"The Dark-Dark Fruit has the power to temporarily nullify another person's Devil Fruit ability?" Ace furrowed his brows tightly, clearly thinking hard about how he was supposed to defeat Blackbeard when he had that kind of power.
"A Logia-type Devil Fruit that can't turn its user into an element, that uses double the pain to restore the body, and can also restrain other Devil Fruit users."
"Just that alone is enough to show how exceptional this Dark-Dark Fruit is but if we're talking about where it's truly exceptional, it's still the fact that the Dark-Dark Fruit can directly take another Devil Fruit user's power away."
"It's just, Arton—how are you going to prove what you're saying?" Morgans asked curiously.
A special Devil Fruit like the Dark-Dark Fruit was already more than enough to be written into the news and explode under people's attention, but he still needed evidence that could prove it.
Otherwise, he didn't dare casually publish that sort of story—unless Arton was willing to take responsibility for it.
Arton folded his arms and leaned back in his chair as he said to Morgans, "As far as that goes, just directly state in the article that I'm the one saying it."
"You don't need to write a single word in the paper claiming that you believe the Dark-Dark Fruit has this kind of power. If you do it like that, there shouldn't be any problem, right?"
Hearing that, Morgans couldn't help nodding
"As for the evidence you want, I'd actually like to provide it to you but the Dark-Dark Fruit isn't in my possession, so I have no way to demonstrate its abilities to you."
"Still, I believe that as long as Blackbeard's alive, he'll show this power of his to the world sooner or later. After all, that guy's a freak—his body can contain a second Devil Fruit."
"When he displays the ability of that second fruit, the world will believe what I've said and at that point, Morgans, your article will turn into a prophecy in people's hearts." Arton said.
"What, you're saying that bastard Teach can have the power of a second Devil Fruit?" Ace stared at Arton wide-eyed in disbelief. "Wait, is that why Teach has never needed to sleep all this time?"
"Arton, you're sure you're not messing with us? Everyone in the world knows a person can only ever eat one Devil Fruit." Morgans said with a frown. "No matter how special Blackbeard is, there's no way he can eat a second Devil Fruit, right?"
This thing Ace mentioned—Blackbeard not needing to sleep—was certainly strange, but it still wasn't enough to make Morgans accept Arton's words.
At the end of the day, there were plenty of special people in this world.
Take, for example, the Yonko Linlin.
Even when she was a child, Linlin already had the strength to defeat some members of the giant race.
But even someone as abnormal as Linlin wouldn't dare claim she could eat a second Devil Fruit.
So how was someone like Blackbeard supposed to pull that off?
"It's just the truth, that's all. You can say in the paper that I'm the one who said it too." Arton said.
Morgans gave Arton a long, hard look. Seeing how serious Arton's expression was, he could only jot all this intel down into his reporter's notebook.
If he hadn't previously watched Nojiko condense the Spring-Spring Fruit out of thin air, he honestly would've found it very hard to believe what Arton was saying, but after seeing Nojiko's ability, even he couldn't deny that it was at least possible for Blackbeard to have that kind of power as well.
Whitey Bay: "Judging from the way Morgans looks, he probably doesn't quite believe what Arton's saying."
Makino: "Well, it's not like everyone has a copy of Arton's diary like we do. We can judge the truth of his words far more accurately."
Smoothie: "Since Arton says Blackbeard can use two Devil Fruits, then he can eat two Devil Fruits."
Galette: "If only I had that sort of ability too, that'd be wonderful..."
Reiju: "The Dark-Dark Fruit can steal other people's abilities, and Blackbeard can also eat two Devil Fruits. If he's given enough time to grow, his power will probably reach a level that's incredibly troublesome to deal with."
Chapter 416: If I Can't Interview Arton, Interviewing His Crewmates Works Too
Sadi: "No wonder Blackbeard betrayed the Whitebeard Pirates. With that kind of ability, how could he possibly be willing to stay under someone else forever? Too bad for him there's someone even more special than he is—Arton."
Monet: "If Blackbeard gets the chance, I wonder whose ability he'd want to steal."
Baccarat: "With a power like that, he won't just steal abilities for himself; he'll probably steal them for his crewmates too. In a way, that's kind of similar to Arton."
Viola: "The difference is, Arton's ability is to share template powers that are like Devil Fruits with his crewmates. Come to think of it, if Blackbeard decided Arton's power was a Devil Fruit, he might try to steal Arton's ability someday."
…
After they finished talking about Blackbeard, Morgans brought up a few long-standing questions he'd had for Arton.
Arton wanted to use Morgans' mouth to mess with Blackbeard, so naturally he took a positive attitude toward Morgans' questions.
As long as a question wouldn't affect him too much, he was willing to answer it.
Slowly, the interview had already gone on for an hour.
Right then, a familiar system prompt rang out in Arton's mind.
[Ding! Today's diary has earned enough lottery points.]
[Continuing to write today will no longer earn additional points.]
Arton glanced at the points he'd accumulated, and a wave of joy instantly rose up in his heart.
[Today's system task is finally complete. The points I've built up are enough for a high-probability draw.]
[Mm, let's hope I pull a good reward this time.]
Gion: "So this man is going to roll the lottery again?"
Ain: "The lottery… will he pull a template? If he does get a template, do I have a chance to receive one?"
Robin: "Looks like it's time for me to make a move~."
Mikita: "Robin's on Arton's ship right now. If Arton draws a template, is there a chance he'll give it to her?"
Paula: "Arton still has some doubts about Robin. Getting him to hand her a template won't be easy, but it's not totally impossible."
Paula: "If Robin can use her charm and win Arton over, then even Arton will be more likely to give her a template."
Vivi: "If Robin gets a template, our chances of gaining power from Arton will go up too!"
The many diary copy holders, seeing these lines appear in Arton's diary, all snapped to attention at once.
Especially the women like Ain and Robin, who were currently on the ship but hadn't officially been acknowledged by Arton yet… Both of them were already toying with the idea of making a move on Arton.
Of course, Arton still had no idea about that. Smiling, he lifted his head to look at Morgans and said,
"Morgans, I've already answered a lot of your questions. Let's end today's interview here. I need to go take care of something now."
Hearing that, Morgans raised his head in confusion, only to see Arton standing up and leaving the dining room in quick strides.
"He's in such a hurry… what's going on with him?" Morgans asked, puzzled, looking toward Nojiko, who walked into the room afterward.
"Well, who knows?" Nojiko shrugged as she replied.
Naturally, she had also seen what Arton had just written in the diary, but just because she'd seen it didn't mean she had to tell Morgans.
That left Morgans so curious his heart itched, and for a moment he even had the thought of sneaking over to eavesdrop but once he considered Arton's abilities, Morgans gave up on that idea.
"Oh, right—Miss Nojiko. Could you tell me a bit about your ability?"
"When I met Blackbeard earlier, he seemed to be in a lot of pain." Morgans looked at Nojiko curiously. "That pain should be related to your ability, shouldn't it?"
....
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