After chatting with Vegapunk for a while longer, Mousse gradually realized that, in terms of sheer knowledge alone, this legendary figure might not necessarily surpass him now. What was truly worth learning from him was his ability to use scientific knowledge to solve problems, along with specific hands-on skills—for instance, mechanical processing so miraculous he could practically craft chips by hand.
Those things required experience accumulated over time, and the Book-Book Fruit could not help much. Even someone as confident as Mousse did not dare claim he could master them all within a few years, but he believed that one day, he would surpass this teacher.
It was just that, after Mousse joined the research team on Candy Island, his position became somewhat awkward. With Vegapunk around, it was certainly not Mousse's place to take charge. Yet as an assistant, the scientific genius preferred Charlotte Perospero, who could instantly manufacture any component, instrument, or piece of equipment exactly as he wished.
In the end, the two formed a very peculiar teacher-student relationship. Mousse naturally had to keep learning from Vegapunk, but the latter also learned quite a bit from him.
Although most of it was merely like flipping through a reference book, Vegapunk consequently never allowed Mousse to call him Teacher. Of course, that was a story for later.
Since it was already getting late, Mousse only had an initial exchange with Vegapunk that day. His main focus was learning from his eldest brother, Charlotte Perospero, about the changes that had taken place in Totto Land and the New World during the year or so he had been away from home:
First, Totto Land had received an unprecedented flood of immigrants. In such a short span of time, its population had surged severalfold from the low point before the attack