Time passed bit by bit, and the world continued to turn along its own course. Affairs on Paradise Island gradually got on track, while Mafia members from all over the West Sea—note, the entire Mafia, including wealthy and influential figures connected to the fallen Charlie Family—began rushing toward Paradise Island with their guards.
The wealthy and influential figures connected to the Charlie Family were especially anxious to get there. They needed a new backer, or rather, a new partner.
Some of these wealthy and influential figures possessed considerable power themselves and did not need the Mafia's protection, but they maintained close cooperative relationships with it. Others treated the Mafia as their backer. Among them were figures from both the underworld and the legitimate world.
The original work had even said that the true rulers of the West Sea were the Mafia, not anyone else. That was not something made up out of thin air.
In the West Sea, the Mafia not only possessed formidable military strength; more frighteningly, it had woven together both the underworld and the legitimate world, even establishing an enormous network of connections with the World Government. The combination of the two was the fundamental reason the Mafia could wield such influence in the West Sea and act without restraint.
The latter was even more important than the former. Though the Mafia had a large number of people, its true experts were far inferior to the Marines, let alone the World Government. What the Marines and the World Government feared was the vast web of interests the Mafia had woven together.
The Mafia linked the underworld and the legitimate world into an immense Mafia conglomerate. It was extremely difficult to eradicate. Push it too far, and the entire West Sea would fall into turmoil, dragging the Marines