"How can you call this not strong enough?" Smoker's temple throbbed as he couldn't help but retort, "What about everyone else? Can they still live?"
Looking at the Grand Line...
No, looking at the entire world, who the heck has this kind of strength at eighteen?
"Ha."
Nojiko chuckled lightly, about to tease him a bit, when the corner of her eye suddenly caught sight of several rough sketches scattered on the table in front of Smoker.
She bent down to pick one up.
She found it was covered with complex mechanical diagrams, the lines all crooked, as if they had been revised countless times.
On the edge of the paper, it was labeled with words like "Flame Propulsion" and "Flame-Flame Fruit Energy Conversion Rate."
"This is..."
Nojiko raised an eyebrow, "You want to modify the ship's stern, add a row of flame jets, and use Nami's Flame-Flame Fruit ability to speed up?"
Smoker, with a cigar in his mouth, awkwardly scratched his head:
"Well, that's the idea. It was inspired when I was checking the lifeboats on the ship a few days ago and saw that cola-powered speedboat."
"That boat, huh."
Nojiko laughed, "Kuina's family's boat, which Nami secretly took out, has been left on the ship all along. I heard from the old guy that it seems to be the work of the master shipwright Tom."
"Tom, the legendary craftsman who built ships for Roger..."
Smoker was enlightened: "Truly a master's handiwork, no wonder."
He pointed to the design sketches on the table again:
"Theoretically, according to this device I've designed, if we can convert the flame energy from the Flame-Flame Fruit into propulsion, the speed of the Endgame can suddenly increase more than twice."
"Normally it might not be used much, but in extreme situations, it could be very useful, like avoiding sudden storm whirlpools, or shaking off chasing ships, or even crossing the Windless Zone... if Nami's stamina holds up, it's even possible to use it to cross the Windless Zone in one go."
"That's a great thing!"
Nojiko's eyes lit up, "How's the progress, is it already made?"
"Just moved from paper into the experimental phase, here, this is the sample I cobbled together yesterday."
Smoker took out a small, delicate conversion device from under his seat, "But this size, at most, can be used on a motorcycle. I want Nami to test the effects first, and then gradually improve it, eventually producing a model that can be used on the Endgame."
"So what are we waiting for, call Nami over and try it now!" Nojiko looked around, "Strange, where's Nami?"
"Today's newspaper just arrived, where do you think she is?"
Smoker raised his eyes helplessly, "Wait for it, before she's done reading the newspaper, no one can call her except the captain."
"Got it."
Nojiko chuckled and snapped her fingers.
She headed straight to the very front of the ship, to the other side of the Silver Wolf figurehead.
As expected.
At this moment, an orange-haired girl was squatting in the shadow by the railing, eyes red, gritting her teeth, desperately flipping through the newspaper she had just bought, wishing she could crush every word and stuff them into her eyes.
"Come on, if there's nothing on the front page, no need to look further, hasn't the bounty been updated?"
Nojiko casually handed over some orange soda.
"No, ugh!"
Nami couldn't take it anymore, collapsing as she tore the newspaper into shreds, "It's already the third day, what the heck is Morgans doing, why hasn't he reported it yet!"
"And what is the Navy Headquarters doing, why haven't they updated the warrant yet!!!"
"..."
Nojiko shrugged, she was long since desensitized to this scene.
This was pretty much Nami's daily routine these days.
As soon as the News Bird brought the newspaper, she bought it first thing, read it first thing, and had been jokingly referred to by everyone as the ship's "Newspaper King" and "Intelligence Collection King."
Though.
She quite enjoyed watching her sister's antics.
But this time, something was indeed odd.
"Four days and the bounty hasn't been updated. Could it be that the World Economic News Agency is under pressure from the World Government again?"
Nojiko mused as she pinched her chin, "Like last time at Whiskey Peak?"
"No, doesn't seem like it."
Smoker also walked over, hearing this and slightly shook his head.
"Last time, the Navy Headquarters wanted to maintain face, hastily eradicating us, so they held the news for half a month. But after the battle at Thor Island, the World Government should clearly know, with the captain's strength, this is not something they can just do."
Smoker puffed out a smoke ring, his eyebrows furrowed, "Moreover, at the Santora River's mouth that day, there were merchant ships from all over gathered, the number of witnesses on site numbered in the tens of thousands, the news of the Hanafuda Pirates' defeat has probably already spread throughout the nearby seas, towards the New World and the Four Seas, it won't take long, can't be suppressed."
"Then why..."
"Two possibilities."
Smoker squinted his eyes, "The first is that the Navy Headquarters has gathered more massive forces than last time, dispatched more than one Grand Admiral, and is trying to eradicate us completely."
"Considering the Judicial Island incident's outbreak, the Navy Headquarters' forces are stretched thin, this possibility is very small, can basically be ruled out."
"That's true." Nojiko nodded, "Then what's the second possibility?"
"I understand now!"
Nami suddenly exclaimed, as if waking from a dream, with her left hand spread out, she punched her palm:
"It must be that after witnessing my true strength, they found it too hard to set my bounty, Navy Headquarters doesn't know whether to raise it to two hundred million or three hundred million, they're still having a meeting to discuss it now! Wahahaha!!!"
"..."
Nojiko and Smoker both fell silent for a second.