Ten poneglyphs floated in the air above the center of the plaza.
Robin's fingertips rapidly traced the ancient characters, fine beads of sweat forming on her forehead, her eyes gleaming with an almost obsessive focus, but time was clearly running out.
"Mr. Ron..." Robin suddenly looked up, her usually composed voice now trembling slightly, "Can you...buy me some time?" Her fingers tightly clutched the corner of her clothes, "These poneglyphs...are the ideal I've pursued my entire life..."
Ron looked down at the normally elegant and composed archaeologist's rare moment of distress, feigning a slight frown: "Delaying them isn't difficult..."
He looked up at the Marine forces gathering in the distance, "But the opponent is Marineford, and an Admiral will be arriving soon. Getting into a head-on conflict with the World Government for a few stones isn't a good deal."
Clearly, Ron was faking it, his intention obvious...
Robin's breathing quickened. She suddenly released her hands, took a step back, and spoke under everyone's gaze: "Please let me join you!"
She lifted her head, her eyes filled with an unprecedented determination, "I can decipher poneglyphs, understand multiple languages, and am familiar with ruins all over the world...I want to be your companion!"
Nami gasped in surprise, "Wow...that's too direct, isn't it?"
Luffy, however, had already burst into laughter, "Alright! Welcome aboard! We happen to be missing an archaeologist on our ship!"
Sanji and Zoro exchanged glances, both of them curving their lips into a smile simultaneously.
As the earliest veterans to follow Ron, they understood this 'right feeling' too well—just like when Ron invited them, it was the aura of fated companions.
Sanji bowed gracefully, "If a beautiful lady wishes to join, I wholeheartedly approve~"
Zoro, holding his sword, nodded slightly, "A companion approved by the Captain can't be wrong."
Ron looked at Robin's eager eyes, then glanced at Robin, whose eyes were filled with anticipation, and suddenly chuckled softly, "Since everyone agrees, then welcome to the Straw Hat Pirate Group, our archaeologist, Miss."
He then reached out to help Robin up. Robin's eyes instantly burst forth with dazzling light. She quickly stood up, wiping away the tears from the corners of her eyes,
"Thank you...thank you everyone..."
Before her words finished, her hands were already crossed in front of her chest, "Mille Fleur!" Dozens of arms grew from the ground, simultaneously recording rapidly on different poneglyphs.
Robin's main body stood in front of the central red poneglyph, her eyes scanning every character like a scanner.
"Give me thirty minutes...no, twenty minutes will be enough!" Her voice trembled slightly from concentration, "These contents...are too astonishing..."
"Alright, decipher to your heart's content. Don't worry about anything else."
Hearing Ron's reassurance, Robin felt a weight lift from her heart, and then she fully concentrated on deciphering the poneglyphs!
Subsequently,
Ron's gaze swept around, and he frowned when he saw that the people of Alabasta were still gathered around the plaza, unwilling to leave.
He turned to Vivi, his tone serious, "Vivi, tell everyone to evacuate as soon as possible. A battle is about to break out here; it's too dangerous."
Vivi bit her lip, looking troubled at the farmers eagerly waiting in the distance, "But...everyone is waiting to irrigate the farmlands..." She pointed at the half-dug irrigation canals, "The project is only halfway done; it will take at least several more hours to..."
Ron sighed, then suddenly revealed a mysterious smile, "I originally wanted to give you a surprise after everything was over..." He shook his head, "But it seems I have to do it early now."
"What surprise?" Vivi blinked her sea-blue eyes in confusion.
Ron simply clicked twice on the system panel, and the next moment, the sky seemed to darken.
"Rumble!"
Amidst deafening roars, a colossal object descended from the sky!
A twenty-meter diameter behemoth-grade desert irrigation drill crashed heavily onto the desert, kicking up a cloud of dust.
This super version of the device was more than ten times larger than the one Vivi had used previously, its surface covered with futuristic armored plates, various indicator lights flashing blue.
"This...this is..." Vivi's beautiful eyes widened, utterly dumbfounded.
"Super Irrigation System, Behemoth-Grade Desert Irrigation Big Drill!" Ron introduced casually, simultaneously pressing the activation button.
"Whirrrrrrr!"
The giant drill rotated at an astonishing speed, the entire ground trembling. The drill plunged into the earth with overwhelming force, drilling a hundred-meter deep passage in just a few seconds.
Immediately after, a shocking scene unfolded—
"Boom!!!"
Like an underground reservoir bursting, a massive column of water shot into the sky, forming a spectacular water curtain a hundred meters high. Clear underground water gushed out like a wild horse, instantly spreading across the desert!
"Stand back!" Ron grabbed Vivi and leaped backward.
The water spread at an astonishing speed, instantly forming a huge lake with a diameter of a hundred meters!
The water surface shimmered under the sunlight, and the surrounding sand became visibly wet at a rapid pace.
The people of Alabasta were all stunned. Some even knelt on the ground, trembling as they cupped the clear lake water, "Water...it's really water!"
"It's incredible!" Koza shouted excitedly, "This is enough to irrigate all the farmlands in the entire capital!"
Vivi's eyes instantly welled up. She turned to Ron, her voice choked, "Is this...is this the surprise you spoke of?"
Ron solemnly handed the control device to Vivi, pointing at the operation interface and explaining, "This knob adjusts the lake area, this controls the water depth, and here is the irrigation mode..."
He demonstrated the simple operations, and the lake's water level immediately changed accordingly, "With this, Alabasta will forever bid farewell to water scarcity."
"Whoosh—"
A deafening cheer erupted throughout Alabasta, the people crying tears of joy, raising their hands and shouting:
"Long live Mr. Ron!"
"Long live Princess Vivi!"
"Alabasta is saved!"
Vivi trembled with excitement, her sea-blue hair fluttering in the wind. She suddenly opened her arms and gave Ron a firm hug, her tears soaking his shoulder:
"Thank you...thank you so much..." Her voice choked, "You've given our country new life..."
Smoker watched from the side, dumbfounded, especially at the astonishingly large drill and the lake formed in the desert:
"Damn it...where did they get all these high-tech gadgets? Are they even pirates?!"
Ron gently patted Vivi's back, then said seriously, "Now, take your people and evacuate immediately."
He looked up at the poneglyphs silently floating in the sky, "The secrets on these stones are too serious. Even if they don't understand them, if someone records them privately, it would be a disaster for all of Alabasta!"
....
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