Chapter 309: The Awakening of the Dormant Robots

If your strength is lacking, hitting him doesn’t even make him flinch.

If you’re strong enough, you’ll still have to use either Armament Haki’s internal destruction or Conqueror’s Haki infusion.

But even those attacks risk damaging him, which is why his resilience just keeps growing day by day.

The comment feed fell silent for a moment before Ledfield broke the quiet.

“Looks like this robot can’t move. Probably out of power, huh?”

The robot that had shot a red laser from its mouth shuffled in place, unable to lift its right leg.

You could tell from its trembling it desperately wanted to charge at Ledfield.

Even that red laser only fired once before fizzling out.

Sensing there was no danger, Ledfield shoved the Video Transponder Snail right up to the robot’s face.

A clear robotic voice followed: “Warning. Intruder detected.”

“Proceeding to expel. Energy insufficient. Energy insufficient…”

Getting an up-close look, Ledfield noticed a thick tube on the robot’s back plunging straight into the ground.

That had to be its charging device.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A group of scientists, guarded by a few Skypieans, leaped down through the entrance.

“Lord Ledfield, have you discovered anything unusual?”

“Oh wow, what kind of tech is this?”

“I’ve never even seen equipment like this before.”

“Pack it up! Take it all! Everything must go!”

The scientists stared at the exquisite technology, eyes gleaming with excitement.

Turns out every profession really does have its obsessions.

“Everyone, come see—how do we work this robot?”

Travis heard Ledfield’s call and hurried over.

He was Skypiea’s acclaimed electrical scientist, recently earning his master’s degree through his own hard work.

Throwing caution aside, he stepped up and ran his hands right over the robot.

“I’ve only ever read about robots like this in ancient texts before.”

“I never imagined I’d live to actually see such advanced technology.”

“I’d die with no regrets now, absolutely no regrets.”

Hearing Travis say that, Ledfield couldn’t help but sweatdrop.

What was with these scientists? They’re always going on about dying, but you never see them actually do it!

“Travis, the issue is Karl wants to transport these robots to Cake Island. Got any ideas?”

Their ship could haul a few hundred at most but moving tens of thousands of robots? That was wishful thinking.

Ark Maxim itself was a flying vessel built entirely out of gold.

After eating the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, Lux D. Opera powered the whole Ark Maxim by channeling its electricity.

Wait—a thought struck Ledfield—if they’re out of electricity, isn’t this exactly why they need Opera?

He should just call Opera over and be done with it.

Opera, having received the message, left ship-guarding duties to others and transformed into a bolt of lightning, arriving in minutes.

“Opera, see if you can wake these robots up.”

Opera had already gotten the gist before coming, so he wasted no time.

He stepped forward, unplugged the thick cable from the robot’s back, elementalized his fingers, and inserted them straight into the robot’s charging port.

Powerful bolts of lightning surged through the robot’s body, making it crackle and nearly overload.

Oddly enough, the moment the robot felt itself being charged, its red eyes began turning blue.

Within minutes the robot was able to shuffle in place, turn, and promptly dropped to its knees.

“Kneeling before the Master.”

Opera scratched his head, looking helplessly at Ledfield.

After all, he was only sixteen. Having someone suddenly kneel to him this way left him at a loss.

Ledfield didn’t care about any of that. He clapped his hands. “We’re all set.”

“Ask them if there’s any ship here we can use.”

“Or see if they can fly.”

Relieved, Opera repeated the question to the robot.

The robot immediately looked up. “Reporting to Master: flight mode not present in my programming.”

“There are also no available vessels at this base.”

Ledfield could only throw up his hands in defeat after hearing that.

At this rate, they’d have to play cargo haulers—ferrying these robots to the Blue Sea trip after trip.

After that, Opera became the official robot-waking device.

The rest quickly scoured the city, finding a bunch of battery storage units and research equipment. But with no electricity, all they could do was move everything out and pile it in the open.

Standing atop a ruined skyscraper, Ledfield waved to his livestream audience.

“That’s all for today’s stream, folks. If I find anything else cool, I’ll start another stream. Thanks for watching!”

After hanging up the Video Transponder Snail, Ledfield turned into a cargo hauler himself, piloting Ark Maxim back and forth to ferry supplies to Skypiea.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Just as the feed faded out on the Video Transponder Snail, thunder rumbled outside.

You didn’t have to guess—Ye Linzhi was brawling with someone again.

He couldn’t go a day without getting into three or five fights.

Elsewhere across the sea—maybe fate’s joke, or maybe the world line correcting itself.

The Whitebeard Pirates were sailing a certain sea when they spotted a woman floating by, her arms clutching a barrel.

“Yoshi!”

Splash!

Kozuki Oden leaped into the water and fished the unconscious woman out.

“Brother Oden, heroic save!”

Marco, in his blue phoenix form, perched at the rail and teased.

Thanks to Karl’s Pirate Crew and the Whitebeard Pirates having neighboring territories now—through the Red Blossom Empire—their borders kept getting closer.

They scrapped every three days or so, big brawls every five.

Either you don’t like me or I don’t like you. With both sides competing for turf and coastline rights, their crews kept swapping in and out of the fighting.

As a result, both sides had grown way stronger than in the original timeline.

“A heart free of women, my sword strikes true.”

Diamond Jozu struck a dramatic pose on deck—showing off his muscles was his favorite thing.

Sunlight caught him, making rainbows dance across his diamond skin.

He stayed in full Devil Fruit mode day and night—mainly because some folks from Karl’s Pirate Crew just loved sneak attacks.

So they were forced to stay on full alert around the clock.

Whitebeard Newgate found that this actually made his sons far more battle-hardened.

Before long, both sides came to a silent understanding: unless there were major casualties, he wouldn’t step in himself.

“Gurarararara!”

“Oden, missing the company of women, huh? Want your big bro here to set you up with a few?”

With everyone teasing from left and right, even Oden’s thick skin couldn’t hide the blush creeping up his cheeks.

“Knock it off, quit making things up! Keep my reputation clear!”