"Ugh, I'm so full!"
Vegapunk clutched his round, bulging stomach, a look of helplessness on his face. "I'd better use the Quantum chip to control my body and speed up digestion... I feel like Hancock is getting a bit carried away lately."
During the meal, Hancock had sat on Vegapunk's lap and fed him bit by bit. While it seemed romantic, Hancock was clearly unfamiliar with serving others. Furthermore, as someone from the One Piece World, her understanding was that food was something you should eat as much of as possible.
Faced with Hancock's pitiful, pleading eyes, Vegapunk had eaten more than three times his own body weight in food this time. As a scientist who rarely exercised personally, he didn't know Life Return, so he could only use the Quantum chip in his brain to forcibly control his body to digest the food.
"A bit too enthusiastic! It's quite a headache."
Although he said so, Vegapunk knew very well that Hancock's passion, aside from her own personality, was mixed with a faint sense of inferiority.
The Hancock in this world was different from the original story. She never had the experience of being the Empress of Amazon Lily. Because she had always stayed by Vegapunk's side, she hadn't made public appearances or become recognized by everyone in the One Piece World as the world's most beautiful woman.
On the contrary, Vegapunk had gone to great lengths to trade for her from the Celestial Dragons. Although Vegapunk later helped her get revenge, her experience as a slave—her most vulnerable and humiliating side—had already been fully exposed to him.
This naturally left Hancock with a lingering sense of inferiority when facing Vegapunk. It could be said that the more arrogant her outward attitude was to mask it, the more severe her inner inferiority truly was.
Her bold madness and absolute obedience at night, and her excessive concern for Vegapunk during the day, were all for this reason. On the surface, Hancock was proud, but she actually placed herself in a lower position to serve Vegapunk.
Vegapunk could do nothing about this. He was just a scientist, not a psychologist; he couldn't solve problems like psychological trauma.
Some people have a childhood that heals their whole life, while others spend their whole life trying to heal from their childhood. Without a doubt, Hancock belonged to the latter group.
Under the influence of the Quantum chip in his brain, Vegapunk's stomach soon flattened. A massive amount of food was converted into nutrients and stored in his body. Vegapunk rubbed his chin. "That much energy is comparable to my usual high-energy nutrient solutions. I might as well go sleep in the Training Pod to strengthen my physical body..."
Although he didn't exercise much himself, by relying on the high technology he developed, Vegapunk's physical progress had actually been advancing by leaps and bounds. He was even progressing faster than those geniuses in the One Piece World who trained hard every day.
However, there wasn't much to say regarding Haki. His Observation Haki could be called top-tier, but for the Armament Haki used primarily for combat and the higher-level Conqueror's Haki, one was merely decent in technique but poor in quality, while he had simply given up on ever awakening the other long ago.
Coupled with his terrible combat instincts, he could only rely on the combat programs within the Quantum chip. So even with such excellent conditions, Vegapunk still couldn't be called a top-tier powerhouse.
However, Vegapunk didn't care. After all, he was just a scientist; strengthening his body was merely a precaution.
While Vegapunk was lost in thought, his expression suddenly changed slightly.
The Quantum chip in his brain rapidly sent an alarm, indicating that someone had intruded into the inner perimeter of the base, causing him to stand up immediately.
"I wonder which fool dares to break into my laboratory base! The defensive measures here aren't that easy to deal with!"
He spoke the words, but Vegapunk already had an idea in mind. There were very few people in this world who could break into his laboratory base, and those who could enter the inner perimeter silently were even rarer.
Entering this place silently required more than just strength; it required certain bizarre Ninjutsu.
"Jiraiya's Toad Flat Shadow Manipulation Jutsu, or perhaps Black Zetsu or Obito? The latter two are more likely!"
It wasn't that Vegapunk thought Jiraiya wouldn't intrude into his lab. In fact, for a Ninja, such stealthy intrusion was almost instinctive; there was nothing to blame him for.
However, Konoha was currently a mess. A year ago, they had just signed a peace treaty with the Cloud Ninja, sacrificing Hyuga Hizashi in the process. This had left the Konoha Ninja filled with resentment and disloyalty, leaving the Third Hokage overwhelmed with problems.
Under these circumstances, Jiraiya, who appeared to be a wanderer but actually cared about Konoha more than anyone, shouldn't easily come here to make enemies.
"darling, it seems a little mouse has entered the base."
Just as he pushed open the door, Vegapunk saw Hancock standing before him with a look of displeasure on her face.
"Indeed, I'm going to see exactly where this mouse came from."
Vegapunk spoke calmly, swiping his hand in the air, and a projection immediately appeared.
Those were tiny monitors spread throughout the entire space base called Underline, which were naturally technological products Vegapunk had created by imitating a certain Upside-down Man.
However, compared to that Upside-down Man who could monitor the entire Academy City, even with his electromagnetic abilities, Vegapunk could only use these nano-scale monitors within a confined space like the lab base. He didn't know how that Upside-down Man solved the problem of nano-monitors drifting with the air and leaving signal range.
The monitors quickly replayed the intrusion. A phantom figure emerged boldly from the base walls, while a black monster appeared from the ground.
"It really is them! Do they think they can run rampant in my base just because of their special attributes and Space-Time Ninjutsu?"
Vegapunk sneered. "Perfect. Let WarGreymon, who was just given a new body, go trade a few blows with them! Let them know that not just any place can be barged into!"
In a certain world called DND, there was a saying: a prepared wizard is invincible. To some extent, wizards in that world were in a profession similar to scientists, both exchanging knowledge for power, just more directly.
Therefore, this saying held true when applied to Vegapunk as well!
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