The final preparations (part one)

Although the Aolan Hotel and Oran Elementary School were important, they were only a minor interlude.

It would still take plenty of time to get them properly established, expand them to a sufficient scale, and let them serve their purpose.

After discussing the future plans for both ventures with Zhang Yang and Ailan, Lind left them in their hands.

Lind himself was busy preparing for war, readying himself for the campaign of conquest that would bring all the waters he guarded under his control.

Oran Island was different. Because of its strategic location, Rocks had always stationed men there, providing a foundation for his rule.

The other waters beyond Oran Island were completely outside his control. His claim to them existed in name only.

After all, Rocks's base, Hachinosu, lay deep within the New World. Territories in the early stretches of the New World, far from his core domain, were inevitably beyond his effective reach.

Especially with the Navy watching hungrily from the other side, the territory Lind guarded was less the border of Rocks's domain than a buffer zone between the Rocks Pirates and the Navy.

What Lind intended to do now was bring that buffer zone entirely under his rule.

Neither the local powers in those waters nor the Navy would readily agree to that.

An earth-shaking war was unavoidable.

The former had no choice. Losing this territory would leave them homeless strays with nowhere to go.

The latter would have to deal with the threat to public order posed by the pirates driven out once the buffer zone disappeared.

But Lind certainly would not give up easily over such resistance.

There was only so much pie to go around. If Lind wanted a bigger slice, someone else would have to make do with less.

There was one week left until the end of the three-month period Lind had originally set.

Watching the transformed pirates on the training grounds, Lind nodded in satisfaction.

After two and a half months of training, these pirates had begun to show a trace of the bearing of the army from his previous life.

In obeying orders and performing tactical drills, they were already somewhat better than the university students who had completed military training in his previous life.

He watched unit after unit goose-step past him.

Lind laughed heartily to Whitebeard beside him. "Hahahaha! What do you think, Captain Newgate? My men look pretty good, don't they?"

"Gurararara! With these troops, along with your elite squads whose average strength has already reached the level of Navy field officers..."

"Sweeping through these waters will be a breeze. I never expected you to be so good at training troops at such a young age, Brother Lind!"

Whitebeard laughed and gave Lind a thumbs-up in recognition of his ability to train soldiers.

"Hahahaha! With the Navy watching from the sidelines, troops alone won't be enough."

"Brother Newgate, sorry for the trouble, but I'll have to ask you to handle Sengoku and Garp if they show up!" Lind said with a smile.

Lind was being extremely cautious about the war seven days away.

He had invested considerable effort in both his strongest fighters and his main force.

The pirates under Lind's command now numbered over ten thousand, and his elite squads were steadily expanding as well.

Almost every day, ordinary pirates reached the required level of strength and were recruited into the officers' elite squads.

Almost every division had grown by nearly half.

What surprised Lind most were Huo Te's former crewmates.

Under the organizational structure Lind used, every elite squad had a certain number of ordinary pirates attached to it to handle basic tasks.

Lind had previously promised Huo Te that he could form the Eleventh Division around his original crew, but it followed the same structure. Pirates who failed to meet the standard could not join the elite squad and could only serve as attached personnel.

When Huo Te's Eleventh Division was finally established, its state was rather pitiful. Even counting the other pirates Huo Te had invited, its elite squad had only ten members.

Yet under those very circumstances, Huo Te's original crewmates had worked a miracle.

In just over a month, thirty of them had reached the level of elite pirates and joined the elite squad.

Many of those thirty had previously been nothing more than ordinary sailors.

Perhaps this was the power of conviction, friendship, and will. In this world, such intangible forces really could create miracles.

To help their former captain, every one of Huo Te's old companions had trained desperately each day, pushing their potential to its limits. In the end, they had created a miracle that stunned the entire Seventh Division.

Together with the pirates he recruited through the usual selection process, just like the other captains, Huo Te's eleventh squad had caught up in numbers with the fifth through tenth squads and could now fulfill the duties of an elite squad.

Unfortunately, cases like Huo Te's were all too rare. Most pirate captains and their crews shared little affection. Mutual respect was the last shred of decency they maintained.

Otherwise, each of Lind's first five squads would not have gained a deputy captain with Rear Admiral-level strength.

Among those five men were lone wolves and former captains, but none had either the desire or the charisma to bring their men together and form a new division.

In the end, they became deputy captains of the first five divisions at Lind's direction.

Perhaps once Lind's power reached a certain level, and if he was willing to adopt the grand fleet model used in the original story...

These pirates who had joined him could then serve as captains of subordinate crews under his command.

For now, however, Lind prioritized centralized control. His forces consisted only of elite squads, the Security Force, and ordinary pirates.

Beyond preparing his main force, Lind had specifically summoned Whitebeard from the latter reaches of the New World to help deal with any powerful Navy fighters who might appear.

He had also asked Golden Lion nearby to stir up some trouble when the time came, tying down an Admiral-level fighter.

That would give their side three Admiral-level fighters. They could hardly lose unless the Navy left its own base undefended.

It would have to send out all four of its Admiral-level fighters just to deal with a small fry like Lind.

If the Navy really did that, Lind would have nothing more to say. He would simply give up. If it went that far, how could he refuse to give it its due?

Who do you think you are? Rocks?

Even one of the future Four Emperors, facing such a lineup alone, would flee as far as possible. There was no way to win.

Aside from the very strongest Admiral-level fighters, Lind's side had no fear of matching the Navy at the Vice Admiral and Rear Admiral levels either.

His original five captains had essentially all reached the strength of elite Vice Admirals. The strongest, Axel, had even reached the threshold of an Admiral Candidate thanks to his Steel-Steel Fruit.

In addition, the three captains who had eaten Devil Fruits-Phil, Kite, and Saide-now all possessed the strength of ordinary Vice Admirals.

There were even more Rear Admiral-level fighters. Great Kun, the remaining three squad captains, and the deputy captains of the first five divisions all possessed the strength of seasoned Rear Admirals.

Among the veterans of the first five divisions, many smaller-unit leaders had also reached the threshold of Rear Admiral-level strength.

On top of that, quite a few of the officers Whitebeard had brought along ranged in strength from Rear Admiral to elite Vice Admiral.

Thinking of the immense strength now at his command, Lind could hardly imagine how he could lose.

Unless the Navy abandoned its reputation and joined forces with the pirates in these waters to fight him.

The Navy could tie down his top fighters, while its Rear Admirals and Vice Admirals joined the pirates in taking on Lind's officers.

Otherwise, the Navy would find it extremely difficult to muster so many Vice Admiral- and Rear Admiral-level fighters at once to counter all the officers under Lind's command.

If even the Navy could not manage it, the other powers stood even less of a chance. In the end, Lind would simply defeat them one by one.