Looking at the clearly abnormal Queen, Kate raised a hand and pointed at her head. After living together for so many years, she and Oran had developed quite a bit of tacit understanding. The meaning was obvious.
Was this guy crazy?
At the same time, Kate had already taken the custom firearm from her back into her hands. Queen's bizarre fit made her uneasy. She always felt there was some kind of scheme behind it.
"What the hell are you going crazy for? Did a failed experiment fry your brain?"
Oran's eyes were full of disdain, but he still gestured for Kate to put her gun away first. He wanted to see what Queen and the others were planning this time.
"Queen! You bastard, did you forget what we discussed before?"
"Before was before, now is now. Oran, I've actually always admired your skills. It was that bastard Judge who deceived me back then and caused this misunderstanding between us!"
Ignoring Judge and Caesar's anger, Queen seemed determined to draw a righteous line between himself and them.
But Oran did not believe a single word of it. Nothing this bunch of shameless people did would surprise him.
"It's the funding. Doflamingo said before he left that the funding would be doubled from now on, but you would have full say over how the additional portion was used.
Would you mind letting me use some of it too? I may not be as professional as you, but I'm quite interested in science myself."
Leaning against the doorway, Bakin gave them the answer. Doflamingo was a businessman. In his eyes, Oran could generate greater profits for him, so he had handed Oran full authority over the allocation of those funds.
Doflamingo had thought of it suddenly before leaving and had not specifically come back to tell Oran, but everyone on the ship already knew about it.
"First, make your own share worth something. If you really have the ability to develop something valuable enough, I don't mind giving you a larger share."
Oran neither directly refused nor agreed to any of them. He merely left them with an open-ended answer, then left with Kate. The experiment he had on hand was not finished yet.
As for the others, they did not react too strongly. At least Oran had left an opening for them. But not long after Oran left, Queen and the others started fighting again.
It began when Caesar mocked Queen for throwing away his dignity and still failing to get any money, which eventually made Queen fly into a rage and sparked a new round of conflict.
Time passed. While Doflamingo promoted MADS's achievements and prepared to nominate it for the Ybel Prize, MADS's research never stopped. Inside Oran's laboratory, a humanoid body had already been completed.
Compared with Blitz, this robot body was slimmer and looked more human.
As the gears turned, the robot's joints began to move as well. Blitz's eyes flickered constantly beside it. He could sense that this life yet to be "born" was family more closely connected to him.
The gears continued to turn, and the clashing of metal components was the most beautiful melody in Oran's ears.
"Kate, do you remember what I didn't finish saying some time ago?"
"The matter about Madam Grey? I remember. Queen's little freakout interrupted it afterward.
You said we needed to temporarily borrow these powers and prepare for the future."
Scratching her chin, Kate roughly repeated Oran's words.
"Yes, just like the gears inside this machine. They interlock and operate as a whole. If one of them gets jammed at a time like this—"
Oran picked up a wrench from the side and jammed an inconspicuous gear, causing the entire gear assembly to stop turning at once.
"The whole system stops functioning. The current World Government is just such a machine, and one with formidable military power. It would still be difficult for just a few of us to confront it head-on.
So for now, we need to disguise ourselves as ordinary gears, 'understand' them, integrate with them, become an inseparable part of their interest group, and then reverse our rotation at the right moment."
As the gears inside the body reversed their direction, the body performed a completely different movement.
"When that time comes, we will reshuffle this entire system. Truth has always existed only upon the edge of a sword. When this sharp blade has been honed and drawn, that will be the time for us to reap the harvest."
"Then I'll be your sharpest sword, meow. No matter what happens, I'll stand firmly by your side, meow!"
The Mink Tribe was naturally stubborn. Put harshly, they were prone to digging in their heels. Once they had set their minds on something, they would never give up.
For gratitude and for revenge, Kate and Oran had already become bound together.
"Blitz too."
As if he felt neglected, Blitz extended his large hand and expressed his stance alongside them.
Building the body was only one part of it. With MADS's equipment, this new body was no worse than Blitz, who had largely been assembled by hand. Each had its own advantages. The crucial point was always the core.
Whether it was Blitz's core or Kate's heart, both were classified as Hex Type I in Oran's plans. Today, however, was the time for Oran to test the upgraded version.
MADS had many research projects, one of which was to grant inanimate objects the abilities of Devil Fruits.
Sometimes, all research lacked was a single line of thought, and Oran's memories happened to fill in those gaps, such as the special nature of Zoan Type fruits.
It was still unknown what the situation was with Paramecia and Logia Type fruits, but it was certain that Zoan Type fruits possessed independent consciousness. That was why they could fuse with weapons and turn them into conscious weapons.
Not long ago, Vegapunk had already achieved this, while Oran was attempting something else.
There was still no conclusion as to whether Paramecia Devil Fruits possessed consciousness. Perhaps they did not, perhaps they did, but it was not as obvious as with Zoan Type fruits.
But setting that question aside, Hex Cores had the ability to grant consciousness to machines. When the two were combined, what would be born was a Hex Type II Core. In the end, it would achieve the same effect as a weapon that had eaten a Zoan Type Devil Fruit.
"But Oran, where are you going to install her core? This core is Blitz's size, isn't it?"
Oran had now completed the first step, specially fusing the fruit and the core. But after looking over the body on the experiment table, Kate could not imagine how the core would be installed. Oran did not seem to have reserved a socket for it.
"Hextech is a very special science. Sometimes, it defies common sense. For example, the core doesn't necessarily have to be inside the body."
He installed the core into a metal handle that had been prepared long ago. It looked like a peculiar warhammer as a whole. As electricity began to surge across the experiment table, the core at the hammerhead began to shine.
"Open your eyes and see this new world, Frankenstein."
(End of chapter)
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