One Piece: Fist of the World.

Chapter 252 New Goal
Will this world eventually sink to the bottom of the sea?

Vegapunk's words echoed in Rhodes' mind.

When he was leaving, Vegapunk suddenly called him and said something without any context.

When he wanted to ask more, Vegapunk kept silent and just said that he didn't know much.

However, Rhodes took his words to heart.

The world is sinking to the bottom of the sea. Is it a natural disaster or a man-made disaster?
Rhodes remembered the annual super tsunami in the Seven Water City, and recalled the various information he had previously obtained, but he was still confused.

"Assholes! Is this how you treat a genius scientist like me?"

The noisy sound rang in his ears, causing Rhodes to shift his attention to Caesar Courant.

"I know you, Shichibukai! But I am the chief scientist of the Marine Science Class under the World Government. You'd better be polite to me. Otherwise, not to mention the status of Shichibukai, even the admirals of the Navy will take action against you!"

Seeing Rhodes shift his gaze to himself, Caesar immediately shouted and raised the flags of the World Government and the Navy.

The world's greatest swordsman, and the "uncrowned king" Tyrant Fist Rhodes, how could he not know these two people?

If I fall into their hands, I'm afraid only the admiral of the navy could rescue me.

"Admiral?"

Rhodes snapped his fingers, and with his terrifying power, a bullet of air suddenly shot towards Caesar, with domineering aura wrapped around it, and landed accurately on Caesar's chest, causing him to cry out in pain.

"Will you deal with us?"

Rhodes turned his head and looked to his side.

A faint golden light emerged in the air, then gathered together and turned into a tall man wearing a yellow striped suit.

"How terrible!"

As soon as he appeared, Kizaru spoke so, and his eyes hidden behind his sunglasses were indeed full of caution.

He received a direct order from the Five Elders conveyed by CP0 and came to Punk Hazard as soon as possible.

Who knew that he would have to face off against a tough guy like Hawkeye and a monster like Tyrant Rod.

"The Seven Warlords of the Sea have joined forces?"

This thought flashed through Kizaru's mind, and he became even more alert.

"Well, this is the secret research base of the World Government. It is a restricted area for outsiders. I wonder how you ended up here?"

Kizaru looked at Rhodes and the others and ignored the cry for help from Caesar who was held in Rhode's hand.

He had confirmed when he arrived that everything was safe at Vegapunk and they were currently evacuating in an orderly manner.

"Also, there seems to have been a serious explosion and a poisonous gas leak here. Could you please explain the situation to me? After all, I also need to report the situation to my superiors."

"The explosion and poison gas were caused by this guy, so for the sake of [justice], I will arrest this guy and give him a good beating."

"Capturing criminals is something that should be the responsibility of our navy."

"We, the Shichibukai, are also a force under the World Government. It is our duty to uphold justice."

"That's really troublesome."

Kizaru sighed softly.

"After all, this guy is from the Naval Science Class. We can't just hand him over to you casually."

"So..."

The yellow ape in front of Rhodes and the others turned into a ball of golden light and dissipated, then his body suddenly appeared behind Luo, raised his leg to kick Luo's arm, and grabbed Caesar with one hand.

Bang! !

A long leg stretched out from Law's side, with dark domineering aura and dark flames crawling all over the thigh. It suddenly collided with Kizaru's kick, causing a violent impact.

"Natural type!"

Nia has entered the half-human and half-beast fighting state, with excitement flashing in her eyes.

Finally, I have the chance to have a good fight with a person with nature abilities!

Although this fellow with goat horns is a nature-type, he is too weak and has no joy in fighting.

But this admiral is different.

Very strong! !
"This kind of fire of yours is very dangerous!"

Kizaru took a step back and looked at the catwoman Nia, whose body was wrapped in black flames and shining with golden light.

'It's coming!'

Nia's yellow vertical pupils shrank slightly, her muscles tensed, and her body trembled slightly.

That's a thrill of excitement!
Facing such a powerful opponent, she became uncontrollably excited.

"It seems like I have no chance to snatch this person from you. Forget it."

A dazzling light burst out from Kizaru's body, and his entire body turned into golden light and dissipated, then reappeared in another location and raised his hands to signal that he would not fight anymore.

"What! Are you really an admiral? Why are you giving up just like that?!"

"What! You're not going to fight anymore? You're a general!"

Before Rhodes could respond, two voices shouted at the same time.

Nia and Caesar looked at each other, and then Nia punched Caesar on the head as if to vent her anger. Black flames wrapped around Caesar's body, burning his soul and making him scream.

"I'm just confirming the situation here. Besides, you are the Shichibukai and also belong to the World Government. I just need to report the situation truthfully."

Kizaru waved his hand and said casually.

Facing these two at the same time, even if he failed to save the scientist, the Five Elders would probably not say anything.

After all, the result will be the same no matter who takes over.

"Then I'll leave. Don't worry, this evil scientist won't have the chance to harm others again."

Rhodes patted Caesar's head, then pulled out the Autumn Water from his waist, transforming it into a giant pink dragon, stepping on auspicious clouds and soaring into the air. Luo and several of his companions landed on the dragon's head and flew away from Punk Hazard.

“That’s…!!”

Kizaru stared at the direction where Rhodes and the others left, lost in thought.

If he was not mistaken, the pink dragon should have transformed from Rhodes' sword.

Is it the ability of the "Soul Soul Fruit"?

According to what the previous user of this ability, Big Mom, showed, the Soul-Soul Fruit can indeed personify objects. Among the Ten Thousand Nations, there are a large number of "Homiz" soldiers, and Big Mom's most commonly used weapon is also a long sword transformed from her hat.

However, the pink dragon that Rhodes summoned just now seemed different from the one Big Mom summoned before.

Instead, it is more like Kaido's devil fruit!

"No way, wasn't it said to be a failure?" Kizaru muttered in a low voice, suddenly remembering the devil fruit displayed in Vegapunk's laboratory.

···
"That is indeed a failure!"

When talking about the artificial devil fruit that he spent a lot of time, energy and money to create, Vegapunk still finds it hard to let it go.

"I extracted Kaido's blood and used the bloodline factor technology. After many years, I still couldn't create a devil fruit that was the same as the original. In the end, I could only create a failure like this!"

The navy's warships were sailing near the coast of Punk Hazard. After covering the entire island, the poison gas created by Caesar finally ran out of power and stopped spreading outward.

However, after this incident, Punk Hazard can no longer be used as a research site, and a new location must be moved to.

At this moment, before waiting for the location of the new research base arranged by the World Government, Kizaru will stay on the warship to protect Vegapunk's safety.

After calming down a little, Kizaru immediately described what he had seen to Vegapunk for verification.

According to Vegapunk, his artificial devil fruit was indeed taken away by Rod and fed to his weapon.

However, regarding that devil fruit, Vegapunk has always insisted that it was a failure.

"But, in my opinion, that dragon looks exactly like Kaido!"

"What color is the dragon?"

"pink."

"Look, it's completely different!"

Vegapunk grabs the ground with his head.

"No matter how much I research, I can't make that fruit exactly like the original. I can only create failures like that!"

"and many more!"

An incredible idea arose in Kizaru's mind.

"You're not saying that, aside from the color, that devil fruit is exactly the same as Kaido's original."

"But if you can't get the same color, it means it's still a failure!"

"So, they are indeed the same, right?"

Kizaru calmed himself down a little.

He seemed to have unearthed an incredible research result.

Before, because Vegapunk said that the artificial Devil Fruit was a failure, neither the Navy nor the Five Elders of the World Government took the artificial Devil Fruit technology seriously.

In their understanding, the so-called failures naturally refer to artificial devil fruits that cannot replicate the abilities of devil fruits and cannot allow the people who eat them to gain abilities.

Who would have thought that there was indeed a communication barrier between them and the geniuses.

In the eyes of the other party, even if it can achieve the same capabilities as the original, as long as there is any difference, even the difference in color, it can be considered a failure.

It seems that we need to re-evaluate those other research results that Vegapunk has deemed as failures.

···
"This is the information Vegapunk compiled about artificial devil fruit technology."

Rhodes handed the information to Caesar Courant and patted him on the shoulder.

"Come on, open your mouth."

Feeling the terrifying force coming from his shoulder that seemed to almost kill him, Caesar opened his mouth obediently without saying anything.

Rhodes flicked his finger and a drop of blood flew into Caesar's mouth. The separated soul fragments were integrated into Caesar's soul through the medium of blood.

"Your soul is already under my control. If you don't want to die, be obedient."

Before Caesar could recover from the joy of his strengthened body, he heard Rhodes' threatening words and a distorted expression suddenly appeared on his face.

"Your heart is in my hands."

Luo stretched out his hand and gently stroked Caesar's chest. A beating heart appeared in his palm. With a little force, Caesar felt a sharp pain and couldn't help screaming loudly.

"It will take about five days to renovate and build a new laboratory, which means you have five days to study artificial devil fruit technology. After five days, you will officially start your research."

"I want you to produce results as soon as possible!"

Leaving Caesar in the room and arranging several guards to bring him meals, Rhodes took Luo away.

After Hawkeye returned to Greenbit, he got on his boat and left directly. He stayed in Greenbit for such a long time that he didn't know how the crops he planted in his fields were doing.

Nia, who was unable to have a satisfying battle with Kizaru and fulfill her wish to fight a nature-type ability user, couldn't wait to drag Neru into a battle after she came back.

However, Naylu's strength became stronger and stronger with each battle, and he kept practicing. Nia was no match for him at all. After being electrocuted to death, Nia regained some composure.

Then he went to fight with Weber, another natural ability user in the team, and beat him to death.

Rhodes sensed through his observation Haki that the companions who remained on the island temporarily were actively practicing and continuing to improve their strength. He nodded secretly in his heart.

Although they have now occupied a considerable territory and are still continuing to expand, their power is still too weak compared to the World Government.

They have not yet seized world hegemony, and now is far from the time to relax.

"This world will sink into the sea!"

In the conference room, those from Rod's Pirates who were currently remaining in Green Bit sat together. After the "chef team" brought back from the Big Mom Pirates presented delicious desserts, Rod told his companions what Vegapunk had told him, hoping that everyone could brainstorm and figure out what Vegapunk meant.

"Could it be a great flood?"

Minina guessed while enjoying her dessert.

"The legendary ancient weapon? The ancient weapon will destroy the entire world. All islands and land will be destroyed and sink to the bottom of the sea."

Robin was also thinking about the deeper meaning of Vegapunk's words, but the words coming out of her mouth were too dangerous.

"We currently have too little intelligence, and we can't analyze much based on just this one sentence.

However, I noticed one thing. Thinking carefully about the islands we passed by, Alabasta, Drum Island, and Dressrosa next to it, these countries with a long history, their royal cities were all built very high.

Maybe they know something, so they chose to build the royal city on high ground. In this way, even if the world is really going to sink into the sea as Vegapunk said, those royal cities will be the last to sink. "

Listening to his companions' discussion, Rhodes was confused.

The plot that he knew in his previous life had not yet progressed to the later stages, and he had no foresight about this kind of secret information.

However, although he didn't know why the world was going to sink into the sea, he happened to know a thing or two about the devil fruit that could prevent the world from sinking into the sea.

A legend from the last era, a great pirate as famous as Roger and Whitebeard, the user of the Float-Float Fruit, and the "Flying Pirate" Shiki the Golden Lion!

More than a decade ago, he became the first person to escape from Impel Down at the cost of losing both legs.

After he escaped from prison, no information related to him has appeared on the sea for more than ten years. No one knows where he is hiding or whether he is still alive.

Except Rod!

"Then let's grab the Floating Fruit!"

(End of this chapter)