Water Seven, now a bustling city on the sea, where numerous high-quality ships are born and sold for various purposes, hosts many shipbuilding companies. However, a few years ago, it was not like this.
Fourteen years ago, Roger initiated the Great Pirate Era, making the seas more turbulent than ever before.
Water Seven has a developed shipbuilding industry but no raw material output. All the wood and metal needed for shipbuilding must be purchased from external sources.
Sometimes, even an ordinary nail has to be imported; Water Seven is merely a processing hub.
With the onset of the Great Pirate Era, in just a month, the seas became chaotic with natural disasters, attacks by Sea King Types, and pirates roaming the seas. The area around Water Seven turned more perilous, and raw materials became scarce.
Due to its unique geographical position, Water Seven gets struck by a massive tsunami named "Aqua Laguna" every year, so massive that locals call it the Water Gods.
The abundance of pirates has made importing and exporting resources extremely difficult for Water Seven, and the once prosperous city gradually headed toward decline. At this moment, personnel from the World Government captured the local shipwright, Fishman Tom.
The charge was that he built a ship for the Pirate King, and thus, he was sentenced to death.
"Building ships is not a crime, and selling ships is not either, but the Pirate King is an exception."
This was the verdict given by the judge sent by the judicial ship of the World Government.
Under these circumstances, Tom made a proposal.
At that time, Tom was unwilling to accept the downfall of Water Seven and was preparing his Sea Train project. He also presented his Sea Train concept in court, successfully persuading the presiding judge, and thus received a ten-year stay of execution.
During the ten years of the Sea Train's construction, many things happened in Water Seven. Citizens restricted their children's outings due to the pirates on the streets. With the reduced number of merchant ships, shipyard owners took risks to procure timber, eventually resulting in fifty deaths.
People continued to leave Water Seven, shipbuilding companies went bankrupt, and owners committed suicide.
Until four years ago, in 1508, when the Sea Train commenced operations, the predicament of Water Seven was finally resolved.
The Sea Train connected surrounding islands, with tracks able to float on the sea without being affected by storms or waves. The friction between the tracks and gears produced sounds that fish disliked, greatly reducing the number of Sea King Types and Sea Beasts due to the lack of food.
The safe Sea Train carried hope to the surrounding areas, extending Tom's stay of execution, as he continued repairing other Sea Train lines over the four years.
Robin arrived in Water Seven some time ago and witnessed the real significance of the Sea Train.
It had a higher transport capacity than Pokemon, the mechanical locomotives required no rest, and the specially designed sea tracks could avoid wind and tsunamis, greatly enhancing operational efficiency. However, the costly construction meant only a few lines were laid in Water Seven over the years.
While large-scale implementation was unrealistic, the revenue brought in by the massive Hundred Beasts Fruit theoretically supported the construction, similar to what she had written back to Ghost Island at the time, though this wasn't the reason for her request for support.
Not long ago, under Tesoro's directive from Ghost Island, a new product was launched, and conveniently, a branch store opened in Water Seven. Knowing Robin was there, he had her assist with recent sales and financial problems.
The new product was the Rotom Phone, a Rotom-less Rotom Phone.
The Rotom Phones within the Hundred Beasts didn't need to worry about battery life because they were exclusive communication devices for cadres, each housing a Rotom that could generate electricity for the phone.
But the retail version was different; lacking a Rotom, these phones relied on traditional charging methods, limiting their usage to areas where charging was possible.
Islands with electricity were usually prosperous, teeming with wealthy merchants and nobles, and these became Tesoro's primary sales targets.
Besides, those settled on islands were also target groups, while those constantly sailing were not ideal for the Rotom Phone, since not every ship could carry power-generating equipment, and for those wind sailboats, Radio Snails were more suitable.
Tesoro marketed it as convenient, stable, and diverse, avoiding the necessity to feed and water a Radio Snail, and without the worry of illness affecting communication quality, as long as there was electricity, it remained extremely stable.
It even included a camera, speakers, and flashlight functions and received positive feedback in high-end markets after launch.
He wasn't pushing this phone just for profits but also for more informational intelligence.
Security was another key selling point, with bold claims of no eavesdropping by opponents in the advertisement scripted by him.
Tesoro even stated that he would use the Rotom Phone to discuss information with his subordinates during Hundred Beasts Fruit transactions, as it prevented eavesdropping.
He was telling the truth; the Rotom Phone couldn't be wiretapped by outsiders since such equipment didn't exist, but Hundred Beasts Fruit could record the information within it and analyze the intelligence advantageous to it.
Because it didn't house a Rotom, he even named the retail version the "Fruit Phone," available in various colors and patterns.
For this, Ghost Island also allocated several Rotoms specifically for gathering intelligence from all parties, and though no results had shown yet, some World Government officials had begun using these phones, leaving Tesoro confident of eventual outcomes.
Initially, when Arceus added this product to his list, he didn't grasp its purpose, but after understanding its functionality, Tesoro realized its profound significance.
In commerce, intelligence is tremendously crucial, and knowing your opponent's actions in advance helps devise new countermeasures.
He even prepared an exclusive luxury "Heavenly Celestial Dragon" edition in gold, planning to eavesdrop on some internal information of the Heavenly Celestial Dragon.
"Robin, is something different about your phone?"
Robin's colleague questioned her phone, noticing that although it was the same model, the casing of Robin's phone seemed to flash.
"No, maybe I got a limited edition because I helped clear an account for them." She casually dismissed her colleague. Their phones were indeed different; only the phones housing a Rotom were complete versions.
Robin then looked at the message on the phone, a message from Sasaki, indicating he had reached the designated location.