Consciousness is attached to the soul, and abilities coexist in the body; this is the current understanding of Devil Fruit users.
And blood is the best liquid to extract Lineage Factor components.
Copying Devil Fruit abilities is, to some extent, the same logic as cloning organisms.
Take a part of the biological tissue, extract cellular components from it, and finally cultivate a new body, allowing it to generate new consciousness.
At MADS, this was also the basic logic of research; no one had ever tried to copy the "soul" of a Devil Fruit.
But no matter what, in previous experiments, Lineage Factor was either extracted directly from the Devil Fruit or blood was drawn from living users; this was the first time research was done on a deceased user.
Oran did not directly put the corpse into the book but tagged different blood samples while extracting them.
This is a new study: after a user has died, if their blood is used with the Book-Book Fruit to stop time and then compared, continuously detecting the characteristics of blood at different times.
This is to observe whether, with the passage of time, the blood will turn into ordinary blood.
"Brother Oran, if you're done here, I'll go over to Ginny and the others."
"Don't worry, Kate and Frankenstein are very strong; they can handle the situation over there well enough, but you can go if you want."
"Alright."
Kuma lightly patted his chest, then his figure streaked across the sky above the island at high speed, flying towards the road that led from the previous town to here.
Theoretically, Kuma's Paw-Paw Fruit can cross space and send people to extremely distant places.
But there is a prerequisite: Kuma must have been to that place, or at least reached its vicinity, and clearly know the island's location to complete the task of sending people.
If Kuma were to send someone to an area he completely didn't know, then the landing point would be left to fate; if things went wrong, they could end up in the sea with the fish.
"Alright everyone, I still have things to do. Will you surrender obediently, or should I help you out?"
After Kuma left, Oran looked towards the beach. Kuma's pressure cannon had directly destroyed the Deli Pirates' pirate ship.
Except for Deli, most of the crew sank to the bottom of the sea with the ship, but a few lucky ones survived.
At this moment, they had just floated up from the sea, but what awaited them was a new sea—the Mercury Sea.
"It seems you've chosen to refuse. Then go join your Captain; Zack, do it."
Hiss! Hiss!
The surface of the Mercury Sea churned, and the liquid mercury condensed into sharp spikes, piercing their bodies from various unexpected angles, sending these pirates back into the sea.
"Master, they didn't seem to refuse."
Zack asked belatedly after finishing what Oran had instructed him to do.
If those pirates were given another chance, they would surely jump up in rage and question Oran.
They would tell Oran to try being ambushed by an air cannon during a voyage, struggling to climb ashore against the waves, only to find their Captain already dead before they could even catch their breath.
While still in shock, they were questioned, and it was a self-answering question, with no time given for them to reply before the execution order was given.
"If they don't speak, we'll assume they refused. Now I have a more serious question: who taught you all this?"
Oran didn't care about those pirates. From the day they decided to become pirates, this was a possible outcome.
If they had some value, Oran would be willing to talk to them, but Oran now needed to win the hearts of Firefly Island's people as quickly as possible, and executing pirates was undoubtedly one of the fastest ways.
The corpses of these pirates could clearly show his attitude.
Compared to the lives and deaths of those pirates, Zack's appearance made Oran more curious.
Usually, Zack hides within Oran's exoskeleton, acting as Oran's bodyguard.
If needed, Zack can also operate independently.
Zack is a humanoid creature of indefinite height; his amorphous body structure allows him to freely adjust his body size, especially with the help of the Mercury Fruit, it is not difficult for Zack to adjust his body size.
Of course, only his main body can become a special colloidal substance, so there is an upper limit to how much he can expand.
But now, Zack had transformed his body into that of a female, and she looked quite petite.
Because he has no vocal organs, Zack mimics vocal cords through his colloidal body to produce sound, so his voice can change endlessly.
Now even his voice had become that of a young girl, and he had even condensed a maid outfit out of mercury, although it was entirely silver except for the eyes, so there wasn't much difference in appearance.
If Oran hadn't been Zack's creator and known what Zack usually looked like, then Zack at this moment would have had a bit of an exotic charm.
No, to be precise, an alien charm.
Zack also has his own learning module and supplements his own knowledge, but Oran was very sure that he had never taught him such things.
"Eh? Master, don't you like the petite type? How about this?"
Zack adjusted his height, and his body also condensed towards the position of a fat mass, which made the nearby Terra stare in surprise; the members of her family seemed to be getting stranger and stranger.
Thud!
Zack's response was a thick dictionary. Even the Nine-Tailed Fox couldn't break Oran's composure, let alone a mere "slime."
"Answer my question."
"Yes, Master. Yesterday, I followed your instructions to gather intelligence in the town. My clones infiltrated various parts of the town and finally found a special house where many people were gathered.
Both pirates and gang members were inside. My clones infiltrated there, then used the toxicity of mercury to knock out many pirates and rescued some human women who were being bullied.
I learned these things from those human women; they said it could make men happier."
Zack reported his experience very seriously, which also made Oran understand what Zack had gone through. Zack had actually gone to a pleasure district while on a mission.
Some people there were forced, some were compelled by circumstances for survival. In short, Zack caused quite a stir there, and those in the pleasure industry also said a lot of messy things when explaining the island's situation.
Blitz, Frankenstein, and now Zack, they appear to have adult exteriors and a complete knowledge base, but in fact, the oldest, Blitz, is not even eight years old.
Their psychological age is, in some sense, still in a childlike state; if not careful, they might pick up some strange things.
"Master, according to biological definition, I am an asexual organism. Your behavior is assuming my gender, and as a scientist, this is not rigorous enough."
"Zack, when you see Ivan again, I'll let you two have a good chat. Perhaps you and he will have many common topics."
Zack's words made Oran feel a sense of déjà vu. If one day the world barrier were broken, perhaps Zack could become an excellent boxer.
In this regard, Zack is simply invincible.
"Just kidding, I'm going to work now, Master."
Zack's body contracted and twisted, then he turned to busy himself with other things, but Oran didn't feel much. Zack couldn't possibly play boxing with him, and as long as his loyalty was guaranteed, he wouldn't interfere unless his personality developed too badly.
Zack even developed some abilities with his body that Oran hadn't thought of. Following this trend, once a method is found for Zack to change color locally, Zack could even switch from a personal bodyguard to an assassin.
Whether it's infiltration or seduction, Zack seems to be quite adept at both.
Watching Zack busy on the beach, Oran began to consider whether to arrange a special course for Zack, perhaps for a career change or something similar.
Deli's group approached from two directions: Deli led people by water, while another group approached by land.
Due to the island's terrain, Deli's water route was faster.
When Kuma was preparing to land, the remaining people arrived late, but some of them were wearing unified Western cowboy-style clothing.
"It's the Kuerhe Gang. How are they mixed with Deli's people? Are they trying to unite against us?"
Brand observed the road ahead with a telescope. From their attire, it was clear that these were two different groups.
"The one wearing the hat at the very back is Kuerhe. He's a Zoan user. Are you still going to proceed with the plan as before?"
"Of course! It's better if they all show up together; it saves trouble anyway. Our plan was always annihilation. Everyone, it's time to act!"
Ginny called out to the back and walked out with her mech squad. As a commander, she didn't need voice control; she could simply press a few buttons in the control room, but doing so allowed her to look cool.
Half of the mechs remained at the camp for guard duty, while those accompanying Ginny had automatically swapped their weapons to slug rounds.
As the gang members arrived at their designated positions, lotus flowers suddenly bloomed on the ground. The landmines, which had been buried along the inevitable path, were all detonated, instantly disrupting the enemy's formation.
Boom! Boom!
Flames spewed from the barrels of the Guard Mechs. For the mechs, those were guns, but these mech weapons were originally developed to target mechs of the same class or heavily armored units.
When the targets were changed to flesh and blood, their weapons seemed to transform from guns into cannons.
The gunpowder smoke blocked the forward view, but this did not affect the mechs' shooting. All mechs emptied the ammunition in their barrels in one go, then stopped their first wave of firing.
But Ginny's mech screen displayed a danger signal at this moment: a black and red sphere had rolled out from the front.
It was just at this moment that Kuma's figure happened to fall from the sky, finally smashing precisely onto that sphere.
"Uh… did I do something wrong?"
--+--
T/N: Although I'm an inexperienced Editor, I do have a Patreon account! Although it seems like I don't have many supporters right now, my webnovel will be released in full every day, and the advanced chapters will be uploaded to Patreon.
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