Poor No More

Last year, Xia Luo killed the king of a World Government member nation and cleaned out his treasury in the process.

One of the spoils was a valuable Devil Fruit. According to a certain king who wished to remain anonymous, he had planned to offer that Devil Fruit to the World Government as next year's Heavenly Tribute.

The other had been snatched from a group of pirates. After obtaining a Devil Fruit, they hadn't eaten it immediately and had instead planned to auction it off!

At the time, Xia Luo had curiously asked why, only to receive the answer, "We're scared of being poor. We finally got a Devil Fruit, so we couldn't bear to eat it."

A pirate version of Zhao Dehan, huh!

At first, Xia Luo had no idea what abilities the two fruits in his possession possessed. Later, Olvia told him that the Tree of Knowledge library housed a Devil Fruit encyclopedia.

So he had Olvia borrow it for him. Only after flipping through it did he learn the abilities of the two Devil Fruits.

One of them was the Paramecia Cause-Cause Fruit. It first appeared in 1520 and was the Devil Fruit ability wielded by Urouge, one of the eleven Supernovas of the Worst Generation. It could convert damage received into size and strength; the heavier the injury, the more obvious the boost.

The remaining one was the Ancient Zoan Dragon-Dragon Fruit, Tyrannosaurus form.

A Zoan, and an Ancient Zoan at that—its value went without saying. If those pirates had actually auctioned it off, it would have sold for at least a billion berries.

Whether it was the Cause-Cause Fruit or the Tyrannosaurus Fruit, both were well suited to Bullet, especially the Tyrannosaurus Fruit.

The Tyrannosaurus's extreme power, ridiculous physique, and freakishly powerful regenerative ability would be a perfect match when combined with Bullet's physical talent.

It was no exaggeration to say that, to Bullet, the Tyrannosaurus Fruit was comparable to a Mythical Zoan!

The only pity was that a Tyrannosaurus could not fly. Without aerial mobility, fighting at sea would be very passive. Still, there were alternatives, such as Geppo.

Lost in thought, Xia Luo accidentally walked into a dead end.

The moment he turned around, several people blocked his path.

"Haha, kid, guess you're unlucky to have chosen a dead end!"

"You skulking bastard, hand over everything you have, then kneel. We brothers might spare your life."

Several burly, vicious-looking men blocked Xia Luo's path and surrounded him, grinning ferociously as they arrogantly demanded that he kneel.

The fish had taken the bait themselves.

A smile tugged at Xia Luo's lips as he looked at them with interest. "Are you locals?"

"None of your damn business!" They remained arrogant, not taking Xia Luo seriously at all. "Hand over your stuff already. We don't have time to waste here!"

Seeing that, Xia Luo could not be bothered to waste any more words. The next instant, he vanished from where he stood, becoming a blur.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

"Ah—"

The burly men all dropped to their knees, their faces pale as they clutched their arms and let out miserable screams.

"I broke one of your hands as a small warning. Can you speak properly now?" The smile vanished from Xia Luo's face as he looked down at them coldly.

"You motherf—"

One of them was still being insolent, so Xia Luo showed no more mercy and kicked his neck apart.

This time, the remaining men finally behaved themselves. Like quails, they honestly answered Xia Luo's questions.

From them, Xia Luo learned some details about the country, as well as information regarding Douglas Bullet.

Twelve-year-old Bullet had already displayed an incredibly dazzling performance on the battlefield. He had risen to fame and become well known to everyone.

After learning the location of Bullet's military camp, Xia Luo immediately set off.

The military camp lay southeast of the harbor, almost directly in line with it, though quite far away.

The camp was close to the center of the island. The island's two major factions each occupied half its territory and fought at the border, while the camp had been built in a valley along that border.

Before long,

A military camp—or rather, a military fortress—built of rock and steel like a bunker appeared before Xia Luo.

An austere, chilling aura washed over him, involuntarily inspiring awe.

Boom!

Boom! Boom!

Suddenly, deafening explosions rang out, mixed with shouts of battle.

Outside the camp, an intense battle was underway. Thousands of soldiers fired their guns, and the smell of gunpowder permeated the air.

Shells occasionally fell among the crowd, instantly inflicting massive casualties.

Xia Luo swept his gaze across the battlefield and quickly noticed someone among them.

He was a blond youth with a youthful face, nearly two meters tall and covered in muscle. Braving the hail of bullets, he rampaged across the battlefield, enemy soldiers continuously dying at his hands.

"Die!"

Bullet slammed his fist into an enemy, killing him on the spot. Every punch he threw claimed a life, like a merciless harvesting machine.

Ordinary people were no match for him. He could easily evade artillery shells, and flintlock rifles could do very little damage to him.

"Truly gifted..."

After watching for a while, Xia Luo gave his assessment. It was clear that Bullet had never undergone professional training. He relied purely on his utterly unreasonable physical talent to do whatever he wanted.

Another talent monster. No wonder he was called the Devil's Heir.

Talent monsters were the most annoying. Charlotte Linlin was one, Kaido was one, and Bullet was one too.

Unlike Xia Luo. Aside from a tiny bit of help from the system, he had relied entirely on his own hard work to attain his current strength.

Just then, a middle-aged man dressed like an enemy commander stepped in front of Bullet. He stared gravely at the youth before him, his body taut as though facing a formidable enemy.

Bullet raised an eyebrow. "You again, Georgia Mota!"

"You want to stop me?"

"Stop, Bullet. As long as I'm here, don't even think about taking another step forward!"

Mota was extremely wary of Bullet. He had fought Bullet many times, and although he had held the upper hand every time, he had never been able to do anything to him.

More importantly, Bullet's strength had grown at a terrifying rate during their battles. At first, Mota could defeat Bullet easily, but Bullet had merely escaped by relying on his freakish body.

By their last battle, Georgia Mota had realized that he could only barely suppress Bullet now and could not defeat him at all. Once they fell into a drawn-out battle, he would likely be the one defeated!

"Mota, you can't stop me!" Bullet was brimming with arrogance, not taking Mota seriously in the slightest.

Mota's expression darkened, but he did not lash out. He said in a low voice:

"Bullet, Douglas is your adoptive father, isn't he? You're risking your life for him—what has he ever given you?"

"With your current strength, you'd be more than qualified to become a commander. Yet even now, you're only a captain, a vanguard sent charging into battle every day!"

"Do you know why?"

"Douglas is wary of you!"