Chapter 141: Two Stewards and a Divine Bird (Please Subscribe, Recommend, and Vote)

After making this decision, Buffon did not immediately lead his men out to sea. Long Ring Long Land was only about a day's journey from the G2 branch, so setting off too early served no purpose.

Moreover, the strength of their base on Long Ring Long Land needed to be reinforced. After all, this was the foundation for the Juventus Pirates' long-term struggle against the World Government in the future.

If anything went wrong, even if Buffon managed to rescue Moria, they would have no choice but to continue fleeing across the seas.

Having acquired the seven shadows of CP9, Buffon's first thought was to strengthen the zombie army.

After careful consideration, he chose to place the shadow of Lucci, the strongest among the seven, into the body of the giant Oars.

To prevent a recurrence of the original timeline where Oars went berserk and destroyed buildings after receiving Luffy's shadow, Buffon had the zombie of Oars moved out to an open area on Long Ring Long Land before inserting the shadow.

True to expectation, the moment the shadow entered his body, Oars let out a furious roar: "Weaklings are not worthy of joining the zombie army!"

Then, utilizing the Geppo technique from the Six Powers, he shot straight up into the air.

Hearing this, a phrase popped into Buffon's mind: "When Oars learns Geppo, no one can stop him!"

"Should we go after him?" Hogback asked tentatively.

Buffon shot him an annoyed look and replied, "You go?"

Hogback immediately shut his mouth!

In Buffon's view, this fellow's adjustment period wouldn't be short, and since both the shadow and the zombie itself were extremely powerful, he might as well let him vent. After all, there was nothing on Long Ring Long Land right now that Oars could actually ruin.

As for Jabra's shadow, which ranked second in strength, Buffon placed it inside the zombie of Captain Wang Zhi.

For the zombies of Silver Axe and Captain John, Buffon inserted the shadows of Blueno and Kaku respectively.

As for the remaining three shadows, he handed them over to Hogback to decide.

Before leaving them, however, Buffon added: "Release Miss Cindry's original shadow. Among the CP9 shadows this time, there is one belonging to a woman. She used to serve as Iceburg's secretary, and her strength surpasses Miss Cindry's original shadow."

Buffon left the rest unsaid. Hogback nodded in understanding and said, "Understood, I'll make the arrangements right away."

Having resolved the matter of the zombies and shadows, Buffon summoned Vivi and opened the treasure chest he had pilfered from Enies Lobby.

Pointing to the Devil Fruit inside that resembled a melon, he said to Vivi, "Eat this fruit and enhance your strength."

Upon hearing Buffon's words and looking at the two Devil Fruits in the chest, Vivi fell into a momentary daze.

Before coming here, she had already resolved to ask Buffon for a lineage factor modification.

Encouraged by Saul's successful precedent, she also hoped to acquire the abilities of a Devil Fruit through modification to boost her combat power.

Among the crew of the Juventus, aside from Miss Goldenweek, Apis, and Hogback, her strength was currently the lowest.

Even Lily, the cook whose giant physique was amplified by the Mini-Mini Fruit, possessed combat capability far surpassing her own.

Having grown up as a proud princess, she refused to be the one trailing behind at the bottom.

Yet Buffon had directly handed her a Devil Fruit instead. How could she not be shocked?

"Captain Buffon, this item is far too precious. Where did you get it?"

Buffon did not hide the truth upon hearing her question. "I lifted it from a CP9 officer at Enies Lobby."

However, Vivi's next sentence almost made Buffon pass out: "Then let's sell it! Although we don't know what abilities they grant, a price of 100 million berries on the black market shouldn't be hard to fetch. We need money everywhere right now to build the nation!"

Buffon never expected that Vivi would refuse to eat the fruit for such a reason.

Yet Vivi's mindset made Buffon realize a glaring issue: although he had carved out a territory for himself, his financial reserves were severely lacking. Even when combined with Moria's hidden treasure, it was still far from enough to sustain the expenses of an entire nation.

The berries collected from treating patients and saving lives during this voyage amounted to only a few hundred thousand in total, which was entirely negligible.

However, selling these two fruits was completely out of the question.

First, even if they sold the fruits for 200 million berries, it wouldn't solve any fundamental problems.

Second, if the fruits were eaten by his own people, he could extract their blood and utilize the powers further.

If sold, however, they might end up strengthening future adversaries. Weighing the options, selling the fruits was simply not an option.

Moreover, it was uncertain whether the World Government had even tracked down the whereabouts of these two fruits yet, especially given that Enies Lobby had been completely devastated by the Buster Call. If these fruits suddenly appeared on the black market, the World Government would undoubtedly pursue the matter relentlessly once they found out.

Consequently, the fruits would become hot potatoes on the black market, and since their exact abilities were unknown, their market value would plummet drastically.

"Listen to me, eat this fruit. I will figure something out regarding the money!"

Vivi persisted stubbornly: "I already asked Uncle Tom. To connect the entire Long Ring Long Land with the Sea Train will cost 1 billion berries. And that's just the expense for the Sea Train alone, not counting all the other costs..."

Seeing that Vivi was about to continue, Buffon directly interrupted: "I still have some Wapal Metal on hand. Find a way to sell it through the black market, and eat this fruit immediately."

Hearing that Buffon still possessed Wapal Metal, Vivi became even more reluctant. She flatly refused, saying, "Strategic materials like this must be kept for our own use. How can we possibly sell them?"

Vivi was no fool. She had heard Reiju mention that Wapal Metal was the very material used to forge Germa Battle Suits.

Keeping such items for oneself was obviously the best choice.

Faced with a Vivi who had completely fallen into a money-minded obsession, Buffon felt a headache coming on. Of course, he couldn't tell her that he could manufacture Wapal Metal infinitely.

Cornered by this troublesome issue, Buffon invoked his authority as captain: "Eat it right here in front of me, or leave the Juventus immediately."

Driven to this point, Vivi had no choice but to comply with Buffon's command.

She picked up the melon-like Devil Fruit, holding it carefully in her palms with a deeply reluctant expression on her face.

After inspecting it closely once more, she asked, "Captain Buffon, do you already know the abilities of these two fruits, which is why you deliberately made me eat this particular one?"

Hearing this, Buffon could not help but inwardly scoff: "Indeed, any woman, regardless of age, is full of schemes."

Of course Buffon knew the abilities of both fruits. The one he intended for Vivi was precisely the Bubble-Bubble Fruit that Kalifa had eaten in the original story.

He figured that having a young girl eat the Giraffe Fruit would be of little practical use anyway.

"Then just pick whichever one you want!" Buffon decided to gamble, hoping to use a reverse-psychology approach to make Vivi drop the matter.

True to form, Vivi ultimately followed Buffon's advice. Right in front of him, she sliced off a small piece of the green Devil Fruit and put it in her mouth.

The moment the Devil Fruit touched her tongue, an indescribably miserable taste almost made Vivi spit it out on the spot.

Enduring the nausea, she forced herself to swallow it down.

A moment later, Buffon asked with a feigned expression of curiosity: "Well? What kind of ability is it?"

Vivi's face flushed crimson. Stammering, she said, "I'm going to find Sister Reiju!"

After she left, Buffon muttered to himself in bewilderment: "It's just a Bubble Fruit, what's there to be shy about? Aside from combat, isn't this thing meant for taking baths..."

At this thought, Buffon's weathered face turned red, and he shut his mouth.

A moment later, Reiju walked in. Just as Buffon was about to offer some explanation, Reiju beat him to it: "Who do you plan to give the remaining Devil Fruit to?"

With Reiju asking that, Buffon felt entirely at ease. He closed the lid of the treasure chest and pushed it toward Reiju, saying, "Decide that yourself. However, don't give it to anyone among the giants for now; I plan to strengthen them through lineage factor modification."

Hearing Buffon's arrangements, Reiju nodded and said, "Very well, I'll keep it as a reward for future merits. Exactly how much Wapal Metal do you have left on hand?"

Faced with this question, Buffon gave another vague reply: "You'll see when we check the warehouse later. Just take it and sell it on the black market. Since Vivi keeps complaining about a lack of funds, sell it and handle the allocation yourself."

Reiju thought for a moment, then smiled and said, "Selling it on the black market might still cause it to fall into the hands of the Marines. Let me handle this. I'll negotiate with my father; the price he offers certainly won't be lower than the black market!"

Hearing this, Buffon mentally cursed himself: "How could I have forgotten about that? With the fabulously wealthy Vinsmoke Family around, why bother looking for a black market?"

With that thought, Buffon added, "Why don't you ask your father if he wants this Devil Fruit as well?"

Reiju shot him an annoyed look and retorted playfully, "Father can perform lineage factor modifications; he has no use for this thing. If you're willing to give it to him for free, I can thank you on his behalf."

Reiju's response left Buffon utterly speechless. He could only shake his head, shove the treasure chest into her hands, and shoo her away.

Having seen Reiju off, Buffon summoned Apis to inspect the woodpecker whose feet were locked in Seastone handcuffs.

Ever since Buffon rescued this bird, it had remained locked up, and he hadn't yet found the time to uncover the secrets it held.

Now, with some spare time, Buffon was eager to know what kind of Devil Fruit ability this bird possessed that had caused the World Government to imprison it in secret.

Crucially, it wasn't even locked away in Impel Down, but rather imprisoned at Enies Lobby alongside a Fishman shipwright.

In fact, Buffon had previously considered that figuring out its fruit ability wouldn't be difficult—he could simply stitch a few lines into it.

However, Buffon didn't want to be so hasty. After all, it might well be a fruit ability he had never heard of, and if unexpected side effects occurred, the loss would outweigh the gain.

He still had over a dozen fruits in his possession; what if it turned out to be something like a Cleansing Fruit...

Following Buffon's instructions, Apis began communicating with the woodpecker using the power of the Whisper-Whisper Fruit. A moment later, Apis reported to Buffon with a helpless expression: "It's just shouting that it's hungry!"

"Has it been like this for the past few days?"

Facing Buffon's question, Apis nodded. "Yes, ever since it arrived here, it's been like this! Aside from drinking water, it refuses to eat anything else we feed it!"

"Did you ask Tom about this?" Buffon asked again.

"I asked. Uncle Tom said that during all the years they were locked up together, they never fed it anything other than water! The people at Enies Lobby would take it out of the cell a few times every month, but Uncle Tom doesn't know what they took it out for."

Hearing this, Buffon still felt somewhat at a loss. An unwillingness to communicate made things rather troublesome.

Yet, reflecting on his own strength, why should he fear a woodpecker? At worst, it was just a Human-Human Fruit; surely it couldn't turn into an elemental state?

With that thought, Buffon said to Apis, "Apis, wait outside the cage. I'll try it myself!"

"Then Captain Buffon, be careful!" Apis stepped out of the cage and stared intently from the outside.

Buffon first coaxed the woodpecker onto his arm, and after "chatting" with it for a moment and receiving no reaction, he proceeded to remove the Seastone shackles from its feet.

The moment Buffon removed the Seastone fetters, instead of attempting to flee or attack him, the woodpecker opened its beak and spoke in fluent human speech: "Good grief! I was suffocating!"

Hearing the woodpecker speak, Buffon was startled inwardly: "Could it really be the Human-Human Fruit?"

With that thought, Buffon asked tentatively, "Human-Human Fruit?"

"Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Hypnos!" The woodpecker didn't hide it and directly revealed its ability to Buffon.

Hearing this result, Buffon was momentarily stunned.

He knew that Sengoku's Devil Fruit ability was the Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Daibutsu, but what kind of thing was this Sleep God Fruit?

Seeming to read Buffon's mind, the woodpecker spoke up without waiting for him to ask: "I can instantly plunge people into sleep, and at the same time, enter people's dreams!"

"So the Marines locked you up in Enies Lobby to use your ability to interrogate prisoners?" Combining the woodpecker's description of its power, Buffon made an immediate guess.

"You could say that, you could say that. But I also managed to extract what I wanted from those fellows."

Curious, Buffon asked, "What could you possibly extract?"

"Food! I need to feed on human dreams! Eating them makes my ability even stronger!"

Hearing this, Buffon mentally praised: "It's even a growth-type ability. Who knows what state this can reach when fully awakened?"

Thinking this internally, he asked aloud, "How were you captured in the first place? What was your identity before the Marines caught you?"

Buffon originally wanted to ask straight out whose pet it was, but ultimately decided that might be impolite.

"Me? I used to be Smoker's partner! Where do you think those jaw-dropping news stories of his came from? They were all thanks to me!"

"But later, to survive under the World Government's thumb, he sold me out anyway. By the way, kid, if you can help me thoroughly screw that guy over, I, Hypnos, might consider staying on your pirate ship."

Its tone carried a hint of arrogance, as if expecting Buffon to beg for its service.

However, Buffon was no longer a novice. If this fellow's strength were truly formidable, it would have tested Buffon's depth through combat instead of chattering so much here.

Hearing this, Buffon ignored its question. Instead, he grabbed its claws and dangled it upside down: "Those shackles on your feet have been worn down to nothing after all these years. Let me stitch you up!"

Buffon was not only coveting the power of this Devil Fruit, but he was also eager to find out just how many secrets Hypnos carried on him!