Was Rocks, who dominated the entire ocean in the previous generation, only this capable?
"I'm afraid I've encountered a knock-off, haven't I?"
Taro muttered to himself. He had never seen even a single portrait of Rocks, so he didn't actually know what the man looked like; his earlier identification had just been a guess.
However, since the other party didn't deny it, Taro could only assume he was.
But this guy's combat power was way too weak, wasn't it?
From within the black clouds, Rocks slowly stepped out once more. He stretched his limbs and sighed.
"I'm really not used to this body!"
Taro frowned. "Are you really Rocks?"
Rocks revealed Blackbeard's signature grin, opening his large mouth wide.
"Zehahaha, you look... very disappointed?"
"I've slept for too long and haven't quite adapted yet. How about we both give each other some time? I need to recover, and you must have many questions, right? Ask away, I can tell you!"
Hearing this, Taro became wary. Did this mean he needed time to recover his strength?
Back then, the Rocks Pirates required the combined efforts of Roger and Garp to be defeated.
Although it was unclear if Rocks alone fought Roger and Garp, or if the Rocks Pirates fought the Roger Pirates and Garp together,
In short, Rocks' strength must be incredibly powerful!
Once his strength recovered, what then?
Taro's Internal Energy surged again, gathering in his arms.
"Compared to those secrets, I'd rather stay alive!"
"Great Eruption!"
As he spoke, his right arm blasted forward. A massive fist of Internal Energy, wrapped in various energies, erupted violently.
Then, without the slightest hesitation, he slammed both fists toward the sky again.
"Meteor Volcano!"
Countless Internal Energy fists shot straight into the sky, then fell like a meteor shower.
Rocks was clearly shocked by Taro's refusal to play by the rules.
In this world, countless top-tier powerhouses are willing to discard their lives and risk everything in pursuit of secrets and treasures.
Where had he ever encountered a "powerhouse" like Taro?
Taro, however, didn't think that way.
In the movies and TV shows of his past life, the protagonist always liked to wait for the villain to finish transforming or charging their ultimate Move before having a fair fight.
The result was usually being beaten miserably first, only to win a hard-fought victory at the end relying on the Protagonist Halo.
Taro had no such masochistic quirk!
Rocks was only shocked for a moment before snapping back to his senses. The black mist on his hand became almost solid as he met the Great Eruption with a punch.
"Boom!"
The massive forces collided. After the Vibration Energy erupted, the giant Internal Energy arm burst into even more energy bullets, which, combined with the falling meteor shower, instantly blanketed this narrow battlefield!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
As the energy bullets continued to fall, Rocks dodged clumsily, showing none of the grace of a grand hero.
He was very angry!
Thirty-six years of slumber had made his control over this body very clumsy; he couldn't exert his original strength at all.
A fallen tiger is bullied by dogs!
Although he didn't know the proverb, that was exactly how he felt!
"Sandstorm!"
"Desert Sunflower!"
"Lions Might: Earth Roll!"
"..."
Taro threw out his Moves one by one, gradually compressing Rocks' range of movement.
Rocks' shock gradually turned into fury. After Taro unleashed countless skills, he finally let out a roar.
"Who exactly are you? Why can you do this much?"
From Taro's Moves, he recognized the techniques of Golden Lion Shiki, who was once his subordinate!
Taro paused for a moment. Do this much? What did that mean?
Taro was puzzled, but he valued his life more!
After Taro's numerous terrain-altering Moves, Rocks' range of movement was already very small.
Then, with a thought, the thunderstorm suspended in mid-air for a long time glowed with a brilliant green light.
After vibrating for a while, with all buffs active, it charged into the thick mist.
"You've actually managed to fuse all the Devil Fruit abilities!"
Rocks felt as if he could no longer keep up with the times!
His proudest achievement back then was learning the secrets of the Origin Factory here!
Devil Fruit abilities are 'implanted'!
Although the core for that 'Implantation' was lost,
That core clearly possessed all the Devil Fruit abilities!
This gave him a bold idea!
Since the original core was lost, he would create a new one!
However, this required a certain understanding of the original technology!
After studying the Factory Logs, he learned the coordinates of God Valley, the original location of the Origin Factory.
Only then did the God Valley Incident break out.
Unfortunately, he ultimately failed.
The crushing defeat at God Valley shattered his ambition to control ability Implantation and become the King of the World.
On the brink of death, he thought of a way to find life in a desperate situation!
He had Charlotte Linlin extract his Soul and inject it into a newborn baby girl, a slave of the Celestial Dragons on God Valley.
As payment, Rocks gave Charlotte Linlin a Mythical Zoan, the Uo Uo no Mi.
Things originally went smoothly; Rocks survived within the infant's body in the form of a "Homies"!
However, this Celestial Dragon had a perverted hobby that was hair-raisingly depraved!
He liked to watch "humans eating humans"!
To add to the excitement, he picked one of his slaves and fed them the Nuke Nuke no Mi!
Then, he had this slave perform an entertainment show of eating children for him!
That slave ate a two-year-old boy, a one-year-old girl, and an infant!
The three of them were siblings!
Their mother was that very slave!
It was a tragedy of human ethics, yet it gave the Celestial Dragon immense satisfaction!
It also gave birth to a monster with three body structures and three Lineage Factors!
Blackbeard, Marshall D. Teach!
After the God Valley Incident, the World Government decided to cover up the entire situation and wipe the island off the map.
And so, the 2-year-old "monster" Teach took the opportunity to escape!
In the decade that followed, Rocks' Soul finally eliminated the two naturally kind female Souls and began to influence Teach's thoughts!
At the age of 12, Blackbeard joined Whitebeard's pirate ship!
This experience gave Rocks a new idea, a new way to reshape the "Implantation" core!
The Nuke Nuke no Mi can fuse several human bodies into one while maintaining the original Lineage Factors.
So theoretically, as long as enough people were fused, with one Lineage Factor supporting one Devil Fruit Ability, one could eventually fuse all abilities and become a new core!
He needed the Nuke Nuke no Mi, so he attacked the Drum Kingdom with the intent to seize it.
Of course, the prerequisite was to extract the fruit ability from its current owner. Lacking ancient technology, he could only settle for the next best thing: using the Dark-Dark Fruit's power to strip it away!
Because Rocks was the previous user of the Dark-Dark Fruit, he knew it could be done!
Furthermore, he needed powerful offensive strength to ensure he could defeat other ability users!
Therefore, he needed the world's strongest Tremor-Tremor Fruit!
The Dark-Dark Fruit, Tremor-Tremor Fruit, and Nuke Nuke no Mi were the three abilities Rocks ultimately wanted!
However, now, the Taro before him seemed to have already achieved it!
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