The air was thick with a suffocating tension.
Perospero turned with a slick grin, his eyes glinting with amusement as he looked at his stoic younger brother.
"Katakuri," he chirped, "drain him."
Katakuri gave a slight, almost imperceptible nod as he took a large, empty barrel from one of his subordinates.
He walked slowly towards Capone Bege, who was shackled in Seastone cuffs, his face a twisted with a mask of fury, resentment, and a dawning, helpless terror.
"What are you doing?! Let me go, you bastards!"
Capone Bege's voice was laced with a venomous rage, but his struggles were futile.
The Seastone cuffs sapped all his strength, leaving him unable to even put up the most basic resistance.
Katakuri didn't respond.
With a cold, indifferent efficiency, he raised his trident and made a swift, clean slash across Capone Bege's wrist.
Crimson blood gushed out like a fountain, but not a single drop was wasted—all of it flowed neatly into the waiting barrel.
"AHHH!!! Damn you all! You'll pay for this! The Capone family will make you pay!"
Capone Bege howled, his voice thick with a mixture of agony, despair, and powerless threats.
Yet, everyone present ignored his cries as if he were nothing more than an insignificant object.
Ron watched as the barrel gradually filled, nodding in satisfaction.
"Good. The Devil Fruits will be delivered as scheduled. Come pick them up the day after tomorrow. Also, bring the blood of the Devil Fruit users you want replicated."
At Ron's approval, Perospero's smile widened.
He then produced two more large barrels.
Ron's heart skipped a beat.
Did these guys not understand the concept of sustainable resource extraction?
Behind him, Jozu and the others felt their scalps tingle.
"Ron, here's the blood of two Devil Fruit Users," Perospero announced.
"Mama said she wants five of each ability—ten Devil Fruits in total!" He then had his subordinates bring forward six massive, iron-bound chests.
"Here's the full payment, thirty six billion Berries, including the six billion for the Ice-Ice Fruit."
Ron waved his hand, and Ace and the others ran up with wide, greedy smiles to take the chests.
Once the Big Mom pirates had departed with their unconscious cargo, Jozu couldn't wait any longer.
He rushed forward and tore the lid off the first chest.
As it slowly lifted, the scent of money and the unmistakable luster of countless gold bars and perfectly stacked Belly notes hit them.
"One, two, three, four... six!" someone began counting the chests, their voice soft but crystal clear in the stunned silence.
"Good gods," Kingdew exclaimed, "are all six of these stuffed with money?!"
"Five billion per box," Squard calculated, his voice trembling slightly.
"Six boxes... that's thirty billion Belly!"
Ace felt his heart suddenly race, his mind going completely blank.
This wasn't a pirate's haul; it was a nation's treasury.
"We're rich! We're really, truly rich!" Jozu roared, clutching a thick stack of bills to his face.
The room erupted into unprecedented excitement.
Ron shook his head with a smile before turning to the relatively composed Enel.
"Go call the captain. Tell him there's something to discuss."
As Enel vanished in a flash of lightning, Ron looked at the commanders, who were gleefully rolling in the money.
"Alright, stop counting," he said, his voice cutting through the joyous chaos.
"Soon, none of this money will be yours."
Their hands, already cramping, froze mid-air.
They all turned to stare at him in unison, a look of horrified betrayal on their faces.
"Ron," one of them stammered, "This is 36 billion. It should last a while, right?"
"Not quite," Ron said calmly. "Thirty billion of this is for Big Mom's ten Devil Fruits. That leaves six billion from her,"
"Alright," Ron said, seeing their crestfallen faces.
"Gather up the money. I've got some good news for you."
The words acted like a shot of adrenaline, and their heads instantly snapped up, their eyes gleaming with a renewed, hopeful excitement.
Every eye in the room was fixed on Ron, every ear straining to catch his next words.
The air was thick with a hopeful, almost reverent anticipation.
Just as he was about to reveal the exciting news, the sky outside changed, and two dazzling bolts of lightning streaked down, condensing into the figures of Whitebeard and Enel.
"Gurararara! Ron, my son, I heard you talking about good news from afar!" Whitebeard laughed, his gaze inadvertently sweeping over the six chests piled aside, filled with glittering treasure.
A satisfied smile touched his lips.
"That crazy woman Linlin is a lot of things, but she's still trustworthy when it comes to a deal."
"Captain, everyone," Ron began, his voice echoing in the now-silent cabin.
"Through my work manufacturing Devil Fruits these past days, I've had... a significant technological breakthrough."
The news landed like a thunderclap.
New technology?!
Everyone leaned in, their faces filled with a mixture of disbelief and fervent anticipation.
"There are two new technologies," Ron continued, raising a hand to quell the rising excitement.
"The first... I call it the Haki Fruit. Its function is simple," he explained, his voice laced with a quiet, revolutionary excitement.
"Eating it can replace your own Haki with a sample of someone else's." He paused, letting the impossible statement hang in the air, before delivering the final, devastating example.
"For instance, Ace's elementary Armament Haki could be replaced with the Captain's top-tier Armament Haki."
The cabin was plunged into a dead, suffocating silence.
Ace, Whitebeard, Jozu, Marco, the Fish-Man princes—everyone was dumbfounded, standing there blankly as if petrified.
It was as if time itself had frozen.
Then, the dam of their disbelief broke, and the room exploded into a tidal wave of pure, chaotic noise.
"Brother, slap me! Quick!"
"Oh my god, if that's true, we can all master top-level Haki?!"
"Fuck... I'm so touched! Pops will never have to worry about me being too weak again!"
Only Ace remained silent, his expression a mask of stunned, hollow disbelief.
The ten thousand grueling training sessions, the sweat, the blood, the frustration, the small, hard-won victories... all of it suddenly felt absurdly empty, a fool's errand.
He turned his head stiffly, looking at Ron as if seeing a stranger.
"Ron," he asked, his voice a trembling whisper that was almost lost in the joyous uproar.
"Were you just... Joking? Can you really... do that?"
Seeing the genuine despair in his friend's eyes, Ron's expression softened.
"That's right, Ace," he said gently. "Through the Haki Fruit, you can indeed make your Haki reach the same level as the sample."
It's true.
The sky felt like it had fallen on Ace.
All of that hard work... for nothing.
"Ace, you must not doubt your previous efforts," Ron said earnestly, his voice cutting through Ace's inner turmoil.
"Let me give you an example. Elementary Armament Haki is like a child. Intermediate is that child grown into an adult. And top-tier Haki is that adult being handed a legendary, named greatsword."
He looked around, ensuring everyone was listening.
"The Haki Fruit can give that powerful weapon directly to the child. It sounds amazing, right? But what happens then? The child's arms are too weak to lift it properly. They don't have the experience to know how to parry, to thrust, to feel the flow of a battle. They have the potential of the weapon, but none of the mastery. Your hard work, Ace," he said, his eyes firm and powerful.
"Is what turns the child into the adult. It's the foundation upon which true power is built. This fruit is just a tool; your spirit is the warrior. Now, do you understand?"
Listening to Ron's teachings, the despair in Ace's eyes was slowly replaced by a dawning understanding, and then, by a brilliant, renewed fire.
He had found his direction once again.
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