"Have the Ruin Hunters been completed yet?"
The Den Den Mushi before Aoi suddenly changed in an instant, taking on some of Ren's features, and the voice changed from Yuko's original voice to a man's voice.
"Lord Ren!"
Aoi's attitude visibly became more respectful.
Originally, she was only verbally courteous to Yuko, but now she wished she could stand up and bow to the Den Den Mushi, no, better yet just prostrate herself on the ground! Yuri quickly pulled her back.
Ren didn't particularly care about such hierarchical distinctions among his own people, especially not for something as simple as a phone call.
"Yes, but currently there's only one Ruin Hunter, and it hasn't been tested yet, so we don't know its destructive power." Aoi, being held back by Yuri, finally calmed down and knelt back on her cushion.
However, she was clearly treating the Den Den Mushi as if it were Ren herself, holding it high with both hands.
Beside her, Descartana had also wanted to come up and say hello, thanking Ren for bringing her and her son back from Bepa and for having a doctor treat her. Her health was much better now. But even Yuri was sitting quietly to the side without speaking, so she didn't dare make any moves.
"Destructive power is secondary; the key is the flight capability," Ren said. In his opinion, the Ruin Hunter's destructive power was just so-so, not much stronger than the Ruin Guards, the key was in the hovering capability.
Even in the New World, skills similar to "Moon Step" weren't something everyone could use. Even if a person's physical fitness met the standard, they might not necessarily master such a technique.
For example, in the original work, Zoro and Luffy's physical fitness couldn't be worse than Sanji's, but neither of them could use a move like Moon Step.
If there were enough Ruin Hunters, they could conduct large-scale bombing, and this aerial technology could also be applied to ships. If one day Ren eliminated Shiki, then he might just become the captain of the next flying pirate crew in the sea.
"Never mind, don't bring the Ruin Hunters for now," Ren thought for a moment and decided not to let the Ruin Hunters appear before the public for now. On one hand, there was only one Ruin Hunter currently, and taking it out wouldn't be that impressive. On the other hand, this was the first live demonstration of weapon use, and there was no need to show all the good stuff.
He believed the Ruin Guards and Ruin Heavy Machines would be enough to drive those guys crazy.
After discussing the weapons, Ren chatted with Yuri for a while, then greeted Descartana, and cut off the Den Den Mushi's signal.
Following the order, Aoi began to busy herself along with Kurotsuru Semi.
Speaking of Kurotsuru Semi, her position was rather awkward. In the entire daimyo's residence, except for Hiko and Yuri, who treated her relatively well, everyone else actually didn't like her much. Because everyone felt that the Kurotsuru family had made things complicated by making Ren the Shogun of Wano.
However, this time Kurotsuru Semi couldn't go to sea. She had originally returned to Wano to impersonate Ren just in case, and during this time, she had used Ren's appearance to visit the neighboring daimyo of Usopp.
"Can I go to sea?" After learning about this, Mai first complained that Yuri had actually answered Ren's call without telling her, then thought about taking this opportunity of transporting the Ruin series to go to sea again and contribute on the battlefield.
"Don't even think about it," Yuri said without hesitation.
Last time in Sky Island, she had been terrified watching Mai fight that so-called knight guy, and this war's scale was much larger than that time, and the enemies were stronger too.
In reality, the one going to sea this time was Kurotsuru Semi.
As a Barrier Fruit user, his barriers could block attacks from Admirals and even Emperors level, and he could still be useful on the battlefield. If it were Mai, although her strength had increased again during this time, on the battlefield of the New World, especially in a battle between two people who could almost be considered future Emperors, she could only serve as high-level cannon fodder.
Mai could only unhappily lower her head.
...
New World, Snail Island.
This was a winter island, and also the island that Shiki had chosen as the battlefield for this time.
This old guy was worried that Ren had set traps on the island, but when he got here, he spared no effort in setting up ambushes on Snail Island. He wasn't the type to have a fair duel with others.
However, the ambush was only one aspect; the most crucial thing was that he had found help.
Someone as greedy as him, no, even greedier than him—John.
"You really are well prepared, Shiki!" A tall man walked towards Shiki. John had proactively approached the Golden Lion not long ago. Like Shiki, he didn't want to spend a huge fortune to buy Ren's weapons.
After Rocks' fall, he had immediately returned to Pirate Island and transferred all the treasures there, including a small part left by people like Shiki. As a result, John's current situation was not good; he was practically public enemy number one.
Wang Zhi, Charlotte Linlin, Silver Axe... although most of their treasures were hidden elsewhere, there were still some treasures left on Pirate Island, not to mention Rocks' treasures.
But Shiki didn't have time to settle accounts with him now.
Last time he had refused to cooperate with the World Government, simply because he was annoyed by that bunch of self-righteous guys, but teaming up with John was something he could accept. After all, they had cooperated many times when they were on Rocks' ship.
After taking down Wano, they would split the profits seventy-thirty. Shiki thought this was a good deal. He was even surprised that John was willing to proactively give him so much profit.
"I'm tired of this, Shiki!" John had said at the time, "Even Rocks failed to become the King of the World, I don't dare to hope for that anymore, but I can't be a pirate forever, right? After this job, I'll control thirty percent of Wano's weapon profits, which is a huge fortune."
John laughed.
On the sea, money was also a form of power. As long as he could control part of Wano's weapon channels, his treasures would increase further. Then he could retire, guarding his treasures for the rest of his life, what a beautiful life!
Shiki had just sneered at the time and said no more, but John didn't doubt that this guy would immediately turn on him after dealing with Ren.
But he wasn't worried about it at all, because he had the same thoughts.
Only thirty percent?
Still having to look at Shiki's face?
How could that be?
He wanted it all!
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