Signing the Contract, the Vision Net Covers the Sky

On the sandy beach of the bay, the sea breeze blew across a mountain of accumulated treasure.

Carina toyed with the gold coin imbued with her power. After the initial excitement faded, she calmed down to sense it carefully, then gave a slight shake of her head.

"However, this thing isn't exactly perfect."

Carina looked at the coin in her hand and truthfully stated the limitations of the fruit she had perceived. "The radio waves I broadcast are essentially a form of extremely weak energy fluctuation. If I encounter experts who have cultivated Observation Haki to a certain level, or those with naturally keen instincts, they might very well detect a sense of dissonance, as if they are being watched."

"As long as they sweep with Observation Haki, this disguise attached to inanimate objects will be exposed."

"That is enough."

Ace picked up the coin with his broad, sturdy palm and tossed it twice. "On this sea, the top-tier powerhouses who have truly mastered Observation Haki are, after all, a tiny minority. For infiltrating ordinary underground black markets, warlord fortresses, or even the lower-level branches of the Marines, this kind of inescapable method can already be called a divine skill."

"Since we already know the fruit's ability, let's test the effect on our own people first."

Sabo stood to the side, filled with intense interest in an ability that could subvert traditional maritime communication methods.

"Alright, then reach out your hands."

Carina extended both hands. Ace and Sabo stepped forward and placed their palms on the back of hers. Buggy, who had just finished moving a load of heavy goods and was preparing to slack off, happened to pass by the beach; he was grabbed by Sabo and forced to press his hand down as well.

"Relax, don't resist with Haki."

Carina closed her purple eyes.

The next second, a strange yet non-aggressive fluctuation flowed through the contact of their fingertips, silently merging into the depths of the three men's minds.

The feeling was very subtle, like a radio channel suddenly locking onto the correct frequency after a faint "click."

"Contract established. Can you all hear me?"

A crisp voice rang out directly in the depths of Ace, Sabo, and Buggy's minds without any warning.

There was no movement of lips, nor any vibration of vocal cords, but it was unmistakably Carina's voice!

Sabo widened his eyes slightly and tried to respond in his mind: "I hear it very clearly. There is no delay; it's even more stable than the signal of a Den Den Mushi."

"Holy crap! It's actually talking inside my head! This fruit is way too twisted!" Buggy was startled by the voice that suddenly popped up in his brain.

"Red-nose, why are you being so loud? You're annoying," Carina retorted in their minds with disdain.

"Don't you tell me what to do! I nearly threw my back out moving that piece of junk Black Steel earlier, and now I have to be a test subject for a newcomer like you? I'm definitely taking a few extra gems as compensation later!"

Buggy habitually began calculating in his heart how to embezzle a little private stash from the pile of treasure.

However, the moment he finished muttering in his heart, the air on the beach suddenly fell into a deathly, eerie silence.

Carina and Sabo were both staring at him with extremely strange expressions.

"Red-nose."

Ace's calm voice, carrying a hint of pressure, slowly sounded in the channel: "The embezzlement plan you were just calculating in your head was broadcast directly to the entire group chat channel."

"Ah?!"

Buggy stiffened, cold sweat instantly soaking his back. He realized then that as long as he was in a relaxed state and not deliberately shielding his thoughts, this Frequency Contract would share the strongest thoughts in his mind directly.

"It's a misunderstanding! Captain! I was just joking!" Buggy was so scared he quickly disconnected his thoughts and waved his hands repeatedly in reality to beg for mercy.

After cutting off the test of the mental group chat, Sabo rubbed his chin, looked at Carina, and asked a critical tactical question.

"Carina, does this ability put a heavy burden on your body?"

Sabo analyzed calmly, "If our crew increases in the future, or if you deploy hundreds of micro-wiretaps outside, will your brain collapse from being unable to process such a massive information network and shared field of vision? How is the stamina consumption?"

Hearing this question, which concerned the upper limits of combat effectiveness, Ace also turned his gaze toward her.

"That is also the most overbearing part of this fruit."

Carina opened her eyes, her gaze filled with confident light. "This kind of contract and monitoring is essentially a 'passive rule'."

"It's like building a transmission tower on the sea. The moment of signing the contract or imbuing an object with the ripple does indeed consume a bit of stamina. But once the imprint is formed, maintaining the connection of this frequency requires no extra stamina or mental burden from me."

Carina snapped her fingers: "Unless I actively release it, or the person branded uses powerful Haki to forcibly shatter and erase the ripple from within, this contract will exist permanently."

No continuous consumption, passive and permanently effective.

This extremely hardcore underlying logic made a flash of light appear in Ace's eyes.

As long as she didn't encounter a powerhouse whose Haki far exceeded Carina's understanding and could forcibly break the situation, she could expand this intelligence network infinitely without any reservations.

"Since there is no burden, and the field of vision can be shared..."

Ace slowly raised his head, his gaze crossing the beach to look at the sky above this nameless island.

There, thousands of giant seagulls and various birds of prey were circling in groups between the cliffs, foraging and emitting a cacophony of bird calls.

"Carina, try changing your contract targets to them."

Ace extended his broad palm, pointing at the flock of birds circling in the sky, his voice revealing a hint of strategic foresight.

"Since we are currently lacking enough eyes, why not use what's available on the spot?"

Ace looked at the birds dancing in the clouds and calmly outlined the first absolute line of defense for the Eclipse Pirates: "Seagulls, eagles, even albatrosses. As long as they are tamed birds, once the contract is signed, they will be the radar flying at the highest point of this sea."

Sabo instantly understood Ace's intention, his eyes lighting up.

"Attaching the shared vision to the flock of birds! Even if the enemy's Observation Haki is strong, they will only treat them as ordinary birds. In this way, whether we are sailing on the sea or landing on an unfamiliar island, any movement within dozens of nautical miles will be transparent to us!"

"Using a flock of birds as natural scouts, are we?"

Carina watched the birds filling the sky, her mind already conjuring images of countless eyes serving as the Eclipse Pirates' vision, blanketing the heavens. This was, without a doubt, the ultimate early-warning system that any faction would dream of possessing!

"Leave it to me."

Carina pulled out a handful of dried nuts and rations specifically meant for bribing animals and headed toward the cliffs at the edge of the island. "Handling a few gluttonous seabirds is a piece of cake for a phantom thief like me."

Watching Carina's retreating figure as she walked toward the cliff, a flash of visionary ambition and sharp resolve flickered in Ace's deep, dark eyes.

He knew full well that with this ability of Carina's, as long as they scattered items bearing radio-wave imprints or tamed birds across every island along their path in the future, the Eclipse Pirates would gain far more than just an absolute intelligence network that monitored the world.

It would be a global navigation system that ignored any magnetic field interference.

By then, they would completely shatter the constraints of the Log Pose, no longer needing to grope their way forward in the dark like ordinary pirates, rigidly following established routes. All the shifting winds and clouds, historical events, and hidden peerless treasures across this vast sea would be laid bare before the Eclipse Pirates, ripe for them to actively plan for and seize.

In the hold, Jeno was swinging a heavy iron hammer; the sound of sparks flying accompanied the roaring of the Mechanical Exoskeleton as Starfall Black Steel was gradually fused into the frame of the Eclipse.

Deep in the forest, Leona emerged carrying several massive beasts, preparing to begin a new round of calorie-replenishing feasting.

On this deserted island far from the main shipping lanes, every piece of the Eclipse Pirates' puzzle was completing its final transformation and upgrade at an astonishing speed. The prototype of a vast empire, capable of treating the entire world as its chessboard, had already been quietly born here.