A Miracle from a Single Pull

The Germa Kingdom began to move, like a fortress upon the sea.

Yake smacked his forehead, finally remembering that he had yet to give Judge the blueprints for Pluton. He rummaged through his inventory and found them.

He tossed the Pluton blueprints to Judge. Judge caught them excitedly and began studying them carefully.

"These really are Pluton's blueprints. They contain not only the methods for constructing Pluton, but even designs for weapons capable of instantly destroying an island. As long as we can build such weapons, we'll definitely dominate the world!!" Judge said excitedly, trembling all over.

"But that's not all. I want you to develop a new kind of weapon. I call it a Railgun, like this." Yake flicked out a coin and unleashed a Super Railgun, the shockwave leaving the room in complete disarray.

Seeing the Railgun's terrifying power, Judge could not help swallowing. Compared to this, his electromagnetic guns were practically children's toys.

"Lord Yake, this..." Judge asked cautiously.

"I want you to develop portable Railguns for individual soldiers, as well as giant defensive Railguns. The principles are like this..." Yake explained the principles of the Railgun to Judge in detail.

"So that's how it works. What a genius idea. Now all that remains is experimentation." Judge's eyes shone as he began rubbing his hands together, eager to get started.

Yake waved a hand, signaling Judge not to get too excited yet. Then he gave Judge a detailed explanation of Germa's future direction. The main point was to shift Germa's war mercenary model toward weapons research, development, and sales. By studying Pluton's weapons technology and producing new weapons, Germa would grow stronger. Yake also told Judge the principles behind automatic weapons. Before long, Germa would surely become the most powerful technological nation on these seas.

A nation belonging to Yake alone.

"Oh, right. Germa's base can remain the way it was for now. After some time, I'll notify you when it's time to relocate to a new base. Here's my Telephone Snail number. If anyone invades and you can't handle it, contact me anytime." Yake left Judge a phone number while pondering the location of that future base.

In Yake's view, the best base would be his hometown, Skypiea. It was not only safe, but also possessed all kinds of remarkable shell-based technology. However, he was still searching for the Top of the Western Sky, the second route to Skypiea besides the Knock Up Stream.

Before long, the ship arrived at Sagunto Island. Yake took Reiju off the ship and promptly told Judge to get lost.

"Captain, you really brought her aboard. Why do you always like recruiting beautiful women as crew members? Do you have some ulterior motive toward us?" Seeing Yake carrying another woman over his shoulder, Robin was unhappy.

"Ah, haha, is that so?" Yake looked around and realized it was true. Aside from himself, everyone on the ship was a woman—and beautiful and sexy at that. Perona did not count; she was still just a little girl and had not fully grown up yet.

"Let me introduce everyone. This is Reiju. She'll soon become a member of the Yake Pirates and serve as one of our combatants," Yake said stiffly.

"Sigh, forget it, Captain. Where are we headed next?" Robin asked with a sigh.

"No, first we'll make some modifications to the ship." Yake smiled mysteriously.

After putting Reiju in the ship's lightning rest room, Yake went to find the shipwrights of the Sagonto Kingdom and made a few small modifications to the Eternal Truth.

The entire underside of the ship was covered with a layer of strongly magnetic metal. With Yake's Thunder Metallurgy, the craftsmen only needed to install it. With that magnetic layer, Yake could control repulsive force and make the ship fly at low altitude. Although it still could not reach Skypiea, it could cross the Calm Belt.

Yake planned to first go to Fish-Man Island and make rubbings of the Poneglyphs, then head to the New World. From there, he could cross the Calm Belt and travel to the West Blue, where the Top of the Western Sky was located.

"Robin, raise the sails. We're heading straight for the Sabaody Archipelago. Next stop, Fish-Man Island." Seeing that their supplies were nearly sufficient, Yake stopped lingering and immediately prepared to depart. Fortunately, Sagunto Island was not far from Sabaody, so they would arrive soon enough.

The anchor was raised, and the Eternal Truth set sail once more.

Reiju, who was in her room, also woke up. Finding herself in unfamiliar surroundings, she immediately became wary. Had Germa already been destroyed?

Sensing that Reiju had awakened, Yake called Robin and Perona and headed to Reiju's room with them.

"Reiju, you're awake," Yake said with a smile.

"Lord Yake, is this your ship? I... why am I here?"

"To put it simply, Germa has already submitted to me. I had Judge remove the restrictions on your bloodline, so you're free now." Yake said as he extended his hand.

"So now, are you willing to join my pirate crew and become our companion, Reiju?"

Looking at Yake's outstretched hand, Reiju grasped it without hesitation. She had long wanted to escape that place.

"I'm willing, Captain..."

Having broken free of her shackles, Reiju naturally joined Yake's group and became a member of the pirate crew.

Now, they only needed one more crew member to complete the mission. They had already collected three Poneglyphs: besides the Alabasta Poneglyph, there were also the Poneglyphs Robin had seen as a child—one beneath the Tree of Omniscience, and another she had seen while fleeing. Robin had written them down and given them to Yake as well.

Next were the Fish-Man Island Poneglyph and the Poneglyph on Zou.

A party was underway aboard the ship. Though there were not many people, the atmosphere was quite lively. Polite and sociable, Reiju quickly integrated into the pirate crew and became good friends with Perona and Robin.

Meanwhile, Yake was in a corner, mysteriously performing some sort of mystical ritual.

On a sudden whim, despite having only four chances to draw, Yake chose to pull one at a time and gamble on a miracle.

Yake washed his face, stood on the deck beneath the moonlight, and wore a solemn expression.

"Draw!"

Thank you for your patronage.

"Draw!!"

Thank you for your patronage!!

"D-Draw..." Yake clenched his fists.

Congratulations, you have obtained 500 million Beli.

"One last pull, come on!"

"Congratulations, you have obtained a Devil Fruit Enhancement Card!"

"Wahoo! I'm taking off!!!" Yake shouted excitedly. His dream of striking it big with single pulls had come true, and he danced with excitement.

Robin in the distance: ??? Had he lost his mind?

Use it, use it now. I want to enhance my negative resistance.

Do you wish to enhance negative resistance? The effect of a second use will be halved.

Wait, let me think. Yake hurriedly called a halt.

There was no doubt about the Devil Fruit Enhancement Card's effect. After using one to enhance his resistance to negative effects last time, Yake had tested it. Although he still could not swim, the weakness he felt while submerged in seawater had become almost negligible. Seastone would no longer make Yake collapse outright either; it merely prevented him from using his abilities.

The fact that a second enhancement to negative resistance would be halved made it somewhat not worth it. Yake had always thought that using two cards would cancel out the Devil Fruit's curse. If that happened, he would practically have no weaknesses—aside from Rubber Fruit users.

"Sigh, I'll keep it for now. Once I get that fruit..."

Yake helplessly stored the enhancement card in his inventory.