Gawain smiled and nodded in response to Vegapunk's words.
"That's certainly direct, but it's fine this way. Tell me what you want, Vegapunk."
After saying that, Gawain waited for Vegapunk's reply, but his Den Den Mushi suddenly fell silent.
After seemingly pondering for a moment, Vegapunk shook his head.
"I don't seem to need anything, since the World Government sends me whatever I need."
Well... how about this, can you do me a favor?
In my old home in the Future Kingdom, there are still two former laboratories, which I used when I was young to research Devil Fruit and mechanization.
I heard you're traveling, right? When you're less busy, could you help me maintain my lab?
Because of the high level of technology there, even maintenance costs a lot of money. I'm not sure exactly how much, but it's at least a ten-figure sum.
In short, I'm counting on you, okay?
It was only then that Gawain belatedly realized that Vegapunk had two more fortunes buried in the Future Kingdom!
He had completely forgotten about those two laboratories!
Even if Franky can't use the Devil Fruit- related labs yet, the mechanized labs alone should be enough to significantly improve his abilities, right?
After a glint of light flashed in Gawain's eyes, he decisively agreed to Vegapunk's request.
"It's settled then, Vegapunk!"
Don't worry, haha, I'll definitely take good care of your lab equipment, I'll take very good care of it!
"That's great! I'll go and help you deal with the Slow-Slow Fruit issue right away. Best wishes for a successful collaboration, Saint Gawain."
Vegapunk mechanically hung up the phone, while Gawain quickly looked around at everyone.
"That's right, everyone. Vegapunk, who knows Devil Fruit best, can indeed transfer Devil Fruit from the bodies of Devil Fruit users."
So, you can now choose the Devil Fruit you want!
"But sir, Vegapunk mentioned at least a ten-figure sum. Isn't that price a bit too high?"
Gion asked softly.
"We are in dire need of money right now."
Although we still have income from large ships and casinos, compared to the plans we need to expand, we're still under considerable financial pressure.
Suddenly coming up with an expenditure of billions—enough to buy Devil Fruit —isn't that a bit...?
"This is not expensive at all, Gion. After all, truly excellent Devil Fruit almost never end up at auction."
But we can truly Devil Fruit the rewards!
Gawain chuckled lightly as he spoke.
"Moreover, besides being able to freely choose Devil Fruit, we're not spending money for Vegapunk!"
We did it for our own future!
Imagine, what maintenance could be safer than moving those laboratories onto our ship?
Fortunately, there's a large open space at the stern of our ship, so let's plan that as an experimental area and move Vegapunk's old home there!
If we have the chance in the future, we can invite Vegapunk to come back to his hometown, but his hometown will become our ship, haha!
"Franky, what do you think?"
"I have no objection, but isn't this a bit inappropriate...?"
Sir, someone asked us to clean up their old house, so we moved away instead.
"Wow... this is so clean!"
Even someone like Franky felt a little embarrassed, so everyone was looking at Gawain with disbelief.
Facing the stares of the crowd, Gawain waved his hand dismissively.
"Research equipment only generates value when it is used, right?"
Otherwise, no matter how well maintained, experimental equipment will only continue to await its fate of decay and ruin.
Gawain's decision was beyond question.
"It's settled then, Kalifa. Add this project to your shortlist for the near future."
Meanwhile, send a Little Dark Bird to the Future Kingdom to investigate and, based on the situation, formulate a plan for the relocation Washuu of the laboratory.
If it's relatively easy to move them, Franky should take the Dark Bird with him when he has some free time to bring them back.
If the laboratory is too big, then our Dark Bird Ship will sail there ourselves!
Seeing that Gawain directly gave the order to Kalifa, the others stopped questioning it.
After all, Gawain Pirates not only has a good atmosphere, but also has no shortage of systems.
No one would disrespect the captain's decision!
After Gawain made his decision, Uta casually sprinkled a spoonful of soup onto his hand.
"Oops, I'm so clumsy, I burned myself..."
Gawain, feed me~~~!
"Um."
Gawain chuckled and rubbed the little girl's head before continuing to feed her.
After lunch, Gawain continued his training. In the afternoon, he didn't need to train his physical fitness anymore, but instead focused on honing his Tekkai skills with great seriousness.
He assumed a horse stance, contracting his muscles, and allowed Gion to relentlessly poke and punch him.
Thump!
Thump!
The muffled thuds continued, and Gawain kept falling down, some with their eyes rolled back, some vomiting, and some convulsing.
With each punch, Gion would use Gawain's condition and her own feel to urge Gawain to adjust how he used the muscles in different parts of his body.
"My lord, you have now overcome your instinct to dodge, which is already half the battle won. However, you still need to adjust your method of charging up your power."
The technique of using Tekkai is not simply about inflating muscles; it's about coordinating muscles within a certain range.
Try to find the area that best withstands your blows, then gradually shrink that area until your muscles can withstand them well... Huh?
At this point, Gion suddenly looked up curiously, gazing straight at the distant sky.
At the same time, everyone else on the ship looked in that direction as well.
Noticing Gion's expression, Gawain turned around.
Wow!
In the distance, a large ship, about 300 meters long, fell straight down from the sky.
At the same time, Lucci suddenly shouted.
"Salvage team, quick, collect the wrecked ship's timber!"
With a whoosh, a group of Black Ice Terrace members boarded the Little Dark Bird and rushed towards the direction where the ship had landed.
Meanwhile, Uta, who was practicing his singing on the ship's side, was startled by the falling ship.
"How could a ship fall from the sky?!"
Is that a ghost ship?!
As soon as he finished speaking, Uta turned around and waved to Gawain.
"Sir, let's go take a look too! That's a ghost ship, sir!!"
"Haha, how could it be a ghost ship?"
Not far from Uta, old man Rayleigh, who was lying on a deck chair listening to music, waved with a smile.
"A ship that fell from the sky... Let me think, I think I remember."
Kalifa, where is this place again? What islands are nearby?
Upon hearing Rayleigh's words, Kalifa for a moment before responding.
"Grandpa Rayleigh, this area is near the Navy's G-8 fortress. Besides that, there's also the Navy's G-2 fortress, Hot Spring Island, Jaya, and Rocky Island!"
"Oh..."
Upon hearing this, Rayleigh nodded knowingly.
"As expected, Jaya is nearby, right? Then it's not surprising at all!"
As he spoke, the old man picked up the strong liquor and took a big gulp.
In the distance, Yi Xiao twitched his nose and asked the old man.
"Mr. Rayleigh, the Jaya you mentioned... is it the legendary Sky Island?"
"Huh? Sky Island!"
In that instant, both Shirahoshi and Uta slid sideways to Ikko's side and looked at him excitedly.
"Uncle Yixiao, what does 'Sky Island' mean? Is it an island floating in the air?" Shirahoshi asked excitedly.
Uta gently spread the wings on her back.
"Uncle, when I was little, Shanks' dad told me that the Skypieans all have wings. Is that true?"
As soon as Uta finished speaking, the one who had been stunned suddenly smiled and tilted his head blankly.
"Wait, Uta, does that Red-Haired Shanks also believe that Sky Island really exist?"
He even told you stories about the Sky Island?
Shouldn't Sky Island be just a legend? Many families along the Grand Line tell their children stories about Liar Noland before bedtime, right?
No sooner had the joke ended than Rayleigh, standing by the ship's side, laughed and waved at Yixiao.
"Brother Yixiao, your thinking is too narrow-minded. Sky Island really exist!"
As for why Shanks knows the story of Sky Island, haha, it's because we personally visited Sky Island back in the day!
Wow!
Shirahoshi quickly stopped smiling and rushed to Rayleigh's side. She curled up her big tail, listening to Rayleigh's words like a child attentively listening to a lesson.
Seeing Shirahoshi, Rayleigh smiled and nodded, then began to tell his story.
"That was probably twenty years ago. Roger... had already learned that he had a terminal illness."
Knowing he was about to die, Roger became anxious and vowed to find the legendary Laugh Tale.
Therefore, we needed someone to help us translate the Poneglyph, but even after finding Ohara, we couldn't find such a person.
Therefore, we turned our attention to the creators of the Poneglyph, the Kozuki Clan of Wano Country!
But before we even arrived in Wano Country, we heard some news: Newgate's pirate crew had a new vice-captain!
That guy didn't adopt a son, he actually adopted a younger brother!
In particular, his younger brother's surname is Kozuki, and he is the heir to the Kozuki Clan of Wano Country!
So Roger knelt down and begged Newgate to let them borrow his brother for two years.
And so, with Oden, we returned to our starting Qidian and embarked on another journey along the Grand Line.
Along the way, we saw many things, and Oden also explained many Poneglyph inscriptions to us.
One of the stone slabs is located on a nearby Sky Island!
Honestly, I had almost forgotten about it until little Kalifa mentioned the name Jaya, which reminded me of it.
Didn't the half of Jaya that was lost end up on Sky Island?
That's why you often see Sea King and ships falling from the sky in the waters near Jaya!
At this point, Rayleigh suddenly remembered something, so he quickly spoke to Gawain.
"Oh, right, Little Gawain, speaking of Sky Island, something suddenly came to mind!"
We're short of money, but there's a Golden City on the Sky Island!
I don't know the exact amount, but it should be worth at least several hundred billion or even several trillion, right?
Anyway, since both kids are very curious, why don't we take them to explore the Sky Island?
After saying that, Rayleigh stood up with a loud laugh, and then lifted Shirahoshi up in one swift motion.
He lifted Shirahoshi's tail like a weightlifter and said excitedly.
"So, Shirahoshi, is Grandpa Rayleigh taking you on a trip to the Sky Island?"
There are not only winged people there, but also gods, haha.
We even chatted with their god back then; if I remember correctly, their god was called Gandof, right?
It was something like "fortune" or something, I can't quite remember!
In short, Sky Island is truly an incredibly peaceful and beautiful place, haha."
At this point, Rayleigh tossed Shirahoshi around like a child for a while.
After he put Shirahoshi back on the ground, he went to Gawain's side and continued speaking to Gawain earnestly.
"Gawain, what you just said was no joke. Roger and I really did go to Sky Island."
Even disregarding the unique geographical location of the Sky Island, just consider the vast amount of gold it contains that has already been exploited.
Those reasons alone are enough to justify our trip to the Sky Island!
Most importantly, we now have Brother Yixiao!
With him there, we don't even need to wait for the conditions to land on the Sky Island; we can just float up there!
As Rayleigh spoke, a group of officers gathered around, and after listening to Rayleigh explanation, they all nodded in agreement.
Hancock was the first to express her concern.
"If there's a lot of gold, we really should go. We still owe Water 7 over 400 billion!"
"Yes, and it's Sky Island! Just hearing about it gets my heart racing!"
Jinbe's adventurous spirit was also beginning to stir.
Shiryu gently rubbed his knife.
"What kind of hands would the Skypieans have when they chop things up...?"
"Ahem, let's not always have to fight and kill, okay? What we're looking forward to is the local customs and culture of the Sky Island!"
With a serious smile, he spoke to Shiryu.
Standing in the center of the crowd, seeing the expectant looks in their eyes, Gawain nodded slightly.
"Since everyone thinks so, then of course there's no problem. After we resupply with fresh water and vegetables at Navarone Fortress, we'll have Grandpa Rayleigh lead the way to the Sky Island!"
"No problem!"
Rayleigh waved his hand dismissively.
"There's no need for any guides at all. The Sky Island is right above Jaya, and the half of Jaya that it lost is on the Sky Island!"
"We just need to float up from Jaya and we'll see the Sky Island!"
With the old man's hearty laughter, an ordinary day suddenly became extraordinary, and everyone began to look forward to the Sky Island.
However, at that moment, they had no idea that Gawain was the one among them who most longed for Sky Island...
And it was amidst this anticipation that Gawain and his group finally arrived outside Navarone Fortress.
At Navy G-8 branch, a major rushed to where Jonathan was fishing, interrupting Jonathan's enjoyment.
"Commander, the fortress's scouts have spotted Saint Gawain!"
A ship almost larger than our entire fortress has just stopped about ten nautical miles away from us!
"Oh?"
Jonathan lazily raised his eyes, then put away his fishing rod.
"What's the rush? This is perfect! I caught a ribbonfish today, and it's still alive."
Go and get everyone lined up and ready to welcome Saint Gawain. I'm going to my wife's place first to ask her to cook a good dish, and then I'll come to your place!
As soon as he finished speaking, Jonathan picked up the fish basket and walked calmly toward the branch canteen.
Upon receiving the order, the major immediately led his men to prepare a procession to welcome Saint Gawain.
And Jonathan...
"Easy, easy! I'm the branch commander, Jessica! Don't make me lose face like this!!!"
Right there in the G-8 branch's canteen, Jonathan had been calm and collected, was suddenly grabbed by the ear and pulled up by a beautiful young woman with blond hair.
Upon hearing Jonathan's words, Jessica, with her blond hair, angrily tugged at Jonathan's ear again.
"You lazy bastard, all you do is fish, fish, fish! I don't have time to deal with all the fish you catch!"
They even added dishes for the Celestial Dragon. In our culinary world, there are common practices for banquets served to the Celestial Dragon. Why would I need to specially add a live ribbonfish?
And even at this point, you still won't stand with your soldiers? What, do you think you're Vice Admiral Garp?!
Hurry up and put your hat on me, then go and properly greet the Celestial Dragon!
If you anger the Celestial Dragon, not only will you die, but I might also be kidnapped and enslaved by Celestial Dragon! I'm so beautiful, do you want me to become Celestial Dragon's wife, you bastard!
How dare you, Jonathan?!