"Yes and no."
"That's true because thoroughly studying lineage factors can indeed lead to the realm of the Creator. But lineage factors encompass too much. I've discovered that the field of lineage factors has at least dozens of branches. If you only focus on a vague direction of lineage factors, you might only be able to scratch the surface by the time you die."
Sora gently shook her head. She wasn't denying the existence of bloodline factors, but rather the possibility of researching them in a short period of time.
"The concept of lineage factor did not exist before. It was proposed by Judge and refined by Vegapunk. I don't know if the World Government has studied it, but Judge's research notes mention that they started their research from scratch."
"In other words, you don't have high hopes for Judge," Gion said bluntly.
Gion didn't understand what scientific research was, but having been around Ross, she had seen a lot of things, and she also didn't think highly of Judge.
The Jaygarcia family also had a small research laboratory, staffed by personnel from the World Government's Science Department, which was currently managed by Ross.
Despite being in charge of things, Ross was still the one who always acted as the messenger.
When the lab first started operating, it was similar to Judge's experiment. It seemed to have a lot of equipment, but the way the experimenters operated it was very rough, giving it a unique wild beauty in the world of One Piece.
To give a simple example, consider extracting information from Vegapunk's brain.
Following the wild approach, they would find 1,000 people to conduct experiments, trying out the solution that Judge had coincidentally developed one by one.
If they failed, they simply disposed of the body without any summary or analysis, and moved on to the next one.
If 1,000 people were not enough, then they brought in more people to experiment.
If they were lucky enough to succeed, they continued the experiment and testing in the exact same way as before.
They would refine the same method repeatedly until they achieved a high success rate before experimenting on Vegapunk's body.
This approach was not unworkable; before Ross took over the lab, Gion also believed it was the only way.
But after Ross took over, she realized that even failure cases had value, and careful consideration could save a lot of time.
It turned out that all the steps should not be done all at once. Instead, they should experiment step by step, first testing to find out which step was causing the problem, and then making improvements accordingly.
It turned out that conducting experiments required controlling variables, taking into account all factors such as temperature, humidity, and environment. Experimenters also needed to operate with caution, as the operation affected the experimental results.
It was because she had relayed a message to Ross and witnessed the increasing formalization of the small laboratory that Gion realized how crude Judge's experiments were.
Even Gion felt that if Ross picked anyone at random, that person could quickly surpass Judge.
"So what is your guess?" Ross asked.
Sora had just explained the lineage factor and why she was not optimistic that Judge could produce results, but she had not offered her own solution.
Based on the known future, Judge did indeed create emotionless cyborgs, unlike Vegapunk who created clones requiring specific access levels.
Vegapunk's robots, though called clones, were more like anthropomorphic robots.
"That's my guess." Sora's eyes gleamed with confidence. "I think lineage factor is just a general term, which should also include many other branches such as emotions, heredity, perception, body type, physique, gender, etc."
"So what?" Gion was confused; she couldn't understand anymore.
"So if you want to study emotions, you have to first find out where emotions are contained, and then study them separately," Sora said confidently.
"So where do you think it is?" Ross asked with a smile.
In this world where technology was completely out of its depth, Sora's insight was already considered to be at the forefront of the times.
It was like Judge was still studying what a cell was, while Sora had already broken it down into the nucleus, cytoplasm, and cell membrane.
The technology in the world of One Piece had a fantastical feel to it, with elements like flying bricks. Ross wasn't sure if his knowledge from his previous life could be applied; at most, he could only give Sora the right direction.
Even if the truths differed, the methods of studying the truth were generally similar.
"I believe that the most important directions for studying individual emotions are the brain and genetics."
Sora seemed to sense Ross's encouragement, and she became more and more confident as she spoke:
"Judge did something terrible before, ugh, it was a bit cruel... He cut off the heads of slaves and then used technology that I don't understand to maintain their vital signs so that the other slaves would obey him."
"But I noticed that even after that slave was reduced to just his head, he still experienced joy, anger, sorrow, and fear... Ah, at that time, there was no joy, only anger, sorrow, and fear..."
"At that time, I knew that emotions are not a power of the heart at all, but are related to the brain. If you want to study how to erase emotions, you have to study the brain."
"That's right, that's exactly it." Ross nodded with a smile.
Ross now suspected that Judge had been able to develop the method for erasing emotions because of Sora's help.
Moreover, it seemed that after Sora's death, Judge's technological level had not progressed any further, and his greatest masterpiece was the future Sanji.
However, given the current progress, even if Sanji still had a chance to reappear, he would likely end up with the surname Jaygarcia.
"So what does this have to do with genetics?"
Gion, being a poor student, couldn't understand anything anymore, but that didn't stop her from playing the straight man.
She was already quite used to being by Ross's side.
"Genetics is Judge's research area. He wants to breed the strongest cyborgs. So, to erase emotions, he needs to find the genes related to emotions in the genetic code and delete them," Ross explained calmly.
"Is that so? Your Highness, you are amazing!"
Sora stared at Ross in surprise, not expecting him to know so much as well.
In this world, there was no such thing as nine-year compulsory education, and most people probably had never even heard of the word "genetics".
"It's nothing. Sora, I have a fruit in my hand, would you like to eat it?"
As Ross spoke, under Sora's astonished gaze, he flipped his hand, and a Devil Fruit appeared in his palm.
"The Brain-Brain Fruit...?"
Gion muttered to herself. She had seen Ross's ability before, so she wasn't particularly surprised.
According to Ross, this ability had been granted to him by the Human-Human Fruit, Model: Watatsumi, allowing him to acquire the Devil Fruit of his enemies after killing them.
Such an ability was rare, but Gion knew that it truly existed. Zephyr had explained it to her; the records of the Jaygarcia family stated that the Dark-Dark Fruit possessed the ability to forcibly extract fruit from the bodies of those who had just died.
"Brain-Brain Fruit?"
Sora vaguely caught Gion's whispers and couldn't help but gasp in surprise.
Judge considered Vegapunk his lifelong rival, so how could he not mention the Devil Fruit that Vegapunk had eaten?
Judge often said that Vegapunk had become the world's strongest scientist entirely because he had consumed the Brain-Brain Fruit.
Although this had been just Judge's jealous remark, it also indirectly highlighted the extraordinary nature of the Brain-Brain Fruit.
Am I really qualified to take it?
Sora muttered to herself, her heart filled with trepidation.
She could hardly believe that Ross would be willing to give her such a precious fruit.
No matter how you looked at it, this fruit didn't seem like something you should consume yourself; it should belong to a scientist who was at least on par with the scientific level of Judge.
…
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