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"Well then… it's time to witness a miracle!!!"
A slightly excited voice rang out from inside Bai Ye's room.
Who else could it be but Bai Ye himself?
He was smiling as he stared at the large wooden barrel in front of him.
Inside that barrel was the former king of Drum Island, Wapol—completely soaked in seawater for days and barely hanging on.
"If my guess is right… I might have to change some of my plans," Bai Ye muttered to himself, looking at Wapol like he was a rare treasure.
Ever since leaving Drum Island, Bai Ye had finally gotten some time to test his theories.
To him, the biggest takeaway from Drum Island… was this Devil Fruit user right here.
In the original story, after Luffy sent Wapol flying, the guy had a really rough time as a drifter.
At one point, even dogs and kids wanted nothing to do with him.
But later on, in order to survive, Wapol started eating trash and turning it into toys to sell to children—and that's when a scientist discovered that the toys he made were made of some kind of special alloy.
That twist of fate turned everything around for him.
Not only did he open a toy company, but he also married Miss Universe and made a fortune off his "Wapol Metal," becoming a world-class tycoon.
Two years after Marineford, the World Nobles even made him king again.
—
Thinking back to all that, Bai Ye couldn't help but click his tongue in amazement.
If someone wrote a novel with Wapol as the protagonist, it'd be a total underdog-to-hero feel-good story.
At the same time, Bai Ye couldn't help but be suspicious of Luffy—every villain that guy punched seemed to come back with a whole side plot.
Take Alvida, for example. She was one of the first villains to show up, got knocked out by one punch from Luffy… and then found the Smooth-Smooth Fruit, turning into a total bombshell. Classic glow-up.
That thought made Bai Ye chuckle to himself.
Ever since he showed up in this world, Luffy hadn't punched a single villain into the sky.
Bai Ye had locked all of them up before Luffy could even swing.
Looking at it from the villains' perspective, Bai Ye was definitely the bad guy here.
And if there was one regret he had, it was probably Alvida.
No idea who would end up eating the Smooth-Smooth Fruit now.
Still, Bai Ye shook off those random thoughts quickly.
If you're gonna get isekai'd and then join the main character's crew, but the plot doesn't change at all… then what's the point of being here?
That's how Bai Ye saw it.
Then, he looked back at Wapol again.
Even though Wapol's story didn't get a ton of attention in the original, it was clear—
The Munch-Munch Fruit still had decent potential.
So now that he had Wapol in his hands, there was no way Bai Ye was just gonna let him go.
Golden light started to glow around Bai Ye's right hand.
And then—Condensing Qi into Form—
A short sword took shape in his hand.
Next second—slash!!!
The blade sliced across Wapol's neck.
Bai Ye had just killed Wapol.
Before the blood even had a chance to spray, Bai Ye waved his hand and stored the body in his inner world.
Then he walked over to the bed, sat cross-legged, and focused his spirit to enter the inner realm.
Meanwhile, Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper were sitting by the edge of the Going Merry, bored out of their minds, fishing.
"Hey, Chopper."
Usopp suddenly asked, "What were you and Bai Ye talking about yesterday in his room?"
Luffy perked up too, turning his head curiously toward Chopper.
"Yeah! What was Bai Ye's room like? I've never even been in there!"
For some reason, Chopper thought Luffy sounded a little jealous.
"Isn't it because the last time you went in, you wrecked the whole place?" Usopp rolled his eyes.
Still, he was pretty curious about what Bai Ye and Chopper had talked about.
"It's nothing special," Chopper said after thinking a bit. "But Bai Ye was kinda weird yesterday."
"First, he pulled me into the room and asked me to let him study my Rumble Ball."
"Then he started asking me questions about Devil Fruits. And outta nowhere, he just started laughing like crazy."
Chopper's face looked a little weird as he said that.
"He kept muttering stuff like, 'If that's really how it works… then doesn't that mean I can do this instead?'"
Luffy and Usopp looked totally confused.
"No clue what that means," Luffy said while picking his nose.
"Maybe Bai Ye found out some secret about Devil Fruits?" Usopp rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
That made Chopper's eyes go wide.
"Wait—Bai Ye's actually that smart? What's the secret?!"
"So it is the power of laws, huh? Hahahaha! What an unexpected surprise!"
Inside the inner world, Bai Ye couldn't help laughing as he looked at the scene before him.
After a Devil Fruit user dies, their fruit is reborn somewhere else at some random time.
That rule had always bothered Bai Ye.
And even though the original series never explained it clearly, Bai Ye was convinced—
Someone had definitely tried the "eat the user" method before. And obviously, it failed.
So, a few conclusions could be drawn:
Devil Fruit powers can only exist in either a fruit or a living person.
Once the fruit is "eaten" or the person dies, the power immediately transfers.
The power never returns to its previous host. (Like, if a person dies, it returns to a fruit. If a fruit is eaten, it goes to a person.)
The ability is unique. Only one of each exists.
Based on all that, Bai Ye came up with a bold theory:
Devil Fruits—or rather, the powers they contain—are actually projections or manifestations of some kind of universal "law" or "rule" in this world.
As for how that power transfers, after studying Chopper's Rumble Ball, Bai Ye had a theory:
It spreads in waves.
At first, the rule-based waves traveled across the world freely.
Then, for some reason, those waves changed and started seeking out hosts—
Living people… or "fruits."
Of course, all of this was still just Bai Ye's theory.
But he had a way to test it:
If Devil Fruit powers really are projections of laws…
Then all he had to do was kill a user and observe the transfer.
And the key to that was how to observe it.
Bai Ye had a simple answer: Just do it in another world.
If the laws and rules of the One Piece world were already too complete to observe directly…
Then all he needed was a newly formed, embryonic little world—someplace where the laws were still unstable and could show themselves clearly.
Luckily, Bai Ye had a place like that: his inner world.
Not the one from the [Daoist Scripture Collection], but a separate one he awakened through practicing Daoist arts.
In his previous life, there was a saying: "The heart resides within, and what it sees is the image of unity between form and spirit."
It meant being able to observe the organs and inner workings of your own body.
Back in the era of ancient Qi practitioners, the inner world meant a self-created little universe.
Well… calling it a "world" might be pushing it.
It's more like a secondary space born from tapping into the source of the real world.
Because it's built off the real world's foundation, these inner worlds were usually "rough."
Stuff like law projection? Totally normal there.
So the moment Bai Ye killed Wapol, he immediately moved the body into his inner world…
All for the sake of observation.
"....."