The shockwave and fierce wind gradually subsided.
Thud!
Jake, who had struck a cool punching pose, collapsed to the ground exhausted.
Having used his ability just twice, Jake felt completely drained. It was clear that while the fruit's power was strong, the consumption was also enormous. His body was still far too weak.
Seeing Jake slump to the ground, Nami thought something had gone wrong and hurried over to help him up.
"Jake, are you alright?!" Nami asked with concern.
"I'm fine, just a bit exhausted from the high consumption!" Jake replied with a slightly weary expression, shaking his head gently.
As soon as Jake finished speaking, two pirates suddenly ran out.
Their faces flushed with alcohol, both looking completely bewildered, one of them wielding a sword shouted at Nami and Jake: "Who are you? What's happening?"
Ah, it was the pirates from the sailors' quarters that the two had broken into earlier—dead drunk and already searched by Nami.
Butcher had crashed through the entire pirate ship, causing such a huge commotion. The whole ship had already started burning; no matter how deeply the pirates slept, they should have woken up by now.
Seeing the pirate with a sword, Nami instinctively looked for a weapon to defend herself, but her combination staff had already been broken by Bakar.
Seeing Nami's nervous expression, Jake reassured her: "It's okay, leave it to me!"
With that, Jake raised his hand toward the two pirates and began gathering what little strength remained in his body.
Boom!
Thunder crashed and lightning flashed.
Thud! Thud!
Struck by lightning, the two pirates' faces turned charred black, smoke rose from their heads, their hair stood straight up, and their bodies collapsed powerlessly to the ground.
They were just ordinary pirates, not like Bakar who could withstand a lightning strike.
Seeing Jake demonstrate his ability again, Nami called out excitedly: "That's amazing, Jake! What happened? How did you suddenly become so powerful?!"
Having used his ability again and feeling even more exhausted, Jake responded: "I just ate a Devil Fruit and gained this superpower."
Upon hearing this, Nami's expression became serious, but her eyes turned into $$ symbols as she asked: "You're saying you ate a Devil Fruit? The one called the treasure of the sea, that grants demonic power when eaten, that sells for at least one hundred million Berries on the black market—that Devil Fruit?"
Seeing Nami's reaction, Jake thought she didn't know, so he nodded in response: "Yeah! Why, what's wrong?"
Clearly, the last part of Nami's question was the real point. After getting confirmation, Nami's expression changed instantly. Her $$ eyes turned into shark eyes, her teeth became sharp fangs, and she grabbed Jake by the neck and started shaking him.
"You bastard! Damn bastard! That's one hundred million Berries! No, it should be one billion Berries! You ate it all by yourself! How are you going to compensate me?!"
This was truly Nami, a devoted money-lover. Jake, being shaken like a rag doll, no longer wanted to say anything.
Just as Jake might have been shaken to death by Nami, the coughing of the prostitute lying nearby saved him.
Cough! Cough! Cough!
Lying completely naked on the deck, continuously coughing up blood, the prostitute would really die if she didn't receive medical attention soon.
Different lands raise different people. Even though the woman was just a prostitute, her figure was still explosively good—ample curves, slender waist, shapely hips, long legs. In his previous world, with the woman's looks, she would have been at least an international celebrity.
But in this world, she could only fall to being a prostitute serving the lowly class of pirates.
Of course, Jake didn't look down on prostitutes. Many people entered this profession out of desperation. If not for survival, no normal person would willingly degrade themselves.
The pirate ship was already burning, the firelight illuminating everything exceptionally clearly. Discovering Jake examining the prostitute, Nami delivered a heavy chop to him with her hand, but this time it didn't raise a large bump on Jake's head.
Nami felt her hand chop was like hitting cotton—all her force completely disappeared.
"Don't look!" Nami warned, about to cover Jake's eyes with her hand.
Jake hastily explained: "She's dying, perhaps my ability can save her."
Saying this, Jake walked to the prostitute's side and placed his hand on her abdomen. His hand emitted a faint white glow that spread across the woman's body. The woman's body began to change—her skin became much whiter and smoother, her body seemed more vigorous, and the woman's breathing became somewhat stronger.
"How is it? Can she be saved?" Nami asked curiously.
Seeing the woman's skin become white and smooth, Nami showed an expression of wanting to try it too.
Jake shook his head and said: "I don't know. My ability has very little effect. Whether she can survive depends on herself."
After the fruit's ability took effect in his body, Jake roughly understood what he could do. His fruit had multiple abilities, such as causing vibrations, releasing electric shocks, absorption capabilities, and lubrication.
Jake's lubrication ability was somewhat like the Slip-Slip Fruit's ability. He had read online discussions about developing the Slip-Slip Fruit's abilities, such as slipping away attacks and damage.
The prostitute had been thrown by Butcher, her internal organs suffering a certain degree of shock damage. Jake's ability made her entire body smooth, which reduced the abrasion her internal wounds would suffer from movement, and also prevented the blood clots in her body from blocking, expelling harmful substances from her body.
From the prostitute's condition, Jake's ability still had a certain effect.
Although Jake said the effect wasn't great, Nami could still see the prostitute's condition. She didn't want the prostitute to lose her life because of her.
The prostitute was fine, but Nami had a problem.
"Ah! My money!"
Looking at the captain's quarters engulfed in raging flames, thinking of the money in the treasure chest in the captain's quarters, Nami cried out loudly. Thinking that the money in the treasure chest might be burned by the fire, Nami angrily punched Jake in the head.
Nami grabbed Jake's shoulders and shook him, her face turning into a shark face as she roared: "Idiot! It's all your fault! Why did you use lightning to set the ship on fire? Think of something quick! There's still a treasure chest in the captain's quarters!"
Shaken dizzy once again, Jake quickly said: "Let go, I'll think of something. Perhaps there's still hope."
Hearing this, Nami grabbed Jake and threw him toward the flames.
This was Nami, an absolute money-lover. If you made her lose a single Berry, she would fight you to the death. Hearing that Jake could save her money, Nami didn't hesitate to push him toward the fire.
The flames blazed fiercely, the high temperature distorting the air. Facing the oncoming heat wave, an ordinary person would be burned just by approaching, but Jake only felt warm.
Although she had pushed Jake toward the sea of fire, Nami didn't actually want Jake to go to his death—she thought Jake had some kind of plan!
Seeing Jake walk toward the sea of fire like this, Nami was quite frightened too.
"Hey, Jake, what are you doing?!"
But Jake paid no attention to Nami and directly extended his hand toward the flames. His hand emitted a white glow.
As his hand touched the flames, an invisible suction force emerged from his palm. Under the pull of this force, the fiercely burning blazing flames converged toward his palm.
The flames surged into Jake's palm, and when they touched that layer of white glow, the flames dissipated and transformed into pure energy that was absorbed by Jake. Instantly, Jake felt his nearly depleted stamina being replenished.
This was another ability Jake displayed after triggering vibrations, releasing electric shocks, and emitting the lubricating glow—energy absorption.
Rather than calling it an absorption ability, it would be more accurate to call it charging and energy replenishment.
Vibration, electric shock, lubrication, charging—these common elements didn't seem like much, but when combined together, plus the fact that the Devil Fruit was pink and shaped like a cucumber, it brought to mind certain indecent things.
And this still wasn't the full extent of his abilities. Jake felt that once he became more familiar with his powers, he could unleash even more capabilities.
It wasn't unheard of for a single Devil Fruit to have multiple abilities—for example, the Op-Op Fruit had a complete set of surgical abilities. Jake's abilities were just somewhat less... dignified in their applications.
The energy absorption ability could absorb various forms of energy and convert them into the user's stamina. The energy that could be absorbed included but wasn't limited to kinetic energy, electrical energy, light energy, thermal energy, slashes, slash waves, and shockwaves.
The energy absorption ability seemed invincible, but it had two limitations: absorption efficiency and storage capacity. Attacks that were too powerful couldn't be fully absorbed, and high-intensity attacks could still harm the ability user. Furthermore, absorbing too much energy would also damage the user.
The fiercely burning flames were completely absorbed by Jake in just a few breaths. Before Jake could take any other action, the impatient Nami rushed toward the captain's quarters that could collapse at any moment.
Soon, Nami's delighted laughter came from the captain's quarters.
Thud! Thud! Thump!
Nami came down carrying a chest larger than herself, showing no signs of being a weak woman. The power of money was truly infinite.
Thump!
The chest slammed heavily onto the deck, seeming to make the whole deck shake.
As a professional thief, Nami had excellent lock-picking skills and easily opened the chest's lock.
Since the chest's surface was covered in iron and the fire hadn't burned for long, both the chest and the valuables inside were intact.
The faint firelight illuminated the chest, and the gold inside emitted a golden glow. Nami cried out in joy.
Based on Nami's experience, she roughly estimated that the gold and cash in the chest were worth at least twenty million Berries. This meant that if she pulled off just one more job and earned about ten million more, combined with her accumulated savings over the years, she would soon be able to buy back Cocoyasi Village and gain her freedom.
"That's amazing, Jake!"
An excited Nami grabbed Jake in a hug, giving his head a face full of her chest, leaving Jake, who was still treating the prostitute's injuries, unsure of what to do.
Warm, elastic, and soft—the wonderful sensation coming from the back of his head made Jake certain that while Miss Nami looked immature, her assets were definitely no smaller than the prostitute's, which were as large as papayas.
After giving him a hug, Nami went back to counting money.
Seeing Nami happily counting money, and after confirming that the prostitute was temporarily safe, Jake also walked over.
Although there was a lot of money in the chest, it was all in small denominations, along with some gold bars and gold jewelry.
Jake wasn't like Nami—he couldn't estimate how much these were worth, but that didn't dampen his excitement since he had never seen so much money before.
"Nami, I contributed quite a bit. At least split it with me fifty-fifty!" Jake said.
As they say, talking about money hurts feelings. The moment Nami heard Jake asking her for money, she immediately exploded.
"Impossible! Don't even think about it! It's all mine."
As she spoke, Nami grabbed the treasure chest and lay on top of it, as if to prevent Jake from snatching it. She also shot him a vicious glare, acting like she would fight him to the death if he dared to try.
Glaring at Jake, Nami said viciously: "I'm the one who pulled you out of the sea. These past two days of food, drink, and lodging add up—you still owe me 22 million Berries. What's worse, you actually hogged the Devil Fruit for yourself. You should compensate me 500 million Berries instead."
Well, it seemed he owed even more money now.
Jake felt like he had been blinded by greed and brought up exactly what he shouldn't have. Now not only did he not get any money, but he owed even more.
But Jake still argued back: "Didn't you say it was 11 million Berries this morning?! How did it become 20 million Berries?"
"Sorry, the price went up!" said the money-obsessed Nami with dollar signs in her eyes.
Seeing Nami's money-grubbing expression, Jake understood there was no way he would get any money. In fact, he might even have to work for Nami to pay off his debt.
After Nami packed up the valuables, she conducted another search of the pirate ship but didn't find another Devil Fruit, so she added another debt to Jake's account. The reason was that because Jake had knocked Butcher into the sea, they couldn't go to the Marines to collect the bounty on Bakar's head.
Jake had been caught in the crossfire again.
And so, what had started as a planned theft turned into a robbery that ended perfectly.
The prostitute was also quite lucky. The prostitute's other two companions hadn't left. Of course, the main reason they hadn't left was because Butcher hadn't paid them yet.
There are rules in every trade. Since Bakar had been with the women, even though he was now dead, payment was still required.
The night grew deep. Although Jake and the others had caused quite a commotion, the dock was far from the residential area. It wasn't until the next morning when people came to the port for work that they discovered the notorious Butcher was dead, the pirate ship had been burned, and the Butcher Pirates had been wiped out, immediately causing a huge sensation.
...
She had only come to the Bahamas to gather information, but unexpectedly made a fortune. Looking at the increasing treasure in the chest, Nami's face was full of happy smiles.
Looking at the valuables in the chest, Nami glanced at the locked cabin door. She knew Jake was outside.
Having gone through the trouble of fishing Jake out of the waves yesterday, Nami thought she had really struck it rich.
What she earned today would take Nami at least half a year of hard work to earn, or a whole year if her luck was bad.
That guy Jake eating the Devil Fruit had cost her a hundred million Berries, which made Nami a bit angry. But she had also gained a free fighter. The notorious pirate Butcher with a bounty of 15 million Berries had been killed by Jake—thinking about it made Nami somewhat happy.
With Jake around, Nami felt she no longer needed to sneak around. She would soon be able to earn enough to buy back Cocoyasi Village for a hundred million Berries.
Arlong's bounty was only 20 million Berries. As a strong fishman and one of the subordinates of Jinbe, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, this bounty was indeed a bit low. Arlong's strength wasn't something that guy Bakar could compare to.
However, with Jake's abilities, dealing with Arlong shouldn't be a problem. With just his energy absorption ability alone, Arlong wouldn't be able to harm him.
But Nami overlooked this option, which showed just how deep a shadow Arlong had cast on her.
After two days of observation, seeing that Jake hadn't done anything inappropriate to such a beautiful young woman, and had even helped the injured prostitute, Nami discovered that Jake was actually a pretty good person. She even felt like she might have been too cruel leaving Jake outside to be blown by the sea breeze.
None of the above was really important. What was most important was that thinking of Jake's face now—he was like a completely different person—and thinking of him made Nami's heart beat violently.
Recalling how those two prostitutes' eyes had hearts in them when they saw Jake, looking like they wanted to pounce on him, made Nami feel extremely annoyed.
Outside the cabin, compared to Nami, Jake didn't have so many thoughts on his mind. He was simply curiously testing out his abilities.