July, Year 1505 of the Sea Circle Calendar.
New World, the waters of Totto Land.
Near the region where Whole Cake Island was located, a massive island… or rather, an ultra-large three-masted sailing ship, lay stationary upon the sea.
Hanging from its towering masts were enormous sails emblazoned with the words "Gold City Project."
That's right. This peculiar creation, an island transformed into an ultra-large three-masted ship, was the very foundation of the Gold City Project.
As far as the eye could see, transport ships arrived in a constant stream from every direction of Totto Land, unloading vast quantities of materials onto the island.
The Shichibukai, Gecko Moria, wore a hard hat marked with safety insignia. An armband reading "Chief Labor Supervisor" was strapped to his arm, while he waved a small flag and shouted through a megaphone as he directed the construction site.
"Over here! Over here! Bring all the building materials this way!"
"Don't block the path! Let the transport teams through!"
"Section B has started excavation! Sift the soil dug up over there. Keep the good stuff and dump the rest into the sea!"
Moria barked orders nonstop. Before him was a dense sea of laborers, all of them working at full intensity.
Most of the workers wore shackles. Their identities were obvious. They were pirate slaves sent over from Impel Down. A smaller portion, however, were free men, mostly foremen recruited under Moria's banner from Hachinosu.
To be honest, many of these people were feeling rather bewildered.
When they had first pledged themselves to the Shichibukai, Gecko Moria, they had done so because his backer was Navy Admiral Benn Ortoren. In their minds, following Moria meant following Admiral Benn. That should have meant free rein in the New World and a carefree pirate life.
Instead, they barely got to be pirates for a few days before being reassigned as supervisors and contractors. Somehow, they had gone from pirates to respectable working men.
Of course, there was also a small group who had once been pirate slaves. After enduring intense and grueling development projects in the Calm Belt, they had distinguished themselves through outstanding performance, obedience, and sheer eagerness to please. As a result, they successfully completed "labor reform."
By now, they had effectively paid off their crimes, shed their slave status, and become officially hired workers.
And now, they were paid wages.
Most of these people were pirates and criminals whose offenses had been relatively minor. Ortoren was not unwilling to give them a chance. As long as they worked hard mining, farming, contributing sincerely, and actively cooperating with labor reform, pirates whose crimes were not especially severe still had room to move forward and rebuild their lives.
Aside from these living workers, the construction site was also filled with large numbers of zombies.
Controlled by shadows, they labored in areas where sunlight never reached, handling the most demanding tasks: digging foundations and cellars, constructing underground drainage systems, and clearing subterranean rock veins.
Under Moria's command, nearly all the dirty and exhausting work was left to them.
"Moria-sama!"
A pirate subordinate wearing a hard hat hurried over excitedly, holding a thick stack of documents.
"These are the labor compensation distribution files sent jointly by Totto Land and the World Government."
Moria raised an eyebrow and snatched the documents, quickly reading through them.
Moments later, a broad grin spread across his face.
"Not bad, not bad. From the looks of it, this Gold City project will bring in at least two hundred and sixty billion Belly."
This money didn't need to be split with Ortoren or anyone else. It had already been allocated and belonged entirely to the Moria Pirates.
In other words, even after distributing a portion to his subordinates, Moria himself would still pocket at least two hundred billion Belly from this project alone.
As a pirate, how many people would he have to rob to make that kind of money?
How could that compare to being a foreman here?
By now, Moria had accumulated close to seven hundred billion Belly in personal assets. Most of it came from his share of the Amber Lead mines over the past two years, with another portion coming from project payments settled by Admiral Ortoren.
These included the construction of his command center and the newly established Marine bases across the New World.
In truth, if everything had been priced according to market rates, the construction costs for those new Marine bases and Ortoren's command center would have amounted to an astronomical sum.
But Moria would never charge his own boss market prices. He always worked at the lowest possible rates, earning only a modest profit. Otherwise, his assets would have already surpassed the trillion mark.
As Moria's wealth continued to grow, the bounty on Beast Kaidou's head in the underworld had already reached thirty-six billion Belly.
He ranked first among all active bounties and was hailed as "the most valuable head since Red-Haired Shanks."
And the gap was enormous. The second-ranked bounty, belonging to Navy Admiral Benn Ortoren, was only ten billion Belly.
That's right. Even as a Navy Admiral and one of the New World's top-tier figures, Ortoren still had a price on his head. That was the inclusiveness and diversity of the underworld.
And he wasn't the only one.
Even Fleet Admiral Sengoku's head was worth over forty billion Belly.
After that came names like Sakazuki, Borsalino, Kuzan, and others, all with bounties attached.
Ranked third was Whitebeard, whose head was valued at over sixty billion Belly in the underworld.
Most of these bounties had been posted for many years. Occasionally, one would be withdrawn, usually because the person who issued it had died. But the top ten names stayed up year after year, clearly sought after by far more than just one or two parties.
Unlike the Navy bounties Buggy and his crew had created in the original story, these bounties were only visible to, and claimable by, people within the underworld. As a result, there was no mass frenzy or trend of hunting down Navy Vice Admirals.
Just as Moria was considering whether he should add a little more to Kaidou's bounty now that another round of project funds had come in, his subordinate spoke up again.
"Moria-sama, there's another big order here. I'm not sure whether we should take it…"
"A big order? Why wouldn't we take it?" Moria asked, slightly puzzled.
"It's from the Beast Pirates," the pirate hesitated before pulling out another document.
Moria paused, took the file, and skimmed through it. His expression grew hesitant as well.
The order really was from the Beast Pirates, delivered to the Gecko Construction Team through underworld channels.
According to the document, Kaidou planned to build a new weapons production base on a medium-sized island within his territory. Since it was a production facility, infrastructure work was unavoidable, but the Beast Pirates didn't feel like handling it themselves. Instead, they intended to leave it to professionals like Moria and his team.
This alone showed just how well-known and well-regarded Moria's construction crew had become in the underworld.
And it wasn't limited to construction.
Any kind of labor-related job was fair game for Moria's workforce. Some kingdoms even entrusted him with developing dangerous and difficult mineral deposits within their borders.
After all, Moria wasn't afraid of danger. With a casual wave of his hand, zombies would be sent in to mine.
In short, as long as it involved labor output, Moria had a hand in it one way or another.
Staring at the Beast Pirates' contract, Moria hesitated for a while before gritting his teeth.
"Take it. Send the Sixth Division to handle Kaidou's job. Earn his money, then use it to buy his head. Perfectly reasonable."
Hearing his boss's decision, the subordinate immediately nodded.
"Understood, Moria-sama!"
From this alone, it was clear that although Moria still harbored hatred toward Kaidou, he was no longer as radical as he had been years ago. These days, he had clearly been eroded by money and wealth.
Aside from continuously raising the bounty on Kaidou's head in the underworld, he rarely thought about revenge anymore.
Most of his energy was now poured into making money.
After all, why had he gone out to sea to become a pirate in the first place?
Wasn't it for power, status, and wealth?
Wasn't it to become a big shot?
Now, even though he had ended up as a contractor under Ortoren, when you thought about it carefully, as a Shichibukai backed by a major figure like Ortoren and in control of the Hachinosu trade hub, he truly wielded tremendous power in the New World. Only a very small handful of top figures were stronger than him. The vast majority didn't even come close.
With power like that, did he even need to think about status?
He was already known in the underworld as the "King of Labor."
Some even called him the "King of Bounties."
As for wealth, he was far richer than most pirates could ever dream of.
As a major figure in the New World, Moria now had money, power, status, and authority. He ate the best food, enjoyed the finest comforts, and lived a life of unrestrained pleasure.
And precisely because of that, he had been corroded by wealth and money. His desire to personally take revenge on Kaidou had grown faint. After all, he was never a man with particularly strong willpower. Otherwise, in the original story, he wouldn't have turned into a shut-in slob.
He could keep raising Kaidou's bounty as much as he liked.
But personally going after revenge? Forget it.
What if he lost and died at Kaidou's hands?
All that money he had earned would have been for nothing.
Moria now believed that the most tragic thing in life was for a person to die while their money was still there.
So he absolutely couldn't die.
He hadn't finished enjoying his fortune yet.
...
If you'd like to support my work and unlock advanced chapters, you can follow me on [email protected]/PinkSnake (50 Chapters Ahead).
You can also follow as a free member to read few advanced chapters.