"Whew~" Gray took a deep breath to calm his pounding heart, then wiped the sweat from his forehead. He'd finished today's combat training.
"Field Rotation: Activate!" He sat back in his wheelchair, set his field to its usual six times gravity, and wheeled toward the family port.
There were no abandoned buildings in this base, so Shark Chili could only stay over at the port.
Now that his training was over, Gray planned to go check on Shark Chili.
This time, he'd been promoted to a family officer, and all his benefits had reached the highest tier. Shark Chili was one with him, and when one prospered, so did the other. Gray planned to use part of his benefits to improve Shark Chili's meals.
Before, Shark Chili's food hadn't been bad, but there simply weren't many Sea Kings or sea beasts in North Blue, so most of what it ate was livestock meat.
It got Sea King meat only twice a week, and sea beast meat once every two days.
Now that Gray's own benefits had improved, he planned to spend some of his own money to provide Shark Chili with more Sea King or sea beast meat, helping it grow faster.
As soon as Gray reached the shore, Shark Chili surfaced and swam over to him, full of excitement.
"Chirp!"
"Haha! How are you settling in here?"
"Chirp~" Shark Chili swam around happily, its tail splashing water everywhere.
"That's good!" Seeing how happy it was, Gray felt reassured that everything was fine.
As expected, Sea Kings were happiest in the sea. Keeping one on land was just too strange.
"Chirp!"
"I came by to check on you. We have more money at our disposal now, so I'll have someone bring you an extra meal later."
"Chirp!"
"Hahaha! All right, all right!" After playing with Shark Chili for a while, Gray let it go off on its own and got down to his own business.
And what he had to do wasn't anything major. As usual, he'd continue developing his Devil Fruit abilities.
At this point, Gray had three urgent directions for developing his Devil Fruit abilities, plus one just for showing off.
The first was defensive Direction Rotation.
Four months had passed at sea, and he'd gotten a few ideas about Direction Rotation.
Direction Rotation is just a matter of reflecting an attack back the instant it enters the range of my Devil Fruit ability.
To do that, I have to reflect the enemy's attack at the very moment it closes in. And the difficult part is... catching that exact moment.
The timing requirement is too strict. If I can't do it instantly, the technique is useless. That was Gray's summary of his work on Direction Rotation.
Although he'd gotten a few ideas, he still hadn't developed the technique. He needed to study it further before he could truly get started.
The second was Personal Magnetic Field rotation.
Aside from the feeling of his Soul Magnetic Field strengthening when he first rotated it and awakened Observation Haki, he hadn't felt that sensation again.
His Soul Magnetic Field had grown stronger only because his Observation Haki had improved along with it.
Even now, Gray still hadn't realized the idea he'd had back then, and he was still working on developing the ability further.
The third was Space Rotation.
When he'd first eaten the Spin-Spin Fruit, the first things Gray had thought of were rotating space and time.
As someone from the Zhonghua Family, he'd always kept one saying close to his heart: space was king, and time was sovereign.
In this world, he didn't know whether his Spin-Spin Fruit could rotate time, but rotating space alone should be the easiest thing to accomplish.
Kuma had developed his Devil Fruit well enough to repel space and teleport himself. That was where Gray had gotten his inspiration.
His Spin-Spin Fruit let him rotate any object. Note—any object!
So, naturally, space was included!
In the past, he hadn't developed his Devil Fruit abilities enough to reach too far. But now, Gray felt the time was right.
His first idea for developing a space-based skill with the Spin-Spin Fruit was this: space was a circle.
Just as he'd merged Observation Haki into his small world, he could set an area as a circle, then rotate that space.
Put simply, Gray himself was point A, and the place he wanted to move to was point B.
The distance between points A and B would form the diameter of a circle. If Gray used his Devil Fruit ability to rotate that circle, he could instantly move from A to B, while B would shift to A.
The technique would work just like Luo teleporting within his operating space. The only difference was that Gray wouldn't need to exchange places with physical objects like rocks. He'd be exchanging points in space.
Just thinking about developing a teleportation skill made Gray so excited he could hardly contain himself.
He'd even already imagined how he'd show off in the future.
When he met an enemy, he'd instantly teleport behind them, wearing a calm expression as if he were looking down on his opponent, then deliver a line and gesture like this.
Imagined scene: Gray teleported behind the enemy, pressing his index finger against their heart. "The distance between us... means nothing. If I wish, I can take your life in an instant."
"I'm fired up!"
"That's so cool, right?" Just thinking about it had Gray so excited he could hardly stand it. He couldn't wait to make the scene a reality and become the ultimate show-off.
If he mastered Space Rotation, it wouldn't just give him the ability to teleport.
He'd also be able to attack enemies directly in an instant.
He could even reproduce the effects of Kuroko Shirai's ability.
"Master one technique and become a Level 4 powerhouse! No need for 998, or even 98. Just read every day, and by the time this book is finished, you too can become a space-based powerhouse!"
"Don't just sit there wishing—what are you waiting for?"
Yikes~ Gray quickly tossed those ridiculous thoughts out of his mind and refocused.
"The potential of Space Rotation goes beyond that: teleporting myself and my attacks is only the first ability."
"If I take it further and rotate a smaller space, I could distort space to create Kamui and attack enemies with the power of space. How many could withstand that?"
"And if I develop it to its final form, could I rotate and distort space to create a black hole?" Those were Gray's ideas and hopes for developing the Spin-Spin Fruit's space-based skills.
The prospects were beautiful, and they seemed achievable. Gray had to calm his restless heart several times before he could resist the urge to use himself as a test subject and start developing the ability.
Once he'd calmed down and carefully considered the details, Gray finally began his very first proper attempt at developing Space Rotation.
He wheeled back to his place, enjoying the sunshine as he took a small metal ball from his wheelchair and laid it in his palm.
Then he swept his gaze around and fixed on a small pebble ten meters ahead.
Let the metal ball in my palm be point A, and the pebble be the enemy. The space beside the pebble is point B. A and B form the diameter of a circle. Rotate space to move A directly to B. With the logic laid out in his mind, the rest was up to his Devil Fruit ability. All Gray could do was charge ahead.
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