Vegapunk is very short of money, and every one of his research projects requires huge funds. The fundamental purpose of joining the World Government was to obtain research funding.
Vegapunk himself thinks so, and naturally, his avatars share the same idea.
The sea area next to Aeghede has always been a forbidden zone; any ship approaching without approval will directly sink, even the lottery that person purchased was bought on a merchant ship specially sanctioned by the World Government.
One of Lilith's usual tasks is to patrol around Aeghede. If she finds a sunken pirate ship, she will take their treasure and also decide how to deal with the pirates on board based on the situation.
Even if a pirate ship entering this area hasn't sunk, Lilith might directly seize their treasure.
Shaka despises Lilith for such behavior without a scientist's dignity, but he can't convince Lilith when faced with funding issues.
After all, they are all Vegapunk, the intended purpose is the same, only the methods and style differ.
After hitting the jackpot, many people on Aeghede wanted to try their luck, so they bought some lottery tickets from merchant ships entering regularly.
But the material range crafted by Asie is limited, and last time that employee's ticket reacted only because he approached the research center while delivering food to 06 York.
These people all got regular prizes or came up empty.
But Lilith is different; as Vegapunk's avatar, no part of Aeghede is forbidden to her, she can go anywhere she wants.
With the idea of trying her luck, Lilith also bought a stack of lottery tickets, and each one she scratched emitted a golden glow.
"I bought ten, making it fifty billion Belly... even after taxing, it's still 30 billion, a substantial amount of funding."
"Lilith, don't joke with me, such a probability issue doesn't need calculations, no merchant would let themselves lose money.
The probability of hitting the jackpot can't be so high, let alone having ten in a row, it's unrealistic even in dreams."
"That's why I said, there's a problem with this thing."
Scratching her finger on the ticket, looking at the glowing part, Lilith handed it over to 04 Pythagoras, another avatar representing wisdom.
"Pythagoras, put the machine in your hand aside for now and take a look at this."
With a huge wind-up key on his head, resembling a giant robot, Pythagoras didn't stop his work but rotated his head 180 degrees, grew hands at his ear position, and took over the item Lilith handed him.
Then directly placed it into some unknown machine, after a series of checks and analyses, Shaka on the other side held a test report.
"It's not dye; it's some new material reacting with a certain object, causing this color to appear."
"Tickets issued by Hundred Beasts Fruit, it seems they're specialized to seek certain items, so this can only be it."
Lilith turned her gaze behind her, where not far away on the experimentation table, a Plate was fixed.
Before long, Vegapunk's original body also appeared here, compared to many years ago, the huge head on top had vanished and was replaced by an antenna like an apple.
"You should have received the memory?"
"Received, it's indeed a special discovery."
Though they are avatars, Vegapunk cannot precisely grasp the avatars' thoughts in real time, so conversing with Shaka is more like speaking with an old friend, and what is referred to as memory is also part of Vegapunk's ability.
Vegapunk ate the Paramecia-type: Brain-Brain Fruit, becoming a Brain-Man with an infinitely large brain capacity and exceedingly strong memory; as he accumulates infinite knowledge, he won't forget it.
Correspondingly, this ability also has side effects, as Vegapunk absorbs more data, his brain grows larger.
The inherent genius brain of Vegapunk combined with the infinite brain database made his brain the world's largest, still growing continuously up to now.
Though the special surgery has achieved human brain separation, Vegapunk can still receive signals via the antenna on his head.
Presently, his brain resides within the top shell above Aeghede Island, called "Punk Record."
Vegapunk's six avatars also share this brain, their daily experiences and knowledge are synchronized once with the "Punk Record."
Just now Shaka already performed memory synchronization, and Lilith and the others' analyses have been uploaded to the main brain.
"Do you have any plans?"
"Plans? None, since others want to take away something that's mine, let them take it."
"I can't believe you're saying this; aren't you considering the prize problem? This is ten consecutive jackpots, enough for one large project." Lilith on the side cares more about funding issues.
Representing evil, her thoughts tend toward chaos, performing tasks more whimsically.
"One prize they will redeem, ten prizes maybe not. Look carefully at the rules, they say every period has only one grand prize, leaving too much room for manipulation.
With control over public opinion, they wouldn't be afraid of such matters."
"Then redeem just one, three billion is still money."
"Enough, Lilith, where is a scientist's dignity? Show some backbone."
"I'm not going to listen to your nonsense; I'm off to patrol the surrounding sea areas, you guys can research slowly."
Lilith left, Pythagoras continued with the work, only Shaka remains, still standing before Vegapunk like an old friend.
"What exactly do you want to do?"
"The more knowledge I reserve, the more confused I become. The origin of Devil Fruits, why the ocean hates Devil Fruits, why souls have weight, too much knowledge cannot be explained scientifically.
Existing natural laws cannot continue to prove some of my theories, but it is different."
Vegapunk pointed to the Plate behind him.
"This thing seems like a stone, but it isn't any known material; I can't even find any related elements to it, Shaka, you should know, the nature of this Plate is an energy conglomerate, unknown energy not belonging to this world.
Only the fool among fools would use it as a Shield; its owner, the creator of it, is whom I wish to meet."
"Neglect it? That won't please the World Government, right."
From Vegapunk's intention, he's inclined to pack and send the Plate outright.
"Test the defense capability of the island's facilities; I happen to want to see what extent these facilities can reach. It's not the time yet, still needs waiting..."
Based on past intelligence and current scenarios, Vegapunk has predicted some certain future happenings, but none of which he has disclosed to anyone.
He and the World Government haven't been on the same side from the start, merely a funding trickster, and now the situation is more suited for him.
But as Shaka said, doing nothing is inappropriate, he must symbolically resist a bit.
Although he is a "defenseless" scientist, facing the invasion of a powerful enemy, he has no means at all, ultimately it's World Government's poor protection to be questioned.
According to the initial agreement, the World Government must be responsible for his life safety protection.
...
The happenings at Aeghede aren't known to Wano Kuni, nor does anyone care, regardless of anything, nobody can stop Shaina from deciding to bring back the Plate for Arceus.
"Aeghede?"
"Order from the Sacred Beast Master, requiring you join us in carrying out this task, you've been on vacation since coming to Wano Kuni, you wouldn't refuse this kind of task, right?"
"Of course not, Aeghede huh, I haven't gone there in a long time, do you have an Eternal Pose to go there?"
Kuzan still maintains a lazy appearance, even though Shaina is right in front of him, he doesn't seem the least interested in getting up, instead, enjoying shaved ice with his camel.
Seeing the bottom of his bowl, he waved to make another ice block, in cooperation with the camel, the ice block instantly became a bowl of crushed ice, Kuzan also picked up the Berry juice from the ground beside.
"The juice here is really nice, want a bowl?"
"Thanks, I'm not interested, we'll get the Eternal Pose in a couple days, just prepare."
"You really are capable, even getting an Eternal Pose to there."
Aeghede is an experimental island highly regarded by the World Government, regular Log Poses have no means due to magnetic fields, but Eternal Poses won't easily circulate.
"Ha, don't you know how many pests are within the World Government? Those guys dare to sell anything."
As the head of CP9, Spandam can directly sell the image of the destroyed Judicial Island; such deeds aren't uncommon, needn't even rely on others, even Doflamingo, he can get what he wants via Underworld relations.
Once transmitting Arceus's command effectively, Shaina flapped her wings, flew toward Kuri to notify Zeraora about the mission.
"Aeghede, who's stationed there now? Borsalino? Or those two newcomers?"
Watching Shaina depart, Kuzan started contemplating possible situations they might encounter...