One Piece: Surrounded at Marineford? Just kidding!

Chapter 441: The Fruit Automatically Chooses Its Master!

Chen Ye's gaze swept back and forth between Roger and Rocks's faces.

After confirming that both of them were still listening.

He then continued speaking.

Chen Ye's gaze fell upon the white figure in the distant sky.

Luffy is using his enormous legs, which are part of his gigantic body, to clamp down on the wings of the Maz Saint Bird and slam it down.

Still laughing and joking.

Chen Ye stared at the white figure and continued speaking!

"Luffy, you are now the third Nika."

He tilted his head slightly and glanced at Lox.

Then, however, he precisely met the emotions surging deep within Lox's pupils.

Chen Ye didn't give Locke time to process what was happening and continued speaking.

"The power he's displaying now, this fighting style, the power of the sun god, the symbol of freedom, it's the legendary Devil Fruit."

He spoke of the legendary Devil Fruit in a deliberately calm tone.

But after this sentence was uttered.

The two people reacted very differently.

Roger's pupils suddenly shrank to pinpoints.

Then, like a powder keg with a lit fuse, the light in his golden eyes surged.

I want to suppress my excitement!

Now that Chen Ye had confirmed it, his fighting spirit was on full display!

Lox's reaction was completely the opposite.

His body made no unnecessary movements.

It was even quieter than before.

Although he was completely silent at the moment!

However, his silence also revealed his feelings.

Roger finally couldn't hold back any longer.

He slapped his thigh hard.

"Snapped!"

He lowered his voice, but the ecstasy in his voice was unmistakable.

"I knew it! I knew it!"

The battlefield is still behind us.

But the flames burning in his golden eyes were three times more intense than the white mist rising from Luffy in the distance.

Rocks finally moved.

He stared at Chen Ye for a full two seconds before finally speaking.

"The one chosen by the Nika Fruit."

He repeated Chen Ye's words.

A faint, bitter smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"Back then, I searched for this fruit with all my might. I scoured the entire Grand Line and investigated every clue left by Davy Jones, but in the end, I found nothing."

His gaze passed over Chen Ye's shoulder and landed on the white figure in the distance, bouncing and laughing in the air.

"So, it turns out that this fruit wasn't something you chose; it chose you."

The last five words were drawn out, like tasting a bitter wine that had been brewing for decades.

Chen Ye nodded slightly.

He agreed with this assessment.

Then he took over the conversation, but his speech slowed down a beat.

"You're right. The Nika Fruit is different from other Devil Fruits."

He paused for a moment.

"Other fruits are eaten once they're eaten; whoever finds them first and puts them in their mouth first owns them. But Nika is different; it chooses its own owner."

Chen Ye stretched out a finger and casually drew a circle in the air.

A simple gesture.

But both listeners' attention was completely drawn to this finger.

"This fruit is conscious. It has its own will and can judge who is qualified to be the next successor. Only those it approves of can truly awaken its power."

He stopped circling his fingers, put his hand back in his pocket, and added a key piece of information in a tone devoid of any extra emotion.

"This is why the world government has not found it for eight hundred years."

Roger frowned.

Eight hundred years.

The world government has devoted all its efforts to searching for eight hundred years.

Intelligence networks, secret agents, and assassination squads.

These forces were enough to turn the Grand Line upside down three times, yet they gained nothing.

If the Nika Fruit had its own consciousness, it could hide itself, disguise itself, and choose its own host.

So for the past eight hundred years, it has truly been an invisible fish.

They move freely within the intricate web cast by the World Government.

Roger blurted it out.

"The World Government has searched for eight hundred years and still hasn't found it? Then where exactly is this fruit hidden...?"

Chen Ye's lips curled into a smile.

His first expression of the day that showed clear emotion.

It's like telling a brilliant joke.

He looked Roger into the eyes and spoke slowly and deliberately.

"It's nowhere, yet it's everywhere. The Nika Fruit has an extremely special ability: it can disguise itself."

He turned his head and glanced into the distance.

Luffy is using the body of the Sacred Boar of Vorchid as a hammer to smash it to the ground.

The smile on his lips deepened even further.

"Before Luffy ate it, this fruit existed in the world under another name."

"Rubber fruit".

"Paramecia type, Gum-Gum Fruit."

"The World Government spent eight hundred years searching for a legendary fruit called 'Nika,' scouring every ancient book, every island, and every black market, but never imagined that it was hidden inside the skin of the most ordinary and inconspicuous rubber fruit."

The words fell.

The air in the ruins was sucked out.

Roger froze in place for exactly two seconds.

Mouth slightly open.

His eyes remained motionless.

Then he threw his head back and burst into laughter.

I laughed so hard I bent over.

I laughed so hard I had to put my hands on my knees.

I laughed until tears welled up in my eyes.

Rocks did not laugh.

He closed his eyes and exhaled a long breath.

Disguised as a rubber fruit.

This means that even if he turned the whole world upside down back then, he would never be able to find it.

From the very beginning, fate did not choose him.

Lox closed his eyes for several seconds.

When he opened his eyes again, the regret and resentment deep within his pupils had been crushed by his will and pressed into an even deeper corner.

He looked at Chen Ye, his voice regaining its composure.

"The fruit chooses its master... Interesting. Was Joy Boy also chosen by this fruit back then?"

Chen Ye nodded decisively.

"That's right. Joy Boy from eight hundred years ago was the previous chosen one of the Nika Fruit. Luffy is its new choice eight hundred years later."

The voice just fell.

A particularly loud "Liberation Drum" beat came from the distant battlefield.

Boom!

Luffy's white form flashed past in the smoke, leaving a leaping arc in his wake.

Chen Ye glanced at it from the side.

The white fist hurled the boar's body, belonging to the Saint of Vochuli, into the air.

Luffy followed closely, launching himself high into the air and charging up a punch above the boar.

The giant fist, a fusion of Armament Haki and Conqueror's Haki, slammed Feng Boar back to the ground from the sky.

The shockwave shattered the ground within a radius of hundreds of meters.

The dust raised by the gravel obscured half the sky.

Chen Ye turned back to face Roger and Rocks.

The smile on his face softened slightly.

His tone also became serious.

"However, the white form that Luffy is currently displaying should only be the initial awakening state of the Nika Fruit."

He paused for half a second.

"The potential of this fruit is far greater than this."

Roger and Rocks both perked up their ears.

Both of them tilted their bodies an inch toward Chen Ye without prior agreement.

But Chen Ye did not continue speaking.

Because Chenye is also unsure what the next form of the Nika Fruit will be!

Then, he put his hands back in his pockets and turned his head slightly to look at the battlefield.