A small wooden boat floated on the sea.
Waves rolled, and the sea breeze blew gently.
The small wooden boat rocked up and down with the waves, being pulled forward by a sea beast toward the distance.
"First, I need to find an island inhabited by rare beasts."
Reddy lay in the boat, his hands behind his head as he muttered to himself. After all, he was a man who had read the original story.
In the original story, after Golden Lion successfully escaped from Impel Down, he came to the East Blue to live in seclusion, creating a army of violent giant beasts and collecting rare beasts from all over.
Reddy had prepared two plans.
One was to create rare beasts to attract Golden Lion to come to him. The other was to find large birds, collect their genetic samples, and create genetically modified creatures capable of carrying him into the sky.
Since Golden Lion's floating islands were in the sky, such a conspicuous target would eventually be found with some time and effort.
At noon, a small black dot appeared on the horizon.
Reddy stood at the bow of the boat, gazing into the distance, controlling the gene-modified sea beast to drag the boat toward the island with full strength.
This gene-modified sea beast was created using sea beast genes as the base, with specific gene segments from a swordfish added. It could swim for long periods and also burst into speeds comparable to a swordfish for short durations.
Half an hour later, Reddy retrieved the gene-modified sea beast, dragged the boat across the shallows, and stepped onto the beach.
This was an uninhabited island.
A mountain stood at the center of the island, surrounded by dense forests, with birds occasionally taking flight.
Five gene-modified battle wolves appeared on the beach.
Reddy pointed toward the nearby forest, and they immediately dashed off.
Determining whether the island had rare beasts worthy of Golden Lion's attention was actually simple. Any rare beast capable of defeating five gene-modified battle wolves would undoubtedly be highly attractive to Golden Lion.
Otherwise, they would just be his food.
Reddy walked over to a coconut tree and sat down, beginning to organize yesterday's harvest.
The panel appeared.
Reddy opened the gene library.
The list displayed many options, ranging from chickens, ducks, and geese to large sea beasts, all of which were genetic samples he had collected before.
Among them, he had selected over a dozen genetic samples.
These samples were trophies collected yesterday, including those from the two pirate captains.
Reddy selected one of the genetic samples, switched back to the main interface, and entered the gene analysis lab.
A double-helix DNA strand appeared on the screen.
The DNA strand slowly rotated, with each gene segment gradually being colored differently for distinction.
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet... The colors ranged from light to dark, each unique.
The deeper the color, the more prominent the gene segment, with descriptions appearing beside them.
This indicated the genetic information, or talent, with the highest potential in the sample.
[Gene Rating: LV3]
Reddy removed this genetic sample and selected another from the gene library for analysis.
However, the results were not great.
Apart from the two pirate captains' genetic samples barely meeting the LV4 rating standard, the rest were all LV3.
Based on his tests, the gene rating only represented the upper limit of strength.
Newly manufactured clones needed training to reach their full potential.
"Let's begin."
Reddy took a deep breath and moved Arthur the Red Wolf's genetic sample into the gene editing lab.
The double-helix DNA strand, now colored in various hues, appeared.
A small window on the side of the screen remained empty.
Gene segment... selected.
[Extracting this gene segment requires 100 energy points.]
A prompt appeared.
Reddy glanced at the top right corner of the interface.
[Energy: 2584 points]
Gene segment extracted.
100 energy points disappeared.
The DNA strand vanished, and a small segment dyed light red appeared in the side window.
Reddy returned to the main interface, entered the gene library, and scrolled straight to the bottom of the list.
A marked genetic sample lay at the very end.
[Host's Genetic Sample (LV1)]
Reddy extracted his own genetic sample and moved it into the gene editing lab.
The double-helix DNA strand appeared.
Gene segment added.
[Fusing this gene segment requires 800 energy points.]
800 energy points disappeared.
A section of the DNA strand in the window broke apart, and the previously extracted gene segment embedded itself into the gap.
A white light flashed, filling the window with brightness.
The fusion of foreign genes triggered strong rejection reactions.
Artificial gene modification required overcoming the rejection of foreign gene segments by the base genes.
Reddy's golden finger could offset this rejection by consuming energy.
The white light lasted only about ten seconds before another prompt appeared.
[Gene Rating: LV4]
Now, the DNA strand included an additional segment dyed light red.
Reddy moved the edited genetic sample into the clone factory.
[Manufacturing this clone requires 100 energy points. Estimated completion time: 4 hours.]
A prompt popped up.
Reddy returned to the main interface and entered the chip lab.
[Chip Development]
[Chip Manufacturing]
[Chip Implantation]
[Module Development]
Reddy selected the chip manufacturing option to enter the next sub-interface.
Only one option was available.
[Control Chip (Completed): Each chip requires 100 energy points to manufacture.]
Reddy selected it, and another prompt appeared.
[Producing a control chip requires 2 hours.]
The entire clone manufacturing process was complete. Reddy returned to the main interface and repeated the steps.
This time, however, he extracted a specific gene segment from Joseph the Dagger's genetic sample and fused it with his own.
"Scientific research really burns through money."
Reddy complained inwardly, his eyes fixed on the top right corner of the interface.
Using his own genes as the base and fusing them with LV4 gene segments consumed a total of 1100 energy points per clone.
He had manufactured two LV4 clones, consuming 2200 energy points.
[Energy: 384 points]
The energy he had painstakingly accumulated after manufacturing five gene-modified battle wolves and one gene-modified sea beast was nearly depleted.
Reddy leaned against the trunk of the coconut tree, staring blankly at the vast sea.
Time passed silently.
[Clone Manufacturing Complete] x2
[Chip Manufacturing Complete] x2
When Reddy snapped out of his thoughts, four prompts had appeared at some point.
Reddy steeled himself and proceeded with the final step of clone manufacturing.
Chip implantation!
200 energy points consumed.
The remaining energy reserves plummeted again, leaving only 184 points.
Reddy entered the product repository, where two new options had appeared in the list.
[LV4 Clone] x2
Selected!
Two clones appeared on the beach.
Reddy examined the two clones, conducting a preliminary evaluation in his mind. "The clone fused with Arthur the Red Wolf's gene segment leans toward strength, while the one fused with Joseph the Dagger's gene segment leans toward agility."
The two clones closely resembled Reddy in appearance and height.
However, one clone had more pronounced muscle definition, while the other was nearly identical to the original.
But upon closer inspection, the latter clone's muscle fibers were more compact, especially in the legs.
After simple testing, Reddy confirmed his evaluation.
The gene rating only represented the upper limit of strength. Manufactured clones needed to eat and train after creation to reach their full potential.
Reddy ordered the two clones to train on their own. Seeing the meager energy reserves left, he proceeded to manufacture another clone of himself.
This clone did not have any foreign gene segments fused into it, nor was a control chip implanted.
Thus, it only consumed 100 energy points.
[Energy: 84 points]
At that moment, the five gene-modified battle wolves emerged from the forest.
Each wolf carried a wild chicken or rabbit in its mouth, returning to Reddy's side and dropping their prey.
Reddy carefully inspected them.
The battle wolves bore no injuries, meaning the island did not host any rare beasts with genetic potential exceeding LV4.
Finding a suitable island in the vast sea was no easy task.
Reddy picked up the prey and waded into the seawater, using the sword Yakovich had given him to skin and clean them.
Soon, a bonfire was lit.
Reddy skewered the cleaned wild chickens and rabbits on branches and roasted them over the fire. Once cooked, he and the two clones devoured them ravenously.
+2 energy points.
+4 energy points.
+3 energy points.
With each bite of meat, a prompt appeared in his vision.
After activating his golden finger, he gained an effect similar to Life Return, allowing him to instantly convert food into energy.
After consuming three wild rabbits and two wild chickens, Reddy gained a total of 472 energy points.
His energy reserves rose back to 556 points.
The five gene-modified battle wolves lay beneath the coconut tree. Reddy rested his head against the cool belly of one, staring blankly at the night sky.
"My original body's weakness is always a hidden danger. What type of Devil Fruit should I choose?"