In the end, Shin received an order that was neither small nor large.
5,000 AK47s, 1,000 MG42s, 300 Barrett XM-109s, and 100 Type 69 rocket launchers.
An AK47 cost 80,000 Beri, with bullets at 100 Beri each.
An MG42 cost 120,000 Beri, with bullets at 150 Beri each.
A Barrett XM-109 cost 300,000 Beri, with bullets at 1,000 Beri each.
A Type 69 rocket launcher cost 150,000 Beri, with rockets at 10,000 Beri each.
Just by selling pure firearms, Shin earned 625 million Beri.
Roughly equivalent to one-sixth of Kaido's transaction volume.
This doesn't even include the cost of ammunition.
If ammunition were included, Shin's transaction value would exceed 1.5 billion Beri.
That's the price of a Yonko.
This doesn't even account for the sale of CIQ.
This special medicine cannot be widely sold yet.
Although plants containing IQ substance are ubiquitous on Golden Lion's floating island, limitations in cultivation soil conditions and the loss during IQ substance extraction to produce the medicine prevent large-scale mass production.
Currently, it can only be sold on a high-end, specialized route.
Furthermore, its efficacy makes it difficult to demonstrate its effects on the spot.
As an advertisement to break into the market, he freely gifted Oswald twenty bottles of CIQ rage potion personally crafted by Dr. Indigo.
Of course, he didn't demand all cash.
Instead, he requested JOKER to exchange it for the metal materials he needed, as well as construction materials for expanding the factory, at a price one-third below market value.
Golden Lion's island had an abundance of people, if nothing else.
Whether it was the original inhabitants Golden Lion had pulled into the sky, or the large number of pirates he had scoured and recruited, these were all living laborers.
Having them work twenty-four hours a day to rush production of these items, including the production lines Shin exchanged for and the modifications to Golden Lion's original factories and buildings, the delivery could be expected in about two weeks.
And such arms deals would only grow larger, earning more and more.
The more Shin earned, the more factories he could open elsewhere, recruit more manpower, and then produce more weapons!
He didn't have to worry about his clients; in the world of One Piece, if there's one thing there's no shortage of, it's war.
The New World, the Grand Line, the Four Seas, and even the seemingly peaceful East Blue, have been almost continuously embroiled in conflict for the past decade or so.
Pirates plundering civilians, civilians resisting, the World Government raising Celestial Tribute to deal with more pirates, nobles and kings raising domestic taxes to cope with Celestial Tribute, civilians driven to bankruptcy by heavy Celestial Tribute, revolutionaries propagating resistance among civilians...
Roger's single sentence brought about over a decade of continuous warfare.
The turbulent seas are constantly in conflict, and Shin will certainly not be short of business.
While he's now made the equivalent of a Yonko's wealth, to be honest, it's not that much.
Converting the Beri's purchasing power to Yen, this one order only netted him less than 100 million Yen.
This number might seem large, but in Shin's world, the arms trade of the P5 nations, even the most struggling UK, would see a single transaction worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
However, earning more Berry is always just a means to an end.
Compared to money, what he needs more are things that can be taken out of this world.
As Number Five departed Sabaody Archipelago by ship to secure the construction site for the arms factory, a seemingly inconspicuous man at the auction house found a secluded spot and pulled out a Den Den Mushi from his pocket.
Then, he mimicked the entire conversation between Number Five and Oswald with an identical voice-even including the sounds of the weapons firing.
"We understand. Continue to monitor the pirate's auction house and report all his transaction information to me."
On the other end of the Den Den Mushi was an indifferent voice, devoid of emotion.
And this man, dressed in a white suit, was precisely the CP0 Celestial Dragon's Shield who had previously single-handedly prevented Kaido's rampage.
He stood up and walked out of the perfectly soundproof, perfectly dark room, silently passing through the Celestial Dragon guards in Pangaea Castle, arriving at the Five Elders' door.
Kneeling on one knee, he lowered his head and meticulously relayed the intelligence report from his subordinate to the Five Elders.
Having done all this, he turned and left with mechanical precision.
"He's certainly not playing by the rules."
'Gandhi' frowned deeply.
The destructive power of those weapons, merely described in text, wasn't enough to move him.
What made him frown was the mass production numbers.
If Poltorto could truly produce such a quantity of weapons within just two weeks, then it could only mean that this guy had the capability to start a war of annihilation at any time.
In the vast sea, people are both the most precious and the cheapest commodity.
Ten thousand commoners can be intimidated into immobility by a single pirate ship, but ten thousand armed militiamen can even trouble a Yonko crew.
Not to mention the firearms and artillery in Poltorto's hands, which are far more powerful than the standard equipment of the Marines.
"He's testing our limits. If these weapons are truly all that powerful, then if he sells them to any faction, we will issue a warning."
'Gorosei' clasped his hands, saying calmly,
"So he sold these weapons to the pirate mob. He knows Doflamingo is the underworld broker JOKER. Doflamingo wouldn't dare hoard these weapons either; he'd just resell them to other countries, and then verify the weapons' value through actual combat."
"Will he sell these weapons to Kaido?" 'Lincoln' frowned.
"That guy and Kaido have always had dealings regarding artificial Devil Fruits, but those half-finished products are far inferior to the fruits Vegapunk created, just low-quality imitations.
The success rate of the finished product is extremely low, but if he starts trading these weapons with Kaido, we must stop him!"
Never underestimate the Five Elders and the World Government.
Their eyes and ears are everywhere on the sea.
The CP organizations are not just CP9 and CP0 with a handful of 'enforcers'.
The essence of the CP organization has always been the World Government's intelligence agency.
They were wary of Shin's mysterious intelligence sources, so they dared not openly plant spies around him - they also couldn't find Shin's lair.
But that doesn't mean they couldn't get information on Shin.
Almost every underworld giant has CP agents around them, and every national power also has numerous agents embedded, even within the Four Emperors' crews, there are World Government informants.
Don't think only Doflamingo and the Marines play double agents.
When it comes to espionage and intelligence processing, the Marines and the pirate mob can only kneel before the Five Elders.
"Send someone to warn Doflamingo," 'Castro' said.
"These weapons can be sold to others, but they absolutely must not be transported to the New World. Never mind... let him sell the weapons to the Kingdom of Antonhaar."
"Antonhaar...I remember that's a country in the North Blue." 'Itagaki Taisuke' thought for a moment and said,
"That country isn't a World Government affiliated nation, and it's currently at war with Germa 66...Alright, let them sell it there."
Before words were exchanged, the fate of a nation was decided.
"Oh, and the matter of Poltorto requesting to meet Vegapunk," 'Itagaki Taisuke' said.
"It's time for them to meet. We must seize the technology for that weapon as soon as possible."
...
Shin is very much looking forward to it, extremely so.
His controlled Prayer Two sat in a dark, quiet room, and beside him stood that shamelessly self-proclaimed man with the thickest skin in the world, Sentomaru.
Yes, he was about to meet Vegapunk.
A legend of the Pirate King, a being who, from a personal value perspective, completely surpassed the Four Emperors, the Three Admirals, Garp, and even the Pirate King himself.
Vegapunk's existence is like a deus ex machina.
He possesses technology five hundred years ahead of the world, independently developed Seastone warships, artificial Devil Fruits, lineage factors, modified natural environments, artificial dragons, Pacifistas, and many other black technologies.
And what's even more terrifying is that he invented all these things in less than five years.
Undoubtedly, this is a 'omniscient doctor' type of man who could only appear in fictional works.
But when such a man actually appeared before Shin, the knowledge he possessed and his extraordinary talent were definitely something Shin coveted immensely.
"How much longer until I can meet Dr. Vegapunk?" Shin asked, quite impatiently.
"Hmph, I won't tell you that you still have to wait for the Five Elders' orders before you can enter and see Dr. Vegapunk."
Sentomaru, the most tight-lipped man in the world, pointed to the door behind him and said as much.
"Oh." Shin nodded, sat down obediently and waited.
The Five Elders chose such a simpleton as Vegapunk's bodyguard partly because he was loyal to a fault, and partly because they weren't afraid of Sentomaru leaking secrets.
Sentomaru didn't have access to valuable information, and he didn't understand the experimental data he came across daily.
Furthermore, Sentomaru was only Vegapunk's overt bodyguard.
While Vegapunk was hidden within his unknown scientific unit, Sentomaru might have been his chief bodyguard, but once Vegapunk left the Five Elders' jurisdiction, his true bodyguards were far from limited to Sentomaru.
Shin could guarantee that beyond that door, in addition to Vegapunk, there were at least two or more top CP0 agents.
Even if not all of them could rival an Admiral, combined they would be enough to protect Vegapunk from any Yonko.
Vegapunk was simply too valuable, so valuable that most factions would go to any lengths to get their hands on him.
Especially Big Mom, who craved artificial giants; Vegapunk was clearly more reliable than Caesar Clown, who only knew how to extort funds.
Shin waited obediently, for an hour, two hours, three hours.
Finally, Sentomaru moved aside, opened the alloy door, and warned,
"You're a smart man, so you know what to do. I won't tell you that if you make any sudden moves, the people in the room and I will kill you together."
"Thank you for your honesty." Shin smiled and nodded, straightened his clothes, and walked through the door.
Upon entering, he immediately saw a strange mechanical device placed inside a transparent glass case.
A bizarre figure in a dark purple protective suit was conducting an experiment inside the glass case, picking up an aluminum block, and pinching a strange tiny spherical object, looking as if they were doing some kind of manual work.
Only Shin felt his hair stand on end immediately.
That glass box was a cloud chamber, that machine was a disguised electroscope, what he held was an aluminum block, and over there were alpha, beta, and gamma radiation sources.
Aside from lacking a Geiger counter, this was actually a miniature nuclear fission reaction lab!
This guy was actually manufacturing nuclear bombs manually?
"Wait a moment, I'll be right there."
The strange person said without lifting his head, placing the aluminum block and the tiny sphere into an extruder and some other strange devices Shin didn't understand.
As he pressed a button, a white mushroom cloud suddenly erupted, filling the entire Wilson cloud chamber.
"Still failed, huh? Is it really just the important substance extraction that's off?"
He sighed, taking off his protective suit.
Inside was a somewhat thin, ordinary-sized man, with white hair, but wearing a strange gas mask over his face.
He seemed quite old, wearing a white lab coat and black pants over a black and white striped shirt.
He looked a bit disheveled, like a down-on-his-luck scientist such as Okabe Rintarou.
Undoubtedly, the man before him was the great scientist who possessed technology 500 years ahead of the world-Vegapunk.
Just by observing the actual effect of a nuclear explosion, he could achieve nuclear fission alone in less than two weeks? Aside from not being able to extract the crucial U-235 and Pu-239, he was already close to completing nuclear fission!
Shin felt his hands go numb, but his heart was filled with endless excitement.
This was indeed a genius - no, a talent that could no longer be described as just genius!
"I'm still not very good at dealing with these chemical problems."
Vegapunk sighed and shook his head, then turned to Shin, extending his hand in a friendly gesture.
"Hello, I am Vegapunk. You must be Poltorto, the Dawn Master, right? Did you invent that weapon? It's amazing."
"Just average, Doctor, truly average."
Shin took a deep breath, sat opposite Vegapunk, and chuckled,
"Compared to a super-scientist like you, all the scientists in this world are mere charlatans."
These were by no means flattering words.
Both Caesar Clown and Vinsmoke Judge had worked with Vegapunk, and both had nothing but praise for Vegapunk's talent.
Strictly speaking, Germa 66's cloning and lineage factor technology, and Caesar's artificial fruit 'SMILE', were merely crumbs from Vegapunk's table.
"No need for pleasantries, let's get straight to the point."
Vegapunk didn't want to waste his precious time on polite social interactions, and went straight to the subject,
"How did you manage to split those two elements and two hundred trillion electron volts of energy when the neutrons bombarded the atomic nucleus of the reactant? How did you..."
"Let's take it slow," Shin said softly.
His main body, far away in the spiritual subservience machine, opened its eyes and popped a computational chewing gum into its mouth.
"To communicate with a super-scientist like you, I must bring the scientific knowledge of humanity's past century..."
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