Pirate: My Piltover technology is far ahead!

Chapter 434 Dark + Tremor = (?) Beard

They didn't dare to provoke Whitebeard when he was alive, but dared to jump out after hearing about his death. Such pirates had no ability to contend for supremacy, and had no ability to resist when they encountered a truly strong person.

For Frankenstein, the greatest significance of such pirates is to be exchanged for bounties, and an 80 million bounty is not low.

However, those 80 million Berries are now gone. After all, the Navy follows procedures. No matter how good the relationship is, it becomes incredibly complicated for a headless pirate to prove his identity, and the exchange value is reduced to zero.

After grumbling a couple of times, Frankenstein quickly got back to work, striking the island with lightning to wipe out the pirates, and then approached the trembling islanders.

"Don't be afraid, we are not pirates and will not harm your safety. We just heard that there are some sulfur mines on this island, so we want to establish trade relations with this place."

You should recognize this flag. We will protect our trading partners from pirate raids. Whether you accept it or not is up to you.

The people on the island weren't fools either. Leliana's words made it clear that, in a sense, this was no different from the Whitebeard era.

Paying resources as protection money in exchange for the protection of the powerful is a common practice among the inhabitants of the New World, who have lived like this for countless years.

It's just that Whitebeard's protection lasted the longest, and he brought them a long period of peace, so they couldn't accept his death for a while.

After a moment's hesitation, the islanders readily agreed to Lyliana's request. The recent attack by the Teabeard had already proven to them that the Whitebeard's name had lost its deterrent power.

If they don't find a new protector soon, who knows what might happen in the future? Besides, they also remember Leriana, the woman who fought Whitebeard to a draw more than a decade ago.

With her providing military support, the island's security should not be a problem.

"Please give us some time. We've already paid the protection money once this year, and it will take some time to collect a new batch."

Whitebeard is a pirate, not a philanthropist. He does indeed keep sending treasure to Sphinx Island, but that treasure doesn't just fall from the sky; it's stolen by the Whitebeard Pirates in battles with other pirates.

In addition to maintaining the livelihoods of the inhabitants of Sphinx Island, the Whitebeard Pirates also need a large amount of funds, which are naturally provided by the islands under their control.

These great pirates of the New World have gone beyond the scope of piracy; they have become warlords who control their own territories, and this is the financial system under their command.

Now that the protective umbrella has changed, everything has to start all over again, and the people of the new world understand this.

The island is relatively wealthy, and they are prepared to spend money to buy peace. Although this will make them poor for a while, it is better than losing their lives.

"Don't be in such a hurry. We've already said we're here for free trade. How can we force you to pay taxes on an empty stomach? Let's leave it at that for this year."

The wording may differ, but the essence is the same: the reason for advocating free trade rather than direct occupation is that doing so would have led to excessive territorial expansion.

The World Government always cares about things in name only. Most of the islands in the New World are non-member states, and theoretically, it is legal for member states to occupy and plunder them.

However, there is a difference between extensively expanding trade zones and extensively occupying territory, which is why this method is used to complete the superficial process.

For new regions, there must always be some preferential policies to win over the people. We can't let the people in these places feel that their lives are worse than when they were ruled by pirates.

As soon as Lyliana finished speaking, a new pirate flag appeared on the distant sea, and the design still belonged to the Big Mom Pirates.

When Leriana saw them, the pirates on the ship naturally noticed the changes on the island as well.

"Lord Daifuku, it's Princess Lyriana! They seem to have gotten there first. What should we do?"

"Should we just bypass it like before?"

Charlotte Linlin was also a greedy person, and she coveted Whitebeard's territory. In the past, she would have kept her distance because of Whitebeard's power, but now that Whitebeard was dead, she certainly wouldn't be polite.

The territories of the Four Emperors are adjacent to each other, separated at most by some loose pirate alliances as buffer zones.

Now that Whitebeard is gone, the buffer zone has lost its purpose. The pirate crews that survived in the buffer zone have all been wiped out by the people sent by Big Mom. They either join or die.

After accomplishing these tasks, some of them immediately began the next round of expansion, striving to occupy more territory before the remnants of the Whitebeard Pirates returned.

The remaining captains and captains were indeed no match for Charlotte Linlin herself, but they could still give Charlotte Linlin's subordinates a headache.

Dafu led a team, but along the way, he saw Piltover's flag quite often.

If it were anyone else, Dafu would have just led his men to attack them directly. However, Leliana is special; their choice has always been to avoid them. There are still many islands that can be occupied, so there is no need to create conflict with them at this time.

This time, Daifuku met Lyriana in person, which is why his pirates had questions.

"Of course we can't just bypass them. Now that we've met them in person, we should at least say hello."

Besides saying hello, Daifu also wanted to ask about Leriana's upcoming schedule, so he took a detour.

Sailing on the high seas is arduous, and it's not good news to find out after several days of sailing that you've made a wasted trip.

In terms of both strength and fame, Lyriana is no less than Big Mom. As she gets older, the title of the strongest woman has also fallen on her shoulders, so Daifuku's attitude even seems somewhat respectful.

After all, according to the generational hierarchy created by Charlotte Linlin herself, even Dafu would have to call Leriana "aunt".

When the islanders saw this, they had their own ideas. After discussing it privately, they decided to put together a batch of tribute.

Whether Lyliana doesn't want it is her business; whether or not to send it is a matter of their attitude. People with such great strength and influence are rare. Clinging to their coattails is the way to survive in the future of the New World.

A few days later, Piltover.

The war at Marineford has come to a complete end, and Marineford has begun restoration work, or rather, reconstruction.

There is hardly any intact place left in Marineford today. Even the Naval Building has completely collapsed, and the remaining structures have been destroyed by the earthquake and are beyond repair.

There's no need to bother others with this kind of work. The Navy already has its own engineering teams, especially the soldiers under Garp's command. Under the leadership of those soldiers, the healthy soldiers have already started the new work in full swing.

Oran returned to the main island after the incident and began drawing new infographics.

"New information from Oran, Riley, and Fran: the situation in the New World is basically over. These are the islands they've dealt with; they've all been marked on the sea chart."

Before the 3D image of the new world, countless islands lit up with gear symbols, and some with red danger arrows, indicating islands that had not yet been completely cleared.

Lyriana is not Whitebeard after all. Due to the frequency of her activities, her deterrent effect on the pirate group is not as great as Whitebeard's. It will take some time for her to establish her authority completely.

"Riley said everything is going smoothly over there, it's just taking a little time, but she'll get it sorted out as soon as possible."

"I understand. Leliana's abilities will definitely handle things over there. You can try this first."

In the lab, Oran tossed a shield from the lab table to Kate, saying that calling it a shield was a bit inaccurate; it looked more like a strangely proportioned ring.

Not only does it lack the curved surface of a traditional shield, but it also has a large hole in the middle, as if it were deliberately left as an attack hole.

"Isn't the shape of this thing a bit too strange?"

Kate held the object in her hand and examined it for a while. The more she looked at it, the more she felt that it resembled a toilet seat, and it seemed strange no matter how she used it.

The original text can be found at 6#9@book/bar!

"It's a minor issue that can be fixed later. The main problem right now is functionality."

Oran adjusted a few switches on it. As the shield's mechanism was activated, the empty space in the middle was immediately filled with darkness, and some black smoke also rose from the shield, giving the illusion that the shield had short-circuited.

"Dark-Dark Fruit?"

"That's right, the special item made from that black-bearded man's blood. Although the Dark-Dark Fruit is the most unique Logia-type fruit, it is actually more useful in scientific research than fruits like the Glint-Glint Fruit or the Ice-Ice Fruit."

Logia, Zoan, and Paramecia are the three main categories of Devil Fruits. After the lineage factor was conquered, these fruits took on different codes in the eyes of Oran, Vegapunk, and others.

The complexity of the coding varies depending on the fruit subclass, with the coding of the natural series being the most complex.

However, there are exceptions among fruits. Logia-type Devil Fruits have the ability to transform into elements, so they have extremely special and complex codes, and they are low-level codes that are difficult to bypass.

Both Oran and Vegapunk only researched some weapons based on the fruits, and did not completely overcome the difficulties of Logia-type Devil Fruits.

The Dark-Dark Fruit is different. As a Devil Fruit without the ability to transform into an element, its coding is actually the simplest among Logia-type Devil Fruits, and it is even closer to Paramecia-type Devil Fruits.

This also made the Dark-Dark Fruit the first Logia-type Devil Fruit that Oran had conquered.

Using this piece of code, Oran created a shield that incorporated the power of the Dark-Dark Fruit.

When used in weapons and tools, the Dark-Dark Fruit is not as effective against Devil Fruit users as Seastone, and its direct attack power is also somewhat weaker. However, it is a different story when used in armor.

Mechanical tools don't need to worry about pain; the weakness of the Dark-Dark Fruit, which causes double the pain, disappears completely. The ability to absorb all attacks becomes the best shield, and it can even reflect damage back.

After initial testing, Oran and Kate discovered that invisible attacks would be sucked into the shield's darkness and dissipate, while tangible objects would be crushed by that force and could be released by reversing the operation.

However, this shield also has some problems. First, the direction of the dark gravity not only affects the direction the shield is facing, but when the power is too great, it can even affect the shield holder.

Secondly, there's the space inside the black hole. The dark space in the hands of the Dark-Dark Fruit user is almost infinitely large; even if all the houses on the entire island were swallowed inside, it wouldn't be filled.

However, when it is mounted on the shield in a special way, the space available for it becomes smaller.

This also became the new target, ensuring that the dark gravity released by the shield would only affect the front and not the back.

In addition, a new metal combat body is on the way: Project Shiki possesses both the blue blood created by the Float-Float Fruit and the weapons created by the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.

The mecha prepared for Whitebeard was made with blue blood created from the Tremor-Tremor Fruit and a shield from the Dark-Dark Fruit. It can be said that it inherited Blackbeard's "will" and created a "Devil Fruit user" who possesses both the Dark-Dark Fruit and the Tremor-Tremor Fruit.

Once some minor issues are completely resolved, this new combat unit can officially make its debut.

Blackbeard's alien-like physique also played a significant role; if it were an ordinary person, it would have been quite troublesome to handle that amount of blood drawn back then.

During the Marineford War, Oran gained enough benefits and obtained what he wanted. After the war ended, he got back on track. However, the impact of the war was not limited to that.

Due to its geographical location, Piltover itself was not directly affected by the Marineford War, unlike other places.

Especially in Marineford, the site of the war, even after extensive repairs, it has only been transformed from ruins into a construction site. Even during the Warring States period, people could only work in temporary tents.

The outcome of this Marineford War was a mixed bag compared to the original timeline.

While Ace's survival here certainly diminishes some of the battle results, the goals of killing Whitebeard and severely damaging the Whitebeard Pirates were still achieved.

Garp didn't give up, and Sengoku didn't turn gray and prepare to retire in a short time; their high-end combat capabilities are now more complete.

However, due to the interference of the Golden Lion and those monsters, the casualties among ordinary soldiers were not much.

Those soldiers were just cannon fodder in the Marineford War, but when they returned to their branches, they became the backbone of those branches, and a group of them together was enough to keep a branch running.

Especially those from the Sihai branch, some of whom were even the leaders of their local branches.

The large number of such deaths has significantly depleted the navy's officer reserves over the years, and the new recruits graduating from naval academies, along with adjutants from various regions, are simply unable to fill this gap.

With news of One Piece gradually emerging from the battlefield and the number of pirates increasing at sea, many branches of the Four Seas are facing a shortage of manpower, making a recruitment drive almost imminent.

(End of this chapter)