Mission: Undercover
Several months ago, Red-Haired Shanks officially declared his reign in the New World, becoming the fourth Emperor of the seas after Whitebeard Newgate (Newgate), Kaido of the Beasts), and Charlotte Linlin (Big Mom).
Although Shanks' background is very mysterious compared to the other three Emperors of the Sea, and even Sengoku and the Five Elders give him face, a pirate is still a pirate.
If someone so publicly announces their ascension to the throne, and the navy makes no move whatsoever, wouldn't they become a laughingstock to the world?
Although Ma Qiao didn't quite understand the underlying principles, according to the world's setting, the Navy, the Shichibukai, and the Emperors of the Sea formed a balance.
Now that the Three Emperors have become Four Emperors, this balance will definitely be shaken. It is highly possible that the World Government will summon the Shichibukai for a meeting, or even organize a force to march on Shanks' territory with armed troops.
At this critical moment of national upheaval, Crocodile dared not antagonize the navy and invite unnecessary trouble, so he would definitely agree to their conscription.
The above information was deduced by Ma Qiao, a candidate for the "King of Newspaper Reading," from snippets of information found in newspapers.
It wasn't until someone like Fujitora displayed his powerful aura at the Rain Dinners, Crocodile still hadn't shown up, that Ma Qiao was finally certain of Crocodile's whereabouts.
Crocodile isn't home, Ma Qiao is NTR'd...
Oh no, it's that Crocodile is not home, so Ma Qiao is king.
Ma Qiao packed up a dozen more boxes of Crocodile's favorite expensive cigars, then asked, "Since the president isn't home, Miss All Sunday, will you be the one to give the orders this time?"
Robin shook his head and pulled a Den Den Mushi (snail phone) with the Baroque Works logo and a small Den Den Mushi from the drawer. "Mr. 0 will personally call and inform you of the mission details."
The Den Den Mushi was quickly connected.
As expected, this encrypted Den Den Mushi could not reveal Crocodile's facial features.
Neither the iconic cigar nor the scar across the face is depicted on the Den Den Mushi.
A hoarse, deep voice came through the Den Den Mushi: "Ma Qiao... you're still alive, huh?"
Ma Qiao picked up the microphone. "Hey, I won't die before I get my pension."
"You're as annoying as ever..."
Crocodile paused, seemingly recalling the times he'd been annoyed by this veteran Salted Fish subordinate. "I heard about you in Marineford. To have gained the approval of the G-2 Branch is truly surprising..."
"Yeah, if the club's retirement pension doesn't increase soon, I might just switch clubs!" Ma Qiao replied honestly.
"You little brat..."
Crocodile calmed himself down again. "Alright, Mr. 7 has been taken down, you'll take his place..."
"Thank you so much, boss! You're so generous!" Ma Qiao immediately patted the Renekton's rear end.
Mr. 7 is one rank higher than Igaram, making him one of the top-ranked mid-level agents.
Under the Baroque Works' system, Ma Qiao's benefits will be greatly improved, and he will gain the power to apply for a private warship and command 500 elderly people.
"Hey kid, do you have a suitable girlfriend? Or are you going to continue working with Miss Father's Day?"
I don't know what Crocodile was thinking, but at Baroque Works, men and women working together makes the work easier; that's the company's core corporate culture.
Ma Qiao believes this is highly commendable.
But after thinking about it carefully, the original Miss Father's Day was a woman who looked like a frog. (See picture)
Ma Qiao quickly replied, "President, I'm not used to working with strangers. I have a very capable intern with me..."
"Then let her take over Miss Father's Day."
Crocodile didn't give the appointment and dismissal of these low-ranking officials much thought, "But if you mess up the task I'm about to tell you about... I'll kill you all..."
Vivi had inexplicably become a mid-level special agent, swallowed hard.
It has to be said that when Crocodile lowers his voice to threaten, he exudes a high level of swagger and is quite adept at intimidating people.
However, Ma Qiao was already immune to this, picking his ear and waiting to see what task he had to go through all the trouble of calling to personally assign.
"Operation Utopia has begun!"
Perhaps because he was facing Ma Qiao, Crocodile naturally thought of the days after he was soundly beaten by Whitebeard and had to start from scratch. He was quite Crocodile today.
After spouting dry dogma about the ignorance of the weak and the survival of the strong, Crocodile finally got to the point, speaking in the confident voice of a schemer:
"So, your mission this time is to gain the trust of King Cobra of Alabasta with your female companion, infiltrate his inner circle, and use methods such as Dance Powder to weaken his authority and make him lose the trust of the people of Alabasta!"
"Ha?"
Ma Qiao was stunned.
He glanced at Nefertari Vivi beside him, who was covering her mouth and nearly screamed upon learning of the treacherous plot, and wanted to give Crocodile a big question mark.
Dude, you can't blame King Luffy entirely for your plan failing!
This is the consequence of lax background checks!
"What, do you intend to disobey my orders?"
Crocodile's impatient voice came through the phone. "Don't worry, we already have quite a few of our people lurking around King Cobra of Alabasta. Miss. allsunday will give you the list in a bit..."
Do you know why I asked you to do this?
"Because I have worked diligently, been proactive, and dared to be a pioneer since the club's inception, all of this has been seen and remembered by you, boss?"
Crocodile: "..."
"Alright, kid, stop joking. I'm sending you on this mission because of your reputation in the G-2 Branch. With your status as a Navy-approved talent, you'll easily gain Cobra's trust..."
Due to the current drought and resulting economic hardship, Cobra is publicly recruiting a finance minister from around the world.
Didn't you claim to be 'proficient in human nature'?
Go and deal with that incompetent old king... If you fail, I'll kill you!
"Beep beep--"
After issuing a series of threats, Crocodile seemed unwilling to waste a single second talking to this veteran gang parasite and quickly hung up the phone.
Rainbase port.
Nami gazed at the exquisite little boat before her, its bow adorned with clover and flowers, her eyes sparkling.
"Joe, is this boat really free?"
"That's right, see that orange tree? That's a sapling that Nojiko Ryze to mail to us!"
Nami quickly ran onto the small boat— the Golden Nico— and jumped around happily on board.
After becoming a mid-level officer codenamed Mr. 7, Ma Qiao was granted the right to apply for his own private ship.
Using his authority, Robin slightly upgraded the ship's configuration.
Of course, to put it bluntly, this ship is only on par with the Going Merry. Although it's much better than Ma Qiao's original dilapidated ship, its actual performance is just so-so.
Having already made up his mind, he planned to create a giant bug version of Zunesha, a replica of a new "Zou". Ma Qiao, of course, didn't think much of such a small boat.
But Nami seemed extremely happy.
As a navigator, this is the first time Nami has owned her own ship.
She had so many ideas she wanted to realize on the Golden Nico.
Nami, full of enthusiasm, directed Tahm Kench, Twisted Fate, and the others to pull the mooring lines and hoist the sails. She wanted to familiarize herself with the ship's performance as quickly as possible to prepare for the upcoming voyage.
Vivi pouted, "If you knew what the clover and flowers on this ship meant, and why it's called the 'Nicole,' you wouldn't be so happy."
Just as the Going Merry was named after its financier and Merry, the Golden Nico was named after Nicole Robin.
Vivi was extremely wary of this mysterious and dangerous woman who was surprisingly gentle in front of the older man.
Of course, at this point, Vivi didn't have much energy left to worry about fire prevention, theft prevention, or defending against her sister.
Because the Golden Nico's next stop is Alubarna, the capital of Alabasta, where Vivi's father, King Cobra, is eagerly seeking a wise man to lead Alabasta out of its current crisis.
To be honest, Ma Qiao didn't quite understand Cobra's thought process.
The most important matters of state are sacrifice and war.
Aside from these two, the economy is probably the third most important thing.
Alabasta is a superpower in the first half of the Grand Line, and when there is no war, it has a full-time standing army of up to 600,000.
What does this mean?
The Republic of Korea, the world's largest country, faces immense military pressure from its powerful northern neighbor and is forced to enforce mandatory military service for all its citizens, yet its standing army numbers only 580,000.
The prototype country for Alabasta, Egypt, has a standing army of only 450,000.
South Korea has a population of 52 million, while Egypt has a population of 100 million.
Given that Alabasta cannot possibly implement a full conscription system like South Korea, and its productivity is far inferior to South Korea's, Alabasta's total population must be larger than South Korea's.
Assuming that Alabasta's productivity level reaches that of 21st-century Egypt, its population should be between 52 million and 150 million.
The claim that Alabasta has a total population of 10 million is absolutely nonsense.
As for the area of Alabasta, based on the speed and running time of Karoo in the original storyline, a series of complex calculations were performed, and its land area is approximately 465,000 square kilometers, roughly the size of HLJ province, or half the size of Egypt.
In other words, the Alabasta Kingdom was roughly a country with half the territory and a similar population of Egypt.
In the world of One Piece, a country of this size would undoubtedly be considered a major power.
It's truly baffling that in such a large country, the king would go so far as to recruit a finance minister from all over the world.
However, considering that even the mighty Marine Headquarters can conduct World Military Draft, directly promoting commoners like Fujitora and Ryokugyu to Admiral, Cobra's actions are not so puzzling.
It's either bloodline supremacy to the extreme, or meritocracy to the extreme; the political landscape of the One Piece world is truly a diode constantly flashing...
On the Golden Nico, Ma Qiao patted Vivi's head and tucked her sky-blue hair, which had been ruffled by the sea breeze, behind her ear.
The latter looked up and gave a bitter smile.
Father, lover, country, Destiny...
The girl was filled with confusion.
--A side note--
Tomorrow