The seabed in the Dead Zone is extremely deep.
Because there are large and even super giant sea kings living here, its average depth can be said to be the deepest in the entire ocean, and in this deep water, Ross is sneaking alone.
Due to his ability to distort light, Ross can still see far away places even at the deepest depths of the sea. What's more, his Haki of Knowledge and Information can also be used in the sea.
Although Ross's power of knowledge is not as domineering as that of Haldin, which relies on the Thunder Fruit to expand to an extremely far extent, it is still no problem to cover three to four thousand meters.
That is to say.
Rhodes' search range was a sphere with a diameter of three to four kilometers, centered on himself.
"This is the bottom of the sea..."
After sinking to an unknown depth, Rhodes finally landed on the bottom of the sea. In his estimation, the depth here was at least tens of thousands of meters.
The soil at the bottom of the sea is silent, or the entire bottom of the sea is dead silent. No one has arrived here for thousands of years.
Rhodes did not stop at the bottom of the sea, quickly surfaced several thousand meters, and then began a carpet search.
His movement speed on the seabed is not slow, and he occasionally encounters super-giant Neptunes, but because Ross's body is too small, for super-giant Neptunes, he is not even as good as a hair, so he will naturally not be noticed. .
One hour…
Two hours…
three hours…
As time continued to pass, Rhodes continued to search the seabed in the windless zone, but still found nothing. The most common ones he saw were the sea kings swimming around.
And just when Ross was wondering whether he had moved out of the sea as Lafitte expected, he sensed something strange on the seabed in front of him.
laugh! laugh! laugh!
When a Neptune-like creature nearly a kilometer in size swam past, its body suddenly split apart and was torn into countless pieces of flesh, before being dragged away by something.
Ross's eyes flashed and he immediately followed.
The thing that cuts the Neptune into pieces is some kind of mechanical thing that looks a bit like a rough version of the Pacifist in size.
"The first-generation machine for pacifists?"
A flash of thought flashed in Ross's eyes.
What cuts the Neptune type is not some kind of laser power, but some kind of special silk thread. It seems to be extremely tough, comparable to Doflamingo's thread fruit ability. The Neptune type hits the silk thread, Cut himself into pieces.
Following this weird machine, Ross sneaked under the sea and finally came to a base hidden deep in the mountains on the seabed.
This can be regarded as a raised mountain range on the seabed. In Ross's perception, it is extremely open. Due to the darkness, he can't even see its overall appearance.
This location should be less than 10,000 meters away from the sea.
Silent and silent.
Ross followed the weird machine that dragged a lot of meat into the interior of the mountain. Through a strange cave, he came to a door made of steel.
After a cursory glance, there was a World Government pattern on the door, and in the corner of the door, there were the words Scientific Force Base Zero.
"Base Zero..."
Ross watched the door open, watching the machine drag the connected pieces of meat into the base, showing a look of contemplation.
There may be more than one base for the scientific force, and the one in front of me is probably the most secretive one, hidden deep in the seabed in the windless zone.
quietly.
Ross activated the ability to distort space and sound, and sneaked in through the door the moment it closed.
…
The inside of the base is completely different from the outside.
Outside is a silent mountain range, in darkness, without any light, full of antiquity and desolation, but inside the base, everything suddenly becomes science fiction.
White lamps are embedded on the ceiling, making the entire base bright. The entire base seems to be made of some kind of extremely solid ore, most likely some kind of mineral second only to sea floor stone.
"Nine is back."
"The quality of the meat looks pretty good this time."
Two people wearing the uniforms of the World Government's science force came out and looked at the huge machine bringing the pieces of meat over, with a little smile on their faces.
And just as they were inspecting the meat, one of them was suddenly startled, with a vague feeling of strangeness, and said to his companion:
"Did you feel... something pass?"
"There's nothing there."
His companion looked around strangely and said with a smile: "Have you not slept well in the past two days? This is the bottom of the windless zone!"
"Well, it must be an illusion."
The man also shook his head, thinking that this is the seabed in the windless zone, the depth is needless to say, and there are sea kings everywhere. Except for the submarines with Vegapunk characteristics that can travel back and forth, this place is almost isolated from the world.
…
Secret base center.
In a laboratory at the deepest level, there are many strange beings here. They seem to be human beings, but they have animal arms and teeth.
Some even have half of their bodies as some kind of crustacean, while the other half of their bodies look like ligers, which looks extremely scary.
"Biological modification... is this the end?"
Vegapunk held one report after another and frowned tightly.
This is not a base for making mechanical modifications, nor is it a place for making artificial devil fruits, but a base zero for biological modifications.
In fact, artificial devil fruits also come from here. The SAD used to make artificial devil fruits is also an important raw material for biological transformation.
"Uh-huh-huh, but artificial Devil Fruits are already possible! Why do we have to bypass Devil Fruits and directly transform them? If we make artificial Devil Fruits, we can produce an unlimited army of ability users."
Caesar stood beside Vegapunk with his arms spread out and an excited smile on his face.
Vegapunk put down the document and said:
"Artificial Devil Fruit... My original intention was to break away from Devil Fruit and directly interpret the essence of life, but you want to return to Devil Fruit?"
"What are you talking about? That's..."
"Don't mention it again."
Vegapunk continued to look down at the documents.
Caesar's expression changed, and he was very annoyed. He said sarcastically: "But the only one of your experiments that can be considered half-finished is the Vice Admiral."
"No."
Vegapunk turned the document to the last page, narrowed his eyes and said: "His inner will is beyond my imagination. Now it can no longer be said to be a semi-finished product, it can be regarded as the only finished product!"
"Your transformation was successful?"
Caesar's eyes widened instantly.
Basically, the experimental subjects they can catch here are not very strong. Occasionally they catch some strong ones. Once they are transformed, they are filled with great repulsion. They even lose all desire to survive during the transformation process. In the end, All are failures.
But just some time ago, a lieutenant general from the Navy Headquarters volunteered to participate in the transformation, and during the transformation process, he showed a strong will and desire to survive, and survived two rounds of transformation in a row!
Vegapunk's transformation has a total of three rounds, divided into three stages of improvement, and now it seems that the third round of transformation has also been successful!