Then, after a small jump, Vegapunk began to move to get accustomed to his new capabilities.
It wasn't all that important, but Bill wondered if this cyborg was stronger than himself.
Over the past two years, he had mastered the Iron Body technique, yet he hadn't significantly increased his physical strength. With such a demanding schedule, he had very little time for anything other than work with Vegapunk and his small team of assistants.
Once the main part of the training was complete, aside from a few letters to his parents and friends, Bill developed his plans for the Purchasing office of the Scientific Division and explored how these plans would be implemented.
Watching "Edison" walk around the lab and study the Cerebral Capsule, Bill realized that his time here was coming to an end.
"Edison" represented the dominant thought and problem-solving aspect of Vegapunk's personality, and with his successful activation, Bill's help in the lab was no longer needed as urgently as his presence in the field.
Bill didn't know what Vegapunk was keeping from him, but he had heard about the financial difficulties of the Scientific Division.
Vegapunk was the Marines' answer to the growing pirate threat. However, despite the revolution in the method of producing sea stone, its mass production remained too slow and expensive, and even coating ships with sea stone did not meet the expectations of the leadership.
During his work, Bill completed his degree in metallurgy, producing a small amount of pure sea stone—barely enough for a gift, but enough to earn his diploma.
As Vegapunk aptly noted, cyborg technology was indeed the latest success that could support the Scientific Division.
The genius scientist essentially aimed to make the world a better place, but the reality of research and development was that a significant portion of his energy went into securing funding.
With the completion of the SATELLITE program, Bill knew that Vegapunk was likely to move on to creating cyborgs for the World Government, but he was more concerned with his own plans.
As the day came to an end, Bill felt mixed emotions, despite his embodiment in an old body.
He had grown attached to this place and even became more of a scientist than he could have ever imagined.
But he knew it was time to leave this chapter of his life behind, sitting at his desk that night, reviewing his plans.
First, he would gather with friends in Vallipo and meet his two siblings who were born while he was immersed in work.
And then, if everything went according to plan, he thought with a smile that he would create a revolution not too different from the one that occurred on Earth.
He planned to establish a form of capitalism that would lift less developed islands out of poverty and, he hoped, not only bring him money but also reduce the number of pirates.
To do this, he intended to start with a project he had accidentally found one night while exploring the many technological islands of the world.
On the file lying on his desk were two words: "Island of the Clockwork Mechanism."
As the boat rocked on the waves, the young captain raised his uniform jacket and, looking at its size, thought that by this time, he had already grown to the size of that "huge man" who had scared him so much when he first woke up in this world. With these thoughts, he decided he liked how the name "Captain Bill Oaks" sounded.
It had been a few weeks since Sentomaru attached the captain's badge to Bill's new uniform with the words "Cloak of Justice," and Bonadus had handed him two diplomas, which not only confirmed his graduation from the Academy but also served as permission to legally open his own lab in these fields of study.
Given that his diplomas were in "Engineering" and "Metallurgy," he had many opportunities for what he could legally do.
Recalling his promotion ceremony, he thought it was mostly a good day, but despite not being prone to complaints, he couldn't help but think, "This day would have been even better if they had given me a ship or a crew... or at least some Beli."
Such was the situation Bill found himself in. He had neither a ship nor a crew, nor a base for his laboratory, and absolutely no funds. Because for the past two years, he had worked day and night, sometimes several days without sleep, and didn't realize how bad things were until the day of his promotion.
Of course, Bill protested, but it was explained to him in simple terms that the Scientific Division simply had no free ships, and the MSU division was already stretched too thin across a dozen laboratories they were managing.
The Marine's Scientific Division was so overloaded that even newcomers like Marron were promoted to lieutenants and placed in charge of guarding low-level laboratories.
During this conversation, Sentomaru also coolly told Bill that, given his diplomas, he could conduct research and create items for sale while in the laboratory at Marineford, and if he were successful, he could accumulate funds this way.