Vegapunk was quite short on money. Every one of his research projects consumed an enormous amount of funding. His fundamental reason for joining the World Government was to obtain research funds.
Vegapunk himself thinks this way, so naturally, his clones share the same mindset.
The sea area next to Egghead has always been a forbidden zone. Any ship approaching without approval would be sunk immediately. Even the lottery ticket that person bought earlier was obtained aboard a merchant ship specially approved by the World Government.
One of Lilith's routine tasks is to patrol around Egghead. If she finds a sunken pirate ship, she'll take their treasure and, depending on the situation, deal with the pirates onboard.
Even if a pirate ship entering the area hasn't been sunk, Lilith might still seize their treasure outright.
Shaka disdains this kind of behavior from Lilith, seeing it as lacking the dignity of a scientist. But when it comes to funding issues, he's completely unable to convince her otherwise.
After all, they are all Vegapunk. Their goal is the same; only their methods and styles differ.
After that person won the jackpot, many people on Egghead wanted to try their luck too, so they bought some lottery tickets from the merchant ship that docks periodically.
However, the material created by Acier has limited range. Previously, the staff member's ticket only reacted because he happened to approach the research center while delivering food to No.6 York.
The others only got regular prizes or nothing at all.
But Lilith was different. As a clone of Vegapunk, there are no restricted zones on Egghead for her. She can go wherever she wants.
Wanting to try her luck, she bought a stack of lottery tickets, and every single one she scratched emitted a golden glow.
"I bought ten tickets. That's five billion Berries. Even after tax, it's three billion. That's a huge amount of funding."
"Lilith, don't joke around. Do you even need to calculate the probability in this kind of scenario? No business would allow themselves to lose money.
There's no way the grand prize's odds are that high, let alone having ten winning tickets grouped together, and then bought by the same person. That's unrealistic even in a dream."
"That's exactly why I said, something's wrong with this."
She scratched at the ticket with her finger, looked at the glowing part, and handed it to No. 04 Pythagoras, another clone representing wisdom.
"Pythagoras, put down that machine in your hands and take a look at this first."
Pythagoras, looking like a giant robot with a wind-up key on his head, didn't stop what he was doing, but his head rotated 180 degrees, and two extra arms extended from where his ears would be to take what Lilith handed over.
He then directly inserted it into an unknown machine. After a series of tests and analyses, a test report appeared in Shaka's hands.
"It's not dye. It's a new type of material reacting with a certain object. That's why this color appeared."
"A lottery ticket issued by Beasts Fruits. Looks like it was specially made to detect a specific object. It must be that, right?"
Lilith turned around. Not far behind her, a plate was fixed on the test bench.
Before long, Vegapunk's main body also appeared. Compared to years ago, the giant brain on his head had vanished, replaced by an antenna resembling an apple.
"You should've received the memory, right?"
"Yes, I did. It really is quite a special discovery."
Although these were his own clones, Vegapunk couldn't monitor their thoughts in real time. So, his conversation with Shaka was more like one between old friends. The so-called memory was also part of Vegapunk's ability.
Vegapunk had eaten the Paramecia-type "Brain-Brain Fruit", making him a Brains Human. His brain has infinite capacity and extraordinary memory. He can accumulate unlimited knowledge without ever forgetting anything.
Naturally, this ability comes with side effects: the more data Vegapunk absorbs, the larger his brain becomes.
With his innate genius mind and limitless internal database, Vegapunk's brain became the largest in the world, and it's still growing.
Although a special surgery allowed him to separate his brain from his body, Vegapunk can still receive signals through the antenna on his head.
At present, his brain is located inside the eggshell above Egghead Island, known as "Punk Records."
Vegapunk's six clones also share this brain. Their daily experiences and knowledge are synchronized with "Punk Records" once a day.
Shaka had just completed the memory synchronization. The analysis he and others conducted had already been uploaded to the main brain.
"Do you have any plans?"
"Plans? No. If someone wants to take what belongs to them, then let them take it."
"You actually said that? Aren't you going to consider the prize money? That's ten jackpot wins in a row, enough to fund a major project." Lilith, standing nearby, was more concerned about the funding.
As the one representing evil, her thinking leaned toward chaos, and she acted more on impulse.
"One, they might honor. Ten? Not necessarily. Look closely at the rules, they state that there's only one grand prize per round. That leaves a lot of room for manipulation.
They control the public opinion and won't be afraid of something like this."
"Then just redeem one ticket. Three hundred million is still money."
"That's enough, Lilith. What about a scientist's dignity? Show some backbone."
"Old man, I don't want to hear your nonsense. I'm going out to patrol the surrounding seas. You all continue your research at your leisure."
Lilith left, Pythagoras returned to his work, and only Shaka remained standing in front of Vegapunk.
"What exactly are you trying to do?"
"The more knowledge I accumulate, the more lost I feel. The origin of Devil Fruits, why the sea hates them, why souls have weight. There is too much knowledge that can't be explained by science.
The existing laws of nature can no longer prove some of my theories. But it is different."
Vegapunk pointed to the plate behind him.
"That thing looks like a stone, but it's not made of any known material. I can't even identify any related elements. Shaka, you should know that the essence of this plate is an energy construct, an unknown energy not of this world.
Only the most idiotic fools would use it as a shield. Its owner, the one who created it, is the person I want to meet."
"You're going to let it go just like that? That'll be hard to explain to the World Government."
From Vegapunk's tone, it sounded like he intended to just package the plate up and hand it over.
"Let's test the defensive capabilities of the facilities on the island. I'd like to see what these facilities are really capable of. But it's not time yet, we still need to wait."
Based on his analysis of past intel and the current situation, Vegapunk had a guess about what was coming, but he didn't share it with anyone.
He had never been truly aligned with the World Government, just leaching off their funds. The current situation actually suited him better.
But just as Shaka said, doing absolutely nothing wouldn't be appropriate. There needed to be at least a symbolic act of resistance.
He was just a "defenseless" scientist. Faced with the invasion of powerful enemies, there was nothing he could do. When the time comes, he will have to hold the World Government accountable for inadequate protection.
According to the original agreement, the World Government was responsible for ensuring his safety.
What was happening on Egghead remained unknown in Wano Country, but no one there cared. No matter what happened, no matter who stood in the way, nothing could shake Shayna's resolve to bring the plate back for Arceus.
"Egghead?"
"Lord Sacred Beast's orders: you're to carry out this mission with us. Ever since arriving in Wano Country, you've been on vacation. You wouldn't refuse this mission, right?"
"Of course not. Egghead, huh… It's been a long time since I've been there. Do you have an Eternal Pose to that place?"
Kuzan still maintained a lazy demeanor. Even though Shayna was standing right in front of him, he made no move to get up, instead eating shaved ice with Camel.
As the ice in his bowl reached the bottom, he waved his hand and formed another block of ice. With Camel's help, it instantly turned into a new bowl of shaved ice. Kuzan then picked up a bottle of Berry juice from the ground.
"You guys have some pretty good fruit juice here. Want a bowl?"
"No thanks. I'm not interested. We'll have the Eternal Pose in hand in the next couple of days. Just be ready."
"You guys are really something. Even managing to get your hands on an Eternal Pose to that place."
Egghead was a highly valued experiment island of the World Government. Normal Log Poses were useless due to the magnetic field's interference, and Eternal Poses wouldn't be so easily circulated.
"Hmph, you don't know how many pests there are in the World Government? There's nothing those guys wouldn't sell."
As the chief of CP9, Spandam had even sold footage of the destroyed Enies Lobby, and he wasn't a rare case. Even without outside help, someone like Doflamingo could get anything he wanted through his Underworld connections.
After relaying Arceus's orders, Shayna took off and flew toward Kuri, preparing to notify Zeraora about the mission.
"Egghead… who's stationed there now? Borsalino? Or those two rookies?"
Watching Shayna leave, Kuzan began to ponder what situations they might run into.
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