Chapter 59: Nezumi, the Laboratory, and the Perfect Assassin!
In the azure depths, schools of fish chased the currents.
Massive sea beasts swam by, stirring up silt from the seabed.
And in this deep sea, an island floated silently.
It wasn't large, just an ordinary-looking island.
But its existence, floating here in the crushing depths, was proof enough of its extraordinary nature.
In fact, a faint, iridescent film shimmered around it.
This film seemed to block the water pressure and hide the island from the attention of sea beasts and Sea Kings.
Like a loyal soldier—even though its creators hadn't visited for over a decade, it silently stood guard, fulfilling its mission.
But now, on this island untouched for ten years, a figure was walking.
Nezumi strolled across the island, looking up.
"It's like Fish-Man Island, but smaller. And..."
Nezumi looked at the coating above. "Fish-Man Island stays underwater. But this island supposedly surfaces every year due to the currents—how does the coating sustain itself?"
"And..."
He crouched, touching the grass. "How do these plants survive?"
These details alone proved the technology on this seemingly ordinary island was anything but ordinary.
But what puzzled Nezumi most was...
"If it's Vegapunk's technology, these things are reasonable. But..."
He looked at a small hill nearby.
The hill was grayish-white, fused with the island's foundation.
On it, Nezumi could see cracks filled with sediment.
These were traces of time.
"The island's foundation looked ancient too..."
Nezumi was confused.
As a man of the sea, he knew what these signs meant—this island was ancient. It wasn't something created in the last few decades.
In other words...
"This isn't an artificial island built by Vegapunk."
This made things more complicated.
An ancient island with advanced technology, oscillating between the deep sea and the surface during Aqua Laguna.
"Sounds pretty mysterious."
He mumbled.
"But it doesn't matter..."
He stopped, looking ahead.
"I've found what I'm looking for."
Before him stood a massive structure.
It was clearly not from the same era as the rest of the island—interconnected silver spiral metal plates and a sleek, ovoid design screamed 'futuristic.'
Unlike the island, the origin of this lab was clear to Nezumi.
"Vegapunk's lab is really here!"
Nezumi muttered, then reached out...
Click!
A door opened in the air. Nezumi stepped into the pocket dimension and entered the laboratory.
The lab was enormous, but surprisingly simple in structure.
Nezumi stood in a massive corridor, surrounded by dense mechanical pipes. There were no branching paths.
Only at the far end of the corridor could he see a few doors leading further in.
But despite the simple layout...
The lab was full of danger.
CLANK!
Heavy metallic footsteps echoed.
Nezumi saw them walking through the lab.
Silver-gray metal robots, about two meters tall.
They had no facial features, only a pair of glowing eyes.
On their bodies, Nezumi saw obvious weapons—cutting blades on their forearms, holes in their palms.
"Can those things shoot lasers? Vegapunk was researching this stuff over ten years ago?"
Nezumi suspected these might be prototypes for the Pacifistas.
Of course, that didn't matter.
What mattered was...
"According to Mr. 4, these robots attack intruders on sight. First they try to drive you out, then they terminate."
"And they communicate. Attack one, and a swarm gathers."
Nezumi recalled Mr. 4's intel.
Mr. 4 had said he knocked one down, then got swarmed and only survived thanks to Lassoo.
"That won't do. Getting interrupted during a treasure hunt is annoying..."
Whispering, Nezumi raised a finger.
He looked at the nearest patrolling robot.
VMMM!
On the robot's neck, amidst a swirl of flower petals, an arm glowing with a sharp light sprouted from nowhere.
Nezumi dropped his finger.
"Sky Slash: Single Blade!"
SHING!
The sprouted arm chopped down instantly.
With the sound of metal shearing, the robot's head flew off.
THUD!
As the head hit the ground, Nezumi retracted his finger.
"Intruder detected. Guardian DE144 damaged."
An electronic voice came from the severed head.
Nezumi didn't move.
He crossed his arms and waited.
CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!
With a dense cacophony of footsteps, hordes of robots poured out from the pipes and walls.
There were hundreds, each wielding different weapons, converging on his location.
"Quite a few of them."
Nezumi glanced at the swarm and chuckled.
"But it doesn't matter—if it's just numbers, I'll kill as many as you send!"
He extended his hand again.
"Sky Slash: One Thousand Eight Hundred Blades!"
Countless arms sprouted instantly on the robots before him.
The air filled with the whistling of blades and the screech of tearing metal.
BOOM! BOOM!
Explosions and falling metal heads echoed continuously.
"Enemy detected. Location unknown."
"Guardian losses exceed 300... 400... 500... Limit threshold exceeded. Initiating backup protocol—Activating 'Indiscriminate Annihilation Mode'. Protecting Core Lab."
As the electronic voices rang out, the robots changed tactics.
VMMM!
They all raised their hands.
BOOM!
Countless projectiles and beams erupted from their weapons and palms, carpet-bombing everything within hundreds of meters of Nezumi's position.
It was meaningless.
Even though explosions blossomed right next to him, the blast waves couldn't cross the dimensional barrier to touch him.
Instead, the sprouted arms continued their slaughter.
In less than five minutes.
Every single robot in the corridor was down.
"Attack... ineffective... Unknown... High-threat target... High-threat target..."
Sparks flew from their wrecked bodies.
Nezumi didn't spare them a glance.
He stepped over the last fallen robot and continued forward.
Under the mask, Roy looked at the stats of this clone.
It was a combination he had planned for a long time.
[Roy Amos (Slice-Clone - 'Nezumi')]
[Equipped: Flower-Flower Fruit LV3, Dice-Dice Fruit LV3, Door-Door Fruit LV3, Slice-Slice Fruit (Inactive)]
[Flower-Flower Fruit: Sprout body parts on any surface within sight. Sprouted limbs share the main body's physical strength. Cannot sprout internal organs. Damage to sprouted limbs reflects on the main body.]
[Dice-Dice Fruit: Turn any body part into a blade with the hardness of steel.]
[Door-Door Fruit: Hide in a pocket dimension while observing the outside world.]
The Door-Door Fruit made him intangible and undetectable.
The Dice-Dice Fruit made his body steel and his limbs blades.
The Flower-Flower Fruit let him sprout those steel blades anywhere, making his attacks omnipresent.
The combination created 'Nezumi.'
Just as Roy defined him.
"He is... the perfect assassin."
☆☆☆
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