[Gained new skill: Ancient Script Mastery]
(Description: You can now read the Poneglyphs.)
[Observation Haki has evolved!]
"Evolved?!" Rain blinked. His Observation Haki was already at [Peak]—how could it evolve further?
The next second, he understood.
Wait—above Peak, wasn't there that [???] tier?
The moment that clicked, an indescribably profound sensation surged through his mind.
Vmmm—!
In his perception, the world instantly became… quiet.
No—not quiet.
The distant surf of the cloud sea lapping at the shore, the scholars murmuring in low voices, the rustle of wind through leaves, even the faint movement of worms turning in the soil beneath his feet—everything still existed, and with perfect clarity.
But it was no longer "noise."
If [Peak] Observation meant he could "hear clearly" the voices of all things—
Then now, it was as if he could "understand" the will behind those voices.
He could see the little sapling they'd just planted radiating a joyful will of rooting into new soil.
He could see the warm will woven into Olvia—motherly love, relief, peace.
He could see Robin's bright, sunlit will—curiosity and kindness toward the world.
The voices of all things were no longer chaotic. They became a harmonious melody.
Even the Rumble-Rumble Fruit—something he'd repeatedly scanned for and failed to find—now became unmistakably "audible."
"So… it was here."
Rain slowly opened his eyes and smiled in realization.
He pulled up his personal panel, and sure enough, it had updated.
[Haki]: Observation (Transcendent)
He turned to Smoker, who was staring at him in confusion, and said, "Wait here a moment."
"Hey—weren't you just talking about returning?" Smoker frowned, having no idea what this guy was doing again.
Rain didn't answer. He only waved once, then flickered into a blur and vanished alone into the jungle leading toward the great beanstalk.
"…That bastard." Smoker clicked his tongue, irritated.
…
A few minutes later.
Rain walked back alone to the base of the towering beanstalk.
He didn't climb upward—instead, he went to the thick, hill-like root bulge at the bottom. This was Upper Yard's oldest ground, covered in moss and slick stone.
"I see…" Rain understood immediately.
It had been hidden here the whole time, perfectly masked by the beanstalk and Upper Yard's own ocean-like life-voice.
And at the very lowest point, too—no wonder Enel had been able to find it later.
Rain drove his entire arm into the beanstalk's root—like plunging into tofu—despite its steel-like hardness.
A moment later, he pulled his arm out.
In his hand was a golden, apple-like fruit covered in spiral ridges like frozen lightning.
The Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
But once he truly held it, Rain fell into a long silence.
This was a major choice.
As a transmigrator, he knew better than anyone how terrifying this fruit was.
Enel being beaten by Luffy back then didn't mean the fruit was weak—he'd simply been introduced too early.
The Rumble-Rumble Fruit was unquestionably among the top Logias—arguably one of the strongest fruits in existence.
If Rain ate it, his already formidable speed, destructive power, and perception would undergo another qualitative leap. His strength would rocket to an entirely new level.
But the cost was just as huge.
Once he ate it, he would become like every other fruit user—a sea-cursed "landlubber," forever losing the freedom to swim, and gaining a fatal weakness: Seastone.
His current path—physique, Haki, swordsmanship—was already a king's road. Countless legendary figures had proven it could reach the top.
Did he really need to lock himself in chains just for a shortcut?
Rain's eyes wavered.
But then—
He couldn't help recalling the "final twelve" he'd seen in his previous life's manga—aside from a few, most were monsters who'd pushed Devil Fruits and Haki to the extreme.
Haki was the ticket to the summit. But a top-tier fruit was also a trump card that could decide victory.
And more than that…
Rain looked down at the fruit in his hand, like lightning frozen into matter.
Powerful fruits chose their hosts. Finding the Rumble-Rumble Fruit at all felt like a kind of guidance.
To refuse a gift from the heavens was to invite misfortune.
Rain's gaze hardened into certainty.
He didn't hesitate.
Calmly, he put the Rumble-Rumble Fruit into his mouth and took a huge bite.
"Ghk—"
A disgusting taste exploded across his tongue—like biting into a leaking battery mixed with rotten rags.
Even with Rain's willpower, he almost vomited on the spot.
He forced the nausea down, swallowed, and made himself finish the entire fruit. One bite would've been enough, but what if missing even a little somehow affected awakening later?
The next second—
The sky changed.
The White-White Sea, calm and bright moments ago, darkened in seconds.
Above Rain, the clouds began spinning at high speed, forming a gigantic eye that covered the heavens.
RUMBLE—!!!
Within pitch-black clouds, countless blinding blue lightning snakes erupted—thunder and lightning like the end of the world. The pressure alone made the scholars and Shandians in the distance drop to their knees in fear.
He didn't need an instruction manual. The instant he ate it, he understood how to wield it.
A savage flood of energy surged through Rain's body—and then his [Transcendent] Observation fused with the Rumble-Rumble power.
His perception shifted, like a game camera snapping into an extreme third-person view.
His awareness seemed to lift free of his body, soaring in an instant to the highest clouds, looking down coldly like a god upon the land below.
He saw the entire Sky Island.
Upper Yard was no longer soil and trees in his eyes, but a precise blueprint woven from countless lines of energy.
Every living being's unique bioelectric field shone like stars in the dark.
"No wonder Enel got so inflated and thought he was a real god," Rain thought. "This feeling of seeing everything, ruling everything from above… it really is dangerously intoxicating."
At the same time, an extremely pure current of lightning began flowing through his body.
It slowly nourished every cell, every strand of muscle fiber.
Rain could clearly sense that over time, his physique, neural response, and even recovery would all grow stronger from this constant, accumulating nourishment.
He pulled his awareness back from the heavens and slowly opened his eyes.
A pure blue arc flickered deep within his pupils.
He raised a hand toward an empty stretch of cloud sea in the distance.
BOOOOM—!!!!!!!!!!
A lightning pillar so thick it blotted out the sky slammed down in absolute silence, carrying world-ending power.
In that instant, the cloud sea was pierced and vaporized.
A gigantic hollow, thousands of meters wide, opened in the clouds—refusing to close for a long time.
~~~
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