The success of the Fisher Tiger operation had not brought peace; it had brought a ferocious escalation of the World Government's paranoia. Benjamin computed the immediate backlash: the Celestial Dragons would redouble their slave-taking efforts, and the remaining escaped slaves would be hunted with unparalleled brutality.
The mandate had been fulfilled, but the spirit of liberation demanded more. The System agreed.
The new command burned into his vision, its scope vast and terrifying:
[System Mandate 002: "Infiltrate and execute a coordinated, clean mass-liberation of all remaining slaves held in the highest-security zones of Mariejoa. This must be a clean break—no martyrdom, no traceable structural damage, only mass exodus."]
The objective was clear: the first raid was chaos; the second must be a total, surgical extraction. It was a massive escalation. Fisher Tiger's success had emptied the lower security areas, but the most traumatized, valuable, and hidden slaves—those protected by CP0 and the Gorosei's most loyal guards—remained.
Benjamin knew this required more than a diversion. It required a vehicle.
He looked at the towering synthetic diamond pillar he had just created. He needed a way to approach Mariejoa, extract thousands of individuals, and provide them with an immediate, self-sustaining refuge.
He needed a ship capable of navigating the Red Line defenses and housing a population.
Benjamin focused his 3% power. Using Stable Matter Construction, he didn't seek wood or steel. He began to draw raw elements from the island's core, forcing them into complex alloys. He was building his answer: a vessel that didn't need sails or an engine, a ship that defied the seas.
He spent the next few hours in a deep, detached state of molecular creation. When he was done, sitting on the beach was not a pirate ship, but a masterpiece of impossible engineering: a sleek, black, multi-decked vessel forged from hyper-dense, self-repairing metallic glass.
It required no crew; it was powered by a perfectly tuned, energy-neutral Molecular Propulsion System Benjamin had constructed into the hull. It was silent, nearly invisible to conventional radar, and capable of sustained speed rivaling a Marine Admiral.
Benjamin walked aboard his creation. It had no Jolly Roger, no flag. It was a perfect, silent instrument of destiny.
He was the Chronos-Child, and he had built the Ark of Liberation. The World Government had been warned by chaos. Now, they would face perfect, quiet efficiency.