Chapter 300: The Op-Op Fruit
As night fell, the Buggy Pirates frantically scrambled onto their ship and fled the waters surrounding Cocoyasi Village with such desperate haste it looked as though they were running for their lives.
More accurately, Buggy was absolutely terrified of his true identity being discovered.
Pretending to be a simple circus clown was a brilliant disguise for the short term, but the moment the facade cracked, he would be doomed.
A crew of heavily armed pirates disguised as a circus lingering around a massive construction site—no matter how you looked at it, they were obviously up to no good. If those Fish-Men decided to violently interrogate them, Buggy wouldn't even have a place to run.
Meanwhile, Arlong looked at the day's revenue report and smiled with profound satisfaction. Even with the heavy grand-opening discounts, the total profit margins were staggering. If they managed this project properly, they could easily expand and open franchise amusement parks in the other Blues.
When that glorious day came, the name "Arlong" would echo across the entire sea alongside his global amusement park empire!
Surely, by then, the world wouldn't still refer to this massive, lucrative corporation as "Shyarly's Brother's Amusement Park", right?
At that terrifying thought, Arlong immediately pulled out his massive, heavily detailed master business plan.
Originally, he had planned to heavily promote Fish-Man Island's rich divination culture by establishing a massive, mystical "Fortune Telling Pavilion" within the park. They wouldn't even need real diviners; it would just be a fun, atmospheric entertainment attraction.
However, approaching the situation from a deeply rational, psychological perspective, Arlong decided he absolutely needed to cross that specific attraction off the list immediately.
As the amusement park smoothly transitioned into standard daily operations, Arlong meticulously drafted his very first official performance report regarding his East Blue deployment and dispatched it back to the Ryugu Kingdom.
Throughout that year, several highly significant, seemingly disconnected events quietly unfolded across the globe.
In the North Blue, the Germa Kingdom officially announced the tragic, untimely death of their Third Prince, Sanji, due to severe illness. The entire nation entered a period of mourning.
In Mary Geoise, an incredibly wealthy Celestial Dragon family grew bored with an idle Devil Fruit they owned—the Mero Mero no Mi (Love-Love Fruit)—and decided to auction it off for entertainment. However, during transit, the auction house's heavily guarded transport ship was violently ambushed and plundered by the Kuja Pirates.
After stealing the Love-Love Fruit, the newly crowned Empress of Amazon Lily—Boa Hancock—officially set sail as a pirate. She earned an initial, staggering bounty of 80 million Berries and, remarkably, received an invitation to join the Seven Warlords of the Sea shortly after the bounty was published.
Aside from Moria's humiliating, catastrophic failure, the current roster of Warlords was surprisingly "dedicated" to their roles.
Excluding Mihawk, who just casually wandered the seas doing whatever he wanted, Crocodile was aggressively hunting pirates to solidify his reputation as Alabasta's National Hero, Moria was desperately hunting powerful pirates to steal their shadows, and Luna's crew was actively battling pirates to hone their combat experience.
Of course, behind the scenes, every single one of them was secretly advancing their own treacherous agendas. Ginny, for instance, was currently synthesizing the massive influx of highly classified intelligence she had recently intercepted.
"Lately, two specific Devil Fruits have been popping up incredibly frequently on the encrypted Marine channels I've been monitoring," Ginny reported, sitting cross-legged in the Door World.
"The first is the Gomu Gomu no Mi (Gum-Gum Fruit). But that one was recently violently hijacked by Red-Haired Shanks.
"The World Government was absolutely furious. They threw the CP9 agent responsible for guarding it straight into Impel Down. If the fruit was truly that important, why didn't they send someone vastly stronger to escort it in the first place?"
"Isn't that just standard World Government arrogance?" Kuma replied gently, setting down his book. "Perhaps they assumed that in that specific, relatively weak stretch of the East Blue, a CP9 agent's combat power was considered absolute deterrence."
"That's probably true. That Red-Haired guy must be incredibly strong," Ginny nodded. "Anyway, the second fruit is the Ope Ope no Mi (Op-Op Fruit). This one just surfaced in the North Blue.
"A pirate crew stumbled upon it and actually managed to negotiate a formal, highly lucrative deal with the Marines. They plan to sell the Devil Fruit directly to the Government."
"Have the Marines actually resorted to openly conducting business transactions with pirates these days?" Luna asked, casually hoisting a massive, newly purchased pharmaceutical compounding machine onto her shoulder as she walked into the room.
"It's undeniably the World Government pulling the strings behind the scenes," Ginny explained. "I've intercepted highly classified files regarding the Op-Op Fruit. Rumor has it that the ultimate power of this fruit allows the user to perform a miraculous 'Immortality Surgery.' That's undoubtedly the only reason the Government is willing to violently break protocol and buy it."
If an incompetent weakling accidentally ate the fruit and lacked the necessary medical expertise or stamina to perform the Immortality Surgery, it would be a catastrophic disaster for Mary Geoise.
They would have to assassinate the user, wait for the fruit to reincarnate, and then spend decades desperately searching for it again.
Therefore, the moment they realized the pirates who found it were completely ignorant of its true, apocalyptic value, the Government immediately agreed to the exorbitant purchase price.
"Should we try to steal it?" Luna asked, her eyes narrowing thoughtfully. "If the World Government desperately wants it, ensuring they never get their hands on it is always the correct tactical decision."
"But our current status as Warlords makes launching a direct assault highly inconvenient," Kuma noted mildly.
"Don't worry about it! Kuma and I can easily handle this covertly," Ginny smirked, adjusting her goggles. "Besides... the World Government absolutely isn't the only major faction eyeing this fruit.
"Let's go, Kuma! The agreed-upon drop site is Minion Island in the North Blue. It's not too far from the ruins of Flevance. We should head there immediately to secure a tactical vantage point!"
Luna's crew was currently sailing the Grand Line, but traveling vast distances was absolutely trivial for Kuma. Bidding Luna farewell, Kuma picked Ginny up, gently tapped his own shoulder with his paw pad, and instantaneously launched both of them across the sky toward the North Blue within a protective, high-speed Paw bubble.
Meanwhile, in the North Blue...
Having also intercepted the explosive intelligence regarding the Op-Op Fruit, Donquixote Doflamingo was viciously, ambitiously mobilizing his entire criminal syndicate.
He understood perfectly well what the Op-Op Fruit truly represented, and he knew that hijacking a World Government transaction was astronomically dangerous. But he was determined to secure it anyway.
Whether he ultimately used it to grant himself immortality or simply forced a loyal subordinate to eat it so he could violently extort massive concessions from the World Government, the Op-Op Fruit was an absolute necessity for his grand designs.
"Considering the terrifying importance of this Devil Fruit, once we secure it, I must entrust it to someone who possesses my absolute, unquestionable trust," Doflamingo declared, adjusting his pink feather coat.
He turned his gaze toward the tall, clumsy man standing beside him. "Corazon... you will be the one to eat this fruit. After all, you are my biological younger brother... my most trusted, beloved family."
The man addressed as Corazon—Rosinante—merely tapped his knuckles against the table, silently acknowledging the command. Within the Donquixote Family, his established persona was that of a violent, mute clutz.
Currently, Rosinante had not yet crossed paths with Trafalgar Law, so he hadn't defected or split off from Doflamingo's main force.
However, Doflamingo had grown increasingly, violently paranoid about the Marines flawlessly tracking his every move. He heavily suspected there was a rat hidden within the Family's inner circle, though he lacked concrete evidence. He was currently conducting subtle, highly lethal internal purges to root out the traitor.
Rosinante's internal situation was exponentially more complicated. He had already consumed the Calm-Calm Fruit. It was biologically impossible for him to eat the Op-Op Fruit.
If Doflamingo successfully acquired the fruit and ordered him to eat it, his deep-cover identity would be instantly, catastrophically exposed. After all, if he truly had no hidden agenda, there was absolutely no logical reason for him to have secretly hidden his Devil Fruit powers from his own brother.
Rosinante knew he had two options: either orchestrate a massive Marine ambush during the transaction to violently annihilate the Donquixote Family once and for all, or ensure Doflamingo entirely failed to acquire the fruit. He absolutely had to accomplish at least one of these objectives.
Currently, Rosinante wasn't overly panicked about the situation.
The reason Vice Admiral Tsuru hadn't just ambushed and captured Doflamingo yet wasn't due to incompetence. Rosinante had explicitly requested that the Marines hold off. He was meticulously utilizing his deep-cover status to map out the entirety of Doflamingo's highly intricate, corrupt connections with the North Blue's ruling monarchs and the global Underworld.
He intended to use this single, massive operation to violently uproot the entire criminal underbelly of the North Blue in one fell swoop, so he was proceeding with extreme patience.
If he simply wanted Doflamingo arrested, he could have just requested Admiral Borsalino to intercept them. Given Rosinante's pinpoint location data, Kizaru would have arrived at the speed of light and effortlessly dismantled the Family.
With the Op-Op Fruit acting as the ultimate catalyst, the dark, violent undercurrents of the North Blue began to violently surge...
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