With this proposal, given Lancelot's strength and his talent for troublemaking, he would quickly accumulate enough achievements to be nominated for Admiral.
Even though there are currently no vacancies among the three Admirals, with such substantial achievements, while he couldn't immediately take the seat of an Admiral, a position as an "Admiral Candidate" would be inevitable.
Though it includes the word "Candidate," it effectively carries the prestige of an Admiral.
The existence of Admiral Candidates is quite special.
While their authority and status can't compare to that of a full Admiral, they far surpass that of the elite Vice Admirals at Headquarters.
They absolutely belong to the Navy's high command and decision-making level.
He didn't want Lancelot to reach that position so quickly.
After pondering for a moment, Sengoku smiled wryly.
"Let's set this matter aside for now. I need to think it through carefully."
Vice Admiral Tsuru nodded beside him, acknowledging that this was indeed a headache.
...
Meanwhile, Lancelot wasn't idle.
He first had Broye and Custard treated for their injuries. Once they had recovered somewhat, he sent them to Whisky Peak... while he himself headed toward the New World.
His target was naturally Doflamingo.
That guy actually had the nerve to set up such an elaborate scheme to kill him.
He had to go return the favor.
Otherwise, people would think Lancelot was made of clay—soft and easy to mold.
But before that, there was one place he needed to visit.
That was Punk Hazard, also known as the Closed-off Research Facility.
Punk Hazard was once a Navy research base that held various World Government prisoners.
In the original timeline, three years ago, Caesar Clown returned to the island after escaping from a prison ship, released toxic substances across the island, and began using the prisoners there to conduct evil experiments again.
Following the Summit War, Admirals Akainu and Aokiji fought for ten days and ten nights at Punk Hazard for the position of Fleet Admiral.
Akainu ultimately won, but the battle caused the climate of Punk Hazard to drastically change, turning it into a terrifying island of ice and fire.
According to Lancelot's current timeline, Caesar Clown had already escaped back to Punk Hazard one year ago.
This meant that the collaboration between Caesar Clown and Doflamingo had already begun.
Caesar Clown's experiments on this small island were naturally already underway.
These included integrating animal and human bodies to create "centaurs"—beings with human upper bodies and animal lower bodies.
There was also research on gigantification to enlarge normal humans, research on Artificial Devil Fruits, and his specialty: weapons of mass destruction.
All of these were quite valuable.
Take the integration of animal and human bodies, for example. If animal and human limbs could be exchanged, then wouldn't exchanging limbs between humans be simple?
With this research alone, Lancelot could open another hospital at Whisky Peak, specifically providing new limbs for those who had lost theirs. In this dangerous world, such a service would likely be extremely popular.
Of course, he wouldn't go so far as to harvest limbs from innocent people.
He might be bad, but he still had lines he wouldn't cross.
However... it was possible to acquire Germa 66's cloning technology.
At that point, he could directly use a patient's genes to clone an arm, then transplant it onto the patient.
Wouldn't that be perfect?
Most importantly, with this technology, he could rapidly rise through the ranks in the Marines.
After all, the Marines are always on the front lines fighting against pirates. Losing arms and legs is all too common.
If Lancelot could treat them for free... wouldn't they be immensely grateful to him? Even those who hadn't received his favor personally would develop a favorable impression of him.
Besides, those fighting on the front lines could never guarantee they wouldn't need his help someday.
As for the gigantification research, it went without saying that the experimental funding originally came from the Big Mom Pirates.
Just like with the Artificial Devil Fruits, there was a middleman involved: Doflamingo.
Thus, the Big Mom Pirates and Caesar Clown could not make direct contact.
Once Lancelot captured Caesar Clown, the collaboration with the Big Mom Pirates would become even tighter.
At the same time, he would possess a group of "giants" who had already achieved preliminary experimental success.
With a bit of training, they would quickly become a considerable combat force.
As for the Artificial Devil Fruits, the benefits were obvious.
Rather than selling them to pirates, it would be better to sell them to the Celestial Dragons.
Such rare, exotic items would likely be very popular among the bored nobility of Mary Geoise.
Moreover, they could be sold as strategic resources to various factions.
It was practically a money-making machine.
Lastly, there were the large-scale weapons of mass destruction.
These were also valuable assets.
As long as you possessed enough of them, they served as a form of deterrence.
Even if they weren't as powerful as the three Ancient Weapons, they were still incredibly formidable.
If creations like the Slime, the "Land of Death" (Shinokuni) gas, or Koro were unleashed on the Holy Land... as long as the three Admirals didn't arrive in time, they could likely wipe out more than half of the Celestial Dragons there.
In this world of pirates, they would be the equivalent of nuclear weapons.
Therefore, he absolutely could not miss the opportunity to recruit a talent like Caesar Clown.
He had already decided to send this guy to the East Blue, which was now completely under his control. He would find a remote, isolated island at the farthest edge of the East Blue and let Caesar continue his experiments there.
Of course, there were two other crucial reasons for visiting Punk Hazard.
First, the Artificial Azure Dragon Fruit.
Although this was also an Artificial Devil Fruit, it was on an entirely different level compared to the SMILEs created by Caesar Clown.
This specific fruit was made by Dr. Vegapunk using the lineage factor extracted from Kaido himself, making it the very first Artificial Devil Fruit.
It could be considered a replica of Kaido's Zoan-type, Fish-Fish Fruit, Mythical Model: Azure Dragon.
It was an incredibly powerful fruit.
It was in no way inferior to the original Mythical Zoan type because, aside from its color (pink instead of blue), its abilities were identical to the real Azure Dragon form—it could fly and create flame clouds.
Although Momonosuke couldn't control it when he first ate it in the original story, during the battle in Wano Country, he quickly mastered techniques like "Bolo Breath" after learning to control it.
Its power was exceptionally fierce, not much weaker than Kaido's original power.
Such a Devil Fruit, even if it was artificial, must absolutely not be missed.
Second, there was Monet.
She was a Logia Ability User, wielding the Snow-Snow Fruit. Even though it was considered a lower-tier power compared to something like Aokiji's ice, it was ultimately still a Logia Devil Fruit.
As long as he could obtain her loyalty, Lancelot would gain another Logia Ability User as a subordinate.
Most importantly, he had already found suitable candidates for these two Devil Fruits.
Especially for that artificial Dragon Fruit... With it, he would gain another powerful ally within the Marines.
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