Chapter 572
There is one technology that the Night Pirates absolutely must acquire: the artificial intelligence technology located on the Infinite Earth, also known as the "Moon."
This matter was planned long ago, and now that everything has stabilized, it can be implemented.
The original calculation of a six-month round trip was impossible; that time was too long for them.
The main reason is that the Ark's "Ark Maxim" are too large, requiring a lot of energy to operate, and its speed is correspondingly slower.
This is not war, and there is no need to use the Ark Maxim to transport hundreds of thousands of troops.
In summary, it's an exploration team, and there aren't many of them.
To this end, the Night Pirates redesigned and built a ship based on the blueprints of the Ark Maxim. The ship was 120 meters long and had a huge warehouse underneath, storing a large amount of food.
Thus, with the high-speed operation of the power supply and energy conversion devices built by the Night Pirates, the spaceship's speed will be four to five times that was expected.
The round trip time was compressed to just over a month.
The entire exploration team consisted of only about twenty people, and Enel was naturally in charge. In addition to preventing any unexpected discoveries, he was also responsible for providing power to the spaceship.
Moreover, as residents of the Sky Island, especially the residents of Birka Island who have preserved their traditions well, they have always had the legend of the Infinite Earth, which is said to be the final destination for all of them.
Enel naturally wanted to see the moon with his own eyes, as his destination this time.
Accompanying them were a series of robots, who were also the main tools, all controlled by "Shar". Through image transmission equipment, when they arrived on the moon, Teach, located on the ocean, would be able to see what the moon looked like and issue commands to search for lunar relics.
Unbeknownst to others, on a secret island in the Calm Belt, a modified spaceship continuously soars into the sky, heading towards the bright moon.
The special island called Weil, which originally belonged to Golden Lion Shiki, now belongs to the Night Pirates.
Using the power of the Anne - Weil Bubble-Bubble Fruit and combining it with the existing floating clouds, the island has been moved to the Calm Belt, closer to the Night Pirates.
Research on "IQ" plants has already begun, and the main research focuses on many aspects, including combining them with Super Gene Potion to create a 2.0 version, and studying various aspects of human evolution.
For example, in terms of lifespan, based on our strong technological capabilities, we have already made some progress in a short period of time, developing drugs that can extend lifespan by three or four years. If we continue research and increase this number tenfold, we will have the world at our fingertips.
And to create warriors with special powers by granting them special abilities, such as lightning, through specific means.
This is possible. Humans are animals, and by creating special environments and external factors that stimulate the evolutionary factors in IQ plants, they can develop specific abilities as desired.
Since the Beasts Pirates wanted to create beastman warriors as a product of Artificial Devil Fruit.
The Night Pirates can also create special combat units, and they also have a mechanical army under their protection. Moreover, these can be used in combination. If one could master lightning, fire, or other powers, who wouldn't love that?
Once these studies are completed, and he possesses a powerful army and substantial interests, he will be able to unite the vast majority of the world's forces. As long as the World Government's top combat power is eliminated, no one will be able to stop him.
The massive research team under its protection is enough to support the future of the Night Pirates. Currently, there are a thousand main scientists for various projects within the Night Pirates, and if you include research assistants and researchers, the entire research team numbers as high as 30,000.
Even with such a large number, the Night Pirates were still somewhat unsatisfied; there were too many things to research and they needed more talent.
In this regard, the Night Pirates have been actively cultivating and training scientific researchers. The number is not large, but there are still some results. Most of them serve as assistants or researchers in the research base, learning from the scientists and accumulating knowledge. Once they reach a certain level, they will be able to lead small projects on their own, and then large projects.
Every so often, the research base organizes small exchange meetings where people gather to drink tea, have snacks, and, more importantly, exchange experiences to spark inspiration and better solve problems.
The Night Pirates have been recruiting scientists, researchers, and highly skilled doctors from the sea. Even a medical powerhouse like the Drum Kingdom was nearly plundered by the Night Pirates, its years of accumulated resources wiped out, with most of its top doctors being taken to the Night Sea Domain.
It's unclear how long it will take to recover.
Another major kingdom is Winter Island in the early New World, the future kingdom of Baldimore, Vegapunk's homeland.
With world-leading technological capabilities, even children are capable of performing mechanical modifications.
According to Teach and others, the future kingdom of Baldimore is likely a descendant of the Moon People, one of the Moon People branches that came to the sea many years ago and inherited some of Moon People technology.
Many of the scientists under the protection of the Night Pirates come from the Kingdom of the Future, and their technological projects are very attractive to these scientists.
In this world, the concept of scientific borders is very weak, and there is no such thing as nationality; it's merely a matter of birth islands and birth kingdoms.
So leaving one's hometown is not surprising. Some people leave and never come back. For Shanks, his hometown is the West Blue.
Enel's space journey has begun.
The situation on the high seas is somewhat delicate. The war between the Navy and the Beasts Pirates is about to resume, and this time, it won't be so easy for the Beasts Pirates to win.
Everyone knows that while the Beasts Pirates' Red Demon Virus is terrifying, the Navy's willingness to wage war again means they must have a solution. With an antidote, the threat of the Red Devil serum is not so great.
Once the antidote is developed, it can be mass-produced.
However, the navy needs to be cautious about one thing: tens of thousands of doses of antidote are not very valuable, but what if it were hundreds of thousands or even millions of doses as the war continues?
This also puts enormous financial pressure on the Navy.
In the past, the navy loved to spend money on wars, but now it is difficult to do so due to the enormous pressure on military spending.
Aside from the World Government's reduction in military spending to only 50 billion Beli, the effects of the great battle with the Flying Pirates have not yet subsided.
Compensation, reconstruction of the various destroyed Marine Branch, medical expenses, purchase of mechanical arms from the Night Pirates, reconstruction of several naval fortresses in the New World in recent days, and expansion and development funds for various Marine Branch along the Grand Line.
The required funds are a staggering amount, far beyond the navy's budget. It would require additional support from the World Government and additional funding from the navy's own side hustles to make ends meet.
Without financial support from the World Government, this war could not have even begun.
Mobilizing various aspects requires a large amount of funding.
That's why the Marine Headquarters was so desperate when they heard about the Night Pirates' terrifying financial gains.
This is something even World Government cannot compare to.
Nowadays, the Navy and the World Government have very little additional income, and only a small portion has been developed in recent years, as most of it was sold off during the difficult years following the Golden Age of Golden Sea Battle.
If not, the World Government would be in a better position and wouldn't be so reliant on Affiliated Nation. Even now, though it has realized its mistake and regrets it, it's difficult to recover the sold-off industries. Affiliated Nation are watching closely, so it can't act as recklessly as before. It can only try to create some industries to increase revenue.
Of course, secretly seizing other people's assets is a basic operation of the World Government, but it needs to be done discreetly, and its reach cannot be too far.
The World Government is undoubtedly suffering from "poverty disease" and is going crazy with poverty. Taking advantage of this opportunity, extravagance has spread within the World Government again. With the tacit approval of the Gorosei, World Government officials have begun to amass wealth again.
After the purge, the World Government's officials began to maintain close ties with various factions again, so it was normal for internal intelligence to be inadvertently leaked.
Once you get out of a slump, it's easy to pick yourself up; this applies to both the Navy and the World Government.
But some things cannot be changed. Even if things recover, they cannot compare to the World Government before the Golden Sea Battle. The losses after the war cannot be explained by trillions or tens of trillions of Beli; they represent the depletion of eight hundred years of accumulated resources.
Under financial pressure, a prolonged war is impossible, and defeating the Beasts Pirates is extremely difficult. The Navy's goal is merely to gain an advantage in the war, demonstrate its power, expand its prestige, intimidate the seas, and show them the consequences of attacking the Heavenly Gold. That's all.
Without their strength restored, they were unwilling and unable to start a real war with the Beasts Pirates.
The navy's only option is to demonstrate its superiority in the war as much as possible.
They can no longer control global discourse; people often watch wars via live streams, making it impossible to deceive the world's population with public opinion.
In response, the Navy has developed a more comprehensive plan to target the Beasts Pirates.
More thorough preparations, strategic planning, and the completion of the antidote are tantamount to severing one of the Beasts Pirates' claws.
At the same time, knowing the strength of the Beasts Pirates, the Navy will send an even stronger force this time, with more powerful combatants, in order to break the balance and gain more advantages.
Even without concrete intelligence, the Beasts Pirates could roughly guess the Navy's deployment and had their own ways of dealing with it.
Even though they guessed that the Navy had created an antidote, Queen and his team remained calm. The Red Demon Virus was Queen's creation, so he knew how terrifying it was.
He also has the antidote; even if the Navy were to manufacture one, its effect would be roughly the same.
It would be a grave mistake to think that taking an antidote would make one immune to the Red Demon Virus.
The antidote is useful, but what happens when it runs out?
The antidote is essentially another virus developed to counter the Red Demon Virus. This virus is harmless to humans; its only purpose is to fight, battle, and perish together with the Red Demon Virus.
In other words, the virus in the antidote will be consumed. After repeated exposure to the Red Demon Virus, once all the viruses capable of destroying the Red Demon Virus are gone, it will no longer be able to stop the Red Demon Virus.
Unless an antidote is used again.
This is unpredictable; who knows when their antidote will run out? In battle, a moment of distraction could mean being torn apart from one's body.
Moreover, once the Red Demon Virus breaks out, they won't be able to control themselves, let alone take an antidote.
The process of his companions injecting him with the antidote was extremely dangerous, and there was also the worry of whether he would be infected with the Red Demon Virus again. The process of going back to get the antidote would weaken the Navy's overall combat power.
Compared to the initial outbreak, the overall timing of this Red Demon Virus outbreak simply shifted to later.
Queen believed the Navy was unaware of this, and he only learned of its effect by accident during experiments.
Even if the navy knew, it wouldn't matter. Did they expect everyone to carry multiple antidotes? Aside from the possibility of them breaking during battle, what about when they ran out? Would they have to go back to the rear to get more?
At most, the outbreak will only last longer; the outcome will not change.
In addition, the Beasts Pirates have made further preparations.
Thanks to the World Government's assistance, the chaos caused within Wano Country has left Wano Country with no energy to deal with the Beasts Pirates. This allows the Beasts Pirates to focus their efforts without worrying about Wano Country raiding their base from within.
This greatly reduced their internal pressure, allowing them to free up more powerful combat forces to fight on the front lines against the navy.
The only ones who need to be concerned are the Mink Tribe, who are eager to reclaim the Road Sign Stone that were stolen from them.
These Mink Tribe members are detected as soon as they appear in the Babarossa Kingdom, yet some still manage to sneak in.
However, the Mink Tribe alone is not worth the attention of the Beasts Pirates, and they dare not send a large number of people over.
Moreover, the Mink Tribe is now few in number. After the rampage caused by Kaido and his two companions, their total number is less than 20,000. They have not recovered much in the past few years. On the contrary, they have lost hundreds more in the process of trying to retrieve the Road Sign Stone.
This also reflects the stubbornness of the Mink Tribe, which deepens the hatred between the two sides.
With the return of Nekomamushi and Inuarashi, the Mink Tribe's strength has indeed increased, the Musketeer Squad has been rebuilt, and Professor X Haki.
However, there is one thing that the Mink Tribe cannot change: the young and middle-aged men of the Mink Tribe have been almost entirely wiped out, leaving mostly the old and weak. It will take many years for the young Mink Tribe to grow up and for the Musketeer Squad to be truly trained.
To be honest, sending people to the Beasts Pirates now would be suicide; it would be better to wait until they are stronger in a few years.
The Mink Tribe knew this too; they had already sacrificed enough, and without the cooperation of Wano Country, it was impossible for them to reclaim the Road Sign Stone on their own.
It can be said that the Beasts Pirates had no worries and could devote themselves entirely to the war.