Unfortunately, the other waste officers who had used drugs didn't know where it was either. Otherwise, Vane really wanted to go provoke them and grab a couple more jailer beasts to bring back.
If the team wants to grow bigger in the future, the standard for becoming a cadre is to beat a jailer beast—this is exactly the strength watershed.
Below the level of a jailer beast, you can only be a small squad leader; above it, you finally have a chance to become a cadre.
Of course, that's for after the team grows. Right now, in the team, the only one who can steadily beat a jailer beast is probably just himself. Bonez has a chance, but it's hard to say he can win steadily. The others are even a bit worse.
They're all young and need some time to grow.
Vane asked a lot more questions in succession and confirmed that this guy really did have some Celestial Dragon blood. But his mother was a slave, so if he wants to be truly acknowledged by the Celestial Dragons in this life, either he needs overwhelming strength to join the God's Knights, or he needs to be chosen by a female Celestial Dragon and marry into the family.
You have to say, both conditions are extremely harsh.
Still, this guy really had stayed in Mary Geoise. Although he'd never entered Pangaea Castle, his memories of Mary Geoise outside Pangaea Castle were quite vivid.
The waste officer confessed everything, all to save his life.
And he did achieve his goal—Vane decided to imprison him first and spare his life.
"This guy is really heavy."
Burgess dragged Minotauros, who was wearing handcuffs, into Meowth's body.
Seastone handcuffs were locked onto his short little legs; locking his hands would be a bit unrealistic—the cuffs were too short.
Meowth specially created a room inside his body to hold Minotauros. Unless they let him out to temper the crew, they absolutely could not take off his Seastone handcuffs.
"Let's go to Vegapunk's old research base. A rat has already gone there."
Just now, to save his own life, that waste officer had blurted out everything, useful or not, including how their agents had discovered mysterious footprints.
In Vane's view, the most attractive thing about the Future Country is Vegapunk's research base. If someone sneaked into the Future Country, nine times out of ten their target would be Vegapunk's research base.
The research base holds Vegapunk's early scientific research. Even though it's early material, because Vegapunk is the world's number one, this early data still leads the world's technological level by far, far too much.
Meowth's hands-on crafting ability is very strong, but in theoretical research, Vegapunk's technology is absolutely in a leading position. Absorbing the techniques of this world's geniuses is very necessary.
...
Vegapunk Research Base.
After Vegapunk was "invited" by the World Government to Egghead, this place was sealed off. The surrounding mechanical animals became the main guard force sealing the research base.
"Looks like the person ahead made quite a bit of preparation."
Vane, who had flight capability, brought Meowth and followed the footprints they found along the way. The closer they got to Vegapunk's base, the clearer the footprints became.
This person was extremely cunning, using a lot of chemical agents to mask his own scent.
Although the mechanical animals are mechanized, the way they detect targets is still by sound, image, and smell.
Among these, sound and smell are the most important. That person made his own scent something animals especially hate, using that to avoid danger.
Vane, on the other hand, followed the residual smell of those chemicals, and along the way basically didn't run into any guarding mechanical animals, smoothly arriving at the research base.
The main gate of the research base was tightly shut, but one of the vents had been opened. Obviously, someone had crawled in from here.
"Meowth, I'll leave the road ahead to you."
After saying that, Vane hid inside the castle space.
This vent was a bit narrow for a person, but for Meowth it was a broad avenue. Inside, Meowth could move forward at a running pace.
"Do I jump down?"
Meowth quickly arrived at a damaged exit. Obviously, the person who came in before them had officially entered the interior of the research base from here.
"Of course. Let's find that little mouse first."
Meowth entered the base, and Vane and Burgess appeared.
Observation Haki fully unleashed, they carefully searched for the life aura inside the research base.
It didn't take long for Vane to show a smile.
"I found him. He's trembling right now."
...
Someone hiding in a corner room.
Inner thoughts: Was I found this quickly? Is it the World Government coming to arrest me!? Damn it, I shouldn't have taken that lousy icebreaker ship in. I should've been a bit more patient… Hurry up and leave, hurry up and leave, don't find me.
His prayers didn't work.
Bang!
The wall let out a loud crash. A thick arm smashed open this not-very-sturdy door that looked like it was just a room for piling up junk.
"Ah!!"
The person hiding in the room only had time to scream once before that arm grabbed him and yanked him out by force.
"Got you!"
Burgess pulled his hand back from the room, dragging out with it a guy with a hedgehog-like hairstyle, a pale face, and purplish-black lips and eye sockets.
"Caesar Clown?!"
Vane didn't expect to run into Caesar here, but thinking about it carefully, his appearance here was unexpected yet reasonable—an O. Henry–style twist.
Caesar Clown is a scientist. When he officially appears, he's working under one of the Shichibukai, Doflamingo, making artificial Devil Fruits for Doflamingo.
These flawed artificial Devil Fruits are all Zoan-type. Their customers are Yonko Kaido, who likes Zoan-type Devil Fruits. The ability users who eat these fruits are called—Gifters—under Kaido.
After consuming these flawed Devil Fruits, the body will inevitably develop permanent partial animalization, and which part becomes animalized is uncontrollable.
What left a deep impression on Vane was that there was one unlucky guy who turned entirely into a rooster with a human head, and his head was located at the rooster's "chrysanthemum" position.
Even though it's ridiculous, it's still a kind of power that can greatly raise a team's lower bound.
"So it really is people from the World Government. I—I just came back to get things I left in my old lab. I have no other purpose!"
Caesar Clown is a scientist full of problems—riding others' coattails, arrogant, conceited… spineless, afraid of death.
Right now, he was begging for mercy because he was afraid to die.
Burgess: "People from the World Government? The World Government's icebreaker has already been sunk to the bottom of the sea by us."
So you're not from the World Government? Then there's still hope.
"Our boss, Nation-Slayer Vane—a great pirate with a bounty of 240,000,000 Belly."
Burgess introduced his boss with great pride.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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