Chapter 374: Inferior Fruit? (8/22)
After Ian and Ace finished their demonstration, the group stopped playing mahjong and shifted the conversation to discussing Ian's abilities. Over this period, everyone had roughly understood the extent of Ian's powers. Although they were surprised that he could possess so many different abilities simultaneously, Devil Fruits were just like that—these unscientific creations made it easy for them to accept the fact.
So now, they were debating whether Ian's Pay-to-Win Fruit was the strongest Paramecia Devil Fruit.
Yes, Paramecia—that much was certain. Since Ian's body couldn't turn into an element, nor could he transform like a Zoan, he was definitely a Paramecia. The current discussion centered on whether Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit or Ian's Pay-to-Win Fruit was truly the strongest Paramecia fruit.
Of course, among the known Paramecia fruits, there were also Doflamingo's String-String Fruit, Bartholomew Kuma's Paw-Paw Fruit, and Boa Hancock's Love-Love Fruit. Paramecia fruits often developed unexpected special abilities, so making a comparison was really hard to judge.
After debating for a while without reaching a conclusion, it reminded Ian of something.
Since they were talking about Paramecia Devil Fruits, Ian actually had one in his possession. He quickly ran into the cabin and brought out a small box from his room.
When he returned from Alabasta, Ian had brought quite a few things. Besides the medical books and notes from Dr. Kureha that he'd gotten for Erlang, there was also the Devil Fruit that had formed from the apple in his pocket after Wapol's death!
Originally, Ian could have absorbed this Devil Fruit to upgrade his card's star level, but after some thought, he decided to keep it to verify a hypothesis.
However, with so many things happening recently, he'd forgotten about it. Now that they were discussing Devil Fruits, he dug it out.
Everyone was curious about what he was taking out of the box, but when Ian opened it and revealed the apple covered in spiral patterns, they all froze.
"Is that... a Devil Fruit?" Ace asked in surprise. "Another one?"
In Ace's memory, Ian seemed to have handled quite a lot of Devil Fruits!
"Yeah!" Ian nodded. "This might be a Munch-Munch Fruit!"
"How do you know?" Crocodile asked suspiciously. "Have you seen a Devil Fruit encyclopedia?"
"No! I got it after killing Wapol, the king of the Drum Island Kingdom!" Ian didn't hide it and briefly recounted his experience.
Aokiji's face darkened, and he tapped the table. "Hey, hey, is it really okay to talk about killing a country's king in front of me, a Marine Admiral?"
Ian smiled and said to Aokiji, "Admiral Kuzan, don't tell me you don't know what kind of scumbag King Wapol of Drum Island was. Your Marines should have intelligence on him, right? Do you think someone like that was fit to be a king?"
Aokiji fell silent.
Among the three Marine Admirals, Akainu's justice was the most absolute, Kizaru's sense of justice was the most ambiguous, and Aokiji's justice leaned the most toward personal morality.
In other words, Aokiji was the representative of humanity within the Marines!
So when Ian brought this up, he had nothing to say.
Seeing this, Ian felt that Aokiji was really a decent guy. His sense of good and evil wasn't blind, and he had his own thoughts about justice. That was why Ian could tolerate Aokiji staying on his ship. If it had been Akainu, just try it!
"So, after a Devil Fruit user dies, the Devil Fruit ability might attach itself to nearby fruit?" Jinbe couldn't help rubbing his chin and asking.
"I'm not sure!" Ian shook his head. "I've heard that after a Devil Fruit user dies, the Devil Fruit they originally ate will regenerate and appear somewhere in the world."
Although scholars in this world had been researching Devil Fruit abilities, most people still didn't understand them well.
As for the specifics, Ian really wanted to know, but the problem was he couldn't find any scholars or scientists studying Devil Fruit abilities, so he had to find a way to verify it himself.
Now that he had a Devil Fruit, the next step was to find a volunteer to eat it.
Since the fruit came from Ian, the volunteer would have to be from the Dragon Hunter Pirates. Fortunately, most of the Dragon Hunter Pirates were ordinary people, so they could handle eating a Devil Fruit.
Ian gathered the members of the Dragon Hunter Pirates, held up the Devil Fruit, and said, "I won't waste words. Everyone knows what this is. What I want to say is that this might be a Munch-Munch Fruit!"
Then, Ian described some of the abilities Wapol had shown with the Munch-Munch Fruit and finally said, "Think it over. If you think this ability is decent, you can step forward and try it."
The Dragon Hunter Pirates members looked at each other. Although Ian had clearly explained the fruit's possible abilities, they still couldn't make a decision on the spot.
It was true. If this were a Logia fruit, even without knowing what Logia ability it was, people might fight over it. But knowing the ability, they had to think carefully.
Eating a Devil Fruit meant losing the ability to swim forever. If they fell into the water, they could only wait for companions to save them. And the Munch-Munch Fruit's ability didn't sound like it had much offensive power...
Moreover, a person could only eat one Devil Fruit. If they ate this one and the crew got a better fruit later, they'd miss out. So for a moment, everyone hesitated, and no one stepped forward.
"No one wants it?" Ian asked again.
Just then, Dorry scratched his head and stepped forward. He said naively, "Captain, how about giving this fruit to me? I really like eating!"
As soon as he said that, the Dragon Hunter Pirates members burst out laughing.
Dorry wasn't wrong—he really did like eating. Matthew the chef had a good relationship with him, so Dorry often sneaked into the kitchen to steal Matthew's cooking, and Matthew didn't get mad. Compared to before, Dorry had gotten a lot fatter.
Fortunately, he was a black bear Mink Tribe member. The heavier his weight, the greater his strength. In fights, he liked to crush his opponents with pure power. So it seemed the Munch-Munch Fruit might actually suit him well.
Seeing Dorry step forward, Ian laughed too. Indeed, the bear tribe fears nothing!
So Ian reached out and handed the Devil Fruit to him.
Without overthinking it, Dorry took it and took a big bite.
"So... so disgusting!" The next second, Dorry's face scrunched up entirely. Ace, being curious, asked, "What does it taste like?"
He could never forget the roasted-shit taste of his Flame-Flame Fruit, so seeing Dorry eat a Devil Fruit, he couldn't help seeking some shared experience.
But as luck would have it for the simpleton, finding it too disgusting, Dorry didn't want to take a second bite and threw the rest away.
"What a strange feeling!" Dorry flexed the muscles in both arms. "It feels like something extra is inside my body..."
"Is it power?" everyone asked him curiously.
But the next second, Dorry's stomach let out a loud gurgle, making everyone facepalm!
Damn! Was that extra stomach acid!?
"I'm so hungry! I want to eat!" Dorry shouted.
Ian immediately handed him a chair. Ian remembered that the Munch-Munch Fruit could eat a lot of inorganic matter.
However, something strange happened. Dorry didn't want to eat the chair at all! Instead, he devoured the food Matthew brought over!
And as he kept eating, his muscles visibly swelled!
After eating for a while, Dorry looked around, then stomped over and picked up the huge iron shield Sardine used.
He hugged the shield to his chest, then squeezed his arms together, crushing the shield! Then he changed direction and kept compressing until he had turned the shield into a ball of iron!
Seeing this, everyone gasped. They knew that Dorry had never been this strong before!
Was it the power from the fruit he'd just eaten?
Everyone turned to Ian, hoping for an explanation. But Ian frowned and said, "Strange! Can't you eat inorganic matter, Dorry?"
"I don't want to!" Dorry shook his head. "How can you eat that stuff?"
"Weird! Is this not the Munch-Munch Fruit!?" Ian wondered. "The Munch-Munch Fruit can eat anything! And it can digest what it eats to change its form."
No one could answer Ian's question. They hadn't seen the Munch-Munch Fruit, but from Ian's words, they understood that the Devil Fruit Dorry had eaten seemed different from the original!
What was going on?
Just then, Aokiji suddenly spoke up. "Have you ever heard of superior and inferior types?"
"You mean this fruit isn't the original Munch-Munch Fruit but has become an inferior version of it?" Ian suddenly understood and asked Aokiji.
"Very likely!" Aokiji nodded.
This was completely beyond Ian's expectations. He had thought it was the Munch-Munch Fruit, but after Dorry ate it, it showed different effects. So now, what should this fruit be called?