OP: AMP Ch. 210

"AHHHHH!"

After one final hoarse scream, the man on the ground went still. His body was drenched in sweat, but he was no longer convulsing. The expression on his face was that of someone who'd just survived the apocalypse.

He'd made it.

Pure survival instinct, combined with his burning hatred for Marcus, had pulled him through whatever hell he'd just experienced. At the same time, a new power began surging through his body.

In the One Piece world, there were people who could eat two Devil Fruits. Hell, there might even be someone in the future who could eat three. But someone who'd eaten two of the same Devil Fruit? He was the first.

"Well?" Marcus asked, curious about the results. "How do you feel?"

The man lying on the obsidian floor heard Marcus' voice, and his eyes filled with hatred. But then something shifted in his expression.

"I feel fantastic."

The moment those words left his mouth, the obsidian floor beneath him began to swell. A crimson glow spread across the black surface.

Then it detonated.

BOOM!

The explosion sent a wave of fire outward, yet the imagined scene of everyone being blown apart never occurred.

Marcus had been faster. The instant he'd sensed the attack coming, he'd sealed the entrance with obsidian blocks and wrapped the entire chamber in layer after layer of the black material, creating a containment vessel.

The man was engulfed by his own explosion.

Usopp had felt the detonation's power in that brief instant. His face went pale.

"That blast... it was on par with my C2 level explosions," he said quietly.

Marcus was more interested in the mechanics than the raw power. The Bomb-Bomb Fruit should only let the user detonate parts of their own body. But this guy had clearly caused the obsidian beneath his palm to explode.

That was awakening, the ability to affect the environment itself, not just the user's body. So eating two Devil Fruits just forced an awakening? If that was all it did...

"That's kind of disappointing, honestly," he muttered.

After all, anyone with enough strength and training could eventually awaken their Devil Fruit naturally. For Paramecia types, at least, the danger wasn't as extreme as it was for Zoan users, who risked having their consciousness completely overtaken by the animal spirit. So awakening a Paramecia wasn't that difficult in theory. But this awakening had come at the cost of the guy dying once already. It was literally gambling with his life for power. And without the respawn anchor, he'd be dead right now.

Marcus opened a small window in the obsidian prison.

Inside, the pirate looked out warily. His explosion hadn't destroyed the surrounding structure, which made him hesitate to try another attack. Seeing the window open, his expression shifted from panic to resentment.

He thrust his hand toward Marcus.

Nothing happened.

Before he could register what had gone wrong, his headless corpse was already collapsing to the floor.

What?!

The man's consciousness was still active for a split second, just long enough to process his own death. He'd endured that torture, survived the Devil Fruit rejection, gained new power... and then died anyway?

This time, he'd felt his death clearly. The first time had been so agonizing that he hadn't even known if he'd died or just passed out from the pain.

But now, as his eyes opened again, he found himself standing near the respawn anchor, face to face with Marcus.

Raw instinct took over. He reached out and touched Marcus' chest. Joy surged through him, anyone touched by his hands would become a bomb under his control. He could finally... Nothing happened.

His hand was just touching firm muscle. Marcus' face remained completely expressionless.

The pirate swallowed, his confidence evaporating.

"Uh... what if I said the Devil Fruit was controlling me? Would you believe that?"

Three pairs of eyes stared at him like he was already a corpse.

"I'm sorry! I was wrong! I'll do anything you want, I swear!"

"Talk," Marcus said flatly. "Explain everything that happened."

The words came tumbling out in a rush as the pirate described his experience, the surge of power, how he'd tried to suppress the energy inside his body but ultimately been overwhelmed. Of course, he conveniently edited out the part about wanting revenge and instead claimed he'd been subdued by Marcus and wanted to serve him, which was why the power had manifested.

"Skip the ass-kissing. Just give me the facts."

The pirate nodded and got to the point. "I gained way more power than before, and much deeper control over my ability. Before, I could only make parts of my own body explode. Now, anything my hands touch can become a bomb. Including people."

Marcus nodded thoughtfully. So it really was similar to awakening. But this hardly seemed worth the risk, gambling your life just to force an early awakening seemed like a terrible trade-off. He felt somewhat let down by the results.

"Nothing else?"

"Uh... no? I mean, maybe I just haven't used the ability long enough to discover more applications!" the man added hastily.

Marcus wasn't listening anymore. Instead, he pulled out two more Devil Fruits. This time, however, one was a duplicate purchased through EMC, and the other was an original.

When the experiment concluded, he looked at the apple in Goliath's hand. It hadn't transformed into a Devil Fruit.

He sighed.

The pirate's repeated deaths had allowed him to test several important mechanics.

Could EMC-duplicated Devil Fruits enter the reincarnation cycle? No.

What happened when someone ate two duplicated Devil Fruits? Just awakening. The power increased, sure, but any Devil Fruit would become stronger after awakening anyway.

And the Bomb-Bomb Fruit's awakened effect was exactly what he'd predicted, anything the user touched would explode, just like how the Slip-Slip Fruit granted slippery properties to anything it touched. He could try feeding a third Devil Fruit to see what happened, but he already had a pretty good idea, the subject would die. The second fruit had caused unbearable agony. A third would probably produce a different ability, but death was certain.

He wasn't in a hurry though. Instead, he turned his attention to the other captured pirate, who'd been watching everything with an expression of horror.

Same procedure as before.

The man was trembling as he forced down the second Devil Fruit, this time, an original rather than a duplicate.

But the moment he swallowed it, his reaction was completely different from the first subject's experience. There was no pain. In fact, he didn't even have time to feel pain. His body simply exploded. The instant his body detonated, the apple in Goliath's hand began growing spiral patterns across its surface.

A brand new Devil Fruit had been born.

At the same time, the explosion victim appeared near the respawn anchor, looking dazed and confused.

He scratched his head. "Did I... did I just die?"

Marcus processed this new information. EMC-duplicated Devil Fruits and original Devil Fruits were incompatible. At least based on what he was seeing, the system treated them as fundamentally different fruits. Though there was another possibility. Maybe EMC-duplicated fruits were like Vegapunk's artificial Mythical Zoan, technically the same fruit, but with key differences. Vegapunk's dragon had been pink instead of blue. Same fruit type, but not identical.

They were treated as different Devil Fruits by whatever mechanism governed these powers. But the most important discovery was about awakening.

It was highly unlikely that duplicated Devil Fruits could truly awaken.

What he had seen before only mimicked the result. The power expanded, reached outward, and affected the environment, enough to resemble awakening at a glance. But compared to a real one, it was crude, and empty.

According to the lore, whether a Devil Fruit could awaken depended on one crucial factor: whether the devil's consciousness inside it could be conquered, or whether it conquered the user instead. If the user won that battle of wills, awakening occurred. If the user lost, awakening could still happen, but the one who awakened wasn't the person. It was the Devil Fruit itself.

In other words, it required a soul.

And because duplicated Devil Fruits lacked that soul, that devil's consciousness, they couldn't participate in the reincarnation cycle that governed Devil Fruits in this world.

Everything he'd observed so far supported this theory.

"I think I've got it figured out," he said, flipping the original Devil Fruit into his inventory and placing it in a separate slot from the duplicates.

Usopp looked confused. He hadn't understood any of that. None of it made sense to him. They were both Bomb-Bomb Fruits. One guy screamed in agony and got stronger. The other just exploded and died instantly.

Marcus gave a quick explanation of his theory about souls, awakening, and the difference between original and duplicated fruits. Usopp listened, his expression growing more bewildered with each sentence.

"So... if I ate another Devil Fruit, I might not be able to awaken?" Usopp had at least caught onto that crucial detail.

Marcus shook his head. "I'm not sure. But if the awakening happens the moment you eat it, then you're fine. Of course, there's also a possibility that after eating a second fruit, as you develop the ability further, you might still have a chance to awaken later."

Usopp rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

Honestly, in his current situation, not awakening wouldn't affect him that much. And judging from how that pirate had collapsed and convulsed earlier, the process looked incredibly painful. He shuddered at the memory.

Not that he was scared.

Then something occurred to him, and he looked at the two pirates who'd already eaten Devil Fruits and been revived.

"Those two don't have their abilities anymore. Does that mean... the powers left their bodies?"

Usopp had stumbled onto something important.

Marcus nodded. "Yeah, but you have to die first."

So now everyone in the Straw Hat crew could essentially reset their Devil Fruit abilities, they just had to die and respawn to do it. Of course, resetting would cost at least two million EMC value. That was roughly the price of a Devil Fruit. As for the glowstone needed for resurrection, that was about equivalent to a full set of diamond armor. As for whether Marcus himself could reset his abilities, or whether he even should, he wasn't planning to test it. What if he lost his Minecraft powers? That would be a disaster.

Usopp's initial excitement faded into contemplation.

Marcus did have a lot of Devil Fruits available. But would any of the others suit him better? Sure, the Rumble-Rumble Fruit was insanely powerful, and the Mythical Zoans were flashy as hell. Lying about not being tempted would be stupid.

But somehow... he didn't really need them. The Bomb-Bomb Fruit fit his fighting style pretty well.

Back when he couldn't do anything about it, he had envied others. Getting constantly overshadowed by Clucky had been frustrating. But now that changing fruits was possible, that feeling of inadequacy transformed into something else entirely. He didn't want to run away from the competition. Clucky was just a damn chicken. Was he really going to back down from a bird?

He was "God" Usopp!

With his resolve settled, he didn't bring up changing Devil Fruits. Instead, he started thinking about whether he should eat a second Bomb-Bomb Fruit.

After all, even if he died, he could just respawn.

Seeing Usopp's conflicted expression, Marcus pulled out a Devil Fruit and held it out to him.

Under Marcus' gaze, Usopp accepted the Bomb-Bomb Fruit. Forget about whether he could awaken again in the future, if eating this could make him stronger right now, why not do it? Plus, with resurrection available, worst case scenario he'd just eat another Devil Fruit after dying. Either way, he had nothing to lose.

He walked over to where Marcus stood beside the respawn anchor.

Marcus had already recharged the structure with fresh glowstone. Without hesitation, Usopp placed his hand on the anchor. Soon, a small yellow light appeared on his palm. He opened his mouth and swallowed the entire Devil Fruit in one gulp.

Chew it? Hell no! No way was he going to taste that disgusting thing a second time.

Soon, he felt new sensations arising within his body. A pulling sensation, like his soul was being stretched apart. But this pain didn't make him collapse to the ground convulsing. He could handle it. In fact, he felt like he could suppress this soul-tearing sensation through sheer willpower. He clenched his fists as cold sweat streamed down his forehead. But he just stood there quietly, without letting out a single scream.

Three minutes later, he exhaled heavily.

"Is it done already?" Marcus asked. He hadn't expected Usopp to tough it out like that.

Usopp looked down at his hands. A strange feeling was emanating from somewhere deep inside his body. Just like the pirate had described before, he definitely felt like he could turn any object he touched into his own bomb. But it seemed it only worked on inanimate objects.

He could clearly sense the limitations of his ability.

"It doesn't feel as powerful as that guy said. I can't turn living people into bombs."

As he spoke, he reached out and touched both pirates under their horrified gazes.

Nothing exploded.

The man who'd died twice shook his head frantically. "I don't know! At the time I felt invincible, like I could blow up anything, even people!"

Usopp placed his hand against the obsidian wall. Sure enough, he could make inanimate objects explosive, and depending on how much power he channeled, the strength of the explosion would vary.

He didn't feel like it was anything mystical or special. The explosions felt the same as what he'd produced before using the Bomb-Bomb Fruit normally. His stamina consumption hadn't increased significantly either.

Alvida, whose ability Marcus had already developed to the point of awakening potential, had the right to speak on this. She hadn't actually awakened yet, but based on her understanding of how it should work, the stamina cost should be double the usual expenditure, maybe even more.

But Usopp felt like his consumption had decreased while his damage output had increased. It was as if the Bomb-Bomb Fruit had been upgraded from E-tier to D-tier.

Noticing Usopp's confusion, Marcus asked, "What's wrong?"

"I just gained an extra ability... I can turn inanimate objects I touch into bombs, that's it. Though the explosions do cost less stamina now."

Marcus fell into thought. A normalized awakening? Or something else entirely?

Then another possibility occurred to him.

Devil Fruits had hierarchies, superior and inferior versions of similar powers.

The Kilo-Kilo Fruit and the Ton-Ton Fruit.

The Snow-Snow Fruit and the Ice-Ice Fruit.

The Flame-Flame Fruit and the Magma-Magma Fruit.

The Bomb-Bomb Fruit and the Pop-Pop Fruit.

In each case, the former was the lower-tier version.

Right now, Usopp's current state already resembled the Pop-Pop Fruit, both could apply explosive effects to external objects. Compared to before, the Bomb-Bomb Fruit had definitely been the inferior one. But in his current state, his version was far stronger than what the Pop-Pop Fruit could do.

Had eating a duplicate upgraded it from a lower-tier fruit to a higher-tier one?

And if he ate another... would it become top-tier?

Marcus couldn't help but pursue this line of thinking. And judging from Usopp's performance so far, eating another one probably wouldn't cause any major problems.

Should they experiment?

As he considered this, it was obvious Usopp had the same thought. After all, with resurrection available, what was there to worry about?

Without a word, Marcus pulled out another Devil Fruit. Usopp accepted it calmly, staring at the fruit in his hand. He gritted his teeth and swallowed it down.

This time, the instant he ate it, he didn't feel that strange transformation sensation like before. Instead came intense pain, not just in his soul, but throughout his entire physical body.

It felt like thousands of steel needles were flowing through his blood vessels, and wherever those needles passed, it was as if flames were burning him from the inside out.

"AHHH!"

This time, he couldn't suppress the scream.