One Piece: Investing In Whitebeard At The Start.

After taking a shower, Vane sat on the deck and took out the gold box he had just retrieved from the sunken ship.

The box was made entirely of gold, roughly the size of a basketball.

It was secured with a small lock, but Vane compressed the power of the Shock-Shock Fruit and easily broke it open.

As the box opened, he noticed that not a single drop of water had entered. The sealing was so precise that even Vane was surprised.

Inside—sure enough—was a Devil Fruit. Vane had encountered quite a few recently, so he could quickly identify its type.

A Paramecia-type Devil Fruit.

Alongside the fruit was an old notebook, slightly flattened under the weight of the Devil Fruit.

"My lord, what's that?"

Kalifa, who had been practicing her lightning repulsion technique nearby, walked over and sat beside Vane.

"A Devil Fruit," Vane replied.

Kalifa gasped. Devil Fruits were one of the main sources of power in this world, and they were extremely rare. "You found another Devil Fruit?"

"I pulled it from a sunken ship at the bottom of the sea. Didn't expect it to be something like this," Vane said, flipping open the notebook.

"What kind of Devil Fruit is it?" Kalifa asked, her tone mature and alluring. She often dressed provocatively and didn't hesitate to flirt with Vane when given the chance.

"I'm not sure," he replied. "All I know is that it's Paramecia-type."

Kalifa raised an eyebrow. "What's in that notebook?"

"I don't know. It's old—really old. I can't even read the writing. It's written in some kind of ancient script."

Still, Vane was able to make out a few numbers that looked like a date near the top: 417 + some unreadable characters + 7 + unknown symbols + 23 + more unreadable text.

"Could that be July 23rd, 417 in the Sea calendar…?" he muttered. "We're in the year 1519 now. That would make this over eleven hundred years old."

Even though the script was indecipherable, Vane was intrigued.

"System, can you translate it?" he asked.

[Translation requires a payment of 1,000,000 Berries.]

"One million?" Vane raised his eyebrows. That seemed like a steep price just to read some old diary. But curiosity won out. If a Devil Fruit and a sealed box had survived over a thousand years under the sea, then the contents were surely important.

He paid the Berries.

The notebook wasn't particularly long—maybe sixty or seventy pages. Once translated, the entire story flowed into Vane's mind.

"It told of a nobleman from the West Blue who set sail in search of the legendary Fruit of Life to save his terminally ill wife. The noble and his companions eventually encountered a massive storm that sank their ship to the ocean floor. The final entry was a plea—if anyone ever found this diary and the fruit, to deliver them to his beloved wife"

It was signed: Kami Ochiai's Diary.

Vane wasn't deeply moved—he'd read more tragic love stories in his previous life—but it was still a compelling tale.

"What did it say?" Kalifa asked curiously.

"I couldn't understand much of it," Vane lied. "But it seems to be a journal from over eleven hundred years ago."

"More than a thousand years?" Kalifa gasped. "Isn't that older than the World Government?"

"Much older," Vane nodded.

Kalifa grew thoughtful. "Do you think this world was created by the Celestial Dragons or someone else entirely?"

Vane smirked. "Do you really believe those worthless ancestors of the Celestial Dragons could create a world?"

Kalifa chuckled. "No, you're right. Most of the Celestial Dragons are universally recognized as useless."

"Even the rocks beneath our feet are millions of years old," Vane added. "There's no divine creator behind this."

"Ohhh, I see."

Vane turned his attention back to the Devil Fruit.

'Could this really be the Fruit of Life?'

He had never heard of it before. No legends, no mention in common stories. That made sense, considering it had been buried for over a millennium.

There was said to be a Devil Fruit Encyclopedia in circulation, containing descriptions of many known fruits—but Vane had no idea when it was written. It might not be complete. It likely took many people, or even generations, to compile.

And as time goes on, history becomes harder to preserve.

The Fruit of Life likely didn't make it into the encyclopedia.

According to the notebook, it was a Paramecia-type fruit with extraordinary powers. Allegedly, it could grant eternal youth, cure all diseases, even resurrect the dead.

The nobleman had gone in search of it hoping to cure his wife's incurable illness.

No known legends supported the fruit's existence. But considering its age, that wasn't surprising.

Just like Toki's Time-Time Fruit—she lived over 800 years ago and time-traveled frequently. Because of that, almost no stories or records about the Time-Time Fruit survived. For her, those 800 years were just short visits to different moments in time. Her name barely made it into history.

"The Fruit of Life," Vane mused. "Sounds overpowered—like the Time-Time Fruit or the Revive-Revive Fruit. These are all game-breaking abilities."

He stared at the fruit in his hand, deep in thought.

"Do I take another one?"

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