One Piece: A Guide for Ordinary Players

Nami chuckled to herself. How could she not see that her master, Hareda, had initially believed that she had truly submitted to Robert, and therefore his anger at the time was genuine?

But when he mentioned selling them out, these shrewd old foxes immediately understood what Robert wanted.

A group of old men with an average age of over eighty, no matter how perverted Robert is, could not possibly be genuinely interested in their bodies. The only explanation is that he is interested in their scientific research capabilities.

These old men were expressing their opinions through jokes and banter, while also defusing the awkward situation of mistakenly believing Robert was a pervert.

"Gentlemen, would you like me to explain my terms first?"

Harreda knew that beating around the bush wouldn't work, so he exchanged glances with his old buddies, raised his head, and said, "No amount of money will make us sell ourselves!"

Robert laughed: "Really?"

Nami leaned close to the meteorologists and whispered, "My friend is a big pirate, stupid and rich, but he only has one hobby: studying science."

"He's not good enough himself, so he funds other people's research. You know Vegapunk, right? He funded that too!"

Hareda and the other old men gaped in astonishment: "That old bastard Vegapunk was also funded by him? How is that possible? Isn't he backed by the World Government?"

Robert had somehow joined them: "The World Government is so stingy, always trying to use research funding to strangle Berlusconi. I'm different."

"When I first met Vegapunk, he didn't give me any face at all. He said he had plenty of money and looked down on my donation. Do you know what I did?"

Harreda and the others pretended to be intimidated by Robert's nouveau riche-like demeanor, but in reality, they didn't believe it at all.

"I gave him a spaceship, along with five hundred mechanical soldiers made using ancient lunar technology!"

Upon hearing about ancient lunar technology, the old men finally changed their expressions.

Robert continued talking to himself, "Do you know why I dared to do this?"

"I even give five hundred to those who don't believe in me, so the number of people who follow me will be hundreds of millions!"

"You understand applause!"

Chapter 22 Eating everything will only harm you

Robert spouts stale internet memes, and these old men from the One Piece world, who haven't been exposed to the internet, just think Robert's got a screw loose. Instead, they believe Nami's summary of him being a rich but foolish person.

In the world of One Piece, there are many people even more insane than Robert just now. Ironically, many of these eccentric individuals often gain immense power due to the unique rules of this world and certain opportunities.

Hareda's mind started working: "If you say you're rich, how come you can't even afford our food? What are you pretending for?"

Robert's expression was a little strange: "Wait a minute, you guys don't recognize me, do you?"

Harreda replied with an air of entitlement, "Are you famous? Why should we need to know you?"

Robert grinned. He had been wondering why it was so difficult to talk to these old men; it turned out they had no idea who he was.

He glanced back at Nami: "Have you been living in complete isolation these past two years? Don't you care about any news from the sea?"

Nami shrugged, somewhat helplessly: "We spend most of our time flying around in the sky. Newspaper birds can't fly that high, so we usually only land to buy things or help people bring rain every ten days or so. That's when we'll casually buy a newspaper."

"As for us teachers, we only pay attention to the unusual weather phenomena happening in the world. We never read other news. We subscribe to geography and meteorology journals."

Robert felt even more confident after hearing this. He cleared his throat and said, "I debuted late, so it's normal that you haven't heard of me. But I just heard you mention the red-light district of Wano Country, so you must know something about entertainment venues. I wonder if you've heard of the Golden City?"

Hareda blushed with embarrassment: "We've never been to those brothels. Don't make false accusations. Besides, we don't live on the moon. Of course we've heard of places like the Golden City."

"I'm not bragging, but Tezzolo once invited us to perform a thunder show at a banquet!"

Robert looked regretful and said, "It's a pity. I killed Tesoro. I didn't have a big enough place to display all the wealth on his ship, so I had to use what I had on hand and build a huge vault out of gold on the sky island to store the other valuables on the ship."

The old men looked dazed, their jaws practically dropping to the ground.

Even Nami's eyes lit up. Although she had never worried about money since joining Luffy's pirate crew, her greedy habits, which she had developed since childhood, were deeply ingrained.

"I saw the news about the attack on Tesoro's Golden City, but the description was too vague. It only said that it was suspected to be you and Ace, but it didn't say how much damage you caused. Is it all true what the news said?"

Robert casually said, "Yes, it was indeed me and Ace who did it. I am now the head of the Whitebeard Pirates, and we have occupied the entire Skypiea."

"Ace is on the island. Would you like to see him?"

Ace had a brief encounter with the Straw Hat Pirates in Alabasta back then. At that time, he was already a great pirate with a net worth of 5 million, which greatly impressed the few who had just entered the Grand Line and were still unknown.

Especially when Baroque Works sent out the so-called Million Elders fleet to intercept the Going Merry, most of the crew members were thinking about how to get rid of their pursuit, but Ace casually smashed all five of the huge ships that intercepted them into pieces with a single punch. That shocking scene was unforgettable for Nami.

Although Robert's attack on the Golden City attracted the attention of many interested parties, all tourists and staff members who were not deeply involved were forced off the ship, and even the spies who were secretly hiding on the ship to send messages out were all caught and killed.

As for the remaining Tesoro's die-hard accomplices, they are still imprisoned on a deserted island in the Sky Island, doing hard labor as atonement. Even Morgans doesn't know the whereabouts of such a large ship as the Golden City, so naturally there will be no follow-up reports.

Everyone knows that Tesoro was attacked by the Whitebeard Pirates and then disbanded the crew before disappearing without a trace. But what they don't know is that he was already dead, and that the ship, which was made entirely of gold, had been dismantled into parts by Robert's men.

Now, after Robert tells her the story himself, Nami finally understands just how rich Robert is.

Even if the old men didn't care about the situation at sea, they knew what level the Whitebeard Pirates were. After Robert said that, they remembered that he was the Robert who had made a name for himself during the Marineford War, and their eyes gleamed.

Judging from their expressions, Robert assumed they were interested because they knew he was rich, but to his surprise, Harreda grabbed his arm.

"You're the kid who ate the Rumble-Rumble Fruit! Quick! Show us some electricity!"

The old men were clearly more interested in the power of lightning than in the money; some even took out their notebooks to record the data.

Robert was somewhat bewildered by their focus, and in a daze, he performed a lot of flashy but impractical moves like a juggler.

Robert interrupted the old men's enthusiasm for continuing his experiments: "Gentlemen, let's get down to business. Nami should have already told you about our relationship. I would never lie to you."

"Now all the Sky Islands are completely under my control, and I chose the Sky Islands as my territory in order to avoid being attacked by the enemies of Qinghai."

"However, your small island is constantly shuttling between the White Sea and the Qinghai Sea. Once you are captured by my enemy, the Sky Island will instantly lose its geographical advantage."

When Robert started speaking in a serious tone, the old men knew they could no longer play dumb.

The Whitebeard Pirates are one of the Four Emperors' crews. Even though their leader, Whitebeard, has passed away, the strength of the pirates under his command is still not to be underestimated.

The always smiling young man in front of them was the new leader of the Whitebeard Pirates. He had been frank and clear: he certainly wouldn't allow them to leave any longer.

The enemies of the Four Emperors are of course groups of similar size and strength. The biggest advantage of Skypiea is that it is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Robert would never allow such a transportation force that can turn natural barriers into thoroughfares to be out of his control.

Hareda said with a wry smile, "So you mean we'll just have to spend the rest of our lives in your territory?"

Robert laughed and said, "How could that be? You are Nami's teachers, and Nami is my friend. If I were to imprison you all, how could I explain it to Nami?"

"I am willing to fully sponsor your meteorological research. You can use all the territories on my Sky Island to conduct some experiments in the near future. Even if you want to return to Qinghai, that's fine too. However, to ensure your safety and prevent you from falling into the hands of the World Government, I will send experts to protect you when you return to Qinghai."

Harreda was skeptical and tentatively said, "Our research is very expensive, so don't complain about how much we spend later."

Robert looked slightly puzzled: "I really don't know anything about meteorology that requires money. Can you tell me how expensive it is?"

Harreda said arrogantly, "There are many places where meteorology requires money. Just take our equipment, for example. It has been researched and tested for hundreds of years, and new materials have been developed bit by bit."

"Take this conductive alloy for example. A single wire costs millions of Berries, and the number of wires my island needs is astronomical. In the eyes of experts, the value of our Visalia is no less than that of the City of Gold!"

With a wave of his hand, a metal wire, supposedly worth a million Berries, broke off from Harreda's finger, and a small section fell into his hand. Before Harreda could react, Robert had already tossed it to the Indian.

"Can this be mass-produced? Is it expensive?"

The Indian man took the metal wire, and without even glancing at it, threw it into his mouth.

Hareda: You little glutton! Is that something you can eat?!

Chapter 23 gives the feeling of an affair being caught in the act.

Several old men shouted and tried to rush forward to stop them, but Robert waved his hand and froze them in place.

The principle of combining kindness and severity is crucial. Simply showing kindness without demonstrating authority will only provoke others to take advantage of you even more.

Robert has experienced a lot in the past two years, and his mentality is no longer that of the young cook he once was. While his skills in managing people may not be the pinnacle, they are at least highly refined.

Showing off a little bit of his strength now will help him quickly deal with Nami's teachers.

Nami trusted Robert completely, knowing he would never harm her teacher, so even when she saw them all frozen in place in strange positions, she didn't say anything to persuade them.

The Indian man chewed for a while with a calm expression, then casually spat out the small piece of metal wire:

"What properties of this alloy do you need? Hardness? Ductility? Or some other attribute?"

Harreda discovered that although he couldn't move his body, he could still speak: "Don't break this! This is a precious room-temperature and room-pressure superconducting material!"

Since the Indian hadn't received much education, he was slightly taken aback when he heard this string of terms.

Robert tilted his head and explained, "Superconductivity means that there is little resistance to the flow of electric current through this material. The so-called room temperature is the indoor temperature of our daily living environment, and the normal pressure is the atmospheric pressure of daily life."

The Indian man looked like he'd just realized something: "Then I can make it, how much do you need?"

Harreda laughed at his audacious words: "As long as we can make that tiny bit that you just ate, we'll stay here and never leave! We'll agree to any conditions!"

Robert grinned: "That's great, Indian, let's get to work!"

Ah San nodded, turned to Da Luo and said a few words. Da Luo awkwardly used his newly acquired ability, opened a door from a cloud, and went inside with Ah San.

The door in the clouds wasn't closed, but Harreda was already enraged by the ignorance and arrogance of Robert and his men, and was starting to not want to stay there any longer.

Robert did a ruthless job; even after the Indian left, he did not relinquish control over the old men.

So although these people were furious and thought that Robert and his ilk were ignorant pirates who did not respect science at all, they could only stand there as punishment in the face of absolute power.

Nami said with a hint of reproach, "Forging iron can't be done in a short time. At least let my teachers sit and wait, right?"

Robert laughed and said, "It'll be quick. They'll jump up soon anyway. Sitting down and getting up is more tiring."

Before the words were even finished, Ah San and Da Luo had already walked out of the portal again, each of them carrying something in their hands.

In the hand of the Indian man was a large plate of crystal-clear silk thread, about the same thickness as the small piece of metal wire he had just eaten, but a full thirty or forty meters long.

As for what Da Luo was holding, it was a large, square block of metal. If Da Luo hadn't come from a background of manual labor and hadn't spent the last two years wrestling with pirates, plus the fact that eating a Devil Fruit would instantly replenish many of his basic attributes, he might not have been able to lift such a large piece of metal.

"Da Luo is holding the same material as the metal wires that the gentlemen just took out. What I have is an improved superconducting material, which has a stronger conductivity than metal."

Ah San pretended not to know what superconducting materials were, but earlier, while Robert was explaining the meaning of room-temperature superconductivity, he was winking at him, and Ah San understood what Robert meant.

Superconducting materials were something the two of them had been researching for a long time. After the Indian ate the Gluttony Fruit, the first material Robert asked him to research was whether superconducting materials could be made at room temperature and pressure.

Robert ate the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, and superconducting materials were extremely useful to him. It can be said that the first thing he thought of after obtaining the Gluttony Fruit was to create materials related to electricity.

Although he later changed careers to become a chef, Robert did study electrical engineering in college and remembered some of the components of superconducting materials.

Robert couldn't explain the binary cyanide rich compounds under high pressure, but he could always explain graphite to the Indians.

As long as it's something Robert assigns, A-San treats it as his top priority. Over the course of a year, under the rules of the pirate world that are both scientific and unscientific, he has made quite a few achievements.

When Robert and Ah San were describing the characteristics of these materials, they didn't use any fancy terms. They only used the simplest and most understandable language to make sure Ah San could understand. So, his first reaction to the word "superconductivity" was indeed unfamiliar.

But as soon as Robert described it, he realized that this was the same old topic the two of them had been researching for a year. Recently, Robert had even started leading him to study semiconductors.