-September 1518, Secret Artificial Sky Island X
"...Huh?"
A pirate captain groggily opened his eyes. His head was foggy, and for a moment, he had no idea what had happened to him.
All he remembered was taking his underlings to rob a wild town in a Non-Affiliated Nation region that didn't even qualify as a country, minding his own business.
Then a few burly men in black, wearing strange purple helmets with vertical stripes... huh?
"Shurorororo! His constitution's a little stronger than I expected. Heehee, increase the dosage!"
The pirate captain realized he was strapped to some kind of table. Beneath the harsh, cool-white light, a deathly pale, ugly face came into view.
"Ugh-hm↓ hm↑ hm↑ urgh↗ aah↗ aah↗ aah↗"
Beneath the cool-white LED Shadowless Lamp, Caesar snickered mockingly at the pirate howling on the operating table.
This was an operating room in the biological research area. Its walls were covered in corrosion-resistant resin, and its floor was laid with light-gray antistatic flooring.
"Understood, Mr. Caesar."
A slightly thin Praying Hands, dressed in a strange black outfit that covered his entire body, took out a syringe of anesthetic and promptly injected the pirate.
It wasn't that they feared the pirate would suffer and were administering anesthesia out of humanitarian concern. His struggling was simply a nuisance, so one injection settled the matter.
"We've been running a little short on 'materials' lately. Find a way to get more. Honestly, can't you look beyond pirates?"
Bondrewd's image as someone outwardly elegant and courteous, yet utterly insane beneath the surface, was deeply ingrained in Caesar's mind.
It therefore never occurred to him that Bondrewd refrained from abducting ordinary people for moral reasons. He simply thought Bondrewd was being too cautious.
"Mr. Caesar. Mr. Bondrewd is here. He needs you to come see him."