also destroyed his blood samples and altered the interview records, because otherwise it would have been impossible for him to spend an entire month in Germa 66’s castle as a cook without attracting attention.
It had been a risky gamble, since afterward he had needed to impersonate the interviewer himself, simultaneously altering his appearance through Distorted Future, Art Coating, and Canvas Realm.
Fortunately, the Germa 66 representative who had come to collect the recruits had been rather lax in his duties, allowing Orion’s deception to succeed. After all, no organization could be completely airtight, and there would always be weak links ready to be exploited.
Boarding the ship that would take him to Germa 66 after the representative confirmed that his name was on the list, Orion breathed a sigh of relief once more, thinking that his month-long adventure in one of the most peculiar places in the North Blue was about to begin.
There, he would find far more than he had originally expected, and his month in Germa 66 would undoubtedly be very different from the life of an "ordinary cook" that the system mission had proposed.
