Ron couldn't help but laugh, clearly not expecting Whitebeard's primary motivation for wanting a god-like artifact was to use it for storing alcohol.
But how his family used their new power was up to them.
Marco, however, stood frozen, his mind reeling not from the simple desire for a drink, but from the staggering technological implications of what he had just witnessed.
"Something's off… really off," he muttered to himself.
"What's wrong, Marco?" Ace asked, noticing his brother's strange intensity.
"Vegapunk can fuse objects with Devil Fruits," Marco explained, his voice low and urgent.
"But only with Zoan-types. It's a known limitation of his research. To fuse an object with a Paramecia... that's supposed to be impossible!"
Ace, however, just shrugged, looking at Marco as if he were a child struggling with a simple puzzle.
"I thought it was something serious," he said dismissively. "Marco, you've got to understand. What's Vegapunk compared to our Ron? Ron is a super scientist who can even create Haki Fruits. This is nothing."
The words hung in the air, and for a moment, Marco was completely speechless.
It had always been him explaining the complexities of the world to Ace, now it was Ace turn explaining such a simple thing to him, what an irony.
*****
Later, Ron gazed at the mountainous pile of treasure that now filled a section of the ship's hold—a fortune that could buy a small kingdom.
And yet, he couldn't help but sigh.
That single, precious fused Devil Fruit had cost a staggering thirty billion Belly to create.
At this rate, even their vast new fortune would evaporate like morning mist under the heat of his ambitions.
He returned to his now-cluttered lab and decided to test his new creation.
With a light raise of his right hand, the black-gold Space Ring on his index finger emitted a faint glow.
At his will, the two-meter bed in the corner began to shrink, folding in on itself until it vanished into the ring with a soft shimmer of light.
"Interesting," a flicker of pure, boyish curiosity crossed Ron's mind.
"I wonder if it can take me in as well."
The next moment, his vision warped, and he felt a strange, pulling sensation, as if being drawn through a keyhole.
He appeared inside a vast, silent castle hall.
The furniture he'd just stored was neatly arranged according to his earlier intentions.
"This is truly amazing," he marveled, before murmuring.
"Exit."
He found himself back in the now-spacious room, his mood entirely different.
"Who would have thought," he muttered excitedly, "that a spatial ring, something from the novels of my past life, has actually been created here."
After mastering the storage and retrieval functions, his gaze fell upon the two large, sealed barrels Big Mom's crew had delivered.
"Now then," he mused, a new wave of scientific curiosity taking over.
"I just don't know whose blood is inside of this."
He walked over to the lab bench where they stood, silent and ominous.
"What's the point of overthinking it?" Ron finally said with a shrug, a grin spreading across his face.
"Once the fruits are made, we'll find out as soon as someone eats them, won't we?"
With that, he turned back to his work, ready to uncover the next mystery.
*****
For a day and a half, Ron barely rested.
He was a man possessed, a whirlwind of focused energy in his lab.
Finally, at the very last moment, his tireless work bore fruit.
A series of brilliant, golden beams of light erupted from his laboratory, shooting high into the sky above Fish-Man Island, a beacon of success visible across the entire underwater dome.
"Vice-Captain Ron has finished!"
"That mesmerizing, intoxicating Golden Light..."
"Damn, Big Mom's crew arrived the very moment the light appeared. Their timing is impeccable."
Whitebeard, Ace, Marco, and the others all stepped out onto the palace grounds, their gazes fixed on the spectacle.
Only when Ron, looking weary but satisfied, walked out carrying two large, sealed boxes did their attention refocus.
By then, the figures of the Big Mom Pirates had also arrived.
Big Mom herself, flanked by Katakuri, Perospero, Smoothie, and Cracker.
Each of them wore a serious expression, their collective presence a palpable wave of power and suspicion.
"MAMAMAMAMA, Ron, what was that just now?" Big Mom narrowed her eyes, her voice tinged with a barely detectable excitement.
Ron smiled faintly. "No need to beat around the bush. The Devil Fruits you asked for are done." He gently opened the two boxes.
Inside lay ten Replicated Devil Fruits, each emitting a faint, unique, and otherworldly glow.
"Ten of them, not a single one missing."
The members of Big Mom's crew were stunned.
This was it.
The power that could shift the balance of the New World, created by the young man before them.
As Katakuri slowly stepped forward to take the crates, Ron suddenly reached out a hand and pressed it against the lids, stopping him cold.
The move took Katakuri by surprise.
His brows furrowed, and an unmistakably dangerous aura began to radiate from him.
Behind Ron, Ace's shoulders began to smolder and Jozu's arms shimmered as he took a half-step forward.
The air grew thick with tension, as if a great battle was about to erupt.
Faced with this, Ron remained remarkably composed.
"By the rules of our agreement," he said with a faint smile, "these fruits must be consumed on the spot."
"Hmph!" Katakuri snorted, a trace of disdain in his eyes as he slowly withdrew his hand.
"That suits me just fine. It's the perfect chance to verify if your things is genuine."
"Mamama, Katakuri is right," Big Mom said, swallowing a massive piece of cake.
"Fetch some loyal men to test them."
At Katakuri's casual glance, ten of Big Mom's warriors stepped forward, their faces a mask of fanatical devotion.
They had clearly been prepared for this moment.
"After you," Ron said, nudging the crates forward.
The ten men eagerly approached, each carefully selecting a Devil Fruit as if it were a priceless treasure.
"Katakuri-sama, may we begin?" one of them asked, his voice trembling with anticipation.
Katakuri gave a slight nod.
Almost simultaneously, they opened their mouths and took a large, eager bite.
What happened next caught them completely off guard.
An indescribable, revolting taste—like rotten eggs mixed with spoiled milk and rusty metal—instantly flooded their mouths, nearly making them vomit up everything they had eaten for the past week.
"This is disgusting!" one couldn't help but complain, his face turning a sickly shade of green.
"Uekkk..." another gagged, his body convulsing.
"Don't spit it out!" a nearby commander reminded them sharply.
"This is a Devil Fruit!"
The words struck them like an alarm bell.
That's right.
As long as they could endure this agony, they would become powerful ability users.
With this thought in mind, though overwhelmed by a disgust they had never known in their dessert-filled homeland of Totto Land, the group forced themselves to choke down the vile fruit.
Just minutes after they had managed to swallow it, one of them exclaimed, his eyes wide with a dawning, ecstatic disbelief.
"I feel it! I can feel the power!"
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