One Piece: A Guide for Ordinary Players

However, the engineers were well aware that the so-called ruins were just different entrances to the underground world, and they also assumed that Robert knew this. So after searching the lunar surface, they brought back meteorites, wrecked spaceships, and other such items.

Robert pursed his lips. Lantz explained that the moon was short of resources but was frequently attacked by meteorites from outer space.

This is one of the important reasons why lunar structures are built underground. These extraterrestrial meteorites are an important source of replenishment of materials and energy on the moon, and a large part of the work of the robotic engineers is to collect them every day.

Robert smiled and ordered all the robotic engineers to keep an eye on Lantz. He now trusted the robotic engineers, who could only act on their own, more than the old man.

Returning to the lunar surface alone, Robert took out the sphere that Dr. Vegapunk had given him from his inventory.

The sphere was smooth. Robert placed it on the ground and recited the activation command as instructed by Vegapunk.

Several cracks appeared on the surface of the sphere, revealing two small eyes.

Have we arrived?

Robert was utterly astonished by Vegapunk's voice: "You didn't put your brain inside this ball, did you?"

The sphere calmly said, "I am an early experimental clone of Vegapunk. Is this the moon?"

Robert nodded: "Yes, let's check it out."

The spherical eyes emitted light as they scanned the surroundings, and even extended metal probes to collect some lunar soil.

Robert's purpose for this trip was to accompany this sphere to explore the moon, so he wasn't in a hurry and leisurely followed behind it.

"I saw a lot of messy footprints, which must have just been formed. Are there other people on the moon?"

Robert smiled and explained, "The previous civilization left behind some mechanical assistants. I used my abilities to reactivate and control them, and now they work for me."

In order to lure Vegapunk to build a factory on the moon, Robert even showed the sphere the underground world, which he himself had not yet fully explored.

“I have gathered enough information. Now take me back to Egherd.”

Robert knew that such a small sphere was definitely not enough to maintain real-time contact with Vegapunk, so he gladly put it into hibernation and put it back into his inventory space.

When he returned to Lantz's side, Lantz was fiddling with a high-tech, streamlined machine.

"Uh, this is a hibernation pod. I'm quite old and have undergone a long space voyage, so I need to recuperate..."

"However, each period of hibernation is quite long, possibly at least three or four months without waking up, so... that energy..."

Lantz rubbed his hands together like a fly, looking at Robert eagerly, which made Robert burst out laughing.

The old man seemed to be begging for help to recharge, but in reality, Robert felt that he was conveying a message that he was not a threat.

With him moving freely on the moon, I'd be constantly worried about him causing trouble, but voluntarily entering hibernation is itself a statement.

"How much energy will be needed in three or four months?"

Lanz grinned, his face crinkling with laughter: "Not much, not much. Just one-tenth of the engineers' energy will be enough."

Robert casually unleashed a bolt of electricity, filling the hibernation pod to its full energy:

"I hope you'll still be here waiting for me when I come back."

Seeing Robert's ambiguous smile, Lantz swallowed hard and quickly said with a forced smile, "Where else can I go? If you don't believe me, you can dismantle our spaceship. I don't need it anymore anyway."

Robert's eyes suddenly lit up: "Is your spaceship fast?"

Lanz asked doubtfully, "Uh, it's much faster than the one you took when you came..."

Robert's lips curled up: "Then there's no need to take it apart, it's mine now!"

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Robert was unwilling to waste any more time on voyages. If a round trip to the moon took more than half a year, he really wouldn't dare to come often in the future.

Many major events in the world of One Piece will occur in a short period of time, and it will be less than a year before Luffy sets sail again.

As they watched Lantz enter the hibernation pod, the robotic engineers, absolutely loyal to Robert, told him that the hibernation pod could not be opened from the inside until the set time had elapsed.

A group of robotic engineers were assigned to take turns guarding the area around the hibernation pods. Robert coldly gave the order that if the hibernation pods were opened ahead of time, all the engineers who were on standby and storing energy should be activated to kill Lanz.

With about 200 robotic engineers with him, Robert boarded the space pirate's ship.

The ship was incredibly high-tech; Robert himself couldn't drive it, but the robotic engineers operated it with great skill.

The return speed was more than ten times faster than that of the Ark Maxim, and now that Robert has his own territory, he directly hovered the spaceship above the clouds near Dressrosa.

Robert left the robotic engineers to guard the ship and then teleported to the Indian's office.

From a distance, Robert sensed that Ah San was not in the room, but today Robert sat solemnly in the seat that was supposed to be Ah San's.

"Have you finished dismantling the people and are you just hiding here slacking off?"

Upon hearing Robert's voice, Robert was taken aback at first, then gritted his teeth and said:

"How dare you accuse me of slacking off? What have you been doing these past few months?!"

Robert smiled mysteriously: "Didn't I tell Ah San that I'm going on a long trip? I recently negotiated a big collaboration, I'm busy, okay?"

Luo sneered and nodded: "Fine, go ahead and do your thing. Anyway, I'm not Whitebeard's godson, so I'm not worried about them getting killed."

Robert frowned immediately: "Someone has made a move against the Whitebeard Pirates? Is it Blackbeard or Whitebeard Jr.?"

Luo looked at him strangely: "You didn't actually go to the moon, did you? How come you didn't know about something so important?"

Robert hurriedly said, "Tell me quickly, how dare they? Didn't Ace cooperate with Shanks? He even studied on Shanks' ship. Logically speaking, these two shouldn't dare to blindly oppose both Shanks and the Whitebeard Pirates, two major forces, right?"

Robert had always seemed so confident of victory, but this was the first time Luo had seen him completely clueless, which gave him a strange sense of satisfaction.

"Neither of them dares to, but what if Akainu is added to the mix?"

Chapter 18 Completely Out of Control

Robert felt like he needed to use his brain. More than a year had passed since the Marineford War, and he hadn't heard the name Akainu for over a year.

This is the biggest plot change I made. Aokiji, who was supposed to infiltrate Blackbeard's ranks, became the Fleet Admiral, while Akainu, who was supposed to become the Fleet Admiral, resigned from the Navy.

However, in Robert's deduction, Akainu would never follow Aokiji's old path. Given his reputation, even if he dared to ask Blackbeard to join him, Blackbeard wouldn't dare to take him in.

But now Law insists that Akainu has really gotten involved with those two, and Law can't figure out why no.

Looking at Robert's fascinating expression, Luo felt a sense of relief and stopped tormenting him.

"After leaving the Navy, Akainu has been building his own fleet. He first recruited a group of young Marines from the four seas to form a maritime hunting team with the aim of eliminating pirates. A few months ago, he officially returned to the Grand Line."

"During this time, the young Whitebeard also kept probing attacks on the territory of the New Whitebeard Pirates, claiming that he wanted to take over his father's business."

"Finally, there's Blackbeard. Since taking over Beehive Island, his power has grown even stronger, and he's no longer content with just staying in one place. And honestly, among the Four Emperors' crews, the New Whitebeard Pirates are the easiest to bully..."

Robert frowned and said, "So it's like three forces are besieging them? What? Shanks isn't doing anything about it?"

Law also became serious: "Red-Haired Shanks and Akainu fought..."

Robert waited patiently for what would follow, but instead heard Robert say in a grave tone, "We didn't win..."

Robert's jaw nearly dropped: "Are you saying Shanks lost a one-on-one fight with Akainu? Or are you saying the pirate crew lost a battle?"

Luo said, word by word, "It was a direct war between the entire pirate crew, and the Red-Haired Pirates did not gain any advantage."

"His battle with Akainu changed the landscape of an island called Punk Assad. Now, half of the island is filled with surging lava, and the other half is filled with crisscrossing sword energy."

Robert had always thought that the officers in the Red-Haired Pirates were all incredibly cool, but he never expected that they couldn't even defeat the Marines that Akainu had hastily assembled.

Luo glanced at Robert: "Speaking of which, you also bear some responsibility for this."

Robert chuckled: "I'm not even on this planet, what does it have to do with me?"

Luo Youyou said, "I heard that several important officers of the Red-Haired Pirates went to your little girlfriend's concert. Although the rest of them are very strong, Akainu's vice-captain is also an extremely strong guy who single-handedly held off all the other officers of the Red-Haired Pirates."

Robert already had a vague suspicion: "Could this vice-captain be a user of the Forest-Forest Fruit?"

Luo asked suspiciously, "You don't know what happened during this time, but you know the trump card that Akainu kept hidden until the very end?"

Robert felt a headache coming on. Green Bull Araki, who was supposed to become a new admiral in the Navy, was originally a believer in Akainu's extreme sense of justice. Now, instead of Aokiji recruiting him, Akainu directly pulled him into the party.

These two exceptionally capable law enforcers, once freed from the constraints of their naval identities, who knows what kind of trouble they might cause.

"What's the situation with the White Group right now?"

Robert was getting impatient. The White Group was closely associated with him and was now facing a major crisis of being uprooted. He had to take action.

Luo sighed and said, "Nobody can contact you. We can only try to figure it out ourselves. Raleigh has already brought most of the White Group's logistics personnel and wounded to Dressrosa, and they are now being housed in the underground factory."

"But now the entire New World is watching this great battle. Seeing that the Whitebeard Pirates are showing signs of weakness, Blackbeard and Whitebeard Jr. are launching a frenzied attack. The Navy has also mobilized a large number of personnel, ready to act at any moment."

Robert took a deep breath: "Help me hold on for a little longer. My plan is almost complete, but right now, I have to protect the White Group. I'm sorry, the target we agreed on when we started this collaboration can't be the White Group."

Law shrugged: "I didn't originally consider the Whitebeard Pirates as my target. With Whitebeard dead, their position as one of the Four Emperors is no longer justified. If I want to challenge them, I have to choose one of the others."

Robert entered the underground factory and found it not as chaotic as he had imagined. Although the underground factory was very lively, everyone seemed to be doing their jobs in a very orderly manner.

Unleashing his Observation Haki, Robert quickly locked onto the Indian's location and appeared beside him in a flash.

Upon seeing Robert appear, Ah San was overjoyed: "My lord! You're back! Something terrible has happened!"

Robert reassured him, "I heard from Luo that you've found someone who can explain what happened. Now that I'm back, I can't just stand by and do nothing."

Ah San said, "Not long after the war broke out, I took the initiative to contact Lady Whiteybe. She helped me a lot back then, and even if you didn't give the order, I couldn't just do nothing."

"The White Group was attacked too suddenly at the time, and a lot of territory was lost. Many non-combatants were stranded at sea. So I took it upon myself to invite all the logistics personnel to Dressrosa, since I was also short of some experts in finance and administration."

"As the battle intensified, Princess Mansherry and Luo were there, so I managed to bring some of the wounded over..."

Robert patted him on the shoulder and said, "You did a great job. Even if I were here, it would be hard to do better than you. You've worked hard."

Ah San was deeply moved: "My lord, the Sixth Division Captain Bramank is receiving treatment from Princess Mansherry. I will take you to see him."

Robert frowned and nodded. Although Bramank was not a particularly prominent expert, as a top-ranked squad leader, if even he was seriously injured and had to retreat to the rear, it could only mean that the intensity of the war had really reached a certain level.

Bramank was tall and lay on a specially set-up hospital bed, his body wrapped in bandages. For a moment, Robert didn't even know where he was injured.

Seeing Robert enter, Bramank became emotional, but ultimately only sighed and said, "I've dragged you into this again..."

Robert laughed and cursed, "Damn it, what kind of nonsense is this? Now that Dad's gone, you don't consider me one of your own anymore?"

Seeing Bramanck's complicated expression, Robert didn't want to be coy: "How many enemies do we have to face now? Didn't Shanks hold off Akainu? Did Blackbeard really push us to this point on his own?"

Bramank's expression was serious: "Actually, even if Blackbeard hadn't come knocking, we'd still be itching for a fight. It's just that Akainu caught us off guard this time..."

"We don't need to worry about Akainu for now, but we have to hold off Blackbeard head-on while also keeping an eye on Weevil! I was ambushed and injured by him during our retreat!"

Robert asked in confusion, "Where is that Weevil? Why don't we focus our efforts on kicking him out of the game first?"

Ah San spoke in a low voice: