As for the soldiers from the One Piece world—they were, at their core, pure cannon fodder.
Yes, they were strong. Yes, some even had crude prosthetic augmentations.
But cannon fodder was still cannon fodder. In the original story, these were the types of troops blown away by the protagonist group's flashy attacks. They existed specifically to be target dummies.
And honestly, Cyberpunk-style augmentations were a terrible match for the One Piece physique.
Not because the tech wasn't advanced enough—
but because the One Piece human body was built different.
People under two meters tall were considered "small" and physically deformed.
Many had upper bodies twice the length of their lower ones, with arm circumferences bigger than a regular human's waist.
Strong? Yes.
Easy to fit prosthetics onto? Absolutely not.
Cyberpunk 2077 augmentations were designed for normal humans—in both physique and proportional tolerances. Forcing those mods onto One Piece citizens created all kinds of misalignments. Even if they could be installed, they reduced combat efficiency instead of enhancing it.
If Wapol Xiao really wanted to mechanize every soldier, he'd need tailor-made prosthetics for each individual.
Batch production? Impossible.
Even the Drum Kingdom couldn't manage that kind of customization on such a scale.
Of course, Xiao didn't underestimate the power of Wapol Xiao's Munch-Munch. With the Swallow-Swallow Factory, he could theoretically reshape prosthetics based on personal data.
But would he?
Absolutely not.
No one knew Xiao better than Xiao himself.
If something could be done lying down instead of sitting up, he'd choose lying down every time.
Wapol Xiao was the same. He would never bother with such tedious, individualized work.
Besides—the first Daluo Arena didn't even allow subordinates.
How could any version of Xiao have been bothered to "cultivate" elite forces?
Xiao's philosophy was simple:
"I give you the seed of power. The rest is your problem."
Training you personally? Dream on.
Hence, regardless of whether there were 100,000 or 1,000,000 of them, the Wapol Corps simply couldn't compare to Xiao's mere 1,000 Meng Ji soldiers.
The Meng Ji troops were elite veterans from an assassination unit that had once toppled entire nations with a single country's strength.
Some among them were legendary heroes who had slain hundreds with nothing but flesh and blood.
Their achievements surpassed even Siheyuan Xiao's early days—and that Xiao relied on his Dimensional Farm's absurd physical boost.
The Meng Ji troops were ordinary humans.
Ordinary humans who survived hunger, cold, and overwhelming enemy numbers thousands of times greater than their own.
With Xiao's spatial storage stocked with mountains of weapons and ammunition—plus the ability to grow more at will—the difference in quality was night and day.
Against seasoned regulars, Wapol Xiao's forces were nothing more than farmers waving torches.
Without immunity to firearms, numbers were meaningless.
"All units, prepare! Build defensive fortifications immediately! Objective: annihilate the enemy! Free fire!"
Though Xi Hanmei was full of confusion, she stood with Xiao without hesitation, giving orders with crisp decisiveness.
She had no choice.
If Xiao lost, everything, including her, would belong to the other Xiao.
"Yes!"
The Meng Ji soldiers responded with vigor, unloading supplies from the Dimensional Space, erecting camps, laying out iron fences, digging trenches.
On the opposite side, the Wapol Army mobilized as well, with Wapol Xiao issuing the same annihilation order.
With a 100-to-1 advantage, their confidence was absolute. If they lost with such numbers, they didn't deserve to call themselves an army.
Both sides gathered momentum, the anticipation thickening the air.
Above them, the countdown ticked toward zero.
Ding~~~
The restraints vanished.
"Forward!"
Wapol Xiao swung his arm, sending his army charging. Like a gray tide, soldiers leveled long spears and surged ahead.
The Cyberpunk troopers climbed onto rugged trucks, grabbing high-tech weapons, ready to provide fire support from behind the infantry.
The battlefield looked vast, but once both armies began marching, they spotted each other's bases within minutes.
Sebastian Xiao's side had completed trenches and fortifications, waiting silently.
"Oh? Vintage weapons from the 90s?"
Wapol Xiao sneered at the iron nets, trenches, and the outdated-looking weapons in Xiao's hands. Calmly, he raised his hand:
"Begin the charge. Fire at will."
"Charge!"
"Kill!"
The Wapol forces roared, surging toward Xiao's lines.
Sebastian Xiao remained seated at the rear, voice steady:
"Open fire."
BOOM— BOOM— BOOM— BOOM—!
Mortars erupted. Fireballs blossomed inside the charging masses, each explosion taking several lives.
But against 100,000 troops, it was a drop in the ocean. The tide didn't slow. It swallowed the flames and kept rushing.
Machine gunners lay prone, ready to unleash hell the moment the enemy closed in—
WHOOSH—
But to their shock, the Wapol Army fired first.
A white flash streaked across the battlefield—
A Meng Ji soldier's head burst like a watermelon.
He collapsed instantly—dead before he even knew he'd been hit.
The vanguard had fired.
Despite holding what looked like primitive matchlock rifles, they killed a machine gunner with a single shot from 600 meters away.
WHOOSH— WHOOSH— WHOOSH—
A storm of supersonic projectiles tore through the air.
Before the front line of Meng Ji troops could react, they fell one after another.
Sandbag trenches? Useless.
The projectiles punched through them like wet paper.
The Meng Ji troops were stunned.
Xiao was stunned.
"F*ck!"
Sebastian Xiao shot to his feet, activating Dimensional Vision. His eyes narrowed as he finally saw the enemy weapons clearly.
His jaw clenched.
"You despicable human being!!! (╬◣д◢)"
The rifles in the Wapol Army's hands only looked like outdated matchlocks.
Inside, they were electromagnetic acceleration rifles, loaded with specialized armor-piercing rounds.
This was pure Cyberpunk 2077 tech.
Far beyond anything pirates used.
Wapol Xiao had deliberately disguised them.