"One Piece" is an anime that places great emphasis on lineage.
Or rather, most Japanese anime value lineage.
During the Onigashima incident, Kaido stated that only Haki was a power that transcended everything, and then he was defeated by Luffy using the Nika Devil Fruit.
Of course, that's not the point.
The point is, since Kaido believed Haki was the most important, why did he eat the Azure Dragon Devil Fruit?
The answer is that back on Rocks' ship, seeing Whitebeard use the Tremor-Tremor Fruit to unleash tsunamis, Kaido developed the idea of finding a powerful Devil Fruit.
The reason is that Haki does not transcend everything.
To be precise, only Haoshoku Haki is a power that transcends everything.
But the frustrating thing is that Haoshoku Haki cannot be strengthened through training.
Looking at all the Haoshoku users:
Garp, Dragon, and Luffy, three generations, are all Haoshoku masters, which is clearly a matter of the Monkey family's lineage.
Garin, Shanks, and Shamrock are from the Figarland family, the combat specialists among the Celestial Dragons.
Kozuki Oden is from the Daimyo family, which has been passed down for generations in Wano Country.
Loki is the prince of the Giant Race.
Rocks, Teach, Roger... all these people are from the D. family.
Given Kaido's background, if he didn't rely on a Devil Fruit, he would only be able to reach the level of top silver medalists like Rayleigh, Jabra, and Beckman throughout his life.
So, the question is:
Which excavator technology is the best?
Bad meme! Cross it out!
Why is Blake preparing to snatch chestnuts from the fire and profit from the sun god's battle against Imu?
The answer is, he has a cheat!
As Blake's voice fell, his consciousness appeared in a cerulean space.
In front of him was a screen with a sci-fi feel.
There were ten grids on it, each embedded with a card.
The cards had portraits of different characters and their names: Borsalino (youth), Monkey D. Garp (youth), Shiki (adult stage), Charlotte Linlin (childhood)... Below the cards was a golden glowing box.
"The usual, let's draw a card first!"
Blake's hand pressed on the box.
The box trembled, and a card flew out of it.
The portrait on the card was a woman.
She was wearing a rose-colored professional suit, a Marine justice cloak, and a pair of dark purple gloves on her hands.
Her light pink shoulder-length hair was styled in a way that suggested she was good at basketball, and she wore purple sunglasses on her head.
Tina (adult stage)
"Hmm... Tina? This could be a good fight."
Blake stroked his chin:
"Choose to enter!"
As soon as he spoke, Blake's figure disappeared, and in the blink of an eye, he appeared on a deserted island.
"Is this an island terrain this time? This should be an advantageous terrain for the opponent, so I need to be more cautious."
Blake pondered in his heart and walked towards the center of the island.
At the same time, he maximized his Observation Haki perception, wary of enemies who might appear from who knows where.
Suddenly, in Blake's perception, a heroic woman was walking out of the dense forest ahead.
It was Tina.
However, this Tina's eyes were lifeless, only filled with indifference.
Blake's eyes narrowed, and he charged straight towards Tina with astonishing speed.
His right fist stretched back in a bow shape, and it began to be covered in pitch-Blake Armament Haki.
However, no matter how fast Blake was, without Observation Haki, Tina still reacted, crossing her arms in front of her, also covered in Armament Haki.
Blake's fist slammed hard into Tina's arm, sending her flying backward.
"Soru!"
Blake pressed his advantage, continuing to pursue her.
Tina flew through the air, spreading her hands and aiming them at Blake.
"Blake Spear Formation!"
Instantly, iron bars appeared out of thin air, stabbing towards Blake from all directions.
Relying on his keen Observation Haki perception, Blake dodged all the iron bars, but his speed also slowed down.
Tina landed and delivered a spinning kick directly to Blake's head, her long legs gleaming in the sunlight.
Blake, however, was not in the mood to appreciate it.
Just now, to avoid Tina's Devil Fruit ability, his center of gravity had shifted, and he couldn't dodge now, so he could only punch to block it.
With a bang, their attacks collided.
Normally, a kick's power would be much greater than a punch, but Blake's physical strength was superior to Tina's, so this clash was an even match.
In the instant of the stalemate, Blake raised his right leg and kicked towards Tina's waist and abdomen.
Tina retreated to dodge, and Blake took a step forward, creating a close-quarters combat situation.
This was intentional on Blake's part.
Judging from Tina's few appearances in the anime, her Devil Fruit development leaned towards long-range attacks, large areas, and restraint.
When the Haki gap between the two sides was not large, the side with the Devil Fruit would have a great advantage.
And Blake's own advantages lay in his physical strength and his ability to prioritize detecting the opponent's Observation Haki.
After several exchanges, Blake had a clear understanding of Tina's strength.
"Her Armament Haki is slightly stronger than mine, but the difference isn't big. I can win by fighting a long battle with her using my physical fitness!"
Blake, having reached this conclusion, gained greatly in confidence, and his attack speed seemed to increase by a few points... A night passed in a flash, and Blake reappeared in the cerulean space, holding a card in his hand.
Armament Haki (Tina, adult stage)
"Use!"
As his voice fell, the card in his hand disappeared, and a surge of power emerged from Blake's body, doubling the quality and quantity of his Armament Haki.
This was Blake's system, a rigid cheat that never spoke.
First, Blake could draw a card once a month.
The card characters were random; they could be famous characters from the original work or unknown extras.
The probability of original characters appearing was much higher than extras.
But the same characters had different strengths at different periods.
Blake could challenge the characters he drew.
After a successful challenge, he could obtain an ability card from the opponent.
The ability card could be one of the opponent's three types of Haki, or it could be a Devil Fruit ability or a special physique.
If the challenge failed, or if he didn't plan to challenge for the time being, he could store the drawn card in the card pool above.
The card pool had a total of ten slots and could only store ten cards. Blake could decide to challenge them when he had a certain degree of confidence.
Over sixteen years, Blake's ten slots were already filled with ten carefully selected cards.
All of them were cards with relatively strong abilities and relatively low acquisition difficulty.
Except for Golden Lion Shiki and Red Earl Patrick Redfield, who he only drew once, the others were from periods that were easier to deal with.
Taking Garp as an example, a young Garp was clearly easier to fight than an adult stage or elderly Garp.
Among the ten cards, the most precious was Charlotte Linlin in her childhood.
Among the ten people, Charlotte Linlin in her childhood was the weakest, and in her childhood, she had no Haki or Devil Fruit, only one special talent—Iron Balloon!
As long as Blake could successfully challenge her, he would definitely obtain the Iron Balloon ability card.
Tragically, sixteen-year-old Blake still couldn't defeat Charlotte Linlin in her childhood...