"Eh? There was actually a Devil Fruit here!"
When Oak held the fruit in his hand, Kaido was the first of the three who had jumped down to crowd over and look, but Oak shoved him away.
"Back off!"
After pushing Kaido away, Oak guarded the Devil Fruit against his chest with great wariness, watching him as if he were a thief.
"Stingy!"
Kaido shouted as though he had suffered some tremendous insult.
"Isn't it just a Devil Fruit? It's not like I've never seen one before. Do you think the great Kaido would rob you?
"You distrust me that much? You've truly broken my heart. If you don't let me see it today, I'm cutting ties with you!"
As he spoke, Kaido moved in again.
"Cut the crap!"
"Don't think I don't know what you're up to. You sneaked at least seven, eight, nine, ten looks at my Devil Fruit just now!"
Oak roared and kicked Kaido dozens of meters away. At first, he had instinctively guarded against Kaido because he knew how Kaido obtained the Azure Dragon Fruit in the original story. But now, he was certain this bastard had bad intentions. That thick-browed, big-eyed bastard was rotten to the core!
He had actually been found out?
Kaido climbed up from the ground, and his expression stiffened as he listened to Oak's roar.
He really had been tempted. Though he did not know the Devil Fruit's exact ability, Oak definitely did. Otherwise, Oak would not have made a special trip here looking for it. Moreover, judging by Oak's urgency and the importance he had attached to it from the beginning, this fruit definitely did not have some ordinary ability. He would not lose out no matter what.
The first time he had approached, he had still hesitated. By the time he approached for the second time, having figured all that out, he had already made up his mind to take it. He had planned to swallow it in one bite while Oak was not paying attention and make it a done deal, but he had not expected Oak to notice.
Kaido did not feel embarrassed at being exposed. He only felt annoyed.
He should not have stared at it those extra few times. Otherwise, the Devil Fruit would already have been in his mouth by now. Unwilling to give up, he raised his head to see whether he still had a chance. Yet Oak seemed to have seen through his thoughts. To avoid any further complications, Oak swallowed the Devil Fruit in his hand in one bite right before Kaido's eyes.
"You want to take advantage of me? Keep dreaming!"
As Oak swallowed it, he glared viciously at Kaido.
"Pah, that tastes awful!"
A moment later, after swallowing the entire Devil Fruit, he kept spitting.
No wonder even Luffy thought it tasted awful. It tasted like fermented shit—utterly unbearable!
That was how Oak described the taste of Devil Fruits in his mind as Rocks and Newgate walked over.
"You came here this time just to find this Devil Fruit?"
Rocks asked curiously.
"Of course!"
Oak nodded.
"You knew its ability beforehand?"
Rocks asked again.
"Bat-Bat Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Vampire Form!"
Oak directly named the Devil Fruit he had eaten.
This was precisely the ability of Count Patrick Redfield from the original story.
"A Mythical Zoan even rarer than a Logia?!"
Rocks and Newgate were both greatly surprised. Mythical Zoan Devil Fruits were a rather unique type among Zoans. The creatures they transformed their users into did not exist in reality, only in legends. They were even rarer than Logias, publicly recognized as the strongest of the three categories. Besides greatly enhancing the user's physical abilities like all Zoans, they usually possessed certain special supernatural powers, and some could even control natural elements.
Furthermore, Mythical Zoans generally enhanced the user's physical abilities far more than ordinary Zoans and Ancient Zoans. They could be called the most well-rounded Devil Fruit ability.
So his guess had been right. What Oak had set his sights on really was something good!
Kaido, meanwhile, stomped his feet in frustration, heartbroken over missing out on such a priceless treasure. He should not have hesitated when he first got close. He had wasted the opportunity for nothing!
Next time—if he got another chance like this, he would definitely seize it properly.
He secretly swore it to himself.
"Show us your ability!"
Rocks circled Oak several times without noticing any changes in him, so he curiously asked Oak to demonstrate his ability.
Oak did not refuse. He also wanted to test his new power, so he closed his eyes and connected with the inside of his body.
With his eyes closed, he could feel the beating of the hearts inside him—not one, but three.
Ever since birth, his heart had been different from everyone else's. Ordinary people had one heart, but he had three. More precisely, one large heart had been divided into three differently colored sections. They were connected to each other yet clearly distinct, each occupying a region and forming a triangle.
"Thump, thump, thump~"
As his hearts beat, an invisible energy flowed from one section and spread through his limbs, bones, and every cell in his body.
This was the power of the Mythical Zoan Vampire Fruit he had just eaten.
"Flap~"
A pair of fleshy wings emanating an eerie crimson glow unfurled behind him. At the same time, his light blue short hair and pupils turned scarlet, while his originally fair skin became as pale as a corpse.
This was Oak's hybrid form!
"Whoosh~"
He flapped his wings and shot straight up from where he stood, appearing a hundred meters in the air before plunging down like a meteor.
It all happened in an instant. He had already made a round trip from a hundred meters above, and to the naked eye, it seemed as though he had never left.
"My physique has been enhanced!"
Not only that, as Oak clenched his fist, he discovered that his strength and physique had both increased dramatically after eating the Devil Fruit. It was an unprecedented power, and he was itching to unleash it.
"Beast form!"
He transformed again, turning into a complete Vampire. His body swelled in an instant until he was nearly as large as Kaido, and the fangs in his mouth became sharper and longer.
"Hehehe~"
Looking at Kaido, he threw a punch.
"Little bro, come test out your big brother's new strength!"
Oak's first thought was to use Kaido as a punching bag.
"Bring it on! Who's afraid of you?!"
Seeing the enormous fist coming at him, wrapped in a howling gale, Kaido swung his spiked club and charged straight at it head-on.
Then, in the next moment...
With a "whoosh," his entire body flew away like a kite with its string cut.
"That increase is a little outrageous!"
Rocks stroked his chin as he watched the scene, while Newgate nodded in agreement.
They all knew that Zoans, especially Mythical Zoans, enhanced the user's various physical attributes. But they had not expected the enhancement to be this exaggerated.
Before eating the fruit, Oak had been stronger than Kaido, but only by a limited margin. Whether in strength, physique, or endurance, he had only been slightly better than Kaido.
But now...
Seeing Kaido sent flying by a single punch, setting everything else aside, Oak had at least gained an absolute advantage over Kaido in strength.