[Come store your brain now, and get two brain flowers back in a hundred years.]
[Store your brain now for a special offer: store one brain and get a random Devil Fruit in return.]
"Is this the Flame-Flame Fruit?"
Dunn stared wide-eyed at the orange fruit wreathed in strange flames, sitting inside the ancient wooden chest before him.
"What the hell? Is this the world of One Piece?"
He had already looked around and been stunned by the bird's nest beneath his feet, which was at least twenty meters across, and the towering tree, which stood at least a hundred or two hundred meters tall. It had made him realize that this wasn't his original world.
His original world didn't have birds that big or trees that tall—not unless he'd gone back to an era when prehistoric beasts roamed the earth.
In his memories, there were only those two headlights hurtling toward him as he carried takeout across the street at night.
Had he hit the jackpot?
In every sense of the phrase!
The legends were actually true. This was ridiculous.
What was even more ridiculous was that while searching for a way down from this place, at least a hundred meters in the air, he'd found an ancient wooden chest.
When he opened it, he saw a strange fruit with unmistakable features.
As an anime that had been popular for twenty years, One Piece was naturally familiar to Dunn. This kind of peculiar fruit was easy to recognize.
"So I really did end up in the world of the pirates?"
Dunn absentmindedly took the orange fruit out of the chest and muttered to himself.
He still couldn't believe it, but there was a better way to be sure.
Dunn looked at the fruit in his hand and pressed his lips together.
If this really was the pirate world, which was extremely dangerous for ordinary people, then this Devil Fruit—one people said even dogs wouldn't eat—was his lifeline.
After all, given his current situation, he couldn't defend himself against most dangers.
Even if he somehow managed to leave this island and found somewhere inhabited, he still wouldn't be able to defend himself if he ran into pirates.
The story had never depicted pirates actually killing anyone, but now he'd truly come to this world.
After all, this was a Logia.
People might make fun of it, but it was still a Logia fruit, and it represented the natural force of fire.
Aside from anything else, the passive ability to turn his body into flames was enough to deal with most dangers.
The only drawback was that he'd become a poor swimmer.
But that hardly outweighed the benefits.
In the space of a moment, all these thoughts ran through Dunn's mind. Then his eyes fell on the fruit in his hand again, and his throat bobbed as he swallowed.
If he ate it and gained the power of natural flames, then he'd know for sure that this was the world of One Piece.
If he didn't gain that power—or if the fruit turned out to be poisonous and killed him—then he'd just have to accept his bad luck.
Crack!
Without thinking any further, Dunn bit into the Flame-Flame Fruit.
Mm. The taste was right.
The instant the fruit pulp entered his mouth, the thought came to him.
In the world of One Piece, Devil Fruits were described as tasting unbelievably awful. No one could calmly endure the flavor of a Devil Fruit.
Some people even said they tasted worse than shit.
But now, he seemed to understand what they meant. He didn't know what shit tasted like, but the fruit in his mouth was a combination of all the flavors he found most disgusting.
It was as if his body was desperately resisting the fruit as he swallowed it.
It was a revulsion that came from the depths of his soul.
But after hitting the jackpot, Dunn had found a stubborn streak in himself.
You couldn't stand firm unless you were tough.
Being hard on yourself was even harder than being hard on others.
Dunn painfully stretched his neck and swallowed the mouthful of fruit whole, then bit into the rest of it.
Crunch, crunch!
Bite after bite.
After swallowing the last mouthful, Dunn toppled over, his face turning green.
It was his body's stress response.
He finally understood why so many transmigrators said Devil Fruits tasted like shit. Maybe they'd never eaten shit, but they must have thought it was the worst-tasting thing in the world.
But Dunn had a feeling that compared to the Devil Fruit, shit might even count as delicious.
A long while later, Dunn finally managed to sit up. The discomfort in his body was fading, too.
At the same time, he could sense something inside him, like an instinct—or perhaps a power.
Bang!
A ball of flame rose and burned in his raised hand.
The heat didn't affect him at all. Instead, he felt warm.
The flames didn't affect his clothes, either.
No—he should say that even the sleeve on his arm had turned into fire.
He waved the flames away. The sleeve on his wrist was perfectly intact.
"That confirms it. I've come to the world of One Piece and become a Devil Fruit User. So what does that make me now? A Flame-Flame guy?"
Dunn muttered to himself.
It sounded like self-mockery, but in truth, it was a sign that he was beginning to relax.
He was generally a steady person, but anyone who thought they might have transmigrated would struggle to stay calm.
Dunn might have seemed composed earlier, but inside, he'd been panicking.
Especially after discovering the enormous bird's nest beneath him, along with the three gigantic eggs inside it, each taller than he was.
Even dinosaurs couldn't have laid eggs that huge, could they?
Now, with the ability to turn into flames, at least the dangers he might face for the time being—and even later—were no longer so threatening.
After all, Logia Users were practically invincible against opponents who couldn't use Haki.
That single ability to transform into flames passively was enough to leave those opponents helpless.
At least he now had the means to survive.
Once he'd thought that through and relaxed, Dunn was finally able to calmly examine his surroundings.
Beneath him was a huge bird's nest, perhaps twenty meters across.
If the nest had an owner, the bird's wingspan was probably forty or fifty meters.
For reference, the Tu-160's wingspan was fifty-four meters.
Even with the Flame-Flame Fruit's power to rely on, Dunn had no intention of confronting a monster like that.
After making a full circuit, Dunn frowned and fell silent.
Getting down wouldn't be easy. His Logia ability might let him fall from a hundred or two hundred meters without dying, but Dunn didn't want to test it.
He wasn't Kaido.
He didn't have that terrifying physique.
Yes, he'd already checked his body. Although he'd become fourteen or fifteen years old, it was still his own body. Even the scar on his knee from an accident in childhood was still there.
"This is troublesome."
Dunn frowned and sighed. Then his gaze fell on the three enormous eggs in the nest.
There was one other way: set the nest on fire.
It was huge, but the nest was still made of branches, dry grass, and giant feathers—perfect kindling.
And the Flame-Flame Fruit's power gave him confidence that he could survive in the fire. He only needed to land on the tree trunk supporting the nest below.
He might even get to try some roasted bird eggs.
Before you continue