A Call from the Science Unit!

Bullet's declaration that he wanted to take on Kuzan, Tokikake, and Gion in one fell swoop unsurprisingly piqued the interest of all the bigwigs.

With the Awakening Mythical Zoan Fruit user Bullet, the Logia Ice-Ice Devil Fruit User Kuzan, the Paramecia Coffee-Coffee Devil Fruit User Tokikake, and the female Swordsman Gion who Awakening Observation Haki, this lineup would be considered luxurious in any faction.

Vidal was no exception, but just as he was watching the live broadcast with anticipation, Lieutenant Isoka quietly walked in and whispered a few words in his ear.

"Base Commander, there's a call from the Science Unit; they need you to answer it."

"Science Unit?"

Vidal was stunned; he never expected these people to come to him on their own initiative.

He glanced hesitantly at the fighting scene on the screen. It was like watching a spectacular special effects movie when work came up – a real pain in the ass.

"Alright, let's go listen to what they have to say."

In the end, Vidal reluctantly stood up. Now that he was in the position of a commander, he naturally had to handle his duties. He wasn't a child; he had that much self-control.

Hopefully, Bullet and the others won't finish too quickly. But then again, none of them have mastered Armament Haki, so it probably won't be over so easily.

Especially between Bullet and Kuzan, one a Zoan -Zoan Awakening and the other Logia, neither of them had the ability to seriously injure the other. It was a matter of whether the former would exhaust the latter's stamina first, or whether the latter would freeze the former's body, such as muscles, blood vessels, and nerves, using low temperatures.

There's nothing we can do; Kuzan's cold air couldn't freeze Bullet's Sonic Boom.

Stepping out of the dark conference room, Vidal felt a sudden brightness in his eyes. Although it was night, there was certainly enough lighting in the base. He quickly led his secretary to the office.

[Bang]

"Hello, this is Vidal."

He plopped down in the soft, comfortable chair, picked up the still-connected phone, Vidal casually introduced himself.

"Hehehe, Rear Admiral Vidal, I wonder if you still remember me?" The Den Den Mushi on the table mimicked the other party's expression and tone.

The voice sounded familiar. Vidal stared at the ceiling for a moment, then his eyes flickered when he remembered, before he smiled and said, "If I'm not mistaken, you are Dr. Vegapunk, aren't you?"

"Hehe, that's right, that's right, you haven't forgotten me, that's really pleasing." Vegapunk seemed very happy, which could be seen from the expression on the Den Den Mushi.

"It seems you're doing well over there. But what brings you here?" Vidal asked politely.

After all, he's one of the world's most technologically advanced figures; he deserves the respect he deserves. Who knows if I might need his advanced technology in the future?

Do you remember that interesting idea you mentioned to me back then?

This time, Vegapunk didn't wait for Vidal's reply and said directly, "It's that idea of installing Seastone under the warships!"

"Oh--, it's that? I just mentioned it casually, I don't know if it will work." Vidal chuckled, he roughly knew what was going on.

"It's feasible, and it's already been tested. By placing a suitable amount of Seastone in several appropriate locations beneath the warship, the Sea Kings can use the ocean scent emitted by the Seastone to make the warship appear as part of the sea, thus allowing it to navigate the ocean relatively safely!"

Vegapunk perfectly embodies the characteristics of a researcher, patiently explaining the principles at length.

Although Vidal already knew all this, he listened patiently and then spoke again, "In that case, wouldn't we be able to enter and exit the Calm Belt? It's just that paddling manually is a bit too inefficient."

"Um?"

Vegapunk paused for a moment, but with his exceptional intelligence, he understood Vidal's deeper meaning in less than half a second, and at the same time conceived of an automated warship that could operate without relying on wind power or human power.

It's essentially a ship structure with an engine installed, but even by today's standards, it's considered high-tech. Whether it can reach the level of cutting-edge technology depends on what kind of energy the engine Vegapunk develops will use.

After all, even Coca-Cola can do this!

"This is interesting. Allowing warships to navigate freely in the Calm Belt? I don't think that's difficult to do." Vegapunk became interested, thinking he would spend a few hours later to figure it out, but right now he was more interested in Vidal.

"Rear Admiral Vidal, I think you're very suitable for the Marine Science Unit. Would you like to come over sometime and we can discuss more ideas?"

Vegapunk is now the chief scientist of the Marine Science Unit, and he has every right to invite Vidal to visit if he wants, since the Lineage Factor technology he possesses is highly sought after by the World Government.

"If it's just a visit, I'd be very interested!" Vidal said with a smile. He really didn't mind getting to know this great man who was 500 years ahead of humankind.

"That's great. I'll adjust the schedule in a bit and let you know." After saying that, Vegapunk began to explain the main purpose of his contact with Vidal.

"I called you this time not only to chat, but also to inform you that tomorrow, technicians from the Science Unit will be installing the first batch of Seastone on the warships at your base."

"However, I've changed my mind. Let's send it over together once the power unit is ready!"

"Okay, no problem."

Vidal naturally had no objection. Seastone wasn't actually that important unless they were traveling through the Calm Belt, especially for naval bases like theirs that needed to garrison an island.

"Also, I'd like to ask you for some plants, the kind that possess a certain level of intelligence and can move around freely."

"You want to study this magical plant?" Vidal raised an eyebrow.

"Yes!" Vegapunk made no attempt to hide his intentions. "I want to know why they possess intelligence." "But those are creations of Devil Fruits. Are you sure they're worth studying?"

"So what if it's Devil Fruit? There's nothing in this world that can't be studied, and there's nothing I can't figure out. It's just a matter of how long it will take," Vegapunk said softly, but his words were filled with a tone that was hard to tell whether it was confidence or arrogance.

Moreover, there was something he forcibly swallowed back: in his view, Devil Fruits were actually man-made, not something that came from a Devil Fruit Tree as in mythology.

"Alright then, you can send someone to pick it up tomorrow." Vidal hesitated for a moment but still agreed, after all, there wasn't a good reason to refuse.

"Thank you so much!"

"Haha, it's nothing. Just take care of me if you have any good stuff in the future. I actually quite like technological creations." Vidal chuckled.

This finally establishes a stable relationship with Vegapunk, making it easier to reach out to him in the future if anything comes up.

Thank you so much for the 10 PM donation from "Dark Night"! Thank you, thank you!

Okay, I've written about the decisive battle between Bullet three companions. I was originally thinking of dedicating a chapter to detailing the battle, but after thinking about it, I decided to listen to the readers' opinions and continue advancing the plot.