Capture Alive

Zhou Qi had indeed felt that his mind had been working much better these past two days. Not only had he become more thorough in his thinking, but his memory had also become astonishingly good.

Like when he had flipped through the books a couple of days ago. He had only skimmed the prefaces of the books filling an entire room, yet he had already formed a general impression of all of them.

And the translation work he had thought would be rather difficult had turned out not to be difficult at all. He even felt that his writing had become much smoother, as though his prose had improved somewhat.

At the very least, it looked quite pleasing to him.

But because it had been a gradual process, he had not had any concrete realization of it until today.

"Was it because of meditation? But I've only been doing it for a few days, less than a week!" Zhou Qi frowned. Was it really that exaggerated?

He wanted to confirm it again. Ideally, he would play a round of LOL. It was a game that tested calculation, reaction speed, and awareness. The better one's brain was, the better one played, making it a good way to assess his current mental capacity.

But then he remembered that if he started a game and came back afterward, that redhead might already be beaten to death...

He should deal with the Devil Fruit first.

Zhou Qi returned to the One Piece World and opened the Space Gate again. This time, it was a little closer to the battlefield, changing from ten meters away to nine.

"Smoker, where's your jitte? Why are you fighting him barehanded?" Zhou Qi shouted.

"What jitte?" Smoker asked.

He wanted to capture the man alive, not because he could not defeat him, so he still had the spare attention to answer.

"Huh?" Zhou Qi froze. Wait, didn't Smoker have a jitte? How could he not have one?

Could it be that he only got that weapon later?

Right. He was currently facing a Mera Mera no Mi user. This guy was obviously weak as hell, yet he was forcing Smoker into a stalemate by relying on being a Logia Type user. Smoker had to be unhappy about that.

So he would turn around and apply to his superiors for a Seastone weapon. That would be perfectly natural!

"Maybe I remembered wrong?" Zhou Qi said, then asked, "So, do you need help?"

"What could you possibly help with?" Smoker replied irritably.

As far as he knew, this guy could only open a teleportation gate and had no combat ability whatsoever.

"That's not necessarily true!" Zhou Qi said. "I may not have any combat power, but capturing a Devil Fruit User would be a piece of cake!"

"Oh?" Smoker paused. Right!

This person might not have much combat power, but there was a country behind him. A whole country might well possess some trump card against Devil Fruit Users.

"Then use it!" Smoker shouted. "Although this pirate only has a bounty of four million, I can apply for ten million for you!"

"Money doesn't really matter!" Zhou Qi shook his head. "It's just that you can't take this pirate. Let me handle him!"

"You?" Smoker frowned, once again thinking of the harsh environment of Zhou Qi's country.

Deep beneath the sea, and controlled by Sea Kings.

It did seem like they needed the Mera Mera no Mi, whether for combat or warmth.

But...

"Although this pirate has only been active for a short time, he has already slaughtered five villages and robbed more than a dozen merchant ships. No one aboard survived. If I hand him over to you, can you keep him under control?"

"Don't worry!" Zhou Qi smiled. "I don't want him in order to control him. As for how I deal with him, you can follow along and watch the entire process. How about it?"

"This..." Smoker thought for a moment, then nodded. "Fine, it's a deal!"

"Bastards!" The redhead watched as the two casually decided his fate in just a few words, and he immediately flew into a rage. "Do you take me for dead?"

Then, with a roar, he threw another punch.

Zhou Qi chuckled. This guy was no longer young, probably in his thirties or forties, but in terms of Devil Fruit development, he was far behind Ace. Ace had even developed Pyro Cicin Mage, allowing him to fire rapid long-range attacks, while this guy only knew how to swing his fists.

He extended a hand, holding a small wooden stick, and pointed it at the redhead through the Space Gate. "Avada Kedavra!"

"What?" The redhead was stunned, only to see a stream of water appear out of thin air and surge straight out in front of him, instantly washing him into the cabin.

Smoker was splashed as well and immediately felt weak all over. He hurriedly stepped back two paces, then said in astonishment, "This is... seawater?"

"That's right!" Zhou Qi said. A continuous torrent of seawater was still pouring into the cabin as he shouted, "Hurry up! Do you have Seastone handcuffs? Put them on him!"

"Yes!" Smoker nodded blankly, still finding it hard to believe. It was that simple?

Right, a teleportation gate. If he opened the gate on the seafloor, wouldn't he be able to transport an endless supply of seawater up here?

In this world, every Devil Fruit User feared seawater. Wouldn't this ability be invincible?

No, no!

Smoker quickly came to his senses. There was no such thing as an invincible ability in this world.

First, the water flowed too slowly. It was only because this redhead had been active for such a short time that he had failed to react in time.

If it had been a Marine vice admiral, the instant the water appeared, they would have already run eight hundred meters away!

Not to mention the monstrous Three Admirals. Water could not touch light, seawater would be frozen by ice, and trying to hit magma with seawater?

It would probably evaporate immediately!

Besides, there were plenty of powerful Marines who did not rely on Devil Fruits and specialized in Taijutsu. With Zhou Qi's frail physique, anyone who got close to him would win.

Still, the ability was not without merit. At the very least, it would be quite effective against powerful foes who lacked Observation Haki and relied heavily on Devil Fruit abilities.

Like Smoker himself.

Shaking his head and no longer dwelling on it, Smoker turned toward the redhead's subordinates. In an instant, he was like a tiger charging into a flock of sheep. Wherever he went, people were knocked sprawling, and no one could withstand even a single exchange with him.

In less than two minutes, everyone aboard the entire ship had been wiped out!

"Awesome!" Once Zhou Qi saw that it was completely safe, he finally opened a gate and came over. In truth, even if that redhead knew Pyro Cicin Mage, he would not have been able to hit Zhou Qi. He could only have hit a mirror.

"What does 'awesome' mean?" Smoker asked.

"Uh, it means 'sugoi' or 'yoshi'!" Zhou Qi gave him a thumbs-up. "Your Devil Fruit is awesome!"

"Oh, no, no, no!" Smoker shook his head. "My Devil Fruit isn't awesome. His Devil Fruit is the awesome one!"

The two turned their heads together and saw that the redhead had already been dragged out in handcuffs.

"The Mera Mera no Mi really is awesome!" Zhou Qi nodded in agreement.

In this world, Logia Type Devil Fruits were already rare, and truly awesome ones were even rarer.

Zhou Qi's favorite was definitely the Glint-Glint Fruit. After all, particle-beam strikes, you know?

Though Kizaru had not displayed that sort of power, perhaps because he had been holding back, or perhaps because this world's limits prevented the Devil Fruit's potential from being fully unleashed.

But there was no doubt that this Devil Fruit had an extremely high ceiling. After all, it could reach the level of exploding stars!

Zhou Qi could travel between worlds. Once he reached more advanced worlds in the future, this fruit would not become obsolete anytime soon.

But unfortunately, Kizaru was not someone he could afford to provoke.

His second favorite was naturally the Thunder-Thunder Fruit. Electromagnetic force was one of the four fundamental forces, so its potential was likewise limitless. Railguns were common weapons on starships too, not much worse than particle beams.

If he could unify the four fundamental forces, then this fruit would truly be incredible. Even making black holes by hand would not be a problem.

By then, he could use sand and water to make three-nanometer chips by hand. That would be pretty damn cool too.

Below the Thunder-Thunder Fruit, the Ice-Ice Fruit and Mera Mera no Mi naturally reigned supreme. One yin and one yang: the former could be developed toward absolute zero and frozen spacetime, while the latter could be developed toward absolute heat and a humanoid hydrogen bomb.

As for the magma fruit, what kind of trash was that? Magma had an upper temperature limit. A Logia Type with an upper limit was only useful in a world with limits like this one; in another world, it would immediately get utterly crushed.

Take Naruto, for example. What kind of trash bloodline limit was Lava Release? Kisame Hoshigaki had handled it all by himself.

Even the Snow-Snow Fruit had greater potential than the magma fruit.

"How do you plan to deal with him?" Smoker asked, a cigarette hanging from his mouth. "I should tell you beforehand that I'll definitely report your method of handling him. If you plan to take in this pirate, don't blame me for showing no mercy!"

"Why would I take in someone as evil as him?" Zhou Qi shook his head. "Bring him along. Follow me!"

As he spoke, he opened a teleportation gate.

On the other side of the gate was Shimotsuki Village.