Two days later.
Gourmet City — Puki Island.
Inside a hotel room, Ash Thalos collapsed face‑up onto the large bed, looking utterly depressed.
It was not that the food in Gourmet City had disappointed him — quite the opposite. Gourmet City truly lived up to its reputation. The food here was unbelievably delicious.
So delicious, in fact, that Ash felt his stomach was far too small and his digestive capacity far too weak to consume even a fraction of what he wanted. Not only could he not finish his meals, he could not even buy extra to take away.
It wasn't that the vendors refused him, but most food here had a limited shelf life. Whether cold dishes, hot meals, or fresh produce, once eaten past their prime they lost their original texture and flavor, drastically diminishing their appeal.
"I was too young back then. I was too impulsive when designing the Devil Fruit system. If I had added a divine ability like Universe in the Sleeve, or powers related to space and time, the storage problem would be solved! Sigh… I was shortsighted!" Ash sighed dramatically.
After tasting Gourmet City's delicacies, the Sea King barbecue he once thought tasty now seemed almost inedible by comparison.
What if he left Gourmet City and could never eat this fine food again?
At that thought, Ash instantly grew anxious.
"System editor, you're a system, for goodness sake, why can't items consume Devil Fruits…" Ash muttered to himself.
His energy meter had originally dropped below 10 points, and since everyone had been traveling recently, he couldn't constantly accumulate energy like he did while defending Twin Capes.
However, thanks to the Diwen Village fleet arriving in the Alabasta sea area two days ago, and encountering many kind pirate crews besides the Marines, as well as the sudden increase in pirate activity near Carnival City and Gourmet City, the generous contributions of numerous friendly pirates ultimately pushed Ash's energy past 110 points.
At least that was enough to design a storage Devil Fruit similar to a Castle‑Castle Fruit.
Unfortunately, the system dealt a harsh blow. Designing any Devil Fruit was completely up to Ash, but figuring out how to make an item consume a Devil Fruit was also his problem.
The system did have auxiliary functions, which Ash had been prompted about when he first activated the Devil Fruit editor, but activating those functions cost an enormous amount of energy.
Looking at Ash's current situation, the result was obvious.
"It's just turning on an auxiliary function! Why does the historical energy cost need to exceed 1,000 points? Seriously!"
The system completely ignored Ash's complaints.
Ash felt helpless. Although he had other ideas besides using Paramecia‑type Devil Fruits to create storage items — he could design Mythical Zoan‑type Fruits with space and time abilities, like Di Jiang and Zhu Jiuyin, two of the legendary Twelve Ancestral Witches who govern space and time — Devil Fruits were meant for people to eat!
Where would he find the time to fly back to the fleet, find someone to eat the Devil Fruit, and make them his storage tool? Besides, he did not even have enough energy to create both the Di Jiang and Zhu Jiuyin Fruits!
As for trying to combine space and time into a single Devil Fruit, Ash had already attempted it. The system immediately rejected it.
No other reason: it was too overpowered.
After all, space and time are conceptually higher than the Five Elements. Expecting a single Devil Fruit to control both was simply over the top.
"No! Forget the storage issue for now. When I meet Vice Admiral Tsuru in a few days, I must find a way to get the Six Powers! For no other reason than Life Return. If I master Life Return, I can show off forever."
Hehe…
Two days ago, as he left Carnival City, Ash learned that Gourmet City held a Chef Competition in the middle of every month.
So when setting the meeting time with Vice Admiral Tsuru, he had deliberately reserved five days, allowing him to be here for the start of the Chef Tournament.
Five days was also enough time for Ash to sample plenty of delicious food.
"You have to work hard, Ash! In this world, only gourmet food and kindness must never be let down! How can you bear to sadden the kind chefs who poured their hearts into making all these delicacies for you!"
"There are only about four days left. Time is tight and the mission is heavy, so let's start sampling every restaurant in the eastern quarter of the city!"
Feeling that the food in his stomach had mostly digested and having given himself a lavish pep talk, Ash once again set out on his food‑binge journey.
To taste more delicacies efficiently, Ash reluctantly limited himself to eating only five servings at each restaurant. By doing this, he ate his way from the east side of the city to the southern quarter over the course of three days.
Meanwhile, in the southeastern area of Gourmet City, the legend of a food‑bingeing youth began to spread.
"Oh, oh, oh, the texture of this sashimi is truly superb, boss!"
Exaggerated praise rang out from a small street stall in the south of the city.
It was Ash, long since letting himself go, sampling unique delicacies and shouting his praise without restraint.
Ignoring the curious stares of passersby, he pointed at the sashimi he had just eaten and exclaimed, "Boss, ten more servings of this sashimi!"
The stall owners were a young man and a young woman, rare beauties in the Pirate World where most people looked rough and unruly.
Both had neatly styled short pink hair and appeared about fifteen or sixteen years old, yet their chef uniforms were extremely formal.
Unfortunately, those meticulously clean chef outfits contrasted hilariously with the roadside stall where they worked.
"Apologies, customer," the young man said as he continued cooking, speaking little.
Instead, the girl preparing ingredients spoke up, explaining, "This sashimi uses the lower‑breast meat of the Poison Pufferfish. Although it's fresh and delicious, it should not be consumed carelessly."
"Huh? Is it poisonous?" Ash asked instinctively.
The young man cooking visibly looked displeased at that question. The girl tugged at his sleeve before turning back to Ash and saying, "The Poison Pufferfish is poisonous, but an experienced chef can remove its toxin glands and extract the most delicious parts of its body, so the sashimi you ate is absolutely safe."
"However, to avoid being hunted, the Poison Pufferfish evolved multiple defense mechanisms. Poison is only one of them. Its other defense is paralysis."
"If the customer eats too much Poison Pufferfish sashimi, it may cause slight paralysis, making it inconvenient to taste other delicacies afterward."
"Impressive professionalism, I completely understand now!" Ash laughed.
"But it's fine, my physiology is excellent, so don't worry. Please prepare ten more servings of sashimi!" he added enthusiastically.
At this, the girl turned to look at the young man cooking.
The young man replied in a deadpan voice, "If the customer insists, then Saff, go prepare it. Captain Markel is here anyway, and he heard that you requested it strongly."