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**The Moon, in a Secret Room.**
"What!? These photos are the design drawings of Hades, known as the most ferocious battleship in history?" Axe exclaimed, surprised.
"Huh? How is this possible!?" Dora Adams, Morse Eddie, Tom Kirk, and the others were shocked and rushed to grab the photos.
"This, this... this really seems to be?" Dora muttered in disbelief. "How did you get something like this!?"
"This is the overall design of the Pluto battleship. This is a partial design. This is the power system. This is the weapon system. This is..."
Dora Adams, who had been an assistant researcher under Vegapunk and Vinsmoke Judge, was most familiar with these designs. She couldn't help but mumble every time she flipped a page.
"This kind of thing should be something the World Government has been secretly researching. How on earth did you get it!?" Although Tom Kirk primarily focused on Devil Fruit research, he was also a highly skilled scientist in other areas.
"I won't go into detail about how I obtained it. In short, I managed to get this design atlas, and it's definitely real!" Arthur waved his hand, not revealing how he came across the atlas.
"I just want to know if you can research this and build it?" Arthur was eager to know the answer.
Everyone fell silent for a moment.
"We need to examine this design thoroughly before making any preliminary judgments," Dora Adams said, her eyes wide with focus.
"Okay, take your time to research it here. Let me know what you find out," Arthur nodded.
Indeed, this level of advanced technology required careful examination before anyone could determine if the Pluto battleship could be built.
After a long time, the scientists present circulated through the design drawings. Eventually, aside from the sound of breathing, the room fell completely silent.
Arthur observed everyone deep in thought, waiting patiently without interrupting.
"Basically impossible!"
"It's going to be tough!"
"It's as difficult as climbing the sky!"
"Too hard!"
The four top scientists spoke in unison, and their tone indicated the immense difficulty of constructing the Pluto battleship.
Arthur frowned. "Why? Is it a manpower issue? Or does the research team need to grow?"
"There are numerous problems. Our research team is still a bit weak. We need at least ten times our current research capacity! Manpower is one aspect, but 90% of this can be handled by robots, not to mention..."
"The Pluto battleship is massive and requires a dedicated dock, which is also an issue."
"Moreover, building the Pluto battleship requires a series of processing plants for various components and assembly parts, which is another concern."
"The production of materials requires a significant amount of resources. Seastone is another problem!"
"These might not sound difficult, but the implementation involves many factors, and it's overwhelming. To build the Pluto battleship, we'd need millions of skilled workers for peripheral tasks."
"However, since many of these tasks can be handled by robots, even if intelligent robots replace them, we'd still need over 100,000 workers."
"There's also a huge demand for materials, especially seastone. Among these requirements, the most rare is a research team with over a thousand people, including at least ten top scientists!"
As the most experienced member present, Ashiya was the one sharing this information, familiar with Arthur's capabilities.
Arthur frowned, contemplating two major issues.
One was the need for a research team of more than 1,000 people, alongside over ten top scientists, and a lot of seastone. These could be considered three major challenges, but apart from these, the others weren't as daunting.
The requirement for thousands of scientists and at least ten top scientists posed a significant challenge. There are many scientists in this world, and with the World Government's intelligence network, if too many scientists went missing, it would undoubtedly raise alarms.
And seastone, as a strategic resource in the One Piece world, is highly coveted by the World Government.
Arthur knew that a large quantity of seastone was currently being produced in Wano Country, which even caught the World Government's attention.
'This is a bit troublesome,' Arthur thought.
'I wonder if there are seastone mines elsewhere. It can't be that the entire Red Ring Planet has a large amount of this ore only in one country. It seems I need to establish a special mineral exploration team.'
By deciding to form an exploration team, Arthur believed he could address the seastone issue to some extent. After all, it was just a type of mineral. Even if Wano had the largest mine in the world, there would still be smaller seastone mines in other locations.
As for the scientists... Arthur felt quite helpless about that.
"It's really impossible; we can only do this with them! But controlling it won't be easy, so I have to wait. Once I have the Dark Fruit, many of my plans can be implemented more safely and smoothly!"
"Alright, I'll resolve these two issues in the next few years! You just need to start researching some of the high-tech aspects."
The construction of the Hades battleship wasn't urgent. According to Arthur, there would be four years until the beginning of the plot when Luffy arrives in Wano Country.
It would take at least five or six years from now for Luffy to become the Pirate King, learn the secret of the D, and uncover the hundred years of blank history from eight hundred years ago, causing upheaval in the world.
As for subverting the World Government, that would likely take even longer.
Even if Luffy's protagonist aura kicked in and stirred things up, Arthur would still be able to intervene periodically, slowing down their progress.
Arthur's words prompted nods from the scientists, who then eagerly picked up the design atlas of Pluto once more.
Compared to the others, they were particularly eager to study Pluto's design, which was legendary. They had heard bits and pieces about the Three Ancient Weapons, knowing that Pluto was among the most feared warships in history.
Uranus, Poseidon, Pluto! Each of these ancient weapons held the power to reshape the world.
Now, the plans for Pluto were right in front of them. For these scientists, nothing could be more enticing.
However, one person was not engrossed in the designs—Ashiya.
He approached Arthur and whispered, "God, we have purified the substance 'Pyrobroin' found in seastone!"
"Oh?" Arthur turned to Ashiya with interest. "To what extent is it purified?"
"If the content of Pyrobroin in a decent seastone is 10%, we've purified it to 65%. Continuing further will be quite challenging!" Ashiya replied.
"Great! Show me now! If we can't continue, I want to see how effective your refined product is!" Arthur had been eagerly awaiting this moment.
The future of Arthur's vision depended on these purified Pyrobroin substances. Achieving this would be a monumental accomplishment!
Ashiya nodded, glancing back at the blueprint before leading Arthur away, a hint of nostalgia in his eyes.
After a while, they arrived at Ashiya's exclusive research facility.
"This is it. This is all we have for now. If needed, we can continue purifying as long as we have seastone," Ashiya pointed to a metal canister and informed Arthur.
Arthur stepped closer, excitement building, and opened the metal tube. Despite its containment, he felt a strange discomfort the moment he touched it.
Once opened, he found the contents packed in a jar—about two kilograms of a beautiful blue crystalline powder.
This powder shimmered with a radiant blue light. "Let's call this Henghai's Sand! That name might be a bit confusing," Arthur said, examining the powder that made him feel uneasy.
*Zzi zzi zzi zzi!*
Attempting to activate his powers, Arthur found no suppression. 'It seems that even purified to this level, those with abilities won't be affected without direct contact,' he noted to himself.
He cautiously inserted a finger into the Henghai's Sand.
"Hiss!"
The moment he did, Arthur couldn't help but inhale sharply.
Weak! Powerless!
The Henghai's Sand was far too effective at restraining those with Devil Fruit powers. Even a strong individual like Arthur felt overwhelmed.
In the One Piece world, while seawater doesn't prevent Devil Fruit users from activating their abilities, it renders them unable to swim. Seastone, however, completely nullifies their powers.
Of course, reactions can vary based on individual physiology. Some, like Luffy, feel weak or even incapacitated around seawater or seastone.
But Arthur, despite his strength, clearly felt the debilitating effects of the Henghai's Sand, demonstrating its formidable restraint against those with powers.
Pulling his finger out, Arthur nodded in satisfaction. "Okay, the purity is excellent! I'll prepare some seastone later; at least a cubic amount needs to be purified."
"Sure thing!" Ashiya agreed, confident about their capabilities. He pondered using this purified powder to create weapons specifically for those with Devil Fruit abilities. Surely, that would work!