"YES!"
The glass door hadn't even fully settled back into its frame before Rosh threw his hands in the air, letting out a loud, triumphant shout that had been building up for an entire month.
'Finally! No more skeptical side-eyes, no more being treated like a crazy sidewalk prophet, and no more sitting around watching a completely empty store.' He had actually done it. He had sold a Devil Fruit to Wade freaking Wilson. The Beginner Mission was officially, undeniably in the bag.
An electric surge of pure excitement raced through his veins. Without wasting another second, Rosh summoned his mental system interface, his eyes practically sparkling in anticipation.
What kind of insane reward do you get for jumpstarting the superhero age with a magical fruit?
"System," Rosh took a deep, steadying breath, trying to calm his racing heart. "Finalize the Beginner Mission."
Right on cue, the familiar, crisp mechanical voice chimed directly into his mind.
[Congratulations, Host! You have successfully sold your first Devil Fruit and completed the Beginner Mission.]
A sleek, glowing holographic notification window materialized in the air right in front of him.
[Reward Options:]
[1. One Gacha Draw]
[2. 500 Origin Points]
[Please select your reward.]
Rosh's gaze instantly drifted toward the Gacha option. Let's be real, who doesn't love a high-stakes lottery roll? But he forced his inner hype-man to take a back seat for a second. If the system was putting Origin Points on the exact same tier as a Gacha ticket, then they had to be incredibly important.
"System," he muttered, narrowing his eyes at the floating text. "Break it down for me. What exactly do Origin Points do?"
The answer flashed onto the screen instantly.
[Origin Points can be used to instantly accelerate Devil Fruit development.]
[Example: The Smooth-Smooth Fruit just sold by the Host can be instantly upgraded to the peak master level of its original template user for the cost of 100 Origin Points.]
A sudden wave of understanding washed over him.
'So that's how it works.' Rosh's eyes lit up.
Origin Points were an absolute goldmine. In the universe of superpowers, a fruit's raw potential was only half the battle; the actual user mattered just as much, if not more. The gap between an amateur who just unlocked their powers and a seasoned master who fully understood them was like comparing a firecracker to a nuclear warhead. With Origin Points, you could completely skip years of grueling training and master an ability in the blink of an eye. It was the ultimate shortcut.
But... as amazing as that sounded, it wasn't what Rosh needed right now.
Think about it, Origin Points are completely useless if you don't even have a superpower to upgrade in the first place. He was still just an ordinary guy running a shop. He needed his own weapon.
"I'll take the Gacha Draw," Rosh decided, zero hesitation left in his voice.
[One Gacha Draw has been selected. Would the Host like to initiate the draw now?]
Rosh almost laughed out loud. Was that even a real question? "Spin the wheel. Let's see what we get."
The interface immediately transformed into a blurring, high-speed roulette wheel of glowing text. Names of legendary Devil Fruits from his past life started flashing across the screen so fast they turned into a strobe light of pure potential.
[Chop-Chop Fruit...]
[Bomb-Bomb Fruit...]
[Bubble-Bubble Fruit...]
[Shadow-Shadow Fruit...]
[Tremor-Tremor Fruit...]
[Munch-Munch Fruit...]
[Flame-Flame Fruit...]
Rosh's pulse hammered against his ribs. The reward pool didn't just have basic items; it was packed with actual Devil Fruits. But as the names flew past, a nervous sweat started to break out on the back of his neck.
Let's be completely honest, despite what the idealists claimed, Devil Fruits absolutely had a hierarchy. Sure, there were no useless powers, only useless users, but some fruits just gave you a massive head start. In a Marvel universe completely devoid of Haki, rolling a Logia-type fruit was a literal, god-tier cheat code. The ability to transform your physical body into a natural element and let conventional attacks pass right through you was completely broken.
Rosh closed his eyes, silently praying to whatever cosmic entity was listening. 'Please don't be a generic animal Zoan. Please don't let me turn into a regular baseline giraffe. Please don't—'
[Gacha Draw Complete!]
The chaotic scrolling snapped to a violent, definitive halt. A single name remained burned onto the center of the screen, blazing in a bright, blinding gold.
Rosh opened his eyes, read the text, and completely froze. His heart stopped, then threatened to jump straight out of his chest.
[Glint-Glint Fruit (Pika Pika no Mi)]
[Classification: Logia]
[Template User: Admiral Kizaru]
[Congratulations, Host. You have obtained the Glint-Glint Fruit.]
A beautiful, metallic golden fruit suddenly materialized right out of thin air, dropping gently into Rosh's trembling hands. Its surface was covered in those distinct, intricate swirling patterns. There was absolutely no mistaking it. It was the real deal.
"The Glint-Glint Fruit..." Rosh whispered, staring down at it in pure awe.
Among the legendary Logia fruits, this thing was widely considered an absolute titan. It granted the user the literal power of light itself. Unmatched speed, immense destructive force, and an untouchable elemental defense.
A massive, unstoppable grin spread across his face. He couldn't help but chuckle to himself. "Honestly, I wonder if Admiral Kizaru became so incredibly sarcastic because his brain spent his whole life moving at light speed."
His mood had never been better. Without giving himself time to overthink it, Rosh lifted the golden fruit to his mouth and took a massive bite.
The reaction was instantaneous.
"DEAR GOD!"
Rosh's entire face twisted into a horrific, agonizing grimace. His eyes watered, and his stomach violently rebelled. "THIS IS ABSOLUTELY FOUL!"
The taste was completely beyond description. Calling it awful didn't even scratch the surface. It tasted like a horrifying cocktail of burning tires, rotten garbage, and radioactive waste all mixed into one. Even knowing that Devil Fruits were infamous for their nightmarish flavor hadn't prepared him for the sheer reality of it. Every single instinct in his body screamed at him to spit it out.
In that exact microsecond, Rosh gained a whole new level of profound respect for Deadpool. That absolute lunatic had eaten nearly an entire fruit without a single complaint. Wade Wilson really is built entirely different.
Grinding his teeth and fighting down the urge to vomit, Rosh forced himself to swallow the bite.
The very instant it hit his stomach, everything shifted.
A wave of strange, alien energy erupted through his core, spreading out into his limbs. It felt warm, weightless, and entirely boundless, as if every single cell in his body was being rearranged on a molecular level.
Rosh's eyes snapped open, a brilliant golden hue flashing across his irises. "Light..."
He could feel it deep in his soul. He wasn't just a guy who could control photons anymore. He was light.
Slowly, almost experimentally, Rosh raised his right hand and extended his index finger toward the front window. He focused his mind, just a tiny bit.
Instantly, dazzling golden particles began to coalesce at the tip of his finger, gathering into a blinding, humming sphere of pure energy. The entire shop was illuminated in a bright, golden glow.
Then..
*Whoosh!*
A concentrated beam of pure light erupted from his fingertip. The golden laser pierced right through the glass window, completely silent, and struck the asphalt across the street.
*BOOM!*
A sharp explosion echoed through the air as a perfectly neat, smoking crater blasted into the pavement. Rosh blinked once. Then twice.
"...Okay," a breathless laugh escaped him. "That was incredibly awesome."
Outside on the sidewalk, the sudden blast caused chaos. Pedestrians slammed to a halt, looking around wildly.
"What the hell was that?!"
"Did an underground gas line just blow up?"
"Dude, did you see that crazy golden flash?!"
People immediately started scrambling, trying to find the source of the blast. But Rosh knew they stood absolutely zero chance of figuring it out. The attack had literally traveled at the speed of light. To the average human eye, it was just a phantom blink of gold. Nothing more.
Inside the shop, Rosh completely ignored the commotion outside, his entire focus locked on his new body. He willed his form to shift again.
The next moment, his physical flesh completely dissolved, scattering into thousands of shimmering, floating golden particles. Where a normal human had just been standing, there was now a glowing, ethereal silhouette made of pure, raw energy.
Elemental transformation. Intangibility. Rosh could feel how it worked by pure instinct. In this state, normal physical concepts meant nothing to him. Bullets would pass through him like mist. Knives wouldn't even register. Against any ordinary human or standard military weapon, he was a living god.
Sure, there were exceptions down the line. Magical spells, cosmic entities, and reality-warping infinity stones could definitely still ruin his day. But right now? Look at the Marvel timeline. Tony Stark hadn't even built his first clunky suit in a cave yet. The truly dangerous cosmic players hadn't even looked toward Earth. As of this exact second, Rosh was easily one of the most powerful beings on the planet.
Unfortunately, the system wasn't about to let him stay cocky for long. A cold splash of reality quickly put out his burning excitement.
Even though he now possessed one of the strongest fruits in existence, he was still a total, level-one beginner. His actual mastery over the light was practically zero. Right now, he could only pull off the absolute basics: shifting into light particles and shooting simple, straight-line lasers.
The crazy, advanced techniques he remembered from the anime, like Kizaru's devastating area-of-effect barrages, the Sacred Yata Mirror for instantaneous teleportation, or solidifying light into a literal energy sword? Way out of his league. Those required serious training, tactical experience, and power development.
But hey, at least he finally had a path forward.
Before he could keep experimenting with his new glowing hands, another loud ding echoed inside his head, and a new text box popped up.
[New Stage Mission Unlocked.]
[Objective: Successfully sell Five (5) Devil Fruits.]
[Reward: One Gacha Draw OR 1,000 Origin Points.]
Rosh stared at the floating number 5 on the screen. Instantly, all the wind was knocked right out of his sails. His shoulders slumped, and he let out a long, pathetic groan.
"Five? Are you kidding me?"
He looked around his completely empty, quiet shop. The exact same shop that had required an entire month of soul-crushing effort just to trick one unstable mercenary into buying a single fruit. Selling five felt like a lifetime sentence.
He let out a slow, heavy sigh. "...This is going to be a seriously painful grind."
But as his eyes drifted toward the empty display slot where the Glint-Glint Fruit had just been stored, a slow, confident smile crept back onto his face. For the first time since he had dropped into this chaotic world, he actually had momentum.
He had the power of an Admiral in his veins, a pocket full of cosmic secrets, and a storefront in the heart of New York.
This was only the beginning.