He Didn't Go Offline; She Got Caught

And what did it mean to sacrifice the "corresponding potential" too?

Was this a Binding Vow, or a vow and limitation? Was it treating him like Kurooka?

Forget Devil Fruits—he couldn't even use Haki yet...

What if he was a one-in-ten-thousand Haki genius?

He hadn't even tried it, and he was supposed to sacrifice a possible future?

But then again, how terrifying would the physical strength gained in exchange for such a huge sacrifice be?

Surely the potential of a human body in the world of One Piece couldn't be compared to that of an ordinary Earthling in Jujutsu Kaisen, right? Wouldn't the physical strength gained by giving up everything for it also far surpass that of a normal Heavenly Restriction Tyrant?

"Hiss!!!"

Ruidio scratched his head furiously. This damned thing was really unsettling his Dao heart.

He simply shut his eyes and closed the task list.

For now, he'd better not claim the lousy reward. He'd leave it in Mission Records.

He was genuinely worried that once he claimed it, he wouldn't be able to resist using it on impulse... This was the Heavenly Restriction Tyrant! What cadre could withstand such a test?

But if he used it, Devil Fruits, Haki, and the like would all be beyond his reach in the future. That... he could just about bear! What he feared was that the system would be sacrificed too. Wouldn't that be ridiculous? Even if the possibility was minuscule, he absolutely shouldn't take the risk.

"Rustle, rustle..."

In the church, where only the sound of breathing broke the silence, came the rustling of pages.

It was Nami. She was sitting over by the steps with a thick book on her lap, gently leafing through it, sometimes surprised and sometimes clicking her tongue in wonder.

Logia, Rumble-Rumble Fruit: after eating it, one could transform into lightning...

Paramecia, Strong-Strong Fruit: it was said that the arm strength of whoever ate this fruit would immediately be enhanced a hundredfold! Moreover, the growth of their muscular strength would no longer have a limit...

"What are you reading?" Ruidio sat down beside her.

"Shh!" Nami whispered. She shifted the massive book so that half of it lay open on Ruidio's lap, pointed at the page on the Strong-Strong Fruit she had just been reading, and teased, "That's not the one you ate, is it?"

No more limit to muscular strength growth?

Ruidio was puzzled. In the world of One Piece, was there even such a thing as a limit to strength?

He wasn't interested in something as tacky as the Strong-Strong Fruit. He flipped to the table of contents at the front, found the Zoan section, and ran his finger down the entries one by one.

Sure enough, there was no "Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Nika," but he did find the "Dragon-Dragon Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Nidhogg"...

Chapter 17: He Didn't Go Offline; She Got Caught

Dragon-Dragon Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Nidhogg.

Eating this fruit allowed one to transform into a flying dragon that controlled lightning. It was said that the larger the person, the more of the fruit's true power they could bring out...

That was all the encyclopedia had to say about this "thunder dragon" Devil Fruit.

Naturally, it couldn't possibly mention that eating it granted immunity to Imu's Black Turn Domination.

Ruidio flipped back and forth and found that the entire encyclopedia was more like something compiled over generations, continually edited and refined. Some common, ordinary Devil Fruits had very detailed descriptions, even mentioning specific deeds of certain users throughout history.

But rare varieties like Nidhogg, Okuchi no Makami, and the Vampire Fruit had only a few words of introduction at most...

Following his interests, Ruidio looked up some familiar old friends:

Special Zoan, Human-Human Fruit: the only effect of eating it was becoming unable to swim.

Logia, Flame-Flame Fruit: allowed the user to turn into fire.

Special Logia, Dark-Dark Fruit: a powerful ability that controlled gravity, but it was said to multiply the pain its user felt.

Paramecia, Gum-Gum Fruit: after eating it, the user's body could stretch and contract freely like rubber. Other than that, it had no use.

Paramecia, Love-Love Fruit: an ability that could turn other people and even objects to stone. However, it was said that only a sufficiently charming user could bring out its effects. Those who lacked confidence in their looks were urged to think carefully...

"Oh?"

Ruidio was a little surprised.

He'd thought the empress had gained that exaggerated aura of charm after eating the Love-Love Fruit. So it was actually the other way around: because she herself possessed invincible charm, she had brought out such an unbeatable effect from the Love-Love Fruit?

It seemed the probability of the empress being the daughter of Rayleigh and Shakky, the supreme great succubus, was as high as ten out of ten, or even nine out of ten. They'd had a child and left her to fend for herself. What lousy parents.

"Hey."

Seeing him absorbed in reading, Nami waved a hand at him, then turned the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia to a page in the Paramecia section and said quietly, "That ability Bonney used before to take on an appearance like Kureha's... Was it this one?"

Paramecia, Age-Age Fruit: allowed the user to freely control their own age and the age of other people and objects, though it was said that its true uses went beyond that.

"Seems so." Ruidio nodded.

"What about you?" Nami held the encyclopedia down and gazed at Ruidio with her big eyes. "There are lots of fruits in this book whose abilities match yours: the Teleport-Teleport Fruit, the Strong-Strong Fruit, the Op-Op Fruit... But there isn't a single fruit that covers all your 'magic.'"

Ruidio pulled the thick book out from under her hand and smiled. "Is it really okay to go flipping through someone else's book like this? It isn't."

Nami retorted, "Then what are you doing right now?"

The Devil Fruit Encyclopedia Ruidio had taken vanished into thin air, then reappeared in a flash. Only this time, there were two identical volumes.

"Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding..."

Just then, the countdown on the pocket watch hanging around Bonney's neck went off. She rolled over and continued sleeping soundly. The two muscular fishermen and Queen Mother Connie, who had been taking an afternoon nap in the dim church, woke up one after another.

Ruidio casually tossed the copied encyclopedia into the system inventory, then moved nine essence into slot 1 of the three-in-one.

Sniff, sniff...

As Bonney slept, she caught an indescribable aroma. She couldn't stop saliva from pouring into her mouth. She sat bolt upright and cried in delight, "Pizza?!"

Everywhere she looked, there were pizzas of all sizes and varieties. Some were covered in tomatoes and diced meat, with rich cheese poured over them—a classic delight. Others combined pan-fried bacon with onion rings and sliced mushrooms. Still others were topped with plump shrimp and crabmeat, wrapped in rich, fragrant cheese...

The dim church was filled with a complex, delicious aroma, and seemed a few shades brighter for it.

"This is amazing!!!"

Bonney's eyes lit up. She picked up a pizza bigger than she was and began devouring it. As she ate, she was so happy that tears streamed down her face, and she mumbled, "Ruidio... thank you... boo-hoo... it's so good..."

The two fishermen exclaimed, "Her mother Ginny was a big eater just like this back then. As long as she had something delicious to eat, she'd be happy."

"Here." Kureha cut two slices of pizza for the two who didn't know any better.

The moment the two muscular fishermen took their first bites, the overwhelming deliciousness shot straight to their heads and made them faint with happiness. They swayed, then fell over and went straight to sleep.

"...You can even create food out of thin air."

Sitting a short distance away and watching Bonney burrow into the pile of pizzas, crying as she wolfed them down, Nami quietly added to Ruidio beside her, "You definitely won't find such a strange ability in the encyclopedia."

Ruidio smiled, but he was thinking about something else.

What if I gave the Heavenly Restriction Tyrant item to Bonney? Could a super-enhanced body eliminate disease?

Did those two tyrants, Toji Zenin and Maki, have a character trait where they never got sick? I don't remember.

But Bonney's disease had been inherited from her mother Ginny, and Ginny's Sapphire Scales had been produced by Saturn of the Five Elders through drug experiments... The disease's effects probably went all the way down to the level of DNA, or the "Lineage Factor" in the world of One Piece.

There probably wasn't much hope of eradicating such a stubborn disease through super-enhancement of the body.

Ruidio dismissed the idea.

At least for now, even if Kureha eventually ran out of options, there was still a backup plan: find Vegapunk for treatment. Wasn't old Vegapunk short of money? What a coincidence—money was the one thing Ruidio had plenty of. Whatever treatment funding he needed, he could fill in the amount himself!

If Bonney became a Heavenly Restriction Tyrant but her Blue Jade Scale Disease wasn't cured, and her constitution changed completely, would Vegapunk still be able to cure an unbelievable terminal illness in an unbelievable body?

"Ruidio."

Kureha walked over just then and patted his shoulder. "Take me back."

"Okay." Ruidio stood up.

Nami noticed Ruidio take out another 100-Beli coin and toss it to Kureha. They went over to the church's living quarters, and before long, Ruidio returned alone.

Snowflakes?

Sharp-eyed Nami noticed that Ruidio, who had returned in no time, actually had a few white flakes of snow on his hair and the clothes over his shoulders. He also seemed to be wrapped in a gust of cold wind, which quickly dispersed as he walked over.

Did Dr. Kureha live somewhere cold?

That couldn't be right. She dressed like that, with her belly button showing...

Ruidio returned to the pizza feast and cheerfully competed with Bonney. The short old woman Connie ate a couple of bites, then watched it all with a calm, gentle expression.

After quite a while, while Bonney was taking a break to lick her fingers, the Queen Mother walked over and said slowly, "Ruidio, there's something I want to talk to you about."

"What is it?"

Ruidio followed Connie to a corner around the side of the church. The old woman was so short that he found a stone block and sat down on it without ceremony. "Are the church's food and water supplies running low? How much is left? I'll replenish them."

"..."

Connie looked him in the eye, gently patted the back of his hand, and sighed. "You're a good child... But tell me honestly: whether it's a Devil Fruit or some other ability, is the cost to you great when you produce all kinds of food out of thin air like this?"

Ruidio smiled. "Old lady, you're praising the wrong person. I can produce a hundred or a thousand tons of this food and drink without even trying. If I weren't afraid it would spoil, I could cover your little island in food right now.

"As for the cost, I can't say there isn't one, but to me, it's truly insignificant!"

Connie nodded repeatedly. "That's good, that's good."

"So you don't need to thank me," Ruidio said.

The Queen Mother smiled bitterly. "You're far from the only person in the world who can casually produce so much food, child. But they don't care about the poor and elderly of poor countries like ours. Even if they brought a ship full of food to this island and saw the starving elderly people in this country, they wouldn't give them a single grain of rice. Instead, they'd press us to pay the Heavenly Tribute..."

Realizing she had misspoken, she fell silent, downcast.

Ruidio looked back just then.

Nami stepped out from around the corner and raised a hand. "I wasn't deliberately eavesdropping. I was just passing by, passing by."

Connie said softly, "If Kuma, Ginny, and their big-headed friend were still here, they would surely welcome you, Ruidio."

"Big-headed?"

Ruidio asked, "Was his name Ivankov or Ivankov?"

Connie sighed. "You know him? Unfortunately, we've completely lost contact with that child lately. I hope nothing has happened to him..."

He's still being the Okama King in Impel Down.

The streamer didn't go offline; the streamer got caught.

Ruidio recalled that classic scene and said to Connie, "He'll be all right. Leave everything to the winds of fate."

Nami was suspicious. Why did his tone sound so strange?

"See you next time, Bonney."

Behind the church doors, Ruidio bid Bonney farewell.

Bonney was a little disappointed to hear it, but she nodded obediently.

Ruidio rubbed her head, opened the door a crack, and took Nami's hand. After the Queen Mother had also gone out, he quickly left and shut the door.