Chapter 248

"Mainly..." Dante nodded along. He pulled two Devil Fruits straight from his drawer. One was deep dark purple, the other... pink.

That’s right, these were the two Devil Fruits they had acquired previously.

The Dark-Dark Fruit and the Artificial Kaido Fruit. He had kept them hidden until now, unused. Seeing Kaido on the battlefield earlier brought them to mind again, but he didn’t know who to give them to.

Robin, Bartholomew, and Kuro had already eaten Devil Fruits. As for Nami and Kuina, the situation was different. One possessed a special talent at sea, he had asked Nami about it directly. She firmly stated she had no desire to become a landlubber. In the end, Dante shook his head, deciding it was best not to repeat Buggy’s tragedy. Kuina declared she only wanted to hone her swordsmanship for now. She might eat one in the future, but at present, she had no spare energy to develop a Devil Fruit’s potential.

Having considered everyone, he simply came to ask Zephyr.

Zephyr was getting on in years. His physical conditioning and Haki had reached their absolute limit. Without some outside intervention, Zephyr would never push past those boundaries again in his lifetime.

Yet the Dark-Dark Fruit and the Artificial Kaido Fruit suited him perfectly. A Zoan-type Devil Fruit enhanced the eater’s physique and granted animalistic traits. If Zephyr ate it, his body and Haki would undoubtedly grow stronger. As for the Dark-Dark Fruit, while it doubled pain and nullified elemental intangibility, it possessed a unique ability to suppress other Devil Fruit users. The requirement to make physical contact to suppress an opponent meant nothing to Zephyr, a man who had fought in close quarters his entire life.

Perhaps, compared to Blackbeard’s rare physique, giving the Dark-Dark Fruit to Zephyr-sensei was a waste. But who cared about Blackbeard?

"A Devil Fruit?" Hearing Dante’s words, Zephyr frowned, lost in thought. "From what you’re saying, both are excellent Devil Fruits. Wouldn’t giving them to an old man like be a waste?"

"It’s not a waste if you can use it." Dante shook his head. "I don’t know who else to give them to right now. Better to use them than let them gather dust. Besides, with Vegapunk right here, who knows? Maybe we won’t be short of Artificial Devil Fruits in the future!"

Artificial Devil Fruits required a Devil Fruit user’s Lineage Factor. Vegapunk had already stated that with enough money and time, any special Zoan-type Devil Fruit could be manufactured. Logia types, however, had failed to materialize despite multiple attempts. Paramecia types also required a Paramecia user’s Lineage Factor, but they couldn’t be synthesized as simply as Zoan types.

Looking back, the Paramecia-type Artificial Devil Fruits never actually produced a fruit. They only yielded so-called Green Blood, exclusively used for cyborgs! That said it all. Building his Infrastructure Brigade was clearly going to be a long and arduous road.

He had specifically asked about it a while ago, but Vegapunk stated he needed a massive amount of Lineage Factor for his research. Because of that, they had to temporarily abandon the idea of killing the goose that laid the golden eggs... or rather, slaughtering the Stone-Stone Fruit user just to take the fruit.

Furthermore, Vegapunk mentioned he was preparing to build a Lineage Factor Bank, hoping to acquire the Lineage Factors of all sorts of races and ability users. Perhaps it could even be used to upgrade Vegapunk’s Viagra Pills. Pity he brought it up a bit late. If he had said so earlier, Dante would have made Mock put in the effort and bleed Whitebeard and Kaido dry.

"If that’s the case..." Persuaded by Dante, Zephyr-sensei stopped agonizing over it. He smiled and picked up the Artificial Kaido Fruit. "I’ll take this one! It has Kaido’s Lineage Factor, right? I heard about it back when I was in the Marines. Didn’t they say it was a failure back then? I never expected it to actually succeed, and that a brat like you got his hands on it!"

However.

Seeing Zephyr choose the Kaido Fruit, Dante actually hesitated.

"Um..." He paused. "Maybe you should pick the Dark-Dark Fruit instead? I don’t know if the Artificial Devil Fruit carries any hidden risks."

"No matter. Even if there are risks, it changes nothing." Zephyr waved a dismissive hand, with a smile. He pocketed the fruit as he spoke. "If there’s nothing else, I’ll head back. Since Mock is here, I need to hurry and assign more work to Enel. He’d better not return early. As for the fruit, I’ll eat it once I’m back."

"Are you sure you don’t want to reconsider?"

"I already said it’s unnecessary. I know you mean well, but I’m getting on in years, so there’s really no need. Even if I can’t use it right now, having one more Devil Fruit is never a bad thing!"

With that, he turned and left directly, taking the Artificial Kaido Fruit with him.

Dante watched him go, shaking his head in resignation before letting out a sigh.

Nearby, Kuro and Bartholomew frowned. Bartholomew pushed up his frameless glasses, confusion and concern mixing in his voice. "Boss, does that Artificial Devil Fruit... have major risks?"

"Not at all. You could say it’s already perfect."

Hearing Bartholomew’s words, Dante shook his head again. The resignation on his face vanished as he spoke unhurriedly. "It’s just that the color is a bit off!"

Before the two could ask, Dante waved a hand. "Let’s not talk about this. Right now, we should discuss how to rescue Mock!"

Since the Kuja Pirates hadn’t killed Mock yet, he was safe for the time being. Dante didn’t know the exact reason. Maybe it was respect for Rayleigh, or perhaps they were preparing to hand him over to Marine HQ. After all, a staggering 2.5 billion berry bounty was far too tempting for anyone to simply ignore.

"Then I’ll leave this to you." Dante turned to Kuro. "Infiltrate first and check on Mock’s situation. If you can, rescue him directly. If there’s no opportunity, don’t make a move yet."

Saving him wasn’t the hard part. The hard part was how to save him without causing a political incident.

"Rest assured, Boss." Kuro pushed up his glasses, a confident smirk playing on his lips. "Even though he can be nuisance alot of times, I’ll get him out."

Dante nodded at Kuro’s words. He felt entirely reassured when it came to his intelligence officer. Ever since acquiring the Calm-Calm Fruit and receiving Zephyr’s guidance, Kuro’s abilities had improved at a breakneck pace. The man had genuine talent, and he was one of the rare few on the sea who actually used his brain in a fight.

Dante turned to Kuma. "After he’s rescued, I’ll have to trouble you to secretly send him back to the New World. Even if we’re discovered, as long as they don’t see the person, we can pretend we know nothing."

"Understood, Boss."

"Then I’ll leave it to the two of you. Most of the Kuja Pirates’ crew is probably out shopping right now and hasn’t returned yet. We’ll take advantage of this window to observe. I’ll have their movements monitored, and if anything unexpected happens, Viola will notify us."

Dante studied the two men seriously, then picked up a piece of paper from the side of his desk. "Viola has already drawn the internal map of the Perfume Yuda. Take a look."

He handed over the blueprint Viola had transmitted.

"Move out!"

"Yes!"

The two accepted the order without hesitation, took the ship’s internal map, and headed out to assess the situation.

As for Dante... once the work was done, he sat back leisurely, picked up his perfectly warm tea, and took a large gulp.

Robin refilled Dante’s empty teacup, tilting her head in mild confusion. "Is that it? Do we need to prepare anything else here?"

"No need." Dante waved his hand casually. "Viola just checked the situation inside. Rescuing Mock isn’t difficult. If it really comes down to it..."

His eyes narrowed slightly. He shook his head, blew on the steaming tea, sighed, and spoke slowly. "We’ll just wait for them to return, then scuttle their ship halfway."

Robin offered a bewildered smile, entirely unsure if he was joking.

After a brief stroll around the neighboring Conomi Islands, Hancock arrived at Romance Dawn under Viola’s guidance. Although the island looked genuinely wealthy and the East Blue Marines’ strength was formidable, Hancock was in no mood to care about any of that.

Though she maintained a haughty facade the entire way, she had been terrified ever since Dante provoked her at the docks. She had no idea how he learned her secret, nor what his true goal was. The only solace was that he hadn’t revealed it to the public.

Could a man who would say such things be a good person? Even though the rumors of his corruption weren’t entirely true, they didn’t seem entirely false either.

Despite her absolute confidence in her peerless beauty, Hancock remained plagued by worry. She was terrified that the pirate captain would suddenly make some indecent demand, using her darkest secret against her. With a deeply troubled heart, she finally arrived at Romance Dawn.

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