I am the Bandit King of the East Sea.

"Although I don't know how you changed your scent, or even how you could exist in Water 7 and here at the same time, it's probably your Devil Fruit ability."

"So, how should I address you?"

“Sun Bear? Sig? King Sig?” Vegapunk said.

That concludes this line of reasoning.

If Vegapunk hadn't been so listlessly surrendering with his hands raised, Higuma would have really been intimidated by his words.

Although Higuma didn't admit it verbally, his body tensed up unconsciously.

27 years ago, Vegapunk was not very powerful, but that may not be the case now.

If the handcuffs are made of low-purity seastone, strong individuals like Luffy or Kid can still withstand the side effects of seastone and exert some power.

Just as he was pondering how to respond, Vegapunk began to speak again.

He observed the bear's reaction and spoke in a low voice:

"It seems my deduction was correct."

"You don't need to be nervous. I've come with sincerity and won't pose any threat to you." Vegapunk waved his raised hands.

"I just want to have a proper talk with you."

Next, Vegapunk briefly recounted his previous conversation with Fleet Admiral Sengoku on the Den Den Mushi, the so-called Mandela Effect.

These things also demonstrate Vegapunk's sincerity.

He not only had no intention of being an enemy of Sieg, but also helped him cover up for Sieg in front of the Admiral.

Higuma pondered for a moment, then felt somewhat helpless.

Vegapunk is a user of the Time-Reversal Fruit, which gives him a vast amount of time, allowing him to prepare everything meticulously in advance.

He had said everything he could, and even put handcuffs on himself. He had done everything he could, which was tantamount to putting his life in Higuma's hands and letting him do whatever he wanted with him.

Chapter 861 The Artificial Time Traveler

Inside the tightly closed room.

Higuma looked at Vegapunk, who had handcuffed him, with a complicated expression.

Vegapunk is undoubtedly a terrifying enemy, possessing future technology and an almost bug-like time-reversal fruit.

Before Higuma could react, Vegapunk seemed to have figured everything out.

However, this enemy had been defeated by Wang Xige in the past, and seemed to have been left with some kind of psychological trauma. He had no intention of being an enemy of Rixi Xiong and surrendered immediately upon meeting him.

Fearing that the Japanese bear would take action, he even put sea stone handcuffs on himself beforehand.

"Even such an enemy has fallen to my hands?" Higuma thought smugly.

"I'm so strong!"

However, outwardly, his expression remained serious.

"You went to all this trouble just to put my mind at ease? Then tell me, what exactly do you want from me?"

Seeing that Sun Bear did not refute, Vegapunk finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm here to place a bet."

Vegapunk said this.

"Subject A1507, that is, this cat, its most important ability is not its modified and enhanced body, nor its ability to transform into a catgirl..."

"It's its Devil Fruit ability."

Vegapunk's face showed no lack of pride as he said this:

"Sigurd... I'll call you that from now on. Why don't you try to guess what kind of Devil Fruit power it has?"

Sun Bear glanced at Vegapunk, who had a smug look on his face, and then at the blue and white cat on the table.

Then he opened his inventory and stopped time from flowing.

After pondering for a while, Higuma gradually came up with an idea. He closed his inventory and offered his guess:

“You said before that this cat’s purpose is to replace me.”

"If this doesn't have some strange implication, then the answer is obvious."

Higuma looked at the blue and white cat on the table with a surprised expression;

"He's a user of an artificial Time-Time Fruit!"

“You weren’t completely convinced by me after that night 27 years ago.”

"Since I'm not cooperating with you, are you planning to... create an artificial Time-Time Fruit user and travel through time with it?"

Vegapunk opened his mouth, but couldn't say anything, and could only nod in the end:

"really."

He lowered his head slightly and lowered his eyelids.

"My lifelong goal is to reverse the future and change the outcome of the war that will end everything 500 years from now."

"Searching for users of the Time-Time Fruit, joining the World Government to develop advanced technology, and creating artificial Time-Time Fruit users... these are all just means to achieve our goals."

Vegapunk's tone was somber.

"So, your artificial Time Fruit is a failure?" Higuma asked.

Creating artificial Devil Fruits is not an easy thing.

In the original storyline, Vegapunk only managed to create one failed Mythical Zoan-type Dragon-Dragon Fruit.

Although Caesar later created artificial Zoan-type Devil Fruits called SMILE, they were extremely flawed and were essentially counterfeit compared to the originals.

"No, this child's Devil Fruit cannot be considered a failure; it's just that it doesn't match my initial expectations."

Vegapunk then changed the subject:

"That's not the point. That's not what made me change my mind and abandon the artificial time fruit project."

"Sig, do you remember what you said to me that night 27 years ago to convince me?"

Vegapunk looked reminiscent, speaking rapidly:

If we compare time to a never-ending river...

"So you and I, as users of the Time Fruit or the Reverse Time Fruit, are just two big fish, able to leap out of the river. One moves forward, the other backward, jumping to different points in time."

"However, the general trend of history has its inertia, like a long river that is difficult to stop. These two fish are just fish at best. If they try to change the course of the river, they will realize their own powerlessness and insignificance."

“Sig, I have made a lot of efforts over the past 27 years to verify your theory.”

Vegapunk laboriously pulled out a small notebook from his person and quickly flipped through it.

"After joining the World Government, I quickly became the chief scientist under the World Government, a position of great prestige and with extremely high authority."

"So, over the course of those 27 years, I used my influence to try out many experiments."

"I tried to use my influence to change the outcome of historical events that I knew well; that was the content of my experiment."

"For example... the incident that occurred in the 1494th year of the Sea Calendar, where Vice Admiral Iron Fist Garp defeated Chinjao, a pillar of the Happo Navy and a notorious pirate. Chinjao then retired from the historical stage and ceased to be a pirate..."

"I tried to change the outcome of this historical event, for example, by requesting the World Government to dispatch Vice Admiral Garp to assist in my research. This would allow Greenjae to escape unscathed."

"But I failed. Although Garp came, he still did his own thing and left on his own shortly afterward. He then encountered Chinjao during the voyage and defeated him."

"In the year 1508 of the Sea Calendar, the country of 'Frevans,' known as the White Town, suffered from a heavy metal poisoning disease called 'Lead Poisoning' due to lead mining. This led to a war, and the country was destroyed."

“I tried to use my influence to issue a warning in advance and to find a way to get Frivans to abandon the mining of lead ore... but I still failed.”

Vegapunk flipped through the notebook in his hands, his tone low:

“I have conducted similar experiments 17 times in the past 27 years.”

"As a result... none of them succeeded."

"All my efforts have been in vain, and I have been unable to change the outcome of any historical event."

"Perhaps even the fact that I traveled to the modern era will become part of history."

Vegapunk smiled helplessly:

"After 17 failures, I have finally verified the correctness of your theory."

“Sig, you’re right.”

Vegapunk paused slightly, his tone tinged with self-deprecation.

"I cannot change the future, even if I cooperate with you, who has the power of the Time-Time Fruit."

"This is a path destined to fail. Even if I returned to the present from 500 years in the future, I would not be able to change it."

The Japanese bear remained silent.

Sieg's original theory was actually deduced from information about the power of causality.

"But you appeared again."

Vegapunk's tone shifted, and a flame reignited in his eyes:

"Although I don't know how you did it, you are different from me."

“I am part of history, but you are not.”

Chapter 862 Random Sea Emperor Card

Vegapunk read aloud:

"I cannot change the established history, nor can I save a future war that is destined to fail."

"Not only that, the Time Reversal Fruit is the ability to travel through time in one direction. With my lifespan, it's impossible for me to live back to the era I lived in."

"My time travel was destined to be a futile journey."

Vegapunk put the densely filled notebook back into his pocket, his eyes burning with renewed fervor:

But you are different.