In the MADS research group, aside from Vegapunk, Caesar Clown was the most interested in Devil Fruits. He had been devoted to researching them, but until now, he still hadn’t managed to replicate a complete Devil Fruit.
All of his previous experiments had been failures. “Bringing a Devil Fruit to Life” – this concept had appeared in his mind. It was something he had once imagined, but it was just that – a thought.
The experiment had no direction, making it impossible to proceed.
At that time, Queen was researching viruses. Although he had dabbled in the technology of the Lineage Factor, Caesar was confident that in the field of Devil Fruit research, aside from Vegapunk, no one could surpass him – certainly not Queen.
“Dr. Caesar, please calm down. This is the conclusion we reached after careful analysis…”
“Those idiots should commit seppuku!! You fools have no idea how great this technology is. That useless fat pig could never accomplish this! Your intelligence agents have definitely lost their minds!”
Being part of MADS meant that Queen definitely has some skills, but this wasn’t his specialty. If Queen had developed some virus Caesar couldn’t understand, he would have accepted that, but this Devil Fruit…
“This is our reasonable hypothesis. While it’s not confirmed, there’s more than a 90% likelihood.”
As the person in front of him persisted in his view, Caesar’s body began to twist, almost turning into gaseous form.
The members of MADS were all capable fighters, not top-tier, but still able to handle most enemies. Vegapunk had his mechanical clones, Judge had his equipment, Queen had his Zoan-type body, and Caesar Clown had a powerful Logia-type Devil Fruit.
The Logia-type Gas-Gas Fruit. As a scientist, Caesar Clown might not have had great combat skills, but he had mastered how to apply the Gas-Gas Fruit quite well.
At the very least, he was much stronger than Smoker, who also has a Logia-type fruit. In Smoker’s hands, the Smoke-Smoke Fruit was mostly used for bullying small fry in the first half of the Grand Line, with its biggest function being to increase the area he can get hit.
Caesar, being arrogant and conceited, listened to those around him and even considered removing the air out from around them to make them experience suffocation. But when the lab staff glanced his way, he calmed down.
“Oh, come on. Why are you all so stubborn? Fine, leave the intel behind, and go back to whatever it is you need to do. Just be careful not to trigger any traps and die, okay?”
Caesar gently cursed the two of them from the bottom of his heart. Although his personality was vile, Caesar always maintained a warm-hearted persona in front of his subordinates, deceiving them into trusting him so he could later carry out special tasks.
On the other hand, Vegapunk was much more composed. While he didn’t believe Queen could have made such a breakthrough, he still absorbed new insights from the research.
“Making the Devil Fruits come to life… come to life…”
The World Government had asked him to create many things, and a large part of them came from the Beasts Pirates. Vegapunk always believed those were based on Devil Fruit technology.
After analyzing the data, the powers used by members or special creatures of the Beasts Pirates were largely related to lightning, fire, rock, plants, special barrier, laser cannons and various other abilities.
In Vegapunk’s understanding, all of these were likely powers derived from the Lineage Factor. Otherwise, unless it was a miracle, such powers could not have appeared on such a large scale.
The fire and lightning might have come from Kaido, the rock powers from their newly discovered Mythical Zoan i.e. King’s devil fruit. The creatures that could fire Hyper Beams generally had some mechanical parts – even the Tyranitar’s shell didn’t resemble that of a normal creature, so this could be understood as purely technological power.
As for the special barrier, according to Vegapunk’s needs, the Marines and the World Government provided a large amount of data, which was very similar to the Barrier-Barrier Fruit.
He believed that someone had extracted the Lineage Factor from the initial few abilities and then distributed it to others, enabling the spread of such powers.
Although it was difficult, it wasn’t impossible, as Vegapunk had already achieved some success in this area.
Looking at the new analysis results, he had a new idea regarding a previous experiment: how to make inanimate objects “eat” Devil Fruits. This was one of his research topics.
Now, from a different perspective, if inanimate objects couldn’t eat anything, perhaps bringing Zoan-type Fruits, which possess a will of their own, to life and having them consume the weapons, could be the solution?
The blood analysis of Hydrachton confirmed the possibility of this idea, and Vegapunk had already mentally organized a complete experimental procedure.
“Queen… did I misjudge him?”
“Doctor, don’t worry about that for now. How is that other matter coming along? Sengoku-san is pushing for it quite urgently.”
Beside Vegapunk’s main body, Borsalino was idly trimming his nails with clippers. Unlike the World Government’s special agents, Borsalino and Vegapunk got along relatively well, even having a good rapport.
In Vegapunk’s eyes, Borsalino was a Marine soldier he could talk with, who is completely different from some of the more extreme individuals in the World Government.
Although slightly older, like Kuzan, he became one of the three Admirals in the same period with the codename Kizaru. Someone like him could influence Vegapunk’s attitude.
“It will take a bit more time, but it’s almost ready. The composition of this blood will likely accelerate the progress.”
“You’ve seen it too, right? Fleet Admiral Sengoku wants you to quickly make a similar creature, at least one capable of long-term flight, rather than those small dragons that can only fly short distances.”
Since most of the world is made up of sea, the Marines had been the main focus of development. Even now, they had no plans to establish an air force because there were so few enemies capable of flight.
However, that didn’t mean they were doing nothing. If they had flying, fire-breathing mounts, Momonga wouldn’t have struggled so much in his battle against Hydrachton.
Moreover, according to Vegapunk’s experimental records, he had previously created dragon-like creatures.
If they could match Hydrachton, that would be ideal, but even if not, they at least needed a mount capable of high-speed, long-range flight, preferably one that could breathe fire. That was Sengoku’s request. He wanted every branch and warship to be equipped with such special creatures.
In essence, Kaido had single-handedly forced the Marines to restructure in a way they hadn’t in nearly a century, creating an entirely new military unit specifically to deal with him. This was something even Golden Lion Shiki had failed to accomplish.
Shiki’s use of his Devil Fruit was quite unusual, so the Marines hadn’t paid much attention to him or made any special efforts to counter him.
For the Marines, this was a historic moment, and Kaido had become a “major contributor” to this Marine reform, as it was his actions that had made such urgent changes necessary.
Chapter 727 Kaido Laying the Foundation for the Development of the Marines Air Force
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