Ivankov: He's Mentally Ill-Why Argue with Him?
Today's weather is cloudless and sunny.
After venting his frustrations last night, Ortolan was in a very good mental state, feeling like he had lost several pounds.
He was sitting on a rock in the ruins of the mountains, holding a newspaper and reading it intently.
"Sand Crocodile Crocodile the Inheritor of Oni, Douglas Bullet, engaged in a fierce battle on Jadenzburg Island, resulting in the complete destruction of the Jadenzburg Island. The estimated number of victims is nearly 20,000... Tsk tsk, these damned pirates are getting more and more arrogant. Is no one going to do anything about it?" Ortolan looked at the newspaper in his hand and couldn't help but sigh.
Hearing Ortolan's voice, Dragon, who was bandaging his arm not far away, said angrily, "Don't pretend you're not here and read the newspaper, okay? It's a newspaper that our Freedom Army bought, so pay me for reading it, you bastard!"
As soon as Dragon lost his temper, Ivankov quickly pulled him back, comforting him, "Don't be angry, don't be angry. You can't beat him anyway, and it'll be troublesome if you anger him..."
Dragon was stunned for a moment, then said angrily, "I can't beat him? Eva, are you mistaken? Last night I saw that he was not in a good mood, so I didn't want to take advantage of him and deliberately let him win. How could I not beat him?"
Ivankov glanced at Dragon's bandaged arm, his face twitching slightly, before saying, "You're something else, aren't you? He's mentally ill, why are you arguing with a mentally ill person?"
Ortolan didn't bother arguing with the stubborn Dragon. To be honest, he was a little embarrassed, since he had inexplicably destroyed half of Dragon's stronghold, and he couldn't really get over it.
Gion, watching this scene, chuckled wryly and comforted him, "That's right, don't take it too seriously. He's usually quite eccentric; he just had a relapse last night..."
Dragon wasn't really that angry; he was just sitting at home when he was suddenly dragged out and beaten up for no reason, which made him a little annoyed.
Seeing Ortolan's embarrassed expression, he finally sighed and said, "Oh well, I guess I'm just unlucky."
Since the beginning, there has been a lack of funds, and now even the base has been destroyed. It's really frustrating. Dragon wondered if he was having a run of bad luck.
Seeing that Dragon seemed to have calmed down a bit, Ortolan smiled slightly awkwardly and said, "Last night's events were truly an accident. I thought this was a deserted island. Who knew your Freedom Army would set up a base in such a godforsaken place..."
"Hmph!" Dragon snorted coldly, then said, "Sorry, because of poverty and being an illegal organization, we can't announce to the world like Marineford that this is the Marines headquarters..."
After making a sarcastic remark, Dragon casually asked, "Speaking of which, what are you guys doing here? You didn't come here specifically to investigate us, did you?"
There was an undercurrent of information gathering in this, but Ortolan didn't hide anything, stating frankly, "No, we've come to the South Blue to investigate a case involving scholars. Recently, a group of scholars on the high seas have been specifically searching for historical figures..."
At this point, Ortolan noticed a subtle change in Dragon's expression, and said in a deep voice, "According to the investigation, your Freedom Army seems to have some contact with the scholars? Do you know something about this?"
"Do you think I would answer such a question?" Dragon glanced at Ortolan, then said, "I have no comment on the scholar's affairs."
"As expected, you know something." Ortolan frowned. "This is a very dangerous situation. You should understand the potential consequences of their actions, right? If we end this farce now, there might still be a chance to salvage the situation. Once they figure something out, there will be absolutely no possibility of reconciliation..."
Dragon fell silent upon hearing this.
Actually, yesterday, while sitting there fishing and thinking about problems, Ortolan suddenly realized that he seemed to be trapped in a strange mental loop.
He naturally assumed that Ohara's fate was already sealed when scholars secretly investigated history.
This way of thinking is basically derived from the attitudes of the bigwigs around him, such as Sengoku, towards scholars, as well as the orders given to Mary Geoise, and also from his understanding of the development of the original story, which led to his conclusion.
By stepping out of this closed loop of thinking and considering the current situation from this perspective, Ortolan suddenly realized that the Ohara Incident was not truly without any room for negotiation.
Currently, the incident is in its initial stage. According to intelligence data, these scholars have only been conducting this investigation of Poneglyph for about a year, and it is estimated that they have not yet caused any particularly outrageous incidents.
In the original story, the Ohara Incident occurred in the year 1500 of the Marine Era, which is about three years away from now.
In other words, the Ohara incident has only just begun. If the scholars are exposed at this point, given Ohara's size and influence, as long as they haven't touched the core mechanism of the world's ruling government through the Poneglyph, they shouldn't be completely wiped out, right?
Now that I've calmed down and thought about it carefully, I realize that the government's attitude towards scholars is actually quite contradictory.
In the original story, after Ohara was found to have problems, Starfleet even had a conversation with Professor Clover. Now that I think about it, that conversation probably wasn't initially about destroying Ohara.
It seems this was to test how far Ohara had actually studied this Poneglyph.
After Professor Clover revealed information about a certain Great Kingdom, Starfleet, in a fit of rage, ordered Professor Clover to be shot and killed, and activated the Buster Call. Before this, Starfleet's tone of voice towards Professor Clover still carried a sense of respect.
After that, the World Government's attitude towards Nico Robin changed completely; they wanted to capture her alive instead of executing her outright!
The most likely reason for this is that the older generation of people believe that Robin, at her age, should have just become a scholar, and there is a high probability that she can only decipher the Poneglyph, but has not yet come into contact with the core mechanisms that Professor Clover and his team use to study the Poneglyph.
In this way, she was allowed to 'live', because the World Government seemed to also want to master the ability to decipher Ancient Script, so as to use these abilities to replicate the powerful technological forces of more than eight hundred years ago!
This conclusion can be drawn not only from Nico Robin, but also from Dr. Vegapunk!
Therefore, when Ortolan reconsidered this mission, he suddenly realized that if he could deal with the scholars before they came into contact with the core mechanism of the World Government, the World Government would most likely not directly exterminate Ohara, but would instead choose to recruit them, just as they used Dr. Vegapunk to research ancient technology, to use Ohara's power to study Ancient Script and make them work for them.
As for whether the Ohara people will be recruited or not, that's another story.
However, this was not a problem for Ortolan to consider; he was simply doing his best and leaving the rest to fate.
Choosing to work towards this goal is also very beneficial for Ortolan. Firstly, it resolves the issue of Admiral Sengoku's entrustment, preventing Ohara from going to extremes. This would not affect the reputation of Sengoku Marines or Sengoku, and the mission would be perfectly accomplished.
Secondly, given the establishment of the Science Unit and the existence of Dr. Vegapunk, if the scholars of Ohara are forcibly recruited, they are very likely to become a branch within the Marine Science Unit, becoming members of the Marines's organizational structure, complementing and mutually benefiting Dr. Vegapunk.
This is a case of using someone else's resources to achieve one's own goals. For Ortolan, who currently has a rough outline of his grand plan, if he were to actually establish his own independent faction in the future, the Science Unit would certainly not let him off the hook. Now, they are using the money, resources, and manpower of the World Government to carry out these forced research projects.
In the future, when he sets things right, he can appear as the 'savior' and take all of the research results, researchers, technology and knowledge from that time into his possession. Wouldn't that be wonderful?
At the same time, in terms of strategic weapons, we now have the confidence to confront the World Government!
After all, those Ancient Weapons, in a strategic sense, are like nuclear weapons. You may not use them, but you can't be without them!