A Complete Upgrade

Shurima.

In Secret Base in the suburbs, the Retainers of the Ma Qiao family are holding a meeting.

This is a specially reinforced underground fortification.

The scorching sun is completely blocked out of the desert, making it cool and comfortable.

At this moment, in the spacious, Hextech- style room, the Ma Qiao family's Retainers stood on the left and right sides, arranged as tools and combatants, much like ministers attending court in ancient times.

Looking at the children he had raised with handfuls of gold coins, Ma Qiao felt a deep sense of satisfaction.

After this major live-streaming event, Ma Qiao's account balance reached an astonishing 7.5 billion.

Can you believe someone so young has 9.5 billion?

The use of these funds must be carefully planned.

Of course, the first priority is to ensure the inflow of working capital into the Big Bird Consortium.

After all, not long ago, the company's cash flow was so tight that the workers could only eat Salted Fish with rice for every meal.

If these guys aren't fed, how will they have the energy to properly tighten screws?

In the world of One Piece, food is almost synonymous with power.

Boss Ma Qiao made a bold stroke of his pen.

The employees of the Big Bird Consortium are all my brothers. When I eat meat, my brothers at least get a sip of soup; when I eat chicken, my brothers at least get a tuft of feathers; when I consummate my marriage, my brothers at least get to hear the sound!

Ma Qiao instructed Ryze that, starting today, the food standard for the workers on the Big Bird Kang assembly line should be two-thirds that of the Marineford Navy sailors, ensuring that every brother is well-fed and watered.

Wearing glasses, Ryze diligently took notes of Boss Ma Qiao's instructions in his notebook.

At this point, Teemo, the chief production engineer of the Big Bird Consortium, raised a problem that urgently needed to be solved.

That is the issue of breeding and raising Mobile Den Den Mushi.

No matter how much the basement of the small Big Bird Spin-Spin Tavern is expanded, it can no longer meet the ever-growing production scale.

Moreover, he was such a short and stocky man that he simply couldn't handle all the work.

Teemo suggested that it was time to find a new Den Den Mushi breeding base and recruit some breeding workers.

That is indeed a problem.

Unless Ma Qiao can control the entire Whiskey Peak, a single Five Finger Mountain is simply too small a space.

That place is more suitable as a weapons manufacturing plant for the Virtuosos.

Mushroom cultivation and Den Den Mushi breeding fall under the category of semi-extensive farming.

This type of aquaculture must require a huge amount of space.

There's enough space in Shurima, but raising snails in the desert is definitely not a viable idea.

After much thought, the only suitable place is probably Nami's hometown, Cocoyasi Village.

Not only are the climate conditions suitable there, but the Shadow Unit and Root Division of the 16th Branches can also serve as a protective umbrella.

However, Ma Qiao felt that placing it in the East Blue was still not safe enough.

The situation in the East Blue is currently volatile and unpredictable. Even if the World Government is slow to react, it will certainly have to do so.

Ma Qiao estimates that Cipher Pol's agents are already on their way to the East Blue.

Cipher Pol is an intelligence organization directly under the World Government.

Ma Qiao didn't know much about them either.

All I know is that of CP1 to CP9, CP9 is the most mysterious.

CP0 is their superior organization, known as the Celestial Dragons' strongest shield.

Of course, right now, the main force of CP9 is in the Water 7, investigating the whereabouts of the Pluton Blueprints.

It's highly unlikely they'll actually come all the way to the East Blue.

But other levels of pairings are still very possible.

After all, there were Cipher Pol members lurking around Big News Morgans Big News Morgans.

Given the growing influence of the Big Bird Consortium, it was only a matter of time before it attracted the attention of Cipher Pol.

Although the core key to production is actually the mushroom growth solution that only Teemo can formulate, and the Den Den Mushi hybridization and transgenic technology, even if the Cipher Pol could steal it, it would be very difficult to replicate it.

But you have to make others believe what you say.

Anyway, Ma Qiao judges others by his own standards; he wouldn't believe such nonsense unless he got his hands on it and studied it for thirty to fifty years.

In conclusion, the breeding and raising base of the Big Bird Den Den Mushi is the most important secret of the Big Bird Consortium, and must be handled with utmost care.

Are there any places that are little known, isolated from the world, yet still have a certain amount of labor available?

The answer is obvious.

"The expansion of our Big Bird Consortium knows no bounds, not even the heavens!"

Ma Qiao set the tone for the understanding.

In the world of One Piece, besides the four seas of the four cardinal directions and the Grand Line, there are actually two other seas that are little known.

These are the White Sea formed by cumulus clouds at an altitude of 7,000 meters, and the White-White Sea at an altitude of 10,000 meters.

The Sky Island is located on the White-White Sea.

Just like the landmass on the Blue Sea, the Sky Island is not a monolithic entity; it consists of many different islands.

However, there is only one place with the soil needed for raising snails...

That is Shandora, the ancient golden city that was swept into the sky by a massive ocean current.

Of course, this was just Ma Qiao's initial plan.

Today, Shandora has become the God's Island, "Upper Yard".

Enel, that inhuman and antisocial element, is entrenched there.

Almost all One Piece fans agree that Enel's defeat was entirely due to his early appearance in the story and King Luffy's invincible protagonist aura.

His true strength remains a mystery.

But defeating him seems quite simple. Even if his lightning strikes have billions of volts, they can't penetrate rubber.

Therefore, in theory, if Ma Qiao had all his Retainers wear thick-soled rubber work shoes, he could have been immune to Enel's lightning damage.

Of course, all of this still needs to be tested.

Furthermore, even if the Sky Island is captured, establishing a connection between the Sky Island and the ground seems to be a difficult problem.

We can't use octopuses as parachutes every time we deliver goods, like King Luffy and his crew did.

Or perhaps we could do what Kaido did and create a freefall?

This is clearly unrealistic.

Fortunately, the great inventor Heimerdinger came up with his idea in time.

That is to build Hextech Gate.

In the game, when the spawned Dragon Soul is Hextech Viper, Hextech Gate will appear on the map, allowing heroes to Teleport from one portal to the corresponding other portal.

In reality, such a jump gate can be achieved through Hextech.

However, Heimerdinger stated that he was already undertaking biological research on the giant Den Den Mushi and industrial research on the Shurima solar power plant, and simply did not have the energy to independently complete the massive Hextech Gate project.

He needs help.

For example, his good friend, the future guardian Jayce, and his best buddy, the mechanical pioneer Viktor, with whom Jayce has a love-hate relationship.

They were all outstanding scientists and inventors, experts in Hextech.

Although the two had some minor differences in their philosophies, they shared the same goal of serving their master.

Regarding recruiting "tool people, "Ma Qiao's current attitude is that the more useful they are, the better.

Because it's really a great deal.

Even if you recruit all 150-plus heroes, it would only amount to a little over 10 billion Beli.

For Ma Qiao now, this is no longer an unattainable goal.

The real spenders aren't the tools, but the combatants.

Leveling up and crafting equipment both follow the exponential progression of the Fibonacci sequence.

To equip a fighter with the combat power of a beginner-level Shichibukai, you'd need at least two to three billion Beli.

Theoretically, this amount of money would be better spent directly on buying the heads of the Shichibukai...

Of course, this is just theory.

There are many people in the world who can come up with 5 billion Beli; 50 Namis could make that in eight years.

But those who could take the Whitebeard man's head were few and far between.

Compared to training combatants, recruiting utility personnel is much more affordable.

Although recruiting these "tools" is free, these guys are incredibly generous when it comes to applying for research funding.

If it weren't for the fact that these Retainers, bought with money, were extremely loyal, Ma Qiao would have even suspected that there might be someone skilled at upholding justice infiltrated into his own ranks.

But there's no way around it; the poor rely on mutations, while the rich rely on technology.

Since the choice has been made to follow Piltover's Hextech route instead of Zaun's bio-mutation approach, a massive investment of research funding is unavoidable.

After discussion, or rather, bargaining among the various heroes, and a zero-sum game, Ma Qiao divided the 7.5 billion budget into three parts.

One portion is approximately two billion, intended for the daily operating expenses of the various subsidiaries of the Big Bird Consortium.

Two billion sounds like a lot, but in reality, for just one company like Big Bird Kang, with more than 2,000 workers, the average budget per person is less than one billion Beli.

It's not even as much as the protection money that Arlong collects from the Cocoyasi Village every month.

Of course, Arlong was just talking off the cuff and setting the price arbitrarily. Ryze from the Big Bird Consortium, on the other hand, would carefully calculate and evaluate employee performance to use the funds wisely.

Part Two, 3.5 billion.

This is the dedicated research and development funding for the Hextech Gate.

In fact, Heimerdinger initially reported an amount of over 17 billion Beli.

Ma Qiao gave him two big slaps, which finally brought the mad scientist to his senses.

Three and a half billion is the bottom line.

After all, this involves high-tech equipment that requires spatial warp.

Ma Qiao was very glad that he hadn't had time to recruit Jayce and Viktor yet.

Otherwise, if these three scientific geeks all asked me for funding, it might not be enough to just settle things with 3.5 billion.

The remaining four billion Beli from the final third part were used as a dedicated fund for improving the team's and individuals' abilities.

Just as the Big Mom doesn't need to reward the Homies for their contributions, Moria doesn't need to rank the zombies according to their seniority, Ma Qiao doesn't really need to consider the heroes' feelings either.

However, under normal circumstances, Boss Ma is still very humane.

For example, veteran fighters like Ashe and Garen were all promoted to level nine by Ma Qiao in this battle, and their main skills were upgraded to level five.

Every skill will experience a qualitative leap as its level increases.

Imagine how masculine a Garen with a level 5 [Courage] stat would be!

However, level 9 heroes are too expensive to be accessible to everyone.

To get a hero to level nine, you need a whopping 226 million Beli.

Of course, besides Garen and Ashe, two veteran fighters, there is another hero who has undoubtedly been leveled up to level nine.

That is Tahm Kench, the River King.

There's not much to say about that; Tahm Kench is Boss Ma Qiao's personal bodyguard, dedicated assistant, chauffeur, and personal chef.

Throughout history, both in China and abroad, those who drive and cook for high-ranking leaders are their most trusted confidants, and they should never be treated unfairly.

Moreover, bodyguards naturally need to be highly skilled; if their level is too low, they won't even have enough health to block bullets.

After Tahm Kench reached level nine, he gained level five [Thick Skin], which was fantastic for blocking bullets and blocking gun emplacements.

Besides these three level-nine heroes, the other combatants have also improved to varying degrees.

Plague Rat Twitch, who shone brightly in front of millions of viewers this time, has been promoted to level seven.

Now that he's a colonel, he needs to have the ability to command respect, and at least not be too far behind the average colonel.

Of course, Ma Qiao estimated that if it were a level 7 Twitch, it shouldn't have much of a problem standing up and taking down Smoker.

The problem is, where would he get so many powerful items?

Under the Fibonacci law, the cheapest thing is recruiting heroes, followed by buying skins, then leveling up heroes, and the most expensive thing is crafting weapons and equipment.

Without proper equipment support, if Twitch ambushes and uses his ultimate, he'll likely be in danger if he can't kill Smoker in one go.

But Ma Qiao didn't intend to put Twitch in dangerous situations frequently.

In the world of One Piece, an occasional miraculous resurrection isn't particularly surprising.

But doing sit-ups too frequently...

emmm...

That seems reasonable.

However, given the circumstances, it's best to minimize the number of times Twitch takes the lead to avoid suspicion.

Speaking of surviving a near-death experience, another hero whose health bar was wiped out this time is Twisted Fate Twisted Fate.

He was shot at close range by Ben Beckman and died instantly.

Fortunately, Twisted Fate was wearing a mask at the time, and unlike Twitch, he wasn't a well-known figure in the Marine Headquarters.

So it doesn't really matter that he quietly revived.

This kid, however, benefited from the misfortune and was recruited into the combatant roster by Ma Qiao, replacing the increasingly busy rune mage Ryze.

Twisted Fate has now been promoted to level six.

Of course, Ma Qiao would never admit that the reason he spent money to upgrade Twisted Fate was because Twisted Fate's card-throwing ability was cool and his ultimate was convenient to use, which he greatly envied.

In addition, he was inspired by the story of Yasopp breaking the stone handcuffs of Bakihai a kilometer away.

Ma Qiao also spared no expense in raising the Virtuoso's level to six.

Not only that, the Virtuoso also acquired the first fully-fledged offensive weapon in Ma Qiao's gang— the Rapid Firecannon.

+20% Critical Strike Chance

+7% movement speed

Energizing: Moving and attacking will generate an Energizing attack.

Sharpshooter: Your [Powered] attacks deal 120 bonus magic damage. Additionally, [Powered] attacks gain up to 35% bonus attack range.

In the game, of course no one would play Jhin with the Red Scarf and immediately rush Rapid Firecannon as their first item.

After all, artillery has relatively low base damage and its stats aren't quite up to par.

However, in actual combat, Rapid Firecannon that can increase attack range is undoubtedly an excellent piece of equipment for snipers.

Moreover, the Virtuoso is accustomed to using firearms, and the Rapid Firecannon is the weapon he is most comfortable with. With a little modification, he can use it as his signature weapon.

Of course, this doesn't mean that the Virtuoso can't equip swords, bows, or crossbows.

In actual combat, these alliance weapons can transform into something similar to a tattoo, fitting directly onto the user's body to unleash their attributes.

Just like Ma Qiao often wears a shirt and shorts, it doesn't mean he doesn't have a set of survival gear.

In fact, the reason why the Rapid Firecannon is considered the first major offensive item for Ma Qiao's gang is because Ma Qiao had already equipped himself with a complete set of defensive gear.

Guardian Angel.

Anyone who Guardian Angel is a noob.

Ma Qiao understood the logic, but he still decided to equip himself with this piece of equipment.

In theory, Stopwatch or Zhonya's Hourglass would be better life-saving equipment.

However, saying that proves you have no idea how terrifying a Silver-level expert can be.

In our Silver rank, the Zhonya's Hourglass is used to display victory at the enemy's fountain.