The highest point of Dressrosa, within an airtight room.
Orochimaru sat before a large array of monitors, his snake-like pupils rapidly scanning across the various screens while he continuously jotted down notes with a pen.
[Confirmed: The drug is ineffective against Devil Fruit users.]
[No. 1 Variant exhibits agility specialization, can maintain limited rationality.]
On the screen was Rebecca, her figure having become more slender and her speed incredibly fast.
At this moment, Rebecca's eyes were cloudy, but she still stood protectively in front of Kyros, cutting any snake-person daring to approach into pieces.
The two-handed sword now seemed appropriately sized in her hands.
The snake-people transformed from other gladiators couldn't even react before the white blur that was Rebecca… in the blink of an eye, they were decapitated.
However, even with their heads severed, these snake-people still retained vitality. Their headless bodies even moved toward the heads on the ground, mouths still opening and closing.
[No. 2 Variant seems to have acquired some ability to control other subjects, did not exhibit maintained rational state.]
This time, the scene on the screen wasn't a battlefield, but inside a hospital.
A snake-person, thin, short, and not much different from before the mutation, was currently coiled before a stone statue.
The statue looked quite comical… it was actually a middle-aged man wearing baby clothes.
He was Senor Pink, turned to stone by Hancock during his earlier trip to Whole Cake Island with Doflamingo and had never reverted.
And Doflamingo, being thoughtful, had placed Senor Pink's statue in the same room as his wife, Russian, who had become comatose.
The woman, who had become comatose due to injuries from a landslide, showed unexpected changes after inhaling the gas.
She seemed to still remember her husband, instinctively positioning herself in front of the stone statue.
And the sound waves emitted by Russian could cause other snake-people around her to instinctively protect her.
"No. 3 Variant... Chinjao? Truly formidable power."
Watching the giant snake-person on the screen casually knock away Donquixote Family's executives with single blows, Orochimaru was deeply shaken by its strength.
[No. 3 Variant's originally held Conqueror's Haki seems to influence the drug, allowing it to maintain relatively high rationality.]
"Hah... Dammit! What the hell did you do to me?!"
On the arena platform, Chinjao's physique had become twice as large as before.
He also showed signs of 'snake-person transformation', but it was much better than the other snake-people.
At least his skeletal structure didn't seem to have changed much… only scales appeared on his skin surface, and his teeth became sharper.
Most importantly, he could still maintain his reason.
Boom!
Gladius's arm expanded, intending to use his move [Punc Rock Fest] to attack Chinjao.
Unexpectedly, the snake-person Chinjao directly ignored the explosion and charged through.
A large hand with sharp nails pierced through the explosion smoke and grabbed Gladius. Following a series of teeth-grinding bone-crunching sounds and screams, Gladius was almost instantly defeated by Chinjao.
Originally, Gladius was no match for Chinjao, whose strength hadn't declined. Coupled with the snake-person transformation further enhancing Chinjao's physical attributes, Gladius's defeat was a foregone conclusion.
"Gladius! Bastard!"
Pica was still busy restraining Lao G. Turning his head, he saw his companion drenched in blood, condition unknown, and immediately roared in anger.
"Octopus Stone!"
He quickly merged into the ground, then transformed into eight giant stone tentacles attacking Chinjao.
"Get lost!"
At this moment, Chinjao's temper was extremely irritable. Although the gas didn't make him completely lose his reason, it did affect his mind to some extent.
Right now, it felt like countless voices in Chinjao's head were urging him to 'bite', 'devour', 'hunt'...
That instinctual craving for 'evolution' was struggling against his own rationality.
Armament Haki covered his sharp claws. Then, with a flash of black light, the stone tentacles capable of destroying city walls were smashed into flying fragments by this single strike.
Even Pica's true body, hidden within, was injured by Chinjao.
Even with Armament Haki applied, several deep gashes appeared on Pica's proud 'resilient body'.
"Haki... a power related to the mind seems to have a special effect."
Orochimaru was genuinely observing with an experimental mindset.
He drew a preliminary conclusion from his records.
The stronger the mental power, or the stronger the willpower of the subject, the more likely they were to maintain rationality and receive further enhancement.
Individuals like Rebecca and Russian, who weren't particularly strong before mutation, and even weaker than ordinary people, could also maintain their reason under the gas's influence.
"This is a truly interesting result..."
Orochimaru unconsciously stuck out his tongue to lick his lips, then began observing a certain subject he had been eyeing from the start.
"Let me see... the resistance of non-humans to this drug… hmm?"
When Orochimaru looked at the visual Den Den Mushi responsible for monitoring Dellinger, he happened to see Sasuke unleashing his power, making all the snake-people collapse to the ground with just a glance.
"A special Devil Fruit user? No..."
Orochimaru looked at the two figures standing in the frame. One he recognized: the Donquixote Family's combatant, Baby-5, the Buki Buki no Mi's user, also a promising individual.
The upper limit of weapons depends on cognition and intelligence.
This fruit could fully unleash even more terrifying effects.
More crucially… this woman was really easy to control.
Orochimaru originally planned to take her along after the experiment was over.
"These eyes..."
For some reason, when Orochimaru saw those crimson eyes in the frame, he inexplicably felt a sense of craving.
Like an instinct, a greed rooted deep in his bones.
But he had no memory of these eyes.
This wasn't normal.
The only result Orochimaru could think of was that the other party had some connection with his pre-amnesia self.
Yes.
He had discovered his own abnormality very early on.
Pudding's brutal deletion of his memories was far too illogical. That shoddily fabricated 'recollection' was something Orochimaru could never accept.
It's just that his current strength was still too weak, so he wasn't qualified to reclaim his memories from Big Mom.
"You've spotted me? It doesn't matter... let me see what's so special about you."
On the display screen, those crimson eyes suddenly made eye contact with the Den Den Mushi's broadcast feed.
…
Sasuke's temper had indeed improved quite a bit compared to before.
In the past, for those who dared to attack him, he basically wouldn't hold back, unlike now where he merely knocked them unconscious.
'Hmm?'
After dealing with all those who had generated intense killing intent toward him, Sasuke then noticed a gaze persistently watching him from a concealed crack in the wall.
Reaching out to retrieve it, he recognized the snail-like little thing.
He had seen it in Impel Down.
'Surveillance Visual Den Den Mushi? Someone is watching here-'
'Orochimaru?'
Thinking this, Sasuke's Sharingan gently rotated, and the feed on Orochimaru's side completely vanished.
As mentioned before, Den Den Mushi can also be controlled by Genjutsu.
The disappearance of the surveillance feed didn't seem to affect Orochimaru's observation at all.
He just fiddled with the console a bit, and the broadcast from another Den Den Mushi's perspective was projected onto the display screen.
'Again?'
Sasuke could sense it as well.
But before he could continue finding the Den Den Mushi, a startled exclamation came from Baby-5 behind him.
"Darling, watch out!"