In the end, Wapol was executed. His brother met the same fate.
The crowd had demanded it, and honestly, Marcus couldn't argue with their reasoning. Years of medical tyranny, letting people die from treatable conditions while hoarding doctors like personal property, some crimes were just too big to forgive.
But what caught him off guard was what happened afterward. Among the fruits he'd been growing, two had transformed into Devil Fruits during the execution.
A watermelon had become the Munch-Munch Fruit, and one of his tropical fruits had turned into the Shroom-Shroom Fruit.
He stared at the two Devil Fruits. He hadn't expected this to actually happen. The transmutation tablet had valued both at exactly the same price as Mr. 5's Bomb-Bomb Fruit, 80 million EMC each.
Looking at those numbers made his head hurt. The EMC cost was getting seriously problematic. Unless he went back to Little Garden and farmed more dinosaurs, gathering enough points was going to be a real pain in the ass.
Then again, he remembered the Nether. He still didn't know if monsters would spawn there naturally. If they did, his EMC problems would be solved.
He quietly stored both Devil Fruits in his inventory, planning to deal with them later.
That's when a hand landed on his shoulder. Alvida appeared beside him, wearing that smirk she got when she'd figured something out.
"Just as I thought."
"What?" Marcus tilted his head to look at her as she leaned closer.
"I'm curious, since you clearly have this kind of ability, why didn't you just deal with that foul-mouthed bitch directly?"
"What foul-mouthed bitch?"
"Don't play dumb. That nasty woman with the terrible attitude."
"You mean Mr. 5's partner?"
"What's wrong? Couldn't bring yourself to do it? Going soft on a pretty face?" Alvida teased, studying Marcus' expression.
Marcus scratched his cheek, realizing she'd hit the mark perfectly.
Yeah, that was exactly why he hadn't dealt with Miss Valentine. Growing up in the modern world, he'd been raised with certain principles, respect your parents, protect children, ladies first, that whole thing. Old habits died hard, even in a world of pirates and killers. Ok, he had killed Mr. 5; there was no excuse for that. Maybe some old habits were fading, replaced by new ones he was only beginning to understand.
"I was right, wasn't I? Should I say you're ruthless, or that you're too kind for your own good?"
"You're not pissed off?"
"Hah? Why would I be pissed?" Alvida looked puzzled, then laughed and shook her head. "If you were the type of cold-blooded bastard who'd kill anyone without hesitation, then maybe I'd be worried."
She smiled at him, then leaned in and pressed her lipstick-painted lips lightly against his cheek. "Maybe it's exactly that personality of yours, combined with my beauty and perfect body, that keeps me around. Why would I be mad about that?"
Marcus touched his cheek, watching as Alvida walked away.
Did I just get played?
Just then, Chopper came racing over, pulling a sleigh behind him through the snow.
Luffy was standing on it, arms stretched out for balance. "Hey! Marcus, get on! We're setting sail!"
Even as he shouted, his rubber arm was already stretching out to grab Marcus, Alvida, and Vivi and pull them onto the sleigh.
"Hey hey hey! We're not even—"
Before Marcus could finish protesting, Luffy's arm had already yanked all three of them aboard the moving sleigh.
"Shishishishi, sorry, sorry..." Luffy laughed awkwardly, realizing he'd jumped the gun.
Then he immediately got smacked on the head by all three of them at once.
"I'm really, really sorry," he said, rubbing the growing bumps on his skull.
---
Back on the Going Merry, Luffy began formally introducing their newest crew member.
"This is Chopper, our new shipmate! Let's throw a feast to welcome him aboard!"
But Marcus immediately cut in with a reality check. "We can throw a feast, but... do we actually have enough food for one?"
The entire ship fell silent at that question.
Seeing their expressions, Marcus sighed. "Don't look at me like that. Right now, from overusing my abilities, I can't produce much meat."
"Aww..." Luffy looked completely devastated.
Usopp had the same disappointed expression.
Marcus was confused. "That's weird though. I clearly remember storing at least three months worth of fruit in the storage chests, plus over a month's worth of other food. And you guys fish all the time, not to mention those dinosaurs you hunted on Little Garden. There shouldn't be any food shortage, right?"
"Pheee~" Luffy attempted to whistle innocently, sweating and looking anywhere but at Marcus.
His partner in crime, Usopp, was doing the exact same thing.
"..."
Sanji walked over, sighing and shaking his head. "Without you around, no one else could handle that fishing rod. On top of that, this glutton kept eating those pickled rotten flesh strips you made. The more he ate, the hungrier he got, and without milk to cancel out that hunger debuff you mentioned... well, you can imagine how that went. Next time, you'd better lock those things away somewhere safe."
The entire crew nodded in agreement.
While the pickled rotten flesh strips were surprisingly tasty, they had a great flavor and satisfied some strange cravings, the fact that eating them made you hungrier was unbearable.
"What?! Why?! That's not fair!" Luffy immediately jumped up in protest.
And then the entire crew dog-piled him.
"I'm very, very sorry," came Luffy's muffled voice from under the pile.
Marcus rubbed his temples. His EMC value wasn't even at ten thousand right now. Compared to the millions he'd had before, he felt vulnerable.
"By the way, what about Clucky? Has it been laying any eggs these past few days?"
Marcus suddenly remembered their money-making chicken, hoping for some good news.
But when he saw Clucky, he and everyone else were stunned.
"What the hell? Did you guys abuse it or something?" Marcus stared in disbelief at the half-dead bird, completely confused.
Kira was tenderly stroking Clucky's feathers, her heart aching at its frail condition as she gently tried to comfort it.
"If it weren't for Clucky, we would've starved these past few days," Sanji explained, giving Marcus a quick rundown of what had happened.
Ever since Clucky had stopped being cube-shaped, the eggs it laid could be either explosive or normal, and the normal ones had all the effects of Minecraft food, providing incredible satiation.
After the ship's food supplies ran out, everyone had relied on Clucky eating the few wheat seeds Marcus had left behind. That was the only way they'd managed to survive.
But when the wheat seeds were gone, they'd had to resort to feeding it regular rice. Of course, rice could never compare to proper Minecraft wheat seeds in terms of nutritional value.
As a result, Clucky had grown thinner and thinner, basically sacrificing its own health to keep the crew fed.
"Clu... Cluck..." After making that weak sound, Clucky tilted its head and collapsed into Kira's arms.
"You finally came back. I held on as long as I could..." Chopper translated.
Marcus fell silent, then quietly pulled out a stack of 64 wheat seeds from his inventory.
The nearly-dead Clucky instantly sprang from Kira's arms into Marcus' embrace, devouring the seeds frantically.
"CLUCKY!"
Chopper translated, "Not enough!"
Marcus thought for a moment, then brought out a full thousand wheat seeds.
"Eat up. Once you're satisfied, give me your strongest exploding egg."
"Clucky!"
Chopper translated again, "You got it!"
That's when the others finally realized something important, Chopper could actually understand what Clucky was saying.
"Whoa! You can really understand Clucky?! That's amazing!" Luffy exclaimed in shock.
Usopp was equally surprised. "You're a raccoon, it's a chicken, how do you guys even have a common language?!"
"I told you! I'm a reindeer, not a raccoon, you idiot! And communication between animals often relies on body language, tones, and actions! Besides, I won't get happy just because you praise me a little, okay~" Chopper said while twisting around shyly.
Everyone watching had the same thought: He looks really happy.
After scarfing down the thousand wheat seeds, Clucky shook its head. "Cluck Cluck."
"What's it saying?" Marcus asked, looking at Chopper.
"Not enough, still needs..."
"Cluck Cluck Clucky!"
"Two hundred and eighty more."
Marcus froze. 1,280 seeds total? That amount exactly matched the pricing for a D2-level exploding egg. Had Clucky's ability limit really jumped from E4 to D2 in just a few days of stress-eating?
He handed over the additional 280 wheat seeds. After Clucky finished them, it suddenly shuddered violently, straining with effort.
A black-spotted exploding egg appeared in Marcus' hands.
"Cluck Clucky! Cluck Clucky Cluck Clucky!"
"If it weren't for being drained these past few days, it could've produced an even stronger one," Chopper translated.
Exploding Egg D2, worth 12,800 EMC.
From a cost of 2,560 seeds to a value of 12,800 EMC, it was already a massive profit margin.
After restoring some of his resources, he still brought out a pile of steaks and fruit for everyone. He also equipped his fishing rod.
But soon after, his newly gained 12,800 EMC was completely spent again on essential supplies.
"That's all we've got for now. Oh, Nami, the next island after this one is Arabasta, right? Can you record the magnetic field there directly? I need to plant some things on this island first, so let's stay for two more days."
Marcus smiled as he made the suggestion.
Nami glanced at Vivi, who gave a small nod with a complicated expression on her face.
Seeing that silent exchange, she had no objections to the plan.