None of them were nice words, but Queen’s title sounded much better than his.
There wasn’t much Caesar could do about it. After all, Queen was now a pirate—a well-known one with a reputation that preceded his. He had plenty of epithets to his name. But Caesar’s identity? Not a single thing he could brag about in public.
“You shouldn’t care about that. You should be glad you don’t have a reputation worth bragging about. Otherwise, you’d be humiliated.”
“I should be the one saying that! Gas Robe!”
As the announcer introduced their identities, the duel officially began.
Caesar chose to make the first move. He released a large amount of gas from his body, condensing it into a tangible rope that flew toward Queen.
The rope struck Queen, and a large amount of gas enveloped him that restricted his movements.
The cloud created by the Gas Robe was highly poisonous, capable of causing unconsciousness or even death upon inhalation.
“Shurororororo! Is that all you’ve got? Your reputation seems fake… What?!”
In the past, Queen’s way of dealing with this technique would have been to put on a gas mask. Creating one was easy for him. But this time, he did something unexpected—he directly inhaled the gas. Then, he spat out in disgust.
“I told you, did you think it’s still the old days? This level of poison is useless against me.”
Gas? Galarian Weezing’s gas was far more poisonous than this. With the help of Alolan Muk and Galarian Weezing, Queen had already researched numerous antibodies.
Even without using antidotes made with Pecha Berries, it wasn’t easy to poison him anymore. Even Magellan would now have a headache dealing with Queen.
“You b*stard! Don’t look down on me! Gastanet!”
Caesar threw two custom-made castanets at Queen. The moment they hit the arena floor, they exploded violently.
BOOM!
More than half of the arena had almost turned into a sea of flames. The gas that Caesar usually produced was stored in them, and when he ignited them, they transformed into a powerful bomb.
But it still didn’t work. Queen flapped his wings, and a strong wind quickly dispersed the smoke and dust. Queen stood there unscathed, not even budging an inch, as if the explosion was nothing in his eyes.
“Im… Impossible!”
“Nothing is impossible. Your information is far too outdated. You don’t know what I’ve been through these past few decades, so you’ll never understand how I comprehended Haki.”
At this moment, Queen suddenly understood why Kaido enjoyed taking attacks head-on. He could easily dodge, yet he chose not to.
There was something incredibly satisfying about watching your opponent realize their attacks were utterly useless, unable to even scratch your defenses.
“I’ve already let you make the first move, so don’t go saying I’m bullying you.”
Then, Queen’s burly figure appeared right in front of Caesar, and his enormous arm, wrapped in Haki, came crashing down on Caesar.
“Don’t think being a Logia-type makes you invincible! Go repent to my bananas!”
The Haki captured Caesar’s physical body, and what followed was a one-sided beatdown. Even the announcer didn’t know what to say.
Simple and without any fancy techniques, after taking two of Caesar’s techniques head-on, Queen grabbed him and pinned him to the ground, grinding him against it until he had thoroughly vented his pent-up resentment.
The sheer gap in power made the duel entirely unentertaining. Even Doflamingo was at a loss for words.
Though Doflamingo was still at the King’s Plateau, Viola possessed the ability to share memories. Having witnessed the duel here, she indirectly allowed Doflamingo to see everything as well.
Doflamingo had always known Caesar wasn’t much of a fighter, but he hadn’t expected him to be thrashed this badly. Even with Queen holding back, Caesar was utterly crushed.
Beating Caesar to a pulp was the final condition for their agreement. Once that was done, Queen successfully negotiated some trade deals between the Beasts Pirates and Doflamingo.
Not long after, Caesar returned to Punk Hazard. Though the island had been blown up by him, some of the laboratory buildings still remained.
There were three laboratories in total; two had been destroyed, but the remaining one could quickly be brought back into operation.
Upon returning, Caesar used his ability to purify the air on the island. While doing so, he discovered prisoners who had been left behind, barely surviving.
Affected by the poisonous gas, their bodies had suffered severe damage. After equipping the prisoners who could no longer walk with devices to assist their movement, Caesar took them in as his subordinates.
Over the next couple of months, more and more artificial Devil Fruits were produced. After being refined by Arceus, they reached the hands of the lower ranks of the Beasts Pirates, reigniting their fighting spirit and sparking a wave of overtime craze.
Meanwhile, Caesar fell into a dilemma. The fruits he sold became normal abilities, while the experimental products he kept were all filled with flaws.
Even now, he still didn’t believe that Queen was capable of doing this.
Queen’s strength had indeed increased significantly, but that didn’t mean his intelligence had improved alongside it. While suspecting that the Beasts Pirates had some secret up their sleeves, Caesar began to wonder if it was all just a matter of luck.
Meanwhile, Queen’s blame-shifting scheme was set into motion, indirectly causing trouble for some individuals.
He used the Beasts Pirates’ Artificial Devil Fruit users as advertisements, showcasing them to other forces on the seas. Then, through Doflamingo, he sold SMILEs at a standard price. Thanks to the Beasts Pirates’ promotional efforts, some actually fell for it.
…
“Nero, this is an artificial Devil Fruit. If you eat it, there’s a chance you could gain a Devil Fruit ability, but you might also end up as a failed product, only capable of laughing and without any abilities. What do you think?”
At the CP9 office, Spandam, now the chief of CP9, held an artificial Devil Fruit in his hand.
Zoan-type fruits were particularly suited for the Cipher Pol. This fruit was something Spandam had purchased for 20 million berries using his own money after hearing some rumors.
He intended to test it on Nero, a reserve member of CP9 who had only mastered four techniques of the Rokushiki and hadn’t even officially completed his special training, making him the perfect test subject to gamble on the fruit’s success rate.
If it worked, it would be a great outcome. Even if it failed, losing a reserve member, especially one who was unlikely to become an official member, Spandam wouldn’t find it a pity.
Official members, however, were a different story; they couldn’t be wasted like this.
“Like Rob Lucci?”
“Something like that, but not exactly the same.”
After a moment of thought, Nero didn’t refuse the fruit. Instead, he chose to take a gamble. As for the outcome…
He won the gamble and did gain an ability. However, the ability he received was nothing like what he had imagined.
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