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Sorry, i published the wrong chapter yesterday, this is the real chapter 425!! Tomorrow i will upload 2 chapters!
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Mary Geoise, The Holy Land.
The Five Elders had once again summoned the Marine High Command to the conference room. On the wall, a Visual Transponder Snail was broadcasting a live feed of the chaos in the New World—the clash between the Whitebeard Pirates and the Thunder God Pirates, as well as the meeting of the Beasts Pirates and the Red-Haired Pirates.
CP0 agents, embedded within the grand fleets at the risk of their lives, were providing this high-level broadcast to the world's true masters.
"The oceanic upheaval has stopped. Have the Thunder Emperor and Whitebeard settled the score?" one of the Five Elders asked, his eyes glued to the screen. They had hoped for a duel to the death, but the reality was far less convenient.
The two strongest men in the world had exchanged only a few blows before simply stopping. The notoriously bellicose Thunder Emperor, Arthur, had actually initiated the ceasefire.
"Whitebeard's health is failing. Is the Thunder Emperor refusing to take advantage of a weakened foe? What a ridiculous notion..." The high-ranking officers present, the literal embodiments of the World Government's military might, recognized Whitebeard's condition and Arthur's intent immediately.
To them, the idea of a pirate showing mercy was nonsensical. Enemies were meant to be eradicated, roots and all. In the Marines, only someone with Garp's unique temperament would ever show such "magnanimity" to a foe.
"A pity we cannot hear what they are saying to each other..."
"That bastard Arthur... one day, I will kill him with my own hands!!" Sengoku snarled, his eyes fixed on the screen with burning hatred.
"Enough, Sengoku. Calm yourself," Vice Admiral Tsuru said, her voice a bastion of cold rationality. "The war between the Thunder God and Whitebeard is effectively over now that the two 'Kings' have stepped down. The real life-and-death struggle is between the Red-Haired and the Beasts."
On the screen, Kaido was launching a frenzied assault while Shanks countered with a grim, serious expression.
The Five Elders scanned the room, looking at Fleet Admiral Sengoku, Admirals Fujitora and Akainu, and the various Vice Admirals in attendance. Notably absent were Aokiji and Zephyr.
"What is your assessment?"
"Kaido doesn't have the advantage," Sengoku reported. "While his crew is full of Ability Users, they are struggling against the elite quality of the Red-Haired Pirates. Defeat is only a matter of time."
"However," Tsuru added, "intelligence from Totto Land suggests BIG MOM is making a move. I suspect she intends to support Kaido and push the Red-Haired Pirates out of the New World entirely. Once this war ends, the power structure of the New World will finally be set in stone."
"The situation couldn't be worse," the Elder with the goatee sighed. "The five-way split of the New World is becoming a permanent reality, and the Revolutionary Army is still watching us from the shadows like hungry tigers."
He paused, his expression darkening. "But we didn't call you here today just for these two wars. There is something far more critical: news regarding the world's greatest scientist, the man whose intellect is five hundred years ahead of humanity—Dr. Vegapunk."
..............
"Vegapunk? The scientist who was arrested for discovering the 'Life Blueprint'?" Sengoku asked, his tone heavy. "Has he created something world-shaking again?"
A man like Vegapunk was inherently dangerous. In the hands of an enemy, he was a nightmare that everyone wished to eliminate. One either had to control and protect him with everything they had, or destroy him so no one else could benefit. This was why his bounty was second only to Arthur's, despite him not being a captain.
Since Arthur had abducted him from the Marine Science Division, there had been no news. He had been almost forgotten amidst the endless "Big Incidents" of the era.
"I heard a rumor," Tsuru remarked. "Three years ago, before Shiki invaded Mary Geoise, Dragon led the Revolutionary Army into the Thunder God Territory to snatch Vegapunk. That was the origin of the blood feud between Arthur and the Revolutionaries."
"So even the Revolutionary Army recognizes his importance?" Akainu asked coldly. He turned to the Five Elders. "If you aren't going to get to the point, I'm leaving. There are plenty of pirates waiting for my judgment."
"Watch your tone, Sakazuki!" Saint Topman Warcury barked, his eyes flashing with anger.
"Listen. Two of the Warlords, Gildo Tesoro and Mad Treasure, took advantage of Arthur's declaration of war to infiltrate the Thunder God Territory. They intended to steal his treasure, but they found Vegapunk instead."
"This intel came from them, along with this photo." The Elder slammed a photograph onto the long table.
"What is this?"
Everyone leaned in. Within seconds, faces paled. One Vice Admiral actually cried out in horror.
"Why is there... another Thunder Emperor?"
"Don't look at the one next to Vegapunk," the Elder commanded. "Look behind him!!"
"Impossible... so many of them?"
"Is this... like the 'Pacifista' project our Science Division is currently working on?" someone whispered. "Humanoids built using the Lineage Factor data we recovered from Vegapunk's old notes? A clone army... modeled after the Thunder Emperor?"
The Marines' own Pacifista project—modeled after the Admiral Kizaru's lasers and a certain test subject—was already in development. A single unit cost as much as a battleship, but could handle pirates with bounties in the hundreds of millions. Their main weakness was high energy consumption and lack of endurance.
Without a genius like Vegapunk, making even those basic units was a monumental task.
"Did Tesoro say what these clones can do?" Sengoku asked, cutting to the heart of the matter. "What is their combat level?"
"They have lightning powers. They have the ability to negate gravity on objects. And the lightning they release can instantly magnify ten-fold—like a laser cannon. Even with their combined strength as Warlords, they struggled to hold them back. Six of them barely managed to escape the suppressive fire of just one clone... These cyborgs, they feel like living beings!!"
"Damn it! Vegapunk actually dared to create such things?" Akainu's fury boiled over. "With numbers like that, does he intend to invade the World Government?"
"We consulted our own scientists," the Elder explained. "Clones like these are incredibly difficult to create. It takes years to bring them to a point where they can enter battle. Those that leave the vats early don't last long."
"We called you here to discuss one thing: how do we retrieve Vegapunk, or... destroy him, before this army is ready for the world?"
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