Boom!
Boom boom!
In the middle of the sea, the dark clouds in the sky seemed to cover the heavens, constantly sending down thunderbolts. White electric lights turned into silvery lines as thick as fingers, striking the enormous black ship sailing on the ocean.
On the rear deck, Lily looked at the lightning descending from the sky, striking the deck and the ship's body, her face not looking too well.
The ship was fine.
After leaving the sea area of Dressrosa, they encountered a storm, and it was an unusually intense one. The gusty wind whipped up huge waves, which on the old Death Star would require Renedia's abilities to stabilize.
Such huge waves could even easily rise to the height of the former Death Star.
But for the new ship, which was twice the size, the waves merely pounded against it, not causing any damage, not even a wobble.
Because of the Power Instrument...
Inside the large furnace located under the Treasure Vault, the ship's true core position, was the Power Instrument made of Mother Steel, capable of devouring everything and connected to the entire ship.
Through the furnace's combustion, it turned into the power needed for the ship in the Power Instrument.
Before setting sail, Renedia had gathered a lot of materials, like iron, stones, liquor, cola, discarded food... although Marika gently knocked her on the head for the last one, but for experimental purposes, it was overlooked.
Other than seawater, almost everything in the world could be used as fuel.
With the support of this power, the ship had truly reached a level of absolute safety no matter where it sailed.
But it wasn't supposed to be struck by lightning...
What, did changing ships also change the difficulty level?
Or is this truly the New World?
Lily initially wanted to experience commanding in this intense storm, as a Navigator and Conductor, leading her crew to calmly break through the storm...
She never thought they'd be struck by lightning.
Although the lightning's power was small and could be easily resisted by the ship's current materials, it was still being struck by lightning!
That crossed the line!
"Lady Lily..."
The female pirate holding an umbrella for her looked scared, shivering behind Lily, because a lightning bolt had struck the rear deck just a bit closer and it might have affected her.
Lily sighed, "Alright, just like this, Jean Bart, stop steering, the crew pay attention to the direction, let this ship navigate itself."
As long as the sail doesn't have issues, maintaining stable navigation, slowly moving out of this stormy sea area will work...
As long as they can move out.
Lily turned and walked to the stairs, down to the first-floor banquet hall in the main building.
The ship was very large, especially the first floor, considering it would probably be the main ship in the future, the banquet hall needed to accommodate all sorts of subordinates, so it was made very large, capable of holding several Giants without any issues.
The second floor had the former third-floor control room and meeting room functionalities removed, with the Power Instrument, there was no need for a control room, everything else was merged into the second floor.
At the moment, a banquet was taking place in the first-floor banquet hall, and when Lily entered, it was roaring with activity, completely unaffected by the thunder and lightning outside.
Ordinary subordinates and the Demon Race were drinking arm-in-arm, having adapted very quickly over time with pirate habits, although they were initially naive.
It's hard to learn good things, but easy to learn bad things, recklessness and indulgence... these are human common ailments, just a touch and they catch on.
The only Giant, Stansen, was also competing in drinking matches against a group of able-to-drink pirates, letting out hearty laughter.
At the top of the Jewelry Throne, a beautiful long table was set, with dishes carefully prepared by Marika using rare and top-grade ingredients, a few attractive female pirates taking turns feeding Sage in the throne, beside him a maid Bella, specifically pouring wine.
Of course, there was also a bunch of adorable Little People under the long table, gathered in a group, eating while negotiating with Sage.
After going out to sea, Sage released them from captivity, after all, they were already at sea, and in such severe weather, they couldn't stir up any trouble.
The unique simplicity of the Little People gradually relaxed after Sage invited them to the banquet.
"Sage, you kidnapped us but then let us go, so you're a good person, but we want to go back to our homeland, back to Greenbit..."
Among the crowd of Little People, the leader was a little person wearing a red soldier's uniform, a white hat with pink polka dots on his head, his tail the same color as the hat.
His name was Flapper, a cadre of the Tontatta Soldier Team.
Sage picked up a glass, drank it, glanced at them, and said:
"Don't think about it, I've given you enough face, showed my sincerity, and proved my intentions. I just want to invite a group to join my Pirates. Farming can be done anywhere, does it have to be Greenbit?"
"But we want to overthrow the Donquixote Family and save our compatriots..."
"Have they been rescued?" Sage asked.
Flapper shook his head, "We have an underground passage to Dressrosa, but we've searched for many years and found no leads."
Sage waved his hand, "If you can't solve it after all these years, why not try a different path? Compatriots are important, but so is the future. Think about it, you can't even gather intel on your own in Greenbit, but it's different if you join me."