Pirate: My Piltover technology is far ahead!

Chapter 117 The Prematurely Born Artificial Devil Fruit, Target: Little Garden

"Wow, what a big tree!"

The most striking feature of Ohara is the Tree of All Knowledge, whose enormous canopy almost covers half the island.

Even from where we just reached the shore, the giant tree was clearly visible. For the people of Ohara, sweeping up the fallen leaves every day was a grueling task.

"Let's go, that tree is our target."

The islands varied greatly in size. Compared to Firefly Island, Ohara was smaller than even a section of Firefly Island. Before long, Oran brought Lyliana to the Tree of Omniscience.

The tree trunk has a very peculiar shape and is covered with traces of human activity.

On this island, only the island itself is older than the tree. Having endured thousands of years, the Omniscient Tree has witnessed the changes of time and even formed a peculiar symbiotic relationship with the inhabitants of Ohara.

Some windows could be seen in the tree trunk, where many people lived. Klopp was waiting for Oran at the door.

"Dr. Siddiel, it's been a long time. I heard you're now king?"

"It's just a little bit of empty fame, it's not important. I'm sorry to bother you this time."

"Dr. Cloba, I would like to borrow the library of the Tree of Omniscience to look up some documents."

"What kind of disturbance is this? The Library of the Tree of Omniscience is open to the world. Knowledge should not be hidden. You can borrow books anytime you want. Besides, there is an old friend of yours here."

Although Oran and Cloba don't have a close relationship now, they are acquaintances and occasionally correspond, after all, they represent the pinnacle of archaeology and medicine.

They sometimes attend when scholars hold exchange meetings.

"An old friend?"

"You'll see when you meet him; it's quite a coincidence."

Kroba led Oran and his group into the interior of the Tree of Omniscience. Almost everything they saw was filled with books, with various documents piled up on the surrounding bookshelves, even forming a wall of books.

Below the bookshelf, Oran also saw a familiar big head.

"Punk? What are you doing here?"

"Oran? What a coincidence! I came here to look for some information, and I didn't expect to run into you here."

Cloba's old acquaintance was none other than Vegapunk. As the director of the research institute, Vegapunk was not under house arrest and was free to go wherever he wanted.

However, due to his tight schedule, he rarely went out. Although he could conduct research on the ship, the environment was much worse than that of Punk Hazard.

"What a coincidence, I'm also here looking for information. How's life as the research institute director?"

"It's not bad, at least the World Government has plenty of funds. I recently made a new discovery: if you embed seastone in the bottom of a ship, it can make the ship pass through the Calm Belt more safely."

"Don't you have close ties with the Navy? Perhaps you can use this to make new deals with them."

Oran's appearance significantly altered Vegapunk's research progress. Although Oran did not directly reveal the Seastone warships to Vegapunk, Vegapunk discovered them many years ahead of schedule.

When MAD disbanded, Oran concealed most of his research results, even leading outsiders to believe that much of the research was done by Vegapunk. Therefore, Vegapunk wanted to use these results to help Oran exchange some research funds from the Navy.

This was a small favor he offered as a friend.

"No need. You can find a suitable time to tell the Navy yourself. I have my own arrangements."

"Well, this must be Riley. She's grown so much, it's unbelievable."

"Hey Uncle Punk, your head's gotten even bigger, isn't it heavy?"

Vegapunk's head is now several sizes larger than it was a few years ago, and even his tongue protruding from his mouth is longer. In terms of appearance, he looks even more like a monster than Frankenstein.

"It's alright, this is all solid knowledge."

Vegapunk didn't seem to feel anything, which was also an effect of the Brain-Brain Fruit; the more he memorized, the bigger his head became.

"Alright Riley, you and Kate can go play for a while, or find some books you like. Daddy has things to do."

"Okay~"

Leriana didn't say anything, but simply followed Kate to the side, while Absalom silently followed behind them the whole time.

By this time, he already knew that Oran was a king and had already placed himself in the role of a servant. In Absalom's mind, becoming a confidant of the king would be a remarkable thing.

Afterwards, Oran and Vegapunk searched for something in the library, but Oran was simply touching the books with his hands. Every time he touched a book, one more book would be added to his collection of books in the book world.

Having the rare opportunity to meet an old friend, Vegapunk seemed to forget his original purpose and discussed some research difficulties with Oran.

"Speaking of which, your previous research helped me a lot, saving me at least several decades of effort. Unfortunately, the result was still a failure."

"A failed experiment? What have you been researching?"

"Replicating artificial Devil Fruits using lineage factors is quite difficult, and I've decided to suspend research in this area."

"Kaido's bloodline factor?"

How did you know?

"I do read the newspapers. I saw the news about Kaido escaping from the research institute a few years ago."

At this point, Oran had already guessed what the failed product Vegapunk was referring to was: a replica of Kaido's Fish-Fish Fruit.

In the original timeline, Vegapunk spent twenty years and countless funds researching it. However, due to Oran's presence, the two of them overcame many difficulties in the project ahead of time, which even affected the subsequent research progress.

"Enough with the chit-chat, Punk. Give me that 'failure,' I'm quite interested in it."

"That's a 'failure,' what do you need such garbage for?"

"I know you have severe obsessive-compulsive disorder, and that doesn't lie to me."

Besides, it would be a bit strange not to destroy the failed products, which happens to be what I need.

"Alright, but I can't just deliver it to you. Why don't you come to my place sometime? I'll be 'destroying the failed samples' during those few days, and you can take it with you then."

Vegapunk didn't want the World Government to know that he had cracked the secret and could successfully create Mythical Zoan Devil Fruits. Ultimately, he and the World Government weren't on the same page; they were simply taking what they needed from each other.

Oran knew Vegapunk's personality well, and he also knew that the so-called failed product was just a different color; otherwise, it was exactly the same as Kaido's Devil Fruit.

"This is troublesome."

Oran also has his own research on lineage factors, but his application is quite different from others. It can only be said that each MADS member has their own area of ​​expertise.

Although Oran is a versatile person, he is not an all-rounder. He also has his own areas of expertise. In terms of replicating Devil Fruits, he admits that he is not as good as Vegapunk.

"By the way, what do you want that fruit?"

"Need you even ask? It's for Riley, of course. Speaking of which, where's Stussy? Didn't you bring her along this time?"

A suitable Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit—this was the path Oran had planned for Lyriana. With her physical talents, the enhancement of a Mythical Zoan fruit would maximize her combat power.

Although many Mythical Zoan-type Devil Fruits appeared in the original timeline, most of them already had owners.

Aside from the fact that her whereabouts are unknown, the fighting style of the Vampire Fruit in Sleepy Town doesn't quite suit Lyriana.

It's best to avoid getting involved with Nika for now. A fruit that can run away and choose its own master, and is tainted with a bunch of troubles, is a bit difficult to deal with.

The reissued Azure Dragon suits Lyriana better.

"No, I left her in Punk Hazard to handle some trivial matters for me. To be honest, after you all left, I only had Caesar by my side, and a lot of things were quite troublesome to do."

Thinking of the utterly unreliable Caesar, Vegapunk sighed helplessly.

"Actually, he's not entirely without merit."

"Hmm? Didn't you think his research abilities were terrible?"

"It's not that I think it's true, but when it comes to scamming funding, he's far more professional than you."

Oran spent most of the day in the library, chatting with Vegapunk and casually touching all the books along the way.

These books are not even all of them. Scholars from all over the world are still flocking here, and new books are sent over from time to time. After the books are updated in a few years, Oran will probably have to come again.

After finding the information he needed, Vegapunk began reading, occasionally letting out exclamations of admiration.

After achieving his goal, Oran embarked on his return journey without lingering there for long. Since Firefly Island was still a non-member state, he ended up getting a ticket to Alabasta.

As a superpower on the Grand Line, there are relatively more ships heading there.

However, after arriving in Alabasta, they did not immediately return to Firefly Island. Instead, they obtained a new Log Pose in the Alabasta market and purchased a large quantity of spirits.

"Dad, this isn't the way home, is it? When we left, the morning sun should have been on the other side."

"Well, we have some other things to do. This time, I'm planning to find you a new teacher."

"Are you going to learn some really powerful moves?"

"That's right, it's an exceptionally powerful move. If you master it completely, you can pierce through even a monster the size of an island with a single blow."

"Wow, that sounds amazing! I'm sure I can learn it!"

Oran released the ships that had been prepared beforehand from the book. This time, there was no fixed route to the location they were going to, so they had to rely on themselves. After all, it was an uninhabited island known to the outside world - the Ancient Island Little Garden.

(End of this chapter)