Yamato lay inside the coffin-like experimental equipment, and soon fell into a state of suspended animation under the influence of the internal medicinal concoction.
The instrument placed on top of the coffin immediately began to function, and a strange energy wave was gradually drawn out, filling the transparent crystal ball at the top of the instrument completely after a moment.
Vegapunk removed the transparent crystal ball that sealed the fruit's power, then placed the crystal ball behind a spiral, spear-like instrument. He aimed the spear tip at the Azure Dragon Fruit and directly activated the entire instrument, injecting the energy wave of the Artificial Devil Fruit into the Azure Dragon Fruit.
"It doesn't seem to have changed much... No, the energy contained within the Azure Dragon Fruit has indeed increased, but not by much."
Taking a look at the instrument in his hand, Vegapunk rubbed his chin. The Devil Fruit did indeed contain a certain strange spiritual power, very close to what is called a soul, which was the reason why Vegapunk could detect the increase in its internal energy.
However, when the two fruits merged, the energy did not increase significantly. If the energy contained in the original Azure Dragon Fruit was ten, and the energy contained in the Artificial Devil Fruit was five, then the energy of the two merged Devil Fruits was eleven.
Scratching his head, Vegapunk was a bit puzzled, but he still turned off the instrument and opened the coffin lid. Soon, the medicinal liquid inside had completely drained away.
Yamato slowly opened his eyes and clenched his fists. He felt that the Devil Fruit power he had previously been able to control like an extension of his own arm had completely disappeared, and a look of disappointment appeared on his face.
But soon, this 'husky' turned his head and looked at Vegapunk, or more accurately, at the Azure Dragon Fruit in Vegapunk's hand.
Seeing Yamato's eager expression, Vegapunk did not hesitate. He reached out and tossed the Azure Dragon Fruit over. Yamato immediately jumped up to catch it and then took a bite.
"Wuwuwu wowowow!! Power, power is surging up!!!"
Yamato's eyes turned red, and the aura around his body surged instantly. Fine dragon scales grew from his skin, and in an instant, the entire person transformed into a giant Azure Dragon!
However, judging by his appearance, he seemed a bit out of control. Vegapunk frowned, activated his electromagnetic ability, and the ceiling of the entire laboratory was immediately opened.
With a long dragon roar, Yamato soared directly from the laboratory into the sky. After reaching the sky, a large amount of flame clouds immediately gathered around him, transforming into black storm clouds.
A rumbling sound rang out, faint lightning flickered in the storm clouds, a fierce wind blew, and a torrential rain poured down. Those wind, rain, thunder, and lightning seemed like spiritual elves, coiling around the giant dragon in the sky.
However, Vegapunk's eyes were a bit strange: "Is this... the Azure Dragon Fruit awakening?"
"Judging from the energy index on the instrument, the power of the Azure Dragon Fruit has indeed increased, but it doesn't seem to be permanent; it's more like an explosion!"
"It seems that this method does not increase the power of the Devil Fruit much... or rather, merging an Artificial Devil Fruit of the same type into a real Devil Fruit does not bring about any essential improvement at all, but merely causes the Devil Fruit's ability to go on a rampage for a short time!"
The result of this short-term rampage is naturally the awakening of the Devil Fruit, but obviously, this type of awakening belongs to a kind of forced awakening, which is clearly very unfriendly to the Devil Fruit User.
Not to mention anything else, the awakening of a Zoan-type Devil Fruit is very dangerous. If one is not careful, one might be dominated by the powerful impulses of the beast, forever turning into a half-human, half-animal state, or even having one's consciousness become muddled, no different from a wild beast.
In fact, the awakening of other Devil Fruit abilities is definitely not easy either. If the awakener cannot control it, they might have their consciousness washed away by the instincts contained within the Devil Fruit.
The reason why this situation rarely happens is that those who can develop a Devil Fruit to the point of awakening already have extremely high control over the Devil Fruit's ability and possess immense strength, which allows them to suppress the power contained within the Devil Fruit.
Similarly, the more powerful the Devil Fruit, the stronger the instinctual impulses contained within it, and the more dangerous it is for the awakener.
However, because the stronger a Devil Fruit is, the harder it is to awaken, by the time one has truly honed the Devil Fruit's ability to the point of awakening, the Devil Fruit User has usually tempered both their mind and body through thousands of trials, so those powerful Devil Fruit Users are actually less likely to lose control.
However, although Yamato has polished his mind and body quite well, he is still a long way from the level of Azure Dragon Fruit awakening! You know, even Kaido has not truly awakened the Azure Dragon Fruit! Not to mention the current Yamato.
The awakening of a Zoan-type is considered the most dangerous among Devil Fruits of the same level, because the self-consciousness of the Zoan-type Devil Fruit itself is relatively strong, and the Mythical Zoan Type among the Zoan-types can naturally be called the most dangerous of the dangerous.
The Azure Dragon Fruit can definitely be called the top of the top among Mythical Zoan Types! Naturally, once awakened, the danger brought about by its instinctual impulses far exceeds that of ordinary Devil Fruits!
Honestly, Vegapunk does not think highly of Yamato's ability to completely suppress the instinctual impulses brought about by this Devil Fruit.
In this regard, the Human-Human Fruit has more of an advantage, because the Human-Human Fruit itself covers some intellectual capabilities, and the wild instincts within it are not strong, so it will not make people lose their minds, but only cause changes in their personality.
As for the Azure Dragon Fruit, what it contains is pure beastliness; even if it is a divine beast, there is no rationality to speak of.
Seeing the giant dragon flying in the sky, the lightning that was originally just flying in the sky had already begun to strike directly downward. At the same time, the giant dragon with blood-red eyes also began to spew dragon flames at the earth. Vegapunk frowned:
"This guy seems to be losing control. As expected... I'd better catch him first!"
Thinking of this, Vegapunk directly activated his electromagnetic ability. The Azure Dragon, which was originally roaring in the sky, fell down after a whimper.
Just kidding, with Vegapunk's personality, how could he not have prepared some countermeasures on Yamato?
You know, test subjects going berserk, subsequently destroying the entire experimental base, and killing the creator scientist is a common classic plot. How could Vegapunk not have made preparations in this regard?
With a boom, as the Azure Dragon fell from the sky, the original fierce wind and rain all dissipated at once, revealing bright sunshine and a rainbow.
The Azure Dragon that fell to the ground smashed a large pit into the ground, and after twitching a few times, it had no more reaction.
"Yamato, can you return to your original form?"
Walking to the front of the Azure Dragon's head, Vegapunk patted the dragon's horn and asked, but looking at the Azure Dragon's blood-red and turbid eyes, it was obvious that this question was asked in vain.
"What a hassle... but this also seems to be a good opportunity?"
Vegapunk muttered, and then his hands began to form seals: "Kotoamatsukami!"
Yamato's strength was not bad to begin with, and he possessed Conqueror's Haki, so under normal circumstances, there was no possibility of him being controlled.
Although because he had eaten the Artificial Devil Fruit, Yamato had initially shown himself to be quite close and obedient to Vegapunk, but now that the Devil Fruit had been extracted and replaced with the real Azure Dragon Fruit, the effect naturally disappeared.
But now, this situation where his mind was in chaos was the best time to control him, and Kotoamatsukami was undoubtedly much easier to infiltrate.
It could even be said that the current Kotoamatsukami genjutsu was a lifesaver for Yamato. Yamato would instinctively rely on the power of Kotoamatsukami to sort out his completely chaotic thoughts, and in this process, he would naturally take Kotoamatsukami as the core of his thinking.
It could be said that the effect of Kotoamatsukami this time far exceeded the usual, which was equivalent to Yamato actively letting go of all his mental defenses, and even striving to actively accept the power of Kotoamatsukami.
The pale red genjutsu light gradually extinguished, and the originally turbid eyes of the Azure Dragon lying on the ground gradually revealed a bit of clarity, and the bloodshot pupils also returned to normal.
"Such a strange feeling..."
Yamato groaned, and then his whole body began to shrink gradually, returning to his human form.
Clutching his head, Yamato slowly stood up. He only felt as if a steel needle had been inserted into his head, stirring his mind into a state of turbidity, but the effect brought by Kotoamatsukami soon helped him firm his resolve. When he looked up at Vegapunk, his eyes were already filled with gentleness and obedience.
"What is going on? Dr. Vegapunk! Is eating the genuine Azure Dragon Fruit actually this dangerous?"
"It's probably because you originally ate the Artificial Azure Dragon Fruit, so the genuine Azure Dragon Fruit had some conflict with the residual Artificial Devil Fruit power in your body, which is why your rampage was triggered."
Vegapunk talked nonsense without hesitation. His words actually sounded quite plausible, and the inexperienced Yamato was naturally fooled by him immediately.
"So that's how it is! But as expected, the genuine Azure Dragon Fruit is much stronger than the Artificial Azure Dragon Fruit. I feel like my power has increased so much!"
"And it seems there are some special powers... I can now summon wind, rain, thunder, and lightning directly, and even control the weather! Strange, I remember my idiot father didn't seem to have this ability either!"
"It's probably because of the ability rampage, your Devil Fruit ability has now awakened! You could say that right now, in terms of Devil Fruit development, you are already stronger than Kaido!"
Vegapunk didn't continue to speak in riddles and said directly to Yamato.
An excited expression immediately appeared on Yamato's face: "Is that so? That's really great! So I'm already more powerful than that bastard father!"
While speaking, Yamato raised his head, showing a triumphant expression.
Vegapunk shrugged, not minding Yamato's taking things out of context. In fact, for a top-tier Mythical Zoan Type Devil Fruit like the Azure Dragon Fruit, the power bonus after awakening is indeed terrifying. If the current Yamato were to fight Kaido in his prime, his chances of winning would indeed be quite high.
Sighing slightly, although this experiment was not without any results, Vegapunk was still a bit disappointed.
After all, there was no essential growth in the upper limit of the Devil Fruit's ability, just an additional method of forcibly awakening the Devil Fruit, and it was also quite dangerous.
Of course, this cannot be considered a total loss. The awakening of a Devil Fruit has always been a major problem. It's not that if you have strong strength, you will definitely be able to awaken a Devil Fruit; sometimes it also depends on individual circumstances, the development of the Devil Fruit, and the compatibility between the two.
Now that there is a way to force an awakening, it's not bad. People whose strength and character meet the standards can use this method to awaken their Devil Fruit.
For example, Nico Robin; her Flower-Flower Fruit could be awakened in this way. Robin's strength is already sufficient, and the hardships she suffered in her childhood have also given her decent character.
Most importantly, the Flower-Flower Fruit is clearly a gentle type of Devil Fruit. The difficulty and impact of awakening are very small, and with Nico Robin's current strength, she can definitely withstand it easily.
...
The research on Devil Fruits came to a temporary end, and Vegapunk turned his attention back to the sea.
The time Vegapunk spent researching Devil Fruits was also roughly the time when the story's plot began. Thinking that it was almost time for a certain Straw Hat to set sail, Vegapunk couldn't suppress his curiosity and prepared to go and see the current Nika Fruit user.
He would also take some blood from this fruit user. For a long time, he seemed to have forgotten that this protagonist's Devil Fruit was also one of the top-tier fruits in the entire One Piece World.
Hmm, it was probably because the evolution of this rubber-rubber fruit user's fruit was too abrupt! So Vegapunk had always had an indescribable feeling of awkwardness toward the Nika Fruit, and subconsciously, he hadn't regarded it as a top-tier Devil Fruit.
Moreover, the situation this Nika Fruit user would face upon setting sail this time would likely be vastly different from the original work. Whether it could go as smoothly as in the original work was also an unknown.
Not to mention anything else, two of the three Marine Admirals were already out of commission. After Akainu was finished, there was Aramaki to take his place, but this time, Vegapunk had captured Kizaru. In such a short time, the Marine had not yet promoted a new Admiral.
Coupled with the fact that the World Government had been hit by Vegapunk's triple combo back then, they were now in a state of absolute fury, and the lives of ordinary pirates these days were not very easy.
It was precisely because of these continuous setbacks that both the Marine and the World Government needed a vent, and at the same time, a chance to regain their prestige. The hard nuts in the New World were not easy to deal with, so the small pirates in the first half of the Grand Line and the Four Blues had all become machines for them to grind their prestige.
It was said that the officials stationed in the Four Blues had all become Marine Vice Admirals, and many officers in the Marine bases of the Four Blues had also undergone elimination and replacement; their strength had increased by at least one level.
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