FreedSteel Company (Part 1)

Many changes have occurred on the island of Narhad in the last five years after the Leech pirates attack 

Many inhabitants died from direct or indirect consequences of the attack, others left that island searching a place with more protection and future and others simply died due to their advanced age.

And now the island was only inhabited by the Steel and Freed families

Due to the absence of all its other inhabitants and the certainty that they weren't going to return, the members of the FreedSteel company transformed the habitable part of the island into an extension of their company.

A place where, apart from the only two homes, all the other buildings were warehouses, factories, bunkers, cattle ranches and also greenhouses. 

"And in these aquaponic greenhouses designed by me and automated by Stephen we can obtain all the vegetables and fish we need to feed ourselves without any problem" Said Fred as he toured Perona around his futuristic orchard/fish farm. "The fish waste is automatically collected and these are processed and used as fertilizer for the plants... which as you can see don't need land to be grown, only water... these plants purify the water for the fish and part of said plants obtained are used to feed this variety of fish"

"An almost perfect closed circuit that barely requires any external resource!

However, we aren't yet able to produce all the varieties of vegetables, fruit and fish that we would like. For this reason we have to trade with others to get other products, but growing any vegetable or fish isn't the objective of this project" Stephen said, feeling obliged to emphasize that not everything was perfect in this project. "The main objective was to optimize it on land and thus be able to install the same thing in our future aquatic house so that we never lack food on any trip, even if it's not our favourite"

But no matter how efficient or imperfect it was, the sole concept and clean, futuristic appearance enchanted the little Perona, who had never imagined that it was possible to grow crops without soil and also raise fish at the same time.

"Ohhhh!!!" Perona shouted, fascinated by seeing how the machines carried out the tasks automatically. "It's very interesting!

Wow! "Everything is done alone!"

"I'm glad you like it, process automation has been my passion lately" Stephen responded, proud to be able to present his work to someone new after many years. "We also have some special genetically modified sunflowers from Fred, but they're underground.

Now we will go see them, among other things."

Although the changes in the surface had been enormous, these were only the tip of the iceberg. The true jewel in the crown was found underground thanks to the great expansion of the shelter, labyrinth and secret laboratory under the village, whose extension practically covered half of the island.

A secret laboratory that today was less secret than yesterday since the entire family was showing it to Perona too.

"INCREDIBLE!" Perona yelled with excitement, like any child seeing something completely new and unexpected "Was all this hidden under the island?

It's huge!

And everything seems very expensive…"

After going through the maze, at the end of the journey there was an underground laboratory completely covered by metal. A laboratory with multiple rooms and an extremely futuristic appearance compared to what Perona had seen so far and in which there were a lot of machinery and utensils that she had never seen before.

"That's right!

Welcome to [FreedSteel] headquarters!" Stephen said, as or even more enthusiastic than Perona "Company founded by Fred and me and of which you're now also a part!

STEEL-STEEL-STELL!"

Virtually all of Stephen and Fred's training time on the island was allocated to physically expanding the underground laboratory and virtually all of Fred's company profits and bounty hunter rewards were allocated to equipping the laboratory and company with a large number of tangible and intangible assets.

"As you can see, there're two quite different research areas

The engineering area, where I develop new and impressive cool things like my armor

And... the biology area, where Fred... develops very strange and sometimes immoral things" Said Stephen, who was only willing to show one research area in case Perona might get scared of what they might find there. "And here you will see the secret production area, which takes up the most space.

Thanks to our great advance in automation we're able to manufacture our products continuously and almost without supervision, as you have seen in the factories and greenhouses above.

But here's where we produce the most confidential things"

Since Fred introduced the concept of automation production something changed in Stephen forever.

Being able to design and build machines that could fully or nearly autonomously perform labor-intensive tasks and were even capable of self-replication opened up a new world for the young engineer 

He became so obsessed that in just four years he had practically automated all of the island's essential production processes! 

But he wasn't satisfied with that! He wanted to improve this sector even more! To the point where only metal machines could do everything by themselves without the need for human intervention!

Just as his ancestors once dreamed of!

Even so, his true dream was still to create a perfect mecha and its entire ecosystem. In fact, the full body metal armor with integrated weapons that he was so proud of was only a preliminary step 

"And...

What exactly do you do at [FreedSteel]?

What do you manufacture?" Perona asked as she tugged on Stephen's shirt after seeing that he had lost himself in his own world full of steel. "Aside from the fish and vegetables, obviously."

"Oh, yeah…" Stepen responded as he was forced to return to the reality of One Piece. "Basically we're a company that develops new technologies

In the engineering area we develop the weapons and training equipment that both Fred and I use

Water vehicles... like the submarine that a certain idiot lost... and recently also land vehicles, although the long-term goal is to design flying vehicles

Process and production automation as you have already seen

Generators, motors, gears and many of the components necessary to manufacture our final products, which also includes the processing of steel...

And recently we also make home appliances to make people's lives more comfortable!

Like my last star product, the air conditioning! Stay cool or warm from winter to summer!"

For years now, Fred has investigated the current state of technology in the world of One Piece. A strange world in which technologies from the 16th century, the 21st century and science fiction coexisted without much sense with each other… at least until you understand that One Piece is a post-apocalytic world

Generally, at least on some islands, it was possible to find some technologies similar to those that existed in Fred's original world, but they weren't easy to find in all places and some of them didn't even exist.

That's why Fred encouraged Stephen to fill that market niche!

Many times Fred had no idea how many of his "revolutionary ideas" actually worked, but Stephen just needed some basic concept to bring it to reality one way or another.

A true genius on the same level as Franky or even higher in Fred's opinion!

"We also manufacture all the poisons, antidotes and classified substances that I use to exterminate pirates" Said Fred, who took over from Stephen to explain his exclusive area of work. "Not forgetting the aphrodisiacs... for animals... that allowed the real Po to be born in the first place.

Invigorating shakes loaded with vitamins, proteins and some caffeine to train, work or whatever requires physical effort... or to recover from said effort

A vegetable fuel made with a special sunflower imported from the Grand Line that I am genetically modifying

[Painkiller], a very good anesthesia that calms the pain throughout the body but still allows you to be awake and 100% operational.

My recent and dear dream come true...

The [Dream Killer]! That eliminates sleep in 24 hours and provides the body with enough antioxidants and nutrients to make lack of sleep not a mortal problem and thus be able to train, work and study for hours and hours without rest.

And also my [Wound Welder], which we will finally start distributing after relocating the headquarters"

An explanation and piece of news that made the Steel family quite happy

"Finally!" Roxanne said on behalf of everyone, happy to finally see that a product so useful to people and with so many possibilities of bringing them economic benefits would finally reach the market "After so many years we can finally put it on sale!"

However, while the Steel family was happy, the poor Perona was very confused "I don't understand...

Why do you say that? Don't you sell the things you make?"

"Yes, we sell things...

For years we have been selling very practical training equipment that even Marines buy and the same goes for invigorating shakes and anesthesia.

The dream killer that we launched a few months ago is a relative success, as are the appliances, which are starting to sell quite well but…" Stephen answered while scratching his head trying to find the right words to express this situation "But the vast majority of things we make we keep for our own use.

In general we're more focused on research and strengthening ourselves than on selling for now"

However, as expected, Perona didn't understand this approach. Perona wasn't stupid and despite being very childish and sometimes irrational, she understood how common sense worked, but even so she was just a 10-year-old girl unable to understand the logic of adults… or at least adolescents with twisted minds.

"No, I don't understand...

Selling all your products isn't incompatible with your objectives" Perona asked as she looked at Marlon with kawaii eyes to increase the chances that they would answer her question. "Wouldn't earning more money selling your products help you have more resources to research and strengthen yourself?" 

In principle yes...

But that leads to some problems... or at least that's what Fred says..." Responded Marlon, collaborator and shareholder of [FreedSteel] and a man who wanted to have another daughter who was forced to reveal his secrets upon seeing that cute little face "Leaving aside how complicated it's to put certain types of weapons and poisons on the market, we don't want to strengthen potential enemies with our products

We also don't want them to discover their weaknesses and develop countermeasures against us.

Furthermore, we don't have enough infrastructure, personnel or good transport channels to mass produce and distribute some or our best products like the submarines. 

The same goes for many other products that we haven't yet brought to the market or that are still in a state of research.

Besides..."

"We would need to spend a lot of time in that expansion phase, time that we wouldn't invest in strengthening ourselves personally or in our actual research…

Successful companies, especially in the age of piracy, tend to attract sons of bitches with bad intentions. The more money you make, the better future prospects you have and the more interesting your products are, the bigger and more numerous these bastards will be and worse their intentions will be.

Many companies are like a child with a million berries walking through a dangerous neighborhood. They're practically asking to be robbed

And I don't want to be like that child... especially since I'm still a child... especially in the eyes of certain adult bastards 

Before attracting attention by moving a lot of money in a dangerous neighborhood, you must have the means to protect it and deter the bastards..." Fred answered as his face became more sinister, terrifying and violent as he imagined the possible setbacks that being successful in business could bring him "Motherfuckers who want to rob me by any means...

Whether legal or illegally...

Motherfuckers that deserve to die in the most horrible way imaginable..."

And his terrifying face of a demon expelled from hell for being too terrifying scared and at the same time confused Perona.

"And that's coming from the guy who has earned hundreds of millions of berries this last week by killing hundreds of pirates en masse…" Perona said as she hid behind Stephen, who could surely protect her in case Fred suddenly went crazy or possessed and attacked her.

Perona had known Fred for a short time, but in that short time she had seen the remains of a dangerous pirate band exterminated by him alone. She had seen him run across the sea to reach a pirate ship and destroy it. She had seen him summon giant birds to cross the sea and sharks to kill pirates. She had seen him slaughter gangsters with extreme ease, as if it were as easy as breathing. She had seen him heal people with great ease, including amputated limbs

Fred was even resistant to her Negative Hollows!

She was unable to imagine that anyone in West Blue could do anything to that scary-faced monster.

However, Fred as always, had a different opinion than the social majority.

"SO WHAT IF I'M STRONG ENOUGH TO KILL MANY LOW LEVEL PIRATES!?

Can I do anything if several Haki masters come after me?

Can I do anything if an Akuma No Mi Logia user starts stalking me?

Can I do anything if a Yonkou targets me and comes with his entire gang?

Can I do anything if the Navy classifies me as enemy number one and sends the three admirals to kill me?

Can I do anything if the world government orders all CPOs to kill me for tax evasion?

Can I do anything if an ancient weapon suddenly destroys this fucking island with all of us on it?

CAN I DO SOMETHING IF THE SUPREME GOD OF ALL REALITY WANTS TO CREATE ME AND KILL ME FOR FUN!?

¡NO! 

I'd be screwed! They'd kill me, I'd get screwed, or I'd have to give up a lot of my plans to run from them!

DO YOU UNDERSTAND IT!?" Fred shouted with crazy eyes while shaking Persona, whom no one could protect from Fred's rapid maneuvers "NOW AND UNTIL THE DAY OF MY DEATH I WILL BE AN INSIGNIFICANT SHIT IN THIS GREAT OMNIVERSE AND THAT'S WHY I HAVE TO BE CAUTION AND BEHAVE AS SUCH!"

And now Perona, safe in Stephen's arms, disoriented by the shaking, half-deaf by the screams, confused by this unexpected reaction and almost hallucinating by the absurd message that Fred had vomited over her… she looked at the Steel family so that she could give him a lodge explanation that could justify this abrupt reaction

"Well...

Fred has always been... extremely negative..." Roxanne answered on behalf of everyone "So much so that sometimes it's even scary and heartbreaking"

An explanation that at first Perona only treated as a half-explanation that wasn't enough to explain the strange phenomenon that she had witnessed

However…

Remembering that Fred was immune to his Negative Hollows, she began to understand that Roxanne's absurd explanation wasn't only true, it was possible and could explain that reaction...

In fact, it was even worse than she could have come to think...

"No... this can't be possible...

The... the reason why you aren't affected by my Negative Hollows is…" Perona said with tears falling from her round eyes while she looked at Fred with great pity "POOR LITTLE THING!

Why do you have such mentality even though you're so strong?

Sniff… sniff…"

"Don't you dare cry about this nor try to comfort me!" Fred shouted, stopping Perona before she started putting on a show just like she did when they said goodbye to Robin "Now let's show you the jewel in the crown

Quickly, we have to train after that"

By pressing a hidden lever under four hidden trapdoors, a small trapdoor was opened in a remote part of the ceiling in which there was another room almost as large as the previous one, also equipped with to technological and biological research machine.

However, there was something different from the other room. There was no exact distinction between the technological or biological sections, as if both areas worked together on common projects. 

And furthermore, the equipment in that room seemed to be newer, more expensive, and more powerful than they saw before.

"And here's the secret secret laboratory where we develop the most cutting-edge and sensitive research" said Stephen, once again presenting another department of the laboratory "Projects in which engineering and biology work side by side at the same time!"

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You'll be able to see 8 chapters in advance in my Pa-treon

pa-treon.com/user?u=83938371