In the azure depths of the ocean, schools of fish chased after the Sea Current.
Massive sea beasts occasionally swam by, stirring up the reefs on the seabed.
Within this deep sea, an island floated quietly.
It was not particularly large and looked like an ordinary island at first glance. Yet its ability to float in these deep waters alone proved its extraordinary nature.
In fact, a faint, iridescent membrane constantly flowed around the island.
This membrane seemed to repel the crushing water pressure while also shielding it from the attention of surrounding Sea Beasts and Sea King-class creatures.
It stood like a loyal soldier; though its creators hadn't visited in years, it continued to silently guard and fulfill its mission.
But at this moment, on this island that hadn't seen a human footprint in over a decade, a figure now stood.
Zishu walked across the island, quietly gazing up at it.
"It's very similar to Fish-Man Island, but smaller..."
Zishu gazed at the coating above the island. "Fish-Man Island remains submerged, but this island must surface annually with the sea currents. How does this coating maintain its integrity?"
"And another thing..."
He lowered his head and touched the grass on the island. "How do these plants survive?"
From these details alone, it was clear that the technology on this seemingly ordinary island was anything but ordinary.
But what puzzled Zishu most was:
"If this were Vegapunk's technology, such feats would be understandable. But..."
His gaze shifted to a small hill on the island, not far away.
The hill was uniformly gray-white, seamlessly integrated with the island's foundation.
Upon its surface, Zishu noticed a network of cracks, within which he could see extensive sedimentary deposits.
Those were the marks of time.
"The outer base of the island looked like this just now, too." Zishu was puzzled.
Having lived on the sea, he naturally knew what these traces meant: this island had existed for a very long time. It absolutely hadn't appeared only in the past few decades.
In other words...
"This island isn't an artificial island created by Vegapunk."
At that thought, Zishu shook his head, feeling the situation grow increasingly complicated.
It was an ancient island that clearly possessed some extremely advanced technology and appeared and disappeared between the deep sea and the surface every year during the period known as "Aqua Laguna."
"No matter how you think about it, it sounds mysterious." He muttered to himself.
"But it doesn't really matter."
As he said this, he stopped walking and looked ahead.
"After all, I've already found the place I was looking for."
At that moment, a massive structure stood before him.
It was clearly not a product of the same era as the rest of the island... its connected silver spiral metal plates and egg-shaped streamlined structure exuded a strong sense of futurism.
And compared to the origins of this small island itself, the origin of this research facility was far clearer to Zishu.
"Vegapunk's research lab is really here!" Zishu muttered, then reached out his hand decisively.
Squeak!
A door materialized in the air, and Zishu stepped into the alternate dimension, entering the Research facility's range.
The interior of the facility was enormous, yet its structure was surprisingly simple.
Apart from the massive tunnel where Zishu stood, the surroundings were densely packed with mechanical pipes, with no branching paths in sight. Only at the distant end of the huge corridor could Zishu see several doors seemingly leading into rooms deeper within the facility.
Compared to the simplicity of the facility's layout, however, the danger inside the research lab was clearly far from small.
'Clack!'
The heavy metallic clang of colliding steel echoed through the air.
Zishu could clearly see the entities moving within the institute: silver-gray metallic robots, each standing approximately two meters tall.
They lacked complex facial features, possessing only a pair of eyes that now glowed brightly.
On their bodies, Zishu could clearly see weapon devices, such as the cutting blades on their forearms and the holes in the palms of their hands.
"That thing can't possibly fire lasers, can it? Vegapunk was already researching this stuff over a decade ago?"
Zishu strongly suspected that these robots might be the prototypes of the Pacifistas.
Naturally, that wasn't important.
What mattered was this:
"According to Mr. 4, these robots will attack anyone who enters the research facility's range. First, they will attempt to drive the intruder away. If the intruder doesn't leave, they will proceed to annihilate them."
"They can also notify each other. Once a single machine is attacked, the others will gather in large numbers."
Zishu recalled the information Mr. 4 had provided.
After knocking down a single robot, he was immediately swarmed by a massive number of them. He had only barely survived by relying on the dog gun, "Lassoo."
"This won't do... being disturbed while treasure hunting and all that."
So, murmuring softly, Zishu gently raised a single finger.
His gaze locked onto the robot closest to him, which was currently on patrol.
The next moment...
"Buzz!"
A hand emitting a sharp gleam suddenly grew out of thin air on the robot's neck amid the gathering of blooming flowers.
Immediately after, Zishu lowered his finger.
"Void Slash · Single Blade!"
As the words fell... the arm that had grown out of nothingness slashed down in an instant.
"Ka!"
The blade struck the robot's neck with brutal force. Amidst the screech of tearing metal, the robot's head flew off its body.
Thud!
The robot's head crashed heavily to the ground. Only then did Zishu slowly retract his finger.
Then...
"Intruder detected. Guardian DE144 has been destroyed," an electronic voice echoed from within the robot's severed head.
Yet Zishu didn't flinch.
He merely crossed his arms at the wrists and waited quietly.
"Click! Click! Click! Click! Click!"
Accompanied by the heavy sound of footsteps, massive robots emerged from the surrounding pipelines and corridor walls.
Each one possessed numerous Slots and wielded a different weapon, converging on him continuously.
"Quite a lot of Slots," Zishu remarked, glancing at the swarm of approaching figures with a light chuckle. "But that's no problem. If all you have is numbers, I'll show you how many I can kill!"
As he spoke, he extended his hand once more.
"Void Slash: One Thousand Eight Hundred Blades!"
In an instant, countless hands grew out of the robots' bodies before him.
Immediately afterward, the sounds of slicing through air and steel being severed echoed throughout the facility.
"Bang!" "Bang!"
Explosions rang out continuously, accompanied by the sound of robot heads crashing to the ground.
"Enemy attack detected. Enemy location not identified."
"Guardian unit has sustained losses exceeding 300400500, surpassing the critical threshold. Initiating backup protocol: activating 'Indiscriminate Annihilation Mode' to secure the Elite Research Lab."
As these voices echoed from within the robots, the machines being slaughtered without pause began to move differently.
"Buzz!"
They all raised both hands, and then...
"Hōng lóng!"
Countless cannon shells burst forth from the weapons on their bodies and from their palms toward every surrounding corner. The deafening blasts and explosions covered an area hundreds of meters around Zishu's position indiscriminately.
But it was all for naught.
Even when explosions erupted right beside Zishu, they could not pierce the space barrier to affect him in the slightest.
Meanwhile, the arms that continued to grow out of nowhere kept up the slaughter without pause.
In less than five minutes, all the robots within the research facility had fallen.
"Attack... ineffective... unknown... high-risk target... high-risk target..."
Sparks flickered across their bodies.
Zishu didn't spare the robots another glance. The moment the final machine collapsed, he stepped forward.
Behind the mask, Roy took in the information of this clone body.
This was one of the ability combinations he had planned long ago.
{Roy Amos (Slice Clone – Zishu)}
{Loaded Fruits: Flower-Flower Fruit (Hana Hana no Mi) LV3, Dice-Dice Fruit LV3, Door-Door Fruit LV3, Slice-Slice Fruit (Unavailable)}
{Flower-Flower Fruit (Hana Hana no Mi): Allows flower-formed external body parts to grow anywhere within visual range. The grown limbs possess the same physical strength as the main body. Internal organs, such as the heart or stomach, cannot be created. Destroyed limbs dissipate into flowers, and damage is fed back to the main body.}
{Dice-Dice Fruit: Allows any part of the body to transform into blades with steel-like hardness.}
{Door-Door Fruit: Allows concealment within a separate dimension while retaining external vision.}
The Door-Door Fruit allows him to hide in another dimension, making him untouchable and undetectable. The Dice-Dice Fruit made his body as hard as steel, enabling him to deliver devastating slashes.
The Flower-Flower Fruit allowed him to grow bodies with the same strength as his own anywhere, making his slashes omnipresent.
And the combination of these three gave rise to the current "Zishu."
Exactly as Roy had defined this clone…
"He will be a… perfect hitman."
(End of Chapter)
You can read ahead up to 15 chapters on my Patreon: https://www.p*treon.com/darkshadow6395