Poaching and Exploiting a Life-or-Death Bug

"Get up! Don't stop until you're knocked unconscious!" an officer shouted sternly.

The trainees Wude had knocked down got back to their feet and charged him again as one.

However, Wude, using Observation Haki, easily evaded their encirclement before crushing them one by one.

After suffering several beatings, the dozen or so trainees had lost all hope of getting lucky.

They were defeated again and again, hoping only to wear down their opponent's stamina.

The other instructors cursed at the trainees who had stopped training to watch the battle, forcing those onlookers to resume their own training.

A thought suddenly occurred to everyone: Were these dozen or so people challenging Wude, or helping him hone himself?

The swordsmanship training continued for a long time. Only when most of the trainees had collapsed from exhaustion did the stern instructors finally end it.

Wude was panting heavily, his clothes soaked through with sweat. Hina brought over a fan and fanned him. The dozen or so trainees also breathed sighs of relief and collapsed onto the floor, drained of strength.

"Rest for fifteen minutes! Then we'll head to the shooting range for firearms training!" an officer bellowed at the top of his lungs.

Physical training, swordsmanship, firearms training, close-quarters combat, and the various subjects a Marine needed to learn—those were the day's training and study sessions.

Oh, right. There was also duty.

Wude had been assigned under Chaton in name only. Chaton had no intention of giving him any real work, merely borrowing the name of his position to train this junior who spoke sweetly and was generous with his treat money.

As for Hina, with Chaton's help, she had been placed under Gion's name.

Although Chaton had failed to confess to Gion many times, the two still had a very good relationship.

Gion said she would occasionally come to see this junior, but normally left Hina beside Chaton for training.

What about Smoker?

Wasn't this supposed to be a duo? What Smoker? Never heard of him~

The night was deep, and moonlight spilled over the training grounds, draping them in a splendid silver robe.

Sakazuki's formation was different. After dinner and their patrol duty, they were kept behind by Sakazuki for additional punishment training.

Everyone wore the attitude of We're going to wipe out the slacker faction.

Not far from the high-spirited faction stood three figures.

"Then let's begin. Wude, continue with my training program." Chaton began training his adorable junior.

"Hina, Kuroh will help you develop Observation Haki." Wude pointed at the "air" beside them. A wooden stick was suspended in midair.

"Okay." Hina picked up the blindfold and walked toward Kuroh.

Wude and Hina were practically the definition of: Their bodies are slacking, but their hearts are with the Han.

The two of them were the slacker faction's slacker students, yet they were actually staying behind for extra training alongside Sakazuki's faction.

Over the following week, Borsalino truly lived up to expectations. He really didn't come at all.

A week passed in a flash, and Wude and the others never saw him even once.

As for Sakazuki, no one knew what he was plotting. Every day, he had the instructors come over for joint sparring sessions.

He also occasionally wandered over, deliberately offering Wude pointers from time to time.

That very day, Wude and Hina went to find Chaton.

In a restaurant in the residential area.

Wude ordered quite a few signature dishes and invited Chaton to dinner.

Chaton wasn't short of money. Nor was he merely impressed by how well this junior got along with women. He simply thought highly of this hardworking junior.

"I'll be setting sail to carry out a mission after dinner. You two can continue training on your own at the training grounds," Chaton said.

"It's fine." Hina poured Chaton a glass of wine. "We're already very grateful for the help you've given us, Senior."

"Please rest assured, Senior. We'll train hard on our own as well and won't let you down." Wude raised his glass to Chaton.

The two of them sang from the same hymn sheet, and before long, they had Chaton beaming with happiness.

Little Hina, you've learned bad habits~

After dinner, Wude and Hina saw Chaton off as he set sail. Only after the warship vanished beyond the horizon did they head toward the training grounds.

A row of trees grew along the edge of the vast training grounds. The evening breeze passed through their branches and leaves, rustling softly.

Wude and Hina sat on a slab of bluestone, looking at the oddly shaped fruit in the bag.

"This is a Devil Fruit, right?" Hina studied it.

Its stem curled in ring after ring like a coil of incense, while its surface was black and covered all over with irregularly distributed white circles.

The fruit was quite large, but somewhat flat overall.

"It should be." Wude scrutinized the fruit. He had bought a whole bag of fruit on the way here.

How had a Devil Fruit ended up mixed in with it?

"Do you want to try it?" Hina asked.

Wude wasn't an ability user. What would happen if he ate another one?

The key point was that he could revive.

From the fruit's appearance, Wude couldn't identify it as any Devil Fruit he had seen in the story.

He weighed the pros and cons.

"When an ability user dies, the fruit randomly appears somewhere else in the world. In other words, that kind of 'existence' leaves the host's body after death." He glanced at the sword at his waist. If the fruit's ability isn't satisfactory, should I just kill myself?

If its ability was useful, he could use it temporarily.

If he encountered a Seastone user or fell into the sea, Kuroh was there as well.

"I heard about this fruit many years ago." A voice came from nearby.

Sakazuki walked over from a distance, sat beside Wude and Hina, and picked up the fruit.

"A few years ago, at an auction house in the North Blue, someone supposedly acquired it for a high price. But afterward, that person was killed, and the fruit's whereabouts became unknown." Sakazuki spoke slowly.

"Vice Admiral, may I ask what kind of fruit this is?" Hina hurriedly asked on Wude's behalf.

Sakazuki glanced at them both and shook his head. "The auction never identified what kind of fruit it was. The buyer was attacked by two pirate crews and died horribly in the end. All anyone heard was that it granted an extremely overbearing ability. But the fruit never appeared again afterward, and those pirates never revealed any information."

"Those pirates later died as well, so no one ever learned what the fruit's ability was."

"Whether you choose it or not is something you'll have to decide for yourself." Sakazuki looked at Wude. "The rumors say its ability is overbearing, but that may not necessarily be true."

"Understood." Wude nodded and put the fruit away.

I'll return first before trying to exploit the fruit's bug with the Ajin's immortality.

Although Sakazuki was not a likable man, there was no denying that getting some guidance from a Vice Admiral was worthwhile.

"Not bad. He has talent, and he's diligent and hardworking. A young man like this has a bright future." As he instructed Wude, Sakazuki evaluated him inwardly.

At this point, he even wanted to ask Teacher Zephyr to transfer Wude under his command.

Then he glanced at Hina, who was developing her Observation Haki nearby, and nodded in satisfaction.

She's a fine girl. She may be too young, but she already knows to develop Observation Haki ahead of time.

The more Sakazuki looked at them, the more he wanted them. How did all these excellent subordinates end up under some bastard's command?

Only after Sakazuki left did Wude and Hina lie exhausted on the grass, resting.

Wude held the Devil Fruit in his hand and took a bite.

An indescribable flavor spread through his mouth.

As he swallowed, countless black particles suddenly appeared on his body—the same kind of substance that shared a source with Kuroh.

The black particles grew denser and denser. Then, instead of dispersing, they gathered together and charged toward an external presence inside his body.

The black particles completely surrounded the "Devil Soul," kneading and squeezing it without end. The "Devil Soul" also began a struggle for supremacy against this mysterious mass of matter.

No matter what it did, however, the foreign presence was always at a disadvantage. The black particles grew increasingly dense, causing the key existence behind the Ajin's revival to begin spawning in large quantities and surge madly toward the intruder.

Only after half an hour did the two existences finally come to a stop.

Nearby, Kuroh, who had been guarding Wude, glanced indifferently at the existence stored within its host's body before dispersing on its own.

Did that black substance that transcended life and death win?