OP: AMP Ch. 209

Marcus snapped back into his own body, gasping slightly from the disorienting transition.

The pirate who'd eaten both Devil Fruits showed no visible changes. But the moment Marcus' consciousness left the borrowed body, the man collapsed to the ground.

"Shit!"

After steadying himself, Marcus moved forward to check on the collapsed pirate.

"What's wrong?" Usopp asked nervously, stepping closer.

Marcus' expression turned odd as he examined the man. "He's brain-dead."

"What?"

Usopp stared at him in confusion.

Marcus lifted the pirate's eyelids. The pupils hadn't dilated, which meant technically the man was still alive. But when he tried to use Soul Possession again, he couldn't lock onto a target. There was nothing there to connect to. Even when someone was unconscious, they were just in an unresponsive state. He could still select them as targets for possession, getting in was difficult, sure, but not impossible. The technique he'd figured out after failing to possess Alvida was exactly what let him enter the bodies of unconscious pirates.

But this... He couldn't even establish a lock.

The pirate was still technically alive at this moment, but he'd stopped breathing entirely. Soon, he'd die from complete respiratory failure.

"So eating two Devil Fruits causes instant brain death?" Usopp's face went blank, and a chill ran down his spine.

Then he remembered the wolf hybrid from earlier. "That doesn't make sense! If it causes brain death, how was that wolf able to launch a surprise attack on us?"

Goliath and Usopp had both witnessed that encounter, and Marcus had the same question. There were too many inconsistencies here.

"The soul sand probably interfered with the process somehow," Marcus said thoughtfully.

Right at that moment, the body completely stopped breathing. Death followed quickly. But in the instant of death, the corpse quietly transformed into countless points of fluorescent light that scattered and vanished from the ground like fireflies dissipating into the night.

The sight left both Usopp and Goliath frozen in shock.

"What the hell...?"

Then they saw fluorescent light flickering beside the respawn anchor Marcus had constructed earlier. The glow intensified, coalescing into a solid form. A man stood there, looking completely disoriented. His body was intact, wearing the exact same clothes as before. He stared down at his own hands with the expression of someone who'd just woken from a nightmare.

Then came confusion and incomprehension.

"I... wasn't I dead?"

After respawning, all his conditions had returned to normal. Even his sanity had been fully restored, the soul sand's corruption completely erased. At that moment, the small yellow glowing mark on his hand also quietly disappeared.

It worked. The respawn anchor actually worked.

Marcus nodded in satisfaction. So the respawn anchor could resurrect people. The mechanic translated from Minecraft to reality perfectly. Usopp had received Marcus' explanation about how it should work, but seeing someone who'd just been declared brain-dead come back to life left him speechless.

"This is... this is..." he stammered for a long moment, ultimately unable to form a coherent sentence.

Marcus focused on the newly resurrected man. "What's your last memory before you died?"

The question snapped the pirate back to awareness. His first instinct was to snap back, after all, who was this stranger to interrogate him?

"Fu..."

But the word died in his throat when he spotted Goliath standing nearby. Memories flooded back all at once.

"I... uh... I..."

He stammered helplessly.

Marcus frowned. Was this something he couldn't talk about? Some kind of gag order effect from the Devil Fruits?

Seeing Marcus' frown, the pirate immediately dropped into a smooth sliding kneel, hands clasped.

"I'm sorry! Please spare me! I'll do anything you want!"

"First, tell me everything about your final memory. If your answer satisfies me, I might spare your life. I might even let you become a Devil Fruit user."

When he heard the words "Devil Fruit user," the pirate's entire body trembled as if he'd heard something horrifying.

"I'll talk, I swear I'll talk... but can I choose NOT to become an ability user?"

"Talk first. Then we'll see."

"Yes. I'll tell you everything."

The pirate began recounting his experience, words tumbling out in a rush.

"Right before I died, I felt like something inside my body was trying to claw its way out from the inside. I tried to suppress it, but I think the ghost attack had already weakened me too much. I didn't have the strength to resist anymore. All I could feel was my soul being ripped apart, and at the end..." He shuddered violently. "At the end, I felt myself just... explode."

His voice shook as he finished, clearly traumatized by the manner of his death.

Marcus fell into thought, processing this new information. This experiment definitely wasn't perfect, there were clear gaps in his understanding. But it was starting to paint a picture. If eating two Devil Fruits could trigger an awakening, it meant the person had to fight against the consciousness of the Devil Fruits themselves. A battle of wills where the winner consumed everything. If the person lost, a Zoan-type fruit would directly alter everything about them. The Devil Fruit's consciousness would completely take over the body, reducing the human to nothing more than an animal shell. If the person won, that would be awakening. Along with extremely powerful regenerative abilities, both physical strength and speed would be dramatically enhanced. The Devil Fruit as a whole would be upgraded to a new tier of power.

As for Paramecia awakenings, they didn't seem to carry the same risks. At least, in all the storyline he knew, there were no cases of failed Paramecia awakenings. It was either no awakening at all, or successful awakening with no dangerous side effects.

"Can you still use your ability now?" he asked curiously.

After all, in theory, resurrection should restore everything, including Devil Fruit powers. But the pirate shook his head. After respawning, he no longer had the Devil Fruit power.

Marcus pulled out two Devil Fruits from his inventory.

"Eat them."

The pirate trembled violently, his face draining of all color.

"Can I not eat them? Please, I'm begging you—"

Marcus squatted down and grabbed the man's jaw, forcing his mouth open.

"You can refuse. But then you die right now, and I'll just use the other guy. Your choice."

The pirate's eyes darted to his unconscious companion, then back to Marcus. "I'll eat! I'll eat them both! Just please don't kill me!"

"See? That wasn't so hard." Marcus released his grip. "I'm not a complete monster here. I brought you back to life once, didn't I? Naturally, I can bring you back a second time if this goes wrong. Think of it as... job security."

The man nodded frantically, though his whole body was still shaking. The logic was sound, even if the situation was horrifying.

"Eat one first."

Marcus tossed one of the fruits over, then walked away without even watching, heading straight for the respawn anchor to prepare it. Checking that the structure wasn't damaged, he invested forty more stacks of glowstone. The small yellow indicator lit up once again.

By this time, the pirate had finished choking down the first Devil Fruit. He walked over trembling, looking like he was approaching his own execution.

"Press your hand against it."

The pirate nodded and placed his hand on the yellow glowing dot. Just like before, the respawn anchor's luminescence dimmed as it recorded his pattern, and a new small dot appeared glowing on the pirate's palm.

Marcus handed him the second Devil Fruit.

Though the man was still shaking like a leaf, he summoned what little courage he had left and ate it. The taste was vile, but compared to the threat of death, it was manageable.

Soon, both Devil Fruits had been consumed.

At first, the man felt nothing unusual. He looked down at his hands, flexing his fingers. Maybe it wouldn't work?

About a minute later, he dropped to his knees in agony. His face contorted into a mask of pain.

"Agh... AHHH!"

His body began convulsing violently, muscles spasming out of his control.

Marcus stepped back, giving the man space while observing every detail. The soul sand interference in the first test had muddied the results, but this one should show the true reaction.

The pirate's eyes filled with terror and confusion, and then burning, irrational hatred. He glared viciously at Marcus through the pain, looking like he wanted to transform into a vengeful ghost and drag him straight to hell. Spittle flew from his mouth as he tried to scream, but only choking sounds emerged. He twitched and spasmed on the ground like someone having a severe seizure, back arching unnaturally.

Yet he still didn't die. The respawn anchor's mark glowed faintly on his hand.

At that exact moment, the other pirate who'd been unconscious quietly opened his eyes. The mental amplification potion must have worn off, allowing his brain to finally shut down temporarily and protect itself from the soul sand's influence. The first thing he saw was his "companion" convulsing violently on the ground, foam beginning to form at the corners of his mouth.

He tried to process what he was seeing. They'd been captured, tied up, brought to this nightmare place. And now...

Meanwhile, Marcus, Usopp, and Goliath stood nearby watching the scene in silence. To the newly conscious pirate, they looked less like people and more like demons admiring their handiwork.

And his "companion" looked like a fish that had been dragged onto land, thrashing desperately, trying to return to the water but unable to do anything except convulse and roll across the ground.