Alvida was breathing hard, her eyes locked onto the pink Devil Fruit like a starving wolf eyeing a piece of meat. The greed in her gaze was so intense it was almost tangible.
She looked at the brskinny guy in front of her, and her expression shifted to something Marcus had seen before, the look of a bully who thought they'd found an easy target.
A smile spread across her face.
"Since you were nice enough to bring me such a pretty little gift, I'll go easy on you." Her voice took on that fake-sweet tone that meant absolutely nothing good. "Just hand it over, and maybe I won't break anything important."
Marcus stared at her, genuinely confused. What the hell? A minute ago she was groaning in pain from her injuries, and now she was back to full pirate mode?
Then it clicked. He'd been an idiot. Of course she'd try to just take it, she was a fucking pirate. That's what pirates do. They see something they want, they take it. End of story.
The moment that realization hit him, the Slip-Slip Fruit in his hand vanished into his inventory.
"Looks like you haven't figured out what situation you're actually in."
Alvida's confident smirk disappeared instantly as the Devil Fruit vanished before her eyes. For a split second, she looked like a kid whose ice cream had just disappeared.
"What the... where did it go?!"
She lunged forward, reaching out to grab him, probably planning to shake him until the fruit fell out of his pockets or something equally stupid.
Instead, she slammed face-first into a stone wall that definitely hadn't been there a second before.
"What the fuck?!"
Before she could process what had just happened, more walls shot up around her sides. By the time her brain caught up to reality, she was completely boxed in by solid stone blocks.
Marcus' voice came from above her. She looked up to see him sitting on top of the wall, legs dangling over the edge like he was on a park bench.
"You're a Devil Fruit user too!"
"No shit, Sherlock. Ah, you don't know him, so you won't get, anyway..." Marcus shrugged, and the Slip-Slip Fruit reappeared in his hand like magic. "Did you really think I'd just hand over a Devil Fruit if I was some random weakling?"
The reality of her situation finally sank in. Alvida was trapped, injured, and apparently dealing with someone who had powers she didn't understand.
She tried a different approach, batting her eyelashes and putting on what she probably thought was a cute voice.
"Now, now, handsome... we can work something out, right? I'm sure a strong, intelligent man like yourself wouldn't want to hurt a poor, defenseless beautiful woman..."
Beauttiful?
Marcus cringed. Watching a three-hundred-pound woman with a face full of acne scars try to act coy was like watching a train wreck in slow motion. You wanted to look away, but the sheer horror of it kept you frozen.
"Stop. Just... stop. Please." He held up a hand. "I'm in a pretty good mood right now, so I'm gonna give you one chance. Take it or leave it."
"I'll take it! Whatever it is, I accept!"
The desperation in her voice was pretty obvious. Good. That made this easier.
Marcus smiled and tossed the Devil Fruit down to her. She caught it with both hands, staring at it like it might disappear again.
"Eat the whole thing. Don't even think about trying to save some for later or any bullshit like that."
With that, he hopped down from the wall and walked over to where the dead boar was lying.
If Luffy hadn't sent Alvida flying at exactly the right moment, Marcus would probably be boar food right now. In a weird way, both of them had saved his life. He wasn't exactly a hardcore anime fan, but he'd watched enough One Piece to know the basic story. Working man's anime, his friends used to call it.
And honestly? Alvida post-Devil Fruit was definitely easier on the eyes than Alvida pre-Devil Fruit. Sue him for being shallow, but he was a twenty-year-old guy. Of course he preferred looking at attractive women.
And if he didn't, well, that probably meant he swung the other way.
As soon as he walked up to the dead boar and touched it, something weird happened. The massive carcass suddenly shrank down and got sucked into his inventory with a soft pop sound.
"What the hell?"
He opened his inventory screen and stared. There it was, a three-meter-tall wild boar, somehow compressed into a single inventory slot like it was just another item.
"This is seriously just like Minecraft. Completely ridiculous..."
Following his gaming instincts, he crafted a furnace and placed it on the ground. He put some wood logs in the fuel slot, then dropped the entire boar into the cooking area.
The roasting process began immediately.
"Hahaha! It actually works!"
He watched the fuel bar slowly decrease while the cooking progress bar crept upward. Unfortunately, a few logs weren't going to be enough to cook something this big.
But hey, he was in a forest. Wood was everywhere.
He pulled out his stone axe and walked up to one of the giant trees. He started chopping at the base, expecting to have to work his way through the whole trunk like before.
Instead, after completing one full circle around the tree, the entire massive thing exploded into dozens of wood blocks that scattered across the ground.
"That's new."
He didn't have this ability when he chopped trees before.
His vision blurred for a moment, and when it cleared, he noticed something different. The game interface was more... accessible now. Before, he'd had to really focus to bring it up. Now it felt like he could toggle it on and off with just a thought.
More importantly, he noticed a number in the corner of his vision: Level 1.
"I leveled up? Must've been from that boar."
As if responding to his curiosity, a new panel appeared in front of him. There was only one active skill available: "Vein Mining." Below it were several locked slots marked with level requirements: Level 10, Level 20, Level 30, and so on, all the way up to Level 100.
Beyond that, the list just... stopped. Either that was the level cap, or there were higher levels he couldn't see yet.
"So leveling up unlocks new abilities? Like mods?"
He grinned.
He gathered up all the wood blocks and dumped them into the furnace, then turned his attention back to Alvida.
He was genuinely curious about how the Slip-Slip Fruit worked. According to the anime, it could somehow transform someone from obese to beautiful, but the mechanics had never been explained.
When he looked over, though, Alvida still looked exactly the same. Same round face, same frizzy hair, same everything.
"Wait... you didn't eat it?"
"I did eat it! Why do I still look like this?! You said it would make me beautiful!"
Alvida was on the verge of a breakdown.
Maybe it was the wrong fruit?
Marcus scratched his head, trying to remember the details from the show. Then something occurred to him.
"Try using the power. The fruit's called the Slip-Slip Fruit, right? So try making things slip off you. The fat, the acne, all of it."
"Slip off...?"
Alvida closed her eyes, concentrating. At first, nothing happened. Then her skin started to... well, there was no other way to describe it. It started peeling.
But not in a gross, horrifying way. More like she was shedding an outer layer that had been covering her real body underneath. Chunks of fat began sliding off her frame, taking the damaged skin with them.
Marcus watched in fascination as the transformation continued. It was like watching someone escape from a really elaborate fat suit.
When it was over, the woman standing in front of him looked like a completely different person. Tall, with a perfect hourglass figure, smooth pale skin, and delicate facial features. Her voice, when she spoke, was higher and clearer than before.
"My voice... it changed too?"
"Makes sense," Marcus said, trying to keep his voice casual while also trying not to stare too obviously. "When people lose a lot of weight, their voice can change. Better airflow and all that, I guess?"
Alvida was examining her new body, running her hands over her arms and face. She'd gone from barely being able to see her feet to having the kind of figure that would stop traffic.
Then she noticed Marcus looking away awkwardly and glanced down at herself.
"Oh."
Instead of being embarrassed, she just started laughing. Apparently, in the One Piece world, people were a lot more casual about nudity than Marcus was used to.
"Confidence is great and all," he said, "but maybe we could find you some clothes that actually fit?"
---
Twenty minutes later, Alvida returned, having somehow found or made clothing that actually fit her new proportions. She walked over to where Marcus was tending the furnace.
"Thank you."
It was simple, but it was the best thing she could say in that moment. Still, it was genuine gratitude.
"Perfect timing," Marcus said. "The boar's done."
"The boar?"
Marcus reached into the furnace, which was still actively burning, and pulled out the fully cooked three-meter boar like it was no big deal.
Alvida's eyes went wide. It was hard to wrap her head around how something that massive had fit inside what looked like a furnace barely large enough for a turkey.
But then again, after everything she'd just experienced, weird spatial physics seemed pretty minor.
You can turn water into wine? Devil Fruit.
You can make a paralyzed man walk again? Devil Fruit.
You can walk on water? Devil Fruit.
If something's hard to explain, just say two words: Devil Fruit.
"Want some? Should help with those injuries."
Alvida rubbed her stomach, which was still sore. Without any hesitation, she grabbed one of the massive legs and started eating.
The two of them demolished the entire three-meter boar in less than ten minutes. Alvida had always been a big eater, you don't get to her original size without a serious appetite. And Marcus discovered that his Minecraft-based physiology meant he could eat basically unlimited amounts without getting full. His hunger bar was already maxed out, but the extra food was increasing his saturation levels.
"Damn," Alvida said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "I didn't expect you to be such a good cook."