Time flew by, and seven years passed in the blink of an eye.
Over those seven years, the world changed greatly. For instance, Joker, who had been wandering around East Blue causing trouble, somehow seemed to lose his mind and ran straight into Garp's hands. He had now been locked up in Impel Down.
By the time Shanks and the others received the news, he had already been sent to Level Six. The sudden development caught everyone off guard.
Kanjuro, Joker's loyal fan, came over as though nothing had happened and told everyone that this was Clown Buggy's plan, telling them not to interfere.
Although Shanks and the others were thoroughly baffled, they ultimately did not break him out of prison. Who knew what was going through his head? Whatever Joker said, went!
As for Doflamingo, he had remained in Alabasta throughout the past seven years and appeared never to have made a move. In reality, using Dream Traverse, he had traveled through nearly every corner of the Pirate World.
He had not done much else. Instead, he had placed mental marks on nearly everyone he encountered and begun constructing his own dream world.
That was right—a Second World like The Matrix, a virtual world. Though it had yet to truly launch, Doflamingo had already secured all his "customers."
There was no helping it. This thing had to be done entirely by hand. It was not as convenient as modern society, where he could simply hand everyone a computer. He had to personally place marks on those people.
The one advantage was that as long as someone fell within the range of his Observation Haki, he could place mental marks on everyone at once. For an ordinary small island, all he needed was a casual sweep.
Even for larger countries,