July of 1505 in the Marine Era.
The New World, Totto Land, the Sea of Totto Land.
Near the area where Cake Island is located, a huge island... no, or rather, a super-large three-masted sailing ship, is stationary in this sea area.
The huge sail hanging from the mast bears the words "Golden City Project" in large characters.
That's right, this special product, transformed from an island into a super-large three-masted sailing ship, is the foundation of the Golden City Project.
As far as the eye can see, a steady stream of transport ships are bringing large quantities of supplies from all over the Totto Land of Totto Land to the island.
Gecko Moria, Shichibukai, was wearing a safety helmet with a safety production sign, an armband with the words "Labor Foreman" on it, and holding a megaphone and a small flag. He was energetically shouting slogans on the construction site.
"Over here, over here, bring all the building materials over here!"
"Don't block the way, let the transport team pass!"
"Construction has begun in Area B. The soil dug out over there will be sifted, the high-quality soil will be kept, and the rest will be dumped into the sea!"
Moria was directing the operation, and in front of him were countless laborers, all working with great enthusiasm.
Most of the laborers were in shackles, and their identities were undoubtedly those of pirate slaves sent from Impel Down. A portion of the laborers were indeed free, and most of them came from foremen under Moria's command, recruited from Hachinosu Island.
To be honest, these people are still a bit confused. They joined the Shichibukai, Gecko Moria, thinking that Moria's powerful backer was Marine Admiral Bane Ortolan. In that case, joining Moria was equivalent to joining Admiral Bane, so wouldn't they be able to lord it over in the New World and be happy pirates?
As a result, they were all turned out to be pirates after only a few days. They all became foremen and contractors, and inexplicably went from being pirates to being respectable people.
Of course, there is also a small group of people who were once pirate slaves, but after undergoing high-intensity and intense work in the Calm Belt, they were able to undergo 'Labor Reform' due to their excellent performance, strong obedience, and ability to lick. Now they have redeemed themselves from their sins, escaped their slave status, and become formal hired laborers.
They are paid wages for their work!
This group of people were generally pirates and villains whose crimes were relatively minor. Ortolan did not deny these people a chance. As long as they mined, grew food, dedicated themselves, and actively cooperated with Labor Reform, their crimes were not particularly serious. There was still room for development, and they could still start anew.
Besides these living laborers, there are also a large number of zombies on the construction site. Under the control of the shadows, they are working in places where there is no light. Most of them are doing high-intensity work such as digging foundations, cellars, building city sewers, and clearing underground rock veins.
Under Moria's command, they basically do all the dirty and hard work.
"Lord Moria!" A pirate underling wearing a helmet walked excitedly to Moria's side, holding a stack of documents, and said, "These are the labor wage distribution documents sent by Totto Land Totto Land and the World Government."
Moria raised an eyebrow, grabbed the document, and began to read it.
A moment later, he said with a smile, "Not bad, not bad. Looking at it this way, we can earn at least 260 billion Belly from this trip to the Golden City."
This isn't something that needs to be shared with Ortolan and the others; it's already been allocated and belongs entirely to the Moria Pirates.
In other words, Moria would then share some with his underlings, and he would personally receive at least 200 billion Belly in earnings!
To be a pirate, you have to rob countless people to earn this much money!
Nowhere is it as lucrative as being a foreman here.
Currently, Moria has accumulated nearly 700 billion Belly in personal assets, most of which comes from the profits from the Lead-Platinum Ore over the past two years, and another part comes from the settlement of wages with Marine Admiral Ortolan.
This includes the construction of his command center and the construction of the new Marine Base in the New World.
In fact, if the construction of the new Marine Base and the Ortolan command center were done at market price, the settlement of construction costs would be a huge sum. But Moria certainly wouldn't settle accounts with his boss at market price; he always did it at the lowest possible price, making a small profit. Otherwise, his assets would probably be worth hundreds of millions by now.
As Moria's wealth increased, Kaido of the Beasts now has a bounty of 36 billion Belly in the Underworld.
It ranks first among all bounties and is known as the 'most valuable head after Shanks'!
Moreover, the real leader is far ahead, and the second-ranked Marine Admiral, Bane Ortolan, only has a bounty of 10 billion Belly.
That's right. Although he is Marine Admiral and a top figure in the New World, Ortolan still has a bounty on his head. This is the inclusiveness and richness of the Underworld.
Not only him, but the head of Sengoku, the great commander, is worth more than four billion Belly.
Later, bounties were offered for figures such as Sakazuki, Borsalino, Kuzan.
Third on the list is Whitebeard, Whitebeard head is worth over six billion Belly in the Dark World.
Most of these bounties have been posted many times, and occasionally some have even been withdrawn because the person who posted the bounty has died. However, the top ten people are always on the wanted list, which clearly means that more than just one or two people want their heads.
Unlike the Marines bounties created by Buggy and his crew in the original story, these bounties can only be seen and accepted by people in the Dark World, so there is no nationwide frenzy that leads to the killing of Marine Admiral.
Just as Moria was thinking about another paycheck coming in and whether he should increase his offer to Kaido, his henchman said, "Lord Moria, there's another big job here, I'm not sure if I should take it..."
"Why not take the big orders?" Moria asked, slightly puzzled.
"The order came from the Beasts Pirates..." The pirate underling hesitated for a moment before taking out a new document.
Moria paused for a moment, took the item, glanced at it, and then hesitated.
The order was indeed sent by the Beasts Pirates, contacting their Moonlight Works team through the Dark Realm.
The above means that Kaido planning to build a new weapons production base on a medium-sized island within his territory. Since it is a production base, infrastructure is indispensable. However, the Beasts Pirates are too lazy to do it themselves, so they plan to let Moria and his group of professionals do it.
This shows that Moria's work team is already quite famous and prestigious in the Dark World.
Not only that, but Moria's laborers also took on all sorts of jobs. They would even entrust Moria with the development of some dangerous and difficult-to-develop mineral resources within the kingdom.
After all, Moria is not afraid of danger; with a wave of his hand, zombies will go mining.
In short, Moria is involved in everything related to labor export.
Looking at the Beasts Pirates' mission, Moria hesitated for a long time before gritting his teeth and saying, "Let's take over. Let the Sixth Division go and do Kaido's job. We'll make money off him and buy his head. It's perfectly reasonable!"
When the underling saw that his boss had spoken, he immediately nodded and said, "Yes, I understand, Lord Moria!"
This shows that although Moria still harbors resentment towards Kaido, he is not as radical as he was a few years ago. Nowadays, he seems to have been corrupted by money and wealth.
Aside from putting a price tag on Kaido's head in the underworld, he usually didn't think about how to get revenge on Kaido.
He devoted most of his energy to making money.
Are you kidding me? Why did he want to go to sea and become a pirate in the first place? Wasn't it just for power, status, and wealth?
Isn't it just about wanting to become a big shot?
Although he has become a contractor by following Ortolan, upon closer reflection, as Shichibukai, with Ortolan as his backer and control of Hachinosu Island, a trade hub, he is indeed extremely powerful in the New World. Only a very few big shots are more powerful than him, and the vast majority of people cannot match him.
With such power, why even think about status? He's now known in the dark world as the 'Labor King'.
Some people even call him the 'Bounty King' or something like that.
As for wealth, it's far richer than that of pirates.
As a big shot in the New World, Moria is now rich, powerful, and influential. He enjoys the best of everything and lives a life of boundless happiness.
That's why he was corrupted by wealth and money, and his desire to take revenge on Kaido became somewhat gloomy. After all, he wasn't a particularly strong-willed person to begin with, otherwise he wouldn't have become a deadbeat otaku in the original story.
He can keep raising Kaido's bounty, but he'd rather not take revenge himself.
What if he loses the fight and dies at Kaido's hands? Wouldn't all the money he's made be for nothing?
Moria now believes that the most tragic thing in life is to die but still have money!
So he can't die! He hasn't finished enjoying all his money yet!