When Fang Yi opened the Bounty interface, the first thing that appeared before his eyes was still that pitch-black building shaped like an upside-down pyramid.
Opening the first floor of the Bounty Tower, he found that, just like before, there were three cells. Only the first held a shadowy figure whose appearance could not be seen clearly, while the other two remained empty.
That shadow was the one Fang Yi had personally captured earlier. After defeating a wanted criminal, the system would prompt whether to capture the opponent. Doing so would still award him points equal to the target's bounty.
Fang Yi had tried it once. When he saw that capturing didn't seem to have much use—since simply defeating them already gave him points—he stopped bothering with it.
But this time, when he set his gaze on the figure in the first cell, three new options appeared:
Release!
Summon!
Destroy!
"Release is obvious enough—it just lets the figure go. But… what do 'Summon' and 'Destroy' mean?" Fang Yi muttered, falling into thought.
After pondering a while without answers, he decided to test it directly. He first chose Summon.
"Not enough Bounty Tower Keys… Summon failed!"
The system's prompt sounded almost immediately.
"Bounty Tower Key?" Fang Yi froze for a moment, then remembered—the upgraded shop did have such an item listed.
But when he checked the cost—50,000 points—he couldn't help but suck in a cold breath.
The newly unlocked Intermediate Inheritance Powers (Body, Strength, Agility) each only cost 50,000 points as well.
He knew from experience that even the Lesser Inheritances had given him massive improvements. If the Intermediate ones were now available, their effects would certainly be far greater.
Fang Yi looked at his current points—just over 60,000, not yet 70,000—and fell into hesitation.
Buying all three inheritances would cost 150,000 points. If he added one key on top, he'd need a total of 200,000. That was far more than what he had.
Earning points from historical texts aside, his main method now was still through defeating wanted criminals.
But the ratio was brutal: a bounty of 10 million only gave 1,000 points. To get 10,000 points, he'd need to hunt someone worth at least 100 million.
And this wasn't the era of Luffy, when bounties regularly soared into the tens or hundreds of millions.
For example, Fang Yi's bounty was only just above 30 million. Barrett's and Shanks' weren't even as high as his.
So dropping 50,000 points on a key just for an experiment… Fang Yi wasn't about to risk that lightly.
Still, based on the clues, he reasoned that the Bounty Tower allowed him to summon those imprisoned souls into the real world, and that he could even grant them skills or powers—since the shop offered Devil Fruits and life skills specifically labeled for use with the Tower.
The problem was, he didn't know in what form they would appear. Would they exist permanently? Be limited by time? Or maybe be like summoning beasts in Naruto, able to be called when needed and dismissed into another dimension when not?
He couldn't be sure.
For now, though, his points were too few. He needed those inheritances first.
Since testing "Summon" was out of reach, Fang Yi decided to try the last option instead—Destroy.
"Confirm destruction of this Soul Power? After destruction, this cell cannot be used for one natural month."
The prompt startled Fang Yi.
"This thing is called Soul Power?" he muttered, canceling the option and staring at the shadow in surprise.
That meant, if he ever really summoned it, it might not just be a puppet—but a being with intelligence. With a soul, wisdom would naturally follow.
It was too soon to jump to conclusions, though. Without enough points to spare, Fang Yi wasn't ready to gamble.
Rejecting destruction, he closed the Bounty Tower for now and switched to the Lottery interface—since the system had mentioned that it, too, was upgraded.
Because only Shanks and Barrett could "check in" for him daily, he needed five days to collect ten normal lottery tickets. So he hadn't paid much attention to the roulette recently.
But when he opened it now, he was stunned by the changes.
Most of the junk items were gone. Everything left was useful to him—and even better, many new items he had never seen before were now included.
Fang Yi suddenly felt that the colored special lottery tickets he had been saving might finally show their true worth.
Checking his backpack, he counted his stock: 18 colored tickets in total—
Yellow ×2 (Toki, Iceburg)
Black ×5 (Oden, Inuarashi, Nekomamushi, Brook, Crocodile)
Gold ×2 (Pirate King Roger, Fleet Admiral Kong)
Cyan ×6 (Kin'emon and four others, Gan Fall)
Blue ×3 (Sengoku, Vice Admiral Tsuru, Smoker)
He decided to start by using six cyan and two yellow, in total.
The results rolled in one after another:
Congratulations, obtained Bloodline Limit (Byakugan) Fragment!
Congratulations, obtained Weapon Evolution Scroll Fragment!
Congratulations, obtained Skill: Detection!
Congratulations, you obtained a Large Quiver!
Congratulations, you obtained Body Inheritance (Lesser)!
Congratulations, you obtained an Ordinary Skill Upgrade Scroll!
Congratulations, obtained Conqueror's Haki Fragment ×1!
Congratulations, obtained Navy Six Powers: Tempest Kick (Rankyaku)!
Congratulations, you obtained Bounty Tower Key!
Fang Yi was stunned.
Only three were fragments, but all three were priceless to him.
Conqueror's Haki needed no explanation—it was practically a standard for future top-tier powerhouses. He had long coveted it, but fragments were incredibly rare. Including this one, he now had six pieces total—still short of the ten required to complete it.
The Byakugan fragment was another treasure. It was one of Naruto's most powerful bloodline limits. The system said only 20 pieces were needed, and Fang Yi had painstakingly collected 18 before luck completely dried up. He had almost forgotten about it. Now, with this piece, he was only one fragment away from obtaining the full Byakugan.
The Weapon Evolution Scroll was equally valuable. It could upgrade any weapon, permanently enhancing it. But like Conqueror's Haki fragments, it was notoriously hard to acquire. Including this one, he had only three pieces.
Besides these, the skill rewards weren't bad either. Detection was a life skill, while Tempest Kick was a combat technique from the Navy's Rokushiki.
The Bounty Tower Key, the Lesser Body Inheritance, and the Ordinary Skill Upgrade Scroll were all excellent prizes as well. The key, especially, was something he had been longing for but was too reluctant to spend points on.
After finishing the draw, Fang Yi immediately consumed the Lesser Body Inheritance, boosting his physical strength. Then he took out the Skill Upgrade Scroll, intending to raise one of his life skills.
Unfortunately, the scroll could only be used on life skills. He wanted to upgrade his Intermediate Shipwright skill to Advanced, but the system told him it required three scrolls.
With no choice, he used it on his Navigation skill, raising it from Beginner to Intermediate.
After completing all that, Fang Yi finally took a deep breath and retrieved the night's most important prize—the Bounty Tower Key.
Opening the Bounty Tower interface again, he selected the imprisoned shadow on the first floor and chose Summon.
"Use of Bounty Tower Key successful. Summon Soul Power?"
Without hesitation, Fang Yi confirmed.
"Choose gender…"
"Female," Fang Yi answered after a moment's thought. Better to have a female summon than a male one.
"Add an ability?"
Fang Yi froze. He hadn't purchased any new abilities from the shop yet. Opening it quickly, he saw that his Navigation skill was now listed as Intermediate, priced at 3,000 points instead of 1,000.
Aside from that, the shop also displayed the newly drawn Detection skill—but it was only Beginner, not something he wanted to use.
At present, there are three Intermediate life skills available for 3,000 points each: Music, Shipwright, and Navigation.
Logically, he should have chosen Shipwright, since the crew badly needed one. But having just designated the summon as female, Fang Yi hesitated. Shipbuilding required raw strength, and might not suit her.
That left Navigation and Music.
After weighing the options, he finally chose Music.
First of all, Navigation was too vital a role for him to entrust to an experiment. He still didn't know what form this Soul Power would take or how reliable it would be.
And truthfully, Fang Yi didn't hold high expectations. This summon originated from a small-time bounty target he had casually defeated. Its foundation was weak, and being from the first floor of the Tower, it had no power boosts whatsoever.
For a test subject like this, granting an Intermediate Music skill was more than enough.