Chapter 28: Fusion
"Yahoooo!!!"
"It's climbing, it's really climbing!! Incredible!!"
"Such a powerful current… I have a feeling that if I can understand its nature, my swordsmanship will definitely reach another level…"
"Idiot, how are you supposed to do that?"
"Woaah, I'm surfing!! Kaya, Nojiko, Nami, come and join me—!"
Baphomet climbed the Reverse Current, moving swiftly toward the summit of the mountain. The girls shouted and shrieked with excitement, and since the ship's inner space was set to transparent mode, the whole experience became even more entertaining. The only person not inside was Luffy.
His upper body was bare, a fluttering black leather cloak with red inner lining and golden epaulettes draped over his shoulders. Tight black trousers outlined his long legs, and he wore black, imposing boots—topped with the iconic straw hat.
He looked like a shoujo manga version of a pirate—stunning and mesmerizing.
He stood on the figurehead, the goat's head at the front of the ship, watching the hull cut through the raging waves. The surrounding noise—the crashing sea, the girls' exclamations, the howling wind—seemed to fade away. His gaze pierced space itself, as if seeing into another dimension.
Dots of shimmering light appeared in his vision, along with streams of information:
[Sky Lord] (Nami): The sky is your territory. All (Weather) phenomena are under your command.
[Fate Breaker] (Kuina): Fate can't control you. You can see others' fates and even tamper with them.
[Word Master] (Yasha): Your words are law. You can affect anything by speaking and even make lies come true.
[Hell Lord] (Zala): You are the Lord of the Hell Dimension. As long as Hell exists in the world, you are immortal, your energy inexhaustible, and Hell is at your disposal.
[Genes Lord] (Sanju): Your control over genes is absolute.
[Restore] (Kaya): You can restore anything—whether broken items, people, or even laws.
[Sister Idol] (Nojiko): Your attraction to 'sisters' is off the charts. 'Sisters' can't resist you.
Luffy whistled in amazement.
"I thought their abilities were mediocre because the black hole didn't react much… Turns out, this black hole can even copy abilities through 'deep contact.' It's just that this damn cheat is too lazy—it prefers to brutally strip abilities from others instead."
Then, his expression turned troubled.
He still hadn't forgotten his previous dilemma.
He had thought the cheats were harmless toward their hosts. But after what happened, the fact that his personality had almost been rewritten by the Freedom concept—turning him into a worry-free, lazy, sage-mode monk—was still bothering him.
Heaven Rewards the Diligent made him crave hard work.Mastermind filled his head with schemes and conspiracies.Complete Hypnosis gave him an urge to toy with and manipulate people's hearts.Ultra Instinct made his body behave like a beast ruled by instinct.Even the Protagonist concept blocked any thoughts of destroying the world. Not that he wanted to destroy it—but still.Even his luck came with backlash. Annoying...
Having your thoughts and personality twisted by side-effects of concepts was… undesirable. Disgusting, even.
Fortunately, Willpower had reached the limit of this world, granting him moments of clarity that made him realize something crucial:
No matter how many concepts he had, or how powerful they were, every one of them came with side effects—and more importantly, not all of them suited him.
Thankfully, his cheat had upgraded, and the fusion ability had come just in time.
Since most concepts didn't align with him—and were too many to juggle—it made more sense to fuse them into one concept that perfectly matched his nature, and use all other current and future concepts as fuel to strengthen it.
He also had a gut feeling: this world alone couldn't push him to the level of a godlike lifeform. The only path forward was to completely harvest this world's unique characteristics.
He didn't hesitate. He already had a clear "idea" of what power suited him most.
Freedom, after all, was Joyboy's core theme.Willpower had reached its peak in this world—any further progress would be divine-level only.Any improvement from now on wouldn't be about quality, only quantity.
For example, if he used his Willpower to create an ability on par with the Nika Fruit or the Mother Flame, it would cost about 50% of his current Willpower reserve.
Which sounded ridiculously powerful.
After all, Devil Fruits required a ritual, strong desires, and a soul sacrifice. But being able to mass-produce one or two top-level abilities every day?
That was insane.
However, if he dared to use more than 50%, he would definitely be bitten back by the concept side effects—and turn into a constantly personality-shifting maniac again.
Even if his personality as a sickly teenager with little life experience wasn't that exciting… it was still his. And he had grown quite fond of it.
Nothing could change his thoughts—and that was the power most suitable for him.
With a clear direction in mind, his thoughts moved. He gave a single order to his cheat:
"Fusion—start."