Chapter 39: Changes in the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, Special Devil Fruit Slot?
Marineford, Marine Training Ground Number 73.
"Dark Branch: Giant Iron Thorn!"
Accompanying Hina's low shout, a pitch-black giant iron bar appeared from her outstretched hands.
The huge, heavy iron bar was flung out by her.
"White Smoke: Ten-Hand Cut!"
At this moment, facing her and fighting her, was Smoker.
One could see at this moment that Smoker did not choose Logia Transformation to dodge this attack.
On the contrary—at this moment, this White Hunter, already drenched in sweat, merely clutched the weapon in his hand, "Jitte", with white smoke coiling around his wrist, and swung it towards the iron bar, smashing it with a single strike.
"Boom!"
So, one could see the gigantic iron bar was directly smashed apart by his single strike, falling heavily to the side.
"Huff... huff..."
"Hah... hah..."
At this moment, both Hina and Smoker had clearly expended a considerable amount of stamina.
But even so, the two's actions were synchronized—one took out a lady's cigarette, the other pulled a cigar from his chest, and lit them simultaneously.
"Phew." *2
Each exhaled a puff of smoke, and the expressions of the two seemed to relax.
Then,
"You—"
Hina was just about to say something, but her words abruptly stopped.
Because at this moment, she saw a news gull flying over Marineford drop two bundles of newspapers—these were clearly newspapers meant for the two of them.
"Newspapers from the World Economic News Agency. Isn't it not yet time for the next issue?"
Hina frowned slightly.
"Is it a special extra edition? What happened?"
Smoker reacted similarly.
She reached out, and an iron bar caught the newspaper. On the other side, Smoker also used thick smoke to take the newspaper into his hand.
The two simultaneously looked at the headline position of their respective newspapers.
Then,
Both of their brows furrowed at the same time, and surprise flashed in their eyes.
"This is truly... something big happened."
In Hina's voice, there was nothing but gravity.
One could see at this moment that at the very top of the newspaper's headline, a line of bolded large characters was surprisingly written.
[Seven Warlords of the Sea 'Crocodile' Assassinated.]
A simple sentence was enough to shake the entire Grand Line.
However, this was not even the whole story.
The truly crucial content was in the detailed report below.
"The government claims that the one who killed Crocodile is the president and mastermind of the Grand Line's criminal organization 'Baroque Works', whose codename is 'MR.0'. But after this reporter confirmed the information, an informant provided news—MR.0 claims to be 'Dragon', and seems to be related to the criminal 'Drunken Chicken' who recently shook the world by 'looting the Heavenly Gold'. They both come from a mysterious organization, whose name is—[Twelve Star Generals], and Baroque Works might be their subordinate organization."
Seeing this, Smoker had already crumpled the newspaper.
"Crocodile actually died? Dragon... and Drunken Chicken are from the same organization?"
His voice was very low, and his words were full of gravity.
"That's right—Last time they robbed the Heavenly Gold, and this time they directly killed a Seven Warlords of the Sea. It seems the Twelve Star Generals are a very troublesome organization."
And at this moment, Hina took a puff from her cigarette.
"'Big News' Morgans. He really dares to report this kind of information, huh? Isn't he really afraid of the government coming after him?"
She was a very meticulous person.
She was very clear that the Marines had thoroughly sealed off all information related to 'Drunken Chicken' internally.
Except for Loy as the leader, and the Marines who had directly participated in the events at Marster Port.
Almost no other Marines knew many details about Drunken Chicken.
But at this moment, in the 'World Economic News Agency', relevant information had appeared.
Moreover, this newspaper was a sudden 'extra edition', so Hina could almost guess—Morgans probably hadn't gotten approval from the World Government for this newspaper.
"That Morgans, the kind of guy who only fears the world isn't chaotic enough, there's probably nothing he wouldn't dare to do, right?"
And at this moment, Smoker shook his head.
Then, he decisively threw the newspaper aside: "Let's continue training—I still have 83 more (repetitions) until today's goal."
"..."
And after hearing Smoker's words, Hina's expression also stiffened.
"So... what's wrong with you, guy? You don't care about things that are enough to shake the entire Grand Line, only thinking about training... Have you been provoked by something recently? Hina doesn't understand!"
She couldn't help but complain.
Recently, Smoker had been dragging her to train almost every day, and the intensity of the training was quite terrifying.
To the point that even Hina, who originally didn't mind training, felt she couldn't take it anymore.
"Shake the Grand Line... I never thought Seven Warlords of the Sea should exist in the first place."
And Smoker said, puffing on his cigar: "Compared to caring about who defeated such a guy, I have more important things to do."
What he said was indeed true.
On normal days, he might be concerned about a Seven Warlords of the Sea being defeated, especially about the organization named 'Twelve Star Generals'—as Morgans wished, the appearance of this name was absolutely enough to shake the entire Grand Line.
But the problem was, he had more important things right now.
That was... the Three Armies Military Exercise!
"Loy..."
Smoker was a strong-willed person.
As a contemporary and friend, his competitive spirit towards Loy existed to some extent.
And before this, although he acknowledged that Loy's strength was considerable, he always believed he was stronger than Loy.
After all, he was a Logia Type Ability User, while Loy was not an Ability User.
But last time, after personally witnessing Loy's battle against Zephyr.
His thoughts had naturally changed.
"That guy has already quietly grown to that level..."
Thinking of the 'Three Armies Military Exercise' that would start in a few months, and the harsh words Loy had said to him back then.
"If I'm really defeated by that guy, that scoundrel might even demand that I become his subordinate—By then, I'm afraid he'll mock me for the rest of my life."
Both fearing his comrade might struggle and fearing he might become too strong—that precisely described Smoker at this moment.
That's why recently, his training had been so frantic.
In fact, even after such frantic training, Smoker still felt uneasy.
"He became Zephyr Sensei's disciple, and Zephyr Sensei said he would pass on the essence of his physical skills to him..."
Smoker worriedly thought: "Half a month has passed, that guy... he's probably been painstakingly training every day recently, and has become much stronger, right?"
At this thought, he felt that the cigar in his mouth wasn't as fragrant anymore.
So, he also looked at the still bewildered Hina: "Quick, let's continue training—I've changed my mind, today we need to do 50 more sets."
"Huh?"
Hearing this, Hina frowned and froze.
And looking at Smoker's solemn "I absolutely cannot lose" expression, she could only shake her head helplessly: "Hina has nothing to say."
While Smoker was anxiously thinking of his good comrade and training like mad, he naturally didn't know...
Inside Zephyr's exclusive "Z" training camp dormitory.
"Hiccup!"
A loud hiccup sound came.
Although it was already bright outside, Loy was still lazily lounging in bed.
"Ah, refreshing! I actually finished an entire bottle in one go! I've really gotten much stronger, haven't I!"
Measuring the cola bottle in his hand, Loy's expression was extremely satisfied, as if he had completed an extraordinary feat.
Painstaking training?
That was naturally impossible.
It wasn't that Loy himself was lazy, but rather that the situation on Zephyr's side was a bit strange.
In fact, ever since Zephyr said he would take him as a true disciple and would pass on the essence of his physical skills to him,
Loy had indeed prepared to receive devilish training.
But the reality was—after Zephyr brought him to the training camp, he only made him do some basic strength training every day.
If one insisted on something special, it was that the training covered a very wide range.
Muscles, bones, strength... Zephyr had him train in all aspects and recorded the data.
Besides this, Loy rarely saw his convenient teacher.
And Loy was happy with this.
Doing some basic strength training every day, then sipping cola and basking in the sun, then sipping more cola—such a life couldn't be better.
Especially these past few days.
"Baroque Works' business is already in hand, plus the Berries promised by the King of Alabasta will also be sent to Dragon's hands—"
At this thought, Loy almost couldn't help but laugh out loud.
This time's Alabasta plan, from the very beginning, he was going for Crocodile.
Baroque Works, as a famous criminal organization in the Grand Line, had over 2000 members.
Such a massive organization certainly wasn't idle.
Bounty hunting, black market transactions, mercenary work, hunting sea beasts—its business network was extremely developed.
And its unique internal situation made Loy eye it early on.
And his plan was quite smooth—the 'Dragon' he had meticulously arranged indeed countered Crocodile's abilities.
After taking care of Crocodile, Dragon has now officially become MR.0 with the help of Nico Robin.
Next, Baroque Works belonged to him.
"However... the content of the business needs to be slightly changed."
Of course, Loy still had his bottom line in this regard.
Businesses like human trafficking and illegal drug trade, he would never touch.
But even so—
"Just the business of Baroque Works, after deducting the basic funds to maintain operations, can still yield a net profit of at least 6 billion Berries annually."
"It's a pity that Crocodile spent most of the liquid funds for his 'Ideal Kingdom Plan', otherwise I would have a lot of money right now."
After learning about Baroque Works' situation through Nico Robin, Loy was naturally extremely satisfied.
One can only say it's no wonder that in the original work, Crocodile could establish a massive organization like Baroque Works, and even use colossal amounts of Berries to bribe the Marines.
This formidable character cannot be said to be the strongest in terms of combat power, but he certainly had skill when it came to making money.
And this wasn't all—don't forget, Loy also had a cooperation with the King of Alabasta.
The previous few rainfalls, the King had already given 1.5 billion Berries as payment.
Besides this, the reward for saving the country would also be sent to Dragon.
At that time, another huge sum of 3 billion Berries would be deposited, enough for Loy to strengthen quite a few Devil Fruits again.
Of course, for Loy—this wasn't even the greatest gain.
The truly most important gain was the illusory screen in front of him at this moment.
[Devil Fruit Encyclopedia]
[Holder: Loy Amos]
[Current Encyclopedia Devil Fruit Types: 34 types (Paramecia Type - 16, Zoan Type - 12, Logia Type - 5, Special Paramecia Type - 0, Mythical Zoan Type - 1).]
[Devil Fruit Slot Quantity: 3→4]
[Current Berries Held: 1,275,430,000 Berries]
[Currently Equipped: Ox-Ox Devil Fruit - Giant Ox Form (LV2), Dragon-Dragon Devil Fruit - Wind God Winged Dragon Form (LV3), Human-Human Devil Fruit - Great Buddha Form (LV1), Empty Slot.]
Accompanied by the flashing of the screen, Loy could clearly see a new, illusory page opened in the latter half of the [Devil Fruit Encyclopedia].
And on the page, new text appeared.
[After the number of Devil Fruits thoroughly analyzed reaches 60, the fifth Devil Fruit Slot will unlock a special Devil Fruit Slot—'Devil Fruit Fusion Slot'.]
(end of chapter)