Pirate: I, Ace, am the King of Eclipse!

Karina closed the encyclopedia somewhat dejectedly and looked up at Ace sitting on a rock not far away.

Ace was closing his eyes, enjoying the sea breeze.

Hearing Karina's complaint, he leaped down from the reef and walked to the pile of treasure, his tall figure blocking some of the sunlight. "Never mind if you can't find it."

Ace's gaze fell on the grayish-purple fruit. Instead of turning the pages of the book, he closed his eyes and unleashed his Observation Haki without reservation.

As Ace activated his Observation Haki to its fullest potential, the noisy sound of the waves and the cries of the seabirds gradually faded away.

His consciousness continued to sink, gradually reaching a state where he could hear the voice of all things.

What appears to be nothing more than an inanimate Devil Fruit to ordinary people reveals a faint yet unique pulse of life within Ace's sensory network.

After a while, Ace opened his eyes.

"This fruit contains neither a violent aura of destruction nor the powerful physical wildness of a Zoan-type fruit."

Ace looked at Karina and extracted the vague information he had "heard": "The fluctuations it emitted were very peculiar. They were very faint, like invisible threads or ripples. It was trying to radiate outwards and establish some kind of 'connection'."

“Connection? Ripple?” Sabo, standing nearby, asked curiously. “It doesn’t sound like an ability that can be used in direct combat.”

"It's definitely not a combat-type Devil Fruit."

Ace nodded and looked at Karina. "Eating this fruit will most likely not directly increase your strength or physical abilities. It will probably provide some kind of auxiliary ability that leans towards perception, communication, or mental aspects."

Ace spoke calmly, handing the choice over to the other party.

"Karina, you are the treasurer and intelligence chief of the Eclipse. Although I promised to protect you, on this vast sea, having your own power is the most real thing. The information about this fruit is vague; whether you eat it or not is your decision."

Karina stared at the strange fruit in the wooden box and fell silent.

Involuntarily, the scenes from the past few days replayed in her mind.

Ace's fist, like a demon god shattering the generals of the old era; Sabo's fiery fist, moving calmly amidst thousands of troops; Leona's madness, cutting through steel even on the verge of death; even the usually unreliable Buggy can play a surprisingly effective role in the chaos of battle.

Everyone on the Eclipse was a monster.

Karina, no matter how accurate her marksmanship or how intelligent she is, is ultimately just an ordinary person with a mortal body. If she encounters powerful enemies in the future world that even firearms cannot penetrate, will she forever be forced to hide in the back as a burden needing protection?

"I don't need the power to destroy the world."

Karina took a deep breath, a resolute and wild glint in her purple eyes. "The captain has enough monsters like you who can charge into battle. But a team that wants to overturn the world absolutely cannot be without intelligence capabilities. I want to give it a try!"

Without hesitation, Karina reached out and grabbed the grayish-purple fruit.

"I want to eat."

Without any pretense, she opened her mouth and took a big bite of the fruit.

"Ugh... I'm going to vomit!"

An unimaginable stench exploded in her mouth, and Karina's pretty face contorted in pain, but she stubbornly pinched her nose and forced herself to swallow the fruit.

The moment the fruit is eaten.

Karina's body stiffened abruptly, and a strange, watery light flashed in her purple eyes.

In her perception, the whole world had suddenly undergone earth-shattering changes.

The tens of thousands of seabirds in the sky, whose calls were originally chaotic and disorderly, now transformed into clearly visible "frequency bands" in her mind. She could even feel the faint bioelectric waves emanating from Jeno's muscles as he swung the hammer in the lower deck.

"How is it? What did you feel?" Sabo asked with some concern.

Karina closed her eyes and contemplated for a long time. When she opened them again, an uncontrollable look of ecstasy appeared on her lips.

"Captain, I won the bet."

Karina stood up excitedly and reported at lightning speed, "Paramecia type: Message-Message Fruit! My brain is now like a super base station! I can collect information from all around me, somewhat similar to Observation Haki."

Most importantly, once I establish a 'frequency agreement' with you, no matter how far apart we are in the future, even on different islands, I can have zero-delay telepathic communication with you, and even access your location. I can even start a group chat with everyone! And if you agree, I can also share your field of vision.”

Karina became more and more excited as she spoke, and casually picked up a gold coin from the pile of treasure.

As a faint light flashed from her fingertips, the ordinary gold coin seemed to undergo a strange change.

"Not only that, I can imbue this radio wave onto any inanimate object. As long as I scatter these gold coins, they will turn into miniature listening devices and locators!"

Upon hearing Karina's description of his abilities, Sabo, standing to the side, gaped in shock.

As someone who had dealt with intelligence for many years, he knew all too well what this capability meant in war. It was simply an extraordinary intelligence network, far exceeding all norms and with an extremely wide reach!

Ace's eyes lit up after hearing Karina's words.

So what if we don't have the power to destroy the world?

In the Grand Line where heroes vie for supremacy, the strategic value of absolute intelligence and team communication far exceeds that of an ordinary Logia-type monster!

"Hahahahaha!"

As the most crucial piece of the intelligence puzzle for the Eclipse was completed, Ace could no longer contain his joy and burst into laughter as the seabirds soared through the sky.

He looked at Karina, his eyes filled with absolute confidence in the future.

"Well done, Karina."

"With this network, any secret on this vast sea will be completely transparent to us!"

Chapter 49 Signing the Contract, Covering the Sky with a Vision

On the beach of the bay, the sea breeze blows through mountains of treasure.

Karina fiddled with the gold coin that had been given power in her hand. After her initial excitement subsided, she calmed down, carefully examined it, and then gently shook her head.

"However, this thing is not absolutely perfect."

Karina looked at the gold coins in her hand and truthfully explained the limitations of the Devil Fruit she had sensed. "The radio waves I emitted were essentially a very weak energy fluctuation. If they encountered experts who had cultivated Observation Haki to a certain level, or people with naturally high vigilance, they would likely sense a strange feeling of being watched. With just a sweep of Observation Haki, this disguise attached to inanimate objects would be exposed."

"enough."

Ace casually picked up the gold coin with his large, thick hand and tossed it twice. "On this vast ocean, there are only a very few top-tier experts who are truly proficient in Observation Haki. The way it's used to infiltrate ordinary underground black markets, warlord fortresses, and even the lowest branches of the navy is so difficult to defend against that it can be called a divine skill."

"Now that we know about the Devil Fruit's power, let's test its effects on our own people first."

Saab stood aside, fascinated by this ability to revolutionize traditional maritime communication.

"Okay, then put your hands out here."

Karina stretched out her hands.

Ace and Sabo stepped forward and placed their palms on the back of her hands. Buggy, who had just finished carrying a heavy load and was about to slack off, was passing by the beach when Sabo grabbed him and forced to hold his hand down.

"Relax, don't resist with your domineering attitude."

Karina closed her purple eyes.

The next second, a strange yet non-aggressive wave silently entered the depths of the three people's minds through the contact of their fingertips.

The sensation was very subtle, like a radio channel suddenly connecting to the correct frequency after making a soft "click".

"The contract is complete. Can everyone hear me?"

A crisp sound rang out directly from the depths of Ace, Sabo, and Buggy's minds without warning.

There was no opening of the mouth, nor any vibration of the vocal cords, but it was clearly Karina's voice!

Sabo's eyes widened slightly as he tried to respond in his mind: "I heard it very clearly, without any delay, even more stable than the signal from a Den Den Mushi."

"Wow! It really spoke in my head! This fruit is too weird!" Buggy was startled by the voice that suddenly popped into his head.

"Red Nose, why are you shouting so loudly? It's so noisy," Karina thought to herself with a hint of disgust.

"Mind your own business! I almost threw out my back moving that piece of junk steel, and now I'm being used as a guinea pig by this new girl. I'll definitely get extra gems as compensation later!"

Bucky instinctively started plotting how to embezzle some of his personal savings from the treasure pile.

However, just as he finished muttering to himself, the air on the beach suddenly fell into an eerie, deathly silence.

Karina and Sabo both turned to look at him.

"Red nose."

Ace's voice also came through the channel, "The embezzlement plan you were just plotting in your head was broadcast directly into the group chat."

"what?!"

Bucky froze, cold sweat instantly soaking his back. He then realized that as long as he was relaxed and not consciously blocking it, this frequency contract would directly share his strongest thoughts.

"Misunderstanding! Captain! I was just joking!" Bucky was so frightened that he quickly disconnected his thoughts and waved his hands repeatedly in reality, begging for mercy.

After severing the test of the internal group chat, Sabo stroked his chin, looked at Karina, and asked the most crucial tactical question, "Karina, is this ability a heavy burden on your body?"

Sabo calmly analyzed, "If our crew increases in the future, or if you deploy hundreds of miniature listening devices outside, won't your brain break down from maintaining such a vast information network and shared vision? How much physical exertion will it take?"

Upon hearing this question, which concerned the limits of actual combat, Ace also turned his gaze to her.

"This is also the most domineering aspect of this fruit."

Karina opened her eyes, her gaze filled with confidence. "This kind of contract and eavesdropping is essentially a 'passive rule'."

"It's like building a transmission tower on the sea. Signing a contract or imbuing an item with ripples does require some physical effort. But once the imprint is formed, maintaining the connection on this frequency band doesn't require any extra physical or mental effort from me."

Karina snapped her fingers: "Unless I voluntarily cancel it, or the person who was branded uses powerful Haki to forcibly shatter and erase that ripple from within, this contract will exist forever."

It has no continuous consumption and is passively effective indefinitely.

This clear underlying logic immediately caught Ace's eye.

As long as she doesn't encounter a powerful expert whose domineering aura far surpasses Karina's understanding and forcibly breaks the deadlock, she can expand this intelligence network indefinitely without any scruples.

"Since there are no burdens, we can share the same perspective..."

Ace raised his head, his gaze passing over the beach and looking up at the sky above the nameless island.

There, thousands of giant seagulls and various birds of prey circle and forage among the cliffs, emitting a cacophony of calls.

"Kalina, try changing your contract partners to these."

Ace stretched out his large palm, pointing to the flock of birds circling in the sky, his voice revealing a hint of strategic foresight. "Since we lack enough eyes right now, why not use what we have on hand?"

Ace looked at the birds soaring in the clouds and said his plan: "Seagulls, eagles, even albatrosses. As long as they are tamed birds, once a contract is signed, they will become the radar flying at the highest point of this sea."

Sabo instantly understood Ace's intention, and his eyes lit up.

"Attach vision sharing to flocks of birds! No matter how strong the enemy's Observation Haki is, they will only see them as ordinary birds. In this way, whether sailing at sea or landing on an unfamiliar island, any movement within dozens of nautical miles will be transparent to us!"

"Using flocks of birds as natural scouts?"