Outside the borders of Xandrei, in a hidden valley, stood a grayish-white three-story building.
From the outside, it looked like an abandoned warehouse, but anyone familiar with the place would find its security suffocatingly tight.
This was one of the Biotechnology Research Institutes secretly established by the World Government in the South Blue. Officially, it researched medical technology; in reality, it conducted all kinds of forbidden experiments.
At that moment, a fierce argument had broken out inside the institute.
"Idiots! You're all complete and utter idiots!"
The roar came from the main laboratory on the second floor. An astonishingly obese man stood on a raised platform, his hair a tangled bird's nest, food scraps still clinging to his beard. His white lab coat was stretched tight over his round belly, its buttons looking ready to burst off at any moment.
"You actually used a Mythical Zoan for an experiment?! You made an object eat a Devil Fruit?! And you fucking succeeded?!"
The fat supervisor's spit nearly sprayed across the faces of the scientists below.
More than a dozen researchers in white coats kept their heads lowered like schoolchildren being disciplined. Not one dared to look up and argue back.
Their mistake had been far too outrageous.
Three months ago, the institute had unexpectedly acquired a Zoan Mythical Species Devil Fruit. As for exactly what mythical creature it represented, even they had not fully figured it out.
By standard procedure, such a precious specimen should have been sealed away immediately and reported to World Government headquarters for further instructions.
But the leader of the project, a young scientist, had proposed a mad idea:
Use this Mythical Zoan fruit to attempt an Object Devil Fruit Consumption experiment.
Even crazier, they had actually succeeded.
An ordinary steel pen had truly eaten the Devil