"Let's pull back a bit. Don't get caught in the crossfire. I don't want to waste energy here with them."
Kaido lowered his head, dodging a missile strike. Currently, Skul Island was in chaos, but overall, the different forces could still be distinguished.
Take the Golden Lion, for example. The batch of Ruin Guards he purchased were golden in color. Not only did they have numbers on them, but they also bore the pirate insignia of the Flying Pirates.
The other forces were similar. The Ruin Guards and Ruin Graders on the Marines' side had been changed to blue and white, with stripes that looked like the panties under a young girl's skirt.
Blue and white stripes—the classic style in Japanese anime.
Some of these modifications were made by Inazuma at the factory according to their requests, while others were additions they made themselves after purchasing.
Of course, the most peculiar ones were the Ruin Guards in the Big Mom Pirates. After being granted souls by Big Mom's Devil Fruit ability, those Ruin Guards seemed to have truly come to life.
Katakuri led the imminent Ruin Guards and several Ruin Graders in a continuous charge. Since Charlotte Linlin could also imbue elements with life, a few of the Ruin Graders were even burning with flames or wreathed in thunderclouds, appearing incredibly destructive!
Putting everything else aside, at least Katakuri felt these things were far more useful than his older brothers and sisters or younger brothers and sisters. Despite how much he doted on his siblings, he had to admit the terrifying combat power these machines possessed after "coming to life"!
"Still like this?" Ren was somewhat surprised. Big Mom's Soru-Soru Fruit was undeniably useful. But the problem was, if all the Homies she created attached themselves to autonomous machines, wouldn't that mean all the autonomous machines on the sea would indirectly belong to the Big Mom Pirates?
'No wonder orders from Big Mom's side have decreased quite a bit lately. She's probably already seized many Ruin Guards from other forces and turned them directly into Homies.'
Since Ruin Guards inherently possessed powerful attack capabilities, Charlotte Linlin didn't even need to use particularly high-level Homies when creating them. Mid-level Homies were sufficient.
If smaller forces discovered that the Ruin Guards they spent enormous sums to purchase were stolen by Big Mom's people and turned into Homies, it could greatly affect Inazuma's business.
Ren thought that if this situation really arose in the future, he would need to consider whether to eliminate the Big Mom Pirates.
After all, cutting off someone's source of income was like killing their parents. Inazuma had huge expenses for research every year. If income couldn't keep up, that wouldn't work. Most importantly, Ren didn't want the autonomous machines he painstakingly created to end up actively betraying him due to Big Mom's ability. That would be quite helpless.
Autonomous machines were, after all, inanimate objects. No matter how well the programs were set, problems could still arise.
'I still need to research alchemy...'
That's right, this world actually possessed something as wondrous as alchemy. Someone had even refined the legendary pure gold that could halt human life and achieve immortality!
But this technique seemed to have been lost.
Of course, this so-called alchemy might also be a kind of difficult-to-understand technology.
Considering the strange concept that all technology originated from ancient times, Ren thought perhaps the Great Kingdom would have more useful technologies. After all, Vegapunk had created artificial Devil Fruits, Seraphim, and his own clones through researching this kind of technology.
This kind of clone-like artificial human technology might be a good direction for development.
And the Ruin series, or rather autonomous machines, no matter how massive they were built, were ultimately just walking artillery platforms.
Of course, this didn't mean Ren would terminate the current plans. Going forward, whether it was the Everlasting Lord of the Ruin Graders, or Ruin Guards larger than mountains, or Scaramouche's Gundam, they would continue to be developed.
Especially the latter two, which were fundamentally things piloted by humans, so there was no need to worry about them being controlled by Homies.
'Alkemi has already disappeared from history. Although I know there are two people swallowed by Neptunians, the probability of just happening to encounter them is too small. In comparison, it's more reliable to start from the Great Kingdom's technology.'
Ren thought while knocking back the pirates approaching them. They were all exercising restraint, controlling their power to avoid being discovered by those great pirates.
Especially Kaido. He had undergone simple disguise on his face, wore a hemp cloth over his body, and didn't even take out his kanabo. One could say he had taken hiding to the extreme.
This seemed somewhat contradictory to his possession of Conqueror's Haki. However, Kaido chose to conceal himself not out of fear, but to choose the right moment. He never felt he was inferior to anyone. Even if his current strength fell short of Shiki's, if they truly faced each other, he would still dare to confront him head-on.
He wouldn't be like Doflamingo, talking tough while actually being afraid to fight,明明不敢打,还非要说不想打.
"Mochi Mochi: Hundredfold Cannon!"
From afar, a massive shadow suddenly shrouded the entire island. Bondi Waldo leaped into the air, his body arched backward as he hurled that suddenly-appeared cannonball, larger than a mountain, toward Shiki!
He was the user of the Mochi-Mochi Fruit, able to increase an object's speed and size up to a hundred times its original state!
This massive cannonball was created by enlarging a regular cannonball. Furthermore, he had activated his ability after throwing the cannonball. In other words, this cannonball wasn't just massive in mass—its speed was a hundred times faster than before!
In this situation, even a lead bullet, if it slammed down, could sink an entire island!
"Don't underestimate me, you rookie!"
Shiki reached toward the sky, speaking arrogantly. Given his seniority, he indeed had the right to call Waldo a rookie. This had nothing to do with strength—just as Roger was merely a somewhat famous rookie pirate in Brook's eyes.
Roger? Shiki? Nothing worth mentioning!
Shiki slashed down with his sword, instantly slicing that island-sinking cannonball into pieces!
It looked like he had only swung once, but the sword qi released inward the moment it cut through the cannonball, completely shattering it!
The cannonball fragments exploding across the sky scattered down like a dragon star cluster.
Seeing this, Waldo's pupils constricted. The next moment, he saw a golden lion shadow pouncing out from amidst the dense cannonball fragments, kicking Waldo in the abdomen like a meteor and slamming him back into the ground.
"The sky isn't a place for the likes of you to tread, fool!"
"That's my territory!"
Shiki silently exhaled cigar smoke, his foot stepping on Waldo whose ribs were broken in several places, revealing an incredibly arrogant expression.
[
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