Chapter 172: The Members Of Baroque Works
“How about it? Is this person usable?”
“Very excellent, although it can’t compare to Whitebeard’s cells, even if the level is lowered, the produced clones are still top-notch, and they also have the possibility of mass production.”
Miss. Bakin gently stroked Burgess’s forearm with her right hand, feeling the robust muscles like iron lumps, her smile eerie and terrifying, the wrinkles stacked on her face making her look just like a witch from a fairy tale.
“Oh! Specifically, how many can there be?”
“A few thousand or tens of thousands is difficult, but based on experimental data, under the current supplies supply, in two years’ time, there should probably be results of more than two hundred people.” Miss. Bakin reported her calculated results truthfully.
Jess Burgess had been transported here for half a month already,
Such a short time wasn’t enough to produce clear and visible results, but it was sufficient for Miss. Bakin to make certain predictions and calculations based on her experience and knowledge.
“So few?”
Elus frowned in dissatisfaction.
“Is this still few?” Miss. Bakin was shocked by Elus’s ‘appetite’ and explained: “Your Highness, this isn’t like those low-grade cheap goods made before. Even if it doesn’t match up to Weibul, the artificial humans made from this guy are absolutely not ordinary cannon fodder.”
She herself had no combat ability.
But she could calculate many things from body data, such as muscle density, bone strength, and so on. More simply, just looking at the supplies consumed in making artificial humans could roughly show their corresponding strength.
“Can they master Armament Haki?”
“This… we’ll only know for sure once there are actual results.”
Miss. Bakin was quite helpless.
Cultivating artificial humans couldn’t be done in a short time. Even with her sufficient knowledge and experience, repeating past work inevitably required time, especially since the current technology differed from the past. Having absorbed the technology shared by Jermma Kingdom, making artificial humans required cautious trials.
“Don’t think I’m impatient. You asked for such a large amount of resources, and before I see satisfactory results, I won’t let you waste them for nothing.”
Elus said in a deep voice. He hadn’t overly interfered with Miss. Bakin’s work. He himself wasn’t skilled in scientific research matters and knew he had no outstanding talent in this area. Most importantly, he had little interest in investing his energy into scientific research.
However, he wouldn’t underestimate the power of science because of this. Whether it was the memories sealed from his previous life or his experiences in this life, they all told him that the power of science was terrifying.
So,
Since he himself wasn’t skilled in it and didn’t like scientific research, he would let others do that work.
“What about the research on the Bald Sea Monster?”
Elus inquired about the progress of another experiment.
The Bald Sea Monster, that guy who could drag more than ten warships forward on the sea, with a size six or seven times taller than ordinary giants, had been brought by Elus from Ryugu Kingdom to the sea and joined the Eckmond Kingdom’s Navy, becoming one of Elus’s subordinates.
To be honest, despite its appearance, the Bald Sea Monster wasn’t smart and wasn’t strong in combat against people.
But just the power brought by its enormous size was a realm ordinary humans couldn’t touch. Plus, as a Fish-Man, it could swim flexibly in seawater, making it a top-class naval weapon. The destructive power it displayed on the sea was extremely terrifying.
Unfortunately, the Bald Sea Monster was afraid of pain and fire, didn’t dare advance when hit by pirates’ cannonballs, and only showed a fierce momentum when eating, which somewhat fit its appearance… Overall, this Bald Sea Monster wasn’t a qualified warrior.
In order to better utilize this power, Elus targeted Miss. Bakin’s artificial human technology. Using the Bald Sea Monster as a blueprint, just like Jermma’s death-defying, unstoppable clone army, he also hoped to cultivate a bunch of death-fearing ‘sea monster warriors’ that could thrive on the sea.
Even if the size was halved, it didn’t matter. An eighty-meter-tall Bald Sea Monster halved would still be a burly forty meters tall. One must know that ordinary adult giants of the Giant Race were only around twenty meters tall.
“Up to now, there have been fifty-five failures. My assistant is watching the fifty-sixth cultivation experiment. Although there is no reproductive isolation between Fish-Men and humans, whether Fish-Men or Mermaids, they are ultimately different from humans. I currently can’t determine how long it will take to get results.”
Miss. Bakin had already figured out Elus’s temperament and knew exactly how to answer his questions.
Just tell the truth.
That fool Caesar had played tricks and falsely reported experimental progress, and after the truth was exposed, he was severely punished. The Seastone-embedded torture tools made him suffer greatly.
As expected, Elus didn’t reprimand her for it, but he still put on a stern face and said coldly: “I don’t care how many experiments you’ve done. I only need to see actual results. We’ll stop here for today, but next month at this time, I hope to see the answers I want.”
His patience was good, but not infinite.
Miss. Bakin did research not out of hobby. Elus was well aware that this old lady had little ambition for research work; she was just a worker punching in and out on time, completely different from the mad scientist Caesar.
Indulging her endlessly would only make Miss. Bakin slack off. Moreover, with her old age, he needed to squeeze out her remaining value while her mind was still sharp and her hands and feet nimble. Once she became senile, she would have no utility.
“Please remember, my patience is limited.”
Elus
Miss. Bakin furrowed her brows, her wrinkled face like a dehydrated chrysanthemum. One more month? It seemed she needed to speed up the experimental progress. What a pity about the good alcohol she had finally gotten from the kitchen; she could only set it aside for now…
Watching Elus’s back disappear, she didn’t dare slack off anymore and immediately threw all her energy into the experiments.
Leaving Miss. Bakin’s research institute.
Elus didn’t immediately return to his office. While he was in the mood, he toured the inside of the research institute, inspecting all the research work.
The artificial human experiments were just one of many projects. Besides that, there was dragon manufacturing research, H2S poison gas form change research, artificial Devil Fruit production technology improvement research, Devil Fruit weapon manufacturing technology, and Pluton Blueprint analysis, and so on.
Currently researching, awaiting research, put into production…
The research institute’s deepest part had expanded to seven underground levels, with internal usable space more than five times larger than before. The researchers here had also increased a lot, although the top researchers were still only Caesar and Miss. Bakin.
But Elus had recently traded with Jermma Kingdom, exchanging a batch of artificial dragons and the Cerberus Type-1 light cannon derived from Pluton Blueprint analysis for a batch of scientists, greatly filling the research institute’s vacancies. As for the potential spies among them…
It was solved very simply.
Yes,
All the spies were found effortlessly.
This was all thanks to Miss Goldenweek, the ability of this former Baroque Works employee.
After Crocodile fell, the little girl was captured by Dillon and brought back to Eckmond Kingdom. Facing Elus, these Baroque Works cadres had only two choices: death or surrender. There was no third path for them.
Unless one was utterly despairing, no one would easily abandon their life.
Moreover, their loyalty to Crocodile was quite limited. The most loyal Mr.1, under the persuasion of others, didn’t hold out to the end either. Although he clearly still harbored other intentions, as long as Crocodile didn’t appear, he could still be used.
Miss. Goldenweek, this little girl with two pigtails and a pink sun hat, probably had the weakest loyalty to Crocodile among everyone. To her, work at Baroque Works was really just a job.
Changing bosses was no big deal to her.
What mattered was that everyone was together; that was what she cared about.
She was a Paramecia ability user.
Able to control others’ emotions by mixing colors.
Among them, black pigment represented ‘betrayal.’ In front of her ability, those spies with willpower as firm as unshakeable rocks betrayed their organization and partners in less than a second, spilling all their known intelligence like beans from a bamboo tube.
Elus sent the heads of Judge’s spies back to Judge.
This king who had stirred up the ‘Four Nations Beheading Incident’ in North Blue faced Elus’s silent threat and chose to admit defeat and yield, proactively sending his research data on clones and modified humans, earning Elus’s forgiveness.
…
“Achoo!!!”
The little girl sitting at the bar counter painting let out a cute sneeze. Looking at the painting she had accidentally ruined in her hand, she sighed maturely, put down her paintbrush and palette, picked up the steaming green tea, and took a sip.
“Caught a cold?” Bora behind the counter, with her fiery figure, asked caringly, even reaching out to wipe the little girl’s forehead.
“I’m fine, just my nose is itchy. Probably someone is talking about me?” The little girl took a few tissues to wipe her nose. “It’s probably that idiot Dino complaining again!”
“Not necessarily! What if it’s Mr.0 talking about us?”
Mikita suddenly leaned over to join the conversation.
“Don’t say such scary things, okay? Mikita, can’t you see the customer waving? Get back to work properly.” The bar owner Bora glared at the overly lively employee. The latter shrank her neck, her lemon earrings swaying gently by her ears, gave a placating smile, and darted off like a fly to swindle Beli from those lecherous customers’ pockets.
“Even if Mr.0 came looking for us now, it wouldn’t matter! Bora, you don’t need to worry at all. We’re subordinates of the Black Prince now.” The old lady dressed flashily like a princess but actually squat and more like a mole passed by with a tray.
“I’m not worried…”
Bora sighed helplessly.
But she didn’t have much time to explain that she hadn’t worried about these things at all. A familiar customer she hadn’t seen for several days pushed open the bar’s door—a guest who needed her personal attention.
“A black beer.”
Dillon sat down at the bar counter.
He sat right next to the little girl, and by slightly leaning over, he could see her painting.
“Marian, what are you painting?”
“Yesterday at the port, I saw a particularly huge Sea King and wanted to try painting it, but I have no inspiration.” The little girl named Marian held her paintbrush, smearing colors on the canvas. The vibrant hues left the art-deficient Executioner mister unable to discern the painting’s quality.
“Mister Dillon, your black beer.”
Bora pushed the cup filled with alcohol in front of Dillon. During this, one could hear the crisp sound of ice clinking against the cup wall.
“How’s the bar’s business?” Dillon picked up the wine glass and took a sip, showing none of the bold drinking gusto of other patrons, but Bora already knew how restrained this executioner was who had once crushed their Baroque Works.
“Business is pretty good. The alcohol isn’t cheap, but Mikita is very popular, and there are already quite a few regular customers.” Bora said seriously, as if truly operating the bar business properly.
“Bora is very popular too! Half the customers here come for her.”
Marian, who was painting, suddenly interjected.
“Don’t talk nonsense!” Bora glared at her.
“I’m telling the truth. Bora, your figure is amazing. I heard those uncles whispering.” Marian said confidently.
“Marian!” Bora widened her eyes. “You’re not an adult yet!”
“What’s the big deal? We’ve seen those disgusting guys at Baroque Works before.”
Dillon didn’t join the ladies’ argument.
Without keeping him waiting long, just as he finished his black beer, Bora had successfully used her boss authority to suppress Marian, who was showing signs of rebellion. The little girl huffed angrily, hugged her canvas, and went to the bar’s corner to paint.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, Mister Dillon.”
Bora brought Dillon a new drink.
“No problem, I have plenty of time today.” Pressing his fingers against the outside of the wine glass, feeling the slight chill transmitted, Dillon asked: “How’s the training going lately?”
“My talent isn’t great, progress is average, but Mikita, Marian, Von, Dino, and Marian’s potential are all good. Who are you planning to take this time?” Bora stared at Dillon and asked.
“Marian’s ability can be used by Your Highness anytime if she stays here, so taking her isn’t convenient. While carrying out missions this time, I’ll properly train the others. Their abilities are being wasted too severely, but with proper training, they still have hope of reaching higher positions in the future.”
