Training Center.
Third Floor.
Inside a private chamber belonging to Luo Lan, the gravity had been adjusted to thirty times the norm.
Dozens of streaks of light flashed back and forth through the room, constantly weaving past each other in intricate arcs—like a dazzling airshow of deadly projectiles.
It was almost beautiful to behold.
Until, all at once—
Every streak of light came to an abrupt halt, as if someone had slammed the brakes. They froze mid-air.
Only then could their true forms be seen with the naked eye.
They were bullets.
Dozens of pitch-black bullets, each one forged from Seastone.
These weren't ordinary rounds. They were made from the Seastone chunk Luo Lan had brought back earlier, specially processed by the Science Division.
Over a hundred of them had been manufactured.
Thirty-six were 13mm handgun rounds, personally issued to Luo Lan.
The rest were sniper-grade, distributed among the newly formed sniper squad—five rounds per member.
This stuff was gold.
Even ignoring labor and R&D costs, the material cost alone came to 300,000 Berries per bullet.
Ridiculously expensive.
Of course, a big part of that was due to Luo Lan having sourced the Seastone through black market auctions. The price he paid was at least ten times higher than what the World Government might pay for the same quantity.
But what could he do? There was no other way to get it quickly.
Well… unless he wanted to march into Wano, kill Kaido, and then hold off the other Yonko, the World Government, and the Navy at the same time.
Yeah… not happening. Not with the current strength of Branch 157.
With a casual wave of his hand, the dozen or so suspended Seastone bullets zipped through the air and landed in Luo Lan's palm.
After storing them away, he paused for a moment, deep in thought.
"As I expected… training spiritual power really does boost my telekinesis at an incredible rate."
"Manipulating bullet trajectories with my mind is no issue at all. But using telekinesis for direct attacks still isn't ideal."
"Looks like I'll need to forge weapons specifically designed for mental manipulation."
"Maybe I should talk to Satou."
No sooner said than done.
With a flick of his fingers, a nearby cloak floated through the air and draped itself over his shoulders.
It was as if gravity had no hold on it.
Several minutes later, Luo Lan arrived at the weapon forging workshop.
The place was bustling.
After two recruitment waves in Alabasta, a total of 2,500 new soldiers had joined, each needing their own standard-issue sword.
The smiths had been working overtime just to keep up.
"Captain, what brings you here?" a voice called out.
"Satou, I need you to forge a batch of swords for me."
"You're learning swordsmanship, sir?" Satou's eyes lit up.
As a swordsmith, nothing made him happier than knowing his superior finally needed his skills. Until now, the Captain had never used swords, which had always felt a little awkward.
But now—finally!
His mind raced with ideas as motivation surged.
"No, I'm not learning swordsmanship," Luo Lan replied flatly.
"Then—?"
Satou's excitement nearly fizzled, but Luo Lan raised a hand to stop him from asking.
With two fingers raised, he gave a slight tug at the air.
A sword blank from the forge table shot into the air, hovering neatly beside his fingers, tip pointed skyward.
Satou's jaw dropped.
"Captain… you…?"
"This is a unique ability of mine. That's why I need specially forged blades to make full use of it."
"Understood!" Satou nodded rapidly, instantly focused.
Swordsmanship or not—it didn't matter.
What mattered was that the Captain finally needed him.
"What kind of specifications do you want, sir?"
"Hmm… let me think."
Luo Lan stroked his chin thoughtfully.
"First, keep them small—compact."
"Second, no hilts. I won't be holding them anyway."
"And lastly, focus entirely on offense. Don't bother with defensive properties."
"Oh, and if possible, try mixing in some Seastone powder during the forging process."
Luo Lan listed his requirements without pause.
Satou diligently noted everything down.
"Captain, I understand. But we're a little short on premium materials right now…"
"I'll handle the materials," Luo Lan replied.
"In that case, leave it to me! As long as I have the materials, I'll forge you a set of flying blades worthy of the Supreme Grade category!"
Satou pounded his chest in assurance.
Luo Lan gave a satisfied nod before heading out.
Now, it was time to deal with the materials.
"System… why don't you sell forging materials?"
[Ding! This system is fully equipped. The host has simply never accessed the relevant module.]
"…What? So you do sell them?"
Luo Lan was stunned.
Was the system bluffing all this time?
[Ding! Please open the building materials module.]
"Building materials? I'm looking for forging materials, not construction beams!"
Luo Lan nearly spat blood in frustration.
The system thought he wanted construction supplies?
Wait…
He suddenly remembered something.
When constructing system buildings, materials were listed as standard building materials, but this was just for convenience.
You could actually substitute those with your own supplies—like iron you mined, glass you smelted, etc.—to save on system points.
Alternatively, you could use part personal materials and part system-purchased ones.
Come to think of it, the building material module did have individual components for sale… though he'd never explored them.
After all, it was easier to just use the system's prefab packages.
But if he searched carefully… there might be some useful high-grade materials buried in there?
Luo Lan's eyes lit up.
He quickly opened the materials tab.
There they were:
Standard basic materials: 1 point per unit
70% pure iron ore: 50 points per ton
80% pure iron ore: 100 points per ton
90% pure…
Scrolling…
Regular glass: 0.2 points per square meter
Reinforced glass: 0.3 points…
Still basic stuff.
Too much to scroll—better use the search function.
He typed: Adam Wood
Search initiated.
...Damn.
It actually existed.
Adam Tree Branch: 1,000 points per meter
Adam Tree Trunk: ??
Full Adam Tree: ??
Luo Lan was floored.
These prices made the black market look cheap.
1,000 points per meter for a branch? That's like 10 million Berries!
In the original story, Franky bought a several dozen-meter-long branch for 300 million.
This was way more expensive.
And a full tree cost… 150 billion Berries?!
That was insane.
Still… he supposed it made sense. Adam Wood was rare and practically unobtainable.
Next, he searched: Seastone
Result:
Seastone: 1 billion Berries per kilogram.
Figures.
If he had bought that 28-kilogram piece from the system instead of the black market, it would've cost 28 billion.
After racking his brain for a while, Luo Lan realized something—
He didn't even know what keywords to search for.
How was he supposed to find rare forging materials without knowing their names?
"System, can't you just… give me a filtered list or something?!"
He grumbled in frustration, launching a mental tirade at the system.
His mind practically echoed with complaints.
---
Currently at chapter 410 on Ko-Fi
https:// ko-fi.com/sami27