Amidst the blizzard, Liam soared with Geppo, weaving between the white-blanketed mountains.
His left arm, encased in blue flame-patterned armor, plunged into his chest, withdrawing a triangular chip etched with swirling magnetic patterns. His right arm, sheathed in red flame-patterned armor, held the Munch-Munch Fruit chip taken from Wapol. After retrieving the Magnet-Magnet Fruit chip, he casually pressed it into his chest.
Once the Munch-Munch Fruit chip entered his body…
Liam noticed that the entire world, as seen through his eyes, seemed to shift in ways impossible to describe.
Snap! Liam pressed off Geppo, soaring up through the howling high-altitude winds.
He gazed at the distant, sporadic village houses…
Edible.
The massive stone perched atop a snowy peak…
Edible.
The pile of trash in a valley?
Edible.
Snow-covered pine trees?
Edible.
Stone, snow, soil, houses, steel, wood… everything seemed edible!
In an instant, all the natural and man-made things around him were filtered through a "can-eat" lens in Liam's eyes.
But…
Just because something is edible doesn't mean Liam would shove everything into his mouth. He wasn't a little kid anymore!
...
Creak, creak…
Back at Kureha's treehouse in the forest, Liam grabbed the slightly cooled floral milk tea from Robin and tossed both the metal cup and the tea into his mouth.
"So that's the flavor…"
He chewed it casually, as if it were chocolate, and finally swallowed with a gū lū, lamenting, "I thought it would still be hot when I came back…"
"It's minus thirty-five degrees here. Pouring hot water outside will freeze instantly, what did you expect?"
Kureha shut the treehouse door, keeping the howling blizzard outside.
Chopper stared at Liam in shock. Liam gave him a strange look, and the little reindeer shrieked and ducked behind Robin.
Liam laughed heartily, opening his massive mouth and chomping down on one corner of the table along with the dishes on top.
Chomp, chomp...
After chewing for a moment, he spat out his meal. The ceramic bowl and table had fused together perfectly, and the chopsticks stood upright on either side.
"Oh, I see how it works."
Liam examined the wood that he had digested, refined, and reassembled with the Munch-Munch Fruit. Clearly, the structure was far sturdier than the original table.
"Next..." Liam glanced at the armless, black, armored figure standing nearby.
Just as Robin thought he might eat his own Stand, Liam returned the blue-and-red, flame-patterned arm armor to B.I.B.
"Then let's...go down," Liam muttered.
Robin immediately realized that only she could see B.I.B.! Liam was deliberately misleading her, teasing her.
Liam laughed heartily. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew from behind.
"You brat!"
Bang! Kureha's fist struck Liam's head. She scolded, "What do you think you're doing with someone else's stuff?!"
"Don't be so petty…" Liam rolled over on the ground, smiling mischievously.
He opened his mouth as if it were an abyss and swept up the remaining table and the reassembled "dishes and table" into his mouth.
So scary! Chopper's eyes widened as he covered his mouth.
"Well, I can always make it again..."
Liam mumbled, his enormous jaws making his entire head appear half the size of his body. They moved up and down over a meter as he chewed.
So cute... Robin remained expressionless.
With a whoosh, Liam spat out a brand-new set of tableware, neatly arranged as before.
No, there was a difference.
The wood and tableware were clearly superior in quality.
The tabletop's grain was flawless, with no trace of rivets or joints. It looked as if it were carved meticulously from a single massive piece of wood.
The ceramic dishes were as smooth as mirrors and looked more like jade than porcelain.
There was no need to worry about saliva residue, Munch-Munch Fruit users have absolute control over anything in their mouths or stomachs. Nothing that doesn't want to stay will escape.
Liam rubbed his stomach and smiled. "I see. The Munch-Munch Fruit is like an invincible factory. Interesting..."
Interesting? Chopper's eyes bulged and his snot dangled as he thought, "This is basically a monster!"
Robin reminded him, "You're looking more like a monster now."
Liam grinned proudly. "Really?"
"... Chopper was speechless.
"..." Kureha sighed and looked at Liam. "Looks like the rumors in the newspapers were true. It seems you can steal someone else's Devil Fruit. It looks like you took Wapol's Munch-Munch Fruit."
"Steal a Devil Fruit?" Chopper muttered, then suddenly jolted. "Ah! So that's why you ate me that day..."
Robin squatted down and patted the soft, fuzzy top of the little reindeer's head. "Just realizing that now?"
"Devil Fruits are divided into Logia, Paramecia, and Zoan," Liam explained to Chopper. "The Human-Human Fruit you ate is a Zoan. That means humans are basically just another kind of animal, like reindeer. Neither humans nor reindeer are real monsters. If we're talking about monsters, though, you need to be at my level to qualify!"
He gave a thumbs-up and pointed to himself.
"Whoa! So that's how it is..." Chopper gazed at Liam in awe.
"Is that really something to be proud of?" Robin reminded him.
"Huh? Really?" Liam laughed heartily.
Kureha asked, "Then...did you kill that idiot Wapol?"
......
"Wapol is dead..."
The patrol residents, covered in wounds, regained some stamina and stared at the stiff body lying in the snow.
His jaw was completely smashed, his cervical vertebrae were broken, and he had multiple deep slashes exposing bone all over his body. The pirate tossed Wapol's corpse, dead with his eyes open in defiance, aside like a ragged sack. Not a shred of the so-called King's dignity remained.
That pirate...
The residents recalled the earlier scene and still found it hard to believe.
A storm of blades had descended from the sky, completely ignoring the soldiers' hail of bullets.
As if the pirate had eyes everywhere, the ambushes by Wapol, Jess, and Crow Marimon had no effect.
"It was that pirate who took down Wapol," said a wounded, middle-aged patrolman with a sigh. "He saved this country. And yet, he doesn't seem interested in taking credit or seeking fame. What is that pirate thinking? Is he really a pirate? I don't understand at all..."
Dalton kept gazing upward in the direction where the pirate had vanished into the sky, remaining silent.
Others looked at the soldiers lying in the snow. "Dalton, what should we do with them?"
Jess was strangled by his bowstring; Crow Marimon was pinned to the snow by three heavy arrows; and Wapol... well, there was no need to mention him.
As for the soldiers torn apart by Liam's Rankyaku storm, if they were left alone, they wouldn't survive long. They'd either bleed out or freeze to death.
"Leave them to us."
Suddenly, a voice called from the shoreline.
(End of this chapter.)
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