A Catastrophe

Upon hearing Vegapunk's instructions, Hody Jones readily agreed without hesitation, earning Vegapunk's satisfied nod.

Although Hody Jones himself wasn't exactly a smart man, his opponents were even worse, which naturally highlighted the shamelessness of this guy.

The task set by Vegapunk wasn't too difficult, and with Hody Jones's abilities, there was really no need to worry too much.

After all, Neptune only realized the Fish-Man were about to rebel after nearly 100,000 rebels had gathered in the entire Fish-Man District. It would be too easy for a "benevolent and wise ruler" like Neptune to sideline such a figure.

With the help of the miraculous drug, Monster Cells, there are many Fish-Man who crave power. With those Fish-Men Mutants as role models, it would be too easy for them to develop.

However, Vegapunk's target is not just those Fish-Man, but more so those Sea Kings. Sea Kings are the rulers of the sea, and after consuming Monster Cells, their strength will only increase. When he uses Monster Cells to rule all Sea Kings, wouldn't he be more deserving of the title of Poseidon than Shirahoshi?

With the help of these Sea Kings in the search, no matter where Imu is hiding, these Sea Kings and Fish-Man scattered throughout the ocean will be able to find him.

After assigning the tasks, Vegapunk began to address the environmental issues on Fish-Man Island, while the entire Fish-Man Island also began searching for Imu's whereabouts in the ocean.

Among them, the Fish-Men Mutants under Hody Jones were the most active in the search, which Neptune was quite worried about.

Poor Neptune, he had no idea that Hody Jones had long been a staunch supporter of Vegapunk, and that they had conspired together to frame him.

In Neptune's eyes, although Hody Jones surrendered to Vegapunk, this Fish-Man supremacist was definitely not truly convinced of Vegapunk's loyalty and was always prepared to rebel. Therefore, Neptune paid special attention to Hody Jones, fearing that Hody Jones might do something foolish.

Initially, Vegapunk considered creating an Artificial Sun and placing it above Fish-Man Island. This so-called Artificial Sun was actually just nuclear fusion technology, which Vegapunk could easily create with his current level of technology.

However, he later discovered that Sunlight Tree Eve on Fish-Man Island, was not harmed at all; it had simply become dim because it could not absorb sunlight.

In other words, as long as the sky above the ocean, obscured by the dust and smog kicked up by the Red Line, can clear up again, all the problems can be solved.

This was naturally even simpler for Vegapunk. With his Dream Star technology base, he could control the global weather and make the smog and dust settle down in seven or eight days.

Just a few days later, a torrential rain fell across tens of thousands of kilometers of the Red Line, the continent that separated the Grand Line from the Pirate World.

A massive downpour, carrying dust from the Red Line, fell like blood rain for ten days. The originally blood-red rain gradually turned pale red, and eventually became colorless.

When the weather cleared up again, the thick layer of dark red to black dust clouds that had covered the sky had disappeared, and the clear blue sky and golden sunlight were revealed once more.

As the golden sunlight reappeared, the original Sunlight Tree Eve resumed its function, and the entire Fish-Man Island was restored to light, causing the Fish-Man Island's inhabitants to weep with joy and be overjoyed.

After that, Vegapunk allocated some deserted islands to the Fish-Man Race and Merfolk of Fish-Man Island as their future habitats. There are many such deserted islands in the ocean; some places are too dangerous to be habitable for humans, while others are too barren to provide any conditions for human survival.

For the residents of Fish-Man Island, this is not a problem. The average strength of Fish-Man far surpasses that of ordinary people. Many places that are dangerous for ordinary people are not so dangerous for Fish-Man. As for the island being too barren, Fish-Man Island can make up for it by utilizing the abundant resources in the ocean.

In the past, there was a threat of slave traders, but now, with the collapse of the World Government and the destruction of the Celestial Dragons, the slave trade has been dealt a huge blow, and now there is almost no place for these slave traders to survive on the seas.

It can be said that Fish-Man Island has turned its fortunes around and entered a period of rapid development.

Of course, Hody Jones's Fish-Men Mutants also developed at an extremely fast pace. After obtaining a near-unlimited supply of Monster Cells from Vegapunk, the number of Fish-Men Mutants under his command, which originally numbered only tens of thousands, has now increased nearly tenfold. One hundred thousand Fish-Men Mutants can be considered a terrifying force in the entire ocean.

Not to mention the sea beasts tamed by these Fish-Men Mutants, and even the Sea Kings summoned by Shirahoshi who were also transformed into Monsters. Those are truly terrifying life forms on the level of natural disasters. Often, a single large Sea Kings Monsters can destroy an island.

With so many Fish-Men Mutants, Sea Kings Monsters, and sea beast Monsters, Fish-Man Island's search capabilities have naturally increased significantly. However, the ocean in the Pirate World is simply too vast, and even with so many Monsters working together, finding Imu in a short period of time is not an easy task.

On the other hand, an important event occurred that left Vegapunk and the others with no time to search for Imu.

On the Dream Star in the sky, Vegapunk frowned as he looked at the report in his hand, then looked up at Queen and asked:

"Is all the data on this page accurate?"

Round and plump Queen patted his chest, causing his fat to roll like waves, and shouted:

"Of course it's true! This data was collected personally by Uncle Queen, there's no way it could be wrong!"

Vegapunk nodded slightly. Although Queen was not very reliable, he was quite capable in scientific research. Moreover, these data were calculated by Dream Star multiple times. Even if Queen made a mistake, Dream Star would directly remind him.

"Then it seems the problem is serious!"

Seeing the worried and troubled look on Vegapunk's face, Queen was also a little surprised and guilty. Could this scientific research monster in front of him actually encounter some difficult problems?

"What's wrong? Is there a problem with the data I just presented? Or is it some kind of scientific puzzle?"

"No, that's not a scientific problem at all. In fact, it's precisely because the data matches my calculations that I'm having a headache!"

Vegapunk sighed softly, turned to look at Queen, and said calmly:

"You know that the data I asked you to collect comes from calculations on the Dream Star, right? But you probably don't know that these calculations actually come from the Magnetic Field data model of the entire Pirate Planet collected by Dream Star!"

"Through the calculations of this model, I have come to a very ominous conclusion: the planet beneath our feet probably won't last much longer!"

Upon hearing this, Queen's eyes widened, and he snatched the data away, resuming his analysis.

At this moment, Nico Robin, who was sitting to the side, also frowned, looked at Vegapunk, and asked, "Boss, have you noticed something?"

"According to data model analysis, there has been a slight disturbance in the atmosphere of our planet, weakening the planet's Magnetic Field by about 0.03%, and the length of a 24-hour day has also increased slightly by 0.002 seconds. In other words, the rotation time has increased by 0.002 seconds. In addition, the global average temperature has decreased by about 3 degrees Celsius..."

"Based on these models, the most likely explanation is that the planet's core experienced a cooling effect, or rather, it didn't cool down but began to solidify!"

"The Earth's core has solidified? How is that possible?"

Queen looked shocked and asked in surprise.

"It must be that the energy was extracted, right? You know, the World Government's move to hide in Mary Geoise was very strange in itself. Now it seems that it might be because of the impending disaster that will happen to the entire planet that made them do this."

"Although we don't know what they're doing extracting energy from the Earth's core, based on our research, it shouldn't be difficult to find the location where that energy is leaking out!"

"Once we find it, we'll know exactly what the World Government is trying to do!"

Although Vegapunk said this, he didn't have much hope for this operation.

The World Government itself is already finished, Vegapunk believes that even if they have devised some plan, it would be difficult to implement it now.

However, the key issue is that even if the absorbed core energy cannot accomplish any plans, it will likely be difficult for it to return to the core. Although the current impact on the planet is small, it is only because the planet is so large that the impact spreads slowly to the outer perimeter.

Even Vegapunk could calculate that once the Earth's core loses its energy, the planet's atmosphere and Magnetic Field will overflow exponentially, and the planet's climate will undergo tremendous changes in a very short time.

It's possible that in just a year or two, the temperature difference between day and night will exceed 100 degrees Celsius, resulting in a climate where the daytime temperature is 50 degrees Celsius and the nighttime temperature is -50 degrees Celsius. Terrifying storms with winds exceeding level 15 will frequently sweep across the entire planet, and various earthquakes and collapses will also occur.

However, if the planet's core energy were drained even more severely, the planet's Magnetic Field would collapse, cosmic radiation would sweep across the entire planet, the planet's continents would crack, a portion of the atmosphere would escape, and it would completely become a dead planet uninhabitable by carbon-based life. These possibilities certainly exist.

Furthermore, even with the Dream Star, Vegapunk could never recover from this damage; it was an inevitable consequence of the planet's core becoming lifeless.

In fact, not only Vegapunk, but also Queen, who was also a scientist, was well aware of the consequences of nuclear energy loss. At this moment, his face was pale, and he said tremblingly:

"If we find out the reason for the loss of energy in the Earth's core, can we replenish that energy?"

Vegapunk rolled his eyes and said irritably:

"What are you thinking! The so-called core energy is just the high temperature generated inside the planet due to gravity. Energy loss means a drop in temperature and solidification of the internal liquid molten metal. How can it be replenished? Do you think you can heat up the Earth's core? How? With a mushroom bomb?"

"Even if you could really heat up the Earth's core, the consequences might be even more severe than if the core cooled down!"

Queen shut his mouth. As a scientist, he wasn't an ordinary person lacking common sense, and he certainly knew how unreliable the question he had just raised was.

That was just something he said without thinking after he was frightened; once he calmed down, he realized it was almost impossible.

But thinking about it this way, Queen's face turned even paler, and he muttered to himself:

"So, does that mean we're doomed? The outer environment of the planet has been destroyed, where can we escape to..."

"Huh!? That's right, isn't the Dream Star we're on now a great place? As long as we stay here, we don't have to worry about any problems that might arise on the planet!"

Thinking of this, Queen, who had been pale and looked like he was about to die, immediately perked up again.

Vegapunk didn't bother with that idiot Queen. He didn't consider himself a good person, but his moral standards were still a bit higher than his three assistants'. Knowing that a crisis was about to occur in the world, his first priority was to find a way to solve it.

"Boss, do you have a solution to this problem of energy loss from the Earth's core?"

Nico Robin frowned deeply, her face looking rather grim, and asked nervously.

"Not for now... At least with my current level of technology, it's practically impossible to reheat a cooled Earth's core without affecting the planet's ecosystem."

"However, you don't need to worry too much. As long as we can temporarily solve the root cause of absorbing the Earth's core energy, the planet's ecological environment will not face irreversible extinction for at least a few months."

"A few months?"

Nico Robin gasped, her face pale as she looked at Vegapunk. Was a few months really that long?

"A few months should be enough time for me to create a super-large spatial ecological park, which is barely enough time for me to transfer the vast majority of life in the Pirate World into the ecological park."

The so-called Space Ecological Park is actually not much different from the interior space of Dream Star. Both use Space Folding Technology to first create a huge space, then transfer water, soil and plants into the interior, and finally use nuclear fusion technology to create an artificial sun.

While such an artificial ecological park cannot compare to a natural planet, it is still self-sufficient and has been operating internally for hundreds or thousands of years. If it is built large enough, it can accommodate all life in the Pirate World.