The Deep Sea Dragon Lizard Fruit, Original Model, could be considered a failure in the process of turning the Deep Sea Dragon Lizard—Thunder-Swallowing—into a Devil Fruit. Though much stronger than the artificial Devil Fruits Caesar had created, it still fell short of Vegapunk's level.
But there was a difference between the two.
Vegapunk had used Kaido's Lineage Factor to create the Dragon-Dragon Fruit, which was a shortcut. But Keiko and Stussy had Devil Fruit-ized a non-existent creature—the Deep Sea Dragon Lizard. Truthfully, it was more difficult than Vegapunk's experiment.
And this Original Model Fruit, Ren had given it to Doflamingo to auction off.
Tesoro hadn't used his own wealth to seize the Fruit at the auction. He had been penniless at the time. But his experience as a slave had strengthened his abilities.
To obtain the Fruit, he set fire to the auction house, creating chaos.
Coincidentally, Doflamingo wasn't on-site, and he actually succeeded. Later, the Donquixote Family hadn't stopped pursuing him, but Tesoro had gradually grown stronger.
Seeing this, Doflamingo gave up the pursuit and turned to cooperation instead.
Doflamingo was a very patient man, provided he saw enough benefit. Fortunately, the strength Tesoro now showed made him worth associating with.
Moreover, his intelligence already knew of Tesoro's identity. As someone who also hated the Celestial Dragons, Tesoro was very valuable to Doflamingo.
Ren was actually interested in the Luck-Luck Fruit of the red-haired woman under Tesoro, but according to Doflamingo's intelligence, that woman didn't seem to have eaten it.
This surprised him while also making sense.
The world itself wasn't static. Often, seemingly small decisions could make the world take completely different paths.
Tesoro hadn't eaten the Gold-Gold Fruit, so his tactics naturally differed—not to mention he was now a Warlord. Perhaps that woman had never even encountered the Luck-Luck Fruit.
Today's world was already vastly different from the original story. The New World, the Grand Line—anything could happen.
This time, it was uncertain whether Luffy could even pass the Crocodile test.
Setting aside whether Crocodile's strength would decline as in the original story, just lacking Robin's presence was enough to kill him once.
Moreover, if Blackbeard found the Dark-Dark Fruit this time, there wouldn't be another Ace to capture him. Without Ace as a target, Blackbeard would likely pursue Luffy to become a Seven Warlord.
But it was hard to say—without Ace's pursuit, Blackbeard might not have fled to Paradise at all. And once he obtained the Dark-Dark Fruit, he would definitely seek another powerful Fruit to enhance his strength.
What that guy would do next, even Ren couldn't predict.
But Ren didn't care. In the end, it was just Blackbeard—not a threat to him at all.
Ren had no favorable impression of Blackbeard. This guy was despicable and cowardly, arrogant when in power, but groveling like a dog when at a disadvantage. And he was cruel and ruthless.
Though he was one of the "rare" true pirates in the entire pirate world, was that something worth boasting about?
Some called him a hero, but when facing danger he whimpered. In Ren's eyes, he was nothing but a coward.
…
"Fatui Harbinger—Lady, Boa Hancock. Bounty: 760 million Berries. Mira Mira no Mi user. Formerly captain of the Kuja Pirates and Empress of Amazon Lily. After the Kuja joined Inazuma's subordinates, she was granted the position of Fatui Harbinger."
"Fatui Harbinger—Wanderer, Yamato. Bounty: 690 million Berries. Ability similar to Kaido's from decades ago, speculated to be a Mythical Zoan Dragon-Dragon Fruit variant. Origin unknown. Made a name by defeating a Warlord in her debut—no prior information existed."
"Fatui Harbinger—Captain, Rob Lucci. Bounty: 550 million. Successor to the former 'Captain' Shutendouji. Ability speculated to be Zoan-type."
"Black Maria, Vice Captain of Harbinger Wanderer. Bounty: 190 million Berries."
"…"
"Inazuma's new blood? Didn't expect three Harbingers at once."
Within the Marines, the recently convened meeting addressed the new pirate forces appearing recently. For crews like the Kuja Pirates, the Marines couldn't act directly, but they could send the Seven Warlords to handle it.
If not the Seven Warlords for dirty work, then who?
The Seven Warlords existed specifically to counterbalance the Four Emperors' crews—not to be freeloaders.
"Is giving them such high bounties appropriate?" someone questioned.
In the original story, Hancock's first bounty was only 80 million Berries. After training in Inazuma all these years, Hancock's strength had indeed grown faster than the original. A 300-500 million berry bounty was reasonable, but starting at 700 million was somewhat excessive.
"Don't be careless. Don't underestimate them just because they're newcomers. These are executives granted the Harbinger title," Sengoku said gravely. "Don't forget the Harbingers who appeared before—the former Captain, Snow Woman, Servant. All three had bounties exceeding 1 billion!"
Hearing this, the room fell silent.
Inazuma's Harbingers were indeed powerful. Snow Woman and Jasmine could even stall an Admiral for a period of time.
Now that these three Harbingers had stepped back, the new trio clearly had potential no less than their predecessors.
Not to mention Yamato's debut came by stepping on a Warlord's head—this bounty wasn't low at all.
Moreover, Yamato and the others' potential actually exceeded Yukiko's generation. Two Conqueror's Haki users plus a Zoan-awakened genius—at minimum, three Admiral-level fighters in the future.
Originally, Lucci, who had eaten the Cat-Cat Fruit, Leopard Model, might have been weaker, but now, as a Dragon Lizardman, he had clearly compensated for his Fruit's shortcomings. He wouldn't be sent flying into walls by Luffy again, unable to be pried off.
Well, he definitely wouldn't win—just wouldn't lose too badly.
Sea Circle Year 1515.
Former Marine Admiral, now Marine instructor, Zephyr had his arm cut off by pirates.
Ren secretly reached an agreement with Revolutionary Army leader Monkey D. Dragon, selling decommissioned Ruin-series weapons to the Revolutionary Army at low prices as their resistance force.
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