Devil Fruit Gift Pack and Kryptonian Blood / That Strange Creature Looks Like the Five-Tailed Beast, But Surely There Can't Be a Third One...

Of the three worlds, DanMachi had the shallowest waters. Although the Gods there were no pushovers either, at least they were all out in the open, which made it more reassuring.

Honestly, An Xiu did not particularly want to go to any of those three worlds for the time being. Going there just to have some fun would be fine, but none of them were particularly suitable for long-term development.

"I should stay in the Jujutsu World for now. I'll think about new worlds after I've completely cleared this one."

"Oh, right. At about this time, the system shop should have refreshed. I should check whether the discount section has anything good."

PS: Just knowing that the resurrection mechanism exists is enough. It will not actually be needed; it is mainly insurance for peace of mind. The protagonist's strength will first receive a round of enhancements. His strength will truly soar after materializing the next clone, because the next clone will be a research-type character, and the next world's main focus will be developing a faction.

Devil Fruit Gift Pack and Kryptonian Blood

After closing the map page, An Xiu selected the shop option.

The interface before An Xiu immediately changed. At the very top of the shop, three newly refreshed items appeared in the discount section.

Perfect Grade Devil Fruit Gift Pack (50% off): 7,500 points

Kryptonian Blood x100 ml (50% off): 2,500 points

One Can of Senzu Beans (70% off): 600 points

An Xiu fell silent as he looked at the three discounted items before him.

It was not that the newly refreshed items were bad. The difference from the previous two refreshes was simply that none of the discounted items this time were suitable for materializing clones.

However, the Jujutsu World already had Seele and Makima, two clones. It would not be a problem even if he did not materialize another one, so... should he use these newly refreshed items himself?

"Perfect Grade Devil Fruit Gift Pack. After opening it, I get ten random Devil Fruits with no side effects, and after eating them, they can be directly developed to the awakened state?"

Devil Fruits that automatically developed to the awakened state after being eaten sounded pretty good. After all, even in the world of One Piece, as long as their fruit ability was not complete garbage, awakened Devil Fruit users were considered quite formidable combatants.

Even though 7,500 points was a little expensive, ten side-effect-free Devil Fruits meant he would not lose out as long as he got one or two powerful ones.

"Kryptonian Blood... too bad it isn't a Kryptonian Bloodline. If it is just blood, then it is merely a vial of blood. Buying it would not be much use, but... perhaps I can buy it first and have a research-type clone study it later?"

"And the Senzu Beans. They are an excellent recovery item. A can contains one hundred, and they are not expensive either. I might as well buy everything."

After purchasing all three discounted items, An Xiu did not immediately take them out. Instead, he temporarily stored them in the system space.

After all, the three items he had bought this time were all tools. They would certainly be safer in the system than outside, and the system space could only store items newly purchased from the shop. Once they were taken out, they could not be put back in. It was better to leave them there until they were needed.

"System, open the Devil Fruit Gift Pack stored in the system space."

An Xiu spoke to the system.

At once, the Devil Fruit Gift Pack within the system space opened. After a flash of light, ten Devil Fruits of different shapes were neatly arranged inside the system space.

Ignoring most of the ordinary Zoan- and Paramecia-type Devil Fruits whose names alone made it clear they were trash, An Xiu quickly found several familiar fruits among them.

"Rumble-Rumble Fruit, Snow-Snow Fruit, Ghost-Ghost Fruit, Mera-Mera Fruit, Barrier-Barrier Fruit."

Three Logia-type Devil Fruits, including the top-tier Rumble-Rumble Fruit, along with two Paramecia-type Devil Fruits that had performed extremely well in the original story. He was not sure whether this gift pack had been profitable, but he definitely had not lost out.

An Xiu singled out the Rumble-Rumble Fruit from the rest. Looking at the pineapple-like Devil Fruit before him, he did not hesitate and directly picked it up to eat it.

It had no side effects and did not require him to develop it himself before reaching the awakened level. It could greatly increase his current strength without affecting his future. Why would he not eat it?

Sure enough, this side-effect-free Devil Fruit did not even taste as terrible as described in the original work. It simply tasted like sweet fruit.

It was a little unfortunate, though. Despite being side-effect-free, it still had the restriction of not being able to eat two at once. If he ate a second Devil Fruit, he would not explode and die like in the original work, but the newly eaten Devil Fruit would overwrite the ability of the original one. In other words, he could only have one Devil Fruit ability at a time.

Otherwise, having watched quite a bit of One Piece in his previous life, An Xiu could have put together some ability combinations he had once imagined.

Crackle, crackle, crackle!

Blue currents of electricity emerged from An Xiu's body. After finishing the entire Rumble-Rumble Fruit, he stood in the villa and clenched his fist, feeling as though his whole body was filled with explosive power.

Among the ten Devil Fruits from this gift pack, An Xiu liked the Rumble-Rumble Fruit and the Barrier-Barrier Fruit the most. The former would allow him to transform into and control lightning, granting him unparalleled mobility and destructive power. The latter would allow him to deploy exceptionally durable barriers, greatly improving his chances of survival.

However, compared to the Barrier-Barrier Fruit, the Rumble-Rumble Fruit was stronger overall and more useful in everyday life, so An Xiu chose the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.

After all, it was an awakened Devil Fruit. Forget Seele and Makima—he felt that he alone could probably steamroll Jujutsu Kaisen now.

An Xiu continued storing the remaining nine Devil Fruits, along with the Kryptonian Blood and Senzu Beans, in the system space. Then he closed the system interface and slowly shut his eyes.

At once, everything within a radius of over a hundred kilometers appeared within An Xiu's senses as though seen through X-ray vision.

At that moment, all of Tokyo seemed to lie beneath An Xiu's godlike perspective. At the same time, if he wished, he could summon hundreds of millions of volts of lightning anywhere at any time.

Rumble!

More than a dozen bolts of lightning struck down in the suburbs dozens of kilometers away, instantly exterminating several Cursed Spirits entrenched in fixed locations.

Unfortunately, because this behavior did not meet the standards for living off others, An Xiu did not receive any system points.

"As expected, I still need to lie flat. I should leave fighting to the clones."

After briefly testing his ability, An Xiu's short-lived excitement passed, and he returned to his laid-back state.

Thinking about it carefully, although he had become stronger, nothing seemed to have changed much aside from making himself safer. After all, he ordinarily had no need to fight anyone personally.

Still... even if that was true, after experiencing the feeling of power, An Xiu felt that if he had the chance in the future, he could strengthen his main body more.

After all, having power and not using it was different from having no power at all. So his next clone really should be a research-type clone. Otherwise, the Kryptonian Blood he had spent over two thousand points on would just gather dust in the system space.

"It's getting late. Time to rest."

Of course, resting alone was impossible. An Xiu's figure flashed, and he instantly appeared in Seele's room on the second floor of the villa.

Naturally, sleeping meant holding soft and fragrant Seele in her room. As for his own room? That was for multiplayer battles.

Could There Really Be a Third monster Like Gojo Satoru?

Four days passed quickly. On this day, in a remote mountain forest on the outskirts of Tokyo.

Under the cover of night, Makima stood in an open area at the mountaintop. Her shoulder-length red hair swayed slightly in the evening breeze.

Today was the day she had agreed to meet the curses and discuss "cooperation." For that reason, she had deliberately sent away Miwa Kasumi and Nishimiya Momo, whom she had recruited as guards not long ago, and come here alone.

Although she was about to meet dangerous curses, Makima showed no sign of nervousness. Her face still bore a composed, calm smile, but her golden eyes were chillingly cold.

Tap... tap... tap...

Footsteps sounded from nearby. Kenjaku, dressed in a monk's robe and occupying Geto Suguru's body, slowly emerged from the darkness.

"I didn't expect the one wishing to cooperate with us this time would be such an important figure. If Tokyo's sorcerers learned that Miss Makima, who was recently promoted to Special Grade sorcerer and holds such a high position in the Jujutsu World, wanted to cooperate with Cursed Spirits and Curse Users, they would surely be stunned."

"Are you the only one who came, Mr. Geto Suguru?"

Makima did not respond to that. She merely asked Kenjaku before her in an indifferent tone.

"Yes. After all, it is difficult not to suspect a trap when a sorcerer in such a high position in the Jujutsu World suddenly seeks cooperation with Curse Users and Cursed Spirits like us."

"Perhaps you called the Jujutsu World's other Special Grade sorcerers in advance and had them lying in ambush, planning to catch us all in one sweep once we arrived at the meeting place. But..."

"Before coming here, I had already investigated the surroundings. There really is only Miss Makima here. It seems Miss Makima is quite sincere. I was the one being overly cautious."

As he spoke, Kenjaku smiled. Makima, standing across from him, smiled as well.

Then...

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Three golden chains shot out, but they were not aimed at Kenjaku before her. They flew in another direction.

At once, a figure darted out from the shadows, barely evading the chains' attack.

"I didn't expect you to discover me. Looks like your plan failed, Geto."

Mahito, forced to reveal himself, spread his hands and spoke helplessly to Kenjaku beside him.

"I expected as much. Trying to ambush a Special Grade with such a method was not entirely impossible, but it was rather wishful thinking."

Seeing that their previous preparations had been exposed, Kenjaku's expression did not change. He merely looked at Makima apologetically.

"That was merely a small precaution I took beforehand for the sake of safety. I hope Miss Makima will not misunderstand."

"No, this is not a misunderstanding."

Makima merely shook her head slightly.

"I do not mind what preparations you made in advance. Or rather, no matter how much preparation you make, it is only natural. After all... you have indeed stepped into a trap."

Feeling the aura around Makima grow increasingly dangerous rather than restrained in the slightest, Kenjaku fell silent.

"See? I told you there had to be something wrong with this cooperation."

Mahito spoke casually from the side. As a Cursed Spirit born from humanity's fear and negative emotions toward humanity, no one understood humanity's darkness better than it did.

When Leaking Pot and Hanami told it that someone suddenly wanted to cooperate with them, Mahito agreed on the spot, but it had not held any expectations for the cooperation in the first place. It trusted its fellow Cursed Spirits, but Mahito had never minded judging humans with the greatest possible malice.

Sure enough, this so-called cooperation was just a pretense. The other side simply wanted to lure them out under this excuse, even going so far as to release Leaking Pot and Hanami.

"I was the naïve one. I actually hoped that someone who held such a high position in the Jujutsu World while also being a Special Grade sorcerer would be willing to associate with curses."

Kenjaku also let out a long sigh and spoke in disappointment.

Had the Jujutsu World's recent drastic changes placed so much pressure on him that his judgment had become irrational?

No, this was a perfectly normal judgment. The Jujutsu World had already been troublesome enough with Gojo Satoru around. Then, two months ago, Seele O'Flaherty suddenly appeared, someone every bit as troublesome as Gojo Satoru and perhaps even stronger.

Then, just one week ago, the Jujutsu World suddenly announced that Makima, formerly a Grade 1 sorcerer and a high-ranking member of the Jujutsu World, had been promoted to Special Grade and stationed in Tokyo. Both Gojo Satoru and Seele, fellow Special Grade sorcerers, had acknowledged her strength.

In such a situation, unless he desperately seized every possible force that could be united, his plan would have no chance of succeeding. Even knowing that this might be a trap, as long as there was even a one-in-ten-thousand chance that it was real, he had to come and see.

Besides...

"Is Miss Makima so confident in her own strength? You and I are both Special Grade sorcerers, and Mahito's strength is far beyond that of an ordinary Special Grade Cursed Spirit. I assume you have sensed that as well?"

"Or do you believe you possess strength like Gojo and Miss Seele's, enough to easily subdue the two of us alone?"

Kenjaku absolutely did not believe that.

A monster like Gojo Satoru was already a once-in-a-thousand-years powerful sorcerer. It was an extraordinary coincidence that another equally powerful Seele O'Flaherty had appeared in the same era and stood on his side.

Kenjaku did not believe that, in this era, a third monster like that could emerge apart from Gojo Satoru's revival.

With that thought, Kenjaku activated Cursed Spirit Manipulation. A Cursed Spirit resembling a giant centipede abruptly leaped out and pounced toward Makima.

Mahito attacked at the same time. Its arm twisted and transformed into an extendable long blade that stabbed straight toward Makima's body.

Makima neither dodged nor retreated. Two golden Chains of Restraint blocked the attacks from both of them.

The centipede Cursed Spirit released by Kenjaku became stiff the instant it touched the chain. Then, with a light flick of the chain, the Cursed Spirit's body was directly smashed apart.

Meanwhile, the chain blocking the blade formed from Mahito's arm crawled along its arm toward its body.

Feeling waves of weakness spread through the blade, Mahito did not dare let those strange chains touch its body. It immediately severed its arm and retreated.

"Geto, be careful. Do not let those chains touch your body!"

Kenjaku, with his wealth of experience, had naturally noticed this as well.

The moment the chains touched the centipede Cursed Spirit he had released, the cursed energy within it fell into a state of stagnation, and his Cursed Spirit Manipulation could no longer control it.

After all, Cursed Spirit Manipulation relied on cursed energy to control Cursed Spirits. Once a Cursed Spirit was touched by those golden chains, the cursed energy of Cursed Spirit Manipulation would also directly fall silent.

To make cursed energy enter absolute stillness... there was actually such a powerful technique in this world, yet he had never even heard of it before.

Still, if that was all it could do, then it was manageable.

Domain Expansion: Restraint Barrier

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Under the operation of Cursed Spirit Manipulation, large numbers of grotesque Cursed Spirits began appearing around them. A rough estimate put their number close to one hundred.

Even with the ability to store Cursed Spirits without limit, the Cursed Spirits before them still constituted a large portion of Kenjaku's assets. After all, he had only seized Geto Suguru's body and technique; he had not inherited the Cursed Spirits Geto had accumulated during his life. Every Cursed Spirit under his control had been collected by him afterward.

The reason Kenjaku summoned so many Cursed Spirits at once was because he wanted to use them to test the upper limit of the chains Makima could summon.

Even if those chains had terrifying effects, as long as he could determine how many she could summon at once, Kenjaku could devise a countermeasure and secure the final victory.

"Go."

At Kenjaku's command, over a hundred Cursed Spirits let out a chorus of shrieks and charged toward Makima together.

However, faced with the joint assault of so many Cursed Spirits, Makima did not choose to summon chains to attack again. Instead, she used the ability of someone under her control.

The ground trembled. In the next second, amid thunderous crashes, countless thick branches burst out from the earth at astonishing speed, transforming into a hundred-meter-tall sea of trees that engulfed every Cursed Spirit.

"This is... Hanami's technique?"