Playing One Piece

After Markus spoke, everyone's heads bobbed up and down rapidly. Markus just smiled and started to spin his tale. He didn't want to lie to his friends but some things would be impossible for them to understand or believe so he couldn't tell them everything. After taking a breath, he began, "First, I want to point out that Enel is still very much alive. Second," He pointed at Luffy, "Remember, you told me Enel was yours!"     

Luffy nodded and grinned broadly, "It was a good fight!"     

Markus smirked and continued, "Well, as you know I got separated from you all once we started looking for the city."     

Luffy laughed, "It was faster than Zoro getting lost!"     

Zoro smacked the back of Luffy's head, "Shut up."     

Markus chuckled and continued, "Well, I got into a few fights with Enel's little minions and some of the Shandians. My beating up his little goat-boys must have annoyed Enel because he appeared right in front of me." He turned his head and eyed Luffy, "And because a certain someone told me that Enel was his, I tried to get away from him instead of beating him up. Being a cocky bastard, he chased me to the land's edge. When we got there he said something stupid and called down a huge blast of lightning. I defended and didn't get hurt but the blast was so strong it blew a hole through the ground and I fell down to the White White Sea in the middle of nowhere. It's a damned good thing I didn't have a Devil Fruit!"     

Robin immediately latched onto what he said, "Didn't?"     

Markus waved his hand dismissively, "I'll get to that. So, anyway. As I was stuck swimming around blindly I had to beat up some of those balloon monsters, nothing scary. Before I could find any solid ground or a way back up I heard the loud ring of the bell. Almost immediately after that, I saw this big ass ship falling through the clouds and heading right for me! Do you know how scary it is to have a ship falling directly at your head?!"     

Nami, Chopper, and Usopp all looked scared at the idea of a giant ship falling on them. Luffy laughed, Zoro looked like he wanted it to happen so he could cut the ship in half, Sanji was silently smoking, and Robin was just staring at Markus.     

Markus cleared his throat and continued, "So I swam right over to the ship and who do I find on it? A beaten up and unconscious Enel!" He looked over at Luffy and gave him a thumbs-up, "Good job kicking his ass Captain!"     

Luffy puffed out his chest proudly. Everyone else just shook their heads, "So..." Markus sighed and looked a little conflicted, "So, I've got a confession to make. As you all know, my old man is a pretty strange guy who knows a lot of things and taught me some weird stuff."     

Everyone nodded again. Ever since they'd known him, Markus had been teaching them about stuff they didn't know about and used techniques and skills they would have thought impossible. Markus nodded, "Well, he said he learned from his old man. I dunno who that is but he taught me what he could and explained what he couldn't so I could learn it on my own later. Before he ditched me alone on a small island he gave me a final gift."     

Markus pulled the empty syringe out of his 'pocket' and held it in his left hand, "When he gave it to me he called it a 'Devil Fruit Extraction Serum'."     

Before he could say more, there were multiple reactions from the crew. The cowardly trio looked confused, Zoro and Sanji looked uninterested, Luffy clearly had no idea what he was talking about, and Robin had the most violent reaction, "IMPOSSIBLE!"     

Markus nodded to what Robin said, "From what I know, you're right. But my old man told me a scientist friend of his developed this serum before the World Government killed him. Supposedly this serum is the only one that was a success, though untested obviously. My old man gave it to me and told me if I ever found someone with a Devil Fruit that I liked who was a real scumbag, that I should try my luck. He made me swear not to use it on anyone decent and I kept the promise."     

Seeing the empty syringe and hearing his story, Robin had a suspicion about what Markus was getting at but she still refused to believe it was possible. At least, until Markus lifted his right hand and bright purple sparks of electricity began to dance on his fingers and palm. Markus spoke, "So I stole Enel's Devil Fruit!"     

For obvious reasons, everyone was shocked into absolute silence. It didn't last long until there was a ton of noise. Exclamations of shock, awe, excitement, fear, and so on. Markus let it go until everyone calmed down. He took a deep breath, "I didn't tell anyone about this for obvious reasons. If the World Government got their hands on something like this it would be terrible."     

To go with his words he concentrated the lightning in his hands and focused it into a little ball. Gaining the Goro Goro no Mi gave him some information on how to use it and the system only seemed to care about combat functions or special features of the fruit, he could do whatever he wanted out of combat as long as he figured out how to do it on his own. In this case, he gathered a bunch of lightning in his palm as a crackling ball of intense heat. He dropped the empty syringe into it and vaporized it, "I trust you all so I told you the truth. If this ever got out the World Government would never stop hounding us."     

The reactions were varied once again. Usopp, Nami, and Chopper were scared as expected. To them, the World Government is super scary. Luffy and Zoro looked interested in the potential future fights. Sanji looked uninterested and had been rather silent the whole time just smoking his cigarette. Robin, though, looked fearful. She had trauma related to the overly aggressive actions of the World Government.     

Markus quite using his new power and went silent while waiting for everyone to calm down. The first one to speak was Luffy, "So, now you have that Enel guys power?"     

Markus nodded, "I do, though it will take me some time to get used to it and use it like him." He grinned at Luffy, "I'm sure it took you time to learn how to use your abilities too."     

Luffy and Robin both nodded in understanding. They'd both gone through the process of learning how to use their Devil Fruits, though both of them were still far from using as much of their fruits powers as they would be in a few short years. Robin was the next to speak up, "Just who was your father?"     

Markus turned to her and shrugged his shoulders, "No idea. My old man isn't my father. The only clue I have is my family name but I was warned to never speak it out loud or people would want to kill me."     

Robin almost glared at him as he sort of deflected the answer but she understood that some family names were taboo, she still pushed though, "So who was your father?"     

Markus shrugged his shoulders, "No clue. My old man never told me. I'm kinda hoping to find someone from my family on our journey. If I find my father or some other family then 'yay, happiness and joy' and if not, oh well. I got a perfectly good family right here."     

He looked over everyone around him with a smile after calling them, family. He felt so... free right now and the giant smile he had on his face showed it. It was as if a giant weight had been lifted from his shoulders and he could finally be unrestrained. Their course was set, but the future would soon become unknown. He planned to make a big splash at his true debut.     

Seeing such a bright carefree smile on Markus's face brought a blush to Nami's. She'd never seen him so relaxed and carefree. For as long as she's known him he's always been... She wasn't sure how to describe it. It was like there was a weight on him and it was gone now. He'd always been nice to them... except during their training time. Now he just seemed so different.     

Markus, unaware of what Nami was thinking, turned to look at Luffy with a broad grin, "Oh Captain, don't go thinking that just because you could be Enel when he had this Devil Fruit that you can beat me! You couldn't do it before I got it, now you don't stand a chance!"     

Luffy looked a little disgruntled at that but like a typical shonen protagonist, he wasn't insulted or discouraged. Instead, there was a bright fire in his eyes and a desire to improve. He looked at Zoro and Sanji, the other two main fighters of the crew, "As for you two, you won't even be able to scratch me until you learn at least a little Armament Haki!"     

Zoro gripped the handle of his Wado Inchimonji tightly and looked even more determined to learn Haki from Markus. Sanji put on a carefree air but his competitive spirit ignited when he saw Zoro's determination. Markus looked over everyone and grinned. Even though Chopper, Usopp, and Nami didn't look as determined as the others, they knew they needed to get stronger if they wanted to have a hope in hell at surviving in the second half of the Grand Line.     

Markus didn't enjoy lying to them, he really didn't. They were his chosen family and lying to them felt wrong. Telling them the whole truth was impossible though. Telling them he was from another world where theirs was just entertainment would just make them think he was crazy. Telling them about his system wasn't an option either. Though, he planned to reveal his inventory to them later once he 'learned how to store things with his Devil Fruit' in the near future.     

With everything said and done, the 'heroes' returned to the celebration and things went crazy. Markus even joined in with the others, dancing, singing, eating, and just making an ass out of himself with them while laughing and enjoying himself. By his estimate, it would be around a month, maybe two, before the group split up for two whole years. He intended to make every moment until then count.     

He enjoyed the party with the others for a good six hours before he decided to find a good place to 'rest' for a while. Once he was alone, he entered his Image Training and selected the single weakest opponent he possibly could. Someone that could never hurt him no matter how hard they tried. Beating this person was worthless even back when he was level one... Helmeppo. Why Helmeppo? Markus wanted to experience what it was like when he was hit with an attack that couldn't possibly hurt him and experience his Logia Intangibility skill.     

Markus set the scene as a basic town and a scrawny Helmeppo with a sword on his waist appeared down the street from him. Without a sound, Helmeppo drew his sword and charged at Markus while slashing. Markus... did nothing. The blade of Helmeppo's sword sliced cleanly through him. Markus felt a little sensation from it but it just let him know that he'd been hit and where. Helmeppo, on the other hand, suffered the consequences of slashing Markus with a metal weapon as electricity automatically traveled down the blade of his weapon and shocked him... to death.     

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You have defeated Helmeppo, +1 experience.     

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Markus clicked his tongue, "Damn, forgot that would happen. I need stronger fodder."     

This had confirmed something to him though. The Image Training skill would only summon the most recent version of someone that Markus had seen. At this point, Helemeppo and Coby should have been training with Garp for a while now. Even if not as strong as they would be when they met up again later. The Helemeppo clone that just killed itself by slashing him was the exact same as the one he punched way back in the day.     

He scrolled through his list and summoned up ten different Marine minions. Nothing special, just normal privates who didn't have a chance in hell against him and would provide minimal experience. He picked them at different levels, though they were all below level fifteen. He wanted to get a feel for the damage his lightning would do while experiencing his intangibility some more. Once all the privates appeared, some drew their swords and charged into melee while a few lifted rifles and started firing at him from a distance.     

The marines who slashed him with their swords were all shocked, most to death. The only ones that survived were the ones with more than 200 health. Though their second slash killed them off. As for the ones shooting him, his automatic defenses didn't kick in to attack them. Their bullets were still useless against him so they could shoot him all day and all he felt was an odd bit of light pressure wherever the bullets hit. Though, he had to admit that having his head shot clean through was disconcerting.     

After letting it go on a little longer, Markus flicked his fingers a few times and killed them with simple Lightning Bolts. He now had a greater understanding of his Logia Intangibility and Electrical Self Defense skills. He smiled and started to summon more marine privates in larger numbers. He wouldn't risk summoning someone stronger until he got a handle on his new skills and the next one up was his speed.     

He summoned up a hundred copies of the same marine private with about 150 health. He wanted someone he could one-shot so he could focus on moving around instead of really fighting. Once all one hundred copies were summoned there was a deafening sound as they all drew their sword at the same time. Markus wasted no time and vanished as he used his Lightning Speed. Even at only one percent, it was still thousands of times faster than his unspeakable footwork. Lightning speed would let him move over 600 miles per second. Needless to say, that much speed meant he was essentially teleporting around the field.     

Markus was a bit clumsy at first, having to take time to get used to his sudden new orientation after moving. This meant his attacks came slower than he desired as he had to figure out exactly where he was in relation to the punching bag he approached. At the same time, he had to deal with the rapid changes in the feedback from his Observation Haki. It was a bit annoying as with his footwork he could dash between the targets and strike with ease, so he decided that once he got Soru he'd stick with that during close encounters and only use his Lightning Speed when the situation called for it.     

It took Markus ten minutes to kill all of the copies of the Marine Private that he summoned. If he had perfect control over both his speed and his Haki, he could have done it in less than a minute. Clearly he had plenty of room to improve. On the bright side, killing one hundred guys for one hundred experience each earned him a total of 10,000 experience in just a few minutes and a nice level up. As of this moment, farming experience was an effortless endeavor. His level was going to skyrocket in the near future and climb with ease. He couldn't help wondering what the maximum level of his system was, was there a maximum level? Only one way to find out, later though.     

He summoned another 100 copies of the same Marine and started blasting them to death with his Lightning Bolt and Lightning Blast skills. Increasing his level right now wasn't his main goal, it was getting a real feel for his new skills and Devil Fruit. Power would come soon enough. He slaughtered the marine summons with no issue. He didn't need to even move, any of them that managed to actually attack him died from the automatic counter-attack, not that many managed to get close without him letting them.     

Once they were all dead and another 10,000 experience was gained with no level up, Markus took a short break to decide on what to do next. The system would allow him to create attacks on his own. However, to officially gain a skill he needed to show actual proficiency in whatever he did. As far as making up a lightning-based skill... Frankly, there were just too many to choose from!     

He thought for a while before going into the settings for the Image Training and setting the scene. What scenario did he pick? Ship to ship combat! He put one marine on one ship and put himself on a copy of the Going Merry. As soon as the battle started, nothing exciting happened. A single marine had no hope in hell of moving the ship or firing the cannons at him, exactly what he needed to practice this technique.     

After climbing to the top of the Going Merry and getting comfortable in the crow's nest, Markus lifted his hands and aimed them at the Marine ship in the distance, more specifically at the water beneath it. He didn't know if he could do this or not but it was worth a shot. He started by shooting to continuous streams of lightning from his hands. When the lightning struck the water it sent up a cloud of steam but Markus ignored that. He focused on bringing the two streams of electricity together to form a complete loop. He accomplished this by instantly reversing the flow of electricity in his left hand. Now his right hand pumped out energy while his left hand pulled it back.     

His actions essentially turned one hand into an anode and the other into a cathode. The sodium in the saltwater would help with the chemical process that he hoped would occur. At least, he hoped it would. He continued to send out the electricity until he started to see little bubbles beginning to pop on the surface of the water. The bubbles that pop to close to where his electricity was entering the water give off little puffs of fire as the lightning ignites the flammable gasses being released.     

Markus keeps it going a bit longer before stopping his electric current when he feels like there's enough hydrogen gas around the ship. He snaps his fingers and sends out a spark of lightning to ignite the gas. For a second there's silence, when the silence ends there's a massive detonation as all the hydrogen gas released into the air ignites. The sound is deafening and makes his ears ring while pieces of the marine ship going flying everywhere.     

There was a disgusting smile on Markus's face as he looked over the devastation he caused. All that's left of the marine ship is scrapwood floating on the sea. As he looked over the destruction he received two notices from his system. The first was the standard one hundred experience for killing a pissant Marine. The second made him smiled even wider.     

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You have gained the skill "Electrolysis".     

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