Young Fanxin

The sun was shining, and the sky was clear for miles.

On a remote deserted island in the East Blue...

"Ah, I've eaten everything, and none of it has any flavor anymore. I don't even want to eat. What should I do?" On the fork of a giant tree, a slender-looking but powerful youth in animal-skin clothes rested his chin in his hand and watched the beasts running across the ground below. He was thoroughly depressed.

The youth was named Fanxin. He had lived on this deserted island since childhood, spending more than ten years there. Now he was sixteen. Ever since he could remember, he had eaten the creatures in the forest. Snakes, bellies, tigers, leopards, elephants, and so on—he had eaten them all.

By today, he had eaten every edible thing on the island. He had even eaten some beasts dozens or hundreds of times, and he felt he had lost interest.

But if he didn't eat, he would get hungry, and if he got hungry, he would have no strength. The forest was full of beasts, and they were extraordinarily ferocious. As long as he could fight, he wasn't afraid of them at all. But if he lost his fighting strength, he would be in great danger. Those beasts would tear him apart and devour him alive.

So he was depressed and didn't know what to do.

"You're so stupid. If you've eaten everything on the island, then eat what's in the sky and the sea. You can eat all of those." Suddenly, a voice came from inside the youth's clothes at his chest. A closer look revealed a black cat.

The cat was about the size of Fanxin's head. It was highly intelligent, its eyes darting around, and it could even talk. Its mouth opened and closed as it spoke exactly like a human, without the slightest discernible difference or trace of awkwardness.

"Black Cat, that's easy for you to say, but I'm a human. How am I supposed to fly? I can't go to the bottom of the sea either. It's full of ferocious sea beasts, and sometimes there are even Sea Kings. My fighting strength drops drastically in the water. If a Sea King caught me, I'd be dead for sure," Fanxin said helplessly, stroking the black cat's head.

He was telling the truth. It wasn't as though he hadn't thought of it. But he couldn't do it himself, so there was nothing he could do.

"Hehe, just because you can't do it doesn't mean I can't, dummy." Faced with Fanxin's helplessness, the black cat merely chuckled and replied dismissively.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Fanxin was stunned. He didn't know what the black cat meant. The black cat was a cat, and it had no advantage in the sky or the sea either.

"Hehe, I have a secret I've never told you," the black cat said with a chuckle.

"What secret?" Fanxin asked curiously.

"Do you remember? Last time, you found a fruit at the bottom of the sea. You didn't eat it, and in the end you gave it to me," the black cat said.

"I remember. I almost died that time. For one fruit, I nearly lost my life. I felt really stupid," Fanxin replied, immediately nodding.

That time, he had gone to the bottom of the sea. It was his first time there, and while swimming around, he had seen a very strange fruit. Curious, he had gone over and picked it. He had planned to take it back and study it carefully.

But he hadn't expected to alert a sea beast—a sea shark that had chased him down frantically. He had wanted to kill it, but he found he couldn't fight freely underwater.

In the end, he could only flee for his life. Fortunately, he was a good swimmer and made it back to shore. Otherwise, he really would have died.

Once he got back, he had lost interest in studying the fruit. If he hadn't been curious and picked it, the shark wouldn't have chased him. So he hadn't been interested in bothering with it.

He had casually tossed it to his good friend, the black cat. As for what the black cat had done with it afterward, he had never asked.

"What about that fruit?" Fanxin asked curiously. The black cat definitely hadn't brought it up for no reason. He was certain there had to be a secret to that fruit.

"Hehe, that wasn't an ordinary fruit. It was a Devil Fruit. If you eat one, you can gain a devil ability," the black cat said with a smile. It looked adorably goofy. If a lady saw it, she would surely be unable to put it down and want to keep it as a pet.

"A Devil Fruit? What the heck is that?" Fanxin was taken aback. He had grown up on the island and hadn't learned much, so he didn't know what a Devil Fruit was.

"I don't know what it is either. Anyway, after I ate it, a huge amount of information appeared in my head. The fruit told me," the black cat said, shaking its head.

"Oh, then what ability did you get? Come on, show me." Fanxin nodded and asked no more. Neither of them knew, so there was no need to ask further.

"No problem." The black cat was eager. It darted out of Fanxin's clothes and onto the trunk in front of him, then said, "My ability is mechanical transformation. I can transform between a black cat and a machine, and I can also make all kinds of machines. As long as I have the raw materials, I can definitely make them."

"I can't make anything for now because I don't have any raw materials, so I'll show you my ability to mechanize myself first!"

"All right, go ahead!" Fanxin watched with wide eyes, his heart full of curiosity. He wanted to see just how good the black cat's ability was. If it was impressive, he would be in for some good food from now on. Whatever he wanted to eat, he could have the black cat get it for him. That would be a comfortable life.

"Steel Transformation!" the black cat shouted. A moment later, a hazy light burst from its eyes, spread over its entire body, and then disappeared.

"That's it. Touch me and see if my body has changed," the black cat said with a smile as it came over to Fanxin.

"Huh? That's all?" Fanxin was taken aback. He hadn't seen any change at all, only a wisp of light sweeping over the cat's body.

"Yes. If you don't believe me, hurry up and touch me!" The black cat nodded firmly.

Fanxin reached out and touched the black cat's body, still half doubtful. Before touching it, he still didn't believe it. But when his hand met the cat's body, he found that it was hard all over, like steel. Even its soft belly and fur were as hard as iron.

"Th-this is too..." Fanxin stammered. The devil ability was incredible. In an instant, it had changed the very nature of the black cat's body.

"Hehe, what do you think? Not bad, right?" The black cat grinned smugly.

"Not bad. From now on, if a tiger or something bites you, you'll be completely fine." Fanxin nodded. This was far more than not bad—it was incredibly impressive.

"Hmph, if they dare bite me, I'll shatter their teeth and see how they eat after that," the black cat said viciously with a snort.