Chapter 107: The Semi-finished Artificial Devil Fruit
How to utilize Artificial Devil Fruits, Elus had considered many times before, but there had been no results from Caesar’s side. He only had that one creation from Vegapunk in his hand, and Caesar had personally admitted to Elus that even with Vegapunk’s experimental information, it would be very difficult to replicate Vegapunk’s success.
Because Vegapunk’s only success was strictly speaking a product of luck, the supplies and materials consumed during that process were something even a colossal entity like the World Government struggled to bear. The cost of manufacturing one Artificial Devil Fruit could buy seven or eight Devil Fruits on the Black Market.
Even if the technology could be improved later, Vegapunk had said that there wasn’t much room for improvement. At most, it could increase the success rate of manufacturing, improve production speed and output, but it would be very difficult to reduce the cost of consumption. Manufacturing Devil Fruits inevitably required paying a corresponding price.
Something even Vegapunk could not achieve, Caesar naturally could not do either.
However, this guy was quite skilled at taking crooked paths. At the cost of lowering the quality of Artificial Devil Fruits, he created a mysterious substance named ‘SAD’ to serve as the main material. Not only did he successfully manufacture Artificial Devil Fruits, but he also greatly reduced the price that needed to be paid.
After all,
The source of this mysterious substance SAD was humans. Caesar used a technology that Elus could not understand and did not bother to figure out to extract this substance from human lives, and even gave it a name implying sorrow. For this, Elus sent large numbers of Pirates and criminals to Caesar to serve as raw materials.
Vast numbers of Pirates and criminals with no fame, for Elus, these guys were truly cheap and cost-effective raw materials. Most importantly, such raw materials were inexhaustible. As long as the Sea still existed, Pirates would not disappear.
······
Skadi Island, snowflakes flying, biting cold wind, a freezing landscape of ice and snow.
Fortunately, the Research Institute had heating supplied inside, dispelling the piercing cold from outside. Sitting in the room, one could drink hot coffee and quietly appreciate the silver-clad world outside the window. Elus very much enjoyed such times; his bedroom was located on the topmost floor of the Research Institute.
Every time he came to the Research Institute, when alone in the room, he would have a cup of steaming coffee milk, listening to the howling of the wind and snow outside the window.
This was one of his many pleasures.
However,
Today, Elus did not go to the upper level but directly came to the lower level of the Research Institute, which was the underground area. This underground space was the true core of the Research Institute: experiments on Artificial Devil Fruits, manufacturing of Dragon Series Biological Weapons, production of H2S Poison Gas—all were underground.
Snow-white walls without a trace of dirt, in the spacious Room, aside from one Table, there was no other furniture. At this moment, a group of people were gathered around the Table, for no other reason than the three strangely shaped ‘apples’ on the white porcelain plate used to hold extra-large turkeys on the Table.
Three apples, respectively dark green, light pink, and dark yellow, with ring-shaped wondrous patterns on the fruit’s skin, looking as vibrant as poisonous mushrooms harboring deadly poison, possessing a fatally alluring charm.
“Devil Fruits······ so many!”
Crimson eyes stared fixedly at the Devil Fruits in the plate. The maid miss with fiery red long hair like brilliant flames incredulously widened her eyes. “Your Highness, these······ are they really Devil Fruits?”
“They are Zoan Artificial Devil Fruits.”
Elus corrected.
Yes, all the Artificial Devil Fruits here were Zoan.
The reason for this result was still the Bloodline Factor. The manufacturing technology of Artificial Devil Fruits originated from the discovery of the Bloodline Factor. When Caesar manufactured these Artificial Devil Fruits, he extracted large amounts of Animal genes and mixed them in, turning all these Devil Fruits into Zoan Devil Fruits.
As for Logia,
No way,
Caesar had tried mixing in all sorts of strange things, including tangible substances like snowflakes, sand, Lava, ice blocks, and even attempting to incorporate intangible substances like flames and Light······ all resulted in complete failure without exception.
And Paramecia, that was even more fucked up.
Those myriad bizarre abilities, he had no idea what kind of raw materials to mix in.
After researching back and forth, only Zoan Devil Fruits could theoretically be self-consistent and could also be manufactured in reality—this was the conclusion Caesar reached after experiencing over a hundred failures.
“Caesar, these are the first batch of products, right?”
Elus pointed at the Devil Fruits in the plate and asked.
“Yes, Your Highness. These Artificial Devil Fruits are all prototypes. Only after you review them will we enter the mass production stage. Shuro ro ro ro!!” Caesar laughed very happily. It had been almost a year since coming to Skadi Island, and this less than a year was probably the most satisfying time in his life so far.
Here, there was no annoying Vegapunk bossing him around,
He, as the Director of the Research Institute, was the highest authority here as long as Elus did not appear. Kappas, the supervisor left by Elus, slept about twenty hours a day. In the four hours he was awake, two were spent eating, and the remaining two hours never interfered with Caesar’s actions.
Here, he could research to his heart’s content. Whatever he asked for would be provided. Compared to his time in the Navy Science Unit, the treatment was not inferior at all, even better in some ways. After all, under Elus, Caesar was the only research talent, with no other strong competitors.
“Then what are you waiting for? Let’s test now if these Artificial Devil Fruits really succeeded.” Elus picked up the dark green Artificial Devil Fruit, fiddling with it carefully in his hand, while urging Caesar to prepare the experiment.
Yes,
Manufacturing these ‘apples’ in the plate did not count as complete success. They still needed someone to eat these ‘apples’ to fully confirm if these Artificial Devil Fruits were effective. In Elus’s memory from his previous life, he clearly remembered that the Beasts Pirates had a group of Warriors who ate Artificial Devil Fruits but did not awaken abilities and only laughed.
Pleasures, if he remembered correctly, that was the name.
In his previous life’s memory, the Artificial Devil Fruits manufactured by Caesar had this defect: not everyone who ate the fruit would gain abilities. On the contrary, if no ability was obtained, they would lose the emotion of sadness and turn into Monsters who only laughed.
Of course, the Devil Fruits manufactured by Caesar now had clearly taken a different route. Elus here had no little people to help cultivate fruit trees that bore these ‘apples’. The three ‘apples’ before him were thorough industrial products.
So Elus was also very curious if these Artificial Devil Fruits still had the same defect.
For this, he issued an order to have Caesar postpone the experiment verifying if the Artificial Devil Fruits were truly effective until he personally came, before starting this experiment that should have been conducted half a month ago.
Caesar shouted commands to the staff to bring another experimental subject into this spacious Room: three Prisoners wearing heavy shackles, two men and one woman. The older man had graying beard and was over fifty years old. The young man was only in his twenties. The third woman appeared to be in her thirties.
These three were originally Pirates from different Pirate Crews. The only thing they had in common was that their Pirate Crews had been destroyed by Elus’s Aide-de-camps. All surviving Pirates were sent to this Skadi Island to serve as raw materials for SAD production.
Naturally, their use had now been changed. No longer to serve as fuel for SAD production, instead, they needed to eat those ‘apples’ as vibrant as poisonous mushrooms.
“Your Highness, shall we start now?”
Caesar asked.
“Aren’t you prepared yet?” Elus glanced sideways at Caesar floating in the air two or three dozen centimeters off the ground. “What are you waiting for if not starting quickly? Waiting for these Waste who can’t even lift their hands to eat it themselves?”
Facing Elus, Caesar always lacked Courage. Madness and cowardice were already engraved in his Soul; he could never change this cowardly flaw in this lifetime. After being scolded by Elus, he didn’t dare delay any more time and immediately directed his Subordinates to act.
The Devil Fruits were forcibly fed to the three Prisoners.
To ensure the fruit’s effectiveness, a whole Devil Fruit was fed without leaving even a scrap, all stuffed hard into the Prisoners’ mouths. Once the three Devil Fruits were completely eaten, the other staff were waved out by Elus, leaving only Fran and Caesar to observe the Prisoners’ changes up close.
Anyway, with Elus’s ability, even if these Prisoners turned into potent Dynamite and exploded suddenly, he would not fear it. Fran and Caesar being allowed to stay was for the same reason—not afraid of unexpected changes, with enough confidence to handle all accidents.
“Urgh······”
The Prisoners’ first reaction was to retch.
The heavy shackles restricted their mobility, but the Gag ball on their mouths had been removed, so they could still retch. From their immediate reaction of lowering their heads to retch, it was hard to say if these Artificial Devil Fruits truly had ‘Devil power’, but their taste was perhaps no worse than real Devil Fruits.
Saliva dripped from the corners of the Prisoners’ mouths, but the Devil Fruits eaten into their stomachs were not vomited out.
“I curse you, you damned beasts. I curse you to die horribly······” The first to recover from retching was the only woman among the three. This female Pirate, whose Eyes were sealed by an eyepatch and limbs restricted by shackles, cursed vehemently, issuing the most vicious curses she could.
However,
This cursing did not last long.
Very suddenly, the expression on her face changed abruptly. The mask of Pain woven from Anger, Despair, and madness was smoothed away of all sorrow by an invisible hand. Her mouth corners curved upward, outlining a happy arc.
She laughed.
This female Pirate, whose appearance was still decent, revealed an extremely brilliant smile.
“Hahaha······ What the hell is going on? You, what did you feed me?” Her questioning was so full of Pain and Despair, yet the smile on her face remained so brilliant, forming a stark contrast between the two.
Her question naturally received no answer.
As she laughed and issued near-breakdown curses, the other two also underwent different changes.
The young man in his twenties also laughed, while the fifty-something old Pirate beside him grew thick black fur on his body. His two arms, confined by shackles, elongated until they surpassed the length of his legs before stopping.
“Clang!!!”
The old Pirate was experienced. Though he hadn’t seen what he ate,
The indescribably awful taste and changes in his body let him guess the answer of Devil Fruit immediately. Though he didn’t know why they fed him something as precious as a Devil Fruit, survival instinct made him clumsily try to use this suddenly obtained power.
The thick long arms covered in black fur erupted with enormous Strength, snapping the steel-forged shackles apart.
He removed his eyepatch, enduring the stinging sensation of the Light, vaguely seeing three figures standing not far in front of him. So he lunged forward, clenched his Fist, swung his long arm, and smashed a punch toward Elus standing in the center.
“Pa!”
The old Pirate was sent flying, sticking to the snow-white wall like a flatbread.
Elus held back his Strength, not willing to punch this experimental subject to bits with one blow, merely breaking the old Pirate’s hands and feet, rendering him unable to move.
Then,
Emerald green Eyes looked toward the Director of the Research Institute beside him. “Caesar, explain this. Now······ what’s the situation?” Of the three Devil Fruits, only one successfully triggered power; the other two completely failed.
Too little experimental data to conclude that the success rate was only one-third.
But in the current situation, it was not the result Elus idealized!
“This, that······ let me think······”
Caesar gave a dry laugh, stammering this and that. He truly hadn’t expected his own failure. His arrogant personality filled him with mysterious confidence in himself. Even after experiencing more than one failure in previous research, this mysterious confidence was not worn down.
Every time, he only became terrified after failing, learning no lessons at all.
“I don’t understand research matters, but for the next experiment······ I hope to see a 100% success rate.” Elus did not pursue Caesar’s responsibility. He had only this one usable scientific talent under him; even with all sorts of flaws, he could only grit his teeth and endure.
