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Having stuffed the surgically altered fruits into the unconscious pirate's mouth once more, Arthur watched quietly, waiting for failure to arrive.
"1!"
"2!"
"3! Explode—"
Arthur counted silently in his heart, following the established pattern. Anyone consuming two Devil Fruits wouldn't last more than three seconds. Moreover, his Future Sight Haki had clearly shown a higher probability of this person dying.
However, having braced himself for failure, he waited a full minute, yet the pirate did not spontaneously detonate...
"Hmm?" Arthur was somewhat surprised by his misjudgment.
"As expected, what I see with Future Sight is only the greater probability? All possible events remain just possibilities... Until they actually happen, there is always another probability that can occur!"
Future Sight, just as he had suspected, had a margin for error!
Consuming two Devil Fruits—unless one possessed an Atypical Body Structure or was Kaido—should make survival absolutely impossible.
The only reason for this result was that he had successfully excised the "emotion" that caused the two Devil Fruits to fight each other.
No explosion this time? Did that mean he had miraculously succeeded in just three attempts?
Arthur had originally assumed that even if all thirty-plus members of the Cook Pirates in this cell died, he wouldn't succeed once. He never expected such an unforeseen outcome!
"I can't be sure yet. I need to wake him up to know!" Feeling a surge of excitement, Arthur nudged the sleeping pirate with the tip of his shoe.
"Ugh..."
The pirate groaned, slowly sitting up from the floor. He rubbed his throbbing head and opened his eyes. The first thing that greeted him was a terrifying scene straight out of hell.
His pupils constricted violently, his eyes rolled back, and then...
"Blech—"
He opened his mouth and retched, his stomach churning violently, nearly vomiting bile.
Although he was a pirate, killing usually involved a clean cut with a sword. He had never witnessed such a gruesome and bloody scene. Not passing out again was a testament to his strong mental fortitude.
"Don't waste my time!" Arthur kicked him in the face and tossed an apple over, wearing an expression that said, I have high hopes for you, lab rat.
"Quick, use your ability. Let me see!"
"Use my ability?" The pirate caught the apple, repeating the words mechanically. Paralyzed on the floor, he slowly raised his hand, staring blankly at the bright red apple in his palm.
Suddenly, under a mysterious force, the apple floated directly into the air, hovering steadily as if resting on a table.
"Ahahahaha! The Float-Float Fruit ability? Quick, use the other one too!" Arthur urged with boundless excitement.
"The other one?"
The dazed pirate paused for a moment, as if mobilizing his power or figuring out how to use the second ability.
A moment later...
Whoosh—
Under the influence of the second ability, the hovering red apple suddenly shot toward Arthur. Crossing the short distance of less than two meters, its speed instantly increased more than tenfold, turning into a blur!
Despite the tenfold speed increase, it couldn't escape Arthur's terrifying reflexes. Smack! He caught it in his hand.
"It really worked!"
Using humans as experimental material and succeeding in just three tries made Arthur incredibly exhilarated.
But he wasn't the only one excited. The test subject pirate was even more agitated than him...
"I... somehow gained two Devil Fruit abilities while I was sleeping? Who on this sea can stand against me now?!"
"Huh?" Arthur's laughter cut off abruptly. He snapped out of his mirth and looked incredulously at the pirate, who had fallen into a strange state of delusion. Arthur felt his mood sour.
"Who else on the sea has two abilities like me? The Four Emperors and One Sovereign? The Navy Admirals? I'll conquer them all!!" The pirate was lost in a wild fantasy, his face flushed as he dreamed of punching Emperors and kicking Admirals.
However, reality was cruel. Arthur couldn't help but pat him on the shoulder, interrupting his fantasy with praise.
"You really are unprecedented, one of a kind. But unfortunately, I need those abilities back..."
"Hah?" The pirate, interrupted mid-fantasy, turned his head in annoyance, looking at Arthur like he was an ignorant fool. "I know you. One of the supreme rulers of the New World, the Thunder Emperor!"
"It's not too late to submit to me now. I..."
Zzzzzzt!!
A blinding flash of lightning flickered and vanished. The pirate, still deep in his delusions of grandeur, was instantly electrocuted into charcoal, dying with his eyes wide open.
Opening a spatial operation room, Arthur retrieved the Float-Float Fruit and the More-More Fruit.
Just to be safe, Arthur didn't eat the surgically altered fruits immediately. Instead, he stuffed them into the mouth of another unconscious pirate to see if success could be replicated.
Upon waking, the second pirate undoubtedly possessed two compatible fruit abilities as well.
This surgery was a complete success...
Arthur sat down cross-legged right there, ignoring the thick layer of gore on the floor. With excitement in his heart, he prepared to eat the fruits piece by piece.
But the moment he was about to take a bite, cold sweat instantly drenched his back.
Arthur suddenly realized something: the pirates who had just eaten these two surgically altered Devil Fruits possessed no Devil Fruit abilities of their own beforehand. That was why they could consume them and remain unharmed.
But he was different. He already had two abilities! If he ate another one, the devil of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit or the Op-Op Fruit would surely attack the devils of the Float-Float and More-More Fruits.
The only thing awaiting him would be death by explosion!
"What should I do?"
At this critical moment, on the verge of gathering all the world's Devil Fruits into one body, such a mistake had occurred. Arthur was incredibly unwilling to accept this. He forced himself to calm down and think of a solution.
"No, all Devil Fruits have an instinct to fight. My surgery removes their consciousness or instinct to continue fighting! I can perform surgery on the Devil Fruits, and I can perform it on myself!"
This was certain!
But there was a crucial point... The Op-Op Fruit's ability could operate on the devil soul of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, since they were different abilities. But what about the Op-Op Fruit itself?
He had already eaten the Op-Op Fruit. How could he experiment on the fruit itself? If a mistake occurred and the entire fruit disappeared (the ability was lost), what then? Would he have to waste time finding it again to reattempt?
Arthur sat on the floor, deep in thought, his face pale. He couldn't find a way around this blind spot.
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