Within the phenomenon,
Ren appeared in a flash of light and slowly opened his eyes.
The light screen refreshed like a cascading waterfall.
Inside the seclusion chamber,
Ren swept his gaze over the screen and immediately noticed the changes in himself.
His crimson eyes were still the same, but their texture had become closer to polished jade.
His appearance seemed to have been optimized, though not in the artificial sense of surgery, but through a more natural transformation.
His long black hair fell to his waist, his features handsome and ethereal like an immortal's, and the scar between his brows and nose had disappeared without a trace.
His skin was fair with a faint rosy hue, giving him a gentle, jade-like elegance.
There was even a pair of purple gourd-shaped earrings hanging from his ears.
And the source of all these changes—
Ren looked toward the panel data.
[Name — Ren]
[Age — 19]
[Race — Little Celestial]
[Talents: Crimson Eyes / Sword Heart Communion / Precognitive Perception / Haki]
[Strength: A-]
[Agility: A-]
[Constitution: A-]
[Luck: ??]
[Charm: D]
[Trait: Datafication]
It was an extremely simple personal panel—so simple that Ren felt a little unaccustomed to it.
Compared to his previous status panel, only a few words had changed, yet the difference they brought was as vast as heaven and earth.
The change in Charm was probably related to the change in his appearance, raising it by one rank.
The change in age was normal enough. The fusion period for the rice cooker from One Hundred Thousand Bad Jokes required forty-nine days.
And Ren had also more or less passed the birthday of this body's original owner, going from eighteen to nineteen.
Mm.
Still very young.
About the same age group as Nami and the others.
But the change in race was completely different.
He had gone from human to Little Celestial!
"Little Celestial? What does that mean... Let's take a look."
Ren focused on those two short words, and information popped up to explain their origin.
Datafication had devoured the seven-in-one Calabash Brothers template, integrating that portion of its power into his body.
No matter how far the Calabash Brothers template was from the original version, it still possessed an essence far beyond that of ordinary humans.
Yet in the face of Datafication, whose level was extraordinarily high, that essence had been forcibly fused with Ren's original human essence.
As a result, his physique had changed, transforming him from an ordinary human into a Little Celestial.
A celestial.
As the name implied, a transcendent being beyond the mortal world.
But Ren had the word little attached to his title, because he was not the original Calabash Brother.
In fact, even the original Calabash Brothers might not truly qualify as celestials.
The gap created by that single word was probably like the difference between the Western Heaven and the Lesser Western Heaven.
The reason the title celestial could even be used at all was thanks to the rice cooker from the One Hundred Thousand Bad Jokes world.
The Fusion Calabash Brother born from that thing truly did deserve to be called a celestial.
But as always, that little word made all the difference.
Even so,
Ren could not help but smile.
Because from the information, he had already learned about the lifespan and special traits of a Little Celestial.
[Race · Little Celestial]
[Description: Guided by Datafication, the essence of an extraordinary template was fused with human essence, then sublimated into a Little Celestial through a special refinement process.
Although it cannot compare to a true celestial, it still possesses a lifespan exceeding one thousand years.
To mortals whose generations last only a century, it is a long-lived species beyond reach.
And at nineteen years old, from the perspective of its lifespan, a Little Celestial is still only in its juvenile stage.
Therefore, a Little Celestial at this stage still possesses tremendous potential. It is only considered an adult at two hundred years old, and its potential is not fully exhausted until three hundred.
At the same time, a Little Celestial possesses physical strength far beyond ordinary humans. Though it still retains a humanoid structure, whether in organ toughness or the density and hardness of its bones, it completely crushes humans. Click to view details.]
After clicking for details and discovering a pile of incomprehensible data, Ren decisively gave up trying to understand it and instead began organizing his gains.
The boost brought by this leap in essence was enormous.
The sheer amount of potential alone had exceeded his expectations, proving that the room he still had to grow was immense.
However,
he did not see any descriptions of divine abilities or skills.
"Datafication, huh..."
Ren opened the Datafication entry under Traits, and once again, waterfall-like information flooded the screen.
He had no choice but to pick and choose what to read first, leaving the rest for later.
Naturally, the first thing he cared about was the change in his attributes.
Strength—A!
Agility—A!
Constitution was also A!
Sure, each of them had a minus sign in front—but that was still an A rating!
Three entire A-rank stats left even Ren caught off guard.
Previously, even after using the Potara Earrings for a two-in-one fusion, and including the boost from Haki, he had only been around triple-B level.
By his earlier calculations, 1 B equaled 4 C. And 1 A equaled 4 B!
An A-rank rating, in Ren's calculations,
was the baseline equivalent of Fourth Gear Luffy, Edward Weevil with his rumored young Whitebeard-level strength, or the Fish-Man Karate master Jinbe with tenfold arm strength.
And that was only a comparison of pure physical parameters, without counting any additional abilities or combat power multipliers!
To put it dramatically, Ren's current raw physical body alone could already rival the Admirals in their youth... no, it should be said it had surpassed them!
This harvest was so absurdly great that Ren immediately began reviewing the process.
"The First Brother template and the Third Brother template... no, that's not right. I can't calculate it that way. The templates integrated by Datafication don't seem to work through simple addition or multiplication."
Ren quickly found the answer he wanted.
Unexpectedly,
the seven-in-one fusion of the Calabash Brothers had never been addition or multiplication. Just like in the original work he had never read,
Fusion Calabash Brother's strength was not seven times that of the seven brothers, nor some geometric multiple.
Because in the final analysis, the Calabash Brothers had never truly fused into a single Calabash Brother. They had merely been combined together.
But Datafication changed that. It systematically integrated and reorganized the seven templates, then fused them completely.
The result of 1 + 1 > 2 appeared instantly—
and it happened six consecutive times.
Ren's original blank-slate stats had been around D-level, with some +, -, and ++ variation. Once the first template fused into him, all three physical dimensions jumped directly to C-rank.
The subsequent six templates raised that to B+, and then the > effect born of total fusion pushed it to the final B++.
Yes.
B++ was the final result.
There was still one whole B-rank gap before A.
Only then did Ren realize why his A-rank stats had a minus sign attached.
It was because his A-rank came with several additional boosts layered on top.
As for Strength,
the First Brother template's divine strength and gigantification had merged into it, becoming a permanent ability of his body.
Datafication displayed the related trait.
[Trait · Peerless Divine Strength]
[Type: Permanent Passive]
[Description: A permanent passive formed through the integration of the Calabash Brothers template abilities with the martial path of Haki.
Upon entering combat, the user's strength is doubled without changing body size.]
"So that 'doubled' description... is that where the minus sign comes from? Since it's a permanent passive, it's being counted directly into the stat."
Ren scratched his head.
He could not really say whether he was disappointed or not. After all, reaching A-rank had already gone beyond his expectations.
If he kept training and grew stronger later on, that minus sign could still become a pure A, or even a + or ++.
After all, only a little over one month had passed. He still had more than ten months of potential left to cash in.
But,
there was another active trait involved.
[Trait · Size at Will]
[Type: Divine Ability]
[Description: A beneficial metamorphosis produced from the fusion of abilities such as Gigantification and Translucent Body.
Ignores the laws of mass and allows the user to subjectively alter their own size, from a maximum of 40 meters to a minimum of 10 centimeters.
While enlarging, attributes increase according to body size.
Every additional 10 meters grants a 1x increase to Strength, a 0.2x increase to Agility, and a 1.5x increase to Constitution.
While shrinking, attributes will decrease according to the extent of the size reduction...]
[Note: This ability will continue to grow along with its user.]
[Note: Relevant elements may be added to further improve it.]
"Judging from the description, it's a double-edged sword. Growing larger grants increases, while becoming smaller causes a decrease.
And the gains per 10 meters aren't even that great.
At my current height, I should probably be able to gain around a 4x increase in Strength, a 0.8x increase in Agility, and a 6x increase in Constitution.
But after all, this is just a beneficial mutation triggered when two traits came into contact. It's basically a free bonus.
There's no way it could compare to the effect of full fusion."
Ren settled his thoughts and shifted his attention toward Agility.
There were many factors contributing to that increase.
The racial quality of a Little Celestial was fundamentally different from that of a human, and even the upper limit of neural reflex speed was no longer the same.
But judging from the details, Datafication had apparently swallowed the Specialty: Overclocked Reflexes.
Not only combat reflexes,
but also the one-tomoe Sharingan and Clairvoyance had been absorbed, then merged with Blessing of Arrow Avoidance (C), which involved visual tracking, to form the Crimson Eyes shown on the panel.
The ability had undergone some beneficial changes. Specifically, it now looked like this:
[Crimson Eyes]
[Type: Talent]
[Description: Formed through the integration and enhancement of multiple abilities, greatly increasing parameters related to combat response.
For example, neural reflexes, bodily flexibility, and similar factors. It also grants extremely powerful dynamic and static visual capture.
By actively using Crimson Eyes, the user can activate visual beams to observe objects within a range of 2 kilometers, and can also see through matter.
By altering the method of use, when the user visually locks onto a flying object, they can neutralize it through their own movements...]
The rest of the description was basically no different from Blessing of Arrow Avoidance. It had simply been integrated by Datafication because it involved sight.
Although there had not been any fundamental metamorphosis, the core ability of Crimson Eyes had still been improved.
As a result, Ren's weakness of not being able to keep up, reaction-wise, with Admiral-level speed had been compensated for.
Of course,
that did not mean Ren believed he could read an Admiral's movements like bullet time.
At best, it meant he had gone from not even being able to see how he got hit...
to being able to see how he got hit, and maybe trying to counterattack.
At the same time,
Agility was not limited to that alone. In essence, it was a composite rating of speed, reflexes, balance, and similar factors.
Another trait was involved here as well—Purple Qi Foundation.
As a passive ability, Purple Qi Foundation had also been integrated. The meridian network spread throughout his body had fused with the Little Celestial physique, undergoing a beneficial metamorphosis.
[Meridian Network]
[Type: Constant Passive]
[Description: A special meridian structure spread throughout the entire body, transformed from something illusory into something real after combining with the Little Celestial physique.
It can greatly improve the user's bodily flexibility and shorten the transmission distance of commands from brain to body, thereby increasing reaction speed.]
The divine ability Keen Hearing had also been integrated, merging into his body and causing an explosive rise in Agility-related attributes.
The resulting trait in this area was called [Listening Ears]. Unlike the Second Brother template, this one was a passive ability.
Its drawback was that he would hear many unnecessary sounds and would need to spend some mental effort actively filtering them out.
As for Constitution, that part was a bit more complicated.
(End of Chapter)