“Then later, a friend told me that Luffy’s fruit awakened after getting beaten by Kaido. And it’s not the Rubber Fruit, but the Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Zoan: Nika Form. It’s a rubber spirit from some island nation. Apparently, he can also use the power of fire and lightning, and he’s some kind of Sun God too.”
“That plot twist was buried so deep, I didn’t see it coming at all.”
He kept talking about the One Piece author’s foreshadowing, but Bai Xuan’s face showed a confused expression.
What?
A Mythical Zoan Nika Form? Isn’t it rubber?
And it’s a Human-Human Fruit?
When did this happen? How come I haven’t heard anything about it?
Oh, right. He hadn’t watched One Piece in a long time. No wonder.
But it turns out it wasn’t rubber after all…
Bai Xuan couldn’t really be called a hardcore One Piece fan either. In his previous life, he’d occasionally heard people mention Luffy using fire powers or having lightning crackling around him, but he never thought much of it. Turns out that was foreshadowing.
He shook his head. After a moment of surprise, he didn’t really dwell on it.
Whether it was rubber or Nika, it didn’t really have anything to do with him.
At most, it would make for a topic in the chat group.
Whitebeard probably knows something about it.
“Instead of worrying about me, shouldn’t you be more concerned about those two?”
Bai Xuan cut off Yang Lu’s rambling and pointed at the two people lying not far away.
He’d taken a look at them earlier. Their injuries weren’t serious. They’d just hit their heads on something when they fell and passed out.
Pretty lucky, all things considered.
Yang Lu was startled. He immediately ran over to the two, his face full of concern and anxiety.
“Hey, Hangzhou Spiritual Energy Bureau. There are two people here who were attacked by a mutant beast and are unconscious.”
“They’ve only got minor injuries, nothing serious. Plus, their bodies are automatically absorbing the spiritual energy in the air. Even if you don’t come, they’d probably wake up in an hour or two.”
“I’ve sent you the location.”
Bai Xuan called the Spiritual Energy Bureau. Anything involving mutant creatures, he’d contact them. And compared to a hospital, the Bureau had specialized psychics who could treat them faster.
As for why Bai Xuan didn’t just save them himself?
If they were in critical condition or severely injured, he would have helped. But with minor injuries like these where their bodies were healing on their own, it wasn’t necessary.
Besides, it might teach them a lesson.
“Why did you come here in the first place?”
“Curiosity? Exploration? Or were you searching for heavenly treasures?”
After finishing the call, Bai Xuan looked at Yang Lu and asked.
“Uh… kill monsters to level up.”
Yang Lu had heard Bai Xuan say on the phone that they only had minor injuries, so he wasn’t as tense anymore. He hesitated for a moment when he heard the question, then answered.
“???”
“What?“
You think this is a video game? “Kill monsters to level up”?
What, do you gain experience points every time you kill a mutant beast or something?
“Well, because eating the meat of these mutant creatures can speed up our cultivation, plus we can sell it. The fur can be tailored into clothing with pretty good defensive properties, and the bones can be forged into weapons. So we usually put it that way.”
Yang Lu said, a little embarrassed.
“Even though the government doesn’t approve of us doing such dangerous things, I don’t know if you’re aware, but they’re worth a lot of money.”
“We don’t really have a choice.”
“…”
Although Bai Xuan was no different from them in age, ever since joining the chat group, he hadn’t really scrolled through short videos or read the news online. He felt like he’d missed out on something.
Treating mutant beast meat as experience points, their fur and bones as forging materials, and selling the extra meat as gold dropped by monsters.
Kill monsters to level up. What a great “kill monsters to level up”!
“Are there many people like you?”
After a moment of silence, Bai Xuan asked with a strange look on his face.
“There were quite a few at the beginning, but after a lot of people died, the numbers started to dwindle.”
“Mutant beasts are stronger than us. Apart from those genius types, it takes several of us to take down just one, and even then, we might get hurt.”
“Don’t judge me by how I look. my psychic ability is a genuine rubber ability. you know, the stretchy kind? I thought I could be like Luffy, but then it turns out he’s a Nika form. I guess even the author thought plain old rubber wasn’t cutting it.”
As he spoke, Yang Lu showed off his rubber ability. He could stretch a bit, but not much. Nothing like Luffy when he first ate his Devil Fruit.
“These two buddies of mine here, one has fire element, the other has lightning element. Add me to the mix, and we’re basically a good chunk of Luffy.”
“That python was a complete accident. We were able to grind down wild boars before, no problem.”
Bai Xuan nodded, then looked down the mountain as if sensing something.
“The Spiritual Energy Bureau people are here. They’ll arrive soon.”
“You wait here for them. I have other things to do, so I’ll be leaving now.”
With that, before Yang Lu could say anything, he disappeared from in front of him and headed deeper into the mountains.
The reason he’d chatted with Yang Lu earlier was mainly because he was worried that after he left, they might get targeted by other beasts.
Once he sensed the arrival of the Spiritual Energy Bureau members, he left.
“I’ve already got a mutated python. Next target is a mutated wild boar.”
“I hope they’re big. If they’re not big enough in size, then quantity will have to make up for it.”
“I should also find more rabbits. I wonder if mutated rabbit version of spicy rabbit heads would taste even better.”
He licked his lips. Among the chef team responsible for his meals, there was a chef from Sichuan. That chef’s Sichuan cuisine was absolutely superb.
Night fell. Bai Xuan looked at his spatial ring, full to the brim with his haul, and a satisfied smile appeared on his face.
The mountains were pitch black by now, with the occasional rustle of leaves.
But for Bai Xuan, there was nothing to be afraid of.
Or rather, he was kind of hoping some food would just jump out and deliver itself to him.
“I’ve already stayed out late enough today. I’ll continue gathering the rest tomorrow.”
Looking down at the town below, its lights already shining, blood-red runes appeared in Bai Xuan’s eyes in an instant. Then, the runes in his left eye began to spin wildly.
“I speak, and thus it is the Word of God. I decree, and thus it is the Divine Decree.”
“I speak, and before me shall appear a door that connects to my dwelling.”
Bai Xuan’s voice was cold, completely devoid of emotion.
The next second, the space in front of him began to flow like water, creating ripples. Then, a door just like the “Anywhere Door” from the world of Doraemon appeared before him.
He opened it, and inside was his own dwelling.
And as soon as Bai Xuan stepped inside, the Anywhere Door vanished in an instant.
“Using such majestic language, and I ended up summoning a pink door.”
“Is it because I’m too deeply impressed by the Anywhere Door from Doraemon’s world?”
Bai Xuan lay on the sofa, chuckling to himself.
He could have actually come back using other methods, like teleportation. After all, in a sense, all of nature was his home. There shouldn’t be any problem with him freely moving around his own home, right?
Or he could have turned into light and reached his home in an instant. But that was too far, he didn’t know the way. He might have even needed a navigation system.
The same reason he didn’t fly like Superman or an immortal.
