Dressrosa
King Plateau
"Lord, don't worry, I will definitely work hard to improve and strive to increase the success rate of the artificial Devil Fruit, SMILE, to 15%!"
When Adrian asked about the success rate of SMILE, Caesar immediately stepped forward, patted his chest, and assured him with a bright smile. If Doflamingo could have seen this, he would have been furious. He'd given this scoundrel an immense fortune, yet Caesar could never improve the success rate beyond 10%. Now, Adrian simply asked casually, and Caesar proactively made a guarantee. Why was there such a huge gap between people's prestige?
In reality, Caesar couldn't be blamed. He had witnessed Adrian kill Admiral Aokiji, and during his few days in Dressrosa, he'd heard about Adrian's "feats" from various sources. He was scared out of his wits. His new master was a monster who dared to kill even a Marine Admiral. If he didn't behave, his life could be forfeit in an instant.
"Is this already your limit?" Adrian's right hand slowly ran through the empress's long, black hair. The beautiful woman lay like a docile kitten on his lap, a look of pure contentment on her face. She had shed her usual pride as a "female tyrant" and in front of Adrian, she was merely his most obedient "pet." Adrian had fully accepted this beautiful woman's unnatural behaviour.
"Uh… this… maybe it can be improved a little bit," Caesar said, his body suddenly breaking out in a cold sweat. He carefully held up two fingers, gesturing with a nervous smile.
"What if we let Vegapunk improve it?" Adrian's gaze was expressionless and cold, as if he were looking at a corpse. This made Caesar feel horrified. He was powerless to refute, because even though he wouldn't admit it, whether it was the artificial Devil Fruit or the human giant experiment, he was using technology left over from Vegapunk. The first artificial Devil Fruit was made by Vegapunk himself. Their skill levels were simply not comparable.
Even so, Caesar was still one of the world's best scientists, which showed just how terrifying Vegapunk's technological power was. Even Adrian began to believe the rumor that Vegapunk was "500 years ahead of today's technology and 500 years beyond human wisdom."
"Forget it. If the success rate can't be improved, then it shouldn't be a problem to improve the side effects, right?" Adrian asked meaningfully.
"No problem, Lord Adrian! Don't worry, although I can't get rid of the side effect of seawater, I should be able to get rid of the emotional instability…" A look of joy appeared on Caesar's face, and he was about to show off when he was interrupted by Adrian on the throne.
"Who told you to remove the side effects?" Adrian had a wicked smile on his face as he raised his eyebrows. "The improvement I'm talking about is adding some new side effects."
"Huh?!" Caesar was stunned for a long time before he dared to ask, "You said… increasing the side effects?"
"Nonsense. Kaido and the captain will have a battle sooner or later, so do you want to help them grow stronger?" Shiryu, with a cigar in his mouth, smiled sinisterly. He had the most accurate grasp of the current situation. Adrian didn't even have to elaborate on some things; Shiryu could figure out his intentions.
"That's right!" Adrian said, his eyes sly. "I want you to add a genetic defect to the artificial Devil Fruit. When the eater engages in a long-term, high-intensity battle, if they don't get effective rest, they will explode and die."
"This…" Caesar slumped to the ground in shock. In his eyes, Adrian was a devil. Meanwhile, Bullet and the others wore smirks of "this is our captain's style," a clear sign they had been assimilated.
"What's wrong? You can't do it?" Adrian's voice returned to its previous coldness. Shiryu, at the bottom of the steps, sneered and drew his sword. "Captain, I don't think there's any need to keep this kind of waste."
"Lord Adrian, please forgive me! I… I can do it!" The frightened Caesar immediately knelt down in tears and begged for mercy. "But this has already involved the Lineage Factor level. I may need a little time to improve it…"
"Lineage Factor?" Adrian frowned slightly. Although this was the first time he'd heard the term since arriving in the One Piece world, it was no stranger to him. Like the Will of D., the Lineage Factor discovered by Vegapunk ran through the main storyline of One Piece, but it was much more secretive. This technology, called "Life Design Map" by the World Government, had evolved into different forms in different camps.
The first was the artificial Devil Fruit, SMILE, created by Caesar. It "copied" the Lineage Factor of an animal into the fruit, creating an effect similar to a real Devil Fruit. But because of Caesar's limited level, SMILE could only be considered a semi-finished product at best. The second was the "reformers" and "clone soldiers" of the Germa Kingdom, where modifications were made directly in the human embryo.
Finally, and most powerful, was what Dr. Vegapunk had done himself: a "human weapon" that combined the Lineage Factor with Devil Fruit ability-giving technology. Although the "Pacifistas" might seem weak, the truly terrifying thing was that after Vegapunk empowered a mechanical body with a Devil Fruit, he could then copy this power to other mechanical bodies in batches. This meant that as long as resources and time allowed, the World Government could reproduce countless low-end versions of Kizaru and Akainu.
"Three months!" Adrian pondered for a moment, then cut off Caesar before he had a chance to argue. "If you haven't improved after three months, I'll go to Vinsmoke Kingdom. And of course… you won't need to continue to exist."
Caesar panicked. He understood that Adrian was telling him his so-called "irreplaceability" was a joke; if he didn't work seriously, he would be killed. "Lord, don't worry, I will finish it. I will complete it!" Caesar responded with a bitter face, then flew back to his laboratory to work frantically.
In fact, for him, it was not easy to improve the side effects of the artificial Devil Fruit for the better, but it was much easier to change them for the worse. This was the most direct reason why he dared to agree. Now, however, he no longer dared to fool Adrian as he had Doflamingo and Big Mom.
Sigh, I'm so tired. This year's master is really hard to fool…