With a click, Caesar's expression stiffened slightly as he touched the collar around his neck.
"Alright, since you've been longing to return to my side, I'll take you back as my assistant!"
"By the way, the collar on your neck is actually just a backup measure. The real control method is through the collar, which has integrated Nanorobots into your body. These Nanorobots can even assimilate your elementalization ability, transforming them into gas elements as well. So even with a Logia-type's elementalization, there's no way to escape."
"As for the effect... haven't you been researching poison gas? The Nanorobots can constantly change their form to perform a reverse decomposition of your gas poison—which is to say, they'll decompose you entirely!"
Hearing this, Caesar's mouth fell open, his face twisting into a comical expression.
"Abba abba abba..." Vegapunk, on the other hand, had a smile on his face as he looked at Caesar. "I believe that you, my most loyal follower, won't refuse this kind of monitoring, right?"
Charlotte Smoothie and Katakuri both took a step forward, flanking Vegapunk. Their gazes were fixed on Caesar. Caesar swallowed hard. Die or be a dog? For Caesar, this wasn't a choice that required any thought.
"Lord Vegapunk! Thank you for your gift! I will definitely work harder in the future!"
Caesar's performance once again redefined everyone's understanding of how thick-skinned he was. Even Vegapunk showed a hint of helplessness, suddenly feeling that having such a subordinate was truly embarrassing. What should he do?
Fortunately, in the end, Vegapunk didn't choose to hack this embarrassing thing to death. Instead, he tacitly allowed him to stand behind him and proceeded to ask about the situation of this experimental base.
"Bring me all the data on this base. The World Government is quite wealthy; there are many instruments here that aren't even on my Dream Star. Since I'm here, I naturally can't leave empty-handed!"
"Yes, yes, yes, I understand! My Lord, please follow me!"
Although many Marines were stationed at this Marine research base, they were clearly insignificant before Vegapunk and his group. Vegapunk simply used electromagnetic waves to distort their figures and then used electromagnetic wave hypnosis on them. The ordinary Marines were blind and deaf to their presence.
Even when Vegapunk directly moved many large instruments away, the Marines ultimately didn't notice a thing.
Only the base commander, a Marine Rear Admiral who had already awakened Two-Color Haki, seemed to sense something. But by the time he noticed, it was already too late. Caesar, the research base, and many of the most advanced instruments had already vanished.
To make matters worse, as he was leaving, Vegapunk directly opened the large poison gas canisters Caesar had created. The pale purple gas began to slowly spread. Faced with this, ordinary Marines had no way to resist and were eventually forced to retreat completely, abandoning the island.
Caesar's poison gas was actually quite special in that its effects lasted a very long time. Without interference, an island covered in the gas might take several years to fully recover. As for the ecological balance, the time needed for recovery would be even longer; its effects were almost comparable to nuclear radiation.
For the Marines, the current Punk Hazard had basically lost its utility as a Marine base, and there was little possibility of it being reactivated in the future... On the Dream Star, Caesar and Queen looked at each other. However, the two didn't feel any sense of shared fate; instead, they looked at each other with mutual disgust.
As top scientists in the One Piece World, it could be said that whether it was Caesar, Queen, or Judge, their personalities were all incredibly arrogant.
Faced with a "cheater" like Vegapunk, the three of them had no choice but to flee in disgrace. But to some extent, the fact that they only fled rather than completely surrendering also spoke to their pride.
In this situation, when facing colleagues with similar skill levels, all three felt that they were the most talented researchers. Naturally, their relationships couldn't be very good.
"Get along well, you two!"
Vegapunk looked at his two assistants with a smile and spoke. The two were startled and immediately threw their arms around each other's shoulders.
"Of course, Lord Vegapunk, please rest assured!!"
"Exactly, exactly! Caesar and I are old acquaintances. Together, we are definitely the top-tier research assistants!"
Vegapunk walked away with a smile. Then, Caesar and Queen glanced at each other, immediately withdrew their hands like a lightning strike, turned their heads away, and snorted.
Ignoring his subordinates' petty thoughts, it was enough for Vegapunk as long as they could complete their tasks. For now, Vegapunk prepared to study his spoils from this trip—the Devil Fruit Users of the Donquixote Family.
"The power of Paramecia-type Devil Fruits is almost entirely a power of idealism... but this is actually closer to the essence of Devil Fruits! The spiritual crystallization of desires!"
Zoan-type Devil Fruits can be completely manufactured through the study of Lineage Factors, also known as genes. Although there might be a gap in potential compared to real Devil Fruits, preventing them from reaching the stage of Awakening.
But other than that, even Mythical Zoan-type Devil Fruits have no difference in power compared to artificial ones.
Logia-type Devil Fruits cannot be fully obtained through Lineage Factor modification. However, it isn't difficult to grant someone a certain degree of Logia-type abilities. In the original story, Vegapunk could add Glint-Glint Fruit abilities to the modified Kuma. For the current Vegapunk, aside from elementalization, other Logia abilities were not a problem.
Of course, the modified Logia-types lacked potential and were certainly weaker than the real ones. They also lost the ability for further development. But regardless, at least a part of the secret of Logia-type Devil Fruits had been unraveled.
But regarding the bizarre abilities of the Paramecia-type, Vegapunk was truly at a loss.
Some simple Paramecia-types could be replicated using Lineage Factor abilities. For more complex Paramecia-type Devil Fruits, Vegapunk could only follow the method from the original story: directly extract blood from the user to modify Lineage Factors, and then grant the ability to others through human body modification.
However, in essence, that could only be considered an ability transplant rather than a true replication of the original Devil Fruit power. Once the transplanted part left the body, the so-called artificial user would revert to their original form.
Back then, his research ultimately resulted in a flawed Artificial Soul-Soul Fruit. Kozuki Hiyori could be considered lucky; otherwise, she would have gone insane or died long ago.
What previously limited Vegapunk the most was actually the lack of experimental subjects. Even the World Government wouldn't unconditionally hand over certain special Paramecia-type Devil Fruit Users to him.
Most of the experimental subjects were obtained by Vegapunk from Impel Down. However, the essence of the Great Prison was to seal away powerful Devil Fruit Users. Therefore, the vast majority of subjects Vegapunk received were actually Zoan-types.
Zoan-type Devil Fruit Users aren't necessarily weak, but their ability caps aren't high, and they can't develop many tricks. Even if they died or something went wrong, it wouldn't cause much trouble for the World Government.
But as for those truly powerful Paramecia-type Devil Fruits—whether their abilities were heaven-defying, their combat power terrifying, or their potential infinite—the World Government never actually provided them to Vegapunk. They were even willing to provide some Logia-type Devil Fruit Users rather than hand over those truly terrifying Paramecia-types.
Some Paramecia-type Devil Fruits might not offer a large boost to combat power, but in the hands of a mad scientist, who knows what kind of effects they could produce? After all, Paramecia-type Devil Fruits are the most illogical.
But this time, Vegapunk had acquired top-shelf goods. Among the Devil Fruit Users of the Donquixote Family, there was no shortage of those with immense potential or heaven-defying abilities; it was just that those people didn't know how to use them.
The Arms-Arms Fruit, Art-Art Fruit, Hobi Hobi no Mi, and even the Spin-Spin Fruit, Swim-Swim Fruit, Ton-Ton Fruit... These fruits either had terrifying abilities, amazing potential, or very peculiar forms of expression. They were all excellent research subjects.
Therefore, as soon as he returned to the Dream Star, Vegapunk put aside the idea of dealing with the World Government and began researching these Devil Fruit Users day and night.
Time passed quickly. A few months later, Vegapunk's research on Paramecia-type Devil Fruits was only half-finished. However, in another area of research, there had been rapid progress.
That was the extraction of Devil Fruits! Extracting the Devil Fruit directly from the user's body! And even after that, still being able to maintain the user's life!
Simply extracting a Devil Fruit might have been difficult for Vegapunk, but such research wouldn't have taken this long. However, if he wanted to maintain the user's life after extraction and ensure they suffered no harm, it became incredibly difficult!
After all, once a Devil Fruit merges with a user, it's a complete fusion from the soul to the genes. There's almost no good way to separate them.
However, Vegapunk eventually came up with a way: using a certain induction ability to make the Devil Fruit believe the host had died, capturing it the moment it left the body.
The reason for such rapid progress, besides the breakthrough in research itself, was also because he had obtained a peculiar Devil Fruit.
Long before knowing most of the plot of the One Piece World, Vegapunk had used this foresight to find some benefits for himself. For example, the blood and hair of a certain physically abnormal Blackbeard had been collected by Vegapunk long ago.
In fact, because Vegapunk had commissioned the World Government's intelligence agencies to collect Blackbeard's physical data at the time, the World Government also took notice of this strange anomaly. As a result, Blackbeard had been under the World Government's watch, and the originally bounty-less Blackbeard now had a bounty of 300 million berries.
This time, Vegapunk intercepted Blackbeard's prize once again. Through the monitoring of small robots, just after Thatch, the Fourth Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, obtained the Dark-Dark Fruit, he was directly attacked and the fruit was stolen.
Afterward, through his research on the Dark-Dark Fruit, Vegapunk created a machine specifically for attracting Devil Fruit abilities. This was also why his research could proceed so quickly... "Will this machine really not have any problems?"
A white-haired, horned Oni beauty with a hot figure—Yamato—secretly swallowed her spit as she looked at the coffin-like object in front of her and asked.
It was no wonder Yamato was a bit terrified. Looking like a coffin was one thing, but this coffin was also filled with a red, blood-like medicinal liquid. No matter how she looked at it, it didn't seem like a good sign. If she fell in, would she just dissolve?
"Don't worry, there won't be any problems! The red liquid inside will just put you into a state of suspended animation. Then, the Devil Fruit Ability Wave Attractor I developed will directly draw out the Artificial Devil Fruit ability from your body!"
"When the time comes, you'll be able to eat the real Azure Dragon Fruit!"
Vegapunk shook the Devil Fruit in his hand and spoke to Yamato.
That Devil Fruit was covered in azure dragon scales, and the two stems on top looked like dragon horns. It was indeed the authentic Azure Dragon Fruit!
This was the Devil Fruit Vegapunk had extracted from Kaido's body. Calling Yamato over was naturally because he wanted to use her for an experiment.
Don't misunderstand; it wasn't some boring test to see the difference between an artificial fruit and a real one. Instead, he wanted to test—can an Artificial Devil Fruit and an authentic Devil Fruit be merged?
What would happen after the merger? Strengthening? Conflict? No reaction? What kind of changes would occur after eating such an enhanced version of a Devil Fruit?
This was naturally a subject Vegapunk needed to focus on. There was almost no difference between the Artificial Azure Dragon Fruit and the real one. Theoretically, no conflict should occur, so Vegapunk had naturally set his sights on this from the start.
As for Yamato, she was naturally Vegapunk's experimental subject. As a member of the Oni race, Yamato had tenacious vitality. After being strengthened, her combat power had roughly reached the threshold of a top-tier expert. Even if there was a Devil Fruit conflict, it shouldn't take her life initially.
To put it positively, even if a problem arose, Vegapunk could re-extract the Devil Fruit power from her body to save her life.
To put it coldly, if her endurance was too low and she died too quickly, it would be difficult for Vegapunk to conduct his research!
Unaware that she had become an excellent experimental subject, Yamato finally made up her mind. To turn into a real Azure Dragon instead of a somewhat comical, cute pink dragon, she prepared to cooperate with Vegapunk's experiment.
-------------------------
If you enjoy this story, you can read 70+ advanced chapters on Patreon!
Webnovel will keep getting 1 new chapter every day but Patreon readers can stay far ahead.
Maybe it's not a big deal now… maybe it will be later.
[email protected]/Rexlent
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"