Zhu Mang paused.
He remembered that in one One Piece movie, Zephyr had left the Marines and founded the NEO Marines.
But he had never paid attention to exactly when Zephyr had left.
He had assumed that since Zephyr had not appeared in the Summit War, he had already left.
He had not expected Zephyr to still be around.
Zhu Mang recalled that Vice Admiral Tsuru had mentioned Momousagi and Chaton, who were also absent from Marine Headquarters. On second thought, he suddenly understood.
For this Summit War, the Marines had drawn one hundred thousand elite troops from all over the world, along with dozens of vice admirals and countless officers of every rank.
That also meant that defenses around the world had been weakened.
Especially in the New World.
After all, the New World was home to the "Four Emperors."
Besides Whitebeard, there were Kaido of the Beasts, Big Mom Charlotte Linlin, and Red-Haired Shanks. Kaido and Big Mom in particular were genuine pirates.
No one knew whether they would seize this opportunity to cause trouble.
The former Marine admiral and the two admiral candidates had probably gone to the New World to guard against the other three Emperors.
"We'll see when the time comes." Zhu Mang could not be bothered to spoil anything for them. Whether Zephyr left the Marines had nothing to do with him. "So, where am I staying?"
"I'll have someone take you there." Sengoku called over a soldier guarding the door.
"Oh, and meals are included, right?" Just as he was about to leave with the guard, Zhu Mang suddenly turned back and asked.
"Of course they are. Eat as much as you want." Sengoku waved cheerfully and laughed. It's just food. Could the Marines possibly let you go hungry?
And so—
The battle-crazed Saiyan logged off.
The gluttonous Saiyan had now entered the stage!
Thus, the scene that had once played out in a restaurant on the Sabaody Archipelago was reenacted in the Marine Headquarters dining hall.
It also happened to be mealtime.
To ensure that the Marine soldiers, who had spent the day preparing hard for battle, could eat their fill, the chefs had gone all out and prepared mountains of food.
Normally, the soldiers would have already come in to eat by now.
However, because of the commotion Zhu Mang had caused earlier, every Marine soldier had delayed their meal and was still wrapping things up.
As a result, Zhu Mang had the enormous dining hall all to himself!
As plate after plate of food vanished into Zhu Mang's mouth, the Marine chefs somehow became fired up.
"HAHAHA! This kid can really eat!"
"Ooh, ooh, ooh! This is a diner challenging the chefs! Brothers, don't lose to him!"
"Let's work harder too! Keep cooking!!!"
Hearing the noisy commotion around him, Zhu Mang blankly looked up during a break between bites.
No, why were they getting fired up for no reason?
How could they get so worked up just from cooking?
What was Bo supposed to do next door?
He would be so upset he would cry. Even cooking had outdone him.
In the end, the chefs won the contest.
It could not be helped. Though this was only one of the many dining halls at Marine Headquarters, it still served roughly five thousand people.
No matter how much Zhu Mang could eat, eating enough for one or two hundred people was already plenty.
Soldiers had high activity levels, so they naturally ate more than ordinary people.
And the Marine soldiers of the One Piece World were generally far from ordinary people themselves.
So every serving was substantial.
One person's portion could feed two ordinary people, or even more.
Besides, while Zhu Mang was working hard on his meal, the Marine chefs were also cooking with great enthusiasm.
So after he finished eating, the food in the areas he had cleared out had not decreased at all. Instead, there seemed to be even more of it!
As Zhu Mang left, a chef behind him smiled and waved. "Super-eater, remember to come eat at our dining hall next time too!"
As chefs, they loved seeing the food they had made get devoured so quickly!
Zhu Mang: ...
Did everyone in the pirate world have a screw loose?
After comfortably stuffing himself, Zhu Mang finally arrived at his room under the guidance of the messenger, who had stared in stunned disbelief the entire way.
It was a Marine dormitory room located within the Marine Headquarters base.
The conditions looked quite spartan.
It only barely met the basic requirements of being a private room with a bed.
Apparently, these rooms had been specially prepared for the seven Shichibukai attending the meeting. Although Crocodile had been stripped of his title, Blackbeard had filled the vacancy, so there were still seven of them.
At the moment, only two of the seven rooms were occupied: Hawkeye's and Doflamingo's.
Zhu Mang was the third.
His room had been "generously sponsored" by Gecko Moria.
(Moria: Yeah, yeah, sure.)
But Zhu Mang knew that the remaining few probably would not come.
The Empress was likely preparing to play "under-the-skirt play" with Luffy while leading him into Impel Down. She would probably only barely make it in time.
Blackbeard might already have infiltrated the area near Impel Down.
Knight of the Sea Jinbe had been imprisoned in Impel Down for refusing to help the Marines.
As for Bartholomew Kuma, he had already been transformed into the prototype Pacifista.
"Holy shit, why are you sitting on my bed?"
The moment Zhu Mang pushed open the door, he jumped in fright.
That was because there was a flamingo sitting on the bed in his room.
And Doflamingo, who sat on the bed, was equally restless.
His thoughts had been fixed on Lord Gebinz.
He wondered whether Lord Gebinz had been lured into joining the Marines by that old bastard Sengoku with all sorts of temptations.
He wondered whether the Donquixote Family would lose its chance to advance any further from now on... He wanted to rise so badly!
He even imagined that if Lord Gebinz joined the Marines, one day he might come to wipe him out, blasting Dressrosa into ashes with a single energy cannon.
It was too terrifying!
Just then, Zhu Mang walked in.
"Ah!" Doflamingo jumped in fright.
"Ah? You're the one yelling? I should be the one yelling!" Zhu Mang stood in the doorway and snapped, "You're a grown man sitting on my bed at dusk? What, are you trying to get gay with me? Let me make this clear first: I'm a man, and I like women!"
Doflamingo hurriedly stood up, veins bulging on his forehead as he gritted his teeth. "I'm not gay either! S-Sorry, Lord Gebinz. How did your discussion with that old man Sengoku go?"
"Not bad." Zhu Mang pulled out two "martial arts manuals" and patted them in his hand. "We reached a pleasant deal."
"Hiss—"
Doflamingo sucked in a sharp breath, already beginning to mourn for the Whitebeard Pirates.
With the strength Lord Gebinz had displayed, even a single intervention would be enough to turn the tide of battle.
If the Whitebeard Pirates had originally possessed a fifty-percent chance of being brought down in this war, that chance had now risen to at least ninety percent!
At the same time, he thought of even more.
The New World had originally been balanced among the Four Emperors, but now one of them—its strongest one—would be gone.
That would inevitably affect the New World's entire balance of power.
Could this be an opportunity for the Donquixote Family?
Doflamingo's eyes flickered.
His gaze fell upon Zhu Mang once more.
As long as Lord Gebinz was willing to help, it definitely would be!
Before you continue