"Transfer the extracted ability to Martha!"
The moment Kurogane Ren gave the command, a beam of golden light descended onto Martha.
Ren stood to one side and waited patiently.
Only after nearly two full minutes did the light finally begin to fade.
He immediately asked, "Martha, do you feel anything?"
A red light flashed through her eyes.
"My central control system has received new data. I need to reread it."
Three seconds later, she spoke again.
"New data has been fully processed. Beginning test."
She raised both hands.
Liquid metal flowed outward, stretching and reshaping until it formed two giant blades more than five meters long.
Then Martha began manipulating the liquid metal continuously, transforming it into all kinds of forms—spears, swords, halberds, hammers, and more.
At the same time, she controlled the liquid metal to attack targets dozens of meters away.
And the total amount of liquid metal she was using had already clearly exceeded the quantity originally stored in her body.
Watching all of this, Ren couldn't help feeling relieved.
It was a good thing the previous owner of this ability had only been a plant.
If it had been a human…
He honestly didn't want to imagine it.
After finishing her test with the liquid metal, Martha extended a metallic rod from her arm.
By this point, Ren's eyes were practically glowing with money signs.
Because a certain thought had suddenly struck him.
If Martha could make her own liquid metal and ultra-hard alloy multiply…
then couldn't she do the same thing with gold?
Turn one piece into two.
Then three.
Then more.
After all, in the world of One Piece, all kinds of bizarre Devil Fruit powers already stomped all over something like the law of conservation of energy.
The moment the idea came to him, Ren acted on it.
He took out a tiny piece of gold no bigger than a fingernail and handed it to Martha.
"Martha, can you multiply this too?"
Martha accepted the gold.
A moment later, one piece became two.
Ren almost cheered out loud.
If that worked, then he would never have to worry about money again.
At that moment, Martha stopped looking like a Terminator in Ren's eyes.
She had become a living money-printing machine.
"Martha, make more gold."
"Captain, producing that amount of gold just now consumed 0.11% of my total battery reserves. Please confirm whether production should continue."
Ren sucked in a sharp breath.
He knew perfectly well that Martha used a nuclear battery. She was supposed to be able to operate for decades.
And yet duplicating that tiny little piece of gold had already consumed 0.11%.
That instantly killed his dream of mass-producing mountains of gold—at least for now.
After all, if Martha ran out of power, that would be a disaster. Ren still planned to squeeze every bit of scientific knowledge out of her storage banks in the future.
Forget it.
In the world of One Piece, as long as he had enough strength, money would never truly be a long-term problem.
Even so, Ren was still thrilled.
Because Martha's combat power had just skyrocketed again.
When morning came, Ren headed into the forest that had been burned into ash to look for his flip-flops.
No matter what, they were still transcendent-grade items.
And after using them for over a year, he was extremely attached to them.
After spending most of the day searching, Ren finally managed to recover them.
By the time he returned to The Lucky, Xu Nian was awake.
Ren didn't bother explaining much.
What happened the night before had gone far beyond what an ordinary person could handle. If not for the system, he himself would probably still be trapped inside the illusion the vines had created.
Besides, Xu Nian's greatest value wasn't direct combat.
It was weapon design.
He just didn't yet have the conditions needed to let her talents truly shine.
Back aboard The Lucky, Ren checked the Log Pose first and discovered it would still take several more days to recharge fully.
So he decided to do today's draw first.
He had two lottery chances today.
"Start!"
"Congratulations, Host. You have obtained one Character Summoning Card."
A Character Summoning Card was precious, but it wasn't as if Ren had never seen one before.
So he barely reacted and immediately started the second draw.
"Congratulations, Host. You have obtained a transcendent-grade skill: Bestowal."
Ren's eyes widened in delight.
A transcendent-grade reward.
And a skill, no less.
The last transcendent-grade skill he got had been Myriad Worlds Language Mastery.
He couldn't help wondering what this new skill did.
So he immediately checked the description.
"This skill allows its user to bestow their own abilities and skills onto others."
"However, the bestowed version will be one level lower than the original possessed by the user. In addition, this skill can only be used three times per day."
There were some obvious restrictions, sure.
But the moment Ren read that description, excitement surged through him all over again.
According to what it said, he could grant his own skills to other people.
Which meant…
Could he give Haki to others?
Could he pass on the Six Powers?
Take Haki, for example.
Even though everyone in the world theoretically had the potential for it, awakening it naturally wasn't easy at all.
But if Ren possessed the Bestowal skill, then as long as he mastered Haki himself, he could directly grant Haki to others.
Yes, he could only do it three times a day.
But over time, those numbers would add up.
In a single year, he could create over a thousand Haki users.
And even in the future, crews of the Four Emperors wouldn't have Haki users on every single deck.
The thought of one day having an entire pirate crew made up of Haki users made Ren's blood boil with excitement.
Of course, for the moment, all of that was still just theory.
He needed to test it first.
So the next question became obvious.
Who should he use as the test subject?
"Woof! Woof!"
Right then, he heard barking outside.
And in that instant, Ren knew exactly who he was going to experiment on.
He pushed open the cabin door and saw Wrecker hopping left and right in front of the Devourer, being its usual obnoxious self.
A slow smile spread across Ren's face.
The second Wrecker saw that smile, all the fur on its body stood straight up.
Before it could react, Ren had already grabbed it by the scruff of the neck.
He looked at the dog with a bright, gentle smile and said, "Be good. I'm just doing a little experiment. If it works, I'll reward you with a dried fish tonight."
Unfortunately, Wrecker clearly wanted no part of that.
It flailed all four legs wildly, trying to break free while barking frantically.
In dog language, it was probably screaming something like:
Master, no! Your eyes are telling me you're definitely up to something weird! I refuse! Also, I'm a dog—I don't even like dried fish!
Ren ignored the resistance completely.
He directly activated Bestowal.
What he chose to grant Wrecker first…
was Observation Haki.
A blue light flashed across the dog's body.
Then Wrecker suddenly froze for a moment.
Seeing that it had stopped moving, Ren let go and set it down.
At first, Wrecker just stood there in a daze.
Then a moment later, it began whining and crying out, pressing its two front paws over its ears while rolling around on the deck.
Not long after that, it sprang back up and started barking madly in every direction.
Ren knew exactly what was happening.
Bestowal had succeeded.
Wrecker really had gained Observation Haki.
But because it had only just acquired the ability, it had no idea how to control it yet.
So it couldn't filter out useless information.
It thought it was hearing things with its ears—
when in reality, Observation Haki fed directly into the mind.
"Xu Nian, come here for a second."
Xu Nian walked over. "Captain, what is it?"
"Xu Nian, I'm about to give you one of the top powers in this world—Observation Haki."
She frowned slightly.
"Observation Haki?"
"Yes. You've already seen the power of Devil Fruits and physical techniques in this world."
Xu Nian nodded.
Both of those things Ren himself had already demonstrated plenty.
"There's another major power in this world," Ren continued. "That power is Haki."
"Haki is divided into three types. The two more common ones are Observation Haki and Armament Haki. Observation Haki allows you to perceive everything around you. For example, the reason I can dodge bullets isn't just because my reaction speed is fast. It's because Observation Haki lets me sense them in advance."
"Of course, that's not all it can do. If you develop Observation Haki to an extremely high level, you can sense an entire nation—or even briefly see into the future."
Xu Nian's eyes sharpened.
"You can even predict the future?"
"Yes."
She immediately asked, "Then you said there are three types of Haki. What is the third?"
"The third is Conqueror's Haki. Unlike the first two, which anyone can theoretically obtain, Conqueror's Haki is something only one in a million is born with."
Ren shook his head slightly.
"But that's a topic for much later. We probably won't run into anyone with Conqueror's Haki anytime soon. For now, I'm only going to give you Observation Haki."
Then Ren used Bestowal again and granted Xu Nian Observation Haki.
After receiving it, Xu Nian closed her eyes and stood still for a long while, occasionally frowning.
Roughly half an hour later, she opened her eyes and said calmly, "So this is Observation Haki. It really is an impressive ability."
Ren stared at her.
"You already mastered it?"
"Yes."
Hearing that answer, Ren felt like coughing up blood.
Back when he first got Observation Haki, it had taken him over a week to get used to it.
Xu Nian had done it in half an hour.
Was this what it meant to be a genius?