Chapter 255: Hunting Time

After transporting the Maxim back to the Alabasta Royal Family, King Cobra announced it to the citizens as a mirage.

Regardless of what the citizens outside said, we don't have any Maxim here; it was purely a mirage, a product of sunlight refraction—aside from those who saw it with their own eyes, others didn't believe in the Maxim story anyway, and in the end, it didn't spread.

Those who saw the Maxim with their own eyes also gradually changed their minds under the influence of the general environment: could it be that they really saw a mirage back then? A ship made entirely of gold that could float in the sky—such a thing was just too absurd.

Uchiha Feiyu did not concern himself with the turmoil in Alabasta; he was now preparing to do two things. First, he would use the Rumble-Rumble Fruit Cloud Dials to create a large amount of thunderclouds. Facts proved that the Rumble-Rumble Fruit had indeed permanently changed the form of the clouds, causing the thunderclouds produced by the Cloud Dials not to dissipate even on the ground.

Uchiha Feiyu handed this matter over to Nami, and also had Cobra find some scientists and meteorologists in Alabasta to help Nami, to see if they could manufacture a new type of Clima-Tact and learn more meteorological knowledge.

The Clima-Tact was a tool created by Usopp, and although Usopp was a famous "great god" of the Straw Hat Pirates, in reality, he was just a civilian scientist. If he could manufacture a Clima-Tact, there was no reason why a country like Alabasta wouldn't have people capable of manufacturing one.

With materials like the shells from the Sky Island and the thunderclouds, even if those scientists in Alabasta were a bit inferior, they could still manufacture a Clima-Tact given some time.

The second thing was the Devil Fruit experiment that Uchiha Feiyu was preparing to launch. Alabasta was vast and rich in resources, so there were naturally no shortage of people who deserved the death penalty.

Although a large wave had been killed by Uchiha Feiyu, and coupled with the kind nature of Princess Vivi and King Cobra, the number of death row prisoners was not high—but with a population of tens of millions, pulling out a hundred or so death row prisoners was not a problem.

It was just that Devil Fruits were a bit hard to find—the Rumble-Rumble Fruit Cloud Dials were currently being used by Nami, and other Devil Fruit users also belonged to Alabasta; some were even directly Uchiha Feiyu's subordinates. With his current technology, he didn't want to turn any Devil Fruit user into an idiot.

Fortunately, he later remembered that he still had a Magnet-Magnet Fruit, or to be precise, he still had a prisoner named Kid.

The Magnet-Magnet Fruit had great potential and could be considered top-tier among Paramecia Devil Fruits, but since it was for a Devil Fruit experiment anyway, there was no need to care about the host.

After spending about half a month, Uchiha Feiyu was finally able to extract a Devil Fruit user's ability from their body without damage; at most, it would make the user slightly weak and give them a headache for a day or two, after which they could fully recover.

Of course, the side effect of this was that some strange rumors began to circulate in the area where he lived: this Royal Consort, who was already seen as the incarnation of an evil god, had developed a hobby of torturing others, and the palace echoed with never-ending screams.

Uchiha Feiyu didn't care; if anything, he hoped these rumors would spread even more. Reverence is a form of faith, and fear is also a form of faith; in the early stages of the spread of faith, its effect far exceeds that of positive emotions.

Otherwise, the image of the only God in the old version of the Bible wouldn't be so terrifying. In the Old Testament, whenever killing occurred, it was basically done by race, by region, or even by wiping out the entire world.

Although the Vampire Fruit had not yet undergone a qualitative change, the speed of progress was indeed much faster. At the very least, the basic attribute bonuses had increased significantly, and various abilities had been strengthened.

It was just that the things Uchiha Feiyu had been pursuing, such as Bloodization, Dead River, and Baleful Flame, still showed no signs of appearing.

However, Feiyu could also feel that along with his expectations, the Devil Fruit did indeed have the possibility of evolving in that direction. Something as perverted as the Dead River would certainly not appear in its complete version, but Bloodization, which approached elementalization, and Baleful Flame, which purely strengthened special attacks, were absolutely possible to evolve.

Let the matter of faith reinforcement be set aside for now; there was no need to rush, as it would naturally fall into place after some more time.

"You can swap Devil Fruits! Is there really such a terrifying ability... Most importantly, Feiyu, you actually managed to develop this ability."

"Although it was already absurd enough that you could forcibly seize Devil Fruit powers before, this current display is even harder to accept!"

The one speaking was Robin, who had been accompanying Uchiha Feiyu frequently during this time. Even Nami would stay far away when Uchiha Feiyu conducted human experiments; this little cat burglar was still kind, after all, and even knowing these people were death row prisoners, she didn't want to watch their struggles and pain.

Only Robin, who had faced enough darkness, could remain calm in the face of this, even helping Uchiha Feiyu handle some test subjects after the experiments, and she was also very concerned about Uchiha Feiyu's experimental results.

"Don't you want the Flower-Flower Fruit anymore? Do you want to swap for a different Devil Fruit, or do you want to remove your Devil Fruit ability entirely?"

Uchiha Feiyu only glanced at Robin and understood her thoughts. Robin's original wanted poster still featured her photo from when she was eight years old; after more than a decade, it was difficult to associate that eight-year-old girl with the current Robin.

But Devil Fruits were different. Once the Flower-Flower Fruit's ability was used, Robin's identity could basically be locked down. If the Devil Fruit ability were eliminated or swapped, Robin could truly escape the sight of the Marines and the World Government.

"Would you swap a Devil Fruit ability for me? I think the Rumble-Rumble Fruit is quite good."

"Please dream at night. Do you really think you could unleash the full power of something like the Rumble-Rumble Fruit!"

Uchiha Feiyu twitched the corner of his mouth and immediately rejected Robin's request.

There was no help for it; whether in terms of compatibility or potential, Robin was not worthy of eating the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, not to mention she hadn't practiced the Future Unborn Sutra. If she obtained the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, she would likely only be able to unleash the most basic Power Level.

Robin was actually just testing the waters. For a Devil Fruit like the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, even if one couldn't develop its potential, just its basic abilities, once mastered, could allow an ordinary person to possess the Power Level of an Elite Vice Admiral of the Marines.

This was a Devil Fruit with an astonishingly high floor and ceiling. To put it bluntly, most Devil Fruits developed to their limit probably couldn't even reach the floor of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit. So even though Robin knew this Devil Fruit wasn't suitable for her, she still had to test it.

"Then forget it. For now, I'll just keep my Flower-Flower Fruit ability!"

Seeing that the Rumble-Rumble Fruit was hopeless, Robin didn't say anything more. Currently, the only available Devil Fruits were the Rumble-Rumble Fruit and the Magnet-Magnet Fruit.

The potential of the Magnet-Magnet Fruit might not be lower than the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, but its floor was far worse. With Nico Robin's talent, it wasn't certain she could develop the Magnet-Magnet Fruit to a point stronger than the Flower-Flower Fruit.

As for removing the Flower-Flower Fruit directly... sorry, although exposing her identity was dangerous, having no power was even more dangerous! The experience of struggling in the dark world for so many years had long since made Robin understand the importance of power.

With the Flower-Flower Fruit, Robin could even put up a fight against an ordinary Marine Vice Admiral; without it, Robin might not even be able to defeat a Marine officer. By comparison, Robin still felt that possessing a Devil Fruit was safer.

"Suit yourself... Then the rest should just be waiting."

Uchiha Feiyu stretched, a smile appearing on the corner of his mouth:

"Waiting for a great storm, for a new era to arrive... Perhaps during this time, I can also do some other things."

Ever since he had a harvest in Alabasta, Uchiha Feiyu hadn't had much income during this period. Before the two big feasts of the Summit War and Impel Down, he planned to go elsewhere to eat some side dishes.

Anyway, in the Grand Line, there wasn't much else, but the number of Pirates was the highest. The Baroque Works used to be part-time information brokers while working as Bounty Hunters, and they possessed a large amount of information on Pirates.

Only after truly reading the information about Pirates could one understand just how chaotic the world was today—in the first half of the Grand Line alone, there were at least hundreds of thousands of active Pirates, and there were even many countries not affiliated with the World Government that were themselves nations of Pirates.

Even among countries affiliated with the World Government, most had some connection with Pirates, and some countries' regular armies were even composed of Pirate crews themselves.

For example, Chin Jao's Happo Navy was actually the regular army of the Flower Country; the Pirate crew was instead a side job.

In short, after reading the information, Uchiha Feiyu felt that the armies of at least half the countries on the Grand Line could be wiped out directly, and of the remaining half, the majority belonged to the type where killing everyone wouldn't be a problem—for instance, the Nine Snake Island, the country of women, belonged to that type of nation of Pirates.

"However, if I act too ruthlessly, it might provoke the nerves of the World Government... Then let's start by acting against the Pirates roaming the Grand Line!"

Compared to those Pirate crews that had a fixed base and committed evil in a specific location on the Grand Line, these Pirate crews that roamed everywhere and headed for the New World were the ones who truly committed every evil imaginable.

After all, roving bandits are always more ruthless than stationary ones. Pirates with their own bases have to consider the safety of their headquarters and don't dare to truly anger the World Government and the Marines, but those roving types of Pirates don't think so much; they follow the philosophy of enjoying it once and dying, grabbing what they can and running. Many Pirates even implement a thorough "three-all" policy.

Honestly, if it weren't for the special geographical environment of this world, coupled with the possession of extraordinary powers, and the vast difference in strength between ordinary people and the strong, the World Government would likely have been overthrown long ago.

Uchiha Feiyu had also spent 20 years in the Naruto World, an extraordinary world. Although the Naruto World had many lunatics and the order wasn't too good, most of the time and in most places, basic order could be maintained.

Unlike the One Piece World, where most people lived day-to-day. If you were lucky, you became a citizen of a relatively safe country and still had to endure the exploitation of the Heavenly Tribute; if you were unlucky, you were just pathetic cannon fodder.

Looking at the Straw Hat Pirates' journey, one could see that apart from certain technical countries (Water 7) or countries with special geographical locations (Sky Island, Fish-Man Island), the other countries they experienced were either plagued by poverty or dark and chaotic.

Countries plagued by poverty were caused by the exploitation of the Heavenly Tribute; for example, Alabasta had to pay at least 60% of its national income in Heavenly Tribute every year, which was the biggest root cause of its poverty.

There were also countries like Dressrosa, or the Sabaody Archipelago, which looked prosperous but actually contained immense darkness and chaos; you never knew when you might be turned into a toy or captured as a slave.

"Looking at the world, there is no one who cannot be killed... Tsk, when I killed those soldiers and ninja in the Naruto World, I still felt some guilt, but in the Grand Line, I feel that even if I kill 90% of these Pirates, there will still be those who slip through the net."

After reviewing the information, Uchiha Feiyu transformed into a blood-red light, flew into the sky, and soon disappeared from Alabasta.

And from this day on, the legend of a blood-sucking demon began to circulate on the Grand Line.

The first half of the Grand Line, Water 7.

As the most famous shipyard in the entire Grand Line, where even the Marine has placed orders to manufacture warships, coupled with the incredibly convenient Sea Train that connects in all directions, Water 7 can be called the central location of the first half of the Grand Line.

Besides having the protection of the Marine, even Pirates rarely cause trouble in Water 7; after all, they are all men of the sea sailing the ocean, and offending the shipwrights who build ships is not a wise move.

At the same time, just as the Marine often turns a blind eye to Pirates in places like Reverse Mountain and the Sabaody Archipelago, conflicts between the Marine and Pirates rarely occur in a special location like Water 7.

Although the Marine often pursues Pirates, in terms of grand strategy, they are actually more focused on driving those Pirates into the New World rather than fighting them head-on—mainly because they cannot win in a fight.

Perhaps the Marine holds a massive advantage in overall combat power, but the key is that this thing called Pirates replenishes too quickly!

If the Marine were to bet the lives of an entire generation of Marines, they might truly be able to wipe all these Pirates clean, but as long as the world remains this chaotic, it would only take two or three years for powerful new Pirate talents to emerge and replace the old ones; and at that time, having exhausted all their elites, what would the Marine rely on to deal with these new generations of Pirates?

Although Water 7 is not like the other few key locations, most Pirates entering the Grand Line will coincidentally choose to build new ships here, making it a new, conventionally accepted land of no war.

(End of this chapter)