The Invisible Hand?

League of Legends Trivia:

Among the three jumping ninjas— Kennen, Akali, and Shen—when two jumping ninjas are on the same side, both ninjas' maximum health decreases. When three jumping ninjas are on the same side, all three jumping ninjas' maximum health decreases by 2.

The reason is that ninjas always act alone, and they suffer a debuff when they act together.

Ma Qiao believes this is utter nonsense.

When the three ninjas join forces, they can go toe-to-toe with a demigod!

Ma Qiao recruited the entire Kinkou Order trio in one go and bought them corresponding skins.

This was certainly a huge sum of money, so much so that Ma Qiao was unable to teach his beloved disciple the Flying Thunder God Technique.

No problem, recruiting these three heroes is definitely worth it, and you'll break even quickly.

Ma Qiao firmly believed this.

Putting aside their fighting abilities, their very identity as ninjas is enough to be a threat to a chuunibyou (delusional) teenager like King Luffy.

In the Zou arc of the original Zou, not only carefree guys like Luffy and Chopper, but even the usually calm and cool Zoro and Law were filled with deep anticipation for the appearance of ninjas.

After all, how many immature teenagers can withstand Shadow Clone Jutsu, Body Flicker Technique, and Substitution Jutsu?

Of course, these techniques are probably the specialty of the rogue ninja child, Jie, but since we're allies, it's not a big problem to fool him a little.

Speaking of which, Kennen is skilled in lightning-based ninjutsu, and Ma Qiao did consider sending him to deal with Enel.

However, it turns out that Kennen, the Electric Rat, is not immune to lightning.

Thinking about it, it makes sense. After all, even Brand can be Ignite to death; there's no way to explain that.

Aside from their ninja identity, what's best about these heroes is that they have a complete set of medical-themed skins!

Attending physician, intern nurse, and medical doctor—what an excellent team!

Of course, the attending physician's skill level was still somewhat lacking.

Ma Qiao wasn't quite sure what the world of One Piece was like, but back in his hometown, you absolutely needed a title like "professor" or "director" to impress the elderly.

If we're talking about who's the number one scalpel in League of Legends, then it's definitely Dr. Dr. Mundo, the Madman of Zaun, who can go wherever he wants.

Although in the backstory, Dr. Dr. Mundo's title was self-proclaimed.

Moreover, his famous saying is, "I am a good doctor; the patients I see never relapse a second time."

But that's not important.

With his extensive experience in "surgery" and the assistance of the ninja trio, he could certainly handle most common ailments.

As for the claim that Dr. Mundo's appearance is vastly different from the doctor's, that simply shows a lack of understanding of One Piece.

Not to mention that Kureha and the like don't look like doctors at all, even Hogback, Chopper's idol and so-called genius surgeon, doesn't look as good as Dr. Mundo, according to Ma Qiao's aesthetic sense!

If Hogback can become a respected surgeon, then Dr. Mundo, with a little dressing up, certainly won't have any problem.

As it turns out, the oblivious Garp immediately called to make an appointment at the clinic after seeing Dr. Mundo's "impressive" resume.

The service at [Zaun General Hospital] is also very attentive.

Intern nurse Akali also took on the role of a front desk operator.

Like most private hospitals in a certain system, [Big Bird General Hospital] has a really good service attitude, regardless of its medical skills.

Akali's professional and sweet voice pleased the old scoundrel Garp greatly.

After paying a registration fee of two thousand Beli, Garp scheduled his surgery for a month later, and also booked himself a moxibustion health care package and a phototherapy skin rejuvenation package.

From Marineford to Foosha Village, and then to King Luffy (whose hammer was used to convince him), we took him to the still-gone [Big Bird General Hospital] in the Shurima Desert. A month was a bit tight, but it was basically all done.

Next, Ma Qiao began to organize manpower to build a landmark building in the Shurima Town — the Big Bird Public Welfare General Hospital.

Speaking of which, the medical level in the One Piece world is really a bit off.

On one hand, they have reached the level of manually developing biological viral monoclonal antibodies, while on the other hand, they are still stuck in the primitive old Western medicine model of master-apprentice teaching.

Although the main purpose of building the Big Bird Public Welfare General Hospital was to steal the body tissue of the Sun God, Ma Qiao did not intend to do it in one fell swoop.

The world of One Piece is so vast, and Alabasta happens to be near the Drum Kingdom, a world-renowned medical powerhouse (Chopper's hometown).

It is said that the Drum Kingdom earns an astronomical amount of foreign exchange each year through medical services, easily providing this country, which is shrouded in ice and snow all year round, with enough money to pay for the Heavenly Tribute.

With Dr. Mundo and the Three Ninjas as the core, and recruiting medical talent from the Drum Kingdom to transform Shurima into a new medical capital, this is clearly a good idea.

Saving lives and helping the wounded, while making some money on the side, isn't shameful.

Therefore, Ma Qiao set very high standards for the construction of the Big Bird Public Welfare General Hospital, and absolutely did not allow any shoddy construction to occur.

Shurima's population has now doubled to over five thousand.

The reason for such rapid growth was certainly not that the residents responded to Baron Ma Qiao's call to have three children, but rather that the Shurima Desert gradually converged here.

To Ma Qiao's surprise, the population was surprisingly well-educated, with a high literacy rate, and many of them were even engineers.

All of this seems extremely incongruous with the current state of Alabasta's decline.

Vivi told Ma Qiao that the original Alabasta Kingdom was rich and beautiful, and the people had a high standard of living.

However, for reasons she wasn't entirely clear about, the kingdom had been on a downward spiral since before she was even born, and the current "natural" disasters had only exacerbated the situation.

Ma Qiao nodded, indicating that he understood.

Countries like Iraq in my past life were in a similar situation. Once the whole country fell into turmoil, well-educated engineers and college students who had previously lived decent lives would become worthless.

Construction site in the northern Shurima Town.

The sky was cloudless and the sun blazed overhead.

The climate along the Grand Line is unpredictable; each island has its own unique climate.

Alabasta and Drum Kingdom are at the same latitude, yet they are worlds apart.

Baron Ma Qiao, dressed in the same blue overalls as his fellow workers, wearing a yellow helmet and with his sleeves rolled up, inspected the hospital construction site.

Baron Ma Qiao's arrival was met with enthusiastic cheers from the crowd.

These refugees, who gathered from all over the desert, were given jobs, cheap food, housing, and electricity by Ma Qiao, who even promised to provide their children with free education in the future. No amount of gratitude could be too much for them.

After all, the actions of the much-hyped Kozuki Oden in Kuri were nothing more than this, and perhaps even less impressive.

Therefore, when Baron Ma Qiao rolled up his sleeves and joined everyone in the labor, the cheers were heartfelt.

Vivi, holding a camera, kept snapping photos.

As the editor-in-chief of the "Big Bird News" column, Vivi is now proficient in various sensational writing styles, but she was still shocked by the overwhelming popularity of this article.

"You old geezer, you're really popular! Almost more popular than my father... more popular than His Cobra."

Ma Qiao shook his head modestly and said, "I only did what a lord should do. It's not that I did it too well, it's just that others did it terribly."

"Are you saying that His Cobra hasn't done a good enough job?"

Looking at Uncle Ma Qiao's arrogant, pale face, Vivi wanted nothing more than to bite his muscular arm.

Ma Qiao didn't seem to care. "It's just average, nothing special. It's only because of the contrast with its competitors."

Although Cobra is hailed as a wise ruler and is considered one of the more reliable kings attending the World Government Conference, he wouldn't be more than 2-3-0 if we were to rate him according to Paradox Interactive's game rating system.

Judging from his handling of popular uprisings, Ma Qiao doesn't need any wise rulers in Chinese history; the bald man alone could easily defeat him with one hand.

They can't handle micro-management, they can't grasp the big picture, and they can't even set up two loudspeakers to shout things like "Great victory at XX, the Communist bandits are in grave danger" or "Chairman Chiang Kai-shek inspects, the Yangtze River defense line is as solid as a rock."

Look at what he's done!

Aside from sending his daughter and the commander of his strongest unit to infiltrate the enemy camp, the latter of whom was immediately killed in action, he did nothing else.

If it weren't for King Luffy's protagonist aura, this old man wouldn't even have had the chance to jump into the Rouge Well; he's truly pathetic.

So, out of respect for Vivi, Ma Qiao was already practically begging Cobra.

But clearly, Vivi was not satisfied.

In her eyes, her father was the most compassionate and benevolent king.

But Vivi opened her mouth for a long time, unable to think of any rebuttal.

After all, since this smelly old man came to Shurima, the changes in this town have been visible to the naked eye every day.

After thinking for a while, Vivi finally figured out the key point.

No matter what, this old man didn't come here to be a lord!

He's a criminal plotting to overthrow the Alabasta Kingdom, carrying out a mission assigned by Mr. 0!

"You old geezer, my father... His Cobra ordered us to produce food here, but so far we haven't produced a single grain, only a small amount of cotton. How are we going to explain this to him...?"

Vivi tentatively asked, "Shouldn't we... use Dance Powder to increase rainfall, and then supply more to that guy Cobra?"

"Well, no rush. We definitely need something as good as Dance Powder, but now's not the time..."

Ma Qiao shook his head, glancing at the endless yellow sand in the distance. "As for food... as long as I don't owe Cobra anything, that's fine. You know, in my hometown there's an ancient country that fed a hundred million people through a 'bread policy'..."

One hundred million?

Vivi's mouth dropped open, her face showing disbelief.

The "pie policy" is a cornerstone national policy for maintaining stability in many Middle Eastern countries, including Egypt, Syria, and Turkey.

For example, Egypt, whose national conditions are highly similar to those of Alabasta, has completely abandoned domestic food self-sufficiency since the 1960s and 70s under the guidance of Adam Smith's economics (the so-called 'invisible hand' theory) and the instigation of Western countries, and has converted the farmland along the Nile River into Flower Fields.

The high economic value of cotton has led to a significant increase in farmers' income and a rapid rise in the country's foreign exchange reserves.

The Egypt government then used this foreign exchange to buy cheap wheat on the international market, made it into flatbread, and sold it to its citizens at extremely low prices to sustain their livelihoods.

Everything looks wonderful.

But soon, the true intentions were revealed.

With its food supply cut off, Egypt quickly became a puppet state. Not only was it forced to defect to Israel in the Middle East war and lose its status as a leader in the Arab world, but its domestic situation was also riddled with infiltration.

Moreover, the international grain market is controlled by the four major grain traders.

Before you cleared your wheat field, the four major grain merchants could sell you grain cheaply; after you cleared your wheat field, the grain price is no longer the same...

To put it bluntly, this is nothing more than a trick that Guan Zhong old fox, used more than two thousand years ago.

Old, but useful.

The same applies to the world of One Piece.

Ma, whose goal is to become the ultimate producer in the pirate world, is naturally a staunch supporter of the "invisible hand."

Anyway, I'm one of the four major grain merchants, so I naturally have no worries.

Let's implement the "big pie" policy!

The land and manpower of Vearth are better suited for other purposes than for farming.

The name "world factory" sounds pretty good.

As the ultimate producer, the Big Bird Consortium certainly does not only monopolize high value-added industries such as mobile communications and cultural media.

The Big Bird Consortium wants to produce everything: military equipment, shipbuilding, bags, shoes, socks, screws, and ballpoint pen refills.

Ma Qiao didn't have any brilliant ideas on how to eliminate exploitation.

The only option is to follow the capitalist path, adhering to the principle of "if I don't go to hell, who will?" and leaving other capitalists with nowhere to go.