Chapter 192: Do They Think They Are Truly Gods!?
Inside the laboratory.
"Really dissipated... incredible, not a bit of Lineage Factor Source Energy inside was preserved."
"How exactly was it done? That energy shouldn't be extractable by normal means, only slowly guided out through corresponding lineage factor sequences."
At this moment, Vegapunk was fiddling frantically with the surrounding research equipment.
And what he was researching was the dust left after the root shattered just now.
He exclaimed incredulously—surely with regret and pity, but more was unconcealable excitement and joy.
This made Roy, who was originally a bit guilty, frown.
"Dr. Vegapunk."
So the next moment, Star Lord spoke.
"The fruit root is indeed meaningful to me, and I do have some questions for you."
"But before that—I need to know your request first."
Under the Star Lord mask, starlight swept over Vegapunk.
"I mean, your True Request."
"I dislike formalities, let's be open."
Hearing Star Lord's words, Vegapunk froze.
Then, he fell silent.
In such times, silence itself is an answer.
So, Star Lord confirmed his guess.
As mentioned before.
Vegapunk's sincerity was too much.
Star Lord certainly believed Vegapunk wanted to save Bonney—according to the original story, although too naive in some aspects leading to his creations being exploited, Vegapunk was undoubtedly a good person.
But don't forget, while being a good person, he was also a smart person, the rigorous and cautious number one scientist in the world.
But since Star Lord appeared—no, precisely since Star Lord revealed the 'Star Contract' and mentioned Imu's existence.
Vegapunk's attitude had been very sincere... even humble.
Along the way, he answered almost everything.
And this 'Secret Laboratory', which even the Five Elders clearly couldn't know, he brought Star Lord in without hesitation.
And now, what made Star Lord most certain of the anomaly was Vegapunk's attitude at this moment.
Because even if Vegapunk intended to give this root to The Zodiac.
Such extremely precious research material being 'Destroyed' would inevitably anger any scientist.
But now, Vegapunk wasn't angry, but seemed even happy instead.
"...Discovered as expected."
Hearing Star Lord's inquiry, Vegapunk smiled bitterly.
But then, he shook his head. "However, even if Lord Star Lord didn't ask... this old man would actually tell you proactively."
He was quite free and easy.
"This old man told you about the origin of this root just now. It came from the ruins of the destroyed 'Freedom Kingdom' (Fureidamu Kingdom) in West Blue, in the ruins under the royal palace..."
He recalled the past, muttering explanations.
But he naturally didn't know.
While he spoke casually, eyes under Star Lord's mask were already flickering.
Freedom Kingdom?
Roy muttered internally: "I've heard this name..."
Where did he hear it?
Thinking, he switched fruits slightly without hesitation.
[Fruit Loaded: Brain-Brain Fruit LV1 → LV3]
[Brain-Brain Fruit LV3: Massively enhance brain power, comprehensively strengthening learning, memory, perception, imagination, inspiration, and sixth sense. Allows brain to perform search, deletion, archiving, etc. like a disk. Brain grows larger with stored memory and inspiration.]
With the activation of the recently analyzed Brain-Brain Fruit, he felt his memory and thoughts accelerate dozens of times instantly.
Just moments later, he searched the source of this word from memory.
It was on Thriller Bark, before meeting Moria, the kingdom name Brook mentioned casually.
It was Brook's homeland, the country where he once served as the royal guard captain.
Simultaneously, it was...
"Ancestral land of the most special God's Knight 'Gunshi'?"
And now, Roy knew an incredible news—that kingdom destroyed by the World Government actually stored the source of lineage factors.
"That kingdom's origin is abnormal!"
Roy realized this immediately.
But clearly, he had no time to think more now.
Because Vegapunk continued speaking.
"We found a total of four roots and a very special Poneglyph inside—this old man, Judge, Queen, and Caesar each took a root. The Poneglyph was stored in MADS' research ship because it couldn't be deciphered."
Vegapunk recalled. "Heard later when MADS disbanded, Queen lent his root to Buckingham to court her, finally stolen by her..."
Muttering, his words naturally made Roy more astonished.
"Three more?"
He almost asked aloud.
This root in Vegapunk's hand gave him nearly 15% 'Lineage Factor Development Progress', so the remaining three roots might be the same.
"No, wait... Vegapunk used that root to create the 'Crimson Dragon Fruit'."
"So a root might provide even more than 15% analysis progress."
Roy realized what this meant.
If he obtained the remaining three roots, combined with the original growth of analysis progress... his lineage factor development progress might jump directly to near completion!
"Buckingham Stussy, Caesar Clown, and Vinsmoke Judge, huh..."
Roy muttered these three names internally.
He was sure those three roots must still be in their hands—they wouldn't entrust such treasures to others.
Also, no wonder Buckingham Stussy disappeared after MADS disbanded; turns out she stole Queen's stuff back then, probably fearing revenge from Queen, now one of the 'All-Stars'.
But now, Vegapunk's narration wasn't over.
"When MADS disbanded, things and research data on the research ship should have been confiscated by the Government, but this old man kept an eye out and hid that Poneglyph..."
Speaking, Vegapunk walked to a wall in the laboratory, tapping lightly on it.
Next moment...
VMMM!
The wall opened silently.
Sure enough—a Poneglyph appeared inside.
But the key problem was.
The color of that Poneglyph wasn't the black of ordinary Poneglyphs.
The color was half black, half red.
"..."
Star Lord remained silent, just looking at that Poneglyph.
He knew.
Poneglyphs were texts recording historical truth left by the 'Great Kingdom' existing 800 years ago.
Totaling about thirty, only collecting and connecting all would be the [True Poneglyph (Rio Poneglyph)].
Divided into two types—black ordinary Poneglyphs and red Road Poneglyphs.
Black recorded ancient intelligence.
Red recorded an island's location.
But this one before him was clearly special—between the two.
"As you can see, this Poneglyph is very special."
Vegapunk touched the Poneglyph he studied countless times, voice becoming heavy.
Yes.
Initially, he studied this Poneglyph only because of its special color compared to others and the four 'Roots' found near it.
This made Vegapunk instinctively feel its content was important.
But deciphering Poneglyphs wasn't his forte—so for many years, he had no extra discoveries.
Until he went to Elbaf, inputted all literature left by destroyed Ohara and all 'Historical Truths' deciphered by those scholars into his brain.
He naturally learned how to decipher Poneglyphs and deciphered the content of this special one.
[The world has experienced two destructions and rebirths; all beings opened up the New World and created the Abyss.]
[He is the source of the sea, the bound shadow of the world; simultaneously He binds everything in the world.]
[The Cursed Ones make contracts with the Abyss, unbinding Him in exchange for power and authority.]
[Finally, the sea will rise, drowning all things.]
[That is the third destruction of the world.]
[I and the first Cursed One have lost to betrayal, but also left a spark of resistance, never to be obtained by the Abyss.]
[I preserve the truth in the world, preserve hope on the absolutely safe Final Island, record its coordinates on the Red Stones.]
[One day, freedom will return to the world, sounding the Drums of Liberation again.]
[——Joy Boy]
This was the content Vegapunk deciphered.
These contents were enough to explain the significance of this Poneglyph.
Like the one on Fish-Man Island, it seemed left by Joy Boy.
It was the connection point linking all 'Ordinary Poneglyphs' and 'Road Poneglyphs'.
Before this Poneglyph, ordinary black ones recorded detailed world history.
After this Poneglyph, four Road Poneglyphs recorded the method and coordinates to reach the Final Island 'Laugh Tale'.
Even from it, Roy could confirm—that 'Lord Imu's true name was definitely not Imu.
His essence should be the... 'Abyss' mentioned in this Poneglyph.
Of course, due to ancient text expression issues, this was just rough content.
From it, Vegapunk obtained more detailed news.
For example...
"According to the Poneglyph records, there are three types of contracts between Abyss and people."
"Shallow Sea Contract seems to offer part of the soul to Abyss for power."
"Deep Sea Contract seems to offer all soul to Abyss for immortality and stronger power."
"Abyssal Sea Contract can offer everything of oneself to Abyss, merging with Abyss, becoming Abyss's tentacle, allowing Abyss to descend power anytime via contract, even changing physical form, while the contractor gains eternal life."
Speaking here, Vegapunk looked at Star Lord with a complicated expression.
Because of this, he mistook Star Lord's descent for 'Abyssal Sea Contract' earlier.
Of course, this wasn't all.
"After reading the Poneglyph content, this old man connected research data left by Ohara over many years, studying much knowledge about the Void Century, before confirming..."
Speaking here, Vegapunk looked visibly gloomy.
"Sea level has risen more than once."
Star Lord spoke softly, saying what Vegapunk wanted to say in advance.
Vegapunk looked even more astonished.
Then, he nodded solemnly. "You knew as expected."
Of course I know—this is also the answer you said yourself in the original story.
Star Lord thought internally, but naturally didn't say much on the surface.
Vegapunk continued, "That's the fact."
"This old man verified many things on this Poneglyph, confirming sea level rose more than once in the past 800 years—many past islands and traces were buried in the deep sea..."
He said.
"Besides that, after studying the root, as you know, this old man conducted a test..."
Vegapunk looked more solemn.
"This old man obtained Kaido's lineage factor, and simultaneously extracted 'Lineage Factor Source Energy' from the root via lineage factor sequence—just extracting source energy took twenty years!"
"Then, this old man completely altered the sequence order of all lineage factors..."
Speaking here, his words couldn't hide excitement.
That was his boldest attempt on lineage factors so far.
He even used the 'Lineage Factor Source Energy' in that root, spending twenty years preparing.
The purpose was to verify the most essential part of lineage factor research.
"This old man wanted to create a Devil Fruit—not any known one, but a truly new Devil Fruit never appeared in this world!"
But...
"Ultimately, the experiment failed."
Vegapunk said heavily.
"All lineage factor sequences modified by me automatically arranged and returned to position when synthesizing the 'Devil Fruit', scrambled ability codes all restored."
He smiled bitterly. "But perhaps the 'Rules' of this world don't allow two identical Devil Fruits, so that fruit's color is different from the original Azure Dragon Fruit."
Finally, the fruit on Ryuji (Dragon) came to be.
It was indeed a perfect artificial Devil Fruit, indistinguishable from 'Azure Dragon Fruit' in ability.
But for Vegapunk, except for color, it was a complete failure.
That also confirmed for Vegapunk that Poneglyph records and Ohara's research were correct.
"The lineage factors of this world are 'Bound'."
"Some force doesn't allow new 'Lineage Factors' to appear in this world, nor will new Devil Fruits appear—all fruits only circulate within the bound framework until the sea drowns everything."
"According to this old man's dating of those deep-sea ruins, the next sea level rise is at most ten years away."
Speaking here, Vegapunk gritted his teeth, clenching his fists.
"The Government must know all this. The 'Tequila Wolf' (Bridge Kingdom) currently being built by the Government and the 'Red Line' where the Holy Land is located might be the only safe places after everything is drowned!"
His nails dug into flesh, but he seemed unaware.
For this scientist, such loss of composure seemed rare.
But not strange.
Born in the cold land 'Baldimore', genius Vegapunk's philosophy had been simple since embarking on the scientific path.
He hoped for world peace, hoped everyone in the world could be happy.
He hoped people could live happily in a peaceful world full of flowers, sunshine, food, clothing, and no war.
He wanted to make the world better through his technology and inventions.
For this, he could accept investment from Underworld Emperors, because research inevitably needed massive funds and resources.
He didn't care about money or fame.
Even after MADS disbanded and he was forced to join the World Government, his philosophy didn't waver.
He knew the World Government had dark places; he knew the evil and greed of Celestial Dragons.
But it didn't matter.
"Greed, darkness, all ugliness and struggle for power are only due to insufficient resources and undeveloped technology."
He always believed so.
So as long as he could create infinite resources, infinite energy—when money and power became meaningless, people naturally wouldn't fight for them, nor have darkness and war caused by them.
He believed firmly in such near-'Fantasy' things.
Because he was Dr. Vegapunk, he had such talent.
Regarding the content recorded on this Poneglyph, although worried.
Before today, he had never been so angry.
Because he originally thought the so-called 'Abyss' should be some disaster or natural law of the world—after all, even Vegapunk couldn't imagine any individual capable of doing the incredible thing of 'Binding the Entire World'.
He thought the World Government and Five Elders might just have obtained part of 'Abyss' power, overthrowing the ancient kingdom in the past, gaining world-ruling authority and eternal life.
Hateful indeed, but considering their consistent inhuman deeds, Vegapunk didn't find it surprising.
Originally, he even optimistically thought the 'Tequila Wolf' built by the World Government using slaves and criminals worldwide might be to avoid the future disaster.
After all, even the brutal World Government was a union of world nations, right?
He even thought—if he couldn't stop the disaster in time, just let everyone go to Tequila Wolf and Red Line for shelter until he figured out how to lower the sea level and restore the world.
So before this, he could barely persuade himself to research for the World Government.
But now, learning from Star Lord that behind the Five Elders there was an existence named 'Imu'.
Vegapunk almost saw through the World Government's true purpose.
"They want to turn everyone into slaves!"
"They want to help 'Abyss' destroy this world, then rule the ashes of this world forever—right!?"
"Do they think... they are truly Gods? Those bastards!"
This scientist cursed rarely.
And this was his answer to Star Lord's inquiry just now.
He knew he had no time.
If the entire World Government wasn't stealing Abyss power, but an extension of the will of existence named 'Imu'—then this world was truly in imminent danger!
Fortunately, at this time... this person stood before him.
"Lord Star Lord, your research on lineage factors is extremely profound—whether fruit fusion or 'Star Contract', it proves you are the closest to breaking the 'Binding'!"
He looked at Star Lord, emphasizing every word.
"This old man's original plan won't work anymore."
"So, this old man wants to bet everything on 'The Zodiac', this old man wants to Join You."
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