Wano Country.
A few ships were moored around Wano Country, which had already been turned into a giant cannon platform. A thousand Fishmen dove into the sea one after another like dumplings, taking machine devices with obvious propulsion down to the undersea foundation of Wano Country.
"First, we need to pry open the foundation."
Vegapunk stood at the bow and said to Sage standing beside him, "This device can first pry the foundation loose, then push the entire foundation forward. Of course, we also have to take into account that Wano Country itself is a weapon, not a purely natural seabed foundation."
Renedia crouched down, tapping this machine that looked like a drill but also carried a jet propulsion device with her little hammer, then nodded thoughtfully:
"Pretty close to my design concept. Prying up the foundation… is it digging up the seabed for energy and then using that to push forward? And that black mushy stuff over there, what is it?"
With such a big shot like Vegapunk here, even if Renedia didn't want to study, Sage would force her to, and besides, she was genuinely interested in all this.
After all, her dream was to build a ship that could sail smoothly and freely in any kind of dangerous environment, and the tech she learned could be fed back directly into the Death Star.
In this day and age, just having good materials wasn't enough to build ships on the sea anymore. That old traditional era had quietly passed; what's in vogue now is loading your ships up with black-tech.
Because plain materials have an upper limit, but science can make materials go beyond any limit.
Vegapunk was also very happy to take on a young, energetic disciple with a brilliant brain, especially one who was only twelve, and whose Fruit Ability was perfectly suited for scientific research.
Power, huh...
This is the highest tier of application.
"We're using Mother Steel. That stuff cycles and regenerates. As a rare metal that naturally appears only once every three hundred years, it's an excellent material. However, it has a downside. Do you know what it is?" Vegapunk said.
Renedia froze for a moment. "What downside? I've been researching it for quite a while and never found anything abnormal."
"Everything in existence has limits. Everything comes with a price. Even Devil Fruits—these wish-fulfillment products—pay the price of being despised by Mother Nature, don't they?"
Vegapunk smiled. "Mother Steel's traits are split-regeneration and a capacity conversion that's practically infinite. You could call it a 'Divine Artifact'. But its price is 'lifespan'. It's not meant to be used as a heirloom treasure. No matter how many times it splits, no matter how much it contains, its lifespan is only two hundred years."
"After those two hundred years, Mother Steel will wither, melt back into nature, then, after a hundred years of accumulation, 'resurrect' somewhere else. Since it needs to hold massive amounts of energy, it generally appears in high-energy locations, such as lava zones. Flowing magma itself hides tremendous energy."
"The Mag-Mag Fruit of Navy Fleet Admiral Akainu is called the number one offensive power not because of temperature, but because it represents the overwhelming impact and explosive force of a volcanic eruption. It contains that condition; that's why Akainu is called the strongest offense."
"As for that black mushy stuff, its essence is 'fat-water', but I call it 'oil'. It's a substance dug out by Sea Beast Machines during seabed exploration. Because it's mined out of rock, we used to think it was mineral, but in fact, through research we found it's formed from remains and remnants of various organic bodies, buried deep underground, gradually compacted under high pressure and anoxic conditions."
"Put simply, it's formed from corpses."
Light flashed in Vegapunk's eyes. "This is a recent research discovery. It's just that I was busy working on the Mother Fire Seed, so this project got delayed. Only after coming here did I start a new project. Unlike the Mother Fire Seed, and I'll admit, the applications of the Mother Fire Seed can't be completed in the short term—but oil can."
He pointed at the contents inside the machine and said, "After refinement, the extracted oil can be burned in the simplest way to become fuel. It can also be used to protect equipment from friction, and even made into road materials different from stone slabs, as well as waterproof materials."
"Synthetic materials, cleaning products, pharmaceuticals, even cosmetics can all use it. It's the textbook definition of 'cure-all', and also the best energy source!"
"On a sea where cola can be used as energy, sure, that's miraculous, but it's still a low-grade energy. It might be enough for ordinary ships, but if you want to go a level higher, you must have high-quality energy."
He spread his arms excitedly. "Oil is high-quality energy! It will definitely be the future of the sea! Renedia, you mustn't fall behind in Mother Steel applications. You definitely understand applications better than I do, but I'll suggest new methods to you. And for oil applications, you have to study this as well. It absolutely represents the future!"
"Cure-all? Such a convenient energy source, and it has no limits?" Renedia asked.
If Mother Steel as an all-purpose material has issues, then this cure-all oil has no flaws?
"Reserves. It's non-renewable—or rather, its renewal time is extremely long, requiring more than a million years. But the good news is, the sea is vast, and there are definitely massive quantities under the seabed. At least for the future I can foresee, it's absolutely an energy source we won't run out of!"
Vegapunk said, "By the time we reach the future I envision, the Mother Fire Seed will also be in full-scale application! Our future is absolutely worth期待!"
Renedia blinked rapidly. Even though she understood this old man's expectations very well, when faced with the light bursting from his eyes, that instant was still so dazzling that she couldn't open hers.