Phoenix Armor
After strengthening Tatsumaki and receiving her promise to help him in the Tatsumaki, Vegapunk began another experiment.
Having acquired a spaceship from outer space and cracked the Wormhole technology, Vegapunk's knowledge of building spacetime portals has greatly improved, and he is now fully confident in building a portal back.
However, for the sake of safety, no amount of excessive protective measures is too much, so Vegapunk did not rush back but instead began a new round of research.
In terms of his own strength, Vegapunk has already strengthened himself to the limit. He dares to guarantee that his current physical body, strength and potential are already the best in the entire One-Punch World - of course, excluding the Caped Baldy.
However, Vegapunk felt there was still room for improvement in terms of foreign equipment, such as his Meteor Armor, which was already lagging behind his current enhancement level.
Vegapunk's current physical strength far surpasses that of steel. Even if he were hit by an anti-materiel sniper rifle without any warning, he wouldn't be left with a single red mark.
Of all the weapons that mankind has invented so far, apart from nuclear weapons, ordinary conventional weapons are basically completely ineffective against Vegapunk, who can be completely resisted by his bare body.
While the Meteor Armor is somewhat stronger than Vegapunk's physical body, it's not by much. For Vegapunk, it's not entirely useless, but it's better than nothing.
However, the Meteor Armor had a very good foundation and Vegapunk saw it as having extremely high potential for enhancement. Coincidentally, Vegapunk also obtained an item that had extremely high enhancement value for the Meteor Armor.
In the Laboratory, Vegapunk stared intently at the still vibrant clothes before him, which seemed ready to come back to life at any moment—this was the puppet suit worn by Phoenix Man.
Although this thing looks like just a defenseless, tattered rag doll, it is indeed this tattered rag doll that turned Phoenix Man into an unkillable cockroach, allowing him to leap from an ordinary Demon-Level Threat to a powerful Monsters that can be considered strong even among Dragon-level monsters!
In the original story, if this Phoenix Man hadn't taken off his puppet costume himself, it would be hard to say whether he would have become stronger than Psykos-Orochi after evolving a few more times.
It can be said that this mascot costume, although it looks a bit funny, is actually no less effective than the Phoenix Cloth from the Saint Seiya World (in the manga, the Phoenix Cloth automatically regenerates, but Ikki cannot be resurrected; in the anime, the Phoenix Cloth's power is enhanced).
Its speed of resurrection is even faster than that of the Phoenix Cloth, and perhaps only Phoenix Cloth of divine blood level can compare to it.
With such powerful abilities, Vegapunk naturally coveted them immensely. Initially, he had done some research on the sealed Phoenix Man, but he soon discovered that the source of this ability had nothing to do with Phoenix Man, but rather came from the mascot costume in front of him.
It's just an ordinary mascot costume, yet it possesses the ability to make its user undergo near-death evolution. However, it's not without its flaws: the costume has its own personality, and once it merges with its host, it's almost impossible to take it off.
If you want to take it off, you have to tear this mascot costume apart. Even Vegapunk had to go to great lengths to completely melt Phoenix Man's true form before he could obtain the complete mascot costume.
In other words, this mascot costume is essentially a one-time use item; once you put it on, you can't take it off unless you tear it up.
Vegapunk is currently unsure whether he can remove the clothes after becoming an elemental. Considering the importance of the Phoenix Plush Suit, he has no intention of experimenting with it. Instead, he plans to fuse the clothes with his Meteor Armor.
The Meteor Armor is a suit of armor that is attached to the body using electromagnetic force. It is composed of various armor plates. Once the two are fused together, this side effect will naturally disappear.
However, while the Phoenix Plush Suit might still be considered a living thing, Vegapunk's Meteor Armor is definitely an inanimate object. Fusing these two items together is not an easy task.
"It seems that simply draping the Phoenix Plush Suit over the Meteor Armor has little effect..."
Seeing the two unresponsive objects, Bejaponk sighed slightly, but he wasn't too disappointed.
"Fortunately, I had anticipated this and had a new method. This Phoenix Plush Suit can actually be regarded as a Devil Fruit."
"Fusing weapons with Devil Fruit is something I'm quite familiar with."
The technique of feeding Devil Fruit to inanimate objects was developed by Vegapunk from the very beginning. Although the current Phoenix Plush Suit is not Devil Fruit, it still possesses a certain degree of instinct and consciousness, and can be considered a living being.
For Vegapunk, it was simply a matter of transforming Devil Fruit into a Phoenix Plush Suit. It was a little difficult to study, but not too difficult.
A dozen days later, Vegapunk devised a method of conversion, extracting the energy from the Phoenix Plush Suit and injecting it into the Meteor Armor.
The original doll rotted into ash in a very short time, eventually turning into dust in the breeze. However, the Meteor Armor, which was infused with the energy of the Phoenix Plush Suit, emitted a phoenix-like cry in an instant and burst into crimson-gold flames.
When the flames reached their most intense point, with a clear cry, the crimson-gold flames shot straight into the sky, transforming into the shape of a phoenix before disappearing without a trace, leaving behind only a crimson-gold metal armor that retained the phoenix shape.
"It looks... more like the Phoenix Cloth! And it even looks a bit like a version of the God Cloth!"
Looking at the phoenix-shaped armor in front of him, Vegapunk reached out and gently stroked it a few times, a smile appearing on his face.
Judging from its appearance alone, this is far superior to that ugly mascot costume and the Meteor Armor that only focuses on practicality. The phoenix spreading its wings and soaring into the sky looks like a work of art, with each armor plate lifelike.
Judging solely from electromagnetic induction, the characteristics of this Phoenix Armor are still unclear, but its strength as an armor is more than three times that of the initial blank Meteor Armor.
It's worth noting that the strength difference between ordinary cork and steel is only about three times, which shows how much stronger the Phoenix Armor is than the Meteor Armor.
A powerful electromagnetic force coursed through the entire Phoenix Armor. Vegapunk flicked his finger slightly, and the armor disintegrated and reassembled onto Vegapunk's body.
"The Saint Cloth-like feel is even stronger now, but... the effect is indeed quite good!"
A vibrant, fiery power was flowing through Vegapunk's body, slightly improving his physical attributes and increasing his internal energy.
The reason it wasn't very effective is that Vegapunk's own strength was already quite formidable, and the Phoenix Suit didn't provide him with a significant boost.
However, if it were an ordinary person, simply by putting on this Phoenix Armor, they would immediately possess power approaching that of Dragon-level Monsters.
This is because the host Phoenix Man, had died, taking away most of the power. In addition, the transformation from Phoenix Plush Suit to Phoenix Armor also caused the Phoenix Armor to lose a lot of the power it had originally accumulated.
"The only problem is that we don't know if the Phoenix Armor's ability to evolve after its near-death state is still there... Unfortunately, there's no way to test that ability."
Vegapunk sighed. This kind of evolution requires being on the verge of death. If it doesn't work, then wouldn't he really be going to die?
Vegapunk dared not conduct such an experiment before the effects of the Phoenix Armor were definitively determined. However, without conducting the experiment, the effects of the Phoenix Armor could not be determined, creating a vicious cycle.
With that in mind, Vegapunk channeled his electromagnetic power, slowly increasing the force on the armor on his arm until he was close to his limit. Only then did a faint cracking sound come from the armor, and tiny cracks appeared.
A moment later, as Vegapunk increased his strength, the armor on his arm finally shattered along the crack. However, in the raging flames, the shattered armor reassembled, and Vegapunk could clearly feel that the strength of the entire armor had increased.
"At least judging from the armor itself, it seems to have inherited the characteristics of the Phoenix Plush Suit. I just don't know if it still retains the ability to resurrect the host?"
"I'll wear this Phoenix Armor often from now on! Who knows, it might save my life someday!"
After touching his armor, Vegapunk finally made this decision.
While not certain, Vegapunk has reason to believe that this armor has at least an 80% chance of retaining all the characteristics of the original Phoenix Plush Suit.
Even if he's unlucky and the armor in front of him doesn't retain the ability to help its host evolve, it's still definitely a top-tier armor. Its defensive and regenerative capabilities are of great help to Vegapunk.
Moreover, even if it cannot revive Vegapunk from near death, it can increase its strength through constant breaking and restoration, making it a top-tier, growth-oriented battle armor.
With all preparations nearly complete, Vegapunk no longer hesitated and quickly began constructing Space Gate at the House of Evolution.
In addition, he also began to invite some friends to help, such as Saitama, Tatsumaki, Fubuki, Child Emperor and other members of the Hero Association, as well as his subordinates Carnage Kabuto and Mosquito Girl.
Vegapunk hadn't forgotten that when he went to the Pirate World, he had the World Government as an opponent!
With Saitama around this time, Vegapunk isn't afraid of the World Government having any trump cards. The World Government's trump cards might be able to deal with a boss like Princess Kaguya Otsutsuki, or even the Caped Baldy.
With the strength of the Caped Baldy, no matter what trump cards the World Government plays, he will only end up being crushed to pieces. If Hokage and One Piece are considered to be on the same level, then One-Punch Man's art style is already far superior to that of the Pirate World!
The One-Punch Man World is one with the art style of Saint Seiya, Dragon Ball, Marvel, and DC, not the Pirate World where things are still just "small-scale battles" on planets.
"Finally finished..."
Looking at the faint, dark light flickering before him, forming a pitch-black Wormhole, Vegapunk smiled.
"Is this the world you came from? From here, you can go to that world full of seafood!"
Saitama peered curiously into the Wormhole -black Wormhole before him, even sticking his bald head inside, but still saw nothing. He pulled his head back and asked Vegapunk with some confusion.
"You're being a bit too hasty. This is teleportation between different worlds, and it's not the same as going to an alien planet!"
Vegapunk glanced at Saitama's shiny bald head and said with amusement:
"Even using a portal, it would take several minutes to get to my world from here! Do you think you can just stick your head out and there's that other world on the other side?"
"Clearly, although you have a head that looks smart, you don't actually have a smart brain."
Dr. Genus, who was assisting Vegapunk, made a sarcastic remark before resuming his work of adjusting the instrument and testing the energy radiation in the channel.
"According to the algorithm you provided, Dr. Vegapunk, there isn't much energy radiation within the entire Space Tunnel right now, so there shouldn't be any Space-Time Storm. Perhaps now is a good opportunity to go back!"
After testing for a while, Dr. Genus looked up, pushed up his glasses, and a hopeful look appeared on his face.
Not only him, but Child Emperor, who was also an assistant, was also full of excitement, looking intently at the black Wormhole, while also glancing at Vegapunk.
Traveling to another completely different world and universe is undoubtedly an unimaginable challenge for these scientists, and the scientific system of another world is an even greater temptation for them.
"In that case, let's set off. Those who want to come with me, please enter my Portable Space first. If there is any danger, please help me out."
Besides the Monsters from the House of Biohazards and Dr. Genus, the people willing to travel with Vegapunk this time include Tatsumaki, Fubuki, Child Emperor, and Saitama.
Of course, they were only going to the Pirate World with Vegapunk temporarily. Saitama was lured by the seafood of the Pirate World by Vegapunk, Child Emperor and Dr. Genus wanted to see the technology and materials of the New World, while Tatsumaki and Fubuki came on their own after receiving the news, saying that they wanted to repay Vegapunk's favor and came to help him.
In addition, Psykos, who has now joined the House of Evolution, will also be going there. She is Vegapunk's prisoner and can only obey Vegapunk's orders completely.