Under the exchanged glances, the shady deal was completed. After all, Buggy only cared about treasure and had no real interest in Devil Fruits. In the original story, if it hadn't been for Shanks, Buggy probably wouldn't have eaten the Chop-Chop Fruit.
"Should I peel it?"
Chronos looked at the banana in his hand, unsure how to eat it. He vaguely remembered that in the anime, Kaku and Kalifa of CP9 peeled their Devil Fruits when they ate them...
"Just get it in there!"
Seeing Chronosstill hesitating despite having decided to eat it, Jabba, the third-in-command of the Roger Pirates and a Celestial King, directly shoved the Devil Fruit into Chronos mouth with his large, fan-like palm. This move could truly be described as a "one-step-to-the-stomach" delivery!
"I... gag..."
Chronos clutched his throat uncomfortably. He never thought he'd experience the same fate as the "Clown Emperor," Buggy. The moment the Devil Fruit entered his mouth, Chronos felt a pang of regret. The taste was truly horrendous! He'd never eaten feces, but this felt just like it.
With great difficulty, Chronos swallowed the entire Devil Fruit. He then immediately snatched a cup of sake from Roger's hand and gulped it down, trying to wash away the taste. After a while, the taste finally subsided a bit. Chronos glared intently at Jabba, the "murderer."
"Boss Jabba, if I offended you, you could've just said so. Did you really have to be so harsh?"
Jabba looked at Chronos, who seemed to have died once already, and felt a little embarrassed, awkwardly adjusting his small black sunglasses. "I just saw you hesitating and got too impatient, didn't I? My apologies! My apologies! By the way, after eating it, do you feel any changes in your body?"
"Uh, I feel a lot stronger, like I could punch a Sea King to death!"
"Norse, your hand..." Shanks exclaimed, pointing at Chronos hand while he was still sensing the changes the Devil Fruit brought.
"What the hell is going on?!"
"Krono, why is your hand petrified?"
Chronos was startled to see his right arm completely transformed into a blue, crystalline rock. Roger curiously tore open Chronos shirt and found that the blue, crystalline rock covered Chronos entire right arm and right side of his chest. Other parts of his body remained unchanged.
"Did I misidentify it? Is this the Stone-Stone Fruit?" Rayleigh pushed up his glasses, sounding uncertain.
"No way, I know the user of the Stone-Stone Fruit, and they're still alive!" Roger immediately dismissed that conjecture, but he also couldn't tell what kind of Devil Fruit this was.
The next day, Chronosopened his eyes from bed. With a thought, his right hand transformed back into its rocky appearance.
"Sigh, what kind of Devil Fruit is this anyway?"
Chronos had experimented in his room all of last night, only to find that no matter how he tried, he could only turn his right hand and right chest into rock. He couldn't affect any other parts of his body, no matter how hard he tried...
Chronos looked at his right arm and decided to test if his physical abilities would increase after eating the Devil Fruit. Steeling himself, he picked up a small knife from the table and forcefully stabbed his right arm.
Bang!!!
The knife broke, and the imagined pain didn't arrive. Instead, there was a sound of metal clashing, and his rock-encased right arm was covered in a layer of dark blue, glowing faintly under the light.
"This layer is pretty hard! Wait... I haven't even learned Armament Haki yet. Is this Devil Fruit that amazing? It comes with Haki!"
Chronos tried a few more times with the knife and found that whenever he was attacked, his rocky right arm would automatically be covered in Armament Haki. When Chronos removed the knife, that layer of Armament Haki would quickly dissipate...
"It seems the Devil Fruit I ate is definitely extraordinary; it even comes with Armament Haki!"
Having watched the anime, he knew that some powerful Devil Fruits would enhance their users in other ways. For example, Enel, after eating the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, significantly enhanced his Observation Haki, allowing him to predict opponents' attacks. Isn't that incredible?
Although Chronos still didn't know what kind of Devil Fruit he had eaten, he figured it couldn't be bad. Furthermore, his other body parts hadn't changed, but Chronos had tested them last night, and their defense had increased several times over. When he fully slashed at himself with a knife, he only managed to leave a small cut, which healed itself in less than a minute.
However, Chronos also discovered a new problem: if he wanted to become stronger, he might have to learn from Teacher Kaido from now on. He'd either be fighting or on his way to a fight... When he watched the anime, he used to laugh at Teacher Kaido for constantly seeking death at Marine Headquarters and getting beaten half to death every time. Now, he was going to become Teacher Kaido himself...