Test: Is the Fruit Poisonous?

Ron had no idea what was happening outside. Inside the temple, only one of his hands remained, clamped around the old man's neck—the rest of his body had vanished entirely. The turbulent lightning raging beyond was the power spilling uncontrollably from his shattered form.

But soon, the phenomenon ceased. Threads of current wove and twisted, thunder flickered, tracing Ron's silhouette. The scattered lightning returned to its main body, reassembling into a man.

Not a single spark remained anywhere except one spot.

Zzzzt!

"...Ahhh!!"

The arm that had turned to lightning erupted with a fresh surge of current. The old man's mouth gaped wide, his body convulsing uncontrollably, skin reeking of scorched flesh.

As the first test subject for Ron's power, he had proven qualified by surviving this long.

Rubbing his chin with his free hand, Ron mused slowly.

"No wonder Logia types are called invincible in the early stages—their Elementalization is a passive skill! But it's also controllable by the user, letting them touch solid objects at will."

"Also, after being scattered over a wide area, if I can't control the power release before reassembling, it still drains stamina. Reassembly itself is a process of using the Fruit Ability. So even with Elementalization, I can't afford to be careless."

With the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, Ron had plenty of time to dodge before an attack landed. Even without learning Enel's trick of teleporting through an Electromagnetic Field, lightning's own speed was nothing to scoff at.

He'd only done this to test a question he'd always been curious about, gathering data for future development of the Fruit Ability. Knowing yourself and your enemy ensures a hundred victories without a single loss.

As a transmigrator, Ron had achieved "knowing the enemy." But as a new Devil Fruit User, he hadn't yet "known himself"...

Zzzzt!

The current in his hand intensified. The old man, frothing at the mouth and unconscious, could only let out passive screams, utterly powerless. Ron gained another insight from this.

"...The Fruit's power isn't just tied to development level—it's also linked to the user's physical strength. I just got the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, with near-zero development, so the lightning's power only scales with my current body."

"Right now, half power isn't enough to kill this guy. He's a small-scale superhuman who only lost an arm after taking a blast of that magnitude. An Ordinary Person could only handle one-tenth of my power..."

The Impact Dial wasn't as legendary as the Repel Dial, but its recoil was still terrifying—that's why Bika had classified it as a restricted weapon.

Massive destructive power, but an Ordinary Person using it once would shatter their Muscles and Bones, crippling them for life!

The old man had only lost one arm after a "MAX Launch," proving his strength.

But...

"One-tenth power..."

Ron sighed.

"Looks like it's a long road ahead, let alone conquering the world—even catching up to Enel's level in the original story is a distant goal..."

The One Piece World was filled with countless monsters. Power that was universally lethal to Earthlings was just the standard in the Four Seas, or even the East Blue. And the gap between the East Blue and the world's peak went without saying...

Crack!

Ron casually released his grip, letting the old man's charred body fall. As his fingers loosened, the corpse, roasted brittle by full-power lightning, crumbled into black dust on the floor.

"...MAX Launch? I thought that Kaikain girl had walked into the wrong room!"

He sneered, dusting the ash off his hands. The motion pulled at his rapidly healing wounds, making him stumble. Frowning slightly, Ron looked up toward the door.

"...Tch. Lucky you ran fast."

The Sky Island Soldiers, witnessing such bizarre lightning, believed their god Thor was enraged and fled, dropping their weapons. Now that Ron had a free hand, they were long gone. He was a stranger in this world—unless he wasted time hunting down every last guard after his wounds healed, how would he know who was who?

And why would it be a waste of time?

Grumble!

A low rumble echoed across the ruins.

It wasn't from the Rumble-Rumble Fruit—just his stomach.

A day without food, plus massive exertion and the energy needed to heal his injuries, had left Ron's eyes glowing green with hunger.

"I'm starving!"

He scanned the temple. On the offering table, thumb-sized purple fruits looked fresh and appetizing. Empty-stomached, Ron didn't care what they were—he grabbed the golden plate and dumped the contents into his mouth.

"Not bad. A bit sour..."

He wolfed down the pile of fruit in seconds. The full stomach accelerated his healing.

Damaged wounds smoked, and split skin visibly knitted together! In just a few breaths, the surface injuries had closed, leaving only the deep bone-and-muscle damage still marked!

But at this rate, what would take an Ordinary Person three or four months to heal—a broken bone—Ron could recover from in just a week!

Dozens of times faster than normal!

This regenerative ability had always been Ron's trump card for taking risks!

As long as he didn't die on the spot, any external injury could heal!

The only thing that couldn't self-heal was the body's own degenerative diseases...

That was another problem entirely.

Digesting food drew blood to his stomach, reducing oxygen to his brain, and his taut nerves gradually relaxed.

Ron let out a satisfied sigh, considering his next steps.

"Full and content. What now?"

Stay on Sky Island and become Dugu Qiubai?

Use the invincible power of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit to rule Birka like Enel, or even all of Sky Island?

That idea was too childish, not in line with Ron's personality. As a madman who constantly challenged himself, he couldn't accept just coasting through life and being waited on hand and foot.

"Right! Go to the Blue Sea!"

Ron's eyes lit up. Sky Island was just a tiny, insignificant corner of the One Piece World. The entire "kingdom" of Birka wasn't even as big as some second-tier cities on Earth.

Only the vast Blue Sea!

The magnificent, thousand-sails-rising Great Pirate Era could pique Ron's interest just a little.

"But... how do I leave Sky Island and get back to the Blue Sea?"

Staring at the clouds in the distance through the broken hole in the Temple, Ron frowned deeply.

The decision was made, but the technical problem stood right in front of him.

Sky Island was at least 5,000 meters above sea level. An ordinary person couldn't get down at all. As a Logia, immune to all physical damage, Ron could just jump straight down, but he was afraid that seawater lay below—he wouldn't die from the fall, but drown instead.

"...Enel doesn't have wings, suspected to be a Blue Sea Person. Maybe he knows a way..."

Lifting his head, Ron's body rapidly transformed. With a flash of lightning, he vanished from where he stood.

Outside the tall walls of the shrine, Enel sat hugging his knees, leaning against the wall and trembling all over, clearly terrified out of his wits by the thunder.

Just then, a crackling sound of electric current filled the air, weaving into a human shape. A small bolt of stray lightning struck Enel's arm, making him jolt to his feet with a yelp, staring dumbfounded at Ron.

This wasn't Teleportation—it was just the Movement Speed of a Logia Devil Fruit User after Elementalization. But to an ordinary person, it was no different from Teleportation.

With an upper body in human form and a lower body of lightning, Ron's face was expressionless as he spoke flatly.

"I'm asking you, Enel. Do you know how to get to the Blue Sea?"

Across from him, Enel stared blankly, as if he hadn't snapped out of it.

He actually... succeeded...

No, that's impossible!

This isn't real!!

The appearance of a Logia user was harder for others to accept than the other two types—godlike and demonic. Ron knew this well and assumed Enel's terror was fear of his form, thinking nothing more of it.

But he hadn't considered that if Enel himself chose to take shelter in the open space outside the Temple instead of going inside, he must have known there was a powerful Old Birdman inside.

Yet he hadn't said a word—he'd harbored the malicious intent of letting the Old Birdman kill Ron!

And not only did Ron survive, but he even...

In an instant, Enel's eyes bulged wide, pupils constricted, the corners of his mouth twitching wildly. The next moment, he lunged at Ron like a demon.

"No!!!"

"Spit it out! Spit it out!!"

"That's mine!!!"

"Huh?!"

Ron raised an eyebrow, a suspicion forming in his mind.

Facing Enel's wild, unskilled punches, Ron sneered disdainfully. He stepped forward, catching Enel's swinging arm with his shoulder, then grabbed his wrist, lifted it up, pulled it outward, and twisted to break his resistance... before suddenly pressing it back down, crossing his arms and shoving downward!

Crack!

"Ah!!!"

Strength didn't mean defense. The scrawny Enel's ability to take a hit was definitely bottom-tier. Facing Ron's full upper-body force applied through leverage, the fragile shoulder joint dislocated instantly with a crisp crack.

Striking successfully, Ron moved like a hunting Hyena, circling behind Enel while dragging his dislocated, swollen arm, then kicked the back of his knee, sending Enel face-first to the ground with a thud.

If he weren't too injured to exert himself violently, Ron would have snapped his neck right then!

But even so, Enel was in agony, rolling wildly on the ground. His face covered in blood, he glared with eyes that wanted to devour someone, struggling to roar at Ron.

"That's mine... mine!!"

"Why didn't you die?! Why didn't you die!!"

His voice was filled with unspeakable grief, matched with his miserable state—it would make anyone weep and grieve. If the victim weren't himself, Ron might have spared him two seconds of sympathy.

"So that's it... because I was rude to you, you deliberately hid the truth, hoping I'd get killed by that Birdman... huh?"

Ron suddenly felt like laughing.

He'd thought nearly getting beaten to death was just an accident. Sky Island Birka was at least a nation—who knew if there were guardian organizations or something? But he never expected the culprit to be Enel, whom he hadn't even bothered to consider...

If the Old Birdman had struck harder the first time, he wouldn't have had even a sliver of a chance to turn things around.

"Don't underestimate anyone, Ron... Your life is yours alone. You have to be responsible for it."

Remembering the words of the retired officer who taught him Sanda back on Earth, Ron sighed.

This time, he had been careless after all!

"I waited five whole years for that fruit!"

"Five years!!"

"Do you have any idea what I've been through?!"

Enel roared like a madman, then... under Ron's bewildered gaze, he cracked open his mouth and let out a vacant, idiotic laugh.

"Ha... hahaha! Gone, everything's gone!!"

"I'm not the freak—he is! Hahahaha!"

With that, he started dancing, flailing his limbs wildly.

The Old Priest was on his last legs, nearing the end of his life, and the empty gap before the next Priest's succession was Enel's best chance to steal the "power of the gods." But Ron's appearance had torched five years of Enel's waiting to ashes. Now just a bullied nobody, Enel couldn't take such a crushing blow and snapped, going completely insane.

Thinking back—first he'd shattered the Birdman's years of unwavering devotion, driving him mad, then unwittingly turned Enel's five years of patient endurance into empty talk...

"What a coincidence... hic!"

Condensing feet to stand on the Island Cloud, Ron watched Enel's dazed expression, let out a burp, and stared up at the sky, speechless. "I've got nothing to say..."

But this was the One Piece World!

If you didn't fight for it, someone else would take it!

Seizing fate in your own hands was always truer than hoping for others' mercy.

"Not good!"

Just then, Ron suddenly felt a scorching heat in his stomach—warm and cozy, like he was lying by a hearth—but also a twisting pain, tearing at his insides.

"Damn it! Were those fruits poisoned?!"

Offerings meant for the gods, and you people picked poisonous ones???

He clutched his stomach, curling up, his skin flushed red.

The burning heat didn't ease with the movement; in an instant, it swept through his whole body, like the summer sun, baking him until sweat poured down. The heat coursed through him, and Ron leaned painfully against the Island Cloud wall, gasping for air, his eyes bloodshot.

Striking so fast—this was clearly a potent poison!

At this point, no method could save him in time; he could only tough it out with his body!

Crackle!

Amid the full-body heat, a bolt of lightning as thick as an arm burst from his skin, blasting the ground into a charred, sunken pit that reeked of a Bad Smell. Ron clutched his increasingly painful stomach, suddenly yanked down his zipper, and squatted.

Splash—!