With no other choice, Luo Lan decided to consult Satou.
After all, there were tens of thousands of items in the materials store—he couldn't possibly go through them one by one.
Fortunately, as a cyborg, Satou's memory had been preloaded with knowledge of the One Piece world by the system.
It didn't take long before Satou compiled a list of over a hundred materials, organized by rarity and value.
According to him, even the least valuable item on the list was good enough to forge a Grade Sword. The higher-tier materials? They could surpass even Supreme Grade Blades.
Impressed, Luo Lan started searching through them one by one.
Darkgold Ore: 300 credits per kilogram.
"So expensive…"
Luo Lan began with the least valuable material on the list. Even that cost 300 credits per kilo?
He clearly remembered from the original work that a finished Grade Sword only sold for a few million belly!
But thinking again, it made sense.
This place was even shadier than the black market. The material store might as well be a black market disguised as a construction supplies outlet.
After all, during city-building operations, you could just use standard materials—cheaper and more efficient. The people who bought from this shop were definitely not here to build houses.
Even Luo Lan, without intentionally searching, could only see common materials like iron ore, copper, sand, and so on…
So this so-called builder's system had secretly embedded a black market under the disguise of a construction store.
Of course, the system would never admit it. In fact, it might even counter:
"Can't these materials also be used to build houses?"
Shaking his head, Luo Lan began searching for and recording the prices of each material on the list.
To his surprise, Seastone (Kairoseki) was also included—ranked 21st on the list.
The rest? All more expensive than Seastone.
The top-ranked material, Amethyst Gold Ore, cost an insane amount—
3 billion belly per kilogram!?
Luo Lan backed off immediately.
"Nope, I'm out!"
In the end, with a sigh, he chose a relatively cheap material: Prolos Metal.
A type of metal he'd never even heard of.
Well, to be fair, out of the hundred listed materials, Seastone was the only one he actually recognized.
Anyway, he planned to craft a batch and test it out first.
Thanks to the sword-forging workshop's special properties, even this cheaper metal might be enough to produce a flying sword of Grade Blade quality.
Most importantly…
It was cheap!
Prolos Metal: 500 credits per kilogram—just a bit more expensive than Darkgold Ore.
Its description claimed it had hardness comparable to Seastone, but without any special abilities.
Still, it suited Luo Lan's current needs just fine.
He immediately purchased 20 kilograms and had it delivered to Satou.
As for Luo Lan himself, he began planning a trip to Skypiea.
Speaking of Skypiea, it was known for its abundant gold. In the original story, the Straw Hats only took a small amount back—and even that exchanged for 300 million belly.
But compared to the total amount on Skypiea? That was nothing.
Just that massive golden bell alone required dozens of people to carry.
If all of that were melted into pure gold, the value would be in the hundreds of billions.
Of course, having the gold was one thing. Turning it into berry was another.
Say Luo Lan managed to bring back 100 kilograms of gold—he could easily sell it for a great price.
But 10,000 kilograms? Forget it. No one could afford to buy that much, and...
People aren't stupid.
Flooding the market with that much gold would instantly crash the gold price. A total collapse.
And that wasn't even close to the total gold on Skypiea.
What? Sell it bit by bit—say 50 or 100 kilograms at a time?
That might work at first. But eventually, people would notice.
As soon as the market saw a sudden and repeated influx of gold, they'd catch on.
Prices would still collapse in the end.
This was a very real issue.
So once he got the gold, how to extract maximum value from it...
That was something Luo Lan needed to carefully plan.
But that was for later.
Right now, he had to figure out how to actually reach Skypiea.
Should he try the same method as the Straw Hat crew—riding the Knock-Up Stream?
No way. Without protagonist plot armor, that was basically suicide.
What if he kidnapped Luffy and brought him along on the ship?
Would that let him hitch a ride on the "protagonist aura"?
Luo Lan stroked his chin.
"Hmm… not a bad backup plan."
Anyway, time to list his options.
Other than the Knock-Up Stream, there were a few alternatives.
One was the "normal" way to reach Skypiea.
But that route was dangerous—even in the original story, it was mentioned that not everyone survived. Some people always died.
So Luo Lan ruled that out immediately.
What about technology?
Could they build a high-altitude aircraft to reach over 10,000 meters?
Theoretically yes—but the research division had only just created a prototype. It wasn't ready yet.
Oh right, there was one more method—find Shiki the Golden Lion.
Then steal his Float-Float Fruit (Fuwa Fuwa no Mi).
"Someone, come in!"
Luo Lan suddenly called out.
The marine standing guard outside immediately opened the door and stepped in.
"Captain!"
"Mm. Go fetch Robin from Intelligence, and Ace from Operations. Tell them to meet me in my office!"
"Yes, Captain!"
The marine saluted and ran off.
He needed both of them for a two-pronged strategy:
1. Robin would use the intelligence network to track down Golden Lion's whereabouts.
2. Ace would head to Foosha Village and bring back Luffy.
If they found Golden Lion, perfect.
If not, they could still borrow Luffy's protagonist luck!
---
Not long after, Robin and Ace arrived.
"Ace, I want you to take a trip to Foosha Village."
"Foosha Village?"
"Yeah. Bring Luffy here. We're going to a place where we might need his help."
Ace blinked.
Luffy? Help?
That kid's dream of becoming a pirate was even more determined than his own had been.
Bringing him here would be like leading a lamb to the slaughter.
"Luo Lan… where exactly are we going?"
"Skypiea."
"Skypiea?!"
Robin gasped before Ace could even speak.
She'd heard of Skypiea before—
In books.
"Luo Lan, isn't Skypiea just a myth?"
"No," Luo Lan shook his head.
"It's real. But it's not a place you can just waltz into."
Then he looked at Ace.
"Ace, bring Luffy back. I won't arrest him before he turns 17."
"And by the time he's 17, this so-called 'Pirate Era'…"
"…will already be over."
"He'll never get the chance to become a pirate."
Hearing that, Ace nodded.
He believed in Luo Lan's words.
After all, ending this era—the era created by that man—was one of the reasons he chose to stay here in the first place.
"Alright. I'll bring him here as soon as I can."
"Good. Now, Robin—your turn."
Luo Lan nodded to Ace, then turned to Robin with a meaningful look.
"You wouldn't want to miss out on this, would you…"
---
Currently at chapter 410 on Ko-Fi
https:// ko-fi.com/sami27