"You little brat... just you wait! Next time I'll twist your head off!"
After making those threats, Pizarro still jumped ship and fled.
If it were just Doflamingo alone, and the two True Upper Rank, Pizarro would have a much better chance of winning. If he were to lose, it would definitely be due to Doflamingo's cunning use of the String-String Fruit, or a poorly executed version of the protagonist's halo.
After all, he was one of the All-Stars of the Beasts Pirates. Even if his strength was not as good as King and Queen, it was no worse than Jack's twelve years later.
Even if it were the strongest Jhin, Shanks wouldn't be able to guarantee a win right now.
He was evenly matched with Whitebeard before? Even if Whitebeard didn't hold back, he certainly wasn't taking it seriously...
However, no matter how resilient Pizarro is, he can't withstand the fact that the Numancia Flamingo is carrying a whole family!
After a fierce battle, facing most of the Donquixote Family, Pizarro had no choice but to retreat.
Sig looked on with disdain—the current Calamity of Drought was far worse than the Jack the Drought faced twelve years later in the original story.
It's just the Donquixote Family... You think you can just rely on them? Their ship wasn't sunk or seriously damaged, and they actually escaped?
Of course, despite his inner complaints, Sieg realized that the main problem was Pizarro's limited loyalty to Kaido; he was unwilling to fight to the death, so he retreated immediately after being thwarted and in a slightly disheveled state.
Sig actually hoped that Pizarro would be captured alive. Not only could he then manipulate Pizarro to cause trouble, but Kaido would definitely not be able to bear losing face like that and would chase after him no matter where he was.
However, Sig didn't want to be discovered at this moment, so he didn't use "Frenzy" to force his way in...
In the past, Sig would have been more confident of escaping and might have taken the gamble, but now... Sig was reluctant to Caesar!
The principles behind Artificial Devil Fruit have value beyond just research; they also provide crucial guidance for developing Devil Fruit ability.
There were quite a few people on the ship who knew Observation Haki, Doflamingo even Awakening Conqueror's Haki when he was a child. Sig didn't want to take such a big risk.
Because no one needs to sense the hint of "Frenzy," just the fact that Sieg is aware of something in Gladius's shadow is enough to Sig a run for his money!
Anyway, now that Pizarro has been defeated, Kaido certainly won't let it go easily, Sig didn't do anything unnecessary.
Now, aboard the Numancia Flamingo, although they have just repelled a "powerful enemy," the atmosphere has become much more tense.
Doflamingo initially thought that Kaido a brute, and even in terms of fists, he was only slightly bigger than him, but in terms of brains... tsk tsk.
However, now one of Kaido's subordinates almost splattered his brains out, so you can imagine the psychological blow Doflamingo suffered.
However, it's not exactly a major blow...
Because Doflamingo isn't much stronger than Pica now. In fact, he only caught up with Pica a few years ago after the String-String Fruit Devil Fruit Awakening. For the first few years, Doflamingo's fighting power was inferior to his subordinates who were attracted by the "Kingly Aura"!
So now Doflamingo can still Rian himself...
I estimate that Kaido is about the same as Pizarro, the King of Tyranny. To be roughly equal, he's not much stronger than me. Even if I can't beat him, I can still escape!
The others, on the contrary, felt even heavier, but soon, led by Doflamingo, they continued to play music and dance...
In contrast, Caesar, who continues his research on Artificial Devil Fruit on the Numancia Flamingo with less-than-perfect equipment, has recently become somewhat mentally unstable.
For some reason, Caesar sometimes felt as if he had an "assistant" by his side, someone he was grooming, not only giving him access to core research materials but also always answering his questions.
But when he calmed down, Caesar knew all too well—he had no assistants at all.
This led Caesar to suspect that he had been working too hard lately, so he adjusted his work schedule from six hours to four hours and took a day off every other day... It turns out that being too diligent is not a good thing!
Sig was also helpless; this was only the result of his "Psychological Suggestion," otherwise Caesar would have been much more lazy than he is now.
After all, in the original work, this was the kind of person who dared to produce only perfunctory results, swindle Big Mom out of her funding, and then indulge in a life of debauchery and pleasure...
March 25, 1510.
These past few days, Caesar has been forced to work six hours a day on research, and Caesar's started to suspect he's ill, becoming increasingly neurotic. It seems we can't push him any further.
This guy does have some real skills. Although he's always "stealing" Vegapunk's research, not just anyone can steal it. If you put an Artificial Azure Dragon Fruit researcher in front of them, they wouldn't understand it.
March 26, 1510.
Perhaps because I took the "Artificial Azure Dragon Fruit," Caesar's research progress has slowed down considerably, and he's even... started to take a wrong turn. I suspect that the "Artificial Devil Fruit" technology he created in the original work is a "degraded version" of Vegapunk's "failure"!
Without Vegapunk's technical guidance, things would immediately fall apart...
Combining what I heard about the "Artificial Azure Dragon Fruit" with Caesar's teachings to me, his "assistant," I've finally come to understand the matter of Artificial Devil Fruit quite well.
The "Artificial Azure Dragon Fruit" certainly has problems, but it can't be considered a "failure." It's likely that Vegapunk, for some unknown reason, no longer wants to create this type of fruit.
April 1, 1510.
Today I'm starting to use the knowledge I've gained about the "Artificial Azure Dragon Fruit" to begin modifying my body...
I hadn't tried it before because I was worried about the side effects.
However, it now appears that the biggest problem with the Artificial Azure Dragon Fruit sample is that it is prone to getting out of control, and the changes to Lineage Factor are too abrupt and lack restrictions—from a mystical perspective, it is the "Devil" within it, with a blank consciousness!
Technically, my understanding may not be as profound as Vegapunk's, but I can observe it from Subordinate Deity perspective.
The Devil's blank consciousness means there is no concept of "acceptance" or "disapproval." Eating the fruit is equivalent to "Awakening," without any restrictions.
As seen in the original work, the "Jailer Beast" demonstrates, there's a high probability that Awakening Zoan Devil Fruit user will fail.
The reason is probably that the threshold for "recognition" of Zoan Devil is relatively low. Once Awakening, the user may not be able to withstand the unrestricted Devil Fruit ability and the changes to their Lineage Factor.
Devil without consciousness is naturally even more so...
Therefore, Vegapunk added certain restrictions to this "Artificial Azure Dragon Fruit," which means that the user cannot instantly gain the complete Devil Fruit ability like a normal Devil Fruit. Instead, the effects will gradually take effect on the Lineage Factor.
As for me, there's even less to worry about. I wasn't planning to eat it directly anyway...