Mousse's Unease

However, the blond young man still had one concern. "But the New World is far from peaceful. Its environment and climate are even more bizarre and unpredictable. There are also the strongest and most numerous pirates in the world, as well as the largest and fiercest Sea Kings. You mustn't let anything happen to you!"

"No need to worry about that." The tall middle-aged man laughed when he heard this, then called over the big fellow who had just rendered great service not long ago. "It looks like a robot, but it's actually a Submarine!"

The gigantic robot, which at first glance resembled a steel fortress, instantly collapsed after entering the water and transformed into a highly futuristic vessel. (At this time, Wapol memory alloy had yet to appear, but the "Shape Memory Fusion" technology used in Germa 66 Battle Suits could achieve a similar effect.) It floated on the surface.

After sailing some distance away, it transformed once more, taking on the appearance of a whale before slowly submerging beneath the waves. It really was a Submarine!

In the world of One Piece, diving underwater could avoid the vast majority of dangers. As for the threat of Sea Kings, sonar could detect them in advance and allow the vessel to evade them.

More importantly, this Submarine could burst to speeds exceeding 100 knots in a short period. Even underwater, such terrifying speed was enough to effortlessly leave any Sea King behind. What was there to worry about?

"More than 100 knots? How is that possible? Don't tell me you invented a new engine. Water resistance is enormous. Even if the power really were that absurd, the hull couldn't withstand it!" After hearing the middle-aged man's introduction, Vinsmoke Judge's face immediately darkened. He thought his partner was spouting nonsense to fool him.

With resistance in the water that great, how could it possibly reach speeds over 100 knots? No amount of power could make that happen!

Seeing his assistant, who was also a genius scientist, lose his composure like this, the tall middle-aged man rarely looked rather pleased with himself.

After leisurely blowing out a smoke ring, he finally revealed the secret behind this miracle. "The idea is actually simple. Just add a Jet Device to the front of the Submarine."

"Jet? Wouldn't that cancel out the thrust instead?" Vinsmoke Judge did not understand at first. Several seconds later, he finally figured it out and applauded Beck's ingenious idea. "Ah, ah! I get it now. You actually thought of that? I'm truly impressed!"

Jetting air forward meant that the seawater the vessel would normally need to push aside during travel was replaced by air, which had far less resistance. The greatest obstacle to increasing speed was eliminated in one stroke.

On top of that, the Submarine was equipped with a Juice Drive-powered Jet Engine as its emergency escape power source. (If cola and black tea could be used as fuel, then juice could too~) With both measures combined, achieving a burst speed of over 100 knots was hardly strange.

Vinsmoke Judge had originally believed that although he was inferior to the other man, he still had a chance to catch up thanks to his age advantage. Only now did he realize that the other man had merely been distracted.

But while understanding the true gap between them, Vinsmoke Judge also thought of another question. "How much did this Submarine cost?"

"Cough, cough, only... 2 billion Berries. Self-defense weapon, it's a self-defense weapon. Judge, you saw its Combat Power too, didn't you?" Beck immediately became somewhat guilty.

Although he promptly came up with an excuse, he knew he could not fool Judge, an expert in the field. In the end, he could only raise his hands in surrender and honestly admit his mistake.

Vinsmoke Judge held his forehead and sighed. Their total Research Funds did not even amount to 10 billion Berries, yet the team leader had diverted 2 billion into a project unrelated to their research.

Calling it a self-defense weapon was not exactly wrong. A portion of the funds could indeed be allocated to security. The problem was that this self-defense weapon had far too many functions, didn't it?

As a self-defense weapon, did it need the ability to transform, operate fully automatically, respond to remote voice control, and dive at high speed? Did it?

But in the end, Vinsmoke Judge let the matter go rather than pursuing it further. For one thing, they were about to part ways, so there was no need to make things unpleasant over this. Especially since the investor had now vanished without a trace. The victim was gone, so why should he get worked up over it?

For another, scientists deceiving people out of funding was a common phenomenon. As a genius scientist, having genius-level skill at scamming Research Funds was only natural. Nothing wrong with that!

At least Beck had used the money for research instead of squandering it on a life of luxury. That was already remarkably principled, wasn't it?

Still, understanding was one thing. Vinsmoke Judge had already given himself a warning in advance: once this partner came to North Blue to join him in the future, he absolutely had to guard against this sort of thing. By then, his status would be that of the boss!

It had not mattered when Beck was cheating the Roger Pirates out of their money. In the future, though, it would be his own money getting cheated away.

Such a massive change had occurred in the timeline, yet Charlotte Mousse, the instigator of it all, knew nothing about it.

In fact, because the World Government had tightly sealed off all information before the capture operation, and refused to let anything leak afterward to save face, Mousse did not even know that Vegapunk had escaped the World Government's clutches.

Thus, this change would not affect Mousse's side for the time being. Right now, he was urging his second brother Katakuri to immediately bring everyone aboard and leave the Faros Kingdom!

It turned out that although Mousse had seemed full of ambition when he spoke candidly with Katakuri earlier, he had always harbored hidden worries.

Before Charlotte Brulee's Mirror World could directly connect the two archipelagos of Totland and Farol, they were effectively an isolated force. If the Marines sent Sengoku or Garp, they would have no choice but to surrender without a fight.

After all, no matter how much the mission team's strength improved, it would be difficult for them to deal with those two legendary, top-tier powerhouses!

What? Have Zeus create a storm and decide the battle at sea?

Sorry, but getting injured by Kizaru's ultimate attack earlier had already consumed a great deal of Zeus's energy. Then, after arriving in the Faros Kingdom, the weather had remained sunny, leaving no way to replenish it. Zeus could not even be bothered to move now, so how could it still have the strength to stir up wind and waves?

Zeus was, after all, merely a Homie. Compared with a corresponding Logia-type Devil Fruit ability user, its greatest weakness was that it needed external energy to recharge and could not last long.

Unless Charlotte Linlin herself was present or they happened to be fighting on favorable terrain, it was difficult to count on them for sustained output.

And speaking of Logia-type Devil Fruit users, the Marines happened to have Dragon, who could control storms. If he came as well, then even if Zeus were fully charged, it would be impossible to directly wipe out the Marines' great fleet at sea.

Zeus could indeed weaken the effects of Dragon's Devil Fruit ability, but the reverse was equally true.

They could not win in a fight, yet the Queen Mama Chanter's design had sacrificed speed to satisfy Charlotte Linlin's peculiar aesthetic tastes. On top of that, almost all of the team's main combatants were Devil Fruit ability users who could not go into the sea.

Thus, escaping would be equally difficult. It was easy to imagine just how perilous everyone's situation would be then.