"So after all this time, you should at least have something to show me by now, right, Dr. Vegapunk?"
Ozz sat with his fingers interlaced, chin resting on the back of his hands, those deep, shadowed eyes fixed on Vegapunk.
For once, the good doctor finally experienced the pressure other people felt under Ozz's gaze.
Cold sweat beaded on his forehead, but fortunately the progress so far had been decent. He did not dare delay, and simply led Ozz straight into the lab.
Ozz, practiced as always, casually shut down every monitoring device his Observation Haki picked up and followed Vegapunk into the secret laboratory from before.
With his Observation fully extended, he could see everything.
The soldiers patrolling on the perimeter.
The CP agents lurking in the dark.
Kuma, Ginny, Borsalino and the others in the distance, all trying to dance the "Nika dance."
Nika, huh…
Ozz had never been interested in "liberating the world."
He had seen far too many stories of dragon-slaying heroes turning into dragons themselves. He understood that history was nothing but a cycle replayed over and over again.
He cared only about the present. If he wanted to do something, he did it. If it made him happy, that was enough.
If Joy Boy's and Nika's Conqueror's Haki had been so overwhelming because they possessed the ambition and will to change the world, then Ozz believed he was not inferior in that regard at all.
He was simply less extreme than they were.
Not full liberation.
Not divine domination.
He wanted something beyond both. To stand above everything, and act purely as he pleased.
"So… what else do you still need to prepare?"
Ozz sat at the desk, watching Vegapunk pull out scrap paper and start scribbling, so he just asked directly.
"Well, if we want to perfectly reproduce that Joy Boy, then the materials we have now are certainly not enough."
On that point, they discussed the requirements in simple terms.
"I can understand the Nika Fruit and the ancient giant cells, but what is the meaning of adding the Dark-Dark Fruit?"
Vegapunk had, of course, read the texts from Ohara. He knew that Joy Boy himself was a giant who had eaten the Nika Fruit, could transform into the Sun God, and that in modern times the fruit was better known as the Gum-Gum Fruit.
But Ozz had placed the Dark-Dark Fruit on the table as well. That was what he could not quite wrap his mind around.
"This? I am not trying to bring back the real Joy Boy. Just something very similar."
Ozz weighed the Dark-Dark Fruit in his hand, a fruit that was the "dream fruit" of a certain someone. He was quite pleased with his own idea.
Dark Sun God Joy Boy.
That was what Ozz envisioned creating.
"But…"
Vegapunk wiped at the sweat running down his temple, still shaken by how bold this plan was. Then he voiced his biggest concern.
"With my current level of technology, I have still not solved the problem of a person being unable to possess two Devil Fruits at the same time. If we try to fuse Devil Fruit abilities, the probability of failure is as high as ninety-nine percent."
The concept sounded wonderful, but realistically, the most he could do was copy an ability.
For example, with Green Blood, he could allow a cyborg to possess the same Devil Fruit power as an original user, without killing that original user.
But stacking them was impossible.
No matter how powerful the lifeform, trying to hold two Devil Fruit abilities meant certain death.
"What if… I can get you the blood of someone who can hold two Devil Fruits at the same time?"
"Impossible!"
Vegapunk was still turning over possible workarounds in his mind and reflexively rejected it.
Then he looked up and saw the seriousness on Ozz's face.
His eyelid twitched violently.
Could it be?
Such a human… really existed?
"…If what you say is true, then it may indeed be possible."
He had originally been planning to study the Dark-Dark Fruit itself, this famously "special" Devil Fruit, but Ozz's line of thinking also offered a potential breakthrough.
They could attack on two fronts and eventually find a way to integrate two fruits into one body.
After all, he was the Brain-Brain Human who had eaten the Brain-Brain Fruit, the man with the strongest brain in the world.
"What about the appearance? If you do not provide any material for that, the final form will probably end up looking very similar to the original owner of these ancient giant cells."
The rest would be details, problems that would only emerge once they were deep into development. Vegapunk asked thoroughly anyway.
Ozz rubbed his chin.
Looking like Loki was a no go. Joy Boy, more likely than not, should be closer to Luffy in appearance.
Then he might as well collect some material from Monkey D. Luffy. Maybe it would even produce some subtle resonance with the Nika Fruit.
Easier to awaken, for example.
"I have my own thoughts for his appearance. That will definitely have to change. I will send you what you need later."
Vegapunk nodded. He did not linger on this point.
"The last part is the most important one…"
He scribbled and sketched for a while longer, then handed his notebook over to Ozz.
On it was a rough outline of a massive human form, but what stood out more was the ring of black and crimson lightning drawn around it.
"Conqueror's Haki. If this creation's innate Haki talent is only average, then at best we are making a giant who has eaten the Gum-Gum Fruit.
"Even having a talent on the level of a Yonko would not be enough. If you want it to be comparable to the real Joy Boy, at the very least it has to surpass everyone currently alive."
As he said this, Vegapunk kept sneaking glances at Ozz.
"If you, Ozz, are willing to provide your own samples, that would be ideal…"
He did not bother to hide his desire. Men obsessed with science had never been good at pretending. He simply spoke his wish right to Ozz's face.
"Well…"
To be honest, Ozz did believe in bloodlines.
If the father possessed Conqueror's Haki, the son would almost certainly awaken it as well, so long as his spirit did not collapse. And he would not be far behind his father in strength.
If he really used his own lineage factor, then this artificial being's Conqueror's Haki might genuinely break past the standard scale.
But that would make it too broken.
He wanted to copy Joy Boy, but he did not actually want to gift this world a new father.
The original Joy Boy had required the combined force of the Twenty Kings to barely bring him down.
Now there was only Imu left.
A weakened version of Joy Boy would already be enough fun.
If his Conqueror's Haki really reached beyond the chart, Ozz might seriously have made a final boss that no one could handle.
Other than a "movie version" Luffy, probably no one could suppress him.
After all, this was his carefully planned masterpiece.
Dark Sun God Joy Boy.
"No… there is no need to reproduce him that faithfully. I will find you blood from someone powerful enough. At least on the level of Roger and Whitebeard. That should be sufficient."
A king-class Conqueror's Haki would be plenty.
No need to bring him up to Ozz's or Rocks' level.
Even Ozz himself had not yet pushed his Conqueror's Haki up to the same realm as Imu and those others.
As for Shanks…
He was probably about there already.
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