Roulette Wheel Lottery, Artificial Devil Fruit

"What... who exactly is this Imu?"

"He resided in the Room of Flowers, deep within Pangaea Castle in the Holy Land of Mary Geoise. He stood above the Five Elders, was the master of the Empty Throne, and the true ruler behind the World Government."

"This... above the Five Elders... the World Government's... true ruler..."

Robin recovered from the shocking revelation and pressed on. "If Imu is the ruler of the World Government, then why has no one ever heard of him? And I heard you say earlier that the World Government was founded eight hundred years ago by Imu together with the ancestors of the other Celestial Dragons."

"Other than the Five Elders, only a very small number of people knew of Imu's existence. And he should be an immortal."

"An immortal?... That really is astounding..."

"But I'm very curious, Mr. Rody. Where did you learn all this?" Robin asked curiously.

"Intelligence from someone called Oda."

"Let's go. That was roughly everything I knew. If you still wanted to see the Poneglyphs, I knew where some of them were," Rody said as he turned around, woke the unconscious Cobra, and led Robin out of the royal tomb with him.

"Lord Rody, I'm actually with Baroque Works..." On the way out of the royal tomb, Robin could not help revealing her identity as a member of Baroque Works to Rody.

"I know. Also, just call me by my name." Rody did not care about Robin's status as Baroque Works' vice president, but he was still quite pleased that she had told him herself.

"Alright, Rody."

Mary Geoise

"Slayer's demand is a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit. What are your thoughts on this?" Jaygarcia Saturn asked.

"A Mythical Zoan... That will be difficult. Even we only have a few in storage."

"Yes. Zoan fruits have wills of their own, especially Mythical Zoans. Once we handed one over, it would be difficult to retrieve it again."

"How about having CP contact Slayer and ask whether he would accept Ancient Zoans instead? If Slayer agrees, we could give him two additional Ancient Zoan Devil Fruits."

"I don't think Slayer will accept. After all, Mythical Zoans and Ancient Zoans are worlds apart."

After the other Five Elders had all voiced their opinions, Jaygarcia Saturn, who had spoken first, made a suggestion. "Do you remember the artificial Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit Vegapunk created by extracting Kaido's Lineage Factor?"

"I remember. We ordered Vegapunk to hand over that artificial Devil Fruit, but he claimed it was a failure and refused. You mean..."

"I think Vegapunk held something back. Even if that artificial Devil Fruit did not fully replicate the abilities of the Fish-Fish Fruit, Azure Dragon Form, it should at least have copied part of its power."

"Since Slayer wants a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit, how about giving him that artificial Mythical Zoan Dragon-Dragon Fruit?"

After considering Jaygarcia Saturn's proposal for a while, the other Five Elders all expressed their agreement.

"Fine. Since no one objects, order the CP agents to go to Punk Hazard, retrieve that artificial Devil Fruit, and deliver it to Slayer."

Royal Palace

[Consume 100 Slaughter Points?]

[Yes] [No]

Rody manipulated the golden roulette wheel in his mind and chose to confirm the expenditure of 100 Slaughter Points for a roulette draw. The golden wheel spun rapidly, its glow growing ever brighter. After about thirty seconds, the golden light gradually faded, and the roulette wheel vanished. In its place appeared an ancient-looking ring.

Slaughter Points: 32

After the roulette draw, only 32 Slaughter Points remained. However, Rody did not care about the points he had spent. What he wanted to know was what use the ancient ring drawn from the golden roulette wheel had. With a thought, the ancient ring appeared in his palm.

He examined it carefully in his hand. It was a simple, ancient circular ring, its outer surface engraved with mysterious old characters. After putting it on the index finger of his right hand, information about the ring immediately appeared in his mind.

It turned out to be a spatial storage ring with a capacity of one thousand cubic meters. He could use his will to store or retrieve external objects. The space inside the storage ring existed in a state of frozen time, so anything placed inside would not spoil or decay. However, it could not hold any living creature with thoughts or will.

"Rody, who is she?"

Just as Rody was about to test the storage ring's effects, Vivi and Nami pushed open the lounge door. They saw Rody sitting on the rectangular sofa, leaning against its backrest, examining an ancient ring in his hand. However, that was not what Vivi and Nami cared about. What caught their attention was the tall, elegant, intellectual beauty sitting sideways on the sofa beside Rody. Her upper body rested against Rody's shoulder, her long legs curled up with a book laid across them as she read intently. More importantly, she was actually wearing Rody's clothes.

Before Nami and Vivi arrived, Robin had been sitting sideways on the sofa with her back against Rody's shoulder, carefully reading books from the Alabasta royal family's collection. Hearing someone speak, she turned toward Nami, who had entered through the door, and gave her a warm smile like that of a caring older sister.

"Hello, I'm Nico Robin. You must be Miss Nami. You're very beautiful! Of course, Princess Vivi, you're beautiful too."

"Uh... uh, thank you for the compliment. You're beautiful too." Faced with Robin's caring-older-sister type, Nami's momentum immediately weakened. As she softly replied to Robin, she walked over to Rody and asked, "Rody, Robin is..."

Before Nami could finish, Rody reached out and pulled her into his arms. With one hand, he wrapped an arm around Robin beside him as well, then gestured for Vivi to come sit on his lap. Once Vivi shyly settled onto his lap, Rody said forcefully, "Robin is one of mine, just like you two. You must get along well from now on."

"You really are something. You're such a womanizer, yet you act so righteous and overbearing about it," Nami said, pinching Rody's cheek. Although she was somewhat dissatisfied, she had actually been prepared for this long ago. Nami had played no small part in giving Vivi the courage to go find Rody.

"Rody, you don't need to care about my opinion," Vivi said, still somewhat embarrassed.

"Rody, you really don't understand a woman's heart. Let us girls have a chat by ourselves!"

"Get out for now. Miss Nami, Princess Vivi, and I have some private girl talk to discuss." With that, she pushed Rody out of the room.

Rody happened to want to see what the other crew members were doing anyway. He found Carmen and her apprentices in the royal palace's back kitchen. The three master and apprentices were discussing cooking techniques with Tiragotan, the palace's head chef. Seeing how seriously they were studying, Rody did not disturb them and decided to see what Windfire Wheel was doing.

"Lord Rody."