"Detected elements eligible for max upgrade. Proceed?"
"Upgra....wait. Which element this time?"
Last time, the gravity upgrade blindsided him. Rakuya had learned to ask first.
"Repulsion."
"Repulsion, huh?"
"Affirmative."
"Do it."
Rakuya weighed it for a breath and nodded. Repulsion sounded useful. At least his toolkit would not stay one note.
"Ding. Upgrade complete. Cost: 1,800 points. Upgraded element: Repulsion. Status: Max level."
"What? Eighteen hundred points? Last time it only cost a thousand."
"Each max-level upgrade increases in cost according to a stepwise schedule."
"So that is how it works. Then in the future I need to be picky about what I max." Rakuya mulled it over.
"Warning to host. If you want to choose which element to upgrade, there is an additional fee of 500 points. Pay the premium to select freely."
"Got it."
He let it go. VIP perks were never free. In his case, money meant Devil Fruits. Money meant power. Money meant points. With enough points, everything bent.
"I still need to grind points."
Without them, he could not move.
The interface dimmed and vanished.
"Brand new power deserves a proper test drive."
Rakuya cocked a brow, letting his gaze drift over the sea of pirates. Wherever his eyes landed, men flinched and fell silent, nerves taut as wire.
Finally, he settled on Captain Bukodi of the Battle-Axe Pirates.
In an instant, Bukodi was drenched in sweat. His body shook, no longer his to command. An invisible weight pressed down on him, relentless.
"Hey, you. Remember what you said a moment ago?"
Rakuya lifted his head with a lazy smile.
"I… I…" Bukodi's mouth twitched. No words came.
"Hmm? That is not the tune you were singing earlier. Weren't you going to pulp me? Kill me? I am giving you the chance. Come on."
The edge in Rakuya's eyes made Bukodi's throat work. He swallowed hard. Pride wrestled with survival. As captain of the Battle-Axe Pirates, a man worth two hundred million, could he kneel and beg?
"Don't get cocky, brat. Maybe that Celestial Dragon could not beat you, but that does not mean I can't. I am Bukodi with a two hundred million bounty. Watch me take your head."
Bukodi barked the words through clenched teeth, forcing bravado into a voice that wanted to crack. He balled his hand into iron and swung.
"Shinra Tensei."
Rakuya had already given his repulsion a stylish name, stolen straight from a certain shinobi god. He thrust his right palm toward Bukodi and unleashed his newest trick.
Boom.
Centered on Rakuya, the floor radiated fractures like a web. Tiles dropped. Air roared.
Bukodi, two hundred million on his head, turned into a rubber ball in a hurricane. He blasted backward and smashed into the auction hall's reinforced wall.
Crack.
A human-shaped crater caved into the masonry. Bukodi hung embedded in it, unable to move.
"H-heavens. What technique is that?"
"Why didn't Captain Bukodi resist?"
"This kid's arts are too strange. You never see them coming."
"One strike. That was all it took. I still did not catch how he did it."
"Shinra Tensei? What is that supposed to be?"
A hundred eyes fixed on Rakuya, stunned.
More than a few big-name pirates stared with burning interest, as if they could peel him open and read the secret.
"Hiss…"
Agony rolled through Bukodi in waves, flooding his nerves. His vision blurred.
"You are not dead from that. Do not play possum."
Rakuya's gaze sharpened. He studied the man-shaped dent and smiled.
"Universal Pull."