The Strongest Marine!

Vidal's improved base coating efficiency had a short-term direct impact on allowing Dragon to leave Sabaody Archipelago earlier than expected.

That day, he went to the dock to see Dragon off, but just as Dragon was about to board the ship, he suddenly turned around and said to Vidal in a deep voice.

"As your classmate and friend, Vidal, I sincerely hope that you can become a true naval officer, a righteous naval officer whose mission is to protect the people!"

In front of everyone, Vidal raised an eyebrow upon hearing this and chuckled, "Why are we bringing this up again? Of course I'm a Marine, and I have my own code of justice."

"To me, justice means maintaining world order. I believe no true civilian would enjoy a chaotic environment, so anyone who attempts to threaten the government and naval order is my enemy, Forrest Vidal's enemy!"

As he spoke, his eyes sharpened, and an aura emanated from him that made those around him tense.

"Of course, I aspire to rise to a higher position within the Order of the Seas, to become the Fleet Admiral of the Marine Headquarters!"

As always, Vidal made no attempt to conceal his ambition; a few green Inazuma even flickered around him, but fortunately, he kept them firmly under control within his body, not wanting to cause chaos.

"The Navy's purpose shouldn't be to rise to power, but to protect. Vidal, you're mistaken!" Dragon said heavily, his voice suppressed.

"Standing in a higher position allows you to protect more people, I don't see any problem with that. By the way, the premise is that you have to follow the World Government's order, otherwise you can only be considered a mob, a pirate." Vidal curled his lip indifferently.

"You were captured and enslaved, and once you escaped, you became a mob. Tell me, where is justice?!" Dragon roared in fury, his aura almost tangible, and even the sea breeze seemed to freeze for a moment.

"Then protect yourselves. The navy isn't their parents; how can they protect them all the time? If you become a slave, just accept your bad luck, or pray you meet a good person. Anyway, just follow the rules." Vidal's face also turned cold, and he met Dragon's gaze expressionlessly.

"Dragon, if you hate the slave trade so much, then go and deal with the pirates or the slave traders."

"I don't recall any law prohibiting the navy from dealing with slave traders. You can go and kill them; I'm sure no one will say anything."

This is the most bizarre situation in the world: the World Government recognizes the slave trade, but has not explicitly stated that it will protect those who 'create' slaves.

Therefore, in theory, when the navy encounters slave traders who are capturing civilians, they can treat them as pirates. This also means that very few slave traders would go to islands with Marine Bases to capture people.

What is slavery as defined by law?

This refers to those who have already been sold to human auctions, or those who have been sold through auctions.

The two have in common, besides both wearing explosive collars around their necks, and both have already been financially transacted, with ownership belonging to the auction house or the buyer.

To put it bluntly, the World Government only protects the auction itself and the buyers!

Therefore, capturing people and selling them for money actually carries a high risk, and the treatment is really no different from that of pirates.

In the end, Vidal and Dragon parted on bad terms, but the former still watched with composure as the latter's warship disappeared from sight before returning to the base with a sullen face, looking very unhappy.

This caused everyone, including Lieutenant Isoka and the others behind him, to be so tense that they didn't dare to breathe.

Soon, the clash of justice between the two bigwigs quietly spread throughout the base.

"Heh, that kid Dragon, he actually got angry even though we agreed it was just a performance. Sigh, he still lacks composure."

Vidal locked himself in his office, leaning back in his soft, comfortable chair and chuckling to himself.

"But it's good this way, it looks more realistic. If I wasn't worried that going too far would arouse suspicion, I would have been ready to fight him."

The scene they just witnessed was something they had planned in the parallel universe of the Door-Door Fruit.

Since Dragon will defect after arriving at the G-3 Branch in the New World, why not cooperate with him and give him a big surprise!

This can be seen as squeezing out all the remaining value he had during his time in the navy. I believe that once this gets to the ears of certain people, their trust in him will increase significantly.

[Knock knock!]

Just then, there was a knock on the door, Vidal casually let him in.

"Base Commander, this is a supplement to the World Economy News Paper." Lieutenant Isoka gently placed the newspaper on the desk.

At this moment, Vidal's table, though not as piled high with documents as Sengoku teacher's, still had several dozen documents on it; after all, the Sabaody Archipelago was neither too big nor too small.

As for the source of the incident, it mainly involved some trouble in a certain area, which was then dealt with by Comil, Vincent, and others.

But as I said before, although there were many things to do, he enjoyed it.

"Additional issue?"

This piqued Vidal's interest; generally, for the World Economy News Paper to need an additional issue, something interesting must have happened.

Just as Isoka was quietly leaving the office, he opened the thin few pages of the newspaper and immediately saw the headline on the front page.

The Lament of the Happo Navy of the West Blue: The Chinjao Cone is Gone!

In addition to lines of detailed text, the first page also includes two very high-resolution images: one showing Garp's Iron Fist shattering Chinjao's cone-shaped head, and the other showing Green Pepper's head collapsing and Chinjao wailing.

"Oh, so that's what it is. It seems Vice Admiral Garp has come out." Vidal chuckled. With this, the Navy has gained another world-class combatant.

The "top-tier" he refers to isn't simply the top-level combat power, but rather the top-tier combat power among the top-level combat power. With Garp's Iron Fist fully mastered, the only ones who can now contend with him one-on-one are probably Whitebeard and Roger.

As for the Navy itself, Garp has undoubtedly become number one.

Vidal had heard Sengoku and Zephyr occasionally mention that the four of them were actually about the same strength, but that was in the past. Garp had taken it a step further.

"Now that Chinjao is finished, can we go and retrieve the treasure he stored in the polar Iceburg?"

As for how to break through that thick layer of ice, well, no problem, he happens to know an expert on ice, they can go and take a look together.

As for whether this will provoke the ire of the Happo Navy and Chinjao, well, let's just say it's best to laugh it off.

Let him do it if he dares!

Without the sharp-edged Chinjao, Vidal wasn't really that worried. As for the Happo Navy, tsk tsk tsk, he wasn't alone. If they had the guts, they should openly attack the naval fleet!

They'll all be arrested and thrown into Impel Down.

"Phew—but this will take at least a year. Thankfully, I remember those treasures weren't retrieved even decades later."

At the same time, Vidal took a Den Den Mushi from his coat pocket and dialed the number.

[Poluporu, Polluporu]

"Hello?"

"Woonan, how's the search for that island going?"

"Patriarch, we are still searching. As for when we will find it, I cannot give a specific answer. After all, this is a matter of luck, and we can only leave it to luck. Even though I am an ability user, I cannot know the outcome in advance," Woonan replied helplessly.

"I have a suggestion for you: take the Route 4 first. There's a high chance the desert island is on that route!"

"Uh, I understand!"

Although Woonan wanted to ask what the basis for this was, he didn't say anything, because he felt that even if he asked Vidal, he wouldn't be able to explain it.