At thirty-two, a natural disruptor in his prime, Kahn didn't think much of Shiki, the Golden Lion.
Just like a few years back, he had already dismissed the old Whitebeard, thinking that defeating Whitebeard, who was nearing seventy and had lost his peak physical prowess and agility, wouldn't give him any sense of accomplishment.
Kahn didn't even care about Whitebeard, who had lost the agility to soar through the sky and the stamina to fight for days as he could in his prime. If Whitebeard wasn't a challenge anymore, the Golden Lion, who had lost his legs and Conqueror's Haki, was even less of a concern.
Because of that, Kahn, who hadn't recruited any new maids in three years and had already brought all his maids along for previous adventures, decided he wouldn't handle this matter personally.
Instead, he planned to entrust this crucial task to one of the most powerful forces of the "Cross Family"—the "Perfect Squad."
For several years, the "Cross Family" had produced only nine perfect works.
Yes, despite the passing years, only nine perfect creations have been made.
On the other hand, the number of clones and modified soldiers had reached a staggering 300,000.
If all 300,000 of these soldiers stood together, they could easily fill most of Marineford.
However, an island like Amazon Lily couldn't accommodate such a massive force.
Luckily, in the seas around Wano, no one could enter except the "Cross Family." Even birds and beasts that ventured into this area were either shot down or tamed by Krall, who possessed a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit. In this way, they could freely explore the islands around Wano.
Otherwise, the sight of 300,000 identical clones would definitely shock the World Government and the entire world, exposing the "Cross Family" too early and creating panic among the major powers, turning the "Cross Family" into the primary target of a global crusade.
Wano is a large island, so even if the World Government had the power to destroy a national treasure, they couldn't erase Wano as easily as they erased the island where Sabo was located.
Because of this, only 2,000 of Kahn's cloned and modified soldiers were exposed to the outside world each year.
To outsiders, the "Cross Family" appeared to have only about 50,000 soldiers.
The remaining 250,000 were hidden in the underground bases of Wano and another nearby island.
Additionally, Kahn and Assier worked together to modify the underground bases on both islands, transforming them into self-contained spherical structures.
These bases were designed so that if the surface suffered a catastrophic attack, the underground base would absorb the impact, detach from the island, and sink below the light-transmitting layer of the sea.
Kahn and Assier invested a significant amount of time and money to build these bases to prevent Wano and Amazon Lily from becoming easy targets of the World Government's national treasures, ensuring that their accumulated family resources wouldn't be wiped out in an instant.
In Kahn's eyes, even if Wano and Amazon Lily were destroyed, these two underground bases would remain intact.
Back to the subject of perfect works.
The reason there were only nine perfect works after all these years wasn't due to the cost but because Kahn didn't want to mass-produce them.
To be more precise, Kahn wasn't ready to produce them in large numbers just yet.
If you ventured into a specific training cabin within the underground base, you would find many tanks filled with materials ready to create more perfect works.
Kahn only needed to press the start button, and each training tank would activate after a set amount of time, successfully producing a miniature perfect work.
Once ripened, these perfect works would immediately become a formidable force, second only to the Seven Warlords of the Sea. By equipping them with battle suits and powerful Devil Fruits, their strength would rival the Warlords themselves.
Of course, individuals at the level of the Four Emperors, like Dracule Mihawk, who had mastered mind, skill, and body, were exceptions.
However, despite having all the materials ready, Kahn chose not to mass-produce these perfect works just yet.
A force merely second to the Seven Warlords of the Sea wasn't enough for Kahn.
He had to be patient.
Once Wapol created "Wapo Metal" and Vegapunk perfected the technology behind the artificial Devil Fruits and Seraphim, Kahn intended to elevate his perfect works into truly ultimate weapons on par with the Seven Warlords of the Sea.
The nine perfect works he had already created held significant value, as Kahn had equipped them with incredibly powerful Devil Fruits.
Indeed, each of these nine had a Devil Fruit ability, and none of them possessed ordinary powers.
For example, Perfect One had the Mythical Zoan-type Snake-Snake Fruit, Model: Yamata no Orochi.
Perfect Two wielded the power of the Mythical Zoan Dog-Dog Fruit, Model: Nine-Tailed Fox.
Perfect Three was a Paramecia-type Fusion Fruit user.
Perfect Four had the ability of the Paramecia-type Slow-Slow Fruit.
Perfect Five wielded the Paramecia-type Teleport-Teleport Fruit.
Yes, the Paramecia-type Teleport-Teleport Fruit, which had originally belonged to Van Augur, the sniper of the Blackbeard Pirates, giving Blackbeard a strategic advantage in capturing Devil Fruits quickly and moving between the Calm Belt and the New World in a short time.
After acquiring the Logia-type Dark-Dark Fruit and making Carina its user, Kahn had set his sights on specific abilities. His first target was Blueno's Paramecia-type Door-Door Fruit, and his second was the Paramecia-type Clone-Clone Fruit from Impel Down.
The third target was none other than the Paramecia-type Teleport-Teleport Fruit, not the Slow-Slow Fruit.
If the Door-Door Fruit allowed Kahn to bypass obstacles and reach the Eternal Hell of Impel Down, combined with the memory-erasing effects of the Clone-Clone Fruit, Kahn could act without leaving a trace.
The Teleport-Teleport Fruit, however, was a strategic-level ability.
Much like Blackbeard's operations, Kahn had spent the past few years quietly hunting across the seas, using the powers of the Teleport-Teleport Fruit and the Door-Door Fruit without anyone noticing.
Thanks to the Clone-Clone Fruit's memory manipulation, even if someone had seen Kahn leaving his base, they wouldn't remember what he had been up to.
Giving the Teleport-Teleport Fruit to one of his perfect works, rather than a human, was a far more effective strategy. These artificial creations, much like robots, could use Devil Fruits and could be programmed with absolute loyalty and even maps, making their teleportation more precise than a human's, functioning almost like machines.
With this in mind, Kahn summoned Carina and Oro Jia, instructing them to lead three of his perfect works on a mission to the first half of the Grand Line to capture Shiki, the Golden Lion.
Why send Oro Jia along?
The reason was simple: Oro Jia had become a Devil Fruit user over the past few years.
Her Devil Fruit? The Paramecia-type Barrier-Barrier Fruit, which Kahn had arranged for Doflamingo to find back in 1512 of the Sea Circle Calendar.
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