Chapter 143: Clones, Gambles, and New Alliances

“So, if it works, how long would it take?”

Inside the brightly lit laboratory.

Vegapunk, Karl, Caesar, Quinn and the others had been discussing this project in the cramped lab for a long time.

Karl paced back and forth, anxiety clear in every step.

He still couldn’t give up—if they succeeded at this,

he’d have an invincible army loyal only to him.

That would be a massive boost in his plan to overthrow Im.

Quinn, lost in thought next to him, finally spoke up and tossed out a name.

“Vinsmoke actually did some work in this area before. Maybe we could bring him in…”

It was true—in the original story Vinsmoke’s cloning technology was top notch.

Sure, the lifespan was short—just five years—but as expendables, that was more than enough.

Besides, maybe with Vegapunk working on it, they could extend the clones’ lives.

Karl mulled it over. It wasn’t impossible to approach Vinsmoke.

Looks like Vinsmoke was about to become their next target. For the sake of his grand plans, Karl would have to sacrifice Vinsmoke for now.

Far away in the North Blue, Vinsmoke sneezed. “…”

Vegapunk walked over to the experiment table, unhurried as ever.

He placed a test tube on the tabletop, thinking deeply.

“If I work on this alone, it might take about ten years or so.”

“And that’s me going full throttle.”

“But right now, I’m focused on researching the Lineage Factor. I honestly won’t have time for this too.”

Karl understood—the Lineage Factor project was even more important than this one.

Plus, it had always been Vegapunk’s main research focus. Dropping it wasn’t an option.

Looked like this whole project would have to wait.

He turned his gaze to Caesar, standing nearby.

If memory served, Caesar was the gene expert here.

Karl beckoned Caesar over.

“I’m leaving this plan in your hands for now.”

“Once the Lineage Factor work is finished, you’ll really get to dive in.”

Vegapunk glanced at Caesar and nodded. Letting Caesar take charge of the gene work actually made sense.

Caesar was definitely the standout in human genetic research.

In their little team, only Caesar and Vinsmoke had real experience with biotechnology.

Quinn was the chemistry guy, while Vegapunk focused mostly on genetics.

“That works for me.”

“No complaints here.”

With Vegapunk’s approval, Karl set his eyes on Caesar.

Under Karl’s sharp look, Caesar didn’t dare drag his feet and quickly nodded.

“Alright, got it!”

The last thing Caesar wanted was to get on Karl’s bad side. Besides, whatever happened to this project, Vegapunk would be the one to take over in the end.

He realized this meant he could slack off for a while.

That thought left him feeling slightly smug.

Guess that counted as slacking on the job.

“Quinn, you stick to assisting Vegapunk. You two keep at the research. I’m heading out for now.”

With that, Karl turned and left the lab.

He was starting to realize maybe he’d underestimated just how hard this would be.

But at least there was still time.

Karl stepped out the lab doors and immediately called Krell, who was far away in Wano.

“Krell, you there?”

Krell was busy in Rabi Well, overseeing the seastone mining.

He heard the Den Den Mushi ringing, signaled his team to keep working, and since it was way too noisy where he stood, he moved elsewhere.

He turned and found a quieter spot.

“Lord Karl!”

As soon as Karl heard Krell reply, he spoke as quickly as possible.

“I’ve got a job for you—have your fishmen comb the North Blue and focus on finding someone named Vinsmoke. He should be somewhere around there.”

“Once you lock down his location let me know immediately.”

“Understood, Captain Karl.”

…

New World—Dressrosa!

“Captain, we made it to Dressrosa!”

“Hahaha! Alright boys, time for some shore leave!”

Baruch was a rookie pirate making a name in the New World. Staring at the bustling city ahead, this was his crew’s first time in Dressrosa.

He glanced at the bounty poster in his hand.

“Wow, that’s one hell of a bounty!”

One of his crew ran up and saw Captain Baruch holding a wanted poster.

“Captain, whatcha got there?”

Baruch noticed him leaning in, quickly folded the poster, and tucked it into his shirt pocket.

He waved his hand. “Move along, shoo!”

Baruch was quick enough, so the crew member hadn’t gotten a good look at the poster.

“You sure are stingy, Captain.”

The crewmate scratched his head, saw there was nothing more to see, and wandered back to help out on the ship.

Standing on the dock, Baruch fell into thought.

Freedom—it really was a beautiful word.

“Captain, come on!”

The distant shouting woke him from his reverie.

He scanned the ship, which was now completely empty.

“Those little punks.”

Baruch shook his head, a quiet laugh escaping.

“Alright, I’m coming!”

He strode off into the heart of the island.

After floating at sea for over ten days, they all needed to shake off the boredom.

“Bang!”

“Burned it!”

“Pay up, pay up, pay up!”

Walking into a tavern, they heard a ruckus coming from a nearby loft.

Curious, Baruch led his crew closer.

“What’s going on, Captain? This place is wild!”

Viske stared at Baruch, eyes full of curiosity.

Baruch just shook his head.

“Hey, brother, what game is that?”

The pirate being interrupted clearly wasn’t thrilled, but when he spotted Baruch’s face his leg twitched.

He spoke with a nervous quiver.

“This is mahjong. Came straight from Lord Karl of the Rocks Pirates.”

“They sent over loads of other games too—most of the stuff here came from there.”

At first, that pirate had wanted to try and scare Baruch a little. But a closer look showed the man patting his shoulder was Baruch, wanted for 150 million Berries.

When Baruch headed inside, the pirate exhaled in relief.

The others at the table didn’t think much of it. Big-name pirates came and went here all the time. What was there to worry about?

“Come on, let’s keep playing!”

…

“Captain, I think we should buy some of these games for ourselves.”

Baruch looked at his first mate, Viske, and nodded in agreement.

After all their time at sea, these games really did liven things up for the crew.

“You handle it then.”

With the order, Viske found the teahouse manager and bought one of every game they had.

Mahjong, cards, Monopoly, dice—all sorts of games had become wildly popular throughout the New World.

However, with Fishman Island dividing the front half and the back half of the New World, these games hadn’t yet spread into the first half of the Grand Line.

But given time, everyone knew these novelties would eventually sweep across the whole sea.