Zoan

By common impression, Paramecia represented the bizarre, Logia represented natural disasters, and Zoan represented vitality.

Logia seemed powerful at every stage. Once someone obtained a Logia Devil Fruit, they became a humanoid natural disaster.

As for Paramecia Devil Fruits, their bizarre abilities depended on the user's development and level of knowledge. In the later stages, they could become exceptionally powerful, even rivaling top-tier Logia.

Among the three major types of Devil Fruit, only Zoans tended to start strong and fall off later. Even Ancient Zoans and Mythical Zoans depended on development.

Their upper-limit potential seemingly lacked any top contenders capable of matching the best fruits of the other two types.

However, after researching them over the past few days, Wang Gao discovered that beyond their apparent vitality, Zoan Devil Fruits possessed two hidden advantages.

First, the advantage of evolution.

Zoan Devil Fruits could evolve or revert to their ancestors. For example, Kaido's Fish-Fish Fruit had been developed into an Azure Dragon Form; there was also Baron Tamago of the Big Mom Pirates in Later Generations, as well as Chopper with the Human-Human Fruit. These were all manifestations of evolution or atavism.

Second, the advantage of the Beast Soul.

That was right. Unlike the other two types, Zoan Devil Fruits inherently possessed animal souls—or rather, animal instincts.

The clearest proof was the weapons that had consumed Zoan Devil Fruits. They had all become conscious weapon-beasts.

If Zoan Devil Fruits did not inherently contain animal instincts, then weapon-beasts could not successfully gain consciousness and would ultimately remain lifeless objects.

So where did the Beast Soul advantage lie?

Its advantage lay in Devil Fruit ability awakening. As long as one successfully "tamed" the soul of a Zoan Devil Fruit and perfectly fused with it, one would swiftly reach the awakened state and rapidly unlock the Three Colors of Armament.

That was right—rapidly unlock the Three Colors of Armament. The complete awakening brought by Beast Soul fusion would swiftly raise the body's strength to the prerequisite level for wielding Armament Haki; beastly instincts would draw out the power of Observation Haki; finally, the trait of being the leader of a species could bring forth Conqueror's Haki.

To some extent, every Zoan Devil Fruit represented every possibility of that species, meaning it possessed the potential of a king.

And the complete awakening of a Zoan represented reaching the strongest state of that species.

If that was not a king, then what was?

In other words, the advantages of Zoan Devil Fruits were vitality, evolution—or atavism—and Beast Souls. The potential brought by those three factors meant that even an ordinary Zoan, once completely awakened, could rival a top-tier Paramecia or Logia.

As for the five Jailer Beasts of Impel Down, Wang Gao had collected cell samples from them as well.

However, the twenty-fourth chromosome of a Devil Fruit would completely disintegrate roughly seven minutes after leaving the body.

He had only been able to conduct a temporary study of those samples on Level 5.5.

After observing them, he could confirm that those Jailer Beasts were Zoan Devil Fruit awakeners. However, the World Government's technology was not mature, and they had used a shortcut.

The Jailer Beasts could only be considered half-awakened—or rather, awakeners with a Genetic Disease.

That was because Wang Gao had discovered a fatal flaw in the Jailer Beasts' genetic sequences: a Genetic Disease caused by overlapping genes.

Across different worlds, there existed a particularly strange illness—a death curse that could only arise through cannibalism among the same kind: prions.

The Genetic Disease of the Jailer Beasts was similar to the formation of prions.

That was because the jailers themselves were specific animals that had consumed corresponding Zoan Devil Fruits—for example, a cow eating the Cow-Cow Fruit, Model: Cow, or a koala eating the Bear-Bear Fruit, Model: Koala.

Under such circumstances, because the two belonged to the same species, their Beast Souls rapidly completed their fusion. Yet at the genetic level, that fusion was equivalent to the inbreeding of two nearly identical genetic sequences, which led to severe Genetic Disease.

If not for the extraordinary vitality bestowed by Zoan Devil Fruits, these Jailer Beasts would have long since died from genetic collapse.

That was why Wang Gao called it a shortcut. Not only did it leave the Jailer Beasts with a Genetic Disease—and short lifespans—their strength was only equivalent to half-awakening, and their intelligence was not particularly high either.

Of course, as a method for mass-producing biological weapons, this technology still had its merits. If they gathered a batch of corresponding Zoan Devil Fruits, they could quickly cultivate a large number of mid-level combatants.

It was just that these Jailer Beasts had rather worrying intelligence. Once their scant rationality slipped out of control, they might become unable to distinguish friend from foe.

Having seen through the essence of Zoan Devil Fruits, Wang Gao no longer cared for the Jailer Beast technology. What he wanted was a technique that could rapidly awaken Zoan Devil Fruit users while preserving human intelligence.

But such research was indeed fraught with difficulties. Making a Beast Soul obediently cooperate and perfectly fuse with its user was like turning a human into a dog and a dog into a human.

There was a fundamental conflict between the two: the difference between humanity and bestiality. Moreover, there was the possibility of failed awakening.

When Wang Gao spoke of awakening failure, he did not mean simply being unable to awaken. He meant an awakening that appeared successful but was actually a case of bestiality eroding humanity.

In mild cases, this would result in animalistic habits; in severe cases, one would lose all humanity and completely become a beast.

For example, many Zoan Devil Fruit users displayed bloodlust, madness, aggression, and similar symptoms after entering their beast forms. This was actually because the Beast Soul had gained the upper hand during fusion.

Once the Beast Soul gained the upper hand, it meant one could never achieve perfect awakening. Even if one forced an awakening, it would only be a half-awakened state, incapable of bringing out one's full potential.

The logic was very simple. Devil Fruits were merely weapons, yet the human user was controlled and influenced by the weapon instead. How could they be called a "perfect Devil Fruit user"?

Wang Gao did not yet possess a safe awakening technique, but this line of research held immense value.

If he succeeded, it would mean he could rapidly create a batch of perfectly awakened Zoan Devil Fruit users.

Even ordinary Zoans, in a state of perfect awakening, could stand up to veteran Vice Admirals head-on and might even threaten an Admiral.

If they were Ancient Zoans or Mythical Zoans, then once perfectly awakened, their strength could be compared to Sengoku and Kaido.

Of course, Wang Gao also knew that among Zoan Devil Fruits, ordinary types were easier to awaken than Ancient Zoans, while Ancient Zoans were easier than Mythical Zoans. Mythical Zoans were likely the most difficult.

Just as Wang Gao was preparing to continue his experiments, Leviathan reported through the Bio-Computer on the construction of the submarine base and Submarine Fleet.

Within the Rock Strata below Sea Level around Camel Island, Leviathan had spent a month excavating a massive cavern five hundred meters long, one hundred meters wide, and one hundred meters high.

Meanwhile, two biological submarines built primarily from Sea King genes had already been produced.

These biological submarines were called the "Marlin-class." They were one hundred and twenty meters long, fifteen to twenty-eight meters wide, and fifteen to thirty-six meters high. Their overall design was biomimetic, allowing them to disguise themselves in the sea as small Sea Kings.

The Marlin-class was extremely fast, with a cruising speed of around 30 knots.

Its maximum speed, when Supercavitation Mode was activated, could soar to around 200 knots.

As for its means of attack, there were currently only three: harpoons, high-pressure water cannons, and brute-force ramming.

Now that Leviathan had built two submarines, he was ready to begin the next phase of his plan.

Thank you for your support, everyone (ω｀)