As Sherwin and the others drew closer, the island shrouded in violet smoke finally revealed its full outline before them.
Judging from those distinctive research buildings and watchposts, this was unmistakably Punk Hazard.
"Klee, it up to you."
Sherwin patted the little doll head.
"Okay—!"
(=`=)
Klee ow responded with spirited energy and dashed straight toward the engine room.
"Flathrower! Start ow!"
With her voice echoing from inside, a long tail of fla burst out from the stern of the Dodo Advance.
Powered by the trendous thrust, the ship lifted off from the sea and flew toward Punk Hazard, now only a short distance away.
"Dodo Advance! Switch to Magnamalo form ow!"
The little doll was having the ti of her life. Under her control, the airborne Dodo Advance rapidly shifted and clacked into motion.
Before it plunged into that purple toxic mist, the transformation finished, and a protective barrier rose along the deck periter, shielding everyone aboard.
The mont the barrier fully sealed, the Dodo Advance—now in Magnamalo form—crashed straight into the violet fog and landed firmly on the island surface.
"How is it? Dodo is amazing, right? She has other forms too! I’ll show them to you when we get the chance ow!"
Klee ow bounded out of the engine room excitedly, proudly showing off to Shirahoshi and Suika ow, who had only recently joined.
"Mhm mhm! She really amazing! So she can go on land too, not just dive underwater? Oh, and since you’ve been to Skypiea... that ans she can fly too, right?"
Shirahoshi, having only seen the sea-dragon form, asked with great excitent.
Suika ow remained more composed—she was hardly interested in anything besides drinking, fighting, and partying. However...
"Drinking in the sky... that sounds pretty fun ow?"
Maybe because a long ti had passed since Caesar experint leaked, the island was still wrapped in violet mist, but it didn’t interfere with visibility too much.
Compared to normal weather, it was roughly like thin morning fog—just purple in color.
So Sherwin could clearly see the research facilities on the island...
There were far more of them than what the manga had shown.
After all, Akainu and Aokiji hadn’t fought here yet, so most of the structures were still intact...
But because the terrain hadn’t been altered, Sherwin had no idea where the laboratory storing the artificial Devil Fruits was located.
Most of the buildings looked almost identical, making it impossible to tell them apart.
The only thing he could be sure of was that it definitely wasn’t in the middle area, which hadn’t turned into a lake yet.
So Sherwin had no choice but to circle around Punk Hazard outskirts and search the buildings one by one.
Hmm? Wait...
Since even the Sakura Dragon Fruit had been considered a failure and left behind by Vegapunk, didn’t that an there might be other similar things in the remaining labs?
Sherwin finally realized—this island might contain more valuable things than just that artificial Sakura Dragon Fruit.
"Haibara, Purah ow, we might be able to find so of the World Governnt science unit tech left behind here!"
Sherwin turned around. "Eh? Where Haibara?"
"Haibara ow just collected so of the toxic gas outside and took it back to the lab for analysis ow, check it!"
Purah ow, who wasn’t good at biochemical research, answered.
Then she quickly hopped onto Sherwin shoulder, tugged his ear, and asked, "Which is stronger ow—the science unit research, or Germa technology ow?"
"In theory, the Science Division should be far more advanced. Whether it their chief scientist, Vegapunk, or the imnse funding supported by the World Governnt, none of it is sothing Germa can compare to," Sherwin answered.
"But it hard to say how much is actually left here, because anything that remained is most likely sothing Vegapunk already deed a failure."
Even though a failed product didn’t necessarily an it would perform poorly, Sherwin still felt it was better not to be too optimistic.
Purah ow, however, didn’t care about that at all. To her, it didn’t matter whether the technology was considered a success or a failure—what she wanted to learn was the creator way of thinking.
Since the pirate world and the Monster Hunter world were different in many ways, so of her original ideas might not work here.
But so technologies that were impossible to develop in the Monster Hunter world could be easily achieved in this one.
So for Purah ow and Haibara ow, the most important thing was to study the research mindset of the scientists here.
Besides, they had once bought an old blueprint designed by Vegapunk during his early years back on the Sabaody Archipelago, and both Purah ow and Haibara ow were deeply impressed by the wild and imaginative ideas shown in it.
Now that they knew they could get access to more of Vegapunk work, Purah ow was already getting restless with excitent!
"...Hey, Purah, being excited is fine, but can you stop tornting my ears?"
Feeling like his ears were about to be pulled off, Sherwin helplessly reminded the little Purah who was clinging to his ear with one paw while twisting around on his shoulder.
"Ah! Sorry, Sherwin, I just got too excited and forgot, ow! Check-it!"
(ゝ)~☆
Purah ow let go of Sherwin ear and stuck out her tongue apologetically.
After a short while, the laboratory door opened.
"Hmph~"
Before Sherwin even caught sight of Haibara ow, her tsundere little "hmph" sounded ahead of her.
Right after that, the smug little kitten strutted out of the laboratory with her head held high, walking with the kind of proud steps that showed she recognized no one.
(=`へ=)
"You made it sound so serious, but this poison gas is just so-so, ow!" Haibara ow said, shaking her head.
"The toxin outside isn’t very strong, and the onset is pretty average. If the dose is small, soone with good enough constitution could tank it outright, ow."
"But it does have so rits," the little kitten added.
"Once inhaled—or rather, once it gets on you—getting rid of it becos very difficult. Even with my specially made antidote, I can only temporarily suppress it, not completely remove the residue left in the body, ow."
"No wonder the poisonous mist never dispersed. Whoever made this toxin must have known its shortcomings, so they used certain thods to make the mist linger for a long ti, ow."
"So what you an is... you’d have to breathe this poison mist for a long ti before it could actually kill soone?"
Sherwin was a bit surprised. He didn’t expect the gas Caesar created to be this... underwhelming.
After all, Caesar later made a gas bomb said to be capable of killing Big Mom. How did this one end up so diocre?
"That not it, ow," Haibara ow said, seeing right through Sherwin thoughts and even defending Caesar instead.
"In this world, tons of people have bodies tougher than Popo. For those kinds of people, so-called strong toxins really don’t hurt that much.The one who made this gas must have understood that.
That why they prioritized penetration and lingering effect over toxicity. The goal was to affect physically stronger people more effectively, ow."
Hearing the little kitten explain it that way, Sherwin finally understood Caesar design philosophy.
He sacrificed "attack power" in exchange for "magic penetration," and on top of that, designed the gas so the debuff could keep stacking.
He also recalled that so of Caesar n were the prisoners who had survived on the island back then. They lived only because they hid in buildings in ti.
So Caesar later "Land of the Dead" evolved into a version where, once contaminated, a person body would be covered in a layer of purple toxic ash, rendering them unable to move as they slowly waited for death.
But as long as the poison mist and the toxic ash were dispersed in ti, there was still hope of survival. That was how Smoker marines managed to live.
Back when Sherwin was reading the manga, he had thought this was just another one of those "bombs that can’t kill anyone" like in the early Chapters.
But after hearing Haibara ow explanation, it suddenly felt a lot more reasonable.
This was the most logical explanation he could think of. Otherwise, for Caesar—one of the top scientists in the pirate world—to spend so many years developing poison bombs, only for the final form, the "Land of the Dead," to have such diocre lethality... it would really be hard to accept.
Of course, the pirate world was full of things that didn’t make sense, but people in this world did have very high poison resistance, sothing shown multiple tis in the manga.
Not to ntion Luffy, who fought Magellan head-on and stacked resistance through sheer will.
Kawamatsu ate poisonous fish for over ten years and only suffered constant vomiting and diarrhea.
The Mink Tribe could still fight Jack even after being hit with poison gas... though that poison was also one of Caesar creations, so the example wasn’t too convincing.
Also, the poison bomb Capone Bege used in the attempt to assassinate Big Mom was made by Caesar as well.
Although it ultimately failed, it still showed that he indeed had more lethal toxins at his disposal.
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