Statue

The day passed quickly, and Milim had made a point of getting up early.

The day passed quickly, and the next morning, Milim had deliberately risen early.

She wanted to make a sculpture for the competition too—though she had been the one to start it in the first place, how could Milim possibly bear to miss out on something this fun?

The moment she opened her door, she found the outside blanketed in thick snow.

Milim stepped into it, and half her foot sank straight down.

So it snowed this heavily last night. Thinking this, she ran toward the sea.

The road was not as quiet as she had imagined. On the contrary, quite a few people were heading toward the sea as well.

Though a small number planned to build sculptures from snow, most had decided to fetch ice for carving instead.

Clearly, Milim had the same idea. Before long, she arrived at the shore.

This stretch of sea was now covered in ice and snow, but with Milim's Dragon Eyes, she could see far into the distance, where the sea remained calm and unfrozen.

This was the strange weather of the Pirate King world—one place could be blanketed in snow while another nearby was scorched by blazing sunlight, with the two climates right next to each other!

Milim stepped onto the ice, dug out a huge block nearly twenty meters tall with her bare hands, and carried it back to an open area on shore.

She threw herself completely into carving, staring intently at the ice block before her, utterly unaware that Lingling and the others had already approached.

Seeing how unexpectedly serious Milim was, Lingling and the others exchanged glances and somehow read an inexplicable fighting spirit in one another's eyes.

Lingling moved first, chiseling a massive block of ice from the frozen sea and waving her weapon as she began carving. Vegapunk, meanwhile, controlled a robot to select the smoothest, clearest piece of ice, then activated lasers to precisely carve the pattern displayed on his computer.

For a time, the open area rang with the constant sounds of ice being chiseled and the faint whine of laser cutting.

Ruka also helped Lingling at the side, while Bullet came to stand beside Milim. Not daring to disturb her carving, he merely watched quietly.

As for El, he sat curled up on a patch of ground that had been cleared of snow. His body trembled slightly from the cold, yet he remained there to watch them finish their carvings.

As the morning passed, everyone's work was more or less complete. Milim took a huge curtain and covered her own creation.

When she went over to the others' carving areas, she found that they had all finished long ago and covered their works with cloth as well.

Once every piece was complete, Milim and the others began inspecting them. Naturally, Lingling and Milim's works were not included in the competition.

The group first came before the tallest sculpture, whose creator was Giant Uncle.

Giant Uncle rubbed his nose, then lifted the curtain with a proud look on his face. Beneath it stood a hammer sculpted from crystal-clear ice—the patterns on its head were magnificent, every fine line and joint carved with incomparable precision, as though it could be swung at a target the very next second.

Milim's eyes lit up, and she raised a scorecard of 90 without hesitation. Charlotte Lingling followed by raising a 90-point card, while Vegapunk examined the hammer's details with a critical eye before finally raising an 80-point card.

After that, the group moved on to the other sculptures. There was a beautiful woman made from piled snow, her features as exquisite as a real person's, even the curve of each strand of hair vividly lifelike. Someone else had carved an ice carriage, its wheel patterns and cabin engravings equally meticulous, as though it could roll forward with a gentle push.

Someone had even sculpted Milim and Charlotte Lingling, and the quality was remarkably high. The smile on the ice-carved Milim's face was exactly the same as Milim's current smile.

After viewing everyone's ice sculptures, the winner was chosen jointly by the crowd. In the end, they all agreed that Snow Beauty was the victor!

She was the beautiful woman made from snow. The two young girls who had built the snowman saw that their creation had won and immediately—

—happily embraced each other. Then El handed ten million Belly to the two girls.

Now that they had finished viewing these ice sculptures, it was time to see the ones made by Milim and the others.

The first curtain to be lifted covered Charlotte Lingling's ice sculpture. As it was pulled aside, an ice throne appeared before everyone.

Though the throne amazed the crowd, a closer inspection revealed faint scratches on it, clearly caused by inadequate ice-carving skill.

The second sculpture was Vegapunk's. Vegapunk confidently lifted the curtain, revealing a contemplative figure seated on a stone with a book in his hand.

"Pfft!" Milim nearly failed to hold back her laughter. Why did this statue look more and more familiar? She had the feeling that she had seen it somewhere in her previous life.

Vegapunk's sculpture was flawless, yet it somehow felt a little off. It always seemed to be missing something.

After a round of discussion, everyone finally figured out what it lacked: a distinct sense of impact. It looked exquisitely crafted at first glance, but there was nothing especially memorable about it.

The final curtain concealed Milim's ice sculpture. Milim was extremely confident as she stepped up and gave the cloth a fierce yank.

The true form of the ice sculpture was then revealed before everyone. Vegapunk's eyes widened in disbelief, his gaze fixed on it with fascination!

The men also felt their hearts race for no apparent reason, while the women reacted far less strongly.

"I call it Gundam!" Milim announced excitedly, waving both hands.

It stood twenty meters tall. Though made entirely of ice, every inch of it radiated a mechanical feel.

A cannon mounted on its shoulder, a gun in its hand, a shield at its side—it brimmed with mechanical power.

Vegapunk had completely fallen under the spell of this beautiful creation brimming with mechanical appeal, and the desire in his eyes for the Gundam was utterly undisguised.

Perhaps it would not be long before Vegapunk built a Gundam of his own.

With the sculpture competition over, everyone began happily enjoying the second day of their holiday.

Vegapunk kept taking pictures of the Gundam with his camera.

Milim had made an ice slide and kept sliding up and down it, having a wonderful time.

Lingling had spent the entire morning carving ice and was feeling hungry, so she took Ruka back to eat.

After playing on the slide for a while, Milim noticed that Vegapunk was still standing there, staring at the Gundam and drooling.

Milim quietly crept up behind Vegapunk and whispered, "Vegapunk, do you want to make a Gundam?"

Vegapunk nodded vigorously. This thing was the very essence of a man's romance. The moment he had first laid eyes on a Gundam, it had been love at first sight.

"Then go make it." Milim patted Vegapunk on the shoulder with one hand, her voice full of encouragement. "If you have a dream, you have to chase it. When the time comes, you'll pilot the Gundam to protect Many Countries and uphold peace!"

The more Vegapunk listened, the more excited he became. He could no longer restrain his wildly pounding heart, and now he could not wait to return to the laboratory at once.

To begin researching Gundams—thinking this, Vegapunk sprinted madly back to the laboratory at incredible speed.

"Ah!" If Vegapunk really managed to build a Gundam, then perhaps the nature of warfare around the world would change completely in the future.

But as long as I'm happy, that's all that matters. With that thought, Milim continued toward the ice to play.