A Bountiful Harvest

Enel was defeated.

Gan Fall, who wanted to reap the rewards of victory, was also driven away, Shandora's grand feast lasted for three days and three nights.

Every Shandia people is immersed in the happiness of a four-hundred-year-old dream coming true.

The blue serpent, which the Shandia people called the Kashii God, appeared out of nowhere, wanting to be worshipped by humans. However, it was beaten up by Tahm Kench's toad punches and ended up obediently becoming a snake used to transport supplies.

Four hundred years ago, Noland, the Liar King, killed the previous Kashii God, ending the tradition of human sacrifice in Shandora.

This snake is the son of the previous great snake, and has lived for four hundred years.

Under the iron fists of colonists and capitalists, the serpent god was completely dethroned and became just an ordinary large creature in the eyes of the Shandia people.

This can be considered a small act of merit by the colonists who managed to find something of value in the trash...

The Shandia people broke free from superstition and regarded Ma Qiao and his Retainers as true heroes.

Young Shandia girls performed a wild and alluring dance for the heroes.

Even Tahm Kench was noticed by two Shandia girls with unique aesthetic tastes, and he kept drinking with them, one on each side.

Unfortunately, my feelings for you were unrequited.

Tahm Kench merely gave the girl a polite hug with his toad claws, without doing anything he was actually incapable of doing.

Besides the beautiful women, the Shandia people unsurprisingly offered gold.

Of course, legally speaking, from the moment the old chief signed that contract three days ago, the gold belonged to Ma.

The Shandia people were merely Ma Qiao's property as a gift.

However, legal principles are legal principles, and human relationships are human relationships. Ma Qiao is certainly not foolish enough to think that a Bingbing of paper can solve all problems.

In the original story, the Shandia people once wanted to give the Straw Hat Pirates one of Shandora's giant golden pillars.

However, Luffy and his crew only stole a large bag of gold and fled in panic.

Finally, the massive golden pillar was given to Bellamy by the Shandia people, Bellamy then presented it to Doflamingo, thus fulfilling his wish to join the Donquixote Family.

This shows that the Straw Hat Pirates are truly all goofballs, and it also shows that the Shandia people don't really care about gold.

Of course, the only possibility that Bellamy was able to bring such a huge pillar back to the Blue Sea is that the pillar was hollow.

Otherwise, if it were solid, not to mention its terrifying weight, its terrifying value alone would be enough to inflate the Doflamingo family's finances by a huge margin.

Doflamingo's bounty of 500 million Beli on Usopp seems rather petty.

This also disappointed Ma Qiao somewhat.

This vast golden city, apart from the Golden Bell, consists mostly of buildings that are either hollow or gilded.

Ma Qiao will not destroy the Golden Bell, which contains Poneglyph.

Otherwise, the cooperative relationship with the Shandia people would come to an end.

The rest of the gold was collected, and the gold dust on the walls was carefully scraped off. The collected gold was only worth 60 billion Beli.

All right...

Actually, it makes sense when you think about it. Gold is valuable in the world of One Piece, but it doesn't seem to be as valuable as it is on Earth.

It's important to know that the central bank's gold reserves in later generations were only 1693 tons.

If you put them all together, they would only be about the size of one room.

The world of One Piece is Gild Tesoro, the treasure of Unan, and the golden city of Shandora. It's ridiculously abundant.

Of course, there's also the possibility that some lousy artist simply doesn't understand finance or gold.

In any case, according to the signed contract, as payment for helping the Shandia people reclaim their homeland, the Big Bird Consortium legally obtained this gold, which was worthless in the eyes of the Shandia people.

Ma Qiao, in turn, presented an equal weight of soil as a gift.

The Shandia people sang and danced, and the children even rolled around in the mud, having a wonderful time.

To be honest, it's not entirely fair to say that Ma Qiao deceived them.

While soil itself isn't valuable, the cost of transporting it to the Sky Island using conventional methods is astronomical.

While not as outrageous as the International Space Station's million-dollar-per-kilogram payload fee, transporting soil to an altitude of 10,000 meters is clearly not cheap either.

Of course, Ma Qiao could use Teleport or other methods, but the cost would be incomparable.

Furthermore, the development of the Hextech Gate is nearing completion. Once the transmitter is installed between the Sky Island and Shurima, the glorious days of Shurima's ascension will be restored.

Of course, this time, the ascension will not result in becoming a god, but rather a more noble assembly line worker.

With the money, the first thing I did was invest it in scientific research.

Ma Qiao had previously promised 5 billion Beli in research funding for the Nika Cells research project.

The potential of this technology far surpasses that of the tooth armor developed by the Zaun people.

Currently, we've only used a few basic functions, and it's far from perfect; we need to increase investment.

There are no shortcuts in scientific research, especially in original technologies that are unique in the world. There is only one path to success, and that is—

Throwing money at it! Throwing money at it! It's still throwing money at it!

Besides the Nika Cells project, another equally important technology— the Hextech Gate —requires an additional investment of approximately 3 to 5 billion dollars.

Actually, even without investing this money, the Hextech Gate 1.0 version, which is already in its early stages, is still usable.

According to Jayce, the failure rate of such high- Precision instruments would be slightly higher if replacement parts were used.

Simply put, out of every ten thousand Teleport, there will be roughly one or two instances where the Teleport person or object will be sent into an unknown spatial rift...

Although reason tells Ma Qiao that a mature capitalist should bear such failure rates and risk costs, even if it costs tens of millions of Beli to pay for the medical expenses and compensation of injured workers, it is better than investing billions more to improve the relevant equipment.

Paying medical expenses and compensation is already considered morally exemplary for capitalists, so they have no reason to feel guilty.

But...

The employees are all brothers, like limbs; how can limbs be continued?

Ma Qiao, unusually, smoked an entire pack of cigarettes, but ultimately made a decision that went against his class.

Continue to invest in research and development to strive to build an efficient and safe Hextech Gate to avoid potential workplace injuries.

In addition to these two major projects, research on the gigantification of Den Den Mushi) also requires some funding.

However, Ma Qiao was rather stingy with this amount of money.

After all, Poison Pink is currently in Shurima, and because of Sanji, he has completely controlled him. Ma Qiao believes that he can still find a way to exploit the Vinsmoke Family further using the giant Den Den Mushi technology.

In addition to other small projects by Singed, Viktor, Jayce, and others, Ma Qiao generously allocated a total of 15 billion Beli as research funding at this spoils-sharing meeting.

If all goes as expected, the total research funding of Ma Qiao's research team should now be close to that of Caesar's team.

However, this thing is a bottomless pit.

Even someone as wealthy as Caesar ultimately went down the path of deceiving the Four Emperors for research funding, a path from which there is no return.

Therefore, a scientist who doesn't become a capitalist has no future.

Besides research funding, another Heimerdinger expense is investment in production and construction.

The main objective is to establish the Shandora High-Tech Industrial Park on the Sky Island.

In the future, all production processes of the Big Bird Consortium that have confidentiality value and high technological content will be carried out on the Sky Island.

The labor costs for building this industrial park are almost zero.

Since the Shandia people do not yet have the concept of money and live a life of bartering, and Ma Qiao is their undisputed benefactor, all that is needed is to provide food to recruit the Shandia people to work.

However, the Shandia people do have a relatively low level of scientific knowledge and lack an educated population.

So Ma Qiao had to use mud and hire some Skypieans to help build the house.

The world of One Piece is home to many races, and blind xenophobia is definitely not advisable.

However, it's still important to distinguish between primary and secondary priorities.

Ma Qiao hopes the Skypieans know who the hosts and guests are.

Of course, Ma Qiao estimates that the Skypieans and Shandia people will eventually merge, since the total population of the Sky Island is only so small, and everyone will be coworkers in the future.

It's quite normal for factory workers to develop romantic feelings for each other.

Finally, and naturally, the main focus of spending money is improving one's strength. Without strength, everything is just Illusion, a rootless duckweed.

First, Ma Qiao spent a fortune to upgrade the levels and equipment of the heroes who had made great contributions in this battle.

Even though leveling up is cheaper than acquiring equipment, the cost of upgrading from level 9 to level 10 is a staggering 363 million Beli due to the terrifying progression of the Fibonacci sequence.

The cost to upgrade from level 10 to level 11 is a staggering 589 million Beli.

In other words, even just leveling Tahm Kench to level 11 with two ultimate abilities would require a staggering 1 billion Beli.

Add in the cost of purchasing equipment that matches your level, and the total expense will approach 5 billion Beli.

This amount of money is comparable to the bounty on the heads of the Four Emperors!

However, there's no other way. Although we're prepared to take a large-scale, human wave tactic, the elite development of certain heroes is still necessary.

After all, every capitalist is afraid of death, Ma Qiao needs strong bodyguards.

Furthermore, the cost for Ma Qiao to learn these advanced skills is comparable to that for upgrading a hero.

Ma Qiao also wants to get himself another set of Warmog's Armor, which would cost billions of Beli.

Therefore, in the end, only three spots were available for reaching level 11 this time.

Other combat heroes also saw their levels increase slightly, though the benefits were more evenly distributed.

After being promoted and reassigned to different positions, the status of each Retainer is as follows:

[Imperial Guard Group]

The River King Tahm Kench (Level 11), the Virtuoso (Level 9).

[Naval Infiltrator Team]

Marine Headquarters Colonel Captain, Commander of the East Blue 16th Branch, Root of Justice - Source of Plague - Twitch (Level 9).

Colonel of the East Blue 16th Branch - Garen, the Might of Demacia (Level 11).

[Pirate Infiltrator Team]

The Great Pirate of the East Blue - Gangplank, the Terror of the Seas (Level 10).

Buggy Pirates' Emperor's Deputy - Devil Shaco Sark (Level 8).

Buggy Pirates Apprentice - Twisted Fate Twisted Fate (Level 7).

[Neutral Infiltrator Team]

Fish-Man Race - Tidal Trickster Fizz (Level 8)

Sea Kings - Void Terror Cho’Gath (Level 11).

[Medical Team]

Dr. Dr. Mundo (Level 8), Attending Physician Shen (Level 6), Nurse Trainee Akali (Level 6), Doctor Kennen (Level 6)

[Research Team]

Great Inventor Heimerdinger (Level 8), Alchemist Singed (Level 3), Future Guardian Jayce (Level 1), Mechanical Pioneer Viktor (Level 1)

[Capitalist's Lackey Group]

General Manager of the Big Bird Consortium's Cocoyasi Agriculture, Livestock, Fish and Syrup Big Bird Kang Industrial Park - Uncle Ryze (Level 6) from the United States.

General Manager of the Big Bird Spinning Series Tobacco and Alcohol Supply and Marketing - Ashe Archer Ashe (Level 9).

Plantation Cattle and Horses - Swift Scout Teemo (Level 1).

·

Among them, there are two major personnel adjustments.

One is that Twisted Fate Twisted Fate no longer serves as Ma Qiao's bodyguard, but instead joins the Buggy Pirates as an apprentice crew member.

This undoubtedly shows Ma Qiao's care for his classmate Buggy.

Since the Fifth Emperor's fame spread far and wide, and since Gangplank challenged Buggy, although he failed, he gained immense fame, many pirates have wanted to try challenging Buggy, or rather, trying to provoke Buggy, in order to gain fame.

While most of these pirates are overconfident fools, there are also some who are quite strong.

If we don't give Buggy a slight boost in strength, or at least someone who can explore the entire map for easy escape, Ma Qiao is really afraid he'll get taken out.

After all, it's still quite difficult to find such a useful assistant.

A genuine member of the Pirate King crew, a true friend of Shanks —such a resume is almost impossible to replicate.

Moreover, even if there were pirates with similar resumes, they would definitely not be as easy to control as Buggy.

Buggy now devotes all his energy to researching Captain John's Treasure's treasure map and shooting short videos, living a very carefree life.

And that's pretty much the end of Buggy's ambitions.

It's relatively easy to handle.

·

Besides Twisted Fate Twisted Fate, Ashe Ashe also officially retired from the combatant ranks and is now focused on running the tobacco and alcohol business for Ma Qiao.

For Ma Qiao, smoking and drinking are not just about making money; they also affect his lifespan.

Previously, since Ma Qiao was alone, he felt it didn't matter if his lifespan gradually increased.

But now, with more and more ties to this world, Ma Qiao has to consider accumulating more lifespan.

Therefore, the tobacco and alcohol business must be given renewed attention.

This time, Ma Qiao not only removed the more experienced Ashe from combat to focus entirely on the business, but also planned to recruit [Gragas Gundagas] to complete his long-standing plan to enter the high-end beverage market.

·

Even without these two personnel changes, it's clear that Ma Qiao's dedicated bodyguard team has always been understaffed.

As a result, whenever a large-scale operation was carried out, Ma Qiao had to draw personnel from other groups to supplement the team, causing passivity in various tasks.

So for the next whole week, Ma Qiao was thinking about the most reasonable way to recruit heroes.

Until a pair of underwear, brimming with anger, slammed hard onto his head.

Don't get me wrong, these underwear don't belong to anyone else, they belong to Ma Qiao.

Since his birth year has passed, Teacher Ma has put away his flamboyant red underwear and switched to various understated floral underwear.

Vivi slammed it down on Ma Qiao's head, furious. "You old geezer, you were lying to me, weren't you? I've been washing... washing your clothes for eight whole months! What kind of training is this?! I haven't sensed anything called Chakra at all!"

Today, you must give me an explanation!