“Worororo, Linlin, you really are quite the schemer.
Seven days from now, the usual place. Let’s have a proper talk.”
Click.
After leaving the time and location, Kaido hung up the Den Den Mushi directly, the expression on his face turning impatient.
“That old hag is getting more and more annoying. Even if she’s calling in a favor, there should be a limit.”
He admitted that he owed Charlotte Linlin a favor, but every time something happened, she would bring it up. Once or twice was fine, but being constantly reminded of it by her made Kaido very displeased.
Now he wanted Charlotte Linlin to use up that favor as soon as possible, so things would be much more convenient afterward.
“Alright, my business is finished. What were you saying just now?
Right, an alliance. Since everything’s happening at once, how about waiting for that old hag? She still carries enough weight for this.”
“That might be troublesome. You know, our alliance also represents the nations behind us, and I have a very good relationship with the giants of Elbaf.”
“I’m familiar with a few giants too, but that old hag is the public enemy of the giants. Looks like this alliance will be a lot more complicated.”
“We can discuss the specific details slowly, but I have one condition. I want to visit Wano Country first and pay a visit to a few people along the way. That’s my only request.”
Tap, tap, tap.
Kaido crossed his arms over his chest, his fingers rhythmically tapping against his elbow.
He could more or less guess who in Wano Country Shanks couldn’t forget. After thinking for a moment, Kaido did not refuse Shanks.
“If you want to come, then come. But you’ll have to bear the consequences of whatever you do.”
“Of course.”
Buru buru buru—
Before Shanks could finish speaking, the sound of a Den Den Mushi ringing came from him again.
“You seem pretty busy too.”
“It’s nothing. Just some annoying people. No need to bother with them.”
Shanks didn’t answer the call. Instead, he directly removed the communication device attached to the Den Den Mushi’s back.
With a slight squeeze of his hand, the removed parts turned into a pile of fragments.
Seeing Shanks’s strange behavior, Kaido simply took out Rotom and pressed a few buttons. Soon, a Corviknight Taxi arrived, taking Shanks along as they left Kuja.
The matter of settling the island would be handled by others. Since he had already completed the transportation work, there was no need for him to continue wasting time here.
Compared to Kaido and Shanks, the emotions of others were far less stable. For example, the five old geezers in Mariejois.
They were the ones who had just tried to contact Shanks’s Den Den Mushi. However, Shanks, having already made his decision, had no intention of answering the call. He no longer wished to continue meaningless conversations with them.
Once both sides had lost trust in each other, so-called communication was nothing but a joke.
“Shanks… as expected, pirates ultimately can’t be trusted.”
“It seems we underestimated the thoughts of these pirates. The Eternal Pose didn’t make them fight each other, instead, it brought them together?”
“That really was a miscalculation. We made the wrong decision.”
“Not entirely. At least many pirates have begun harassing their territories. The Marine forces that were under pressure have been somewhat relieved because of it.”
The five of them remained relatively calm, but the Marines were a different story.
“Seven days from now, the usual place. Let’s have a proper talk…”
Kaido’s words echoed throughout the intelligence room.
The method they had used for communication just now was the Den Den Mushi.
Since its encryption was inferior to Rotom and there was no White Den Den Mushi being used for anti-eavesdropping, the communication between Kaido and Charlotte Linlin had just been intercepted by the Marines and the World Government’s Intelligence Branch.
This was also why the Five Elders wanted to contact Shanks again. They still wanted to confirm some things. However, things did not develop the way they had expected.
“An alliance… The monsters left behind from the Rocks era. Have they finally gathered together again?”
“Not only that, Red-Haired Shanks, the youngest Emperor of the Sea, has also gotten involved with them. If the three of them really form an alliance, it might be even more terrifying than the Rocks Pirates back in the day.”
“Um… Inspector General Sengoku, who exactly was Rocks?”
Inside the Marine meeting room, the younger Vice Admirals had gathered together. Because of this incident, Marine Headquarters had urgently assembled all Vice Admirals. Even those unable to reach headquarters in person were participating in the meeting through Den Den Mushi.
Even Sengoku, who had mostly retired, had been brought back.
The older generation of Marines knew exactly what Sengoku was talking about, but the younger ones were different. Those Marines who had grown up in the new era had no idea who this “Rocks” Sengoku mentioned was.
“He was an extremely powerful pirate, so powerful that the World Government wanted to erase all traces of his existence. Whitebeard, the Golden Lion, Kaido, Big Mom, Captain John, Ochoku—these people were once all members of Rocks’ crew.
Put that way, you should understand just how powerful Rocks himself was.
Back then Kaido hadn’t fully grown yet, but Whitebeard and the Golden Lion were in their prime. Yet Rocks was still able to suppress them with his own strength. You could say he commanded a pirate crew that almost overturned the entire world.”
“But we won, didn’t we?”
“That’s right, we won before, and we will win again! We are the Marines, the ones who represent justice on the seas. We will never lose to a bunch of pirates!”
At the head seat of the conference table, Akainu slammed the desk with his fist, boosting the morale of the Marines in the room.
Under his leadership, Marine morale rose once again. However, the Marines who had experienced the Rocks era still looked extremely grave.
Especially people like Sengoku, he knew very well that the situation from back then would be difficult to replicate.
Rocks’ subordinates were never truly united. Once Rocks began to show signs of defeat, his crew scattered and each went their own way to seek their own futures.
Moreover, defeating Rocks had been the result of an alliance with pirates.
It had been the result of Roger and the current Marine Hero Garp fighting together.
Finding two people who could match Roger and Garp again would not be easy. And what’s more, the enemy they faced now was not a single Rocks, but a group of even more troublesome individuals.
Strategically, they could look down on their opponents, but tactically they dared not relax in the slightest. In order to maintain high morale within the Marines, they could only use their past victory to inspire the troops.
At the same time, they were also requesting more reinforcements. No matter how one looked at it, the Marines’ current top-tier combat power was insufficient to deal with an alliance of three Emperors of the Sea.
“Everyone here already knows that the three most threatening pirate crews on the seas today may form an alliance.
So now we move to today’s agenda, how should we sabotage their alliance?”
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