A Contest

Moria has been having a tough time lately.

It wasn't that his Zombie Army had any problems, but rather that the Moria Pirates were experiencing a shortage of working capital.

When did this start?

Moria recalled that around a year ago, around the time when the notorious pirate Buggy the Clown was executed live in Loguetown in the East Blue, the pirate crew's cash flow began to mysteriously decrease.

More specifically, after a certain [cute and sweet Ghost Princess] tipped him off and turned the Execution Platform in Loguetown pink, Moria's financial situation deteriorated.

"Absalom!"

Moria, lying on the sofa eating potato chips, yelled at the air outside the door and threw a can of cola at it.

"Ah!"

A scream followed.

The figure of Absalom, one of the three oddballs of the Moria Pirates, Sanji's lifelong nemesis, Devil Fruit User whose hatred index is second only to Kozuki Momonosuke, slowly emerged.

Absalom is a tall man, but thanks to the genius doctor Hogback's transplanted lion's mouth, and his long blond hair, he looks somewhat like Mink Tribe. (See picture)

But without a doubt, his sexual orientation is entirely towards young, beautiful, and physically attractive human women.

At this very moment, Absalom was tiptoeing, holding a large piggy bank in his hands.

"You bastard, you've tried to steal my money again!"

Moria gritted his teeth. "Perona squandering money online is one thing, but you're getting more and more outrageous too!"

"I'm sorry, Lord Moria..."

Absalom clutched his head, stammering, "It's not entirely my fault. 'North Blue Girls' has a new work, and the manga master 'Water 7's First Purehearted' has also released a new work, 'Blonde Secretary'... Ugh, I'll put the piggy bank back right now!"

Under Moria's attack with the Coke can, Absalom quickly dropped his piggy bank and fled.

Moria rubbed his forehead; these troublesome subordinates were a real headache.

He sighed, found a more comfortable angle on the sofa, and nestled his bulky, fat buttocks inside.

Then, he took out a medium-sized Den Den Mushi, and while eating some puffed snacks, he skillfully entered the live stream room. Before long, he had ordered a whole bunch of Cocoyasi specialty snacks on the live stream channel of the competitive eater Nojiko.

Just as Moria was debating whether to get up and grab a can of frozen Big Bird Happy Water from the refrigerator, a huge explosion suddenly resounded throughout the entire Florian Triangle.

This is an undeserved disaster, absolutely an undeserved disaster.

The Thriller Bark, touted as the world's largest sailing ship. (See picture)

The scenery here can only be described as dark and gloomy.

The perpetual fog blocked out all sunlight.

Even though photosynthesis is completely impossible here, trees still grow.

It is somewhat similar to the Seducing Woods on Whole Cake Island or the Twisted Treeline in Shurima.

The trees here are all mobile and intelligent.

It's even home to all sorts of bizarre animals pieced together from various other creatures.

Of course, what's even more indispensable are the vast cemeteries and the zombies that roam among them.

Whether it's a tree that drinks alcohol, a Cerberus covered in stitches, or a zombie that plays cards, they are all essentially products of combining the surgical skills of the genius doctor Hogback with Moria's Shadow-Shadow Fruit ability.

But at this moment, these originally terrifying zombie armies are now as obedient as Ming Dynasty at the dock.

There was no other way; their leader, Moria, was facing the second biggest crisis of his life.

In the plaza at the center of the Terror Trio sailboat, three groups of people faced each other in a triangular formation.

Moria looked at the two forces that had come to his door in a menacing manner.

His gaze shifted back and forth dozens of times between the disheveled Doflamingo and the Buggy the Clown was wearing Pirate King similar to those in One Piece.

Finally, he pointed at Doflamingo and angrily rebuked him:

"Dover, you're using the King of Dressrosa's name to conduct illicit business, selling arms..."

"Uh, cough cough!"

Buggy coughed knowingly, reminding everyone, "We're live right now, so be mindful of the impact."

"Live streaming?"

Moria quickly grabbed a mirror and straightened his onion-shaped head. (See picture)

Then he tried to pull his lower abdomen in.

The result was a drop in the ocean.

The wild Supernovas with the explosive physique who once clashed with Kaido in Wano Country is now a thing of the past. (See picture)

Moria's stomach quickly rebounded, even jolting twice around his waist.

Doflamingo looked at this fat guy who was his equal, and he felt like turning him into mincemeat in a Birdcage.

Most importantly, can the business I do in the underground market be openly broadcast live to the public?

Doflamingo shook his head. "Moria, in short, my fleet was attacked on your territory. What do you say we do about it?"

"This has absolutely nothing to do with Lord Moria!"

Absalom retorted loyally, "We, the Moria Pirates, have never been interested in explosions!"

"Yes, yes, explosions are anything but cute!"

Perona, dressed in a gothic Lolita dress, with pink pigtails, holding a burgundy parasol in one hand and a plush toy in the other, floated out:

"Our Lord Moria has no money left to buy gunpowder; your accusations are utter slander!"

"How dare you, a brat, interrupt me when I'm talking to Moria!"

Doflamingo gave a disdainful sneer, raised a finger, and a thread like a bullet shot towards Perona.

Bang!

Moria's face turned ashen.

He summoned a Doppelman, which barely blocked Doflamingo's basic attack.

Although he hadn't participated in the Shichibukai's operations for a long time, Moria knew very well that he was no match for Doflamingo now.

Of course, this doesn't mean that Moria thought his pirate crew would lose to the Donquixote Family, but rather that he knew that in a king-to-king battle, his fighting strength had already fallen behind among the Shichibukai.

This is related to the development path he chose.

More than 20 years ago, Moria was very confident in his physical skills.

He even dared to engage Kaido in direct hand-to-hand combat.

However, youthful recklessness came at a high price.

All of Moria's companions died in that battle in Wano Country.

Moria, who valued his companions highly, was also severely affected by that incident, becoming despondent and turning into a couch potato.

However, he never forgot his desire to take revenge on Kaido.

He simply stopped hoping to improve his physical skills to defeat Kaido.

That's almost impossible.

So he embarked on an extreme path of accumulating a shadow army.

In fact, this kind of mass troop build is not unique to Moria.

Golden Lion, who lives in seclusion and has been researching bio-engineering technology, and Kaido, who even uses Artificial Devil Fruits to build the Beasts Pirates, are actually enthusiasts of the mass army strategy.

The only difference is that they were playing Warcraft. While mass-producing units, they didn't neglect hero levels either, while Moria was purely playing StarCraft and Red Alert.

Anyway, Ma Qiao didn't see any point in accumulating those zombies, except for hanging banners and blowing horns around the square.

Even Oars, the Demon King who was highly anticipated by Moria two years later and joined Luffy's shadow, was nothing more than a large toy.

If that thing could harm even a single hair on Kaido's head, Ma Qiao would write his name backwards.

Either lie down and become a couch potato, or work 996 (9am-9pm, 6 days a week).

Brother Moria...

Out of respect for Perona, I'll reluctantly call you Brother Moria.

You've really gone astray!

Ma Qiao appeared out of nowhere, holding sunflower seeds and peanuts.

"You two Shichibukai, let's not ruin our friendship. Let me, a mere bystander, say something fair!"

Who are you?

Moria and Doflamingo, who seemed ready to fight but actually had no desire to, turned around.

"I am a guest of Emperor Clown Buggy, an objective and impartial media professional, a true media warrior. You can call me Teacher Ma Qiao."

Ma Qiao gently patted the red scarf around his neck, making it appear even more vibrant.

"Media Warrior Ma Qiao?"

Doflamingo paused, then looked at Ma Qiao's red scarf with suspicion, feeling as if he had seen it somewhere not long ago.

But what bothered him more was the name Ma Qiao. "You're that mentor who understands human nature? The Ma Qiao received unanimous approval from Garp, Shanks, and Newgate? And now you're Emperor Clown Buggy guest?"

You wouldn't believe it until you heard it; even Doflamingo himself was shocked when he heard the details.

According to the intelligence held by the Donquixote Family, this teacher Ma Qiao was incredibly shrewd and a social butterfly among social butterflies.

"These are all just empty titles!"

While informing the programmers at NiuMa, Ekko cut and pasted the content in the background, Ma Qiao waved his hand modestly and said:

"When I was drinking with Mr. Kaido before, I even lamented that I never had the chance to see Charlotte Linlin in person!"

Upon hearing this, not only Doflamingo, but also Moria and Buggy gasped in shock.

In other words, this seemingly gentle and refined man, aside from Big Mom, already maintains good relationships with the Four Emperors and the Marine Headquarters.

Big News Morgans's social skills and connections, as previously mentioned in the news network, are nowhere near as good as Ma Qiao's!

I heard that with Big Mom Pirates, it wasn't just a matter of a tea party invitation, was it?

Thinking of this, even the most pretentious Doflamingo adopted a more egalitarian demeanor:

"So, Brother Ma Qiao, what do you think should be done about today's situation?"

Ma Qiao glanced at Baby5, who was both docile and wild, behind Doflamingo, and said with a smile:

"Brother Doflamingo, I have never been fond of fighting, but I do enjoy resolving conflicts!"

"Since the three of us are gathered here today by chance, why not foster friendship through martial arts? Let your younger brothers have a friendly spar, one that's just enough to keep things quiet. Firstly, it saves us from having to fight ourselves and hurt our feelings. Secondly, it will also entertain our viewers in the live stream. Why wouldn't we do it?"

Doflamingo and Moria exchanged a glance and both nodded, then turned to look at Buggy.

Buggy glanced at the fat woman, the animal trainer, the acrobat, and the useless lion who were shrinking behind him, with two long snot dripping from their big, red noses.