Another Devil Fruit: Taking In the Ox-Horse Brothers

Before long, Yang Yunzhi saw the small box the Luo brothers had mentioned.

At a single glance, Yang Yunzhi was certain that it was indeed a box meant for holding Devil Fruits!

However, whether it truly contained a Devil Fruit was another matter. While such boxes were often used to store Devil Fruits, their original purpose was to hold valuable items.

It was only because their size happened to be perfect for Devil Fruits that people gradually began using them for that purpose.

So how could he tell whether there was a Devil Fruit inside?

Actually, it was simple. He only needed to focus and use his Byakugan to see through it!

Yang Yunzhi widened his eyes and activated his Byakugan with all his strength. His gaze pierced through the outer surface of the box like a needle through a thin membrane, revealing what lay inside.

Then he discovered, to his surprise, that there really was a Devil Fruit inside!

The fruit looked like a pineapple and was entirely emerald green, yet it was square-shaped and covered in I-shaped patterns. Rather than a fruit, it looked more like a square brick!

"I don't remember seeing this fruit before, but the abilities of many Devil Fruits can be judged from their appearance alone. This fruit is so square... could it be the Square-Square Fruit?"

The Square-Square Fruit immediately made Yang Yunzhi think of Minecraft. Its power would be excellent for construction work, but its utility and combat potential were far weaker!

Still, it was a Devil Fruit. Since he had found it, how could he possibly leave it behind?

The problem was, he did not have 100 million Beli!

Of course, he could simply take the Devil Fruit while the three of them did not recognize it.

But people's knowledge would not remain what it was today forever. Those three might learn about Devil Fruits through some other channel, discover that this thing was worth 100 million, and then connect it to what had happened today.

By then, Yang Yunzhi might already have become some great figure, and they would be unable to trouble him anyway.

But he was not someone who liked taking petty advantages. If he did something like that, it might weigh on his mind forever.

Unless it was necessary, he did not want to leave such a shadow on his conscience.

Noticing how intently Yang Yunzhi was looking, the town mayor asked, "Sir Marine, is this thing very valuable?"

"Very valuable!" Yang Yunzhi nodded. "The box contains one of the fruits I told you about before. In the outside world, these fruits are called Devil Fruits. They are legendary great treasures. I won't tell you what they do, lest you get the wrong ideas, but I can tell you their value. The standard price for one is 100 million!"

"What?" The town mayor froze, while Luo Niu and Luo Ma stared at the box in their hands in shock.

They had never imagined that two fishermen so poor they could barely afford clothes would be holding a treasure worth 100 million!

But the town mayor thought of even more.

He realized that this Marine seemed to be an honest man!

He could have told them nothing and simply tricked them into handing over the treasure box, yet he had not done so. Instead, he had voluntarily told him and the Luo brothers how valuable it was.

With that in mind, the town mayor asked, "Sir Marine, what do you think of the Luo brothers' potential?"

"They are simple and honest by nature, pure of heart, and exceptionally talented. Very good," Yang Yunzhi answered truthfully.

The two really were simple and honest. They already knew the treasure box was worth 100 million, yet they still had not put it away. They simply left it on the table for Yang Yunzhi to inspect, without even making the slightest guarded movement.

Of course, perhaps they were simply confident in their own strength and believed Yang Yunzhi could not steal it.

"Then would you be willing to become their captain?"

Yang Yunzhi rolled his eyes. "Uncle, I'm a Marine, not a pirate!"

"That's... that's what I meant!" the town mayor hurriedly explained.

Yang Yunzhi understood. Here, "captain" probably meant something like lord, but the town mayor had not read much and could not find a more suitable word to describe it.

"I would be willing, but didn't they say they didn't want to become Marines?" Yang Yunzhi asked.

"It isn't that they don't want to. They just don't want to entrust themselves to the wrong person!" the town mayor said. "Their mother said that these two children were extraordinary from birth. In the future, they would either become Marines or pirates; they could never remain ordinary civilians forever. So before she died, she entrusted them to me and asked me to find them a good captain! I think you are very suitable!"

Yang Yunzhi was somewhat speechless.

To be fair, he really was suitable. In this world, no thigh was thicker than that of a transmigrator.

But the town mayor did not know he had a cheat. He had merely noticed that Yang Yunzhi seemed like a good person who might treat the two brothers well. That was all.

Yet sincerity was merely one of the qualities a good lord needed.

No, it was not even essential. There were plenty of hypocritical and suspicious lords.

The town mayor had decided Yang Yunzhi would be a good lord based solely on his temperament. It was clear that this mayor was also an amateur with little real judgment.

Of course, the town mayor had never gone to school or left Glazed Town. Though he had a wealth of life experience, it was perfectly normal for him to be poor at judging people.

"Oh, right!" Seeing Yang Yunzhi fall into thought, the town mayor continued, "If you are willing to take them in, I am willing to offer you a Devil Fruit!"

"What?" Yang Yunzhi was dumbfounded. "Wait, you have one too?"

"I really do!" The town mayor nodded. "My grandfather passed it down to me. No one in the family knew what it was, and we did not dare ask around, so we simply kept it stored away!"

Yang Yunzhi nodded. That was indeed another possibility.

Officials such as town mayors and village chiefs held considerable prestige in their areas. If villagers stumbled across a Devil Fruit and did not dare eat it because of its strange appearance, they might either keep it themselves or hand it over to the "knowledgeable" village chief or town mayor.

Naturally, some village chiefs and town mayors recognized Devil Fruits, but there were certainly others like the mayor of Glazed Town, who did not recognize them but sensed that they were extraordinary.

If so, perhaps he could collect quite a few Devil Fruits from town mayors across islands of all sizes?

"Can you take me to see it?" Yang Yunzhi asked.

"As long as you take them in, what would it matter if I gave you the Devil Fruit?"

"You're really giving it to me?" Yang Yunzhi was surprised. "You know this thing is extremely valuable!"

"So what if it is valuable? In times like these, it is not necessarily a good thing for a small town to be too wealthy!" The town mayor shook his head.

If a small town became wealthy, it might attract pirates.

What, this town had a Marine base?

Then it could easily attract greedy Marines instead.

Do not assume future base commanders would be good just because the current one was. Wasn't the previous base commander a massively corrupt official?

For a town mayor, neither wealth nor strength was what he wanted. What mattered most was allowing the town to endure for the long term!

"I can make the decision. As long as you take in these two, not only can I give you my Devil Fruit, but you can have theirs as well!" the town mayor said.

Yang Yunzhi looked at the Luo brothers—or perhaps he should call them the Ox-Horse Brothers—and asked, "What do you say?"

"We'll listen to the town mayor!" Before their mother died, she had indeed told them to listen to the town mayor.

"Then I'll take them in. Once we retrieve the Devil Fruit, I'll take them back to register them!"

He was handling paperwork for new recruits anyway. Adding two more recruits would be easy, wouldn't it?"

"That's good, that's wonderful!" Seeing Yang Yunzhi accept the Ox-Horse Brothers, the town mayor's body suddenly seemed to hunch over, as though he had completed some important task.

That was right. Someone had entrusted two people to him before dying. He had to see them married and starting families, didn't he?

Now that he had handed them over to someone else, those responsibilities naturally became Yang Yunzhi's.