After enjoying the royal bathroom experience for a long time in Alabasta, Wood and Robin first left Albana accompanied by Vivi.
But before Wood left, in order to thank Wood for his help to Alabasta, and also to improve the kingdom's overall combat effectiveness and avoid being unable to resist the pirate invasion in the future, Alabasta also asked Wood and his weapons company
A large number of weapons were ordered.
Today's Alabasta should have been extremely poor. After all, even Weiwei was unable to repay the large sum of Bailey's compensation that Weiwei originally planned to pay Nami.
However, after Crocodile's downfall, the wealth he left behind was still quite astonishing.
He himself is the king of the Shichibukai, and he has made a lot of money in Alabasta for many years. His net worth is not to say that he is as rich as his country, but compared to ordinary pirates, it is still very impressive.
According to the previous agreement between Wood and Crocodile, these treasures should have belonged to Wood after his fall.
But in the end, while Wood took away these belongings, he told Princess Vivi and King Cobra that these treasures would be used as payment for Alabasta to order weapons from them and purchase water sources.
That's right, before Wood left Alabasta, he went to several big cities in Alabasta to cast several Water King-level magics.
Although Crocodile was defeated, the three-year drought in Alabasta will not be completely resolved overnight.
Throughout Alabasta, the main source of income previously relied on the few oases on the island.
However, the oases including the commercial center of "Yuba" have now become a desert. Even without Crocodile, it will be impossible for Alabasta to resume its previous life in a short time.
arrive.
It is already quite difficult for Alabasta now to barely allow all its citizens to live, but the problem they have to face next is not just that, it is the "heavenly gold" that is about to be paid to the Celestial Dragons.
If you want to become an allied country of the World Government and accept the protection of the World Government, it is not completely free of charge.
Among them, the countries that have joined, in addition to going to Margioia to hold the World Conference within the specified time, they also have other obligations, which is the so-called "Heavenly Gold".
The so-called "heavenly gold" is a nice name, but it is just a disguised "protection fee" paid by these kingdoms to the world government.
Ever since Crocodile came to Alabasta, the kingdom's income has been getting worse day by day. Alabasta has already depleted all the "gold from the sky" in the past few years.
But this year, Alabasta may really not be able to afford the "heavenly gold".
But Cobra and the others also figured it out. Previously, Alabasta had paid tribute every year, but the kingdom was still devastated by the King's Shichibukai.
It can be seen that although they have paid "protection fees", at the critical moment, the protection of the World Government may not be useful.
After going through Crocodile's incident, Kobra also understood that if a kingdom wants to become strong, it must rely on its own strength.
So Cobra, as the king of Alabasta, finally secretly reached some kind of cooperation with Wood.
If they do not pay tribute to the "Heavenly Gold", Alabasta will lose the protection of the World Government, so they must become stronger themselves.
Under this premise, the weapons needed to arm yourself are naturally the most indispensable.
While Wood accompanied Princess Vivi to travel to several cities in Alabasta, while using water king level magic to provide information on water source problems in various places, he was also talking about the geology of various places.
Finally, in a rather remote town in Alabasta, Wood finally found what he needed.
"You have provided so much help to Alabasta, even allowed them to order weapons on credit, and paid for them to build cities, just for this kind of thing in your hands?"
Seeing Wood in front of him pinching the black mud-like liquid with his fingers and smiling like a child, Robin asked curiously.
"The color is dark brown with green fluorescence, pungent smell and thick oil..."
As Wood spoke, he was still snapping his fingers, and the black oil between his fingers suddenly burned like an accelerant.
"Well..., the appearance and smell are correct, and it is so flammable. It must be crude oil."
After seeing Wood confirm that the black mud in his hand was what he had been looking for, Princess Weiwei who accompanied them also breathed a sigh of relief.
There is no one in this world who is nice to you for no reason. As royals, Cobra and Princess Vivi are very clear about this.
For a big shot like Wood to help Alabasta so much, he either has ulterior motives like Crocodile before him, or Alabasta is of use to Wood.
Navy traitor Wood is not a Straw Hat Pirates with a single-digit number, nor is he a hot-blooded young man. He has a huge force behind him, and is even a big boss on the sea.
If he helps Alabasta without asking for anything, Princess Vivi and Kobra will have to worry that the other party has other agendas, unless the other party is really a relative of their Neferutali clan.
Before, Wood promised Alabasta a series of favorable conditions, all of which were based on the fact that what Wood was looking for existed on Alabasta Island.
Seeing that Wood had found what he was looking for, Princess Weiwei was naturally very happy.
"Is this what Mr. Wood has been looking for? The local people seem to call this black oil.
Because the smell is unpleasant, and smelling the smell for a long time can make people feel uncomfortable, local people have always regarded this kind of thing as something ominous."
Hearing Weiwei's words, Wood didn't feel surprised. This world already had gunpowder and other more lethal things, so things like oil were naturally not taken seriously.
And for a desert kingdom, crude oil cannot be drunk as water, and because it is prone to danger when the temperature is high, it is normal to stay away from it.
However, Wood knew that if crude oil was used in war, its effect would be equivalent to kerosene at most.
However, if this thing is purified into petroleum through scientific methods, it can be used as the best kinetic energy fuel.
It can be said that the existence of this thing can advance the era by an entire stage!
As long as there is oil and the increasingly mature and advanced technology of their weapons company, who the hell will still use pirate ships made of wood in the future?
As soon as the 10,000-ton steel giant ship came out, all the fleets of the "Four Emperors" were smashed into pieces.
Even if there is oil as fuel, it is not completely impossible for a simple aircraft to appear in this medieval era.
At that time, the giant steel ship will clear the sea, covered with firepower from aerial aircraft, and sweeping across the medieval sea will be like playing.
The crude oil of petroleum is generally buried in rock formations, and the principle of oil formation is said to be biological sedimentation and oil transformation.
Petroleum was formed by organisms in ancient oceans or lakes after a long evolution. Finally, these organisms were deposited and turned into oil. In general, under the changes of ancient oceans and lakes, more of the landforms are now deserts.
This is why Wood thinks there may be oil in Alabasta.
"Princess Weiwei, this is indeed what I am looking for. I suggest that you try to build a new city in this place.
From now on, our weapons company will purchase as much of this black oil as we have, and I can guarantee that it won’t be long before Alabasta will not only get out of its current predicament, but will also become one of the richest kingdoms in the Grand Line.”
It was naturally impossible for Wood to tell Princess Wei Wei about the method of refining crude oil, but the crude oil purchase price he proposed was quite sincere.
As long as Alabasta is not too stupid, he should know by now who it is most beneficial to cooperate with.
Black oil is worthless in their hands, or even in the hands of others. It can only be of maximum value in Wood's hands.
After returning to the palace in Albana, Princess Vivi also signed a series of agreements with Wood on behalf of Alabasta and reached cooperation.
It is worth mentioning that while Wood and Princess Vivi were searching for crude oil these days, all the Straw Hats who were recuperating in the palace had also completed their recovery.
Regarding the recovery speed of several people's injuries, Wood had to lament again that the human physique in the world of pirates is really outrageous.
Obviously after the battle with Crocodile and his men at the Baroque Studio, the Straw Hats were dying and poisoned. Even Nami, the least injured among them, had her hands and feet pricked with holes by the sea urchin girl.
Only a few days have passed, and these people have actually been resurrected with full health. If they were in the world of "jobless reincarnation", even using healing magic wouldn't be so outrageous!
"Wood, come and challenge me!"
After waking up, Luffy learned from his companions that the person who appeared in front of them was Wood, the navy traitor he had always wanted to defeat, and regretfully lamented that he woke up too late.
Now that he saw that Wood had returned and that all of his injuries had recovered, Luffy naturally couldn't hold back his fighting spirit and wanted to challenge Wood.
As for Ace's previous warning to him, Luffy had already thrown it out of the window at this moment.
The gap in combat power has never been an issue that Luffy would consider. Just like he used to like to challenge Shanks, when he meets the person he has always admired when he was a child, how can he not fight with him?
"No, Luffy, you can't beat him. The chain-smoking colonel who has been chasing us before can't even catch his three moves..."
Seeing Luffy with a fighting spirit on his face and challenging Wood, Nami and Usopp stepped forward to grab their captain and tried to cover each other's mouth.
They had worked so hard to defeat the King Shichibukai, and the injuries on their bodies were not fully healed yet, so they were going to provoke a character more ruthless than Crocodile. Isn't this a clear sign of seeking death?
And it was understandable that they had an affair with Crocodile. After all, they had long regarded Weiwei as one of their companions.
But the navy traitor Wood never showed hostility towards them from the beginning to the end, so they couldn't afford to provoke such a dangerous person.
"No, I can win! Even like Crocodile, it's hard to say anything about fighting until the final result is known."
When Wood beat Smoker before, Luffy was in a coma, so he didn't know anything about it.
However, even though he knew that Wood easily defeated Smoker, Luffy was still quite confident in his own strength and insisted on challenging Wood.
"Interesting, if that's the case, let me get involved, he should be a great swordsman too.
It’s really exciting to be able to fight against a great swordsman!”
Seeing Luffy challenging Wood, Zoro, who was wiping his sword at the side, finally couldn't hold back his loneliness and continued speaking.
"Zauron, I was the first to propose fighting Wood, so his opponent should be me!"
"There is no order of precedence in a fight. The opponent is obviously a swordsman. Why are you, a martial artist, joining in the fun?"
In this way, Luffy and Zoro, who had just recovered from their injuries, had their friendship overturned. At this moment, they were fighting for the chance to fight Wood, and they were at odds with each other.
What's even more outrageous is that Sanji, who came back later, finally joined the quarrel after knowing the reason for the quarrel between Luffy and Zoro, and wanting to attract the attention of the beautiful Robin next to Wood.
"Since you all want to compete with me, then let's do it together. That way we can at least last a little longer.
It just so happens that I know a little bit about swordsmanship, martial arts, and even leg skills, so at least I should have no problem being your opponent."
Regarding Wood's proposal, Zoro and Sanji, who have always been personal heroes, surprisingly had no objections. On the contrary, Luffy, who knew nothing about Wood's power, was quite complaining.
However, with both his companions and Wood agreeing to this, he alone could not turn the situation around. He only hoped to be the first to defeat Wood before Zoro and Sanji did.
In the training ground of the Alabasta Palace, Wood stood on one side of the training ground with a leisurely expression, while on the other side stood the three powerful forces of the Straw Hat Pirates, Captain Rubber, Swordsman Lu and the Pervert Cook.
"Weiwei, do you think Luffy and the others can win?"
Nami looked at the two sides confronting each other on the field, and looked at Weiwei beside her with a rather expectant expression.
When she learned that Wood and Luffy planned to compete, Nami opened a small bet, and King Cobra and the Guardians Ikarem both placed a lot of bets.
Since the reward was lost, it was not Nami's character to leave empty-handed, so she planned to make some pocket money through gambling.
"I think it should be possible..., I have great confidence in Luffy-san and the others."
For Vivi, the people of the Straw Hat Pirates are not only Alabasta's benefactors, but also her good friends. Now that Nami has asked this question, even if she thinks Wood has a better chance of winning, she can only do this at this moment.