Keiko, now the head of the Kanjō-bugyō, the woman who held Kuri's financial power in her hands!
Honestly, without Keiko, Kuri's financial situation would definitely have fallen into chaos in a short time. Although Kuri had made a lot of money through maritime trade and weapons sales, the investment in research and development was equally enormous.
The Science Division required funding that was like a bottomless pit. The Ruin Series was just one branch of the scientific research conducted in Enkanomiya, and also the most important source of funding.
And in other areas, such as biology, the Demon King Armament, Devil Fruit research...
And so on and so forth—these were areas that couldn't generate revenue for the time being but required massive capital investment.
Keiko not only held financial power, but was also a doctor at Enkanomiya. She had learned a great deal of scientific knowledge in a very short time, and had passed her examination not long ago.
Ren had discovered her learning ability very early on, but even he hadn't expected her to be such a genius.
So, don't be fooled by the fact that Keiko had no combat ability—what she did was actually more valuable than everyone else combined.
"Have you really decided to eat a Devil Fruit?" Saori tossed the piece of meat in her hand into the air, looking at her with surprise.
Carrying a massive katana on his back and wearing a giant sedge hat on his head, Taromaru frantically wagged his tail, jumped up toward the sky, bit the piece of meat in one gulp, and then crashed down like a mountain.
Taromaru looked like a Shiba Inu, but in terms of size... well, elephants looked small compared to him.
"Yeah!" Saya nodded firmly, as if she had made her decision. Neither of them was an Oni, but they had both accidentally eaten the Dango Fruit when they were very young. The taste of Devil Fruit had clearly left a bad impression on Saya.
The most unfortunate thing was that they had both taken a bite of the Dango Fruit, but Saori, who took the first bite, gained the ability, while Saya only got a nutritionless poop-flavored fruit.
"But what kind of fruit would be good to choose?" Saori also began thinking about it with her. "The Munch-Munch Fruit—Ren-sama said he's planning to leave that for the research institute. The other few Paramecia types don't sound very strong. Should she eat a Logia type?"
"Forget about Logia types—I feel like giving one to me would be a waste," Saya was very clear about her own worth and didn't plan to waste a precious Logia type.
"Then, how about the Slip-Slip Fruit? I heard Ren-sama say that after eating it, your skin becomes very beautiful. Ren-sama would definitely like you then." Saori covered her mouth and laughed. Perhaps in her view, helping Ren didn't necessarily have to be through force.
"No... Hey, what about the Phantom-Phantom Fruit?" Saya thought for a moment and asked. "I heard Ren-sama say that the phantoms summoned by the Phantom-Phantom Fruit have combat power very close to the original, they just exist for a very short time. If I'm going to fight in the future, I can bring along a large stack of pirate wanted posters..."
The Phantom-Phantom Fruit was a green, lightbulb-shaped fruit. Originally, this fruit belonged to a songstress in the movie Stampede, but now it had fallen into Ren's hands.
And this fruit, rather than being called the Phantom-Phantom Fruit, in Ren's view, was more like a Projection Fruit.
To summon a phantom, you had to first make contact with a picture or photograph of the person.
This wasn't difficult, especially with the Navy mass-issuing pirate wanted posters. Figures like Roger, Whitebeard, Shiki, and even Ren himself were all still in their prime!
As long as she collected these wanted posters, the Phantom-Phantom Fruit's ability could be put to use.
Even if a phantom could only unleash one attack, that would still be extraordinary.
"Sounds pretty good." Saori nodded. The Phantom-Phantom Fruit just happened to have less connection to the ability user's own strength, unlike the Flower-Flower Fruit, where the stronger the user, the more terrifying the boost to the fruit.
"Hehe, and maybe I can even use the Phantom-Phantom Fruit's ability to play pranks." Saya laughed, then patted the flying dragon beneath her.
"Go, go, go! Back to the Daimyō's mansion now!"
...
Ren took Molly and left Wano, but he didn't immediately let her carry out missions alone.
The situation overseas was very different from Wano. Molly at least had to follow him or others first to familiarize herself with the environment and avoid getting into trouble. She also needed to learn how to interact with other great pirates.
"Listen carefully, Molly. We of Inazuma neither cause trouble nor fear it. Generally speaking, we remain neutral. But if we encounter anyone making trouble, whether it's the Navy or any other power, there's no need to compromise."
Inazuma now had the confidence to say this.
It was just that there was no concept of "Emperor of the Sea" yet—otherwise, the first Emperor of the Sea in this world's history would definitely be him.
But even without the title of Emperor, Ren was already secretly called the "War King" by many!
Due to the Ruin Series being sold in large quantities throughout the world, the scale of warfare in the New World had escalated dramatically. This made the already chaotic New World even more violent!
But relatively speaking, for nations in Paradise and the Four Blues, the sale of the Ruin Series had strengthened many nations' defensive capabilities.
Previously, those nations could only guarantee their safety by being forced to pay the expensive Heavenly Tribute. But now, they only needed to spend less money to buy many Ruin Guards. The pirates running rampant in Paradise were rarely a match for the Ruin Guards.
So Ren's reputation in Paradise and the Four Blues wasn't actually that bad.
After returning to Inazuma, Ren saw Yukiko coming to welcome him.
"Yukiko-neesan!" Molly waved happily to her when she saw her. Yukiko had been the person she looked up to, and even more so now.
"Molly?" After seeing her, Yukiko's gaze involuntarily shifted downward by about thirty centimeters, and then said with a hint of sourness, "You've grown up, Molly..."
"Hehe, that's because I'm already twenty-one." Molly didn't understand the deeper meaning of Yukiko's words and laughed foolishly.
"Yukiko, has anything happened recently?" Ren asked, though he was just asking casually. There wasn't a single day on the sea without big news—it just depended on whether this news had any value to him.
"There have been some rumors in the past couple of days..." Yukiko said uncertainly. "There's news on the sea now that Captain John seems to be dead."
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