Chapter 6 (Edited)

The third skill is the offensive one, which is incredible. Psychic or telekinesis is a handy skill. With this skill, I can manipulate anything around me with my mind. I can also make a mental/psychic defence around me so that none of the stray projectiles hit me. Sometimes, you won't even know when a stray bullet hit you after all.

And I can also throw stuff at my enemies with this skill or manipulate their bodies directly within the range. And, best of all, I can fly with this skill. I know it sounds lame, but flying has always been the dream of mankind for ages. Flying in a plane and flying on your own is an entirely different feeling after all.

So, I didn't hesitate to eat this fruit. There might be a better fruit out there, but I don't think anything would suit me better than this one. I'm glad that I didn't eat Cloud-Cloud fruit before. That would make me miss out on such an incredible fruit.

"Yuck!" After eating the whole fruit, I felt an unpleasant sensation coming out of my mouth. I quickly took out some fresh fruits and ate them to get rid of any unpleasant taste.

"Hah! Now, I know why it's called the devil fruit not godly fruit. With taste like that, nobody's going to call it a godly fruit." I grinned to myself, no longer feeling the unpleasant taste. I've never eaten something so horrendous in my life.

After eating the devil fruit, I felt some sort of power flowing toward my brain. My brain felt more precise and unusually active. It felt like all the obstacles that affected the brain got washed out by the energy. My brain felt smoother than ever before. I think my information processing capability got a boost after eating it.

I also felt some energy within the mind that I could manipulate. I tried to control it and felt some invisible energy surrounding me in all directions within the 10 m range. I tried to manipulate a nearby rock using the energy, and the rock floated in front of me. I tried moving it around, and it moved according to my thought. I threw it toward a tree as fast as I could. And to my surprise, it flew toward the direction at the speed of about 10 MPs. The rock decimated the tree as it blasted right through it.

'I can try to improve my range and control. Also, I should focus on increasing my energy stats.' I noted to myself making the next training plan. I also found that devil fruit power heavily depends on the energy level.

After closing the treasure chest, I put it inside my inventory and head out to finish the remaining work. I quickly arrived at the pirate ship and stealthily took the remaining crew out. It was an easy job, considering how strong I am.

I tried hypnotizing two of them with my skill, and it was easy. They had a relatively weak mental defence for my ability to work. I thought for a while and decided to brainwash them to experiment with my skill. I grabbed their heads and tried brainwashing. Brainwashing adds a permanent memory to the target's brain, making me their most important person, and my wish is their command, even if it is against their will.

Satisfied with the ability of my new devil fruit, I quickly woke them up. I ordered them to remove the pirate logo from the ship. I don't want my boat to look like a pirate ship when sailing, even a temporary one.

Then, I leave the ship, heading deeper inside the forest. I need some good old training to quickly adjust to my new devil fruit abilities, and I've got just the right person/beast to train with. I grinned to myself, heading toward the stream where the three big beasts of the island live.

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Timeskip: 2 months (14 months before the canon)

Unknown Island, East Blue

It's been roughly 2 months since I got my devil fruit ability. I managed to quickly adjust to it after a month of hard training. For the next month, I tried using various devil fruit abilities skillfully.

Thanks to the training, my range extended to 20 meters. Now, I can read anyone's surface thoughts and communicate with them within this range. To read deeper thoughts, I would need to hypnotize them. I can temporarily hypnotize any living creature within the range. Hypnotizing animals was complex, but I quickly managed to do it after sensing how their brains work.

Brainwashing still needs me to touch a person's head and crack their mental defence. Hypnotizing bypasses mental protection, whereas brainwashing needs to crack it open to work.

I finally feel satisfied with my progress looking at my new status.

[Name: Victor

Strength: 19

Stamina: 10

Vitality: 99

Energy: 15 [Note: 1 unit = 1 ton/minute]

Talent:

Void's blessing: You've been blessed by the Void. You can create and use any and all forms of energy.

???: Unidentified talent within your soul. More information is needed to categorize it.]

"So, 1 unit of energy means I can hold a ton of weight for a minute huh. That means I can manipulate a ton of weight for about 15 minutes without regeneration. With my usual energy regeneration, I guess I can last a little over 20 minutes. And the more weight I manipulate, the faster my energy usage will be." I mumble to myself, planning for future battles as I head toward the beach where my refurbished ship lies.

[PS: I tried to calculate the strength of characters in the One Piece world, referencing Rob Lucci. 10 Doriki = 1 ton in my calculation. That means Lucci, with 4000 doriki, can lift up to 400 tons of weight. And Lucci is just a mid-tier villain in the One Piece world. Top-tier characters in One Piece like Garp can uproot a small mountain and play basketball with it, generally over 10,000 tons. And they can fight entirely for more than a week non-stop. So, the MC is strong but not that strong at the same time.]

After walking for some time, I reached my destination. A standard ship with white sail lay in front of me. While I was searching, I found some paint inside the ship. So, I ordered the two crew to remove any pirate symbol from the ship. While busy training, I commanded them to tidy and clean the boat and redecorate it to look more like a merchant ship.

I flew using my psychic ability and landed on the ship's deck, looking at my new transportation in satisfaction. The two brainwashed crew were looking in my direction in expectation. Brainwashing makes them loyal to me, but I don't like it. It feels too fake for me to enjoy. Also, the effect of brainwashing vanishes if I get knocked unconscious. I have to make sure not to lose my consciousness in any battle, or my allies will betray in a heartbeat.

So, this skill is only for my enemies. I would never use it on a friend, making the bond fake for me to take it seriously. I want to have companions that won't abandon me during a crisis. So, using this skill on friends is a big no for me.

"Tom and Jerry! You did a great job cleaning the ship. As a reward, you can eat and drink as much as you like. Enjoy yourself, we'll start sailing tomorrow." I ordered them, and they nodded in response. I named them as such because their previous name was too hard to pronounce.

Tom was the tall and dull-looking guy, while Jerry was the short and witty looking one. Two of them reminded me of pair of characters from my favourite childhood cartoons, so I named the two after them.

With that done, I left the ship and headed deeper into the forest to collect enough rations for the journey. I collected about 10 tons of various fruits and 5 tons of meats without affecting the island's ecosystem.

The fruits will help me act as a merchant if I ever need to act like one. It's good to be well prepared if I ever need one.

Time is still inside the inventory, so food is always fresh. I cannot store living things inside my inventory. That's why I need to kill them first before removing the skin and guts and store them afterwards. I'd instead do such a tedious task now than later.

After finishing the work, I visited my three old friends on the island to say goodbye, which scared them off as they started running as their lives were on the line.

Shrugging my shoulders, I head back to the ship for a good sleep before starting the journey tomorrow. I'm excited thinking about finally leaving this island. It's been too damn long since I stayed here.

(Re-edited on 10/30/2021)