A magic merchant infiltrating Fairy Tail

In fact, when he first saw the group of shipwrights on TV, he quite liked Kaku, especially his first appearance with Moonwalk, which was incredibly cool. However, a few episodes later, when it was revealed that they were from the World Government, Kira was completely shocked.

Upon seeing the newcomer, Erza suddenly muttered to herself, "Hmm... As expected, no matter how many times I see this world, I still find the people strange! I really can't understand why some people's noses are shaped like that? I also read in the newspaper that there are people in this world with very large bodies but very thin legs, people who are six or seven meters tall, and people with long arms and legs..."

Huh? I rarely hear Erza say things like that! Have you been influenced by Lucy and Happy after spending so much time together?

Kira was surprised by Erza's transformation, but he also deeply agreed with her comments: "Perhaps there was a problem with the genes during evolution?"

"Some people speculate that the world experienced a great flood a long time ago, and that the humans, marine animals, and almost all other animals we see today were created by scientists using artificial gene synthesis after the apocalypse. Perhaps an error occurred during the synthesis process!"

If it really was a flood that brought an end of the world, then it must be related to the legendary ancient weapon king 'Uranus'!

Kira suddenly realized that the water gods of Water Seven, who wreaked havoc every year, might be a consequence of the apocalyptic flood. As for why only Water Seven had this consequence…

If nothing unexpected happens, it should be related to the huge crater on Enies Lobby!

Hearing Erza and Kira's conversation, Kaku inwardly scoffed, "What an incredibly delusional guy," but on the outside, he smiled broadly, like an ordinary shipwright greeting guests.

"Were you two just talking about buying a boat? What are your specific requirements?"

Kira stepped forward calmly, took out a notebook from his pocket, and began to explain the requirements he had compiled over the past few days: "We need to buy a large ship that can accommodate more than one hundred people but less than two hundred people!"

"Because we are not pirates, but adventurers and merchants, everything on the ship must be designed for ease of living. For example, there should be plenty of rooms, sufficient living facilities, good air circulation, and ample lighting..."

"It needs a kitchen, dining room, study, swimming pool, large bathroom, storage room, garden, and so on, and also a large hall that can accommodate everyone for banquets and parties!"

"We don't need too many armed forces, but the ships must be easy to operate. Ideally, they should be automatic, so that even someone who knows nothing about navigation can drive them. They should be able to move forward automatically just by turning the rudder!"

"Of course, the most important thing is durability. It needs to be able to withstand cannon fire without taking any damage. The wood can be the best... uh!!"

Kira's voice trailed off at this point.

He suddenly thought of the destructive power of those guys in the guild and couldn't help but hesitate for a moment: if the ship was made of less durable wood, it would definitely be destroyed by them in a few days, but if he bought durable wood, not to mention that it would be more expensive, could he guarantee that it wouldn't be destroyed?

"Based on my description, estimate the cost of using different grades of timber!"

Kaku reached out and took the notebook from Kira's hand. He stared at the contents of the notebook in silence for a long time. When he looked up at Kira again, his gaze had become strange. He found that the handwriting in the notebook was not only very messy, but the content was also a mess. It was basically just writing down whatever came to mind, without any overall planning. It was like a child saying, "I'll write down this much first, and I'll add more later if needed."

Someone like that can be a captain?? I've really opened my eyes today!

"What's wrong, Kaku? Is the customer's request too troublesome?"

Just as I was pondering this, another middle-aged man walked out of the large iron gate of the No. 1 dock. He had a slicked-back hairstyle like an adult, stubble on his face, and a cigarette in his mouth.

Here it is, 'Rope Man' Barley!

Kira's eyes lit up. He had long admired Barry's amazing rope-manipulation skills for a long time. If possible, he really wanted to learn the bondage techniques from him, which might come in handy sometime in the future.

Chapter 892 Is a ship with this price and configuration worthy of my status?

Upon entering the scene, Barley immediately fixed his gaze on Erza. Seeing her thick armor, he couldn't hide his satisfaction: 'Not bad, not bad...this is how girls should dress!'

"Miss, you..."

Suddenly, as his gaze shifted downwards, Barry saw Erza's black miniskirt and the less than 20 centimeters of skin exposed between her black boots.

"...Your outfit is way too revealing!!"

Erza: "??"

Is this guy out of his mind? I call this revealing? Look closely! I'm only showing less than 20 centimeters. Lucy's situation is what's considered revealing! And what right does this guy, who's staring at the girls' exposed areas the moment he appears, have to judge other people's clothing like that?!

"Hey, Kira! Are the people here really okay?"

"Don't worry, isn't it normal for people with some skills to have a bit of an eccentric personality? Just think about senior Warlord and then think about the chairman, and you'll know that this kind of situation is the norm for older people!"

"What's wrong with the president?"

"What's wrong? You're so old and you're still thinking about taking advantage of young girls every day. Do you think that's normal?"

As the two chatted idly, the shipwrights of Dock One finally appeared one by one, calculating the cost of shipbuilding based on the notes given by Kira.

A first-class shipyard, first-class shipwrights, and naturally, the cost of buying a ship is also first-class.

If it were a ship the size of the Going Merry, it would only cost tens of millions here, but Kira required a large ship that could accommodate more than a hundred people, which would cost at least three or five hundred million, and that's without even considering the use of Adam's Branch as a building material.

Fortunately, Kira now has the Golden City at his disposal, so he's not short of money at all.

Not long after, Barry and his men came to Kira's side, handed back the difficult-to-understand 'Client Requirements' book, and said, "Guest, based on your requirements, we have calculated the preliminary costs."

Kira raised an eyebrow: "So fast?! You finished calculating in just 10 minutes? Are you kidding me?"

One sentence made the foremen's faces turn displeased: "Kid, watch your tone! Carrera is a world-class shipbuilding company, and we are the best shipwrights in the company. We have professional ethics!"

Professional ethics my foot!

Two out of the five people are self-taught, and they call that professional ethics?

Barry gave Kira a disapproving look. Having worked in the industry for decades, he'd heard this kind of talk countless times, so he wasn't going to waste his breath arguing with this novice. Instead, he went on to recount the costs the others had just calculated: "Using ordinary wood, it'll cost about 500 million Berries. The deposit is 20%, which is 100 million Berries. It can be completed within a week! What do you think?"

"Huh?! 5 million Berries?! Are you kidding me?!"

Barry nodded, seemingly expecting this: 'Hmph! Scared to death over 5 million Berries? I knew it, this kid wouldn't have any money!'

Thinking of this, he smugly exhaled a smoke ring from Zuo Li: "If you think the price is too high..."

However, Kira interrupted him loudly before he could finish speaking.

"Take a good look at me from head to toe. Do you really think a ship with a 5 million Berry coin counts as my status? Any random pirate you catch on the Grand Line would be worth more than 5 million Berry, right?"

Kira's tone was arrogant, and his expression haughty, like a rich kid, which silenced all the shipwrights.

Goodness, I've been in this business for over ten or twenty years and have served at least eight or ten thousand guests. This kind of feeling that the boat's cost is too low and doesn't match my expectations... I can't say it's the first time I've seen it, but it's definitely very rare.

Besides, that's 5 million Berries!

In the entire 'Paradise,' there are probably fewer than a hundred pirates with bounties over 50 million Berries, and those with bounties over 100 million can be counted on one hand. The 500 million Berries you're talking about—you can't just grab any pirate and get that kind of bounty! Do you think this is the New World?!

At that moment, the five foremen, including Lucci and Kaku, secretly labeled Kira in their minds: arrogant, foolish and rich, haughty, a pretty but useless person, all show and no substance...

"So how much do you think is appropriate? No matter how much you offer, our Carrera company can build the ship to the point that it's worth the price, and we guarantee you'll get more than your money's worth!"

All the shipwrights present secretly made a decision: no matter how much money the red-haired brat offered to build the ship, they would do everything in their power to build the most perfect ship, and then slap him in the face, making him submit to Carrera Company's superb shipbuilding technology!

If all else fails, we can just ask the boss to do it himself!

Kira sensed the dissatisfaction of the people in front of him and thought to himself with glee, "They're in my trap." He hadn't had enough of being the boss for once.

"The key issue isn't how much money I can offer—am I the kind of person who's short of cash? The key issue is whether your design and technology can satisfy me! Of course, Carrera has a good reputation, and I trust their technology, but the problem lies in the ship's design!"

"Okay, you guys discuss it first and come up with a few plans for me. Remember to make corresponding functional designs based on the requirements analysis, as well as statistics on various costs, and note the advantages, disadvantages and precautions. It would be best to compile them into a paper for me to see! If I think it's okay after I've seen it, then you can proceed with construction according to the drawings."

The boatmen were all dumbfounded: Where did this weirdo come from?

Carrera is the industry leader and has a policy that allows customers to request design proposals from shipyards for selection before construction begins. However, because selecting proposals would significantly delay the shipbuilding process, and Carrera consistently produces excellent ships, most customers do not do this.

Even if there are a few idle people occasionally, they wouldn't make such an absurd request as 'note the advantages, disadvantages, and precautions, and then organize them into the form of a paper'!

Is this kid incredibly rich?

The group felt that Kira's requirements were too complicated, but in Kira's opinion, he had already been very lenient by not making them write down 'reference ships' or conduct 'ship duplication checks'.

"What? Can't you do it?" Kira's voice was extremely provocative.

Sure enough, the instant he finished speaking, a loud shout came from a hundred feet away: "Are you kidding me?! Of course we can do this!! Who do you think you're talking to? We're shipwrights from the Carrera Company!!"

Huh?! This way of speaking sounds so familiar??

"Excellent! That's the kind of spirit I want!" Kira clapped his hands in satisfaction. "Since you have five people here, give me five plans, one for each of you. I'll come and inspect them at this time tomorrow, okay?"

A surge of competitive spirit rose within Barry: "Of course!! Just you wait and see, you brat, I'll give you a real surprise tomorrow! You'd better not be crying here agonizing over which one to choose!!!"

"If this happens, doesn't it just mean that the five design proposals you submitted are all equally good, and none of them are significantly better than the other four?"

"That's because all five of us have excellent shipbuilding skills!"

……

In the evening, at the Carrera 1 dock, the shipwrights, having finished their day's work, gathered together in the staff canteen for a communal meal.

"What?! None of you are planning to do it?!"

When Barry learned that none of his colleagues had stayed up all night designing the proposal, he was completely stunned. "But...but the client specifically requested that each of us submit a design!"

Kagu pulled his hat down over his head, looking like he didn't want to talk to Barry: "You were the one who agreed to it, not us!"

Bipley Lulu looked up from her bowl and said, “Kagu is right. He didn’t pay us to work overtime! Just show him the old shipbuilding blueprints. Those are also our hard work! He’s just a kid of that age, an outsider who doesn’t know anything about shipbuilding design, and he seems stupid and rich. As long as it meets his requirements, how can he tell whether the plan we put forward is a rushed one?”

Thaleston said in a deep voice, "To put it another way, don't we have any work to do? Are we going to stop what we're doing now for a customer who hasn't even paid a deposit? That's not the work style of Carrera's shipwrights, is it?"

Barry was speechless after being confronted. He suddenly realized that compared to his colleagues, he was excessively honest! He was supposed to be the most senior shipwright at Carrera, so why did they seem like the real veterans?!

Barry turned his gaze to the last person: "Hey, Lucci! Are you like them?"

Lucci didn't speak, but instead had Hadley, the pigeon perched on his shoulder, flap its wings and speak for him: "Of course! In the end, designing a shipbuilding plan for a 'hundred-person sailboat' from scratch, and meeting so many requirements, is simply not something that can be done in one night! You were completely driven mad by the other party back then, weren't you?"

"Well...I admit I was a little excited at the time..."

Kagu took a bite of rice, puffed out his cheeks, and complained, "A little excited?? Seriously? I think you almost got into a fight with that guy..."

"Stop...stop nagging!!" Barry blushed. He was an old man fighting with a kid in the street. Even if he didn't care about his reputation, the company did!

"If you won't do it, I will!"

As he spoke, he quickly ate two bites and then returned to his room to begin designing.

……

Late at night, in the alley behind Bruno's bar, several figures suddenly appeared with a 'whoosh'.

"Information confirmed. That red-haired brat you mentioned is the 'Rain God' who appeared in Alabasta not long ago. They call themselves 'Fairy Tail' mages, just like the group that's causing chaos in the New World right now!"

The speaker was Bruno, a tall bar owner and one of the CP9 members who had infiltrated Water Seven in search of the blueprints for 'Pluto'.

What is their personnel composition?

"There are 18 people in total, all quite strong, and three talking and flying cats, possibly a new species. They all appeared on this island today. But most importantly, I discovered that among them, there is another very important person..."

"The criminal the World Government has been searching for for 20 years, the legendary 'orphan of Ohara,' the 'son of the devil'..."

"Nicole Robin!!"