On the journey back to Jun lin,
Franky was like an overly curious child.
He couldn't stop asking questions—grabbing hold of any crew member nearby to bombard them with queries.
Everything fascinated him.
After all, the interior of the Danaan was incredibly advanced.
Not just for Franky—even Jun Lin himself wouldn't be able to build a ship with such technological prowess.
At this point, Franky had completely abandoned any resistance to visiting Jun Lin.
In fact, he was beginning to view it as something akin to a sacred place.
---
Meanwhile, at Marine Headquarters—
In the high-level conference room:
"Borsalino, how's the steel warship project progressing?"
Once everyone was present, Sengoku started the meeting.
As the highest-ranking officer in the Science Division, Kizaru (Borsalino) was naturally in charge of liaising between HQ and Vegapunk for this project.
"About that... Even Vegapunk was blown away by those warships. Jun Lin is seriously terrifying!"
"Be serious for once!"
Sengoku was already exasperated.
I'm asking for a report, not watching you act all jittery.
Also, could you please change that annoying tone of voice?
Every meeting, just listening to you makes me want to punch something.
"Alright, alright. Vegapunk said the technology itself isn't all that hard to understand—he's basically figured it out. But when it comes to craftsmanship…"
"That's a whole other issue. Some things can't just be understood—they need time to solve."
"Think of it like this: throw you into primitive times with only a stone axe, and ask you to make a rifle. Even if you knew how to make one, could you actually do it?"
"That's exactly the situation we're facing right now."
"We've figured out the tech, but we can't manufacture the real thing any time soon."
"Those are Vegapunk's exact words."
Kizaru, for once, sounded serious.
"…I see."
"Then what if we scale down the specs? Maybe create a lower-end version first?"
Sengoku sounded reluctant.
For example—
Maybe the main cannon doesn't need a 12-nautical-mile range.
Three miles would do.
And top speed doesn't have to be 30 knots—how about 15?
Even with those performance cuts, it would still represent a revolutionary leap for this world.
So, why not produce a simplified version first, then improve it over time?
"Yo~ Marshal, how did you know that's exactly what Vegapunk was thinking?"
Kizaru finally chimed in again, grinning.
Sengoku looked like he was about to explode.
If you knew that from the start, why didn't you say so? Were you just trying to be annoying?
He shot Kizaru a murderous glare.
"According to Vegapunk," Kizaru continued, "while we can't yet match Jun Lin's full capabilities, we can build scaled-down versions. For instance…"
"Skip the fluff. What exactly can Vegapunk make right now?"
Sengoku cut him off before he could finish.
"Alright, alright. So—Vegapunk has fully reverse-engineered the new-style ship cannon, the one Jun Lin calls a 'cannon.' However, due to current manufacturing limits, its range won't exceed three nautical miles, and the barrel lifespan is only about 300 shots."
"Of course, there is a solution to the barrel issue. If we use seastone to forge the barrels, they'd last tens of thousands of shots."
"But the cost…"
Kizaru trailed off.
Everyone in the room immediately understood.
Seastone was one of the hardest and rarest materials in the world—and Vegapunk had figured out how to process it.
For example, Smoker's weapon, the Jitte, was made of seastone.
So yes—if you used it for cannon barrels, you could easily exceed 30,000 rounds.
But...
Even on Jun Lin's ships, which had relatively small 200mm cannons, each barrel weighed almost ten tons.
And each dual-gun turret would require twenty tons of seastone.
Is that realistic?
Not really. Even the Celestial Dragons would go bankrupt.
So yeah… Not happening.
"Three hundred rounds, huh…"
"Guess we'll treat it as a temporary solution for now."
"Borsalino, go on."
Sengoku sighed with a bitter smile.
Needing to swap barrels after just 300 shots would drastically increase operational costs.
Still, if it was just a stopgap solution, he could accept it.
"Alright. Next—let's talk about propulsion."
Kizaru shrugged, arms spread.
"If you say it's fine, it's fine. I've got no objections."
"The warships from Jun Lin use a completely new power system. The fuel? Cola. Yes, cola! The same soda that the junior marines love!"
As he said this, Kizaru even made an exaggerated expression.
Sengoku almost slapped him on the spot.
Thankfully, years of dealing with this nonsense had made him immune—barely.
"Just like the cannons, Vegapunk has cracked the tech and can build it. But he still can't match Jun Lin's version."
"The main issue is precision. The core of the power unit is extremely intricate. With our current tech, we just can't fabricate parts with that level of accuracy."
Kizaru relayed all of Vegapunk's explanations.
What he didn't know, though, was that Vegapunk's current cola-powered engine was already better than Franky's in the original timeline.
However, it still fell short of the ones Jun Lin used to power thousand-ton steel battleships at 30 knots.
The reason? Just as Vegapunk said—precision.
Even the best equipment in Vegapunk's lab still lagged behind Jun Lin's factories by a factor of hundreds in precision.
Yes, hundreds. No exaggeration.
So even with the same blueprints and materials, Vegapunk's version just couldn't compete with Jun Lin's.
"Borsalino, bottom line—how fast can ships run with Vegapunk's engine?"
"Originally, they could hit a top speed of 15 to 18 knots."
"15 to 18? That fast?"
Sengoku's eyes lit up.
That was better than he'd hoped!
But then he paused.
Wait… Originally?
"Borsalino, what do you mean originally?"
"Just what it sounds like. The key problem is the part Jun Lin called the 'propeller' at the bottom of the ship…"
"What about it?"
"We can't make it to Jun Lin's standard. Don't be fooled by how simple it looks—according to Vegapunk, the difficulty is on par with building the cannon or the engine."
"So? What's the final speed?"
"Cruising speed is 10 knots. Top speed, 12 knots."
Sengoku froze.
The propeller was that important?
Just that one simple-looking part had slashed top speed from 15–18 knots down to 10–12?
Unbelievable.
---
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