'System, I want to exchange for Deep Mastery of Devil Fruit Ability.'
[Ding! Deep Mastery of Devil Fruit Ability: Skips the long process of accumulation and exploration, directly raising the host's understanding of the 'Storm-Storm Fruit' to a deep level.]
[Ability range, control precision, and natural synchronization rate will be significantly improved.]
[Requires consumption of 100,000 Violation Points! Confirm?]
Another hundred thousand points.
The windfall he just got was going to be spent before it even got warm in his pocket.
But looking at the arrogant Shiki in the distance, and those dozens of moving 'merit medals' and 'Violation Points,' Tatsuki's eyes were incredibly firm.
'Confirm!'
[Ding! 100,000 Violation Points deducted! Strengthening begins...]
You have to spend money to make money!
By spending these hundred thousand, as long as he played it right, the amount he'd earn back would definitely be more than this.
Besides, this feeling of having everything under control... it was just too damn intoxicating.
Boom!
A massive stream of information instantly flooded into his brain.
The language of the wind, the structure of the clouds, the flow of air pressure, the jumping of electric charges...
He felt as if his body had disappeared, turning into the wind, the clouds, and the ubiquitous air currents.
The massive air pressure masses that he could only barely shake in his perception before now became as obedient as puppets in his hands.
Every trace of air current within a hundred miles became a string at his fingertips.
Everything, absolutely everything, was under his control.
He was going to forcibly compress and prematurely detonate the storm that was supposed to peak hours later. And he would magnify its power tenfold.
No, a hundredfold!
The sky turned black.
The lightning that was just weaving through the clouds moments ago now danced wildly like silver snakes across the pitch-black canopy, reflecting everyone's faces in a deathly pale light.
Then, the wind stopped.
It fell into an eerie silence.
The three people in the middle of their fierce battle subconsciously stopped their movements and looked up at the sky.
"Hmm?"
Garp frowned, he felt something was off.
"This weather... is a bit strange." Rayleigh's expression was grave.
Only Shiki was still laughing wildly.
"Jihahaha! See that! Even the heavens are helping me! This storm will become the prelude to your burial!"
"Is that so?"
In the shadows of the lookout, Tatsuki let out a cold, heartless sneer.
"In that case, let the wind rise."
Tatsuki spread his arms wide.
Rumble!
That was the sound of money.
A full hundred thousand Violation Points were spent, and in exchange, he gained absolute dominance over the air currents of this world.
The lightning that had been drifting through the clouds now acted like soldiers hearing a rallying call, converging into a terrifying pillar of lightning over a hundred meters in diameter. With world-destroying power, it violently pierced the surface of the sea.
Immediately after, the ocean boiled and began to roll frantically.
A massive cyclone connecting the sky and the sea rapidly took shape before everyone's eyes in an utterly unreasonable manner.
"What... is that?" A pirate from the Flying Pirate Fleet looked up at the sky in a daze.
"Not good!"
Aboard the Oro Jackson, Rayleigh watched the terrifying waterspout grow thicker and larger, his expression changing instantly.
"Everyone! Hold onto the sails! Steady the ship!"
Though the crew of the Roger Pirates were shocked, they reacted swiftly, immediately taking their positions to battle this sudden natural disaster.
"Kyahahahaha! Roger! Looks like your luck isn't so good today!" Garp laughed heartlessly, suspended in mid-air using Geppo, as he watched the world-ending storm.
But Shiki couldn't bring himself to laugh. To his horror, he realized that the superstorm, which should have attacked indiscriminately, seemed to have eyes. It skillfully bypassed Garp and Roger and headed straight... to crush his grand fleet.
The storm... was being controlled?!
Was there actually someone on this sea who understood how to use the weather better than the "Flying Admiral"?
"Who exactly is it?!"
His Observation Haki swept across the battlefield, trying to find the cause of this anomaly.
Garp? Impossible, that idiot only knows how to use his fists.
Roger? He's occupied with Garp and has his hands full.
Then who is it?
Shiki's gaze swept over the lone Marine warship. Then, his eyes instantly locked onto the small, almost negligible figure on the lookout tower.
That Marine brat!
Despite the vast distance and the raging storm, he could clearly feel that the center of all the chaotic air currents in that area, the source of the storm, was that brat.
It's him! He's the one behind this!
"Jihahahaha..."
Shiki was taken aback for a moment, then let out a laugh even more arrogant than before, though it was filled with icy killing intent.
"Interesting... truly interesting..."
"Where did this small fry come from, daring to interfere in a battlefield of kings?!"
The famous blade "Kogarashi" in Shiki's hand suddenly changed direction, no longer paying attention to Roger and Garp in front of him.
Killing intent, locked on!
Every hair on Tatsuki's body stood on end in an instant. It felt as if he were being stared down by a ferocious beast, to the point where even his blood felt like it was freezing.
Shiki didn't hold back at all, delivering a heavy backhand slash capable of cleaving an island.
That was no ordinary slash. It was a golden curtain of light, a hundred meters high and a thousand meters wide. Wrapped in a Great Swordsman's top-tier Armament Haki, it ignored the gale and sliced through the storm, bearing down on the dog head warship with unavoidable speed.
If this strike landed, let alone Tatsuki, the entire warship and the trench beneath it would be split in two.
"Not good! Tatsuki!!!"
On the deck, Bogard, who had just recovered from the shock of the Conqueror's Haki, looked up and saw the golden slash, scaring him out of his wits. His usually calm face instantly contorted as he let out a desperate roar.
It was too fast!
Too strong!
There was no time for rescue!
"Tatsuki!"
In the distance, Garp's pupils shrank, and just as he was about to turn back, he was blocked by Roger's blade.
"Your opponent is me, Garp!"
"Get lost!"
Garp sent Roger flying with a punch, but those few seconds of delay meant it was already too late.
The golden slash had already crossed the thousand-meter distance and arrived above the dog head warship.
Time seemed to slow down at this moment.
On the lookout tower, the expanding golden death was reflected in Tatsuki's pupils.
His mind went blank.
Run? Where to? The slash covered the entire warship. There was nowhere to escape, neither in the sky nor on the sea.
Block? With what? Use his recently awakened Armament Haki to challenge the slash of an Emperor-level Great Swordsman? That would be suicide.
He was going to die!
This time, he really was going to die!
He had only just transmigrated, just gotten the system, and just seen the hope of getting rich overnight.
How could he die here?!