"Didn't expect it to be the Warp-Warp Fruit… what a huge win."
"Blackbeard really has it rough—first I dug up Burgess, and now I've taken the Warp-Warp Fruit too."
Of course, that was just talk. There wasn't the slightest bit of guilt in his heart.
The Warp-Warp Fruit was probably something Blackbeard would've gotten in the future by hunting someone else.
Besides, Blackbeard was still on Whitebeard's ship right now, playing the role of Whitebeard's "son." Even if Vane dug out his entire future framework, it wouldn't matter… of course, except for those few in Impel Down. None of them are the kind to behave.
"Taking advantage of foresight to dig up promising young people, obtain powerful fruits, seize stable territory, and keep developing and expanding."
Vane's short-term goals were becoming clearer and clearer.
But foresight about Devil Fruits was pretty difficult. The only things he was certain about were that the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, that powerful Devil Fruit, was in Skypiea, and that the Bat-Bat Fruit, Mythical Beast Model: Vampire, was in the New World's Sleepy Ancient Town.
He didn't remember very clearly—this Devil Fruit should've been eaten by Patrick Redfield, who was still in prison right now. This was a character who only appeared in the game, and Vane didn't know much about him.
That made things a bit awkward. He couldn't remember whether Patrick Redfield ate the fruit before being locked up, or after getting out of Impel Down.
Forget it. No matter what, he had to make a trip to Sleepy Ancient Town. After all, it involved a top-tier Devil Fruit.
"Other than the Rumble-Rumble Fruit and the Vampire Fruit, I really don't know much…"
At most, foresight showed itself in recruiting people. Information about Devil Fruit locations was just too scarce— even the two known ones were only rough ranges.
"If it really comes down to it, every time we pass a kingdom, I'll have Sugar and Lena go take a look at the royal treasury."
With the Through-Through Fruit and the Warp-Warp Fruit, there aren't many kingdoms' treasuries left that can stop them.
...
On the deck of the Thunder Fortress.
Drum Kingdom was snowing right now, and a fair bit of it had piled up on their deck as well.
Perona was collecting the snow and piling it into little snowmen.
Whoosh—pa!
A small snowball flew over and smacked into Perona's cotton coat.
It definitely didn't hurt, but the provocation was obvious.
"Sugar! Don't make me release ghosts to deal with you. You'll end up crying again."
Perona had never felt great about "fighting" Sugar. Bare-handed, it was hard to say who was stronger. Sugar had a good time beating people up, but Perona couldn't use her abilities, which made her feel like she was shackled by invisible chains—really uncomfortable.
"Perona, today I'll let you use your ability. Let's see which of us gets hit by fewer snowballs!"
Perona's eyes lit up. Who doesn't like snowball fights? And she was even allowed to use her Devil Fruit ability.
The spirits summoned by her Hollow-Hollow Fruit could actually use physical means—that is, they could be converted into a semi-solid state.
The spirits could block snowballs for her, and they could also help her roll snowballs. Stupid Sugar was definitely going to lose.
"Alright! Don't cry, then."
Perona directly summoned two Negative Ghosts—one stood in front of her, and the other helped her roll snowballs.
Sugar, on the other hand, was leisurely rolling her own.
"Eat this, Sugar!"
Perona and her Negative Ghosts threw snowballs together. A double hit—there was no way Sugar could dodge it!
Whoosh!
Perona's eyes blurred—and Sugar vanished!
"Where did she go? Hey—ow…"
Before she could figure out what was happening, Perona felt a chill on the back of her head.
"Damn it! How did you get behind me?!"
An indignant Perona started rolling snowballs again and attacked Sugar, who warped away from her spot once more.
This time Perona got smarter and set the Negative Ghost's viewpoint different from her own, successfully spotting Sugar appearing on the other side.
Bang!
The Negative Ghost blocked Sugar's snowball.
Sugar could only rely on catching Perona off guard to suppress her a bit. Once Perona, with multiple viewpoints, figured out the pattern, the effect dropped a lot.
"So that's why you dared to challenge me—you became a Devil Fruit user!"
"Ruaruarua! Didn't expect that, did you!"
"Hmph! From now on, when I bully you, you won't have any excuses. Negative Ghost snowball attack!"
"I dodge! I dodge! I dodge-dodge-dodge!"
Short-distance warping didn't seem to consume much stamina.
Standing on the upper deck, Vane watched the two lolis' snowball war like some weird uncle.
Of course, he wasn't a weird uncle. He had no interest in lolis. With Baccarat helping him vent his restlessness, he wouldn't turn into a walking pile driver.
He was observing the Warp-Warp Fruit's ability. This fruit was very practical, but if your reaction speed wasn't good enough, you'd still get pinned to the ground and rubbed raw.
Also, this was only short-distance warping. Powerhouses all had large-area attack abilities, and short-distance warping couldn't escape those damage ranges.
Long-distance warping probably wouldn't be so easy.
After watching the two lolis who couldn't break each other's defenses, Vane lost interest and directly condensed Ice Crystal Wings and headed toward the depths of Drum Island.
...
Drum Island was pretty big, but its population couldn't compare to the Twin Kingdom at all. The Twin Kingdom had the "easy to have twins" aura, and the environment was like spring all year round.
What kind of environment did Drum Island have? A land covered in snow all year, with many ferocious wild beasts in the wilderness. It simply couldn't support too many people.
The medical skills of Drum Island's people were forced out of them. In this kind of environment, if medical standards were low, the current population wouldn't even be maintainable.
Vane kept flying at low altitude, trying to find traces of the Human-Human Fruit.
"The Human-Human Fruit looks like a mushroom. Logically, in this snowy place, it should be pretty conspicuous."
Because the Human-Human Fruit's ability was too abstract, Vane remembered its appearance—a mushroom with a red umbrella-like cap.
But after flying over Drum Kingdom's wilderness for a while, there was no sign of anything red.
He even got ambushed by Drum Kingdom's unique snow rabbits because he was flying low.
Those guys lying in the snow blended into the environment perfectly. Unfortunately for them, Vane had Observation Haki— their ambush was basically delivering themselves.
One kick per kid, and he sent them all back into their snow holes.
"So where is it… the Human-Human Fruit?"
The Cat-Cat Fruit could still have tigers, lions, leopards. But you never hear about the Human-Human Fruit having giants or little people.
Vane spent an entire day circling Drum Kingdom's wilderness. He even observed reindeer herds for a long time, and still didn't find any trace of the Human-Human Fruit.
"Fruits choose people… looks like the Human-Human Fruit and I have no fate."