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Half a month later, at the Hoenn Fortress, the Groudon docked. The magnificent Golden Route and the grand fortress stunned Lucci and the others. They never dreamed they would see such a spectacular fortress outside the World Government's sphere of influence.
"Look over there!" Kaku pointed to the coast, where two women were fighting fiercely.
"It's the Pirate Empress!"
"The other one is Oni Princess!"
These were all legendary figures! Boa Hancock, the Pirate Empress, had a new bounty of 1,659,000,000 Berries after being stripped of her Warlord title! Yamato, the Oni Princess, and Kaido's only daughter, had a bounty of 1,060,000,000 Berries!
The two were clashing intensely. The Empress kept kicking while the Oni Princess swung her spiked club. The shockwaves from their collision made the CP9 members feel dizzy.
"What's going on?!" Kalifa clutched her forehead, leaning on the ship's rail to keep herself from falling. Her Doriki was the lowest among them, so she was affected the most.
"It's Conqueror's Haki!" Lucci explained with a solemn expression. As CP9 agents, they naturally knew about Haki. In fact, some of the Six Powers techniques involved its application. For example, Finger Pistol and Tekkai, in addition to requiring body techniques like accelerated blood flow, also needed Haki reinforcement to be cultivated to their peak.
"Oh, not bad!" Daichi also came to the deck, watching Hancock and Yamato fight fiercely. He was surprised the battle wasn't one-sided. He remembered that a few months ago, Hancock couldn't even last a few rounds and was beaten by Thunder Bagua every day.
But now, Hancock was not only withstanding Yamato's attacks, but her long legs were even imbued with Conqueror's Haki!
"Does Thunder Bagua really have special effects?" Daichi rubbed his head. Considering the time, Hancock had probably been hit by Thunder Bagua no less than 100 times, plus fighting Yamato daily. It was not surprising that she had mastered Conqueror's Haki coating. Unfortunately, Conqueror's Haki also had strengths and weaknesses. If his Conqueror's Haki strength was 100 points, then the Haki Hancock was currently displaying was at most 30 points. After all, she was just the Queen of Amazon Lily.
"Hmm?!" The two in battle sensed Daichi's presence and stopped simultaneously, looking towards the river with surprise. It was the Groudon! The two ran wildly, leaping simultaneously when they reached the shore.
"Daichi!" Two missile-like women came crashing toward him. Daichi's expression changed, and he quickly dodged to the side.
Boom!!! Two large holes were made in the ship's cabin!
Soon, Yamato and Hancock ran out of the cabin, neither of them angry. One was smiling foolishly, while the other hid behind the mast, peeking.
Yamato was overjoyed. "Daichi, you're finally back!"
"Yamato," Daichi said, a gentle smile on his face. He had been increasingly busy lately and hadn't spent much time with this girl, so he felt somewhat apologetic. Fortunately, she wouldn't get bored if she had something to do.
Daichi looked at Hancock. "Daichi," she said, hiding behind the mast with steam rising from her head as if she had been boiled. All the courage she had to rush over earlier was gone.
Daichi smiled and greeted her. "Yo, Hancock!"
"Eh?!" Hancock was surprised. Daichi had called her name first; could this be a marriage proposal?
Looking at the woman who was squatting under the mast, seemingly lost in a wonderful fantasy, Daichi couldn't help but laugh wryly and turned to leave. "Let's go back to the fortress first."
Inside the fortress's high-level conference room, Daichi stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, overlooking the fortress square below, where many soldiers were doing physical training. Their morale was quite good.
Daichi looked at Lucci and the others. "What are your thoughts?"
"Very impressive!" Except for the taciturn Lucci, the others exclaimed in admiration. The fortress here truly opened their eyes. It was no less impressive than Enies Lobby. If it had been built by the World Government, they wouldn't have been surprised, but it was built by pirates. When could pirates achieve such a level?
"The Hoenn Government was established not long ago and currently has only 17 affiliated countries—just one-tenth of the World Government. In addition, three large fortresses and more than a dozen medium and small fortresses are under construction," Daichi took out a map and explained the general situation of the Hoenn Government.
In the North Blue, there were ten affiliated countries, including the Ruen Kingdom. In the New World, there were seven affiliated countries, including the Labor Country.
If he wanted, this number could easily double, but the more affiliated countries there were, the better it wasn't. What he needed was not a loose alliance like the World Government, which collected Heavenly Tribute, but a highly centralized, strong nation truly in his hands.
His will was the will of all affiliated countries of the Hoenn Government! Only in this way would countries not act independently and attack each other but rather cooperate closely to develop together until the strength of one country could rival ten.
Although called countries, their essence was actually islands under the rule of the Hoenn Government, part of the Hoenn Empire. However, doing so also had its drawbacks. It required a large amount of upfront investment to improve the infrastructure of various countries, and the return cycle was relatively long.
Compared to the World Government's rule, it certainly couldn't compare in the short term, but in the long run, it would definitely be more effective.
In short, there were pros and cons. Normally, doing this would be asking for trouble, as it would take twenty to thirty years for countries to develop. But this world was not normal. Just like the impoverished Labor Country, it rapidly grew by exploiting the New World and has now become the largest industrial base in the New World, creating astonishing wealth. Violence was the best accelerator!
The ten countries of the North Blue were also like this. Relying on war, trade, and even violent means such as enclosure and rent collection, they plundered the wealth of various countries in the North Blue, greatly accelerating their development speed. The primitive accumulation of capital was inherently bloody.
"Too astonishing," the CP9 members broke out in a cold sweat, clearly intimidated by the current scale of the Hoenn Government. As World Government intelligence agents, they were completely unaware of this. This meant that the World Government had very limited understanding of the Hoenn Government and had not yet realized the seriousness of the problem!
"Wait, with such a large scale, how could it possibly hide from the World Government's eyes?!" The World Government's intelligence agents were not just CP9, but also CP1 to CP8, and even CP0 above them!
If CP9 were to be promoted again, they could enter the strongest CP0! Besides the CP departments, there was also the Marine! How did the Hoenn Government develop to such an extent without anyone knowing?
Could it be… a thought suddenly occurred to everyone. There was a traitor in the World Government! And that person held a very high position!
"Very confused?" Daichi smiled at CP9, making them shiver. The answer was simple. He had a capable wife who could do fake accounts. Stussy, the Queen of the Pleasure Quarter. Stussy's position in CP0 was the same as Gernica's, belonging to the highest-level agents, second only to the CP0 captain.
As the CEO of Groudon Company, Stussy had been sending intelligence to the World Government, but only he and Stussy knew how much of it was fabricated. On the surface, their Groudon Company's real estate business was booming, but it wasn't enough to pose a threat.
As for the development of various countries, it seemed more like poverty alleviation, currently in a state of serious loss, and similarly posed no threat to the World Government. But this situation would soon be reversed. All they lacked was time!
Lucci was silent for a long time. "Knowing so many secrets, if we refuse your recruitment, I'm afraid we won't be able to leave this fortress, right?"
"Of course!" Daichi's eyes were dark. "If you refuse, you won't even be able to walk out of this room!"