The next day, in the courtyard of the queen's palace, everyone was silently eating breakfast.
The atmosphere was somewhat strange.
Page One kept sneaking glances at his sister.
Ulti seemed to be locked in a battle with the meat buns before her.
She devoured the enormous plate piled high with dozens of large meat buns—taller than a person—one after another, swallowing them whole like a starving ghost reincarnated.
She kept her head down, focused solely on gulping down the buns, showing none of her usual chatterbox nature.
After watching for a long time, Page One finally mustered his courage and cautiously whispered.
"Sis, what did you do last night? You're so hungry—seems like you expended a lot of energy."
Thump!
Page One fell flat on his back, a snow-white bun hitting him square in the forehead, splattering the meat filling inside.
At the table, Ulti's face was pitch black, still frozen in a waving gesture…
At the head of the table, Caesar remained expressionless, dumping an entire plate of meat buns into his mouth with a clatter.
Beside him on the floor, a stack of large plates had already piled up over two meters high.
Hiyori sat beside him, nibbling on her bun like a kitten.
However, her shoulders trembled slightly…
Kiku glanced at Hiyori with concern and asked softly.
"Your Majesty, is something troubling you?"
Pfft!
The next moment, Hiyori could no longer hold back, spitting the meat filling in her mouth all over Kiku's face.
Kiku blinked, her face covered in meat filling, looking utterly bewildered.
"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. Let me help you wipe it off."
Hiyori quickly stood up, grabbed a tissue from the table, and reached toward Kiku.
"It's alright, it's alright, Your Majesty. Please sit. I can manage on my own."
Kiku dodged Hiyori's gesture and picked up a tissue to wipe her face herself.
As she cleaned the mess off her face, Kiku glanced at Caesar, who was devouring food ravenously.
Her eyes flickered, and her expression seemed hesitant, as if she wanted to say something but held back.
After a while, Kiku couldn't resist and spoke to Caesar, "Caesar-sama, if I may be so bold…"
"Hmm? What is it?"
Caesar poured another plateful—dozens of meat buns—into his mouth, stuffing his cheeks until they bulged.
His temples throbbed as he chewed incessantly.
Kiku sat up straight and said solemnly, "Though I may be overstepping, I must say this: Her Majesty the Queen is delicate and not a warrior. She cannot endure rough treatment. If possible, I would like to request that you refrain from using violence against Her Majesty in the future."
Caesar stopped chewing, looking baffled. "What?"
Seeing that Caesar seemed unwilling to admit it, Kiku gritted her teeth and continued.
"I was on night watch outside the palace last night, and I heard everything clearly. It seemed as though you spent the entire night whipping Her Majesty, as well as Black Maria and Ulti. Striking women does not demonstrate a man's valor! Your strength is already widely recognized, so…"
Pfft—!
Caesar spat out all the dozens of buns he had been chewing in an instant.
Kiku was completely dumbfounded, her entire body covered in the chewed-up meat buns.
Only her two bewildered eyes were visible.
...
After breakfast, Caesar finally remembered that back at Udon, he had thrown the memory-wiped Kuma from mid-air.
The area had been turned into a crater, and he had no idea whether Kuma had been killed or not.
Even if he survived, he might have fallen into a bottomless fissure.
Although Caesar didn't particularly care about Kuma's combat prowess, Kuma's mind still contained the compressed memory fragments he had stored.
These were related to Vegapunk's scientific modification experiments.
Even though the World Government had already relegated the Pacifistas to a secondary role and developed the SSG unit, said to rival the Seven Warlords in combat power, these memories still held significant reference value for unconventional researchers like Judge and others.
Thus, Caesar ordered Page One, Black Maria, Ulti, and Kiku to search for Kuma's whereabouts in the ruins of Udon.
As for himself, he took Hiyori and headed to the Flower Capital.
As for Law, he was ordered by Caesar to garrison Boro Town.
If any unexpected situations arose, he was to desperately hold back the enemy at all costs.
With Law's current bizarre Ope Ope Fruit abilities, any fighters below the top-tier level would find no advantage against him.
...
Tens of kilometers away from the offshore waters of Wano Country, ten thousand meters high in the sky.
The floating giant sky island.
"Roar! Roar!"
Shiki and Indigo watched with gleaming eyes as the giant gorilla, Scarerdo, roared repeatedly toward the sky on the vast open ground before them.
This gorilla had followed Shiki for many years.
Although it couldn't speak human language, it was extremely intelligent, possessing wisdom no less than that of humans.
Its strength was also quite impressive.
It was the only animal with a brain created by Indigo on Verumeo Island through IQ experiments.
But now, the gorilla on the open ground looked completely different from its previous three-meter-tall form.
This was a twenty-meter-tall gorilla, exuding a violent aura, with massive muscle bulges covering its body and limbs as thick as giant stone pillars.
Its crimson fur carried an ominous aura.
"Jeehahaha! Scarerdo, how do you feel? Your aura has grown by more than tenfold! This is truly incredible, Indigo! We've succeeded! Jeehahaha, we've finally succeeded!"
Shiki, with half a ship's helm stuck in his head like a rooster's comb, laughed maniacally.
"It truly is unbelievable!"
Indigo was also brimming with excitement, feeling immensely thrilled as he gazed at the ferocious and immensely powerful crimson-haired giant ape before him.
This was the result of his sleepless night of hard work.
His interest had been piqued by the strange fish brought back by Kittakimo yesterday.
So, throughout the night, Indigo had been studying the blood of those strange fish.
He conducted experiment after experiment, each time arriving at the same conclusion.
The blood inside these strange fish was not compatible with their own bodies.
In other words, the blood was foreign.
Although it had mixed into the fish's bodies and caused mutations, it still remained incompatible with the fish's own blood.
Perhaps this blood came from some special creature or a deceased super beast.
When Indigo accidentally fused this bizarre blood, extracted from the strange fish, with the IQ serum he had been developing for over a decade—
A shocking result emerged!
The blood and the IQ serum merged almost perfectly.
The violent energy contained in the blood collided with the similar violent energy in the IQ serum, resulting in a strange neutralization!
The reason it was "almost" perfect was that the combined forces still caused the test subjects to become agitated, hyperactive, and bloodthirsty.
However, the increase in strength was dozens of times greater than the effect of the pure IQ serum!
"If I can get more of this blood and continue researching for a while, I can create a fully upgraded version of the IQ serum. It would be a powerful formula with no side effects, and it could even be used to enhance the human body!"
Indigo's eyes shone with extreme excitement!
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