Alabasta was the most famous country in the first half of the Grand Line.
It was the permanent residence of the Shichibukai Kane Penter, practically the wealthiest country outside the Holy Land Mary Geoise, and one of the few safe places in the world. Everyone in Alabasta knew that their guardian, Kane Penter, detested pirates and had a unit of ability users under his command dedicated to dealing with them.
Thanks to these people, even several neighboring countries had become much safer. When those countries learned of this, they all envied Alabasta.
The citizens living here were undoubtedly the wealthiest ordinary people in the first half of the Grand Line, because they benefited from the Karn Chamber of Commerce.
Moreover, in just two years, Alabasta had undergone a complete transformation.
It had once been an immensely famous Land of Wind, but now sixty percent of the country had become oases. Wide roads connected its major cities, and two bridges several dozen meters wide had even been built across the Sandora River.
During the Shichibukai War, the Karn Chamber of Commerce had captured thousands of pirates. Although the stronger ones had been taken away by the Karn Chamber of Commerce, the remaining pirates were no weaklings either. Once fitted with handcuffs and shackles, they did a fine job digging, planting trees, building roads and bridges, and so on.
They only needed a little food each day. Being forty percent full while doing hard labor would not kill anyone, and if any died, their bodies could be exchanged for bounties to recoup some money. But after the Karn Chamber of Commerce did this for six months, the nearby Marine branch could no longer stand it. They came over, registered every pirate in Alabasta, and then changed their status to slaves.
There were