Chapter 242: All Devil Fruits Have Been Lit Up
Inside the highest-level confidential conference room of Novi Grad City Hall, the capital of Terra.
Matthew stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing at the night sky.
Was that… an illusion?
Just now, he had felt a visitor arrive on Earth.
The aura was obscure and well hidden.
Yet it carried a great terror that made even his heart tremble.
If his feeling was correct, then the visitor's life level was likely frighteningly high.
But everything remained so calm.
That meant the visitor was not an enemy.
Otherwise, the Ancient One could not possibly have stayed still.
Who had come? And who had they visited?
Matthew already had a rough guess.
But he did not keep looking into it and withdrew his gaze.
There was no point.
That big shot's status was a little too high. If the other party had not come to meet him, then they clearly felt it was not the right time to meet yet.
When Matthew turned around, his expression immediately became rather speechless.
Reacher, Natasha, Melina, Karla, Neagly, Bucky, Needy, and the other high-ranking members of the Imperial Council, along with the Commanders, had all gathered here.
They looked like buyers picking vegetables at a market, carefully choosing from the large pile of strange-looking fruits floating quietly above the wide conference table.
Each fruit shimmered with wisps of golden light.
Beside each one was a dedicated holographic projection explaining its ability.
"The Magma-Magma Fruit. It can turn the body into magma and allow elementalization, ignoring physical attacks. It belongs to the Logia type. Wow, big guy, I think this suits you."
"I think this Ice-Ice Fruit is pretty good. It can turn the body into ice and create freezing air out of thin air. Tsk, that's ridiculous. Physics no longer exists."
"Venom-Venom Fruit, Woods-Woods Fruit, Gravity-Gravity Fruit, Flame-Flame Fruit, Paw-Paw Fruit, Bird-Bird Fruit, Model: Phoenix, Soul-Soul Fruit."
"Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Azure Dragon. Dark-Dark Fruit. Op-Op Fruit."
"Tsk, where did the Emperor get so many fruits?"
"But why are there also so many fruits that look like trash? What even is the Jacket-Jacket Fruit? And this Garb-Garb Fruit Fruit? Emperor above, is this a joke?"
"Haha, look at this Wheel-Wheel Fruit. Is it supposed to turn someone into a human car? Hahaha."
The group of higher-ups stared fixedly at the more than one hundred fruits floating before them, their eyes gleaming with excitement.
Especially when they saw the fruits whose descriptions alone sounded absurdly powerful, they were practically drooling.
But when they came across the lower-tier fruits, they couldn't help laughing.
Watching the scene, Matthew couldn't help smiling as well.
That was right. Every fruit in the Devil Fruit encyclopedia had now been lit up.
The demon souls had come from his recent trip into Mephisto's kingdom of Hell. With one full-powered wave of Conqueror's Haki, he had killed countless demons.
Under his deliberate control, he had also killed a large number of high-level demons.
This was also why Matthew had made such a loud, high-profile entrance after breaking into Hell.
In essence, even before going to trouble Lilith, he had already planned to take the chance to light up the Devil Fruit encyclopedia.
After all, in Hell, there were simply too many demons. Who knew how many times greater their number was than the entire population of Earth?
Mephisto would not care about such a small matter either.
As long as it did not shake his rule, it did not matter.
If Mephisto wanted to, he had every ability to create high-level demons in large numbers. His foundation was too deep, and his territory was too vast. Losing some demons was no different from a light scratch.
He would never offend Matthew over something like that.
Only after being certain of this did Matthew act.
Because of that, every fruit in the Devil Fruit encyclopedia had been lit up.
Including the Gum-Gum Fruit, Model: Sun God Nika.
But Matthew did not take that one out.
He felt there was something off about it and wanted to study it first.
After all, before its awakening, the Gum-Gum Fruit could only be considered above average in strength. If it hadn't belonged to the protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy, it honestly wouldn't have stood out much in the early stages.
But once the Nika form awakened, the fruit's power underwent a complete transformation. The problem was that it could also affect the user's will and personality.
Until he was completely certain it was safe, Matthew wouldn't let anyone eat it.
"All right, stop choosing."
Matthew spoke amid everyone's heated discussion.
The moment he did, everyone immediately fell silent and turned their eyes toward him.
"Pick out the useful fruits and remove the low-level ones. Throw those to the laboratory. Expand the department that was previously researching lineage factors and have them study the properties of the fruits."
"At the same time, form a department focused on these Devil Fruits. Use modern science to carry out targeted research and development plans, so the chosen users can develop their fruits quickly and deeply from multiple angles."
"I will store these fruits in the Imperial Treasury. You will choose twelve fruits, write a list, and select the people you believe have enough merit and are suitable to eat them."
"The remaining fruits will be managed by Reacher afterward."
"Gradually distribute these fruits."
Matthew gave the orders in a steady, organized manner.
In essence, he was still leaving Reacher to control the final checks.
There was no helping it. As the Empire's supreme commander, Reacher understood the soldiers under him far better than Matthew, the Emperor, did—whether it was their information, their personalities, or their evaluations.
Matthew had never thought of treating these fruits as so-called rewards, handing them out only after soldiers completed missions to his satisfaction.
For other rulers, perhaps that would work.
For him, it was completely unsuitable.
What kind of Emperor did they think he was?
If the loyalty of all of Terra, every soldier and citizen under his command, could be shown on a data panel, it would all be at MAX level.
The correct choice was to distribute these top-level fruits as soon as possible and let his soldiers grow stronger.
Keeping them in his hands would only waste time.
As for fairness, Reacher could guarantee it.
And the soldiers who did not receive a fruit did not need to feel disappointed. After all, while Devil Fruits did represent a substantial boost to combat power—especially the Logia types—they were not the only path.
In the world of One Piece, Kaido-sensei's speech about Haki surpassing everything sounded very passionate, almost like the truth.
But if one really looked into it, it was pure nonsense.
What did those illiterate people in the One Piece world know? What did Oda know about One Piece?
The Devil Fruits' ability to ignore physical rules through energy transformation alone was already absurd and abnormal.
Combined with modern scientific knowledge, the upper limit of these Devil Fruits would be raised to an unimaginable level.
Even setting aside raw power, they could at least be developed into many powerful techniques and complete combat directions.
To put it plainly, Devil Fruits were fantasy objects, and in many ways, they were extremely will-based.
Things that should have been impossible under the laws of physics could often be accomplished by their users with a single thought, breaking those very laws.
The only thing that truly limited how far a user could develop a Devil Fruit was the limit of their own mind.
...
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