“Cough, cough… Idiot! Who told you to barge in so recklessly?!”
Wiping away the smoke left by the explosion on his sunglasses, Queen furiously glared at his subordinate behind him.
Something had gone wrong with the attack system he had set up. According to his design, after he used Brachiosnakeus, the rest of his body should have transformed into a powerful stationary turret.
But for some unknown reason, while the firepower had indeed increased, the accuracy had gone completely haywire.
If he were to say it was inaccurate, every attack still hit a target with 100% accuracy. But if he were to say it was precise, well… that thing attacked him 100%, turning it into nothing more than a self-torture device.
After thinking it over, he was convinced the issue lay with the gunpowder. Otherwise, how else could it be targeting only him? So, he had begun working on refining the gunpowder.
He had already been at it for several days, only to be interrupted at this critical moment.
If not for his thick skin and tough body, it would’ve been enough to finish him off. In the past, given his temper, he would’ve straight-up thrown this subordinate into a gladiator arena. But now, when under another’s roof, even Queen had to adapt.
When faced with the iron-fisted rules from above, he didn’t have the guts to defy them.
“Give me a damn good reason, or I’ll have you spar with Boss Kaido!”
“It… it was you who told me…”
“Since when did I tell you to come over?!”
“You said that if there was any reaction in the petri dish, we should notify you immediately…”
There was nothing more terrifying than sparring with Kaido—unless it was sparring with Kaido after he had been drinking. Ever since Yamato had gone off traveling, they had all clearly felt that their captain’s temper had worsened significantly.
He hastily repeated Queen’s previous instructions.
“The petri dish? I guess I did say that. But you brat… why the hell are you holding a trash can?”
“Lord Queen, you might not believe this, but… the things in the petri dish never showed any reaction. However, yesterday, when we threw out the failed samples… one of them survived.”
A strange situation—whatever they tried cultivating in the lab seemed to survive in all sorts of bizarre places, except inside the petri dish. Since this failed sample had undergone some peculiar changes, he had brought it over for Queen to inspect.
“What in the hell…?”
“So, Lord Queen, what do you think…”
“I’ll go handle things over there myself. Don’t let anyone disturb me. Clean up this place—but be careful of explosions.”
Queen left one final warning in a sinister tone, though he was merely trying to intimidate his subordinate.
Finding a few people who can fight wasn’t particularly difficult, but finding ones with brains? That was a real challenge for him. Even with the vast numbers of members in Beasts Pirates and Beasts Fruits, he didn’t find many suitable assistants.
This subordinate was already a rare talent—he wouldn’t throw him away over some ridiculous reason. But that didn’t stop Queen from putting psychological pressure on him.
Besides, something that had already exploded wouldn’t explode a second time. Queen’s creations were at least reliable enough to ensure there were no duds.
Since the experiment had succeeded, Queen dove back into his laboratory. Reverse-engineering the manufacturing process from a finished product was simple for him. He was just making modifications, similar to improving animal-use drugs and adapting them for human use.
…
“I have to admit, this is a genius idea! But in front of Lord Queen, it’s nothing special! Muhahaha-haha!”
After several more experiments, Queen successfully created a finished product and was now boasting about it.
He acknowledged that the Rumble Ball’s design concept was impressive. The ability to change a Zoan-type’s fixed forms in this way was truly imaginative. Had MADS come across this research a few decades earlier, they would have shown quite a bit of interest.
But that was all. Queen remained convinced that he wouldn’t lose to Chopper in this field.
“You failed seventeen times, blew up the lab six times… and you call this ‘nothing special’?”
“Spiky-chan is right, isn’t it? What it said makes perfect sense, right?.”
“Don’t go learning from that damn Omastar! Is it so hard to flatter me a little at a time like this?!”
As always, Omastar stabbed Queen in the back with its words. Even it didn’t know why it always did this—it was just a habit. As for Shaymin… well, under Omastar’s influence, she had picked up a few bad habits.
But, it was limited to verbal jabs and hadn’t evolved to greeting him with Air Slash just yet.
“I’m just stating facts. Besides, are you sure this pill of yours is really a success?”
Chopper’s Rumble Ball was about the same size as a Malteser, but the one Queen had created was about as big as a large meatball braised in soy sauce. Its color was also much darker, making it look anything but successful.
“What does a snail like you know? It might not look appealing, but the drug’s effect is definitely fine. Now let me think… who should I test this on?”
“Aren’t you a Zoan user yourself?”
“Ahem! As a researcher, I need to observe its effects. If I eat it myself, how am I supposed to observe it?”
“Besides, Lord Arceus has modified my ability. Who knows if this thing might clash with his power?”
“This is an academic issue—you wouldn’t understand. Just go back to eavesdropping on intelligence like you’re supposed to! I need to go report my work.”
…
Artificial Devil Fruit Users, pure Pokémon Ability Users, Pokémon Ability Users with modified Devil Fruits—none of them were suitable test subjects. Queen wanted to find an ordinary Devil Fruit User to test the effects of his Rumble Ball.
But at the moment, he couldn’t find one. Most people had Artificial Devil Fruits, the officers mostly had Pokémon abilities, and the few pure Devil Fruit users weren’t around.
“The world’s changed… why is it so damn hard to find a regular Zoan nowadays…?”
After searching for a while, Queen ended up running into Kaido.
“Queen, what the hell are you wandering around for?”
“Boss Kaido? I was just looking for someone to test a drug on. I managed to decipher the stuff we got back from Skypiea and wanted to test its effect, but I couldn’t find a suitable person.”
“A pure Devil Fruit user? Let me see it.”
“Bo-Boss Kaido! You mean… you’re gonna do it yourself?”
“What’s the problem? I am a pure Devil Fruit user, aren’t I? Besides, no matter what kind of poison you create, it’s not gonna kill me. So, there’s no harm in trying it out.”
“But I think—”
“Shut up and hand it over!”
Without hesitation, Kaido grabbed the black and blue pill that Queen had made and tossed it into his mouth, eager to experience the so-called magical transformation.
“Well? How do you feel, Boss Kaido?”
Queen knew he couldn’t stop Kaido from insisting on testing it himself, so he could only ask about the aftereffects. But before doing so, he quietly took several large steps back.
“I feel… kinda pissed off.”
“P-Pissed off?”
“How should I put it…? There’s no physical change, no breakthrough in transformation—but I really wanna fight someone right now.”
“……”
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