Actually, when Sherwin and the others activated the first machine, Vegapunk had already discovered their traces, but because Sherwin and the others remained invisible, he could not determine their exact identities.

However, after observing the actions of the "invisible people" for a while, Vegapunk roughly guessed Sherwin identity.

After all...

Aside from the Felyne Investigation Team, an organization whose style differed wildly from most people, there didn’t seem to be anyone else who would choose not to fight or search for his location at a time like this, but instead run around Egghead Island just to experience the various facilities. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Regarding Sherwin, Vegapunk view was completely different from that of the World Government.

First of all, he did not think it was any big deal for Sherwin to take his technology.

Because looking at the other party recent series of actions, even after obtaining the technology from Punk Hazard and Baltimore, Sherwin had behaved with great restraint.

He neither abused it nor spread it around, and had instead made quite a few improvements that even made Vegapunk eyes light up.

Secondly, Sherwin behavior aligned fairly well with Vegapunk values.

Although he himself had sided with the World Government due to reasons like research funding, it did not mean he was of one mind with them.

In fact, after visiting Mariejois once, he felt nothing but disgust toward the existence of the Celestial Dragons, whereas Sherwin showed absolutely no mercy when killing Celestial Dragons.

Lastly, and most importantly—he was extremely interested in the "Mink" by Sherwin side, who had replicated and improved upon his own technology, and even possessed quite a few independent inventions.

In summary, Vegapunk main body chose to activate the spatial teleportation technology, which was still under research, and personally appear before them, despite the disapproval of several of his clones.

To Vegapunk pleasant surprise, the spatial teleportation technology, which usually encountered problems nine times out of ten during experiments, happened to experience no accidents whatsoever during this teleportation, allowing him to smoothly establish contact with Sherwin and the others without alerting anyone else.

"This is not the place to talk," Vegapunk didn’t give Sherwin and the others time to reply, quickly pulling a device resembling a USB flash drive from his pocket and tossing it to them. "As long as you carry this, the barrier of the Labophase won’t stop you. I’ll be waiting for your arrival up there."

With that, Vegapunk figure rapidly grew translucent, vanishing right in front of Sherwin and the others.

"Has that space teleportation technology actually yielded results already? As expected of Vegapunk! I can’t fall too far behind either, I’ll shift my research focus to teleportation technology as soon as we get back, meow! Check-it!"

(ゝω)~☆

Purah Meow competitive spirit was ignited, and she said while waving her little paws.

"No rush," Sherwin patted her little head, comforting her, "Our funding and manpower can’t compare to the World Government, so it completely normal that your research speed isn’t as fast as Vegapunk."

"Of course I know that, meow~" The little curly-haired cat rubbed against Sherwin palm and continued, "So I plan to ask Vegapunk for advice in a bit, to see how he solved the positioning problem, meow! Check-it!"

(ゝω)~☆

However, what Purah Meow didn’t know was that Vegapunk, who had just teleported back, currently had a third of his body stuck inside the laboratory floor.

"Brother Sherwin, let go up quickly, that old grandpa hat looks so interesting, meow!"

(=ω=)

Klee Meow urged while tugging at Sherwin ear.

In fact, the little Ragdoll cat was still very interested in the lower zone, but her Observation Haki sensed that Haibara Meow and Purah Meow minds had already flown up to the Labophase above.

Scratching the chin of this well-behaved and cute little cat, Sherwin didn’t hesitate either. He directly picked up Huamei meow and Purah Meow, stepping on the air as he leaped up toward the clouds above.

They quickly arrived at the edge of that artificial island cloud. Under normal circumstances, there seemed to be nothing here, but as some stray ranged attacks flew over, a small, translucent, grid-like barrier could be seen.

Sherwin, with four Felynes hanging onto his body, lifted his leg and walked forward.

The same kind of barrier appeared in front of him, but having been granted authorization by Vegapunk, he only felt a slight hint of resistance the moment he made contact. Then, he easily passed through this massive protective shield together with the Felynes.

But at the same time, the "Stealth Black" effect on their bodies disappeared as well.

"Eh?"

Seeing his own and the Felyne figures suddenly revealed, Sherwin was slightly stunned for a moment, but he quickly put it behind him because lights turned on on several buildings not far from them, forming a giant arrow to guide their way.

Sherwin scratched his head...

Vegapunk wouldn’t be trying to use us to test the Seraphim or something, just like he did with the Straw Hats, right?

If that the case, you can’t blame me for being ruthless.

With such thoughts, Sherwin led the Felynes and quickly entered the topmost area where Punk Records was stored, following the arrows that kept appearing in his field of vision.

However, Sherwin was clearly overthinking it. He didn’t encounter any test matches like Pacifistas or Seraphim, and came directly in front of Vegapunk and his six clones...

"Welcome to Egghead!"

The main body of Vegapunk, whose appearance somewhat resembled Albert Einstein and who liked to keep his tongue sticking out all the time, welcomed them loudly: "How do you feel after using my inventions?"

"Except for the one that makes food not very tasty, the others are all very interesting meow."

(=`=)

Klee Meow immediately replied.

"That was invented to make it convenient for people to eat the food they like! Of course it can’t compare to those chefs!"

The clone Atlas, who looked like a giant little girl and represented "Wrath", said exasperatedly, giving the exact same reason as the main body.

"But... Klee didn’t like that grilled fish meow."

(=ω=)

Scratching her head, the little ragdoll cat argued with solid logic, "It clearly Klee favorite food, but it doesn’t taste as good as what Klee makes herself. Klee is very disappointed meow."

At this moment, Sherwin naturally had to speak up for his own cat.

"If you just want to make a machine that makes it convenient for ordinary people to eat, why don’t you make it into something with fewer varieties but where the food inside can last longer?"

After briefly explaining the concept of a vending machine, Sherwin evaluated, "Although your ’Unmanned Cooking Machine’ has a rich variety and tastes decent, it is terrible in terms of practicality.

The ingredients inside will spoil if left for too long, and because of the wide variety, replenishing them is also a huge problem."

This wasn’t Sherwin intentionally finding fault, but rather a reasonable assessment based on his experiences on Earth.

Vegapunk Unmanned Cooking Machine looked wonderful, but once put into actual use, it faced too many problems.

Even on Earth, it was completely less practical than those vending machines with fewer categories that only sold biscuits and instant noodles. It was even more so when placed in the One Piece world, which was bursting with life and endless competition.

"D-Damn it... I actually didn’t consider this point!"

Vegapunk main body instantly slammed his head against the ground, pounding the floor in vexation.

And then...

Klee Meow, who had been plotting for a long time, suddenly leapt down from Sherwin shoulder, stepped forward, grabbed the apple stem on Vegapunk head, and pulled it forcefully.

"What the deal with this half apple of yours? Is it a hat? Can you lend it to Klee to play with meow?"

(つ＞＜)つ

"Stop it! I’m going to die!!!"