At this moment, Burgess had only one unshakable belief in his heart:
He had to work hard, prove his worth, and strive to become the captain's most loyal and reliable lackey—
No matter what, he must not be abandoned.
Seeing Burgess throwing himself into the work with such enthusiasm, the other two naturally refused to fall behind. One after another, they joined in, fully committing themselves to the task.
Even Poison Q—who normally lazed about with his sickly horse, Stronger, acting detached and gloomy—was working harder than ever before, as though he were an entirely different person.
After all, after following Xiao and witnessing that world-shaking scene, they had deeply realized one thing:
Being deemed useless and discarded by Xiao would feel worse than death.
Rather than face such a fate, it was far better to give everything they had.
With the combined efforts of four men and one horse, the extremely resilient Island Cloud was completely pierced in less than ten minutes.
Peering through the opening, everyone finally saw the mysterious ark Xiao had mentioned.
It stood there silently—
Like a colossal ancient beast.
Its massive hull was forged entirely from gold.
Just standing there, it resembled a golden city, dazzling and scorching beneath the light.
Beside the Ark: Proverbs lay Shandora, stripped of all its gold, reduced to nothing but a pile of bare stone ruins.
"This… is this ship real or fake?"
Poison Q's jaw nearly hit the ground.
"It's entirely made of gold. No way it's fake, right?"
He had never seen so much gold in his life. To a pirate, this thing was dearer than his own biological father.
"Oh? You even know about fake gold?"
Xiao's voice sounded behind him.
At some point, Xiao had already arrived in Shandora.
"I think I get it!" Poison Q scratched his head confidently.
"After all, a hundred years ago, alchemists and pharmacists weren't even separate professions!"
Fake gold—also known as alchemical gold—was a copper-zinc alloy synthesized through chemistry, possessing the outward appearance of real gold. It was one of the greatest achievements of ancient alchemy.
In ancient times, alchemists were never short on money.
Because what they spent wasn't real gold—but medicinal gold.
Visually, there was almost no difference between the two.
The only way to tell them apart was fire.
The saying "true gold fears no flame" came from this very principle.
Alchemical gold would turn black when burned, while real gold would only grow brighter.
"You do know quite a lot," Xiao said.
"But this was once the Golden Land of Shandora—the most prosperous island on the Grand Line, and a beacon of the seas!"
Xiao's eyes widened as he stared at the ship called Proverbs, greed flashing unmistakably in his gaze. He looked like a gold-crazed fanatic.
They say women love gemstones—
And men love gold.
In this world, what man could resist a spaceship made of gold?
"Let's get onboard and take a closer look."
"This isn't just any spaceship—it's an ark that flies to the moon!"
Xiao impatiently pulled the others up onto the deck of the Ark: Proverbs.
Everyone examined the legendary ark carefully—
And soon fell silent.
It wasn't that the ship was bad.
It was just… everyone's aesthetic sense was different.
No matter how they looked at Enel's design, they simply couldn't fall in love with it.
More importantly, the construction of the ark was completely incompatible with Xiao's cybernetic aesthetic.
The difference between steampunk and cyberpunk lay here:
Cyberpunk relied purely on raw technology.
Steampunk was a perfect fusion of technology and imagination.
The Ark: Proverbs lacked any refined, high-tech elegance.
Instead, it was rough. Brutal. Bold.
Metal steam cylinders and enormous gears were fully exposed.
Countless steel cables and rivets crisscrossed the hull.
Strange black-tech devices were bolted on everywhere.
The entire spacecraft radiated a violent, industrial aesthetic—like a relic dragged straight out of another era.
It was the perfect fusion of:
"Multi" — More turrets, bigger is better, quantity is beauty"Riveted" — Primitive armor assembly requiring massive numbers of rivets"Steam" — Full steam power as the driving force"Rigid" — Rigid suspension with no shock absorption whatsoever
The Ark: Proverbs was a peak-tier steampunk warship.
If a steampunk fanatic saw it, they'd probably hug it and start chewing on it out of excitement.
The ark's power system was derived entirely from lightning.
Its control system used advanced electromagnetic induction and thought-control technology.
Its weapons worked by converting and amplifying lightning energy to unleash devastating attacks.
This ship was, without exaggeration, custom-built for the Thunder Fruit.
Every single design choice revolved around Enel's abilities.
Once the Thunder Fruit was gone, this spectacular ark would instantly become nothing more than a motionless golden ornament—
Let alone flying, even moving would be difficult.
"It doesn't matter," Xiao said calmly.
"We'll just modify it."
Fortunately, Xiao had already acquired the full design schematics of the Ark: Proverbs.
With only minor adjustments, he could give it a standard propulsion system.
To quickly reshape the ark into his ideal form, Xiao didn't hesitate to enter the God of All Machines state.
The moment he did, he felt as though everything in the world was in his hands—ready to be molded and reshaped at will.
With a casual wave of his arm, the Ark: Proverbs seemed to come alive.
Every component activated.
And so, under Xiao's guidance, it began a magnificent transformation.
First—the steampunk structure had to go.
This design was essentially a pile of imagination welded together—structurally weak and mechanically unsound.
Without the stabilizing effect of "miracle-level" power, such a structure couldn't even support its own massive hull.
That was why the Ark: Proverbs, despite being a steampunk construct, still clung stubbornly to the shape of a ship.
Second—the energy supply.
Xiao couldn't yet fuse the Thunder Fruit, but that wasn't a problem.
All he needed was to install a nuclear fusion reactor externally.
Fusion power alone was more than sufficient.
The ark's energy consumption was actually very low—otherwise, with Enel's frail body, he'd be drained dry after flying just a few kilometers.
Fusion energy was overkill.
Finally—the control system.
The Ark: Proverbs originally relied entirely on Enel's manual control—
Combining the Thunder Fruit, Observation Haki, and magnetic fields to steer the vessel.
Even now, that remained one of the most classic "miracles" in the pirate world.
And it was precisely this system that Xiao intended to replace next.
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