This left Vladimir with no choice but to conduct the interrogation in his identity as the Emperor of Sands.
Inside the spacious and empty room, the giant wolf-dog was chained up, baring its fangs and snarling furiously at Vladimir.
"Bastard! Bring out that Uchiha Itachi from last night! I refuse to accept this!"
"Hehehe..."
Vladimir let out a low chuckle and said, "You're really insulting my intelligence."
"Who exactly are you within Phantom?" Polu roared. However, his injuries were too severe, preventing him from struggling too violently.
"I am Azir, the Emperor of Sands."
As he spoke, Vladimir suddenly swung his golden staff and struck out hard.
Bang!
With a heavy thud, Polu was hit squarely on the head, seeing stars and becoming dizzy and disoriented.
"You...!"
"If you keep yelling," Vladimir said calmly, "I wouldn't mind introducing you to some much more interesting forms of pain."
"Polu, Captain of the Poison Wolf Pirates. Eight years ago, your bounty stood at 899,000,000 Berries. You are a Zoan user of the Dog-Dog Fruit Model: Wolf. You once clashed with the Whitebeard Pirates and were utterly defeated, after which you completely vanished from the world."
Hearing this, Polu sneered, "Your intelligence network works fast. You dug all this up in just one night, huh?"
"It was just a matter of making a single phone call."
Vladimir smiled, completely unfazed by the mockery.
He had simply called Doflamingo earlier, and within moments, all the information had been collected and sent over.
"Your condition is quite unusual," Vladimir continued. "You're clearly an awakened Zoan user, yet you seem unable to revert back to your human form? And furthermore... your Devil Fruit ability shouldn't allow you to use poison, should it?"
Polu was momentarily stunned. Suddenly, he bared his teeth in a grin and asked, "You want to know why?"
Bang!
Another heavy blow from the staff struck him, knocking the huge wolf-dog flat onto the ground.
Only then did Vladimir speak leisurely, "You tell me, and you get to live. If you refuse, you're useless to me. Tell me... do you think we'd waste food keeping something that has no value?"
"I'll talk! I'll talk!" Polu quickly backed down, completely losing his bravado. "But... once I tell you everything, you can't kill me. You have to let me go. Actually... on second thought, don't let me go just yet. If you release me now, Big Mark will definitely find me again and take control of me!"
"Agreed."
"Good. I suppose the reputation of Phantom counts for something—I trust your word."
Polu struggled back into a sitting position and said, "It's true. I ate a form of the Dog-Dog Fruit. Originally, it had absolutely nothing to do with poison. The reason I can use venom is because... the fruit I consumed had been artificially modified."
"Modified?" Vladimir couldn't help but feel a spark of curiosity.
"Exactly!" Polu nodded vigorously. "No one knows exactly when Devil Fruits first appeared in this world. But throughout the long stretch of history, people have constantly been researching them. They want to uncover the secrets behind these fruits, hoping to gain power great enough to rule the entire world."
"Interesting... go on." Vladimir became slightly more interested.
"During all that research, people came up with three main approaches."
"The first is simple: trying to make a single person eat multiple fruits—in other words, creating dual-ability users. But so far, nobody has ever succeeded. Anyone who eats a second fruit dies instantly."
"The second method is creating Artificial Devil Fruits. For example, extracting genes from someone who ate the Glint-Glint Fruit and turning them into light. You use those genes to manufacture a new 'Glint-Glint Fruit'. This idea caused quite a stir back in the day, but ultimately, it ended in failure."
"Right now, only Dr. Vegapunk of the Marines is still researching this field, but the chance of him succeeding is practically zero."
This piece of information actually reminded Vladimir of the Marines' Pacifista project. Of course, at this point in time, those artificial human weapons were likely still deep in the laboratory phase. After all, Bartholomew Kuma had only recently become a Warlord.
"And the third method is taking an existing Devil Fruit and artificially altering its properties. You can add new abilities to it—things like poison, lightning, fire, ice... anything you can imagine."
"The third method was actually successful," Polu stated calmly. "And I... I am the result of that success."
"The Dog-Dog Fruit I ate was modified to contain the power of poison. But there was a heavy price to pay. It became incredibly difficult for me to control my transformations. Ever since awakening my abilities, I have almost completely lost the ability to turn back into a human form. As far as I know... I am the only successful test subject in existence."
After hearing this account, Vladimir couldn't help but be quite surprised. "Modified Devil Fruits?"
This was the first time he had ever heard of such a thing. He himself was currently researching artificial Zoan fruits and had made some small progress, though he was still a long way from creating a successful one.
But modifying existing Devil Fruits... this technology had actually already been perfected? Was it the Marines behind this? Or perhaps some other brilliant scientist?
As if reading Vladimir's thoughts, Polu shook his head. "It wasn't science or technology. It was the power of a Devil Fruit user—the Modify-Modify Fruit. It belonged to a man from the same era as Gol D. Roger. One of the strongest men in the world back then, who eventually lost to Roger and had to settle for being the 'Runner-Up'."
There was a distinct tone of sarcasm in his voice.
After a pause, he added, "You guys are so crazy about collecting Devil Fruits... surely you've heard of some of the special ones, haven't you? The Modify-Modify Fruit is one of them. There's also the Op-Op Fruit, also known as the 'Immortality Fruit'. Its user can grant eternal life to another human being. Apart from those, there are also the Dark-Dark Fruit, the Time-Time Fruit, and quite a few others."
The Op-Op Fruit and the Dark-Dark Fruit... Vladimir was well aware of them, and he knew exactly who was destined to eat them in the future.
"A Modify-Modify Fruit user?"
He pondered for a moment, then shook his head. "Truly, Devil Fruits are full of endless surprises. Who would have thought there was an ability capable of altering other Devil Fruits?"
Still, this information wasn't particularly useful to him.
He didn't need any specific types of abilities. What he needed most right now was sheer quantity.
Besides, it seemed the success rate of modification was extremely low. As Polu himself said, he was the only successful example to date.
"I thought I might get some valuable intel," Vladimir mused inwardly. "Seems like I was expecting too much."
Having reached this conclusion, he completely ignored Polu, turned around, and walked out of the room.
"Next step... I'll sell off the Five Elders first. Then choose a venue and start preparations for the Greatest Auction Under Heaven!"
...
The Modify-Modify Fruit was indeed very interesting, but for Vladimir personally, it wasn't of much practical use.
The side effects were simply too severe—just like with Polu. Being unable to change back to human form was a massive drawback. It hardly seemed worth the trade-off.
Therefore, Vladimir lost interest in questioning Polu any further. He instructed Robin to keep him under strict guard, then prepared to leave.
He intended to go meet Dragon of the Revolutionary Army, conduct the transaction, and sell the captives—the Five Elders—who were currently in his possession.
____________________
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