"Boss, your secret is out!"
On an electronic screen that looked like a tablet, a fashionable and stylish young girl with blonde curly hair appeared. Her face carried a hint of anxiety and worry as she spoke urgently in a low voice.
"Ah?! It's Stella?!"
A man with messy hair and a metal antenna-like object sticking out of his large head—who looked every bit the mad scientist—stared at the beautiful girl on the screen, momentarily stunned, before finally speaking:
"The secret is out... which secret is that?"
"Stop playing dumb! The fleets of the Marine and the World Government have already set out! This time, the one leading them is Admiral Akainu! What do you think is out, Boss Vegapunk!!"
Stella gritted her teeth and growled at her unreliable boss.
"Uh... even if you say that, I've done a few too many things that might provoke the World Government."
Vegapunk shrugged helplessly and explained:
"For example, the Continental shelf oscillator that hasn't been finished under the Red Line,"
"The deals with Charlotte Linlin, Kaido, and the Revolutionary Army,"
"The development and installation of new Space-based Weapons and Nuclear Weapons,"
"The cloning of Poseidon and the research and replication of Pluton,"
"The Genetic Virus specifically made for the Celestial Dragons, and the Cloned Celestial Dragons I secretly swapped in..."
"I have to know which one of these was discovered by the World Government, right? Hmm? Stella, why is your expression so strange?"
It took a great deal of effort for Stella to calm down her 'One Piece World' style exaggerated expression, pulling her bulging eyes and wide-open mouth back into place. Then, she glanced left and right, lowered her head, and said surreptitiously:
"Boss, tell me the truth. Are you planning to just take out the World Government directly? Didn't you say the plan was still ten years away?"
"The plan hasn't changed. After all, Stella, you're too useless; you still haven't figured out the World Government's trump cards even now."
"However, one can never have too many preparations made in advance."
The big-headed scientist, Vegapunk, said unhurriedly, "We're in a business where our heads are on the line. I have to consider self-preservation in case the World Government gets wind of things."
"I think this is no longer a matter of self-preservation, Boss. Do you want to destroy the world...? Also, I've only been in CP for two years. How could I possibly find out the World Government's trump cards so quickly?"
Stella couldn't help but complain. Does her boss have some kind of 'insufficient firepower' phobia?
As the very first clone created by Vegapunk, Stella had been modulated to an extremely high level in terms of both intelligence and physique. Therefore, she had initially served as Vegapunk's assistant.
Because of this, she understood the power of the weapons her boss talked about very clearly. Things like Ancient Weapons were mere trash in front of the weapons her boss had researched!
It wasn't that the Ancient Weapons were weak, but because everything Vegapunk created was a pure weapon capable of mass production, which was completely different from those one-of-a-kind Ancient Weapons.
Vegapunk shrugged. "I can't help it. I seem to have a lot of talent in this area. Just a bit of casual research yields a mountain of results."
"But if I rely on this alone to deter the World Government, I'm still missing the most important thing!"
"After all... I'm just a scientist who can't even truss a chicken. No matter how advanced the weapons are, I'm still just flesh and blood. Any random Marine Admiral could pose a lethal threat to me."
The transmigrator named Vegapunk looked at his somewhat thin and aged palm, his expression tinged with a bit of a sigh.
This Vegapunk was a transmigrator. In his previous life on Earth, he had just graduated from university when his soul transmigrated directly into the One Piece World, becoming its most famous scientist.
Vegapunk was already the most gifted scientist in the One Piece World. With the added bonus of a transmigrator's abilities, the various high-tech weapons he created were even more advanced than in the original story.
After all, while his previous world lacked many of the black technologies of the One Piece World, it was definitely far ahead in various scientific theories. A transmigrator who had just graduated from university was at the peak of their personal knowledge and capability. The combination of the two resulted in a new round of technological explosion.
Often, scientific research only needs a direction. Just like before the Manhattan Project, no one could develop a nuclear bomb, but once the project succeeded and proved the direction was viable, nations with some foundation developed Nuclear Weapons in a very short time.
He didn't have the original Vegapunk's moral qualms about not wanting to research weapons, and his personality was far more shrewd and cunning than that simple scientist. He had joined the World Government early on to obtain vast resources, and his scientific research was several eras ahead of this world.
Of course, he certainly wouldn't expose all his research results to the World Government like the original Vegapunk. In fact, the results he gave them were probably even less than what the original Vegapunk provided.
On the other hand, he had never let up on his infiltration of the World Government. Otherwise, the Clone Celestial Dragon Project wouldn't have existed, and Stella wouldn't have reached such a high position in such a short time to tip him off.
Unfortunately, while the Brain-Brain Fruit gave Vegapunk unparalleled wisdom, it also limited his body. A massive amount of nutrients was absorbed by his brain, so no matter how much Vegapunk trained, he could at most make his body slightly healthier than a normal person's. The gap between him and the monsters of the One Piece World was simply too large.
(Fortunately... this is finally the end. The technology has matured, and I can finally shed this old and fragile physical body!)
Gathering his thoughts, Vegapunk looked at Stella. "Right, you still haven't told me what exactly the World Government discovered! Get to the point!"
Veins popped on Stella's forehead. What did he mean, 'get to the point'? If I hadn't been shocked by so many of your dark secrets and trump cards, would I have gotten sidetracked?
Taking a deep breath, Stella suppressed her anger and said, "Your experimental assistant has been discovered by the World Government!"
"Experimental assistant?" Vegapunk thought for a moment, and the image of a woman with long black hair and a cold, calm personality appeared in his mind.
"Nico Robin? She was discovered? The World Government came knocking for such a trivial matter?"
"This is not a trivial matter... fine! Compared to your dangerous inventions and plans, Boss, she really does count as a trivial matter..."
Stella said helplessly, but after learning about so many of her boss's trump cards, she wasn't nervous anymore.
At worst, they'd just smash the whole world and see who was more desperate—them, who had nothing to lose, or the World Government, who had everything!