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"Shopkeeper, you're absolutely drowning in customers right now," Danny said, already edging toward the exit like he could feel the next wave about to crash. "We'll head out first."
Colleen gave Rosh a quick, apologetic smile, half gratitude, half ''sorry we added to your chaos''.
"We'll bring the gold another day to finish the transaction," she added.
Rosh didn't waste time with extra pleasantries. He gave them a clean nod, as if his shop wasn't one loud breath away from turning into a riot.
"Safe travels."
After a few final words, Colleen and Danny slipped out together, disappearing into the crowd outside like two pebbles tossed into a river.
But the moment they were gone… The shop didn't get quieter.
It got worse.
The Home of the Devil Fruits was still packed to the brim with bodies shoulder-to-shoulder, voices overlapping, air thick with excitement and impatience. People didn't just want to buy anymore. They wanted to witness. They wanted to confirm. They wanted to be first.
And after seeing Danny's glowing fist with their own eyes?
Forget "curiosity." That had become fuel.
The crowd surged forward in bursts, one group after another, shouting questions like they could overwhelm reality through sheer volume.
"Which Devil Fruits are still available?!"
"How much gold do I need?!"
"Can I test one too?!"
"Is the Iron Man Fruit still here?!"
Rosh had no choice but to keep moving, answering, redirecting, handling deposits, repeating policies until his voice felt like it had been sanded down. His mouth basically ran nonstop. His brain stayed locked in "customer service mode," a state more exhausting than any fight.
It was so busy he didn't even have time to drink water.
And that was the truly ridiculous part.
Rosh's body was absurdly strong now. He could throw down with monsters, flatten military hardware, and move like a flash of light, but standing behind a counter dealing with excited people?
That was a different kind of battle.
One that wore you down from the inside.
By evening, the sun outside had dipped into a lazy orange glow, but inside the shop, the energy hadn't died at all. If anything, it had grown desperate, like people feared the doors might close and take their "chance at destiny" with them.
That's exactly what happened.
Rosh lifted his voice, firm and final.
"Sorry, everyone, the shop is closing for the day. Please come back tomorrow!"
The crowd reacted instantly, with groans, protests, and bargaining attempts fired like bullets.
"Just one more!"
"I only need a minute!"
"I came from Queens!"
Rosh didn't negotiate; he didn't even argue.
He simply reached for the doors and shut them with a decisive clack that felt like a judge's gavel.
Closed meant closed.
Let the world scream outside.
He was done.
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Back at his apartment, Rosh washed up quickly with cold water, a quick rinse, and reset his mind. Then he dropped onto the sofa with a heavy exhale, like he'd just survived a war.
Which, in a way, he had.
And the fact that he felt tired at all was almost funny.
Not physically tired.
Mentally.
A deep, annoying exhaustion that came from being "on" for too long, smiling, explaining, repeating rules, managing a crowd that treated him like a walking miracle and a suspicious salesman at the same time.
Across two lifetimes, he'd never had to deal with this many people in one day.
It was draining.
For a moment, he stared at the ceiling and let the silence soak in.
Then a thought slid across his mind, practical and unavoidable. 'Should I hire an employee?'
Money was no longer an issue for him. In the past, when business was slow, there'd been no need. But now that The Home of the Devil Fruits had completely exploded in popularity, one person simply wasn't enough anymore.
Hiring someone wasn't just convenient....it was starting to feel necessary.
Still… that was a tomorrow problem.
Rosh filed it away and pushed it aside like a note pinned to the edge of his mind. Because something much more important was waiting for him now.
Something he'd been craving all day, like a reward after the grind.
Enhancement.
The second that thought landed, the exhaustion eased, just a little, replaced by a familiar surge of anticipation. The kind that made his pulse feel lighter.
He entered the system without hesitation.
The moment Rosh focused, the world around him seemed to dim, and the system snapped into clarity, its interface unfolding in his mind like a clean, cold blueprint.
Right there on the display:
[5,000 Origin Points.]
Rosh's expression brightened instantly. For someone who'd just spent a whole day drowning in customers, this was the kind of reward that hit like oxygen, pure, addictive relief.
But the thrill only lasted a second before the real question settled in:
'How do I spend it?'
At his current level, Rosh's build was already terrifyingly complete. His Devil Fruit control was at Borsalino (Kizaru)'s level. His Observation Haki had the oppressive precision of Issho (Fujitora). And as a backbone, he had Roronoa Zoro's swordsmanship supporting everything.
Speed, perception, lethality; he had answers for most problems.
Adding another flashy ability wasn't urgent.
But improving his overall strength? That was a different story.
Because Rosh wasn't measuring himself against average people anymore. He wasn't even measuring himself against "superhumans."
He was measuring himself against the actual monsters of the Marvel Universe, the kind of threats that didn't care how impressive you looked on the street level. The kind that turned cities into collateral and treated armies like background noise.
Right now, he was dominating ordinary opponents.
In the broader Marvel world… that wasn't enough.
Rosh exhaled slowly, letting the decision sharpen into a single, clean point.
"Alright," he said to himself, voice calm and certain. "I'll raise my overall strength."
Then he spoke to the system directly.
"System, if I spend all 5,000 Origin Points on strength enhancement, what level would my strength reach?"
[Host's current physical constitution cannot support higher-intensity enhancement. It is recommended that the Host first spend a portion of Origin Points on physical reinforcement before proceeding with comprehensive enhancement.]
"So that's how it is…" Rosh fell into thought, but he had to admit the system's suggestion made sense.
The Glint-Glint Fruit had strengthened his body, sure, but this wasn't the One Piece world where monsters were built like natural disasters. His ability had reached Kizaru's level, but his body hadn't fully caught up.
Not yet.
He hadn't noticed the gap before because he almost never fought at maximum output. Most battles ended before they became a real endurance test.
But when he erased the Ninth Air Force Base…
He'd felt it.
That heavy, creeping exhaustion. The kind that didn't come from damage, but from the body hitting its ceiling, like an engine overheating because the driver kept flooring it.
That was the limit of his current constitution.
And that limit was a chain.
Rosh nodded once, accepting the logic without wasting time arguing with it. "System, then start by upgrading my physical constitution to Admiral Kizaru's level."
[Upgrading physical constitution to Admiral Kizaru's level will consume 1,000 Origin Points. Proceed?]
"Proceed!"
In an instant...
Rosh felt a dramatic transformation ripple through his body.
Rosh's spine straightened. His breathing changed. His heartbeat sounded different, denser, steadier, like a war drum settling into rhythm. Vitality flooded him in a violent wave, rushing through muscle and bone, tightening everything, reinforcing everything, turning his body into something that felt less like human flesh and more like a perfected combat machine.
It wasn't just strength, it was capacity.
Stamina that didn't end. Recovery that didn't lag.
A foundation that could finally handle what his Devil Fruit wanted to unleash.
Rosh clenched his fist. The air around his hand shifted from the pressure alone, subtle, but unmistakable. He felt heavy in the best way. Anchored. Like his body had finally become the kind of frame that could carry godlike power without cracking.
Now he could fight like those One Piece monsters fought; he could fight continuously for ten days or even half a month without rest.
Rosh opened his eyes fully, a quiet satisfaction settling into his expression like a crown sliding into place.
"Now," he said, voice low and sure, "I can finally be called the real Kizaru."
Rosh steadied his breathing, rolled his shoulders once, and felt that new foundation settle into place. The earlier upgrade hadn't just made him stronger; it had made him capable of handling strength without paying the price later.
His impatience crept up, not wild, nor reckless, just that sharp hunger that always came right before a breakthrough.
He asked again.
"System," Rosh said, voice tight with anticipation, "if I use the remaining 4,000 Origin Points for comprehensive enhancement… what level will I reach?"
[Two times the template level of Admiral Kizaru.]
Rosh's brow twitched. 'Only twice Kizaru's level?'
For a heartbeat, the number felt almost… small.
Then he reminded himself of what the system had just said: comprehensive enhancement. Not a single stat. Not just Devil Fruit output. Not just speed. Not just strength.
Everything.
Body, reaction, durability, stamina, raw power; an across-the-board upgrade.
And "twice Kizaru" across all of that?
That wasn't just "good," that was nightmare fuel.
Rosh's expression smoothed back into calm certainty, and he accepted it without hesitation.
Two times, Kizaru was already terrifying.
At the very least… he was confident he could crush Thor with ease.
Rosh's mind ran the comparison automatically, like a strategist checking familiar benchmarks.
Thor's lightning looked impressive on camera, loud, bright, dramatic. But from everything Thor had shown so far, it wasn't leagues beyond what Enel could do. If anything, it felt slightly weaker in terms of sheer destructive force.
And Enel had never been above Kizaru in the first place.
If Enel couldn't beat Kizaru, then how could Thor beat someone twice as strong as Kizaru?
Even setting that comparison aside, Thor's on-screen performance, while flashy, had always had limits. He hit hard, sure, but he wasn't an unstoppable concept. He was a powerful being in a powerful body.
That was it.
Rosh's lips curved; a sudden thought flashed through him, sharp and almost playful.
"If that's the case…" He smirked. "Doesn't that mean I could be called a god too?"
After all, even the so-called "gods" in this world, like Thor, were ultimately just powerful cosmic beings with good branding and ancient mythology wrapped around them.
If Thor could be called a god… Why couldn't Rosh?
He didn't waste time debating it.
"System, proceed with enhancement!" Without further hesitation, Rosh gave the command.
In the next instant, power surged through him like a second heart had ignited inside his chest.
Not a warm rush this time.
A violent one.
His muscles tightened as if invisible hands were forging them in real time, compressing strength into density, turning his body into something that felt less like flesh and more like a weapon designed by nature itself. His bones felt heavier, tougher, like they'd been layered with an unbreakable core. Even the air seemed thinner around him, as if it had to work harder just to exist in the same room.
Rosh's senses sharpened.
His balance changed.
His body didn't just feel stronger, it felt absolute, like every motion now carried a terrifying amount of certainty behind it. The kind of certainty that made physics feel negotiable.
He flexed his hand once.
The movement was small… but the force behind it felt obscene.
He was confident that even without using any Devil Fruit ability, he could beat Iron Man into scrap metal with pure physical force alone. Tony Stark's armor would be impressive… right up until it met something that simply didn't care about engineering.
Rosh exhaled slowly, a grin spreading across his face despite himself.
"Excellent."
He felt something again, like the word wasn't enough to contain the feeling.
"Fucking W!"
The excitement on his face wasn't subtle anymore. It was raw satisfaction, the kind that came from knowing you'd just climbed to a new altitude and the world below suddenly looked smaller.
Sure, this round of enhancement had burned every last Origin Point.
No lottery draws. No gamble for bonus miracles.
But Rosh didn't regret it for even a second.
Because he could feel the result in every breath.
These points had been well spent.
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Next Chapter: Natasha's Report
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