Chapter 183: Smoker: Smoke Fruit? Hundreds of Them?!
As he stared at the five newly refreshed Fate Items,
Smoker felt like he was dreaming. Was the Game Merchant going soft on the Marines?
But now wasn't the time to overthink.
The most important thing was to quickly choose the right Fate Item and help Garp secure the finishing blow on the Soul Reaper.
"This is…"
Smoker's eyes lit up as he focused on two of the items:
[Mangguzhu Toad] and [Venomous Centipede].
Two blue-grade poisonous creatures.
Their toxins were so potent that even martial world experts with inner energy could be easily killed by their venomous skin secretions or fangs.
Most people would steer clear of such deadly things—but Smoker's heart pounded in excitement, his eyes glued to the items like a starving man staring at a feast.
He had access to Street Fighter-style combat skills from the Arad continent, along with advanced toxicology knowledge. He knew how to process such poisons into deadly compounds.
Moreover—
his skill [Venomous Blood] needed these kinds of toxic materials to evolve. By absorbing their venom, he could rapidly level it up.
Like a nutrient-packed XP capsule.
"Together they cost 3,000 points, plus 200 more for the random key…"
This was a massive bargain.
Smoker's hands trembled with excitement.
If he were following the regular leveling process, upgrading Venomous Blood would've cost far more than 3,200 reward points.
At this point, he was starting to believe the Game Merchant had turned over a new leaf—finally thinking from the players' perspective.
Trying to help them.
Yes, I absolutely want that.
Fang Yi sat with a smirk on his face, as if he could hear Smoker's thoughts.
Ah Fu, lounging in the rocking chair inside the Game Room, looked at Smoker with pity. Like watching a poor fish that had just bitten down on a baited hook.
His heartless master would never consider the players—even if the world were ending.
—
"So potent!"
Smoker purchased the two poisonous creatures without delay and immediately began absorption.
Ordinary Street Fighters would need complex instruments to refine and purify the toxins.
But Smoker skipped all that.
Two clouds of purple smoke shaped like hands clutched the poisonous toad and centipede, draining them dry like wrinkled fruits.
[Absorbing toxins from Mangguzhu Toad and Venomous Centipede... Your skill [Venomous Blood] has gained experience…]
The game notification rang repeatedly in his ears.
The purple smoke around him grew darker and thicker, like ink refusing to dissolve—becoming deep violet.
Whip!
Smoker tossed away the dried husks and struck a nearby ghostly wraith with his venom-smoke palm.
It evaporated on the spot, like snow under the midday sun.
"The potency of the venomous smoke has nearly doubled!"
Feeling the boost in his toxic power, Smoker couldn't help but grin. "More… I need more!"
The other three Fate Items were two armor pieces and one accessory—not helpful to him.
He bought another random key and refreshed the inventory.
"Another centipede?"
Among the new Fate Items, one was the same Venomous Centipede he'd just consumed. Smoker frowned. "Merchant, what's going on?"
Fang Yi replied with a pleasant smile, "Low-tier items don't have uniqueness. They can appear multiple times."
"Just like the Devil Fruits in this world. I've classified them as blue- or purple-grade items."
As he spoke—
A worn sack appeared at his feet, like something carried by a scavenger.
Fang Yi undid the rope tying it shut.
Inside rolled out fruit after fruit, their surfaces curled with misty, smoke-like patterns—like exquisite works of art.
The entire sack was filled with these nearly identical fruits—hundreds, just from a glance.
"Devil Fruits… Smoke Fruits?!"
The piece of grass in Smoker's mouth fell to the ground as his jaw dropped, unhinged with shock.
He would never mistake them.
Even though years had passed, the fruit he'd eaten back then—a Logia-type Smoke-Smoke Fruit—was unmistakably the same as these.
But how could this be possible?
His mind reeled.
It was a universal rule of the sea—
Devil Fruits were one of a kind. There could never be two of the same fruit at the same time.
It was like needing to eat when hungry, sleep when tired, or how fishmen needed water to survive.
Yet here was someone casually breaking a law that had stood for hundreds—perhaps thousands—of years.
Nonchalantly dumping out hundreds of Smoke Fruits—a rare Logia-type—as if they were nothing.
Fakes?
That was Smoker's first suspicion.
But then he watched as the Game Merchant picked one up, walked to the island's edge, and held it out.
A fish leapt from the sea, seemingly drawn by an invisible force, and landed in his hand like a flash of light.
In front of Smoker's disbelieving eyes, the Merchant casually stuffed the fruit into the fish's mouth.
"Merchant…" Smoker began, voice trembling.
Before he could say more, the fish that ate the Smoke Fruit suddenly burst into a cloud of gray-white mist.
A telltale sign of Logia power.
Fang Yi casually tossed the fish out of the island's boundary and smiled. "Sometimes, rather than explain… I prefer to show."
If it were just Smoker, he wouldn't have explained at all.
But—
Sengoku had just allocated 5 billion Berries to Smoker. He couldn't ignore that. And there were countless Den Den Mushi watching this moment.
This was his explanation not for Smoker,
but for Marine HQ and for every viewer across the Four Seas and the Grand Line.
Had he gone insane?
Smoker rubbed his forehead, dazed. The entire experience felt surreal—like a fever dream.
—
At Marineford,
Sengoku, who had been tracking Smoker's purchases, was pacing like a caged beast.
He grabbed the Den Den Mushi and barked an order to the Marines stationed just outside the Island of Death.
"Capture that fish! The one that ate the Smoke Fruit! It's a Smoke Fruit user now—use seastone! Seastone!!"
Multiple copies of the same Devil Fruit.
Sengoku's expression was complex.
Where once his eyes were filled with suspicion and caution when looking at the Game Merchant, now there was something else—
A fear even he hadn't realized had taken root.
As a Devil Fruit user himself,
he could feel the gravity of what it meant for someone to casually dump hundreds of identical fruits into the world.
That ragged sack, full of Devil Fruits,
being dragged across the ground like garbage—
Was capable, in an instant, of creating hundreds of Smoke Fruit users.
Logia-types.
Even Marine HQ—which ruled the seas—could barely count its Logia users on one hand.
Sure, people said, "There are no useless fruits, only weak users."
But compared to Zoan or Paramecia types, Logia Fruits had a staggeringly high floor. Just eating one gave you elemental powers—minimum strength at officer or vice admiral level.
Think about it.
Even now, Marine HQ couldn't muster a few hundred vice admiral-level fighters.
That meant—
If the Game Merchant wished,
he could use that one sack to replace the Marine Headquarters
and crown himself as the new ruler of the seas.
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