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"Cough... Pfft!"
Arthur's face was deathly pale. The coughing aggravated his injuries, and a torrent of blood sprayed from his mouth, painting the ground in front of him a vivid crimson.
It was a replay of the scene from the Sabaody Archipelago years ago!
"As expected of Old Man Garp!"
Just like nine years ago, the punch delivered by burning his own life force had inflicted devastating damage. Even though Arthur had wanted to test himself against that terrifying strike, in the end, he realized that a human body simply wasn't built to withstand it.
Garp had completely vanished from this world, reduced to a mist of blood scattered by the wind.
Far out on the ocean, the dog-headed warship carried Vice Admiral Tsuru and her crew away, bearing the news of Garp the Hero's death back to Marine Headquarters.
Meanwhile, Arthur had nearly been dragged into a mutual destruction by that final punch.
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Ignoring the risk of anyone returning, Arthur sat cross-legged on the ground and began to experiment with the Op-Op Fruit's powers to heal his injuries.
"ROOM!!"
He extended one hand, palm open. A translucent hemisphere appeared out of thin air, gradually expanding until it enveloped his entire body.
The user of the Op-Op Fruit can create a spherical space—a domain that functions as an operating room!
Within this space, the user can freely cut, swap, and splice people and objects, or even switch souls. Those cut within the Room do not die, nor do they bleed or feel pain.
Objects or limbs severed by this ability can be reattached in any configuration, a fundamental difference from being cut by a standard blade.
In other words, once inside the space created by the Op-Op Fruit, any surgery can be performed without risk... This broken ability means that even if a surgery isn't successful, it can never truly fail!!
If you can't fail, you can try again and again until you succeed!
This is why any doctor with even a modicum of skill becomes a miracle worker the moment they obtain the Op-Op Fruit.
Six years ago, when Arthur went to the Drum Kingdom—a land renowned for its medical advancements—for his "Atypical Body Modification Surgery," he had swept away all of Dr. Kureha's medical texts. Over the years, whenever he had a spare moment, he would take them out and study.
With his formidable memory and his burning obsession with finding the Op-Op Fruit, he had memorized every single book. His theoretical knowledge was now incredibly solid; he had just been waiting for the chance to practice.
With the Op-Op Fruit ensuring that surgical failure was impossible, Arthur instantly leapfrogged to become one of the top doctors on the sea.
Doctors aren't gods; they can make mistakes. But Arthur couldn't make a fatal mistake, because on his "operating table," even if he messed up, he could just start over!!
The only downside to the Op-Op Fruit was its immense stamina consumption.
Maintaining the "ROOM," combined with the exhaustion from the apocalyptic battle and his severe injuries, caused his breathing to grow ragged after only a few moments of thought.
Not wanting to waste stamina, Arthur looked down at the wound on his chest—identical to the one from nine years ago—and immediately began to operate...
Theory is just theory; only practice turns theory into truth.
Arthur didn't get discouraged by his initial failures. After laughing it off, he would immediately begin the next attempt. Through trial and error, the complex points in the medical texts that had once confused him suddenly clicked into place.
For a normal doctor, a slip of the hand on a patient with such severe trauma meant instant death. But Arthur... he cut his own chest in half and operated on himself with reckless abandon, doing whatever he pleased!
The power of a Devil Fruit was truly unreasonably dominant.
"Guhahahahahaha! With such a powerful ability, the experiment I've dreamed of can finally begin!"
The ROOM dissipated. Arthur stepped out of his self-surgery, forehead slick with cold sweat and physically drained. However, the fatal injury on his chest had vanished without a trace.
Aside from the stamina drain, he was completely whole, as if the earth-shattering battle had never happened...
"It's a pity. I just got the Op-Op Fruit, so I haven't had time to develop the abilities of this so-called 'Ultimate Fruit' to a deeper level!"
Three years ago, while burying Shiki at Mary Geoise, Arthur had witnessed Kuma's development of the Paw-Paw Fruit. A thought had taken root in his mind then, inspired by Kuma's ability to create the "Ursus Shock" and repel abstract concepts.
Kuma could repel anything: solids, liquids, gases, heat, slashes, shockwaves... even concepts like fatigue, pain, and damage could be pushed out of a body.
So, if the Op-Op Fruit is the "Ultimate" Devil Fruit, and one can perform any surgery within the ROOM... shouldn't it be possible to surgically excise negative states like fatigue, pain, and injury?
The answer, of course, is yes!
It just required deep development. Once Arthur reached that level, he could perform instant "Injury Removal Surgery" to never be hurt again, or "Fatigue Removal Surgery" for infinite stamina...
But whether these ideas succeeded or not was secondary. The reason Arthur had schemed and waited for years to get the Op-Op Fruit wasn't for these trivial abilities, nor was it for the so-called "Perennial Youth Surgery"!
His true goal was to perform the ultimate ability related to the soul and the mind!!
The Op-Op Fruit's ability to swap souls was common knowledge. The original user in the story, Law, had used this ability to swap the minds of the Straw Hat crew members.
ROOM: Shambles. By creating a sealed hemispherical space and thrusting the "hearts" out of people's bodies, the user could swap the "mind" and "body" of two targets, resulting in a personality exchange.
If the Op-Op Fruit can perform surgery on everything, then can it perform surgery on Devil Fruits themselves?!
First, one must understand: What exactly is a Devil Fruit? Arthur had pondered this question countless times and had even asked Vegapunk.
Is it the ultimate creation of ancient technology researching Lineage Factors? Or are they truly formed by devils? Does the legendary Devil Fruit Tree actually exist?
Through endless contemplation, and armed with the method to steal abilities he obtained from Vegapunk, Arthur leaned heavily toward the theory that Devil Fruits truly contained a "Devil's Soul"!
Otherwise, why would the ability be reborn in a nearby fruit when the user died?
Why was there a rumor that if anyone other than an "atypical body" ate two fruits, the devils would fight inside the body and destroy it?
If one attributes that indescribable, mystical force that attaches to a fruit and turns it into a Devil Fruit to a "Devil's Soul"...
Then Arthur's wild, visionary ambition for the Op-Op Fruit's ultimate ability—the conceptual "God-Making Surgery"—was born!
He intended to develop a super-surgery that would allow the "Devils" to coexist peacefully, excising the unruly parts of their souls, or even fusing them together.
Only the "ROOM" space could make this possible.
Arthur's true goal in consuming the Op-Op Fruit at any cost was simple:
To make the powers of every Devil Fruit in the world belong to him alone!!
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