All freedom and happiness were relative.
Perhaps what was honey to you was poison to someone else.
Everyone in Sky City was quite satisfied with the current state of affairs.
Because, in their eyes, compared to life and death, so-called freedom might not have been all that important.
As Roy's will began to seep into the daily lives of every Sky Islander,
the entire Sky City was being transformed according to Roy's will.
Of the five merchant ships Roy had acquired from Water Seven, Spandam had taken two.
The remaining three ships now continuously traveled back and forth between Red Copper Island and Nanohana, the port city of Alabasta.
Massive quantities of supplies were constantly being transported into Sky City.
And as those supplies flowed in without interruption, Roy's savings rapidly dwindled.
Though Roy was greatly pained by this, he believed that as long as there would be returns in the future, some necessary sacrifices were worthwhile.
To speed up the construction of Sky City even further,
Roy had also secretly sold off quite a lot of the resources mined from Red Copper Island during this period.
And beneath that enormous investment, the results were exceptionally impressive.
As large numbers of technicians and materials were transported into the sky,
and with Roy continuously conquering the scattered tribal islands within the roiling Sea of Clouds,
the base Roy wanted finally began to take shape through the efforts of countless slaves and craftsmen.
A gigantic city, shaped like the Five of Bamboo tile from the mahjong of Roy's previous life, rose into the sky.
Although some of the other facilities had yet to be completed, in nearly two months' time,
all the city's basic power facilities had already been finished.
After all, those power facilities had only been built as a precaution.
Most of the time, Sky City's movements were controlled personally by Roy manipulating the islands in the sky.
Therefore, once the basic power systems had been modified according to the blueprints Roy provided,
there was no longer any need for Roy to remain in the Red Copper Island region.
After all, he still held a position within the World Government, and nearly two and a half months of slacking off had already pushed Spandam to his limit.
Spandam had begun urging Roy to return to work.
And under those circumstances, as Roy ordered all of Sky City to make its final preparations,
everyone on the sky island began gathering Cloud Dials, those miraculous shells unique to the sky islands.
They were gathered together and used to absorb Sea Clouds from the Sea of Clouds.
Although Roy could also control the Sea Clouds within the cloud sea, compared with the convenient and efficient tools known as Cloud Dials,
while Roy controlled Sky City and the Sea Clouds, the Cloud Dials were also being put to rapid use.
At the same time, some of the unique creatures from the Sea of Clouds were caught one by one in recent days, such as Speedy Shrimp that could serve as transportation and Balloon Octopuses that could function as parachutes.
When yet another urgent order arrived from Spandam,
Roy knew his time slacking off was over, and that he had to return to work as usual.
Roy boarded a World Government ship that would pass through Enies Lobby on its return journey.
After a grand farewell banquet,
the officials standing at Red Copper Island's harbor watched the World Government ship depart.
At that moment, everyone on the island cheered inwardly.
Because during the month or two Roy had spent on Red Copper Island, he had directly shattered the established production conditions there.
Originally, the workers and slaves only needed to mine ore. But after Roy arrived, not only could they not fall short of their mining quotas, they also had to help Roy forge components they knew nothing about.
Over the past month or two, the intensity of their labor had nearly doubled.
If Roy had not occasionally gone out to sea to catch Sea Kings and improve the nutrition of those slaves and officials,
the slaves on the island would likely have died in droves by now.
And now that Roy, that plague god, had left with the World Government ship,
while the many officials celebrated, they could not help but feel troubled over the batch of red copper ore Roy had appropriated.
As all the officials present worried over the matter,
"How about we make those slaves suffer a little more!"
Some unknown official spoke up.
With Roy gone, the slaves on Red Copper Island were destined to continue living miserable lives.
And just as those officials discussed how they should fill the massive hole left by Roy's appropriation,
none of them noticed that the great mass of white clouds that had remained motionless in the sky year-round had split apart, with a huge section slowly drifting in the direction Roy had departed.
"Oh, we're going to Punk Hazard?
But Spandam, why are we going to Punk Hazard?
That research institute doesn't seem to have much to do with us in CP9!"
Looking at the masked Den Den Mushi before him,
Roy smoked a cigarette as he voiced his question to Spandam.
"Going to Punk Hazard wasn't my order. I only received the news from higher up. But this trip seems to be connected to the explosion at Punk Hazard a few days ago.
The Marines are all busy suppressing pirates in the New World and the Four Seas right now.
They probably need high-level combat power like CP9 over there!"
Spandam laid out all his guesses.
After hearing that, Roy looked up at the calendar hanging inside the cabin.
Yeah! I've been so busy lately that I nearly forgot.
The other day should have been when Caesar Clown destroyed Punk Hazard.
Judging by the timing, that guy should have already been imprisoned and be preparing to be sent to Impel Down.
In that case, my mission this time should be related to relocating Vegapunk's laboratory, right?
As he calculated the timing, Roy's gaze began to drift.
Making such a long trip to the New World, Roy began considering how he could profit from this major incident.
Vegapunk's laboratory relocation.
There was simply too much room to maneuver here.
According to Roy's memories from his previous life, when Vegapunk moved out of the laboratory, he should have left behind an artificial Fish-Fish Fruit.
And Caesar Clown, who was currently imprisoned, was also quite tempting to Roy.
After all, the rain clouds in the sky were far too limited in their power.
And Caesar Clown...
Roy knew that this man was an expert at creating large-scale weapons of destruction, especially poison gas.
The combination of rain from the sky and poison gas was truly exciting just to think about.
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