Snow Country's Treasure

Feeling the chakra within her body, Nico Robin instinctively reached out. Clear water immediately flowed from the sink in the Laboratory, swirling around her hand before finally freezing into a ball of ice.

"Ice Release—this is genuine Ice Release! How is this possible? She really awakened Ice Release!"

The Snow Ninja standing behind Vegapunk stared wide-eyed, completely stunned! Was Ice Release really that easy to awaken? Was he dreaming?

"Quiet! Don't disturb Lord Vegapunk!" Hancock frowned and snorted coldly. The Snow Ninja immediately shut his mouth. In Snow Country, the Petrifying Witch had already earned a fearsome reputation, and every Snow Ninja was terrified of her.

"All right, Hancock. This Chakra Seed is for you!" Vegapunk handed over another Chakra Seed. "Ice Release is indeed well suited for Devil Fruit users. Although seawater in this world does not restrain Devil Fruits, once we return to the original world, Ice Release will be incredibly useful."

The water cycle of the Ninja World did not contain the factor that restrained Devil Fruits, so Devil Fruit users in this world had no natural weakness. But in the Pirate World, Ice Release would be far more convenient—at the very least, they would not have to worry about falling into the sea and drowning.

In the Pirate World's most prestigious battle, the Summit War, Akainu appeared to have claimed the MVP. But without Aokiji's Ice-Ice Fruit, the Marines would never even have considered confronting Whitebeard—one seaquake would have wiped out all the fodder, while seventy or eighty percent of the Devil Fruit users among the main force would have been taken out as well. Under those circumstances, Sengoku would have had to be insane to provoke Whitebeard.

"Ahhh! Lord Vegapunk gave me a gift! I'm so happy! Is this a proposal? This has to be a proposal, right?!"

As Hancock shouted, she hugged Vegapunk. Well, it was like hugging a doll as she kept rubbing herself against him.

"Hancock, I have to remind you that making a move on the boss in his current form is illegal!"

Nico Robin, standing nearby, watched Hancock "manhandle" her boss for several minutes. The two of them seemed thoroughly absorbed in it, so she finally had no choice but to speak up.

Hearing that, Hancock's expression changed as she looked at Nico Robin. "I will never give up the position of principal wife. At most, I'll let you be a concubine!"

Even someone as composed and mature as Nico Robin blushed bright red at Hancock's words. She took a deep breath. "What kind of nonsense are you talking about? There are other people here!"

The moment she finished speaking, the Snow Ninja who had already retreated to the doorway felt a murderous gaze land on him. On the verge of tears, he hastily raised both hands. "Don't kill me! I didn't hear anything!"

"Hmph!" Hancock merely snorted, releasing Vegapunk without taking any further action. The Snow Ninja let out a huge sigh of relief.

Once Vegapunk had been set down from Hancock's embrace, he did not blush at all. Instead, he operated the equipment and took out the second Chakra Seed.

"Give it a try, Hancock! You should have quite a bit more chakra than Robin!"

The instant the Chakra Seed touched Hancock, it merged into her body. Compared to Nico Robin, Hancock's physique was undoubtedly far superior. After Vegapunk's scientific modifications, it had reached a level that could only be called monstrous.

With such a physique, the amount of chakra she possessed was equally unbelievable. When Hancock closed her eyes and extracted chakra, powerful chakra overflowed from her body, pressing down so hard that the floor creaked and cracked apart. Under the radiance of that energy, she looked just like a Saiyan powering up in Dragon Ball.

The Snow Ninja standing nearby was now completely dumbfounded. If Nico Robin's chakra reserves had still been within the limits of what he could comprehend, then Hancock's reserves left him able to do nothing but babble incoherently. Could a human really possess this much chakra? Even the so-called Kage of the Five Great Shinobi Villages would likely pale in comparison!

Both Hancock and Nico Robin had awakened chakra with the Ice Release attribute, but Vegapunk was not so fortunate. After carefully studying his own cells, he concluded that because of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, no matter what kind of chakra entered his body, the only thing that could awaken in the end was pure Lightning Release.

Still, Vegapunk did not regret it much. The Rumble-Rumble Fruit and the Magnet-Magnet Fruit held limitless potential and led directly to the fundamental forces of the world. Besides, he saw himself as a scientist, and under those circumstances, the ability to control magnetic fields and lightning was far more helpful to him.

For one thing, he had been able to resume his research in Snow Country so quickly precisely because of the Magnet-Magnet Fruit and Rumble-Rumble Fruit. They had allowed him to produce a large number of cutting-edge instruments, and even conduct experiments directly through magnetic force. Otherwise, the time spent building and upgrading equipment alone would probably have taken several months. Some instruments could not be manufactured at all under the Ninja World's conditions.

After several days of research, all three had obtained chakra, and Vegapunk's research into chakra had come to a temporary halt. After all, he did not have many samples.

He did have one rare and precious specimen on hand: Kakashi Hatake. But precisely because Kakashi was so valuable, Vegapunk found it difficult to study him.

Kakashi's eye was a Mangekyō Sharingan with spatial abilities. If anything went wrong during the research, Vegapunk would regret it beyond measure.

"Mr. Vegapunk, this is Snow Country's treasure!"

Kazahana Koyuki pointed at the machine before them and said to Vegapunk, "I looked through the materials Father left behind. This should be a large-scale Geothermal Generator, but it was never fully completed, so it cannot turn all of Snow Country into Spring Country."

Vegapunk reached out and touched the machine. The magnetic field within his body merged with his finely tuned Observation Haki, quickly scanning every component of the Geothermal Generator. Then he frowned slightly.

"I truly didn't expect this... Your father invented this?"

"That's right! The entire Geothermal Generator was designed by Father. Everyone else merely made the various mechanical components and assembled them!"

Kazahana Koyuki nodded and answered brightly.

"I never expected your father to be something of a mechanical genius! This Geothermal Generator actually uses Natural Energy as its power source!"

Vegapunk could not help but feel a measure of admiration for Kazahana Koyuki's father. Anyone capable of researching Natural Energy as an energy source was a top-tier researcher! What a pity—he had ended up taking on the ill-suited profession of king, only to meet the same fate as Emperor Huizong of Song and Li Houzhu.