Chapter 92: Artificial Devil Fruit
“Your Highness, this is the composition table and production method for H2S poison gas. You can use this for large-scale production at any time.”
“······This is the manufacturing principle of the biological weapon that guy Vegapunk researched. There’s an artificial giant dragon on the island, locked in the lowest level of the prison.”
“Information on animal mechanization. Unfortunately, part of it was destroyed. This is only a portion·····”
“Experiment information on human gigantification. With these······probably only about one-tenth······”
In the ruins of the Punk Hazard research institute, Elus, wearing a one-piece protective suit, walked among the rubble and debris. With the help of his newly acquired ‘loyal dog’ Caesar, he diligently dug up treasures buried under bricks and rubble.
Borsalino’s large-area sweeping attack before leaving did not completely destroy the research institute. This wasn’t him deliberately holding back; rather, the research institute’s building safety level was extremely high, built to standards that could withstand bombardment from the main cannons of the highest-grade warships. Even a headquarters admiral would have to put in quite some effort to destroy the research institute.
Also, because this research institute was built for Doctor Vegapunk, to avoid threatening Doctor Vegapunk’s safety, no self-destruct device was installed inside the research institute.
Plus, the situation was urgent at the time. Compared to destroying the research institute, protecting Doctor Vegapunk was the most important mission, so Borsalino didn’t have time to finish it off.
Thus,
In this way,
Under the combined effect of multiple factors,
The destruction of the research institute was very incomplete. The area centered on Doctor Vegapunk’s research building was the most severely damaged, while positions farther from that building suffered less damage. Places like the area where Caesar had hidden before still had many buildings standing intact.
However, the closer to the periphery, the lower the importance. Most of these areas were warehouses storing daily necessities and ordinary raw materials. The real treasures had to be dug up from under the ruins.
According to the intelligence provided by Caesar, Punk Hazard was a large research base, with Vegapunk as the highest person in charge of this research base. Besides Vegapunk, there were nearly a hundred researchers working here, including Caesar. These people weren’t all gathered just to cooperate with Vegapunk.
At the very least, every senior researcher had their own independent research work. Though they were under Doctor Vegapunk’s control, Doctor Vegapunk generally wouldn’t interfere with research that he found uninteresting and without any highlights.
The few times he exercised his authority were to stop research with limited development prospects and low application value.
For example, Caesar’s H2S poison gas research.
It was shot down by Vegapunk. Unwilling to give up, Caesar secretly continued the research in the dark, which led to this incident and gave Elus the opportunity to come pick up scraps and dig for treasures.
“This is······”
The moonlight sword cut through cement and rebar. At the bottom of the excavated deep pit appeared an irregular opening. Through this deep opening, one could see smooth, flat corridor flooring, walls painted with paint, and fire extinguishers hanging on the walls.
It looked like
a pretty large space.
However, there seemed to be no signs of life activity inside, so Elus’s neuro-scan hadn’t detected it. If he hadn’t been digging with the moonlight sword in the ruins, he might have really overlooked it.
“Basement? Why is there a basement here?”
Caesar, floating in mid-air, also showed a shocked expression.
As a senior researcher, he was very familiar with the island’s building layout. When the base was being constructed, they had solicited opinions from all the scientists, but he never knew there was a underground research room in this location.
“Vegapunk——!!”
The shout full of resentment echoed over the ruins.
Even thinking with one’s heels, it was clear that this basement, which even he didn’t know about, was definitely related to Vegapunk.
“Caesar, shut up and stop talking nonsense. Go down and check it out quickly.”
“Eh?”
“What’s with the ‘eh’? Get down there.”
Elus struck like lightning, grabbing Caesar by the neck and directly throwing him into the opening.
After waiting five seconds,
There was no commotion. Confirming there were no traps or the like below, Elus also spread his wings and flew in through the opening. The one-piece protective suit on his body didn’t tear due to the wings spreading—this was a special ability of all Devil Fruits; it wouldn’t cause clothing to burst due to changes in body form, quite user-friendly.
The underground environment was a bit dim.
There were light bulbs on the corridor ceiling, but no switch was visible nearby, and it was uncertain if the power system still worked. Elus hovered in mid-air without touching the ground, looking around front and back. Seeing no differences, his gaze turned to Caesar, who had a aggrieved expression beside him.
“Which way do you think we should go?”
Although Caesar seemed ignorant of this part of the underground space, perhaps the architectural style here was the same as the other buildings in the research institute, and Caesar might be able to tell which way would lead more easily to the core area of this underground space.
“If there’s no change, going straight ahead should lead to the laboratory.”
Caesar did not disappoint Elus’s expectations.
After carefully observing for a while, he gave an answer.
Just as Elus had guessed, although this part of the underground building was outside Caesar’s knowledge, it was obvious that only that one engineering team built the research institute back then. The style here didn’t differ much from the structures of the other underground buildings in the research institute.
However, the other underground spaces were used as warehouses to store dangerous raw materials, with no exploration value. Elus had wandered around them and indeed found nothing.
This made him even more expectant of this hidden underground space.
With Caesar leading the way, both in flight mode, they moved quickly. In less than three minutes, they arrived at the door of a huge laboratory. Caesar elementalized into gas state and slipped through the gap into the room, found the switch, and opened the door.
“This is······”
The laboratory was extremely spacious, with many large machines and equipment placed inside. Along one side of the wall stood a row of huge tanks marked with black-and-yellow three-leaf symbols. Caesar was floating in front of an operation table, head down looking at something.
“Any discoveries?” Elus flew to Caesar’s side and casually asked.
“······It’s, it’s artificial, artificial Devil Fruit information!” Caesar’s hand trembled, his voice stuttering, his gaseous body becoming even more blurred, as if greatly shocked. “That bastard Vegapunk—it was my proposal back then to experiment with artificial Devil Fruits, and he secretly went ahead with it behind my back! Unforgivable, unforgivable, I absolutely won’t forgive you!!!”
Artificial Devil Fruit?!
Elus was stunned for a moment.
So it was this thing—artificial Devil Fruit······ This was another great invention of Vegapunk. However, unlike his other inventions, after successfully creating one artificial Devil Fruit, Vegapunk didn’t continue researching and perfecting it for some reason.
Instead, Caesar developed it further, cooperating with Doflamingo to sell artificial Devil Fruits to Beasts.
But now,
This line couldn’t be established.
Elus picked up the messy experiment logs from the operation table and read through them from the beginning—but he still couldn’t understand them. Though he recognized all the characters, when connected, they were no different from a heavenly script. He didn’t waste more time studying things he couldn’t comprehend at all.
He had Caesar collect and organize the information scattered across different experiment tables in the laboratory, while he himself wandered around the room.
If he remembered correctly, the only artificial Devil Fruit that Vegapunk created wasn’t taken away in the original experience; it was left on Punk Hazard and later accidentally eaten by the fleeing Kozuki Momonosuke due to hunger—that Mythical Zoan artificial Devil Fruit.
Ordinary artificial Devil Fruits honestly held little interest for Elus. He wasn’t an animal enthusiast like Beasts. Compared to mass-producible Devil Fruit technology, he was now more concerned about the Mythical Zoan artificial Devil Fruit that Vegapunk might have left somewhere here.
That was a Mythical Zoan!
Thinking of Kozuki Momonosuke transforming into a divine dragon form, Elus felt his heart heat up. Such a great treasure couldn’t be left to benefit that little pervert.
Elus wandered everywhere in the laboratory, his peripheral vision watching Caesar, who was bent over operation tables collecting experiment logs. It had to be said that this guy was completely incomparable to Doctor Vegapunk. For artificial Devil Fruits, Doctor Vegapunk’s first one was a Mythical Zoan artificial Devil Fruit.
In contrast, Caesar produced thousands of artificial Devil Fruits in the original experience to sell to Beasts, yet they were all ordinary types. He couldn’t even make an Ancient Zoan, and the transformation forms were all mismatched, with only parts of the body changing······
The gap,
was not small by any means.
Of course, it was normal to have a big gap with Vegapunk. It couldn’t be denied that Caesar had ability just because of this······ His thinking didn’t slow Elus’s search speed. Soon, he found a glass box mounted on a bookshelf in the corner.
Inside the box was a fruit.
A pink fruit with doughnut-shaped circular patterns, completely different from normal “tatami-style” spiral-patterned Devil Fruits. But that incredible, gravity-like attractive power was no different from the real thing.
Up to now, he had handled quite a few Devil Fruits and was very familiar with this kind of fruit that didn’t seem like it should exist in this world.
“This is······the dragon!”
Elus exclaimed.
He held the glass box, admiring it carefully from top to bottom, left and right. A unstoppable smile appeared on his face hidden under the one-piece protective suit. Just this one Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit alone made the trip worthwhile, not to mention Caesar and the numerous technology information collected.
This was an unequivocal great harvest.
Caesar moved quickly. He collected all the information that seemed related to artificial Devil Fruits at the fastest speed, taking several standard briefcases from a nearby storage cabinet—high-grade World Government goods, waterproof, fireproof, and explosion-proof. It would be hard to blast them open even with a cannon.
The previously collected document information was also packed in similar briefcases, all of which were hanging on Caesar!
As a Logia·Gas Fruit ability user.
Caesar could still fly in the air while carrying things three times his own weight. Of course, for Elus, with his current strength, he could carry a large Sea King and still fly without issue. But with a subordinate present, there was no need to exert himself.
Plus, this was an opportunity for Caesar to show off!
Regarding this,
Caesar was very obedient, without any complaints.
Though this guy was extremely arrogant, always mysteriously confident in wanting to challenge Vegapunk, he was actually known in the Science Unit for bullying the kind and fearing the strong. He knew Doctor Vegapunk wouldn’t use violence to punish him, so he kept jumping around with big talk of surpassing Vegapunk.
But when he encountered Admiral Borsalino, he was all servile, obedient like a turtle shrinking into its shell.
He was in that state now. In front of Elus, the infamous Black Prince, he was trembling and didn’t dare utter a single dissenting word. Whatever Elus said to do, he did.
“All packed up?”
“All packed here.”
Caesar shook the string of briefcases chained to his arm.
“Then let’s continue.”
Elus held the glass box in his hand, not handing the fruit to Caesar—not out of distrust, but because Caesar already had enough briefcases hanging on him. Moreover, this seemingly fragile glass box was unusually sturdy, so there was no worry of accidentally damaging it and harming the fruit inside.
The two set off immediately, moving swiftly.
Without Elus saying anything, Caesar didn’t dare dawdle, fearing that staying too long on Punk Hazard would mean Kizaru or other Navy Admirals returning. Even with the Black Prince protecting him, it might not be possible to really take him away.
Thus, Caesar was even more proactive than Elus, doing his utmost to help Elus dig up the precious information hidden in this rubble.
By the time the sun was high in the sky,
They had pretty much excavated most areas of the research institute. Only places like the prison and warehouses hadn’t been thoroughly checked yet.
“Your Highness, next is the prison? That red dragon made by Vegapunk is in the lowest level of the prison.” Covered in briefcases, Caesar sidled up to Elus and carefully asked.
“Not going.”
Elus put away the Den Den Mushi.
“We’re leaving now. Caesar, do you have anything else you need to take? If not, we’re leaving now.” If they didn’t go, the Navy Admiral would probably arrive soon.
