Space-Space Fruit

The National was still quite a distance from the dozen or so pirate ships, but those ships were practically tied together. While the fighting continued over there, the looting had already begun over here.

In less than half an hour, dozens of guards had finished gathering all the treasure.

"Guard Captain, there's a massive log over a hundred meters long being towed behind those ships. Should we haul it back too?"

One of the guards ran over to Chiya and asked.

Chiya had noticed it as well, but they had no way to transport that thing back right now. If they had more time, they could probably take it back slowly, but the main issue was that they did not have time.

"Pack up all the treasure and take it away. As for that tree, nobody touch it. We don't have time to deal with it," Chiya shouted.

Meanwhile, Nova was still locked in a fierce battle with Kamolong. Nova had long been capable of defeating Kamolong, but he had not done so. Instead, he tacitly allowed his guards to continue what they were doing.

After all the guards had carried the treasure back onto the ship, Nova calmly asked, "Kamolong, do you still want to fight? I don't have that much time to play with you. If you refuse to let this go, then I can only take your fifty-million-Beli head back with me!"

Kamolong was breathing heavily. He had never expected this brat before him to become so strong after just two days apart.

Of course, he had seen them looting the treasure from his ships, but what could he do about it?

"Go! If we meet again, I'll definitely kill you!"

Kamolong spoke in the fiercest tone possible, yet said the most cowardly words. Nova could not be bothered to argue with him. He had already wasted half an hour here, so how could he have any interest in staying longer?

The moment Nova left, Kamolong collapsed onto the deck of his ship, beads of sweat the size of beans rolling down his forehead.

Nova's Marine Six Styles could not really do much to Kamolong, but the swordsmanship of the Flying Dragon Sword Style could kill him outright.

Nova had not wanted to push Kamolong too far. If Kamolong chose to take them down with him in the end, Nova himself might be fine, but who knew what would happen to everyone else aboard the National?

No one understood the ultimate abilities of Devil Fruits. Nova did not dare gamble on that. Taking the man's money was enough.

Kamolong could only watch as everyone aboard the National vanished over Reverse Mountain. On his own, he had no ability to stop them.

As soon as they crossed Reverse Mountain, Gogoya impatiently asked, "Your Majesty, why did you spare Kamolong?"

"We don't have time to deal with so many people right now. More importantly, I don't want the Marines and the World Government to notice us," Nova said.

If a great pirate like Kamolong died, it would definitely attract the attention of other pirates, not to mention the World Government and the Marines.

Their country had not even grown its wings yet. Hell, it had not even grown feathers. How could they possibly start fighting others?

Gogoya seemed to understand the reasoning at once. No matter what they did, they had to keep a low profile first.

Nova had long understood this principle. No one knew the situation in the world of Pirate King better than he did.

If he had abandoned a country to become a pirate, Nova might truly have acted without restraint. But things were different now. Too many people stood behind him, waiting for him.

Although the Tru Kingdom was not a large country, it was a place he had to protect after coming to this world.

In this world, there were only two ways to increase one's strength. One was through hard training, and the other was through Devil Fruits.

This attack on the Tru Kingdom had served as a reminder to Nova.

"Your Majesty, we really found three good things from the Demon Pirates..."

Chiya approached Nova with three people behind him, each holding a small box. He wore a broad smile as he spoke.

On the deck, Nova looked at them curiously. When he saw the size of the three boxes, he blurted out, "Don't tell me these are Devil Fruits?"

"How did Your Majesty know?" Chiya was visibly startled.

"What is there to know? The fact that you put it that way already explains everything. I've seen Devil Fruits before. I know how big they are." Nova smiled faintly.

"That's true, Your Majesty. It's just that I've never seen these three kinds of Devil Fruits before."

After saying that, Chiya opened all three boxes.

Sure enough, there were three Devil Fruits inside, and each one had a different shape.

The one in the middle, in particular, seemed to glow with blue light.

"Does the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia mention something like this?" Nova asked Gogoya beside him.

"Your Majesty, we identified the one on the far left. It is the Paramecia Cigarette Fruit. It is pretty much the most useless of useless fruits. The one on the far right is the Paramecia Iron-Iron Fruit. It can turn anything the user touches into steel. As for the one in the middle, it is not even listed in the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia!"

Gogoya immediately gave his report.

Nova was somewhat surprised at the last part. A Devil Fruit not even recorded in the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia was indeed unexpected.

Who knew where Kamolong's Demon Pirates had obtained these things? In any case, they belonged to the Tru Kingdom now.

Nova stepped forward and examined the Devil Fruit before him with curiosity. Aside from the Iron-Iron Fruit, he had no idea what the Cigarette Fruit even did. It truly was useless.

But this Devil Fruit glowing with an eerie blue light gave off a cold, sinister feeling. Just from its appearance alone, it was clearly anything but ordinary.

Nova slowly placed his hand on it, then closed his eyes and asked the system in his mind, "System, can you determine what type of Devil Fruit this is?"

"Answering this question requires a payment of ten million Beli. Would you like to pay?"

The system's voice rang out. It actually wanted money. Nova was speechless, but he still said, "Pay!"

With a ding, his already meager account balance became even more pitiful.

"Answer: A Paramecia Space-Space Fruit from the Pirate World. It possesses powerful Space Ability and can be used for spatial defense, attack, and movement. After awakening, it can perform spatial traversal, spatial folding, and even travel between worlds."

After the payment, the system's voice rang out again, but this time it was completely different.

Nova did not even know what to say. He had not expected his luck to be this good. He had been thinking all along that he needed to work hard to increase his strength in the future and never touch any Devil Fruit.

Yet the thing before him had already surpassed the limits of Devil Fruits. He truly did not know what to say.

This trip had been an absolute windfall. Although an entire shipload of goods had been stolen, that was nothing compared to the gold, silver, and jewels they had seized this time, not to mention the three Devil Fruits, one of which was the Paramecia Space-Space Fruit with Space Ability!

"What's wrong, Your Majesty?"

Gogoya noticed that something was off about Nova's expression and hurried over to ask.

"Huh?"

Nova had been immersed in his fantasies. Hearing the voice, he immediately came back to himself, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Are you all right, Your Majesty?" Gogoya asked again.

"I'm fine. I was just thinking about something." Nova smiled.

As soon as he finished speaking, he picked up the Devil Fruit. Its eerie blue glow looked somewhat frightening, but compared to the future, what did that matter?

"Your Majesty, we still don't know what ability this Devil Fruit has. Don't tell me you want to..."

Gogoya was shocked. He could already tell that his king intended to eat the Devil Fruit!

"It's fine. As for the remaining two Devil Fruits, see if anyone wants to eat them. If no one does, we can auction them off in the future." Nova smiled.

"Yes, Your Majesty. But have you really thought it through? Eating a Devil Fruit means becoming completely unable to swim."

Gogoya still spoke with concern.

"That's right, Your Majesty. We have no objection if you eat a Devil Fruit, but this one is not even in the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia. What if it turns out to be an unimpressive Devil Fruit? You will never have another chance to replace it!"

Chiya also stepped forward to persuade him. They all knew that a person could only eat one Devil Fruit in their lifetime, and they would have to bear the consequences no matter what the outcome was.

The key was that Nova had told them all of this. Otherwise, given the situation in the Tru Kingdom, how could they possibly have known so much about Devil Fruits?

Nova did not say anything, only smiled. Then, before everyone's eyes, he opened his mouth and took a bite of the blue-glowing Devil Fruit.

"Ugh..."

The moment he bit into it, Nova felt his stomach churn. Whether it was the taste or the smell, Devil Fruits were completely unbearable.

Although he nearly gagged, Nova still swallowed that bite.

Afterward, Nova's face turned green. He sat on the deck and kept taking deep breaths, while casually tossing away the large remaining half of the Devil Fruit in his hand.

The others were not surprised by this. Nova had told them that all it took was one bite of a Devil Fruit.

The problem was that after eating it, Nova did not seem to feel the Devil Fruit's so-called Space Ability at all!

Just thinking about a Devil Fruit with Space Ability made Nova happy as he sat there.

"Your Majesty, how does it feel?"

Gogoya and Chiya both craned their necks forward, wanting to know what it felt like to eat a Devil Fruit.

"You two are so curious. There are still two Devil Fruits over there. How about each of you eat one and taste it yourselves?" Nova said helplessly.

"I'd rather not. I still plan to reach the top with my own strength in the future. I definitely won't eat something like a Devil Fruit!"

Chiya hurriedly shook his head.

"The taste is truly overwhelming. It's far worse than even the most disgusting food I could have imagined." Nova sighed, nearly rolling his eyes.

"What ability did you get?"

Gogoya looked at him expectantly.

"Why don't you guess?"

"Why not just tell us, Your Majesty?"

Nova had no intention of telling anyone about this ability. Who knew what kind of people he might encounter in the future? Hiding everything now was the only way to ensure victory with a single strike.

Although he knew very well which powerful figures existed throughout the Pirate World, the crucial issue was that no one knew how strong the leaders of the World Government truly were.

That mystery was what troubled Nova the most.

So, even though he now possessed the Space Ability of the Devil Fruit, he would not deliberately use it.

Faced with their questions, Nova merely smiled and said, "I don't feel anything yet. Tell Barlow to hurry back. Everything our country is facing is waiting for us to return and deal with it."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

And so, no one knew what kind of Devil Fruit Nova had eaten or what ability he had gained.

Not even those closest to him understood it.

The National continued sailing across the calm sea. Although the journey was not particularly fast, the atmosphere was now completely different from before.

According to their estimates, it would take at least five days to sail from Reverse Mountain back to their country in the South Blue. But during those five days, they could only learn through the Den Den Mushi what the Tru Kingdom would suffer.

At that moment, however, the Tru Kingdom was under heavy assault from the Roa Kingdom and dozens of pirate crews.

Even the Royal City had no choice but to send out more people to deal with the pirates. As for the Roa Kingdom, they did not need to worry too much about it.

Because of that, they could only focus on the pirates. In less than two days, the Tru Kingdom had already lost two islands.

Although the past few years of development had brought earth-shaking changes to the Tru Kingdom's economy, and their overall strength surpassed that of the Roa Kingdom, they could not withstand the pressure of fighting dozens of pirate crews at once.

The country had never had many people to begin with, and with the current chaos of war, most civilians had begun to panic.

Fortunately, the outer areas of the Tru Kingdom were planted mostly with flowers and grass. They had little value, so there was not much for the invaders to destroy. Moreover, most of the kingdom's population was concentrated in the Royal City.