After Rock left the Gold Palace.
The night on the Sabaody Archipelago remained as bustling as ever.
Bubbles slowly rose beneath the lights, casino doors stood wide open, laughter drifted from aristocratic clubs, and glasses clinked in merchant guild banquet halls.
Outside the auction house, well-dressed guests spoke in low voices, wearing false yet composed smiles.
Everything looked exactly as it always had.
Sabaody was still that archipelago where money, desire, information, and transactions intertwined.
But those truly hidden in the shadows quickly sensed that something was wrong.
Area One.
Inside a warehouse bearing the sign of a legitimate merchant guild, a middle-aged merchant was reviewing account books.
He handled fund transfers for several nobles and laundered money of unknown origins for certain World Government officials.
Over the years, relying on the Celestial Dragons' name, he had thrived in Sabaody's Underworld.
But that night, the moment he picked up the Den Den Mushi, his expression abruptly changed.
"What's going on?"
"Why has the backup account been frozen?"
The accountant beside him was drenched in cold sweat.
"President, it's not just one account."
"The Gold Palace, Sabaody Bank Number Three, the backup accounts of Merchant Guild Number Seventy-Six... they've all been temporarily frozen."
The middle-aged merchant shot to his feet.
"Who did this?!"
No one answered.
Because they all knew that in Sabaody, only one person could clamp down on so many channels of money at once.
At the same time, Area Thirty.
Outside an underground passage hidden among the roots of a bubble tree, several guards in black were preparing to escort two sealed cargo trucks away.
There was no sound from within the trucks, because the people inside had already been injected with anesthetics.
No public auction, no public transaction.
They simply used noble lists, Celestial Dragon agents, and