A Win-Win Cooperation

In the men's competition, Shaco of the Buggy Pirates emerged victorious, securing three points.

Absalom was the first to be eliminated, with zero points.

Pica finished second, earning one point.

After the men's and women's rounds of competition, the Buggy Pirates secured four points, achieving final victory.

Thanks to the outstanding performance of Ghost Princess Perona, the Moria Pirates ranked second with a score of three points.

Baby5 from the Donquixote Family and Pica each received one point, placing them last with a total of two points.

This result made Buggy and Moria very happy.

Buggy, of course, needs no further explanation.

"It's only right that I, your grandpa, won first place, because this era is called Red Nose!"

Buggy held the phone in his left hand, rotating it 360 degrees to capture his imposing figure with incredible realism.

Meanwhile, Buggy's livestream was overflowing with gifts.

The Big Bird Platform reluctantly took half of the profits.

For Moria, losing to the invincible Buggy Pirates wasn't the key issue; the key issue was that he defeated the ever-arrogant Doflamingo, which brought him great joy.

Moria invites Buggy and his group, along with Doflamingo group, to visit Ghost Castle.

Doflamingo refused, his face turning ashen.

Watching Moria, whom he usually looked down upon, swagger around in front of him was pure torture for Doflamingo.

Using an excuse, he took the battered and bruised Pica and returned to the Doflamingo Pirates' ship.

Even the weapons that were transported were not handed over to Moria.

It's too risky for Emperor Clown Buggy to be engaging in this illegal trade. If it were broadcast live, it would affect the legitimacy of Doflamingo's rule in Dressrosa.

At least at this moment, Doflamingo still cares a great deal about his status as the king of World Government Member States.

Ultimately, only the crew of the Going Buggy-senpai accepted the invitation.

However, Buggy and the others soon regretted it.

Moria's castle is far from being a habitable place.

It was cold, damp, and dark, with a faint smell of rotting corpses.

In this godforsaken place, no matter how delicious the food is, it's simply impossible to eat.

Ma Qiao looked at his well-defined eight-pack abs and sighed.

If I were overweight, I might consider coming here to lose weight, but unfortunately, my figure is even more like Yu Yan 'Yu Yan, there's simply no room for improvement.

Moria was keen to give Emperor Clown Buggy and the Ma Qiao brothers, who had friends all over the world, a proper welcome, but unfortunately, the Moria Pirates' finances had been in a bad state lately.

Furthermore, since their pirate crew's chefs were all zombies, you can imagine how bad their food tasted.

Ma Qiao barely touched his food.

Only Yamato and silly girl, could drink and eat Devour while being served attentively by Long-Legged Maid.

The food wasn't great, but the wine was pretty good; it was all Short-Lived Ghost wines I bought online from the Big Bird Platform.

Buggy and his cronies were also enthusiastic about the big party.

They drank and boasted, having a great time.

Buggy and Doctor Hogback, in particular, got along very well.

Hogback was an expert in surgery and had an excellent understanding of the human body.

Buggy is skilled at tearing his body to pieces.

The two exchanged experiences, learned from each other's strengths and made up for each other's weaknesses, and both gained a lot.

Buggy even split his own body on the spot so that Hogback could study it.

If Moria hadn't been quite charismatic as a leader, Hogback might have switched sides on the spot.

The only one who was injured was probably Absalom.

Hogback examined his buttocks and determined that major surgery was needed to heal them.

Moreover, the repair materials needed are said to be very difficult to find.

The kind-hearted teacher, Ma Qiao, once again contributed his share.

The half-rotten corpse, a buttock from Saint Charlos's contribution, was brought over by the elusive Twisted Fate Twisted Fate and given to Doctor Hogback.

Hogback praised it repeatedly, saying that the buttocks were perfect for sewing onto Absalom's body.

After several rounds of drinks, the guests and hosts were all in high spirits.

The group was then led by the zombie servants to their respective resting places.

Ma Qiao thought Moria was very out of touch with reality.

They actually prepared two rooms for him and Yamato.

Most importantly, Yamato and Baby 5 were actually in the same room.

Fortunately, as is customary in the Jianghu, when staying in unfamiliar places, Ma Qiao would always arrange for scouts and guards in advance to protect his lovely students.

This time was no exception.

Under the pretext of inspecting the room, Ma Qiao first Scan every corner of the Yamato House to make sure there were no malicious perverts who had placed cameras or anything like that, and then placed the disposable prosthetic eye.

Just as he returned to his room and was about to lie down on the sofa to check the effectiveness of his prosthetic eye, someone knocked on Ma Qiao door—something both logical and unexpected.

This person is the master of this place, Gecko Moria of the Shichibukai.

He had made up his mind to lose weight and get back to his former glory, so he could seduce Alvida.

But his biggest challenge right now is that his long-term lazy and unproductive lifestyle has made him lose the perseverance and willpower to stick to losing weight.

Upon hearing of Ma Qiao's prestigious Jianghu in the medical field, Moria conceived the idea of seeking medical treatment from him.

Ma Qiao opened the door and invited the patient, who suffered from body image anxiety, in.

To be honest, after so many years of Jianghu, Teacher Ma has quite a bit of expertise in how to make people fat, but helping fat people lose weight is something he has never done before.

Do you have money?

Ma Qiao asked the most crucial question.

These days, losing weight and getting in shape is an expensive business. If you don't have money, Fitness Trainer won't even bother with you.

Moria's chin, which was stuck to his neck, opened slightly, revealing a hesitant expression.

He's not like Whitebeard II., a pirate who runs around the world burning, killing, and looting, nor is he like Crocodile or Doflamingo, pirates with a complete supply chain.

Moria has been holed up in the Florian Triangle for over twenty years, making a living by capturing passing pirates and merchant ships, with very limited income.

His main source of wealth was the treasure he casually unearthed from a grave Kaido in Wano Country.

But after so many years, their savings have dwindled. Add to that Hogback's need to buy corpses, Perona's obsession with breast enhancement products, Absalom's addiction to Erotic Audiovisual Products, and Moria's purchase of various snacks through mukbang videos, and they've practically squandered everything.

"Money is the key to having a good figure!"

Ma Qiao said with great distress, "Brother Moria, you've been a renowned pirate for a long time, how come you haven't found a way to get rich?!"

"Are we going to have Hogback perform surgery on someone else again? His appearance fee seems quite high..." Moria said weakly.

"You always expect your subordinates to solve every problem? Brother Moria, that's not the attitude of a captain..."

Ma Qiao stepped forward and patted Moria's round belly, earnestly advising, "You need to change your approach; you can't keep going down the old path of stealing other people's shadows..."

To reiterate, Ma Qiao doesn't have a particularly strong opposition to human experimentation.

However, the indiscriminate killing of innocent people as experimental subjects, and the use of innocent children for human experiments, are acts that can never be whitewashed.

The Moria Pirates' actions of grave robbing, corpse exhumation, stealing the shadows of passing travelers, and creating Zombie Army are equally unacceptable.

However, if we change our approach, Moria's abilities might just be able to achieve a win-win situation.

While pinching his stomach, Ma Qiao asked, "Brother Moria, have you ever heard of Impel Down?"

"You mean Impel Down? Of course I've heard of it."

When Moria said this, a deep sense of apprehension flashed in his eyes.

Impel Down, with its many terrifying titles, is undoubtedly synonymous with hell in the minds of any pirate.

Even though he was Shichibukai, and even though he had the World Government's permission, Moria would still dream of being imprisoned in that dark and hopeless place.

Moreover, this nightmare didn't just appear out of nowhere.

Moria also heard that the World Government was very dissatisfied with its lack of effort and decline in strength over the years.

If they cannot prove their worth, they may very well be removed from the list of the Shichibukai by the World Government.

It would be impossible to say that Moria was completely unconcerned about this.

But he couldn't think of a better way. He could only hope that Oars' zombie would be completed soon, so he could go to the New World to challenge Kaido and turn the tables on himself.

But Ma Qiao's sudden appearance here gave him another option.

"Brother Moria, you may have heard that I have a very good relationship with Marineford?"

Ma Qiao said with a smile, "Actually, I can also speak up over there at the Impel Down."

Moria's pupils contracted, and his awe of the unfathomable Mr. Ma Qiao before him grew even stronger.

The ability to be on friendly terms with four of the Five Emperors and to establish connections with two of the three major agencies directly under the World Government is truly terrifying.

However, Moria was still somewhat puzzled when Ma Qiao mentioned the Impel Down.

You can't exactly say that he'll give you special treatment when you're locked up someday, can you?

That's so unlucky.

Fortunately, Ma Qiao changed the subject. "I have a friend who just became the Vice Warden Impel Down and is eager to make a name for himself..."

The friend Ma Qiao mentioned was none other than Chief Warden Thresh.

More than half a year ago, during the Water 7 Spring Recruitment Drive, Thresh, along with three other heroes, was recruited by Impel Down and Marine Headquarters respectively.

Unlike Darius, Caitlyn, and Sett, Thresh started at level seven and was quickly leveled up to level nine, which is a very high level.

This was to allow him to advance quickly, gain greater power, and travel through the various prison levels to collect souls.

Furthermore, Impel Down's talent pool was far less abundant than Marineford's, so Thresh quickly rose to prominence and was promoted ahead of schedule.

He has now become the Vice Warden, on par with Domino.

Ma Qiao, omitting the beginning and end, gave a brief, half-true, and half-false introduction to Thresh, the hottest character in Impel Down.

Then he continued, "Thresh new Vice Warden, Thresh is making a big splash. He has already applied to Warden Magellan to try to open up a Level 4.5 underground prison between the fourth level of the Blazing Hell and the fifth level of the Freezing Hell, to imprison some heinous criminals who are particularly cunning and have no sense of right and wrong, becoming a destabilizing factor in the prison."

"When I had dinner and chatted with the Thresh Vice Warden before, he mentioned these difficulties in his work to me. Now that I've seen your abilities, I have a great idea."

"If I were to act as a go-between, helping you establish official cooperation with Impel Down, you would gain access to many powerful Shadows, while Impel Down would create a new Shadowless Hell —an ultimate hell where prisoners must endure Torture by Ice and Fire, with no escape!"

Moria's eyes lit up as he listened to Ma Qiao's blueprint.

Moria didn't care what kind of suffering his fellow pirates, thrown into the gap between ice and fire, would face.

He realized that if Professor Ma Qiao really was as powerful and influential as he claimed, capable of winning over rising stars in Impel Down's political circles, he might actually become an important partner for Impel Down.

With this connection, he would never be removed from the World Government's list of Shichibukai.

This is undoubtedly a great reassurance.

Moreover, as Professor Ma Qiao said, the fourth and fifth levels of Impel Down are filled with the most vicious pirates.

Their average strength was far greater than that of the passing pirates he could catch while hiding in the Florian Triangle and relying on luck.

In fact, many of the zombies in Moria's Zombie Army didn't even use the shadows of pirates, but rather the shadows of ordinary sailors.

Their fighting strength was extremely weak, barely enough to be considered nonexistent.

Now that he has a better option, Moria naturally won't bother collecting these weak shadows anymore.

"Brother Moria, you wouldn't be scavenging shadows from the common people, would you?"

Ma Qiao asked knowingly, "And those corpses, were they dug up from graves secretly?"

"No, absolutely not. As one of the Shichibukai, I legally captured pirates. The corpses and shadows I seized were all privateerings in accordance with the World Government's regulations..."

Moria replied guiltily, "I'll have Hogback carefully examine the origins of each body later. Of course, some bodies were found by me in frozen rock layers; they are Fossil Relics and, according to regulations, should belong to me as the discoverer."

Ma Qiao nodded, understanding Moria's anxious and uncertain state of mind:

"That's good. My friend is very intolerant of any wrongdoing. If he finds out you've done anything illegal or disorderly, it could cause trade friction, which would be terrible!"

Upon hearing this, Moria patted his stomach and said righteously:

"Don't worry, I, Gecko Moria, as Shichibukai, am upright and honest, just like Doflamingo and Crocodile —a model citizen who abides by the law!"