In fact, Vegapunk had noticed them as soon as Xie Wen and the others activated the first machine, but since they had remained invisible the whole time, he could not determine exactly who they were.
However, after observing what these "invisible people" were doing for a while, Vegapunk had more or less guessed their identities.
After all...
Aside from the Palico Research Commission, a group whose style differed from most people's, there did not seem to be anyone else who would come to Egghead Island at a time like this to try out its various facilities instead of fighting or searching for him.
Vegapunk's opinion of Xie Wen was completely different from the World Government's.
First of all, he did not think it was any big deal that Xie Wen had taken his technology.
Judging by his actions so far, even after obtaining the technology on Punk Hazard and even Baldimore, Xie Wen had shown considerable restraint. He had neither abused it nor spread it around, and had instead made quite a few improvements that even impressed Vegapunk.
Secondly, Xie Wen's actions were relatively consistent with Vegapunk's values.
Although he himself had joined the World Government for research funding and other reasons, that did not mean he was of one mind with them. In fact, after visiting Saint Mary Geoise once, he had felt nothing but disgust for the Celestial Dragons, and Xie Wen never showed any mercy when killing them.
Finally, and most importantly, he was very interested in the "Cat Mink" accompanying Xie Wen, who had reproduced and improved his technology and also had quite a few inventions of her own.
For all these reasons, Vegapunk's main body had chosen to use the spatial transfer technology still under development and appear before them in person, despite several of