Gulp. With the sound of swallowing saliva, everyone's gaze turned to the trembling Kozuki Toki. It seemed she had just made that sound, seemingly out of surprise and nervousness.
As if Stella's words had caused some misunderstanding, Kozuki Toki's face now wore an expression of wanting to cry but having no tears. If not for the effect of Kotoamatsukami, Vegapunk felt she would have already activated her Devil Fruit ability and fled.
Vegapunk glanced at the trembling Kozuki Toki, who feared being taken by him to serve him at night, and couldn't help but find it amusing.
Kozuki Toki was already controlled by Kotoamatsukami. If he truly had any desires, what other choice did she have but to clean herself up and present herself?
It was just that he didn't want to do such a thing for now... After all, how could women be as important as research? Delaying the development of Kozuki Toki's abilities was the real problem.
"Here, this is for you!"
Vegapunk casually took out a small black pill from his hand and tossed it to Kozuki Toki, who was still lost in thought.
"This is an oral version of the chakra seed I created. After taking it, your body will directly possess the power of Chakra. As long as you merge your mental and physical strength, you can extract Chakra!"
"Although it has no other effects, Chakra is also very helpful for Devil Fruit development. Cultivate well and develop your Devil Fruit ability!"
"Oh, and there's news about your daughter now. Go ask Stella where she is!"
Kozuki Toki, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, heard the news about her daughter. Her expression immediately tightened, and she turned to look at Stella again.
Stella's lips curved into a slight smile as she looked at Kozuki Toki, like a big bad wolf seeing a little lamb:
"So you're the mother of that girl, Kozuki Hiyori! Hehehe... I finally found someone to settle scores with! That girl caused me a lot of trouble!"
Smiling on the surface but gritting her teeth in reality, Kozuki Toki's expression stiffened again as she watched Stella's performance.
In fact, Vegapunk hadn't really paid much attention to Kozuki Hiyori. He basically let her run wild, and after giving her some basic enhancements, he sent her to the Umbrella Corporation to help out.
However, Kozuki Hiyori's talent was actually not bad. After all, she was Kozuki Oden's daughter. Regardless of Kozuki Oden's thought process, at least his combat talent was definitely at a monstrous level.
After Vegapunk's enhancements, Kozuki Hiyori fully unleashed her talent. Relying on her ama no habakiri, she had already surpassed the Swordsman rank in her teens.
Although the strength of a Swordsman was nothing, considering that Kozuki Hiyori was only fourteen or fifteen years old before Vegapunk left, she could be considered a top genius in swordsmanship, and there was great hope for her to become a Great Swordsman in the future.
However, Kozuki Hiyori was willing to work for Vegapunk because of her mother, Kozuki Toki. Otherwise, Kozuki Hiyori had no good feelings for Vegapunk, who had private ties with Kaido and was reluctantly considered an enemy.
Therefore, when Vegapunk left the Dream Star and Kozuki Hiyori found that she could no longer contact Vegapunk and also couldn't see her mother, she naturally wouldn't stay at the Umbrella Corporation anymore.
It just so happened that during that time, the World Government launched an attack on Egghead Island, causing heavy casualties to the entire Marine, and the entire Egghead Island sank to the bottom of the sea. Thus, even Kozuki Hiyori thought that Vegapunk and her mother had died in that battle. After her grief, all her attachments were severed.
Kozuki Hiyori immediately defected from the Umbrella Corporation. Of course, just this wouldn't have made Stella so angry. The most important thing was that Kozuki Hiyori stole important items from the Umbrella Corporation before escaping.
That was the only Paramecia-type imitation Soul-Soul Fruit that Vegapunk had created using Charlotte Linlin's blood and body tissues!
Not only that, because it was modified from Charlotte Linlin's blood, it also came with a degraded version of Charlotte Linlin's monstrous strength and steel skin. For ordinary people, its effect might even be better than the original Soul-Soul Fruit.
It could be said that any ordinary person who obtained this Devil Fruit would at least have the potential of a Sweet Commander.
The only problem was that this Devil Fruit was merely a trial version created by Vegapunk. According to his estimate, the chances of success, death, and madness were all one-third, which was why no one had ever used it.
However, it was clear that Kozuki Hiyori, who harbored deep hatred, didn't care about these things. After getting it, she immediately ate this Devil Fruit and, relying on her strong willpower, overcame the flaws of the imitation Devil Fruit. Her strength surged, and she directly fought her way out of the Umbrella Corporation and escaped.
This naturally infuriated Stella. Not to mention the losses of the Umbrella Corporation, the loss of that Devil Fruit alone made her heartbroken.
Even if that Devil Fruit had powerful side effects, for most people on this vast sea, it was an invaluable treasure!
Didn't the Beasts Pirates in the original work see a large number of people flocking to Artificial Devil Fruit that had only a 1/10 success rate and would turn them into deformities even if successful?
Those Artificial Zoan-type Devil Fruit could at most only slightly increase physical strength. Compared to this imitation Soul-Soul Fruit, they were more than a hundred thousand li apart, which showed the value of this Devil Fruit.
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