Chapter 2: Big Mom Template! Protect This Smile
"Fuse!"
Ren's eyes were steady.
As his words fell, the image of Big Mom instantly turned into a streak of light and flowed into Ren's body.
The moment the light drilled into him, power began surging out of him in an endless stream, and the muscles across his body started swelling rapidly.
A violent pain burst out inside him. Ren clenched his teeth and forced himself to endure it.
He felt a powerful current repeatedly crashing through his body, forcibly widening the pathways within him.
The agony ground at his mind again and again. It was as if his bones were being crushed by that current, then repaired, over and over.
He didn't know how long it lasted before the pain finally dispersed.
Ren only felt his muscles twitching and trembling in waves.
After resting a little, Ren slowly got up. His limbs spasmed slightly from the lingering pain.
His originally frail body had turned burly, and even his height seemed to have been forcibly pulled up quite a bit.
Beneath that sturdy frame was an inexhaustible reservoir of strength.
He clenched his fist, clearly feeling that there was strength inside him he could never use up.
He threw a punch forward.
A deafening bang exploded by his ears.
The punch was so fast that only an afterimage flashed through the air.
On the wall of the shabby hut in front of him, that single blow shattered it.
Just the wind pressure from the punch blasted a huge hole straight through the wall.
Outside the hole was a small patch of woods. The trees in the grove looked as if a gale had swept through—trunks toppled and slammed to the ground.
"So strong…"
Ren stared at the ruined scene in the distance, murmuring in a daze.
The system's light screen appeared again in front of him.
Host: Ren Dikasis
Ability: Monster Strength, Steel Body
Template: Big Mom
Current template progress: 10%
Looking at the simple virtual panel, Ren's expression gradually turned serious.
"System. If I don't raise the template progress, can I still obtain all of Big Mom's abilities?"
Ren's young voice echoed inside the shabby hut.
"Yes. Increasing template progress allows the Host to obtain the template character's abilities and power."
The mechanical voice sounded in his ears. Ren's eyes lit up slightly, and he asked immediately, "How do I raise the character template progress?"
"In this world, making contact with characters from the original story can increase template progress. The more important the character, the greater the increase."
After getting the answer, Ren understood, a sharp gleam flashing in his eyes.
Contacting characters from the original story.
Right now, he had only met Erza, and he'd directly gained \(10\%\) progress.
If he joined Fairy Tail, wouldn't he be able to max out the Big Mom template quickly?
But whether to join Fairy Tail could wait.
Ren remembered that in the original story, Erza and the village children were abducted by a dark-magic cult and taken to the Tower of Heaven as slaves.
Since he was here now, he couldn't let that happen.
His eyes grew firm, the surging power inside him churning like waves.
While Ren was lost in thought, Erza's figure suddenly appeared not far away.
She held a small bundle in her hands, staring in panic at the huge hole in the wall and the wrecked scene outside.
"What happened?"
Ren turned his head and saw Erza standing at the doorway, looking at his back with alarm.
Facing Erza's panic, Ren didn't know how to explain it to her for the moment.
He scratched his head and pointed at the bundle in her hands. "Is that food? I'm really hungry."
Hearing Ren, Erza tossed what she'd just seen to the back of her mind and decided she'd ask what happened later.
She smiled, sat down beside Ren with the small bundle, and laid the food out in front of him.
"Eat. Hurry."
Erza's face was bright with a smile, her eyes watching Ren with expectation.
Under that sincere gaze, warmth instantly rose in Ren's chest.
Across two lifetimes, in his previous life there had only been one person who treated Ren unconditionally.
The director of the orphanage.
Ren smiled, pointed at the food, and said, "You should eat some too."
Erza hesitated, then shook her head. "I'm not hungry. Eat."
At that moment, an ill-timed sound rang out in the shabby hut.
A rumbling growl came from Erza's stomach as well.
Her pretty face flushed red, and she turned her head away.
"Eat," Ren said with a laugh, placing the simple food into Erza's hands.
Then he grabbed a piece of dry, rough food and started eating too.
Watching Ren eat with gusto, Erza stopped forcing herself to refuse and stuffed the food in her hand into her mouth.
After filling their stomachs a little, the two of them couldn't help but look at each other and smile.
Seeing the pure smile on Erza's face, Ren couldn't help smiling from the bottom of his heart too.
If before, he'd only liked Erza as a character because he'd watched an anime in his previous life,
then now, he could truly develop real feelings for Erza.
He swore he would protect that pure smile in front of him.
…
After obtaining Big Mom's monster strength and steel body, Ren didn't need to worry about food for the time being.
Normally, Ren went alone to the forest around the village to hunt.
At first, Erza strongly tried to stop him. Even though there were no magical beasts in the forest near the village,
there were still plenty of fierce animals. Even experienced old hunters didn't dare to go deep alone, let alone an eleven-year-old child like Ren.
But after Ren showed Erza his strength once, Erza reluctantly allowed him to go into the forest.
Over the long stretch of time that followed, Ren was able to bring back some prey from the forest every day.
In the beginning, it was only small game, like rabbits and the like.
Until one day, Ren walked out of the forest with a fully grown wild boar on his back, shocking everyone in the village on the spot.