One Piece: Nobody knows Devil Fruits better than me.

Chapter 193 Do they really think they're gods?!

Research room.

"It's unbelievable that it has truly vanished; not a single trace of the bloodline factor energy within has been preserved."

"How exactly did they do that? That kind of energy shouldn't be able to be extracted by normal means; it should only be slowly guided out through the corresponding bloodline factor sequence."

At this moment, Vegapunk was frantically fiddling with the research equipment around him.

What he was studying was the dust from when the tree roots had just broken apart.

He made an incredible sound—it contained regret and pity, but even more so, an overwhelming sense of excitement and joy.

This made Roy, who was already feeling a little guilty, frown.

"Dr. Vegapunk."

Then, the Star Lord spoke.

“The roots of the fruit tree are indeed very meaningful to me, and I do have some questions I would like to ask you.”

"But before that—I need to know what you want."

Beneath the mask of stars, starlight swept towards Vegapunk.

"I mean, what you truly desire."

"I dislike red tape, let's be open and honest."

Upon hearing the Star Lord's words, Vegapunk was taken aback.

Then he fell silent.

In such situations, silence itself is the answer.

Therefore, the Star Lord confirmed his guess.

Just as mentioned before.

Vegapunk's sincerity was excessive.

The Star Lord certainly believed that Vegapunk wanted to save Bonney—according to the original work, although he was too naive in some ways, to the point that his research creations were often used by others, Vegapunk was undoubtedly a good person.

But don't forget, he was not only a good person, but also a smart one, a rigorous and cautious world-class scientist.

But from the moment the Star Lord appeared—no, to be precise, the Star Lord displayed the 'Covenant of the Stars' and revealed the existence of Im.

Vegapunk's attitude was always very sincere, even humble.

Throughout the journey, he answered almost every question.

He led the Star Lord into this 'secret research lab,' a place that even the Five Elders clearly couldn't possibly know about, without any hesitation.

What confirms the Star Lord's suspicions most right now is Vegapunk's attitude.

Even if Vegapunk had intended to give the root to the twelve constellations.

The destruction of such invaluable research material would inevitably enrage any scientist.

But at this moment, Vegapunk was not angry at all; on the contrary, he seemed quite happy.

"So we were found out after all."

Upon hearing the Star Lord's question, Vegapunk gave a wry smile.

But then he shook his head: "However, even if Your Excellency Star Lord did not ask, I would have told you on my own initiative."

He's quite carefree.

"I just told you about the origin of this tree root. It came from the ruins of the 'Kingdom of Furidum' in the Western Sea after its destruction, in the ruins beneath the royal palace."

He reminisced about the past and mumbled an explanation.

But of course he didn't know.

As he spoke casually, his eyes, hidden beneath the Star Lord's mask, were already gleaming.

Kingdom of Furidum?

Roy thought to himself, "I've heard that name before."

Where did he hear that?

While pondering, he didn't hesitate to slightly switch the fruit.

[Fruit loaded: Brain-Brain Fruit LV1→LV3]

[Brain-Brain Fruit LV3: Greatly enhances brainpower, comprehensively improving learning ability, memory, perception, imagination, inspiration, and sixth sense. It allows the brain to perform various internal processing functions such as searching, deleting, and storing data, much like a hard drive. The brain grows larger as memories and inspirations are continuously stored.]

With the activation of the Brain-Brain Fruit, which he had only recently analyzed, he felt his memories and thoughts accelerate dozens of times in an instant.

And just moments later, he retrieved the origin of the word from his memory.

It was on Thriller Bark, in the brief moment before they were about to meet Moria, that Brook casually mentioned the name of the country.

That was Brooke's homeland, the country where he once served as captain of the royal guard.

At the same time, that is also
"The homeland of the most special God Knight 'Junzi'?"

Now, Roy has learned an unbelievable piece of information—the country that was destroyed by the World Government actually contains the source of the bloodline factor.

"That country's origins are suspicious!"

Roy immediately realized this.

But clearly, he didn't have time to think about it at that moment.

Because Vegapunk's words continued.

"We found a total of four tree roots and a very special Poneglyph inside. One of the tree roots was taken by me, Judge, Queen, and Caesar, while the Poneglyph was stored in the MADS research ship because it could not be deciphered."

Vegapunk recalled: "I heard that later, when MADS disbanded, Quinn lent his tree root to Bagingom in pursuit of her, and she eventually stole it."

His muttered words naturally made Roy even more astonished.

"Three more?"

He almost couldn't help but ask aloud.

The tree root in Vegapunk's hand gave him nearly 15% of the 'bloodline factor development progress,' so the remaining three tree roots are likely to have the same effect.

"No, that's not right. Vegapunk once used the tree root to create the 'Red Dragon Fruit'."

"Therefore, the parsing progress that a single tree root can provide is likely to be more than 15%."

Roy was certainly aware of what this meant.

This means that if he obtains the remaining three tree roots, then combined with the original increase in the analysis progress, his bloodline factor development progress may directly jump to near completion!
"Bakingom Stussy, Caesar Courland, and Vinsmoke Judge."

Luo Yi muttered these three names to himself.

He was certain that the three tree roots were still in the hands of these three people—they couldn't possibly entrust a treasure of this caliber to someone else.

No wonder Bazingerm Stussy disappeared after the MADS disbanded; it turns out he stole something from Quinn back then, probably to avoid Quinn's revenge, who is now one of the 'Three Calamities'.

But Vegapunk's narration was not yet over.

"When MADS was disbanded, the government was supposed to confiscate everything on the research ship and all the research data, but I was careful and hid that piece of historical text."

As he said this, Vegapunk walked to a wall in the research institute and gently tapped it.

next moment.
"Buzz!"

The wall opened silently.

And sure enough—a piece of historical text appeared right there.

But the key issue is...

The color of that Poneglyph was not the black of ordinary Poneglyphs.

The color of the text was half black and half red.

"."

The Star Lord remained silent, gazing at the historical text.

Of course he knew.

The historical texts are written records of the truth of history left behind 800 years ago by that once-existing 'great kingdom'.

There are about thirty pieces in total, and only when all of them are collected and linked together can they be considered the "true historical text".

It comes in two types—the black standard history text and the red road sign history text.

The black, ordinary historical text records information from ancient times.

The red historical text on the road sign records the location of an island.

But this piece in front of us is clearly special—it lies somewhere in between.

"As you can see, this historical text is very special."

Vegapunk touched the Poneglyph he had studied countless times, and his words became heavy.

Yes.

He initially studied this Poneglyph simply because of its distinctive color compared to other Poneglyphs, and the four 'roots' found nearby.

This made Vegapunk instinctively feel that the content of this piece of the Poneglyph was very important.

However, interpreting historical texts was not his area of ​​expertise—so for many years he made no further discoveries.

It wasn't until he was in Elbaf, having memorized all the documents left behind by the destroyed Ohara, and all the 'historical truths' deciphered by the group of historians, that he truly understood it.

He naturally knew how to interpret the historical text and deciphered the content of this special historical text.

The world has been destroyed and reborn twice; all living beings have created a new world, and also an abyss.

He is the source of the sea, the bound shadow of the world, and at the same time, He binds everything in the world.

The cursed made a pact with the abyss, releasing Him from His bonds in exchange for power and authority. Ultimately, the sea will rise and engulf all things.

That was the third destruction of the world.

[I and the original cursed one were defeated by betrayal, but we also left behind a spark of resistance, which will never be taken by the abyss.]

I will preserve the truth in the world, and leave hope on the absolutely safe final island, inscribing its coordinates on the Red Stone.

One day, freedom will return to the world, and the drums of liberation will sound once more.

—Joy Boy

This is the content of the historical text as interpreted by Vegapunk.

These contents are sufficient to illustrate the significance of this historical text.

Like the Poneglyph on Fishman Island, it appears to have been left by Joy Boy.

It is the connection point that links all 'normal history texts' and 'road sign history texts'.

Before this Poneglyph, those ordinary black Poneglyphs recorded detailed history of the world.

Following this Poneglyph are four Road Poneglyphs, which record the methods and coordinates for reaching the final island, 'Laugh Tale'.

From this, Roy could even be certain that the 'Lord Im' was not actually named Im.

His essence should be the 'Abyss' mentioned in this historical text.

Of course, due to the limitations of ancient writing systems, this is only a rough outline.

From this, Vegapunk also obtained more detailed information.

such as
"According to the historical records, there are three kinds of covenants between the Abyss and people."

"The contract in the shallow sea seems to allow one to offer a portion of their soul to the abyss in exchange for power."

"The pact of the deep sea seems to allow one to offer their entire soul to the abyss in exchange for immortality and greater power."

"The contract with the Abyss allows one to dedicate everything to the Abyss, becoming one with it and becoming its very being. The Abyss can then bestow its power upon the one who has been contracted with it at any time, and even one's physical appearance will change. The one who is contracted with it will then gain eternal life."

As Vegapunk finished speaking, he glanced at the Star Lord with a complicated expression.

That's why he previously mistook the Star Lord's arrival for the 'Abyss Sea Contract'.

Of course, that's still not all.

"After reading the main text of the history book, I spent many years connecting it with research materials left by Ohara and studying a lot of knowledge about the Void Century before I finally made a conclusion."

At this point, Vegapunk visibly became somewhat gloomy.

"Sea levels have risen more than once."

The Star Lord spoke softly, saying what Vegapunk was about to say.

Vegapunk's expression became even more astonished.

Then, he nodded solemnly: "So you knew after all."

Of course I know—that's the answer you gave yourself in the original work.

The Star Lord thought to himself, but naturally didn't say anything on the surface.

Vegapunk then continued, "That's just how it is."

"I have verified many things on this historical text and confirmed that sea levels have risen more than once in the past eight hundred years—many ancient islands and traces have been buried in the deep sea."

He said so.

"In addition, after studying the tree roots, I also conducted a test, as you know."

Vegapunk's expression grew even more serious.

"I obtained Kaido's bloodline factor, and at the same time, I extracted the 'bloodline factor source energy' from the tree root through the bloodline factor sequence—this step of extracting the source energy alone took a full twenty years!"

"Subsequently, I completely altered the sequence order of all bloodline factors."

As he spoke, his voice trembled with emotion.

That was his boldest attempt at using lineage factors to date.

He even used the 'bloodline factor source energy' from that tree root, spending twenty years preparing.

Its purpose is to verify the most essential part of the study of lineage factors.

"I want to create a Devil Fruit—not any known one, but a completely new one, one that has never appeared in this world before!"

But
Ultimately, the experiment failed.

Vegapunk said heavily.

"All the bloodline factor sequences that I modified were automatically rearranged and put back into place when synthesizing the 'Devil Fruit,' and the scrambled ability codes were also completely restored."

He said with a wry smile, "But perhaps the 'rules' of this world do not allow two Devil Fruits to be exactly the same, so the color of that fruit is different from the original Azure Dragon Fruit."

Ultimately, this led to the fruit that Chenlong possesses today.

It is indeed a perfect artificial Devil Fruit, and in terms of ability, it is no different from the 'Azure Dragon Fruit'.

However, for Vegapunk, apart from its color, it was a complete failure.

That also confirmed Vegapunk's belief that the accounts in the Poneglyphs and his research on Ohara were correct.

"The bloodline factors in this world are 'bound'."

"A certain force does not allow new 'bloodline factors' to appear in this world, nor will new Devil Fruits appear—all fruits will only continue to cycle within the bound framework until the sea submerges everything."

"Based on my examination of the age of those deep-sea relics, the next sea level rise is no more than ten years away."

At this point, Vegapunk gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.

"The government must know all this. The 'Bridge Kingdom' that the government is currently leading the construction of and the 'Red Earth Continent' where the holy site is located may be the only safe places after everything is submerged!"

His fingernails dug into his flesh, but he seemed completely unaware.

This level of lapse in composure seems unusual for this scientist.

But this is not surprising.

Born in the harsh land of Baltimore, Vegapunk, a genius from a young age, has always had a simple philosophy since embarking on his scientific research career.

He hopes for world peace and for happiness for everyone in the world.

He hopes that people can live happily in a peaceful world filled with flowers, sunshine, plenty of food and clothing, and no war.

He wants to make the world a better place through his technology and inventions.

Therefore, he could accept investment from the Dark World Emperor, because scientific research inevitably requires a large amount of funding and resources.

He doesn't care about money or fame.

Even after MADS was disbanded and he was forced to join the World Government, his ideals remained unshaken.

Of course he knew that the World Government had dark sides, and of course he knew about the evil and greed of the Celestial Dragons.

But it's okay.

"Greed, darkness, all ugliness and the struggle for power are only due to insufficient resources and underdeveloped technology."

That's always been his opinion.

Therefore, as long as he can create unlimited resources and unlimited energy—when money and power become meaningless—people will naturally stop fighting over them, and there will be no more darkness and war as a result.

He firmly believed in something that was almost a fantasy.

Because he is Dr. Vegapunk, he has that talent.

Vegapunk was concerned about the contents recorded on this historical text.

But he had never been this angry before today.

Because he originally thought that the so-called 'abyss' should be some kind of disaster or the natural law of the world—after all, even Vegapunk could not imagine that any individual could do such an incredible thing as 'binding the entire world'.

He believes that the World Government and the Five Elders may have only obtained a portion of the power of the 'Abyss', using it to overthrow the ancient kingdom of the past and gain the power to rule the world and achieve immortality.

This is certainly hateful, but given their consistent inhuman behavior, Vegapunk isn't particularly surprised.

He had even optimistically believed that the 'Bridge Kingdom' that the World Government was currently using slaves and criminals from all over the world to build might be a way to avoid that future disaster.

After all, even if it's a brutal world government, it's still a union of world nations, isn't it?
He even considered that if he couldn't stop the disaster in time, he could simply send everyone to the Bridge Country and the Red Earth to take refuge until he figured out how to lower the sea level and restore the world to normal.

So before that, he could barely convince himself to conduct research for the world government.

But now, after learning from the Star Lord that there is an entity called 'Im' behind the Five Elders.

Vegapunk has almost figured out the true purpose of the World Government.

"They want to turn everyone into slaves!"

"They want to help the 'Abyss' destroy this world, and then rule over its ashes forever—right!?"

"Do they really think they're gods? Those bastards!"

This scientist, unusually, swore.

And this was precisely his answer to the Star Lord's question earlier.

He knew he was running out of time.

If the entire world government is not the one who stole the power of the abyss, but rather an extension of the will of that being called 'Im'—then this world is truly in grave danger!
Fortunately, at that moment, this person was standing in front of him.

"Lord Star, your research on bloodline factors is extremely profound—whether it's fruit fusion or the 'Star Pact,' it's enough to show that you are the person closest to breaking through the 'shackles'!"

He looked at the Star Lord and said, word by word.

"My original plan is no longer feasible."

"Therefore, I want to bet everything on the 'Twelve Constellations,' and I want to join you."

(End of this chapter)