Sephiroth turned to Judge, who wore a complicated expression. It was clear he was questioning, "Are these two things really worth that much money?"
So, Sephiroth could only explain patiently, a smile playing on his lips. "As they say, you get what you pay for. Something being expensive has a reason, a value! These two mech models possess extremely high defense. They're immune to ordinary rifle bullets, and conventional heavy firepower weapons can only cause minor damage."
"Furthermore, because most of the mech's parts are made of special memory alloy, these two mechs also have a certain degree of self-repair capability for damage and deformation. After testing, the WM-1 model mech can easily kill Pirates with bounties exceeding one hundred million Berries. Once they form a certain scale, they're a sharp blade on the battlefield, capable of completely influencing the direction of the war! The WM-2 model is the tip of that blade, a powerful weapon created specifically to deal with experts skilled in two types of Haki!"
"But... this kind of thing, at most, you'd only deploy ten or twenty units, right? Once the numbers increase, logistics and funding absolutely cannot keep up! Compared to this, it's better to use clone soldiers, which only cost three million Berries each..."
"Of course! After all, in terms of maintenance, these two units are indeed very expensive, costing tens of millions at minimum, and hundreds of millions when active... However, these two machines are top-spec experimental units. When it comes to mass production, the performance of the units can be reduced without affecting their main capabilities, by replacing the special memory alloy with ordinary alloy, and replacing the device that can continuously and rapidly fire lasers with lower-quality consumables... We estimate the cost of the mass-produced WM-2 model to be one billion Berries, and the WM-1 model to be two hundred million Berries..."
"The mass-produced WM-2 model still costs one billion Berries? That price is enough to buy a large Marine warship..." Judge said, his mouth twitching slightly.
"Powerful technology inevitably requires a high price. Besides this type of war mech, our Umbrella Corporation actually has a common type of robot, costing thirty million Berries. However, its combat power is only similar to that of ordinary people, and it can only be used for cannon fodder and miscellaneous tasks on the battlefield... Its only advantage is that once fully charged, it can be used for a month..." As he spoke, Sephiroth opened his spatial pocket again, took out a silver iron cabinet one point five meters high and one meter wide, and opened its door.
Everyone turned to look. A brown-skinned, white-robed dwarf stood inside. The dwarf was only one point two meters tall.
Sephiroth reached out and peeled off the skin on its head. Beneath the skin were mechanical parts and circuits. This was a prototype robot replicated by Umbrella Corporation, based on lunar technology. Umbrella Corporation had no intention of deploying it on the battlefield. They only planned to use it for labor production.
Judge stared intently at the robot dwarf. He was trying to discern what technology was used in the robot so he could learn from it. But he feigned disdain.
"Even this level of robot requires thirty million Berries? I can only say that Umbrella Corporation is truly wealthy and powerful, to actually research such expensive things... The cost of this robot is completely sufficient for an ordinary person to live a life free from worry about food and clothing for a good part of their life... With spare money, I could completely manufacture ten clone soldiers!"
Sephiroth casually put the robot dwarf's skin mask back on. Then he put it back into the cabinet. He smiled and retorted, "Clone soldiers require time measured in years to cultivate. This type of ordinary robot, with sufficient materials and equipment, only takes ten days from parts to finished product. The WM-type robot takes two months... One is trading time for money, the other is trading money for time, and our robots can also mass-produce combat power sufficient to deal with ordinary experts. Therefore, our Company ultimately decided to use war robots instead of clone soldiers..."
"Since Mr. Sephiroth, you are so confident in your Company's mechs, why not let it have a real combat test with my son... Let me see just how powerful your Company's mechs are?" Judge suggested.
No matter how much he denied it, the three robots displayed by Umbrella Corporation, apart from the drawback of being expensive, did indeed completely overwhelm Germa's clone soldiers... Therefore, Judge could only propose a way to regain his disadvantage in this negotiation: by having his sons, modified using Lineage Factor Technology, fight against the mech and achieve victory.
Ichiji, Niji, and Yonji are the masterpieces Judge created using Lineage Factor Technology! Besides possessing exoskeletons, super-speed recovery, and steel skin, the three of them have also discarded "sympathy" and "compassion," these unnecessary weak emotions, making them the most outstanding combat machines... Hearing this, Sephiroth did not refuse. He smiled and nodded, saying,
"Indeed! Real combat is the best test method... Let your three sons go together and fight directly against the WM-2 model mech!" Having tested the WM-2 model mech, Sephiroth already knew its approximate strength...
An ordinary Iron Cutting Sword Master, even with a famous sword in hand and Armament Haki wrapped around the weapon, cannot cut through the mech's shell and joints! To damage the mech, one must possess Armament Haki of a certain strength and use internal destruction techniques to strike the relatively fragile parts and circuits inside the mech, causing a short circuit malfunction. Only then can it stop operating.
In fact, this is also the mech's fatal weakness...
Umbrella Corporation's research team has achieved the ultimate in the mech's external armor defense through special memory alloy, but they are helpless when it comes to the mech's internal defense! As long as someone has mastered the Haki of Armament internal destruction technique and possesses Armament Haki of a certain strength, and strikes the mech's interior with full force, the mech will basically be scrapped directly...
This means that when the mech faces an expert who can perform Haki of Armament internal destruction, it will become vulnerable!
However, thinking about it, a strong person capable of reaching this level is at least at the level of an elite Vice Admiral in Marineford. Although the number of strong people at this level isn't small, it's not too many either; they are the backbone of every force. As long as the mechs avoid such strong people on the front lines of the battlefield, it will be fine...
Facing this drawback of the mech, Sephiroth couldn't help but think of something.
In the original plot, the Pacifista researched by Vegapunk were completely overwhelming in one-on-one combat when they first faced those Pirate Supernovas! However... Two years later, those rows of Pacifista appearing simultaneously were as weak as porcelain dolls. Any Pirate Supernova with one or two special skills could easily defeat them in a one-on-one fight, while experts like Luffy and others, who are super-level among the Pirate Supernovas, could even blow one up with a single strike...
The most fundamental reason, could it be that the World Government felt that the top-tier configured Pacifista were too expensive, and also seemed vulnerable when facing first-class experts who had mastered Haki of Armament internal destruction? Therefore, they directly had Vegapunk replace many low-cost materials when mass-producing the Pacifista, creating units with significantly reduced performance, right? After all, Umbrella Corporation's proposal for mass-producing low-performance mechs is also based on this consideration...
Top-tier mechs aren't good against experts, and are overkill against weaklings, so it's better to simply lower the unit's production cost, just mass-produce them and use them specifically to fight weaklings!