Reddy looked at the gene sample of Golden Lion Shiki in the gene bank, feeling satisfied as he took stock of the gains from the past seven months.
First was the energy reserve.
For a full six months, he had increased his meals and portions, and even the Flying Pirate Group had halted most of their activities, focusing solely on hunting Sea Kings for him.
The only regret was that the Sea Kings hunted by the Flying Pirate Group varied in size, so the energy they provided was not entirely stable.
In exchange, he now had over 19 million points of reserve energy.
"Give me a gene sample and enough energy, and I can do anything I want!" Reddy glanced at the clone Bill standing quietly in the corner of the laboratory, his heart burning with excitement.
By his estimate, the LV11 clone Bill had strength roughly comparable to a Marine Rear Admiral, though it lacked mastery of Haki.
This clone had consumed about 200,000 points of reserve energy.
But this was far from enough to realize his ideal.
He wanted elite forces, but he also needed numbers.
Only by building a massive, invincible army could he fend off the greed of pirates and the covetous eyes of the World Government.
Based on his current energy reserves, he could only produce about 95 clone Bills.
This level of power would allow him to enjoy freedom, but it wouldn't be enough to fully protect the utopia he wanted to build.
Reddy calmed his surging emotions and sent Golden Lion Shiki's gene sample into the gene analysis laboratory.
[Warning: Contaminated gene detected. Please proceed to the gene editing laboratory for immediate removal.]
"What the hell?"
Reddy froze at the prompt and carefully examined the double-helix DNA strand in the window.
Sure enough, aside from the seven colors, there were also black segments on the DNA strand.
These black gene fragments were not independent but mixed in with other gene segments. At a glance, they were easy to miss.
"Could it be a Devil Fruit?"
Golden Lion Shiki's abilities weren't complicated, and Reddy immediately thought of Devil Fruits as the likely culprit.
He promptly sent the gene sample to the gene editing laboratory for extraction and editing.
The power of his golden finger left Reddy deeply impressed.
Even though the black gene fragments were scattered throughout the entire DNA strand, they were still completely and cleanly extracted.
After isolating a segment of the black gene fragments and moving them to a separate window, Reddy observed them closely.
The black gene fragments only maintained their form for a short while before transforming into a black mass, no longer recognizable as genetic material.
"Let's set this aside for now."
Despite the mystery of the black mass, Reddy suppressed his curiosity, stored it in the gene bank, and then sent the cleaned gene sample back to the gene analysis laboratory for parsing.
[Gene Rating: LV13]
Seeing the result, Reddy exclaimed in delight, "It really is LV13. The strength ceiling should be comparable to an Admiral... What kind of enhancements should I apply to the clone?"
Various enhancement plans he had previously researched flashed through Reddy's mind, but he dismissed them all.
Golden Lion Shiki's stats were already impeccable in every aspect.
The fact that he could keep the Floating Islands airborne year-round without rest proved that his stamina was monstrous.
Back in the day, Golden Lion Shiki had been one of the world's greatest swordsmen, meaning his swordsmanship talent was maxed out.
If not for his loss in the Edd War due to bad luck, Roger might never have become the Pirate King.
A monster of this caliber was undoubtedly on the level of a Yonko.
He was practically perfect.
With such a perfect gene, there seemed to be no need to fuse it with other gene fragments to create a new monster.
"Why should I create another Golden Lion?"
Just as Reddy was about to send the gene sample to the clone factory for production, a brilliant idea struck him. He immediately began gene editing.
He retrieved his own gene sample from the gene bank, placed it in the gene editing laboratory, and inserted the extracted gene fragments into it.
After completing the edits, he sent the new gene sample to the gene analysis laboratory for parsing.
[Gene Rating: LV13]
Seeing the result, Reddy sighed in relief. Thankfully, his own genes didn't drag down the rating, maintaining Golden Lion Shiki's LV13 level.
Produce clone.
Implant chip.
Just the production step alone consumed nearly 410,000 points of energy.
Reddy took a deep breath and calmly sent the clone to the enhancement workshop for the final step.
Another 410,000 points of energy were consumed.
But when the completed clone stood before him, Reddy felt it was all worth it.
The clone's appearance was practically identical to his own. Its harmless looks would fool anyone into thinking it was just an ordinary person, not a monster with strength rivaling Golden Lion Shiki.
"Wait, what's this?"
While admiring his greatest masterpiece yet, Reddy realized he had overlooked a few prompts.
[Armament Haki module detected. Transferred to the chip laboratory.]
[Observation Haki module detected. Transferred to the chip laboratory.]
[Swordsmanship module detected. Transferred to the chip laboratory.]
Reddy switched to the chip laboratory and entered the chip development section.
Sure enough, three new items had appeared in the development list.
[Armament Haki Module (Not Developed)]
[Observation Haki Module (Not Developed)]
[Swordsmanship Module (Not Developed)]
Without hesitation, Reddy selected all three for development.
A flurry of prompts appeared, too many to read at once, before finally displaying three progress bars.
Reddy scrolled back up and sighed.
Developing the three modules had cost him a total of 1.2 million points of energy, making them true energy hogs.
The only consolation was that development was a one-time fee for lifetime use.
Once the progress bars finished, Reddy switched to the chip manufacturing section.
Three new options had appeared there as well.
[Armament Haki Module Manufacturing]
[Observation Haki Module Manufacturing]
[Swordsmanship Module Manufacturing]
After studying them, Reddy felt a headache coming on.
He had thought the 1.2 million energy cost for developing the three modules was already outrageous, but the real energy drain was yet to come.
Each of the three modules had ten levels.
Manufacturing an LV1 module cost 1,000 points of energy, an LV2 module cost 2,000, an LV3 module cost 4,000... and an LV10 module cost a staggering 512,000 points of energy.
This was the real energy black hole, damn it.
But what could Reddy do?
Perfect genes deserved top-tier enhancements.
He began manufacturing three LV10 modules, which cost a combined 1,536,000 points of energy.
Once the modules were complete, Reddy retrieved the clone and began the implantation process.
Soon, the fully upgraded clone stood before him, and Reddy steadied his emotions to begin testing.
Due to space limitations and Reddy's own understanding, the test results weren't comprehensive, but the effects displayed left him extremely satisfied.
"I've already spent over two million points of energy. What's a little more?"
Muttering to himself, Reddy retrieved the black mass from the gene bank and sent it to the enhancement workshop to fuse it with the clone.
Whether he could truly soar to new heights depended on this final step.