Chapter 627: Pseudo-Super Saiyan
Earlier, when Baccarat was acting as Ian's guide and host, she had been deliberately hiding the fact that she was a Devil Fruit user, never displaying any of her abilities. After all, in a casino, her ability made her the ultimate card shark. If everyone knew about her Devil Fruit power, how could she help Tesoro cheat and fleece the gamblers out of their fortunes?
So, in truth, Ian was seeing her ability demonstrated for the first time right now.
The Luck-Luck Fruit's ability, when used in combat, was indeed a bizarre fighting style. Under the blessing of intense good luck, she seemed capable of deflecting attacks directed at her through accidents or mistakes.
This method of using her ability had its unique merits and could be considered formidable. However, Ian also noticed some weaknesses in her power.
First, her ability was more focused on protecting herself, with little counterattack power against her opponents. Although Tashigi and Smoker had unluckily made mistakes and ended up hurting themselves, those injuries hadn't completely incapacitated them. They could still get up and continue attacking her.
Second, Ian speculated that her state of good luck probably had limits. If she were attacked continuously, her good luck would eventually run out.
Moreover, to put it bluntly, her luck-based protection relied on amplifying extremely low-probability events. Just now, because Tashigi and Smoker had a chance of tripping, her luck amplification made that probability a reality, causing their misfortune.
But if there were an attack that was absolutely guaranteed to hit her, would her luck protection still work?
Realizing these points, Ian quickly figured out a way to deal with her. However, he wasn't in a hurry to subdue Baccarat. Instead, he asked with interest, "Luck-Luck Fruit? Miss Baccarat, can this good luck of yours be granted to others, making them lucky too?"
He had actually wanted to ask this question for a while, and now that Baccarat had shown her Devil Fruit ability, it was the perfect opportunity to bring it up.
Despite using her lucky state to make even Colonel Smoker suffer, Baccarat was inwardly uneasy. Whether it was Ian, Aokiji, or Katakuri, all three were top-tier figures to her. Aokiji was a Marine Admiral, while Ian and Katakuri were pirates with bounties exceeding one billion Berries. Baccarat felt that if someone of this caliber decided to attack her, she probably wouldn't even have the ability to resist.
The Luck-Luck Fruit's ability didn't make Baccarat invincible. If it did, she wouldn't just be a senior officer under Tesoro; she would have made a name for herself long ago.
She had been on guard against Ian and the others the whole time. She knew her task was only to stall here, waiting for Tesoro to arrive, not to actually confront them.
But what she didn't expect was that Ian seemed genuinely interested in her fruit's ability.
So, after a moment of hesitation, she answered honestly, "N-no!"
"Can't do it now, or never?" Ian pressed her further.
"W-what do you mean?" Baccarat didn't understand.
Ian crossed his arms and explained to her, "Your fruit ability hasn't awakened yet, has it? If you just can't grant good luck to others now, could you do it after awakening?"
"I... I don't know!" Baccarat was a bit dazed. Her Devil Fruit ability wasn't a combat type, so her development and use of it were quite limited. Although she knew her boss Tesoro was an awakened Devil Fruit user and understood that Devil Fruits had an awakening stage, awakening was still too far off for her.
Any Devil Fruit would change upon awakening, but Baccarat didn't know if her Luck-Luck Fruit's awakening would allow her to grant good luck to others as Ian suggested.
Hearing Baccarat's answer, Ian was indeed a bit disappointed. He had thought that if Baccarat's fruit, after awakening, could absorb others' luck and grant it to someone else, he would take her away from Tesoro no matter what. It didn't matter that she wasn't awakened yet; he could train and cultivate her deliberately, coaching her until she awakened, and then she could be a great help to him.
But now, even Baccarat herself wasn't sure if she could do that. Was she still worth cultivating?
Rubbing his chin in thought, Ian suddenly unleashed his Conqueror's Haki without warning.
Normally, Conqueror's Haki was an invisible, colorless spiritual force—unseen and untouchable, only felt. But unexpectedly, when Ian activated his Haki this time, a tangible black light swept across the entire scene in an instant!
Fujitora couldn't see it, but he felt it most keenly. The moment Ian released his Haki, it was as if a shadow passed through his body, sweeping over everyone like a fleeting glimpse.
In the past, Ian had used his Conqueror's Haki like this before. The members of the Dragon Hunter Pirates, being somewhat strong, could usually resist it. But this time was different. Many people felt a strong dizziness from the Haki's wash, their heads heavy and feet light, nearly falling over.
And notably, Ian's Haki release this time wasn't a brief flash; it lasted for a while, about five or six seconds. During the sustained release, the Conqueror's Haki carried a powerful shaking and impact effect. Within the Haki's field, almost everyone felt a violent, roller-coaster-like turbulence.
"Whoa!" A long-armed sailor finally couldn't take it anymore, falling to his knees, hands on the ground, and vomiting as soon as he opened his mouth.
His vomiting triggered a chain reaction. The weakest sailors began falling one after another, vomiting, foaming at the mouth, and rolling their eyes back.
If even these hardened sea-faring men were affected, Baccarat was even worse off. Under the continuous impact of Ian's Conqueror's Haki, she finally couldn't bear it and fainted on the spot.
Seeing her faint, Ian quickly restrained his Haki release.
"C-captain!" a sailor who was vomiting profusely looked at Ian with a resentful expression and said, "You... you even... caught us in it...?"
"Sorry!" Ian said with a hint of apology. "No choice. I was worried that if I only targeted her with intimidation, she might somehow deflect it with her luck, so I went with a full-area coverage."
This was Ian's way of dealing with her—directly using an AOE group attack, leaving her no place to escape. And since Conqueror's Haki was an invisible attack, it would take effect one hundred percent. This way, even Baccarat's luck protection was useless, since good luck couldn't boost her own strength to resist the impact.
"Captain, your... Haki seems to have improved?" Fujitora asked him uncertainly.
Improved was an understatement. Perospero and Katakuri looked at Ian with surprise. Fujitora had sensed it, and so had they. They weren't surprised that Ian had Conqueror's Haki, but everyone knew that Conqueror's Haki couldn't be trained; it only grew stronger as the user's own strength increased. When Ian's almost tangible Conqueror's Haki swept through just now, the two of them had the illusion that "Big Mom had arrived"!
In other words, in their perception, Ian's Conqueror's Haki was now almost on par with Mama's.
Perospero and Katakuri exchanged a glance.
Mama was right. Ian was indeed already as strong as an Emperor.
In response to Fujitora's question, Ian just smiled and didn't answer.
Of course, his strength had increased. Now that he had another level-60 card joining his collection, and with the boost from his base abilities, all his attributes had seen a massive improvement. What else could that be if not a growth in strength?
And most importantly, the newly completed Future Trunks card had brought Ian a huge surprise!
Just as Ian had predicted, this Trunks card indeed came with the Super Saiyan ability.
[Trunks (Future Timeline)]
Card Star Rating: Four Stars
Level: 60
Skills:
Sword Dance: A swordsmanship technique combining speed and power. (Activated by Expert-level Swordsmanship Training.)
Spirit Cannon: Fires psychic power in various forms, causing massive destruction. (Activated by Master-level Psychic Training.)
Combat Techniques: Attacks targets with superior physical combat skills. (Activated by Master-level Physical Combat Training and Master-level Combat Techniques.)
Flight Technique: A unique flying skill with low energy consumption. (Activated by Expert-level Psychic Training and Master-level Physical Combat Training.)
Ultimate Skill:
Super Saiyan One: Transforms into a Super Saiyan One state, increasing base attributes by 1000% and amplifying all skill attack power by 100%. (Amplification is also effective in normal state, but halved. Activated by Grandmaster-level Physical Combat Training, Grandmaster-level Psychic Training, and advancing the card to Five Stars.)
This Trunks card hadn't yet been upgraded with enough cards to advance its star rating, and the Super Saiyan ability seemed to be just a state rather than a bloodline-based skill, with only a tenfold boost. But Ian understood this logic. A real Super Saiyan's transformation boosted combat power fifty times over normal state. If that were the case, in the card system's comparison, a single Trunks card would dominate all other series!
The card system, after all, evolved from a game, so it naturally had game balance. It allowed Ian to mimic the Super Saiyan state through psychic power, but it couldn't grant him true Saiyan bloodline.
Even so, this Trunks card was still a pleasant surprise. Ian discovered that even though he hadn't yet upgraded the card to a five-star red card, the normal-state amplification in the ultimate skill was still effective. That meant, as long as this card was equipped in a card slot, all his other card skills would have an additional 50% power boost when used!
That was also why he had produced black lightning earlier, even without charging up.
At the same time, this amplification also worked on his Haki power...