"Right and wrong."
"Saying it's right is because thoroughly studying the lineage factor can indeed reach the realm of a creator. But the contents of the lineage factor are too numerous, I discovered that this field of lineage factor has at least dozens of branches. If you just work hard in a vague direction of lineage factor, even if you exhaust yourself, in the end, you might only manage to study the surface."
Sora gently shook her head, she wasn't denying the lineage factor, but denying the possibility of researching the lineage factor thoroughly in a short period of time.
"The concept of lineage factor didn't exist in the beginning, it was proposed by Judge, and perfected by Vegapunk. I don't know if the World Government has research on this, but Judge mentioned in his research notes that they started researching from zero."
"In other words, you're not optimistic about Judge," Gion hit the nail on the head.
Gion didn't understand much about scientific research, but having been around Rosse, she had some worldly knowledge, and she also wasn't optimistic about Judge.
The Jaygarcia family also has a small scientific research lab, the talent inside came from the World Government's science division, and is currently under Rosse's management.
Though Rosse is in charge, Gion still acts as the spokesperson each time.
When the lab first began operation, it was similar to Judge's lab. It seemed to have many pieces of equipment, but the operation methods of the researchers were crude, carrying a unique wild aesthetic of the pirate world.
To give a simple example: extracting information from Vegapunk's brain.
According to the wild school's method, gather 1,000 people to conduct experiments, trying out every single coincidental plan Judge had researched.
Failures were directly carried away as corpses, without any summary or analysis, then move to the next.
If 1,000 people weren't enough, then capture more people for experimentation.
If one happened to succeed, then replicate the successful method exactly and continue testing.
Using the same method repeatedly to refine until a higher success rate is reached, only then would experiments be conducted on Vegapunk's body.
This method isn't impossible, before Rosse took over the lab, Gion also thought this was the only method.
But after Rosse took over, she realized that failed cases were also valuable, and that by thinking carefully, much time could be saved.
It turned out that all steps shouldn't be rushed at once, but should be tested one by one, first identifying which step had the problem, then making targeted improvements.
It turned out that doing experiments also required controlling variables, all variables like temperature, humidity, environment had to be considered, and experimenters had to operate carefully, as operations affect the experiment results.
Precisely because she had relayed messages for Rosse and saw the small lab become more and more standardized, Gion realized how crude Judge's experiments were.
Gion even felt that even if Rosse picked someone at random, that person could quickly surpass Judge.
"Then what is the hypothesis you mentioned?", Rosse asked.
Just now, Sora only explained the lineage factor and why she wasn't optimistic about Judge producing results, but hadn't offered her own solution.
According to the known future, Judge indeed created emotionless modified humans, but not like Vegapunk's clone types requiring designated permission levels.
Vegapunk's type called clones were more like humanoid robots.
"This is my hypothesis," Sora's eyes sparkled with confidence, "I think lineage factor is just a general term, within it should include emotions, inheritance, perception, physique, body strength, gender… and many other branches."
"So what?", Gion didn't understand, she was already unable to follow.
"So if you want to study emotions, you must first identify which part includes emotions, and then conduct independent research on it," Sora said firmly.
"Then where do you think it is?", Rosse smiled and guided her.
In this world where the tech tree is crooked beyond recognition, Sora being able to have this insight was already considered to be walking at the forefront of the times.
It was like Judge still studying what a cell is, while Sora had already analyzed the nucleus, cytoplasm, and cell membrane.
The technology in the world of One Piece had a kind of fantastical brute-force style, Rosse wasn't sure if his past life's knowledge could be applied, at most he could give Sora a correct direction.
Even if truth differs, the method of studying truth is largely similar.
"I believe to study individual emotion, the most important direction lies in two points, the brain and genetic inheritance," Sora seemed to sense Rosse's encouragement and became more and more confident as she spoke, "Judge once did something evil, um, the content is a bit cruel… he cut off a slave's head, then used a kind of technology I couldn't understand to maintain the slave's vital signs, all to make the other slaves obedient."
"But I noticed, that slave, even with only the head left, still had joy, anger, sorrow, and fear… well, at that time no joy or happiness, only anger, sorrow, and fear…"
"That's when I knew, emotions aren't some heart's power, but are related to the brain. If you want to study how to erase emotions, then you must study the brain."
"Not bad, that's indeed the case," Rosse nodded with a smile.
Rosse even now suspected that it was because of Sora's help that Judge was able to later develop the method of erasing emotions.
And it seemed that after Sora's death, Judge's level of technology never progressed again. His greatest masterpiece was the future Sanji.
However, according to the current timeline, even if Sanji still had the chance to appear, he would bear the surname Jaygarcia.
"Then what does this have to do with genetic inheritance?", Gion, as a poor student, was completely lost by now, but that didn't stop her from playing along.
Being around Rosse, she was already used to it.
"Genetic inheritance is Judge's research direction. He wants to breed the strongest modified humans. Then, to erase emotion, one must find the genes related to emotion from the hereditary genes, then delete them," Rosse explained lightly.
"That's right, Your Highness, you're amazing!", Sora looked at Rosse in surprise, not expecting him to understand so much.
In this world, there's no such thing as nine years of compulsory education. Just the term 'genetic inheritance' alone, most people probably haven't even heard of it.
"This is nothing. Sora, I have a fruit in my hand, are you willing to eat it?", As Rosse spoke, under Sora's astonished gaze, he flipped his palm, and a Devil Fruit appeared in his hand.
"Brain-Brain Fruit, huh…", Gion muttered softly. She had seen Rosse's ability before, so she wasn't particularly surprised.
According to Rosse's explanation, this was an ability granted by the Watatsumi Fruit, allowing him to obtain the enemy's Devil Fruit after killing them.
Such an ability is extremely rare, but Gion knew this kind of ability truly existed. Zephyr had explained it to her, and the Jaygarcia family records mentioned that the Darkness-Darkness Fruit had the ability to forcibly extract a fruit from a just-deceased body.
"Brain-Brain Fruit?", Sora vaguely caught Gion's murmur and couldn't help but exclaim subconsciously.
Judge viewed Vegapunk as a lifelong rival, so how could he not mention the Devil Fruit that Vegapunk consumed?
Judge often said that the reason Vegapunk became the world's strongest scientist was entirely because he ate the Brain-Brain Fruit.
Although this was Judge's words out of jealousy, it also indirectly highlighted the extraordinary nature of the Brain-Brain Fruit.
"Am I really qualified to consume it?", Sora murmured softly, filled with unease.
She simply couldn't believe that Rosse was actually willing to let her consume such a precious fruit.
No matter how she thought about it, this fruit didn't seem like something she should eat. It should belong to a scientist at least on par with Judge's level
"Left and right, it's just a fruit. Its value lies in being consumed by someone," Rosse placed the Brain-Brain Fruit into Sora's hands.
Just as he said, the Brain-Brain Fruit was useless in his own hands, it ultimately had to be given to someone he trusted.
Rather than giving it to someone uncertain, it was better to have Sora consume it.
Even if, after eating the Brain-Brain Fruit, Sora's scientific research talent only reached Judge's level, it would still be enough for Rosse.
"I understand," Facing Rosse's encouraging gaze, a warm current surged in Sora's heart.
'This feeling of trust, how many years has it been since I last experienced it? I have nearly forgotten.'
No matter what, she didn't want to let down this trust.
Raising the Brain-Brain Fruit, Sora took a big bite.
With just one bite, a painful expression appeared on her face.
Though she also knew that Devil Fruits were like this, she knew this was the taste.
In order not to let down the fruit, Sora forcefully endured the discomfort and ate the entire Brain-Brain Fruit.
Within less than a minute of consumption, Sora's originally bright eyes suddenly became dull.
"What's going on?", Gion slightly furrowed her brows.
Although she had eaten a fruit before and had seen Rosse consume a fruit, she had never seen someone in Sora's current state.
"After eating a Devil Fruit, in the short term, there will be various reactions depending on the fruit's ability. The Brain-Brain Fruit is related to the mind. Sora is probably adapting to the fruit's power," Rosse understood it clearly.
This state lasted for nearly ten minutes before Sora snapped out of the daze.
As soon as she came to, Sora excitedly hugged Rosse tightly, "Your Highness, I succeeded!"
"Congratulations," Rosse smiled and returned the hug, gently stroking her back.
Although both he and Sora knew that eating a Devil Fruit wasn't dangerous, and there wasn't really a concept of success or failure, since Sora was emotional, it was best to go along with it.
Sora was excited for a while before letting go of Rosse, a bit thrilled as she began introducing her ability, "The Brain-Brain Fruit allows me to have photographic memory and store all knowledge I've seen into my brain, and extract it with zero delay. At the same time, the Brain-Brain Fruit also allows me to enter a kind of supercomputing state."
"In that state, my thinking speed will increase by 100 times. But it consumes a lot of stamina. I can currently maintain it for only 10 seconds at most," Speaking of the duration, Sora was not very satisfied.
Although inspiration might strike in an instant, 10 seconds of supercomputing was still too short.
"In that case, don't rush to memorize information yet. Starting today, you'll train your physical stamina with Gion. She'll arrange resources and a training plan for you," Rosse didn't hesitate. With Sora's current ability, building a good foundation was more valuable than diving straight into research.
"Right, the Brain-Brain Fruit can also be used in training. Gion, give Sora all the family's materials on training powerful individuals, see if she can make any improvements."
"Okay," Gion readily agreed, though she didn't think Sora would be able to improve anything.
Improving physique came down to two things: eating and training.
After so many years of research by the World Government, they already knew which Sea King meat was most nourishing and easily absorbed.
As for training, there wasn't much mystery to it either. Individualized training plans, by the time someone reached her level, could be judged at a glance in terms of suitable training volume.
Still, Gion didn't think science was useless, just that using brainpower on something as simple as this wasn't worth it. It should be applied to things like lineage factors, as Rosse and Sora had just mentioned.
That stuff sounded high-level, and once it got deeper, she couldn't understand it. It seemed like something only brainy people could handle.
"By the way, there's one more thing," Rosse looked at Sora and asked, "The Brain-Brain Fruit should allow for autonomous memory addition and deletion, right?"
He thought of Vegapunk's future image. His head many times larger than a normal man's, grotesquely terrifying. He didn't want Sora to become a big-headed doll.
"Yes. After consuming the Brain-Brain Fruit, I can access and edit all memories in my brain. And if given time, I can rewrite those memories," Sora pursed her lips as she spoke. She was very averse to rewriting memories, but if it was Rosse, she was still willing to inform him.
"Don't study that too deeply. It's best not to touch it at all. Scientific research may cross many bottom lines, but there are some lines that must never be crossed," Rosse's expression flickered, then quickly returned to calm. In a very stern tone, he warned Sora.
Memory rewriting sounded tempting.
But this kind of thing was like Pandora's Box, once opened, there was no turning back.
Change one person's memory, and you'll end up changing countless others'.
Alter an enemy's memory, and soon you'll alter subordinates', then even those around you.
In this cycle, even if no one betrayed or overthrew him, the rest would be no different from robots.
By that time, Rosse wasn't sure whether he would go mad or slowly lose all humanity.
If this world lost all surprises and accidents, and he ceased to be himself, then even eternal life would be meaningless.
So, in Rosse's heart, there were a few red lines. No matter how evil he became, he would never cross those few boundaries.
"I understand," Sora lightly nodded, her pretty face carrying a light smile.
Rosse hadn't disappointed her, 'He truly is different from Judge.'
"Back to the previous topic. Based on what I know about the Brain-Brain Fruit, if memory is stored excessively, it will cause the brain's size to increase," Rosse didn't finish the rest of the sentence, but both Gion and Sora could imagine the consequences.
Some people might abandon their humanity for power, but neither Sora nor Gion wanted to enhance their abilities at the cost of worse appearance or physique, they hoped to improve both.
Just imagining the side effect of an enlarged head gave them chills.
"That kind of side effect is terrifying," Gion instinctively looked at Sora, imagining what she'd look like with a big head. No matter how she imagined it, it wouldn't look good.
Sora, on the other hand, suddenly had a vacant look in her eyes, it seemed she had entered a supercomputing state.
But this state lasted only one second before Sora actively exited it.
She gently shook her head, a bit puzzled, "It shouldn't be like that. According to my calculations just now, even if I recorded all of Judge's knowledge and experimental data, it wouldn't take up one ten-thousandth of my brain, not even counting the duplicate parts."
"By that calculation, you'd have to load in an ocean of knowledge to fill the entire brain. Only then would expansion be necessary. Probably only if you tried to store all the knowledge in the world."