From Pirates to the Strongest Death God in Soul Society

Chapter 313: The Empire is Over? The Devil Fruit Ability Experiment Begins!
The western city of the empire, Fronnik.

Walking on the deserted street, Bane held a thick stack of newspapers in his hand, containing news from the past month.

He wore a pair of black sunglasses on his face, had a half-smoked cigarette in his mouth, and on his waist hung a sword, Xindu, and the standard hand cannon of the Chatar Corps lieutenant that had not been seen for a long time - the Angry Bull Type VI.

The reason why they have to put on such a "fully armed" appearance is because the current security environment here is too bad.

Even though Bane had a knife and a gun on his waist, when he occasionally passed by some intersections, he could still see some thugs hiding in the shadows looking at him, considering whether they were qualified to hunt this "prey".

But it was obvious that Bane had no intention of paying attention to this group of minions, and after seeing the giant hand cannon hanging around his waist, many covetous eyes disappeared in an instant.

"I didn't expect that the situation in the empire would deteriorate to this extent. Fortunately, I ran away quickly." Bane sighed in his heart, and then walked to the door of a hotel with a sign covered with cobwebs.

This hotel has not opened for business. To be more precise, the owner and his family have disappeared and it has become an abandoned building.

Bane and his companions traveled through the world and returned to the empire two days ago, and they found this place as a place to stay.

In front of the hotel, Webber, who was standing guard with his hands on his shoulders and a machete exposed, looked at Bane and asked, "Is everything going well?"

"Well, it took some effort, but I finally found these newspapers," said Bane, dusting off the heavy newspapers in his hands.

Due to the collapse of public security in Fronnick, a large population exodus, and depressed business, even newspapers were hard to find. Bane took some effort to find one.

"Mr. Cap also arrested two thugs who killed people. They are being interrogated inside now." Weber opened the door of the dilapidated hotel room and said, "I will continue to watch here. You two can discuss it carefully."

When Bane walked through the overgrown yard and entered the hotel gate, he saw Cap and others gathered around two gangsters, discussing something in muttered terms.

It was a bit strange, they could actually understand the language and characters of this world, just like Bane, naturally. I don't know if it was because too many gates were opened recently, and the rules of the world had changed? Or was it evolution?
However, Bane had no intention of studying these reasons. After all, it would be beneficial to these "visitors from other worlds", right?
"How is it? Did you get anything?" Bane walked into the room, closed the door, and asked casually.

Ian was standing in front of a signboard, which was supposed to be used by the hotel to post notices, but now it was used as a blackboard.

There are a lot of words written on it with gestures.

As soon as Bane opened his mouth, he saw Cap knock the two thugs unconscious with two punches, and then threw them into the yard through the window, and they rolled onto the street.

Then Cap closed the window and said, "The level is too low, and these minions don't know much, but it can be said that there is no gain."

Ian also spoke up, "Based on the information we have so far, it has been three and a half years, almost four years, since you last left here. Basically, the speed of time is consistent with your perception."

"Besides that, the order of the empire has basically collapsed. This world is in extreme chaos." Zefa lit a cigar, sat on a wooden chair, and sighed.

"Half a year after you left the Empire, the Imperial Guards went to the western part of the Empire to quell a rebellion, but something unexpected happened. We didn't find out the specific reason, but they were defeated. At the same time, some nobles in the Imperial Capital took advantage of the absence of the Imperial Guards to start a rebellion. Although this rebellion broke the order of the Imperial Capital, the Dragon Emperor was still able to suppress it. However, while the Dragon Emperor was dealing with these rebellions, a portal opened over the Imperial Capital." Ian pointed to some of the things that had been sorted out on the blackboard, paused here, and then said, "We didn't get detailed intelligence on the specific situation. After all, this place is too far away from the Imperial Capital. When the Imperial Guards were defeated, the order in the west basically collapsed, and the flow of information was not high, but for now."

"A group of monsters that cannot be observed by ordinary people emerged from the gate that appeared in the imperial capital. They have no ability to communicate and wantonly destroy everything they see. It is speculated that they are spirits and are extremely dangerous. There is no leader and they even kill and devour each other. The imperial capital suffered a devastating blow because of this. The Dragon Emperor was confirmed dead, and the crown prince should have inherited the throne normally, but the crown prince was also killed in the chaos, and the murderer has not been found so far. There are also speculations that the crown prince was killed by the monster that ran out of the gate. In short, the empire has been in chaos since then." Fubuki continued with Ain's words.

The Dragon Emperor died immediately? Wasn't he said to be very fierce? He once slaughtered an entire world?

No matter what level the world he slaughtered was, at least he had the achievement of "destroying the world", right? That's it? The gate through the world is really scary.
Bane felt a bit of a headache after hearing this information, and then asked, "What happened to the portal?"

"After nearly three months, it disappeared on its own." Ian said, "But in the following years, it seems that there have been occasional reports of similar portals appearing in various places, but we have no way of telling whether they are true or not, at least we can't tell."

At this moment, Zefa knocked the ash off his cigarette and said, "Actually, if you think about it from another angle, the collapse of the ruling class of this world is very beneficial to us. After all, we are outsiders. A powerful empire and an empire with a broken order and chaos are definitely more in line with our interests and more convenient for us to do things."

"That makes sense." Karp nodded in approval.

Bane did not discuss this, but handed the newspaper in his hand to everyone for reading.

Some of the information obtained above is actually difficult to understand. Anyway, they are just some strange chaos, most of which are caused by the gate.

If they sorted out these chaotic information, they could roughly conclude that the empire was basically finished, and it was unlikely to restore the chaotic order in a short time. It was even very likely that a truly unified empire would not appear again for a very long time, such as a hundred years or even longer. The nobles in various places were basically playing their own games. Even small barons dared to raise the flag of rebellion. The strongest forces were some legion commanders who controlled the former imperial legions. They were also marrying some of the great nobles.

Some ambitious people were also competing with each other, and the previously vigorous westward movement also came to an end with the collapse of the imperial order.

In short, it is a scene of the end of a dynasty.

This is just the beginning. As the unrest deepens, productivity will inevitably collapse. When the foundation accumulated by the empire over the years is consumed by the chaos, a world where people eat each other will probably be born.

These trends do not mean much to Bane and his team for the time being, and can even be considered "good news".

Just as Mr. Zefa said, compared with a unified and powerful empire and an empire with collapsed order, the latter is definitely more suitable for their survival, because theoretically, they are the invaders of this world.

"No matter what happens to the Empire, it won't affect us for now. There are two main things we need to consider now. The first is, where can we get the knowledge to build a world gate? The second is, where should we choose as the base of our 'world'?" Bane said in a deep voice.

"The issue of the foothold still requires a lot of follow-up investigations, and combined with various factors here, we can come to a conclusion. And it's still an immature conclusion. For now, we can conduct intelligence investigations and there's no rush. As for the matter of the gate, we have to start with the forces that currently have the gate, and they can't be too strong. Otherwise, not only will the difficulty change, but it may also alert the enemy." Zefa analyzed, touching his chin.

Bane actually had no idea whether the portal could be built here, because he did not have the relevant knowledge. Before this, he was just a street thug in the Empire. How could he be qualified to know these secrets?
What he knew about the portal was that it was uncontrollable at least when it appeared. It just appeared randomly, but he didn't know whether it could be controlled later or whether it could be built and modified according to relevant principles.

To get the answer, we must first find a way to master a portal, and then Dr. Kinos will conduct research and analysis to see if any results can be obtained.

"We went to visit them and said we wanted to study their portal, but it would definitely not be granted easily. So in the final analysis, we still need to use force to seize it. So before we take any action, we should improve our strength first." Boss Zefa said with a serious expression.

Yixiao, who had been sitting there without saying anything, was stunned for a moment, then said, "Oh, Mr. Karp, you just threw away two experimental materials."

"Damn it, I forgot about this!" Cap slapped his thigh and quickly opened the window to look outside.

"Luckily I knocked them out first, and they are still on the street." Seeing the two unlucky guys still lying on the ground, Cap breathed a sigh of relief and ran out.

After a while, he and Weber came in from outside, each carrying a gangster.

When I entered the door, I saw that Bane had already placed many different kinds of devil fruits on the table.

"As an experiment, although there are ways to recycle them, it's better not to use overly rare and powerful fruits." Bane pointed to a few devil fruits on the table and said, "These are relatively common devil fruits. I brought them specifically for the experiment. I won't feel bad even if they are scrapped."

Garp looked at the devil fruit on the table. Nami had already carefully labeled it.

The parahuman-type jacket fruit originally appeared in Dressrosa. Later, perhaps because of the butterfly effect caused by Bane, this fruit was inexplicably found by the navy. The original owner should have died and was taken by Bane for experiments.

After all, this thing is really useless. Its ability is to turn itself into a jacket that can be worn by others. It's funny to think about it, right?
There is also the Animal-type Dog-Dog Fruit, Teddy Form, which turns you into a domineering teddy dog after eating it.

In order to make the experiment more accurate and safer, Bane prepared experimental subjects from the three major series.

In addition to the animal and superhuman types, there is also the natural type.

For example, the natural-type White Mist Fruit is currently on the table. It cannot be said to be bad, after all, it is a natural-type fruit. But its strength is indeed not that good. It is the kind that can be used for experiments, but at least you won't feel too bad about it.

In addition to these devil fruits, there was also a man with his hands and feet tied with seastone, a rag stuffed in his mouth, leaning in the corner, and being guarded by Yixiao.

He is a Devil Fruit user brought from the pirate world, and his identity is a small pirate. Bane and his crew captured him on their way to the East China Sea, and planned to use him for experiments.

After all, Yixiao ate the devil fruit there, which also has different variables. Safety comes first and everything must be taken into consideration.

Don't go through all the ups and downs over there, the World Government was overthrown, the Five Elders were killed, and Im was done, and then turn around and eat a devil fruit and kill yourself. That would be too ridiculous.

"So, let's start with this guy first." Bane grinned with an evil smile and looked at the devil fruit user who was tied up in the corner.

(End of this chapter)