Chapter 2: Logia-Type Rumble-Rumble Fruit
[Ding~ Congratulations to the host for becoming a Hidden Cloud Village genin. Reward obtained: Rumble-Rumble Fruit.]
At first, Ziyun didn't even know what fruit it was. It was only when he checked the system messages that he realized it was the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
In the One Piece world, this Devil Fruit was absolutely top tier.
Its destructive power was immense. It could release high-voltage electric currents at any time to attack, increase speed to move at lightning-fast pace, use electromagnetic waves to expand the range of Observation Haki, and even use electrical stimulation to restart a stopped heart.
In short, it was an absurdly overpowered fruit that combined defense and destruction.
Unfortunately, its previous owner, Enel, ran into his natural counter: the protagonist Monkey D. Luffy, and ended up getting beaten.
Honestly, it wasn't that Enel was too weak. Among the three types of Haki, only his Observation was outstanding. If someone like Akainu had this fruit, one punch would be enough to kill Luffy.
"System, can this fruit be eaten by someone else?" Ziyun asked after taking the fruit out.
Normally, rewards were granted directly to the host, but this time it was issued as a fruit, so Ziyun had that question.
"Of course. If you let someone else eat it, they will have the side effect of being unable to deal with seawater. Also, eating two fruits will cause an explosion."
The system's voice was pleasant, not mechanical at all, but a soft female voice like heavenly music, the kind that made you imagine a beauty must have such a voice.
"So what you're saying is, if I eat it, I won't have side effects, and even if I eat two, I won't explode?" Ziyun caught the hidden meaning.
"Of course not!"
After hearing the explanation, Ziyun was pleasantly surprised. He didn't expect the system to have such a function.
Still, he had no intention of giving the Rumble-Rumble Fruit to anyone else. This era was not peaceful. After the First Great Ninja War, the major villages had spent over a decade recovering, and the hawkish factions in each village were gradually rising again.
The Second Shinobi World War likely wouldn't be far off.
Although in the original story the Hidden Cloud Village did not take part in the Second Shinobi World War, this time was different.
The Hidden Cloud Village had to develop sooner or later. More importantly, Ziyun's arrival had brought Finger Pistol and Shave into this world, and it had shaken the Third Raikage's thinking as well.
Recently, the Hidden Cloud Village was going all-in on an arms race. Elite chunin and above were being rushed through training to learn Finger Pistol.
Surely the Third Raikage also sensed that the atmosphere of war was brewing. Once war broke out, he would most likely lead the Hidden Cloud Village into battle.
So Ziyun had to grow stronger as quickly as possible. Even if he couldn't crush everything, he at least needed enough strength to protect himself.
Once he ate the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, just the Logia elementalization alone would let Ziyun ignore 90% of ninjutsu in the shinobi world and gain the power to survive.
He took a huge bite, chewing off a quarter of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
Then he almost spat it out, but forced himself to endure.
It tasted unbelievably awful.
No… Ziyun didn't actually know what that comparison tasted like, but for a moment his brain couldn't find a better description.
In the end, with tears in his eyes, Ziyun finished the entire fruit.
"Um… Host… Actually, according to Devil Fruit rules, you only need one bite to gain the ability. Whatever you don't finish will turn into an ordinary fruit."
The system couldn't bear to watch.
"Then why didn't you say that earlier…" Two lines of tears slid down Ziyun's face.
"Hehe, with a first time, there won't be a second time." The system sounded oddly pleased.
But its voice was too nice. Ziyun couldn't bring himself to yell at it.
After eating the fruit, Ziyun felt a strange change in his body. A power surged endlessly inside him, as if something wild was darting through him.
Of course, Ziyun knew it wasn't a devil, just the fruit's ability.
With a thought, he noticed faint lightning flickering around his body.
He then walked into the laboratory's training ground.
To let Ziyun test his experimental results at any time, the laboratory included a sealed training ground.
You could even say the laboratory was basically a luxury shinobi mansion: bedroom, yoga room, living room, kitchen, everything, all so Ziyun could focus entirely on researching techniques.
That showed just how much the Third Raikage valued him.
After entering the training ground, Ziyun took a deep breath and raised one finger, imitating the way Kizaru fired lasers in One Piece.
He thought Enel's way of attacking looked too sleazy, while Kizaru looked cooler, so he copied Kizaru.
Anyway, both were Logia, so it should work.
Crackle!
Sure enough, in the next moment a blue bolt of lightning burst from Ziyun's fingertip and blasted apart a humanoid dummy made of special materials.
"Not bad power. Low accuracy."
Ziyun muttered. The bolt hadn't struck the dummy exactly where he intended, but landed slightly off.
So it wasn't like eating the fruit made him instantly invincible. To reach Enel's level in the original story, he needed to get far more familiar with it.
Still, what delighted Ziyun was that the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's power was no joke.
That clumsy first shot alone had power no less than a C-rank ninjutsu.
If he developed it further and eventually reached something like Enel's 200 Million Volts: Thunder God, then its might would likely be on par with Super Almighty Push, a Tailed Beast Ball, and a Giant Rasengan, enough to level an entire ninja village.
But development would take time. The reward hadn't been injected into his body as instant mastery, but delivered in the form of a fruit.
That meant he had to grow into the ability step by step.
After that first strike, Ziyun noticed a change on the system panel. Next to the words Rumble-Rumble Fruit, a proficiency value appeared: 3%.
"What is this progress?" Ziyun asked the system.
"Devil Fruit proficiency increases as the host develops the ability. At 30% you can release techniques, at 70% you can use it skillfully, at 80% you can unleash major moves, and at 100% the fruit awakens."
"Can I raise proficiency just by training?" Ziyun asked.
"In theory, yes. But without real combat, proficiency will stop at 70%. Awakening and major moves can only be obtained through battle."
"Then I'll train to 30% first."
Ziyun nodded, then used the Lightning Release Shadow Clone Technique to create several clones to help train.
He had learned that technique through hard work. With shadow clones, training speed increased dramatically.
So four or five Ziyuns began familiarizing themselves with the ability in the training ground.
They started with the basics: generating electricity from the body, then shaping it into lightning. After several hours, Ziyun had a decent grasp of the fruit's power.
Finally, he tried moving through elementalization. The speed was extremely fast, comparable to the Third Raikage with Lightning Release Chakra Mode.
But due to low proficiency, Ziyun couldn't move at true lightning speed like Enel.
If he pushed it too far, his body couldn't handle it.
"Looks like I need to strengthen my body more." Ziyun murmured, then opened the system panel. In a short time, the Rumble-Rumble Fruit proficiency had risen to nearly 12%.
"Next, I should be able to learn how to release techniques."
He dismissed the shadow clones. Seeing the proficiency jump to 30%, Ziyun felt it was time to start learning higher-power moves.