OP: AMP Ch. 200

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

The Goatman pounded against the glass barrier. Every strike sent ripples across the floor, scattering papers and making the strange pinkish-purple flames in the corner surge. The shockwaves were powerful enough that loose equipment rattled on tables, and cracks appeared in the concrete floor itself.

Yet the glass stood completely firm.

"Hmm... if we're using the Marine's Doriki system as a baseline, I'd estimate that's around seven hundred Doriki right there."

Indigo had his face pressed flat against the glass from the inside, savoring every vibration that traveled through the barrier. A smile spread across his features.

"Ah, that's it! Put a little more muscle into it! Let me see your limit!"

BOOM!

The Goatman slammed its palm against the glass.

Those yellow pupils fixed on Indigo's excited face with an intensity that would've made most people back away. But the scientist just pressed closer. Then the roaring stopped. Even the low growl that had been rumbling in the creature's throat went silent.

The Goatman had realized something: it couldn't break this glass prison. Not yet, anyway.

"Oh? Giving up already? You're smarter than I expected. Going to eat the corpses instead? Go ahead! Eat as much as you want! Let me observe how you grow!"

He showed no concern for the dead men scattered across the floor. If anything, he was encouraging the monster to feast on them. It was disturbing how much he sounded like he was teaching a toddler to use a spoon.

The assistant watched all this in silence, his attention fixed on the floor. He looked like he wanted to be anywhere else in the world. The glass enclosure seemed impenetrable from the inside, but he knew better. It had descended from above and was equipped with an air circulation system. Theoretically, if someone dug through the building from the ceiling, they could expose the people inside. However, the ceiling had been specially reinforced with steel bars and seastone embedded in the concrete. Even Devil Fruit users would have a hell of a time breaking through.

But the glass dome did have one weakness: it could be lifted.

If the Goatman could somehow raise the entire structure by just one meter, they'd be forced into the open. To prevent this, the exterior had been polished to a mirror shine and coated with special paint that made it incredibly slippery. Almost impossible for anything to grip.

Almost.

Because if something was strong enough, the dome could be knocked upward, even if only by millimeters. He'd seen it shift during that last barrage. Just slightly, but it had moved. Fortunately, the monster didn't seem to have noticed this weakness yet.

The Goatman stopped paying attention to Indigo entirely, as if the scientist had ceased to exist. Instead, it turned its focus to more immediate concerns: food.

Its gaze swept across the laboratory floor, settling on a tall man whose eyes were still open, chest still rising and falling in shallow breaths. Still alive, unlike the others.

The man was terrified when he saw those horizontal pupils lock onto him. He'd taken a direct hit from this thing. It was a backhand slap that had broken his arm and, from the feel of it, probably cracked his sternum too. The force behind that swipe had been monstrous. But he'd survived. He'd blocked it, sort of.

Even injured, he should've been able to move. But after that strike, all his strength had simply drained away. It was like being bedridden with the worst flu of his life, except worse. His entire body refused to respond to his commands.

"N-no... please... Lord Indigo, save me..."

His plea echoed through the laboratory. No response came from inside the glass enclosure.

The towering figure moved closer. Despair gave way to terror the moment the Goatman reached for him.

One scream. Then silence.

The stench of blood filled the air. The crack-crack-crack of bones breaking echoed through the vast hall.

"Good child. Such a good child." Indigo's eyes glowed with excitement, watching the feeding with the intensity of a man witnessing a miracle.

That's when a new sound cut through the laboratory.

Clink. Clink. Clink.

It was the sound of Shiki walking on his sword-legs.

The laboratory doors swung open.

His eyes immediately found the Goatman crouched over its meal, still gnawing on what remained. Then his gaze shifted to Indigo, pressed against the glass like some kind of demented gecko.

"This is what you've been working on? Hmm... looks pretty ordinary to me."

The goat head was admittedly terrifying, sure. But in the One Piece world, that barely registered as unusual. Hell, Indigo had created far more grotesque things over their two decades of partnership. He was long past being shocked by mere appearance.

Then the Goatman's throat released a low growl.

Instantly, Shiki's expression sharpened. His instincts were screaming at him.

"Oh? Now that's interesting."

The Goatman launched itself at the pirate using a bizarre four-limbed crawl. It covered the distance between them in seconds.

"Don't kill it!" Indigo called out. He sounded like a worried mother trying to protect her rebellious teenager from getting grounded too harshly.

"That depends on whether it has any value."

Shiki lifted one sword-leg, and a blade of compressed air sliced through the space between them.

The Goatman's pupils reflected that azure slash for a split second. Whether through intelligence or animal instinct, it twisted its body at the last moment, scuttling sideways on all fours. The flying slash grazed its elongated arm instead of bisecting its torso, carving a deep gash across the limb.

Blood sprayed across the laboratory floor.

The Goatman roared.

"Not bad reflexes." Shiki lowered his sword-leg with another clink, now giving the goat-headed monster his full attention.

His expression grew more serious as he studied it, and after a moment, his eyes narrowed. "You used humans for the experiments?"

Indigo immediately jumped to explain. "It's a product of Marcus' abilities."

"Wasn't it supposed to be a cow? Why's it a goat?"

"It used to be a sheep. But goats can be bred using wheat too. After this, I'm planning to experiment with other herbivores. I might be able to develop even more varieties."

Learning that Indigo hadn't been using human test subjects, Shiki dropped the issue. Deaths during experiments were acceptable. Getting killed by beasts or eaten by them came with the territory. That was just the nature of their work, occupational hazards. But using humans as raw experimental material was the line. That was the difference between dangerous research and straight-up atrocity.

"But here's the really fascinating part!" Indigo couldn't contain his excitement. "It can rapidly grow stronger by consuming flesh! From the moment it was created until now, just eating one person increased its strength by roughly twenty percent!"

"Oh?" Shiki's eyebrows rose, his expression turning intrigued.

But after a moment, he relaxed again. "Still pretty weak though. It must be in its growth phase. That special ability is useful, I'll give you that. But did you have Scarlet run the control tests on it?"

"Ah!" Indigo froze, only then remembering that critical step. His face fell.

Shiki rolled his eyes. He needed beasts he could control, weapons that would follow orders, not wild animals that would turn on their handlers at the first opportunity.

His attention returned to the Goatman, which had backed away and now crouched in a defensive posture, watching him warily. It wasn't attacking recklessly anymore.

"Hmm? Showing some tactical thinking instead of aggression. This thing's got brains." His lips curved into a smile. Intelligence was good. Smart creatures could feel fear, and fear was the basis of control. Mindless beasts were harder to manage.

With a wave of his hand, the laboratory floor began to shift.

The Goatman's eyes widened as the solid ground beneath it started to flow like water. Layers of earth rose up silently, wrapping around its limbs.

"ROAR!"

The creature bellowed and thrashed, its limbs flailing violently. Chunks of earth broke away from the restraints. But the shattered soil didn't scatter, instead, it flowed right back like some kind of non-Newtonian fluid, reforming the bonds immediately.

The Goatman struggled harder, but the earth swallowed every movement. Breaking free was impossible, like trying to swim while wearing concrete shoes, flailing only to sink deeper.

Within seconds, only its head remained exposed above the earthen prison. The rest of its body was completely encased in a spiral-shaped spike of hardened soil that held it suspended above the ground.

Its roars grew more desperate.

But it was just noise now. Like a wild dog chained to a post, all bark and no bite.

The growl that had been rumbling in its throat gradually faded away. Its face was still twisted in rage, teeth bared like it wanted nothing more than to tear Shiki apart. But its body told a different story... it had curled up defensively.

Over two decades of experimentation, Shiki had witnessed countless mindless synthetic beasts created in this laboratory. Most of them were failures in one way or another. Even the ones that eventually stabilized were nightmares right after modification, consumed entirely by bloodlust. Some possessed such ferocity that they'd fight until death itself took them, never backing down even when facing impossible odds.

But this creature was already showing self-preservation instincts. The ability to recognize when it was outmatched.

That was remarkable.

While Shiki observed his new specimen, Indigo had already emerged from the glass enclosure. The scientist showed no interest in philosophical discussions about animal intelligence, he had more practical concerns. Pulling out a syringe, he approached the restrained creature to collect a blood sample for analysis.

As a scientist, he was well-versed in lineage factor theory. Even now, despite their distance, he could still communicate with Vegapunk via Den Den Mushi whenever he needed consultation.

Actually, any scientist in the world could contact Vegapunk and ask questions. The man was notorious for his accessibility and generosity with knowledge. He never refused requests for help. In fact, he'd proactively offer additional ideas and suggestions to help researchers refine their work. It was almost annoying how helpful he could be.

Indigo had discussed numerous research topics with him over the years. Unfortunately, after reviewing Indigo's work on creatures, Vegapunk had been brutally honest: the research lacked extensibility. More bluntly put, these beasts had no growth potential. You could see their ceiling from the moment of creation.

That assessment had infuriated him. This was his life's work, decades of research, and Vegapunk had dismissed it in a single conversation.

But the more he studied his own creations, the more he realized Vegapunk was right.

The powerful specimens couldn't reproduce. The ones capable of reproduction weren't strong enough. And on the rare occasions when he managed both traits, the result was invariably a creature with no brain function whatsoever. It was like trying to create a perfect triangle with three ninety-degree angles. Expanding one attribute inevitably compressed the others.

And that was just the basic problem. Growth potential was always locked and predictable from birth.

But this Goatman had already demonstrated growth potential by rapidly increasing in strength from consuming flesh. It possessed intelligence, tactical thinking, and survival instincts. Even if it couldn't reproduce, that hardly mattered anymore. Two out of three wasn't bad.

He positioned his needle against the creature's facial skin and pressed.

Clink.

The needle tip struck something that felt like marble.

"What the hell?" He blinked in surprise.

"How is the skin this hard?"

Annoyed, he quickly switched to a reinforced needle designed for tougher specimens. This time it worked, piercing the hide and drawing blood.

The Goatman didn't even resist. It simply allowed Indigo to extract the sample.

Indigo stared at the deep crimson blood filling the syringe tube.

"This is going to revolutionize our research!" He rushed off toward his analysis equipment, already forgetting about the creature bound to the laboratory floor.

That's when Scarlet finally made his entrance, arriving fashionably late as always.

The beast-man froze when he saw the Goatman's current state. He began circling the restrained creature, examining it from multiple angles with narrowed eyes. Then his expression shifted to one of clear contempt.

The Goatman seemed to sense that disdain immediately. Its pupils locked onto Scarlet, and a low hum began building in its throat.

Scarlet's hair stood on end as panic flooded through him. He scrambled backward frantically. But once he'd retreated more than twenty meters, the hallucinations vanished. He stood there pressed against the wall, completely bewildered by what had just happened.

Watching this display, Shiki's expression grew serious.

Forget whether this thing was strong or not, if it couldn't be controlled, then it was useless. Worse than useless, actually. An uncontrollable weapon was just a liability waiting to explode in your face.

At the same time, his curiosity about the creature only deepened.

He wanted to understand the level of intelligence it possessed. That mental attack ability was fascinating too. And if this thing could potentially replace Scarlet as his controlled enforcer, that wouldn't be unacceptable either. After all, Scarlet was one of the rare specimens that possessed intelligence, strength, and the ability to reproduce. The complete package. Well, almost complete. Growth potential was the missing piece. From the moment of his birth until now, his strength had never increased. He did possess reproductive capability, but his self-perception was problematically human. Or more accurately, he saw himself as human-but-not-quite, which created complications. The number of "humans" that could arouse his interest was extremely limited.

But this Goatman possessed intelligence, strength, and demonstrated growth potential. As for reproductive ability? That didn't really matter. After all, this thing was born from a strange sheep. Reproduction through traditional means probably wasn't even on the table.

"I don't know if you can understand my words, but if you can, I'll give you a choice. Submit to me. If you agree, nod your head."

"ROAR!"

The bellow that erupted from the Goatman's throat was accompanied by that piercing mental attack. Any ordinary person would've been trembling in terror by now, possibly pissing themselves.

Shiki just picked at his ear. "Why are you roaring so damn loud?"

He lowered his hand and stared coldly at the creature. His palm clenched slowly into a fist.

The Goatman immediately felt crushing pressure coming from all directions. Its body was being compressed from every angle simultaneously.

A nauseating sensation rose from its stomach. Everything it had eaten was about to come back up. At this moment, the creature was like an overfilled ketchup packet that had reached the limit of its plastic casing. One more squeeze and the contents would explode everywhere.

"Roar..."

"Have you thought it through?"

"ROAR!"

Looking at those eyes burning, Shiki didn't need a shared language to understand the answer. His lips curved upward in something that wasn't quite a smile. "Not bad. I like the strong ones. I'll give you some time to reconsider."

With that, he left, his sword-legs clanking against the floor with each step.

Scarlet remained behind. Flames burned in his eyes as he realized how scared he had been earlier.

Anger made rational thought impossible.

His fist crashed directly into the Goatman's skull.

BOOM.

Stone fragments scattered everywhere from the impact, but the creature's head remained intact.

Marcus' soul form witnessed all of this clearly from his invisible vantage point.

Should he save it?

If he possessed the creature directly, there might be a way to intervene. But he didn't want to possess it. Not this thing.

It wasn't that he couldn't, the option was definitely available. Any monster that originated from Minecraft could be possessed unconditionally, regardless of the creature's resistance.

The Goatman was indeed an MC creature at its core. Even though it had been modified by IQ plants and had transformed into something similar to the Clucky, he could still possess it without restriction.

The reason he didn't came down to something simple: it had eaten people.

This was a man-eating monster, and he had no interest in letting it be the first of its kind to gain intelligence through his possession.

But at that exact moment, the Goatman's eyes seemed to notice him. Those pupils flickered, focusing on something invisible to everyone else in the room. Then it released a strange hiss.

Marcus raised an eyebrow, studying the creature more carefully.

He couldn't understand the vocalization, but the intention behind it felt clear enough. Was it... asking for help?