After leaving the special sea, Link began choosing new positions for Amazon Lily and Sleepy Ancient Town.
"The Grand Line is a sea sandwiched between two Calm Belts, and the New World is only half of it. Most of the 'cake' here is fought over by pirates who can't find the final island yet refuse to return to Paradise or the Four Seas."
Nami unfolded a New World map, pointed at the places specially marked with various Jolly Rogers, and explained, "Among the Five Emperors, the emperor with the most territory is Charlotte Linlin's Totto Land, a nation formed by thirty-five islands, plus the sea around them that bears the Totto Land name."
"Although Charlotte Linlin has the most land, it's all concentrated in one area; only a few dessert-specialty islands have been flagged outside it."
"Next most is the Blackbeard Pirates, who just took Whitebeard's remaining turf, then us and the Red-Hair Pirates."
"The smallest territory belongs to the Beasts Pirates. After offending the Whitebeard Pirates, they've been stuck developing inside Wano's special waters and can't plant flags outside."
"Linlin's and Kaidō's holdings are concentrated; Teach controls most of the rear of the New World, also the northern zones."
"Only the Red-Hair Pirates, like us, have flags that aren't concentrated in one region. Should we pick a specific zone to develop?"
At this last question, Nami looked to Link.
"Mm."
Link nodded, then pointed to the center of the New World map. "Put Amazon Lily here and shift our holdings there."
Hearing this, Nami's eyes brightened. "Like Totto Land—form a defensive belt centered on Amazon Lily?"
Link shook his head. "No need. And there's no reason to place those islands too close. Put them dozens of nautical miles out—easier to levy taxes."
"Okay."
Nami obediently nodded, then circled the map's center in red.
Many islands fell inside the circle.
Some belonged to certain pirate crews, and some were member or non-member nations.
Next comes handling the neighbors—the work of top executives and officers.
With Nami leading the way, the Snake Maiden quickly ferried Amazon Lily and Sleepy Ancient Town to the New World's central region.
Then the Impaler Pirates began a new round of flag-planting.
Hancock and the others used a simple, brutal method on the neighbors—turn them all into our territory.
Non-member kingdoms and several pirate headquarters were all raised with the Impaler Pirates' flag by Hancock's group.
The powers originally stationed there had their hearts stripped by Yafilandora and were forced to become affiliates of the Impaler Pirates.
As for nearby member nations, since Link didn't want to rip things open with the World Government yet, he had the Snake Maiden toss them out of these waters without planting flags.
Such high-profile moves also exposed the Snake Maiden's identity.
When every faction learned that the new Float-Float Fruit user was Boa Hancock's clone, jaws dropped—they were all stunned by Link's play!
Reactions varied across factions.
Most forces unfamiliar with cloning assumed the Snake Maiden was a modified clone like the Pacifista that the Marines and World Government had flaunted recently.
Only those tied to Caesar—Doflamingo, Vinsmoke Judge, the Beasts Pirates' Queen—as well as the Marines and the World Government, knew she wasn't modified at all but a true perfect clone.
Only a perfect clone can become a Devil Fruit user.
The Marines and World Government immediately concluded that the Egghead incident six months ago was Link's doing.
They also guessed why Link used the Davy Back Game to take the Memory-Memory Fruit user from Charlotte Linlin.
Obviously, he used that fruit to forcibly obtain perfect-clone data from Vegapunk.
Yet he left no exploitable flaw.
It was a deliberate show of face—he didn't go too far and didn't cross the Five Elders' bottom line, leaving the World Government's anger nowhere to land.
Since the cost of war with the Impaler Pirates is too high, and no true red line was crossed, the Five Elders could swallow it!
Thus, the next day the Marines issued a bounty poster for the Snake Maiden.
"Clone of the Pirate Empress, Snake Maiden. Bounty: 500,000,000 belli. Dead or alive."
Uncertain of her strength, and seeing her in the Empress's childhood form, the Marines didn't post an inflated top-officer figure, but a New World super-rookie bounty.
Even so, five hundred million on a first posting shows the status of the Float-Float Fruit.
Once the Snake Maiden reveals all three colors of Haki, with Conqueror's coating, her bounty will quickly break the one-billion mark, even two billion, becoming another top executive of the Impaler Pirates.
Counting Hancock, Karina, Nami, and Shirahoshi, the Impaler Pirates already have five top executives.
Yafilandora and Margaret are also far above ordinary Emperor-class officers—on high-end combat power, the Impaler Pirates crush the other Four Emperors' crews.
In just a week, Hancock and the others finished flagging and clearing the surrounding islands.
Then the Snake Maiden moved every island flagged during their expeditions to within dozens of nautical miles of Amazon Lily, scattering them like stars.
Unlike Totto Land's thirty-five islands, the Impaler Pirates' holdings—excluding Fish-Man Island ten thousand meters below—numbered only eighteen.
Even Sleepy Ancient Town was tossed outward by the Snake Maiden.
In the New World's central region, within a span of dozens of nautical miles, there was only one island—Amazon Lily.
The spacing between Amazon Lily and the other islands sat just within Nami's sensing range.
Any outsider entering that ring would be warned by Nami's lightning.
Trying to slip past to Amazon Lily, or infiltrate the sanctuary where men are forbidden, still had zero chance.
While Hancock and the others were busy, Link—after half a year in seclusion—picked up his unfinished work, ready to reap the final experience and unlock the Hashirama template to 100% and…
<><><><><><>
Read Advanced Chapters on : patreon.com/Kaizo247
~ Every 150 PS = Bonus Chapter!
~ Push the Story forward with your [Power Stones]