After a brief moment of shock, Xie Wen quickly caught on.
The Dudu's previous refits had all been carried out at the Galley-La Company in Water 7, and several members of Cipher Pol No. 9 had been hiding within that company. Besides, much of the technology behind its transformation had come from Germa, and Judge had previously been Vegapunk's colleague.
Even though Xie Wen had deliberately concealed some of the core technology during construction, working backward to derive the remaining parts from the technology he had traded to the Galley-La Company and Vegapunk's knowledge of Germa's technology should still have been quite easy for the World Government and Vegapunk.
In any case, their Research Commission had also milked plenty out of Vegapunk, and Xie Wen planned to keep doing so in the future, so he did not actually care all that much that the World Government had learned the Dudu's technology.
Of course, he still had to put on the appropriate front.
"I think I need an explanation."
Xie Wen looked at Kizaru with a smile.
"Oh my~ How scary~ Young Xie Wen." Kizaru raised both hands and explained in that insufferable tone of his, "But we purchased the blueprints for this Transforming Battleship through legitimate channels in Water 7. Then the World Government's scientists made a few small improvements based on those blueprints. Look closely, and you'll see that it's actually quite different from your ship."
Wasn't that fucking obvious? Who copied stolen technology exactly as it was?
Xie Wen rolled his eyes speechlessly.
Besides, they had added quite a few useless cosmetic features back then to make their "Valstrax" look more like a Valstrax. On top of that, the Marine warship before him clearly had not been built from Treasure Tree Adam, so some adjustments were certainly necessary.