"You're not killing me... because I'm still useful, right!"
Caesar looked at Ace, a sly glint flashing in his eyes. He knew ambitious crews like the Eclipse Pirates would absolutely be interested in weapons of mass destruction.
"Shurorororo... as long as you take me with you, I'm willing to work for the Eclipse Pirates! I can manufacture endless poison gas bombs, and I can even produce an artificial Devil Fruit material called SAD! With my technology, you could build an invincible Devil Fruit army!"
Caesar dangled what he believed was an irresistible bargaining chip, staring at Ace with eager anticipation.
But Ace didn't even glance at him.
"Jeno." Ace called through the mental channel.
"Coming, Captain!"
Accompanied by the sound of jet propulsion, Jeno, clad in his deep blue Poneglyph mech suit, burst into the top-secret lab with excitement. The moment he entered, his eyes swept across the precision instruments and blueprints like radar scanners.
"This guy says he can make artificial Devil Fruits and knows something about poison gas."
Ace pointed at Caesar on the floor. "You and Chopper's research lab. Short a janitor assistant?"
"A janitor?"
Jeno rubbed his chin, walked over to Caesar, and looked him up and down from above.
"Seems a few screws loose. But I respect your obsession with weapons. From now on, you'll be my assistant."
"Chopper, your thoughts?" Jeno turned to Chopper.
"I don't like him making poison gas to hurt people."
Chopper puffed out his cheeks in anger. "But if he's willing to use those poison gas smarts to research antidotes instead, or help us refine the raw materials for the Limit Breaker serum, then I could... grudgingly accept him as my Number Two assistant. Number One is already Dr. Indigo."
"What?! Me, the world's greatest scientist, serving as Number Two assistant to a reindeer?!"
Caesar's eyes nearly popped out of his skull. He felt this was a humiliation beyond measure.
"Looks like you're not willing."
Ace stepped forward. In the palm of his right hand, a sphere of blazing crimson-gold divine fire roared to life once more.
"No no no no! I'm willing! I'm extremely willing! It is my honor to assist the reindeer doctor!"
Feeling that terrifying heat, hot enough to char the very soul, Caesar's pathetic shred of pride evaporated into nothing. He flew obsequiously over to Chopper, babbling every flattering phrase he could think of.
"Good."
Ace extinguished the flames and glanced at the enormous poison gas tank.
"Jeno, pack up every piece of valuable data and every blueprint in this lab and bring it all. As for this gas tank..."
Ace's tone was casual. "Caesar, how do you plan to handle it?"
Caesar's eyes lit up. He immediately straightened his chest, his face breaking into that signature smile, part smugness and part sycophancy.
"Shurorororo! An excellent question, Boss Ace! Truth be told, I've already designed what can only be called a stroke of genius. We fuse it with the Sara Sara no Mi and create a self-aware poison gas monster! It will be the crystallization of my intellect, the proof that I have surpassed Vegapunk! Once this project is complete, the entire sea will tremble before my masterpiece... Shurorororo!"
He grew more animated as he spoke, gesturing wildly. But he quickly noticed Ace's faint, unreadable smile and immediately toned it down, rubbing his hands together as he added:
"Of course, of course. Should this monster succeed, it will naturally serve the Eclipse Pirates. After all, Boss Ace, with your immense strength, it would be the creature's honor to serve you with my humble little invention."
"You have the technology to feed Devil Fruits to inanimate objects?!"
Hearing this, Jeno's eyes blazed with a light brighter than a searchlight. He grabbed Caesar by the collar and shook him with manic excitement. "Then we have a lot to discuss! Show me, now! That's a problem I've been trying to crack for ages!"
"Shurorororo... easy! Easy! You're going to snap my neck!"
Caesar was rattled back and forth but couldn't suppress his smugness. "This is advanced technology I only mastered after researching the Lineage Factor!"
Caesar pried Jeno's hands off, straightened his lab coat, and drifted over to the control console. He entered a code, and a fully sealed lead box slid out from beneath the panel.
The box opened. Inside lay a Devil Fruit, its surface covered in eerie spiral patterns, shaped like a red apple.
"Zoan-type. Sara Sara no Mi, Model: Axolotl."
Caesar presented it to everyone with a flourish. "Fuse this with that tank of compressed H2S poison gas gel through a specialized Lineage Factor integration, and the lifeless gas will be granted animal life and consciousness! It won't just move on its own. It will obey my commands and become a true Deadland!"
"Oh? Turning a mass of poison gas into a living creature?" Sabo leaned against the doorframe, a flicker of curiosity in his blue eyes. "That sounds almost like the work of a creator god."
"Yahahaha! These Blue Sea dwellers and their little tricks."
Enel had drifted in at some point, twirling his staff in his hand, studying the tank with keen interest. "Making poison gas alive? If I struck it with lightning, would it turn to charcoal or just detonate?"
"That... you'd better not strike it with lightning! It's a high-explosive, high-toxicity compound!" Caesar leaped in fright and shielded the gas tank with his body.
"Alright, enough talk. Get on with it. Let me see how you shove a fruit into a cloud of poison gas."
Jeno leaned in beside the console, the recording device in his mechanical eyes already running at full speed.
"Watch closely! This is technology that leads the world!"
Caesar floated to the console and activated the equipment. Amid a low hum, the Sara Sara no Mi was broken down and reassembled. The purple poison gas gel churned violently, emitting guttural, beastly snarls.
Caesar stared at the glass tank and shouted in ecstasy, "Success! Deadland: Slime is born!"
Before everyone's astonished eyes, the colossal mass of purple poison gas gel inside the tank had indeed coalesced into a purple monster with four stubby legs, a massive mouth, and eyes. It looked exactly like a gigantic axolotl.
"Gurgle... gurgle..."
The enormous slime, composed entirely of poison gas, crawled slowly inside the tank, studying the people outside with its hollow, curious eyes.
"Whoa! It really came to life!" Chopper pressed his face against the glass, his wide eyes filled with awe. "Incredible! No bones, no organs. Life born from nothing but poison gas and a Devil Fruit power!"
"It's grotesque to look at, but the technology is seriously impressive."
Carina had walked in too, eyeing the poison gas monster with a grimace. "If you fed Zoan fruits to weapons or armor, wouldn't that mean you could have living weapons that defend you automatically, even in your sleep?"
"Exactly! That's the ultimate value of this technology!"
Jeno slapped Caesar on the back with enough force to nearly flatten him. "Well done, Horns! If we can get our hands on enough Zoan-type Devil Fruits, every weapon we own will become a living weapon!"
"Shurorororo, now you see the caliber of this great genius!" Caesar cackled, drunk on his own glory.
"Too loud."
Ace stepped forward and smacked the back of Caesar's head, cutting off the laughter cold.
"This poison gas slime stays in the tank for now. Jeno, pack the machines and the data."
Ace turned and looked down the silver corridor stretching toward the deepest part of the institute.
"Show's over. Time for business."
Ace looked at Kuma and Bonnie.
"Let's go. Time to meet the real greatest mind in the world."
Kuma nodded silently and followed close behind Ace, guiding Bonnie's mechanical spider.
The group resumed their walk down the futuristic corridor, heading straight for the core of the Punk Hazard Research Institute: Dr. Vegapunk's main laboratory.
The fully sealed alloy doors stood shut, only the indicator lights along the frame blinking in steady rhythm. From behind the door came the faint, low-frequency hum of machinery.
Ace stopped. He didn't use force.
He simply raised his hand and knocked on the heavy alloy door, three times, neither light nor heavy.
"Portgas D. Ace. Here to discuss a deal."
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