Gold Worth a Hundred Billion

Skypiea, Angel Island.

The residents had already dispersed, but the discussions never stopped. Gan Fall had posted the detailed regulations on every inhabited island so that every Skypiean could understand them.

After hurriedly finishing lunch, Reiju was sent by Yake to take over Skypiea's military, while he went with Robin to meet the Shandia chieftain.

"Honorable God Yake, I am the chieftain of the Shandia. It is an honor to meet you!" The Shandia chieftain, wearing a ceremonial crown, respectfully bowed to Yake.

"You came for Upper Yard, didn't you?"

"Skypiea is now all part of my territory. I have no objection to you living in Upper Yard, but accordingly, you must obey my commands. Any problem with that?" Yake said flatly.

The Shandia chieftain had not held out much hope, but Yake's words came as a huge surprise.

"N-No problem. As long as my people can live in Upper Yard, we'll be more than satisfied. From this day onward, we will await your orders."

"Very good. Then go join the military selection. From now on, you will fight only for me."

Yake actually had another idea: using Flame Clouds to send Gaya Island directly up to Skypiea. But his territory already seemed large enough. Skypiea did not have many residents to begin with, so there was no need for so much land.

"Yes, God Yake. Then I shall take my leave."

The Shandia chieftain left with an excited expression.

Yake placed the Golden Bell on the ground. The Poneglyphs were on its base, and Robin was translating its contents.

The general content concerned the location of the Ancient Weapon Poseidon. But since they had already met Shirahoshi, the Ancient Weapon herself, there was not much to discuss. Making a rubbing would conveniently complete the second stage of the Poneglyph collection mission.

The only thing worth noting was a sentence engraved beside the Golden Bell's base.

"I came here and carried this text to the end of the world. — Pirate Gol D. Roger"

Robin read it calmly. She was not surprised that One Piece Roger had come here. After all, Rayleigh had been a crew member of the Pirate King. A little thought made the answer obvious.

"Robin, help me engrave a sentence too!" Yake suddenly became interested.

"No problem, Captain. What would you like me to engrave?"

"Hmm, let me think... I've got it!

I conquered this land and will bring the Sky God Kingdom to the world. — God Yake"

Yake racked his brains to come up with that line. Robin could not help covering her mouth and laughing. What a strange competitive streak.

"Robin, take your time engraving it. I'm going to find the lost gold of the Golden City."

Yake flew above Upper Yard. The ancient ruins of Shandora slept within the island, concealing countless treasures of gold.

Before long, Yake encountered Skypiea's strongest creature: a giant serpent a hundred meters long. He planned to tame it and make it the guardian of the Sky God Kingdom.

Yesterday's bell had reminded the giant serpent of its childhood. It had lived in Upper Yard since it was young and had been good friends with the great warrior Kalgara and Noland. Then Upper Yard had been sent into the sky by the Knock Up Stream, and it had lived alone for more than four hundred years.

For four hundred years, its only mission had been to find the Golden Bell. It firmly believed that as long as the Golden Bell rang, its friends would return to its side.

Today, however, it had encountered an uninvited guest. He was as small as an ant, yet his blows hurt terribly. Naturally, that ant was Yake himself.

Yake punched the giant serpent again and again. Whether he tamed it or not, beating it up first to let it know how formidable he was could not hurt.

Very quickly, the giant serpent was covered in bumps. Tears shimmered in its big, mascara-like eyes. Pitiful, weak, and helpless.

"You'll be my pet from now on. Nod if you understand!" Yake raised his fist.

The giant serpent hurriedly nodded frantically, kicking up clouds of dust, terrified that Yake would throw another punch.

"Very good. From now on, your name is Jormungandr, World Serpent Jormungandr!" It was the only reasonably good-sounding name Yake could think of.

"Alright, Jormungandr, open your mouth!"

The giant serpent seemed not to understand what Jormungandr meant yet and stared blankly at Yake.

Yake sighed, gave it another smack, and called its name again.

When it did not listen, he smacked it again. Soon enough, the giant serpent finally understood that Jormungandr would be its name from then on.

Inside the serpent's belly were ruins, along with treasures scattered throughout the corners.

"This snake really eats anything. Its teeth are pretty good too! Forget it, I'll help it out." Yake stored all the precious metal treasures in his inventory, then put the ruined stones and miscellaneous debris in as well, giving Jormungandr's stomach a good cleaning. Fortunately, the ruins and debris each took up only one inventory slot, or he really would not have been able to fit them all in.

"Open your mouth!"

Jormungandr obediently opened its bloody maw and let Yake out.

"Very good. Don't eat random things from now on. Stay here for now; I'll come find you later!" Yake dismissed Jormungandr. Communicating with a snake really was inconvenient, but he had not forgotten that the people of Amazon Lily were snake experts. Once the initial construction was complete, he would move Amazon Lily up here.

Yake took the ruined debris out of his inventory, and it quickly piled into a small mountain. His inventory was now packed full of gold. Yake roughly estimated that this gold was worth at least a hundred billion Beli. Most of that money would be used to build the Sky God Kingdom.

After searching the island some more, Yake found that there was still plenty of gold in the ruins of Shandora. Enel was already dead, so none of that gold had been used to build the Ark Maxim. Naturally, Yake took all of it without hesitation.

After collecting all the gold, Yake returned to Angel Island. Honestly, compared with Upper Yard, Angel Island was still far too small, let alone Birka. But once he gradually moved islands from the Blue Sea up here, it should be able to accommodate more citizens.

"Captain, you're back. How was the haul?" Robin, who had been reading, looked up and asked.

"There, that's it." Yake raised his hand and released a small mountain of gold, instantly turning the entire room dazzlingly golden.

"Wow, that's way too outrageous, meow!" Anna had completely lost control of her expression. Good thing Nami was not here, or she might have fainted on the spot.

"This is only the tip of the iceberg. The gold I collected today is worth at least a hundred billion Beli, maybe more!!" Yake had already become numb to gold. The troublesome part was figuring out how to turn it into Beli.

Skypiea had another problem: currency. A currency called Ek was still circulating in Skypiea. Although most transactions already used Beli, Ek remained a major issue.

Yake planned to abolish Ek tomorrow and let the Skypieans exchange their Ek. There were not many residents in Skypiea, and he still had over a billion Beli in cash, which should be enough. If not, he still had gold.

"By the way, Reiju, how is the military situation?"

Yake remembered the task he had assigned Reiju.