"240 million… that's really quite a nice number."
Caesar Clown's face indeed showed a rather surprised expression, but it was only rather surprised—completely different from the shock Burgess had imagined.
"Hey! What kind of expression is that—are you looking down on our boss?!"
Burgess clenched a fist several times bigger than a sandbag and was about to give Caesar a punch.
Caesar immediately waved his hands.
"No, no, no! It really is high, very high. I'm just so shocked I can't find the words."
...
Caesar used to work in the World Government's scientific corps. He had been to this Vegapunk sealed research facility before, and had even worked under Vegapunk.
Later, when he transferred to another laboratory, a powerful test subject escaped and completely destroyed the facility. With his already restless heart, Caesar took the chance to steal some scientific technology and make a fortune on the black market.
Then Caesar was put on the World Government's internal wanted list.
Although Caesar was a real bastard in how he did things, his pursuit of science was extremely persistent. That persistence made him improve his skills without limiting himself to his own research—he wanted to take this genius Vegapunk's technology to elevate himself.
So he snuck onto the icebreaker and snuck into the research facility.
In the end, he was intercepted by Vane and the others.
Vane stopped Burgess's fist. "Burgess, don't be so rude. Caesar is a very famous scientist."
Hearing Vane praise him as a very famous scientist, Caesar's vanity immediately bubbled up.
"That's right, I'm a famous scientist! In the future I'll definitely be even more formidable than that Vegapunk fellow."
"I once held an important position in the World Government's scientific institutions. This pirate sir, I'm not trying to offend you, but back then in those institutions, not to mention pirates with 200 million bounties—even that monster Kaido in the New World was a test subject!"
Burgess looked unconvinced. Kaido was a world-famous great pirate with a bounty of three billion Belly—very few people could compare to him. How could he possibly be a scientific test subject?
"That guy Kaido has been captured by the Navy many times in his life. Of course, there were also times when he turned himself in looking for death… Caesar, every time Kaido wouldn't take long before he'd smash the lab and escape, right?"
Caesar said nothing. When he had stolen technology before, it was precisely when Kaido broke free and wrecked the lab. Vegapunk was protected and escorted away by the World Government's people, and he, this marginal figure, took the chance to make a grab.
"Alright, Caesar. As you can see, I'm a pirate. Join me. I'll give you funding to conduct scientific experiments."
Caesar considered it carefully. He wasn't a man of principles—otherwise he wouldn't have done things like stealing other people's results to continue research.
He could work for anyone, as long as the other side provided funding.
Even if Vane didn't come to recruit him, before long he would be recruited by Doflamingo to produce artificial Devil Fruits for Kaido of the Beasts.
"Heh heh heh~ Pirate sir, scientists aren't blacksmiths or shipwrights. Do you know how much money scientific experiments cost?!"
"We just robbed a kingdom. We have roughly several billion Belly in funds on hand."
Caesar: "…Th-this much?"
Several billion Belly—this was a very substantial sum.
"Being a pirate really is a pretty promising line of work."
"Since you respect me, this scientist, so much, and you have the need, then I'll reluctantly join your pirate crew. What will my position be—Chief Scientist?"
Caesar was already fantasizing about life as the chief scientist.
"That would be… impossible. The Chief Scientist is Meowth. You don't have any scientific achievements yet, so you can only be Meowth's assistant."
"Who is Meowth?"
"Meowth is this cat!"
Caesar looked down at the cat that wasn't even up to his knees, then looked at Vane, then at Meowth… after repeating this several times, his eyes bulged out.
"You're saying this cat is a scientist?!"
Meowth: "You're looking down on cats, meow!"
Caesar: "The cat talked!"
Caesar and Meowth started arguing loudly, but Meowth took out his many inventions, and Caesar, empty-handed, had no way to counter them.
"Your inventions don't amount to anything. I can make artificial Devil Fruits… as long as I'm allowed to obtain the data here! Look, this is Vegapunk's artificial fruit! It was made from extracts taken from Kaido of the Beasts!"
To prove his words, Caesar took out a fruit whose pattern wasn't very special and looked very much like an apple. This was something he had stolen from the lab last time.
"As long as we use this as the original, we can manufacture Devil Fruits."
...
Vane's eyes lit up. This should be that copy of the Azure Dragon fruit.
This was a genuine article that could truly be compared to the Fish-Fish Fruit, Mythical Zoan "Pink" Dragon form—only no one believed it.
Because Vegapunk considered it a failure, everyone considered it a failure.
In the end, it was treated as an ordinary variety and eaten by that damned Momonosuke.
Now it was right in front of him… for a moment, Vane wanted to eat this fruit himself.
Caesar continued, "This… of course, I need some time… you also know that something as mysterious as Devil Fruits is very hard to replicate in a short time."
"You're really unreliable!"
Vane said "unreliable," but in his heart he was already praising Caesar for a job well done—showing up and immediately delivering a big gift.
Caesar: "How could that be! I just need time! And besides Devil Fruits, I can also make other things, like poison gas, poisons…"
They all sounded like the most underhanded things possible.
"Alright. From now on, Meowth will be the Mechanical Physics Team Captain, and Caesar will be the Chemical Reagents Team Captain."
Meowth and Caesar actually didn't conflict. One specialized in physical sciences, the other in chemical sciences.
"Meow, I don't mind, meow."
"Hmph~ I'll prove I'm the best scientist… That Captain Vane, I wonder if this research funding can be allocated a bit. I'd be very happy to find a good place for the crew's money."
Caesar immediately came over with a fawning face and held out his hand for research funding. That expression was extremely worrying.
"We'll talk about research funding when we get back. First, take everything here that you'll need. Also, this Devil Fruit will be kept by me for now."
Without giving Caesar a chance to refuse, the artificial Fish-Fish Fruit, Mythical Zoan "Pink" Dragon form—whose value only Vane knew—was obtained just like that.
It didn't trigger anything at all… perhaps because it was an artificial item. It seems the path of having Caesar make artificial Devil Fruits to farm items for himself won't work.
Forget it—don't be greedy. The value of this fruit itself is already very important.