"He reports his progress periodically, and the latest report said he had a breakthrough," the bald man replied cautiously.
Vladimir offered no comment. The implication was that it hadn't been successful yet.
Immediately, led by the bald man, he entered the laboratory.
Inside the laboratory, Caesar stood outside a cage, feeding a Devil Fruit to a leopard.
After being forcibly fed the fruit, the leopard's eyes suddenly turned fierce. Moments later, its body began to mutate. Its claws became stronger, its teeth started to lengthen, its fur turned white, and its entire body trembled, undergoing various strange changes.
"Heeheehee… Little kitty, transform obediently!" Caesar let out a sinister laugh.
But as soon as he finished speaking, the leopard roared and then fainted.
"It's like this again! Damn it!"
Caesar said irritably, "What's going wrong?"
Suddenly, his gaze fell upon the figure at the entrance, and he immediately shuddered. "Li… Lich King!"
Vladimir ignored him and had his phantom gene perform a scan.
"Scanning… Scan complete. Detected mysterious power, very weak. Location…"
The phantom gene's response pointed to the remaining half of the Devil Fruit.
Vladimir walked over and looked down. "Is this an artificial Devil Fruit?"
"No… no, no, it's just a semi-finished product!" Caesar took a deep breath and quickly said, "Give me a little more time, and I can definitely create a finished product! I've already grasped the key to the technology, allowing ordinary fruits to generate strange powers like Devil Fruits, but this power is still unstable."
With a normal Devil Fruit, eating a bite would transfer the fruit's power into the human body.
But with this artificial one, eating a bite meant consuming a bite's worth of power, leaving residual energy.
Of course, this was only one problem. What truly troubled Caesar was that no experimental subject could withstand this artificial Zoan Devil Fruit. In the last few experiments, the subjects had fainted and died within a few days.
"Hmm, well done." Vladimir nodded and patted Caesar's shoulder. "I had already planned to give up on you, but I didn't expect you to be somewhat useful."
"Uh…" Caesar felt a chill run through his body and shivered.
"Your artificial Zoan is very similar to gene modification. But it doesn't matter. Continue experimenting. As long as you succeed, you will naturally benefit, and you will be granted freedom."
Vladimir offered a word of encouragement and then turned to leave.
After discovering that killing an ability user could allow Devil Fruits to parasitize, his urgency for artificial Zoan Devil Fruits had lessened.
Seeing that Caesar had made some breakthrough, he was somewhat pleased.
"Barian, keep a close eye on him. Don't let him have any chance to escape."
Vladimir instructed the bald man, then returned to his room.
The next moment, he transformed, becoming the Fearful Great Demon King.
He took out the ten Devil Fruits and placed them on the table one by one, pondering which transformation to upgrade.
Upgrading the four-star Archangel required 12 fruits, which wasn't enough. However, upgrading the five-star Shadow Fiend was sufficient.
"Five-star Shadow Fiend… that would allow me to activate the two-star Phantom God. I'll upgrade Shadow Fiend first!"
As he was thinking, Vladimir's mind stirred, and he felt dozens, even hundreds, of summons.
These summons called out the name of the Fearful Great Demon King.
Among them was Sengoku, whom Vladimir was familiar with.
After a moment of contemplation, Vladimir reacted and immediately chuckled. "They're quite cautious, aren't they? They heard what I said during the day and are already trying to verify the truth tonight? Well, it's a good opportunity to play along!"
His eyes flashed, and Vladimir immediately responded to the summons. Then, the scenery changed, and he simultaneously invaded the dreams of dozens, even hundreds, of people.
"I am the Fearful Great Demon King. Humans, this is our third meeting!"
Looking at Vladimir, who had suddenly appeared, Sengoku's expression changed slightly.
"It really is true. And of course, the Phantom Organization wouldn't lie in such an obvious situation!"
Thinking this, Sengoku snorted and transformed into a golden Great Buddha, striking at Vladimir with a palm.
"Fearful Great Demon King, today I will suppress you!"
...
Boom!
Dozens, even hundreds, of dream worlds shattered simultaneously. Under the power of the Fearful Great Demon King, the spread of fear was remarkably smooth.
"Great Demon King!!"
Sengoku roared in anger, killed once again, struck down with a palm, and his dream collapsed along with him.
He had intended to experiment, to inflict some minor injury on the Fearful Great Demon King, and see if he would recover when they met in dreams again.
However, after a fierce battle, he was instantly killed.
In a dream, could the Fearful Great Demon King be defeated by human strength? Let alone killing him, just encountering him was a miracle!
In a lounge in Marineford's headquarters building, Sengoku suddenly woke up, drenched in sweat.
"Damn it!" he gritted his teeth and whispered. "My dream was shattered with a single palm strike. How can I inflict an injury on such an opponent? It's impossible!"
He was both shocked and enraged. After a while, he looked around.
In the lounge, there were dozens, even hundreds, of Marine officers. These were the main combat forces of the headquarters. At this moment, they were all lying down, trapped in nightmares.
Soon, these people also woke up one by one, all with dazed and terrified expressions.
"That's the Fearful Great Demon King?!"
"Can this monster be killed? It's impossible to kill!"
"He can sink the earth with a single finger!"
Everyone had nightmares. They looked at each other, still filled with profound disbelief.
At this point, there was no need to say anything more. Everyone knew that the Fearful Great Demon King truly existed.
____________________
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