Although Enel was the user of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, he had been born on a sky island and had never seen the wider world. He had suffered from having too little experience. So when Rowan's group came knocking, Enel actually believed he had the advantage.
He was a god, after all. How could he possibly lose to a bunch of nobodies who had come out of nowhere?
At the same time, faced with Enel's arrogance, Rowan's thoughts were perfectly in sync with his.
How could an idiot who had never seen how vast the world truly was possibly be their opponent?
This time, the advantage was mine.
Yamato, who had finally left Onigashima and gained her freedom, was like an unleashed dog at that moment. Facing the haughty Enel, she charged forward without hesitation.
"Impudent!"
Enel's eyes widened, and he opened with a bolt of lightning.
But in the next second, Yamato dodged the lightning, her gaze sharpening.
Boom!
A wild, terrifying burst of Conqueror's Haki exploded from Yamato, sweeping outward like a collapsing mountain and a roaring tsunami.
Before coming here, she had already heard from Rowan that the enemy they would be dealing with was the user of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
That made Yamato raise her guard. After all, the Rumble-Rumble Fruit was not only a Logia Devil Fruit, but also a Logia that controlled lightning.
It was absolutely one of the most representative and most powerful Logia fruits.
As long as the person who obtained it wasn't an idiot, they would become strong.
Facing a powerful enemy, Yamato naturally didn't dare be careless. So the moment she saw Enel act, she immediately unleashed her Conqueror's Haki.
For powerful fighters, releasing Conqueror's Haki upon meeting was almost like a greeting. It was the etiquette of the strong.
But what Yamato had not expected was that after she released her Conqueror's Haki, Enel not only failed to respond, he even lagged behind for a moment.
At the same time, Yamato had already charged right in front of Enel. Conqueror's Haki wrapped around the kanabo in her hand as she smashed it viciously toward him.
Thunder—
Bagua!
Bang!
A tremendous impact rang out. Enel was almost instantly sent flying, his entire body shooting backward like a cannonball and smashing into the wall, blasting a huge hole straight through the shrine.
He flew out of the shrine and crashed to the ground outside with a thud.
Then he passed out.
Yamato: "Uh… what is this guy doing?"
Wasn't he the Rumble-Rumble Fruit user? Wasn't he way too weak?
"Have you considered the possibility that he was weak to begin with?" Rowan said calmly. "Other than being naturally gifted with Observation Haki, this guy doesn't know Haki at all. He doesn't even know what Haki is."
Yamato: "??? What? He doesn't know Haki? How is that possible? Isn't Haki supposed to be common knowledge?"
Rowan was speechless.
As expected, people really couldn't fully empathize with each other. Faced with Yamato's "why don't they eat meat" kind of comment, Rowan said calmly, "Have you considered the possibility that a lot of people in the world don't know what Haki is?"
"Is that so?" Yamato laughed awkwardly a few times.
After that, Rowan got a pair of Seastone handcuffs and locked Enel up to prevent him from causing trouble.
Then he found the golden flying ship, the Ark Maxim.
The ship was truly huge, far beyond Rowan's expectations. And the amount of gold on it was also far beyond what he had imagined.
If money-loving Nami saw this, she would probably go completely insane with joy.
Thank goodness he hadn't brought her this time, or no one would be able to take this ship away.
After finding the ship, Rowan did not immediately dismantle the gold on it piece by piece and send it back to Egghead.
Instead, he called Vegapunk, Tobirama, Orochimaru, and the others over to inspect the Ark Maxim.
Why inspect it?
Because the Ark Maxim was the only ship in the One Piece world capable of flying through the sky.
That alone was incredible.
Most ships in the One Piece world could only sail on the sea. At most, some could dive beneath it, like the Heart Pirates' ship, the Polar Tang, which was one of the few submarines in the world.
Of course, if ships in the One Piece world were coated, they could also dive beneath the sea.
But ships that could fly through the sky were incredibly rare.
For the moment, the Ark Maxim was one of a kind.
In the cover story of One Piece, Enel, after losing to Luffy, even used this ship to fly out of the atmosphere and all the way to the moon.
That proved this thing wasn't just a ship that could fly through the sky. It was even capable of interplanetary flight.
That was truly impressive.
So before dismantling the gold on the ship and selling it, Rowan dragged Vegapunk and the others out of the lab and had them inspect the Ark Maxim.
"A wonderful ship."
After examining it, Vegapunk couldn't help sighing. "The technology on this ship exceeds my expectations. I suspect part of its technology may come from one of the Ancient Weapons—Uranus."
"You're sure?" Rowan was a little surprised.
Among the three Ancient Weapons of the One Piece world, Pluton was a ship, while Poseidon was a mermaid able to communicate with Sea Kings—the current Princess Shirahoshi of Fish-Man Island.
Only Uranus had still never made a proper appearance.
However, in the story, after Vegapunk invented the Mother Flame, the hidden ruler of the World Government, Imu, used it to activate an unknown weapon and instantly destroy the Lulusia Kingdom.
Because that strike descended from the sky, many people believed that unknown weapon was Uranus.
Now Vegapunk was saying that the Ark Maxim's spaceflight technology might come from Uranus. Did that mean Uranus was likely a ship too—and possibly a spaceship armed with powerful weapons?
"This is only my speculation." Vegapunk did not speak with certainty. "Don't be fooled by the fact that I once worked for the World Government. Many of their secrets were never opened to me."
"Even I don't know the exact details of Uranus. I can only make some vague guesses."
Rowan thought about it carefully and felt that it sounded reasonable.
After that, they found the blueprints for the Ark Maxim inside the ship.
Enel had built the Ark Maxim according to these blueprints. Otherwise, with his brain, how could he possibly have designed a ship capable of flying into space?
Curious, Rowan used mind-control magic to control Enel and questioned him. From that, he learned something.
Enel had found the blueprints on his home sky island, Birka.
Together with the blueprints, he had also found the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
Only then did Rowan understand. No wonder the Ark Maxim was powered by lightning.
It had been designed that way from the start, using the Rumble-Rumble Fruit as its energy source to power the ship.
Whoever had designed such a thing was unknown, but in the end, Enel had benefited from it.
Unfortunately, after eating the Devil Fruit, Enel turned around and destroyed his home sky island, Birka.
So the identity of the Ark Maxim's creator became an unsolved mystery.
"You really do deserve to die."
Rowan looked at the Enel under his control and considered whether to just kill the bastard outright.
But in the end, Rowan gave up on that option.
Because Enel was currently the only captured Logia Devil Fruit user, and he had great research value. Killing him just like that would be a shame.
In the end, Rowan sent Enel to the laboratory.
Orochimaru, Kabuto, and the others were overjoyed. This was a top-tier experimental subject.
As for the Ark Maxim, Rowan dismantled the gold on it piece by piece. Most of it was poured directly into Egghead's experiments.
With this enormous amount of funding, Egghead's research would not have to stop.
But getting results still wouldn't be easy. It would take time.
Fortunately, Rowan wasn't in a hurry, and neither was Robin. There were still several years before the world's destruction, so they had enough time.
What they needed to do now was recruit more allies as quickly as possible and prepare to oppose the World Government together.
Kaido and Charlotte Linlin had already become his subordinates.
Next was Whitebeard.
Recruiting Whitebeard wouldn't be difficult. Whitebeard was already old and plagued by illness, and what he cared about most was his sons.
If Rowan could heal Whitebeard and restore his health, Whitebeard would naturally join Rowan's camp.
His sons would also be deeply grateful to Rowan and would absolutely not object to joining him.
As for how to cure Whitebeard—
Rowan already had an idea. First, they would find the captain of the Heart Pirates, the Surgeon of Death, Trafalgar Law. Then they would have Trafalgar Law work together with Tsunade. That should be enough to treat Whitebeard's body.
In doing so, they could bring both Trafalgar Law and Whitebeard into their camp.
Together, they would fight the World Government.
That had originally been Rowan's plan.
But just as they were about to act, a small accident occurred.
Deep within Rowan's mind, the golden gate, which had been quiet for some time, vibrated again and sent him a message.
A new world—
had been discovered.
Simply put, Rowan could now travel to another new world.
So Rowan decisively paused the next phase of his plan and decided to go take a look at the new world first.
Whitebeard and Trafalgar Law were both still in the One Piece world. They weren't going anywhere. It was better to check out the new world first. Maybe there would be an unexpected gain.
Robin supported Rowan's decision.
If they connected to a world like Dragon Ball or Saint Seiya, that would be amazing.
So Rowan called over Hashirama, Yamato, Smoothie, Robin, and even Serie, then pushed open an air door leading to the new world.
Behind the door, for once, there wasn't some woman's room.
It was a forest.
And within that dense forest, there was a woman stumbling as she walked, looking rather miserable.
The woman wore an indigo-and-purple hooded cloak and a purple robe. She had long blue hair and blue eyes.
More importantly, she had pointed ears that were clearly different from an ordinary person's. A braid hung beside her left ear, and she wore purple lipstick.
~~~
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