The divine vacation on Fish-Man Island was still ongoing, and in the New World, G-5 Branch's revenue-generating activities had reached a brand-new peak.
G-5 Branch, Logistics Management Zone, Secret Dock No. 3
This was the most heavily guarded area in the entire G-5 base. Its confidentiality level even surpassed the armory.
Three steps, one guard. Five steps, one sentry.
All on-duty soldiers wore specially designed light-blocking visors. Their mission was simple, unload cargo.
"Move! Move! Move! Get your heads in the game!"
"Squad Six! Didn't you eat today? Can't even hold a crate steady?!"
"Careful! These aren't cannonballs! They're worth more than your lives! If you break them, you can't afford to pay for it!"
G-5 officers roared themselves red in the face.
Yet unlike the usual oppressive and violent atmosphere, today, whether it was the officers shouting or the soldiers being yelled at, every single one wore a strange, almost blissful smile.
One transport ship after another, flying the G-5 Supplies Transport flag, docked continuously. They looked ordinary on the outside, but their interiors had been specially reinforced.
The cargo holds opened, and long lines of soldiers grunted as they hauled out heavy standard-issue military supply crates.
Clang… clang…
Crates collided with carts, producing dull yet strangely pleasant metallic sounds.
Command Tent
At the front of the unloading line, inside a temporary command tent, sat two completely different women.
One was G-5's chief steward, Renzo's adjutant, Ain.
As always, she was sharp and composed, wearing frameless glasses and holding a thick stack of manifests. However, her brows were tightly furrowed.
"Report! Rear Admiral Ain! Third batch of 'Tuna Line A' has docked, 1,200 standard crates total!"
Ain quickly checked it off the list without looking up.
"How much space is left in Warehouse Seven?"
"Report! It's full! Stacked to the ceiling!"
"What about Eight and Nine?"
"Also… full!"
Ain's frown deepened.
Beside her, the other "commander" was in a completely opposite state.
"Ahhhhh~~~~"
Nami, the Straw Hat Pirates' navigator and now G-5's Special Financial Consultant, was sprawled inelegantly across what looked like a table.
But it wasn't a table.
It was ten opened crates assembled into a golden platform.
Inside them, glittering gold bars, jewels, ancient coins… piled like mountains, nearly spilling out.
Nami's eyes had already transformed into two rapidly spinning Berry symbols.
She had practically melted into the pile of gold, drool slipping from the corner of her mouth.
"Mine… all mine… no, Renzo's… but Renzo's is mine… hehe… hehehe…"
She grabbed a handful of coins, letting them slip through her fingers with a clatter, the most beautiful sound in the world.
"Nami-san!"
Ain finally knocked on the crate.
"Please focus! We're facing a serious logistics problem!"
"Problem? What problem?"
Nami lifted her head groggily, blinking her Berry eyes.
"Our warehouses are completely full!"
Ain pointed outside at the endless stream of transport ships.
"And the 'Falcon' fleet and the 'Sea Serpent' fleet are arriving soon! We have nowhere to put these… 'supplies'!"
"Full?"
Nami paused, then waved dismissively.
"If they're full, just stack them outside!"
She gestured grandly.
"Pile them here! Make a mountain! A golden mountain! Wouldn't that be spectacular?"
"Nami-san!"
Ain raised her voice.
"This is the New World. This is G-5. You want to stack a gold mountain outside? Afraid pirates aren't excited enough?"
"…Oh. Right."
Nami reluctantly climbed off the gold pile and wiped her drool.
"Then what do we do?"
The thought of so much gold with nowhere to store it made her anxious.
"This is money! We can't afford any losses!"
At that moment, a soldier, clearly elite, stumbled while carrying a crate.
Bang!
The crate hit the ground. Wood cracked open, and dozens of gold bars rolled out.
"Ahhh! My babies!!"
Nami shrieked and vanished in a blur faster than Soru, diving onto the gold bars and shielding them with her body.
"You! You! You!"
She glared murderously at the soldier.
"If you damage my gold bars, I'll throw you into the sea to feed the Sea Kings!"
The soldier dropped to his knees in terror.
"I'm sorry, Consultant Nami! I didn't mean to!"
"You- "
"That's enough, Nami-san."
Ain adjusted her glasses.
"The soldiers are working hard too."
She looked at the sweating, trembling soldier and then at the others, exhausted, yet equally excited.
Ain knew exactly why they were so motivated.
"Rear Admiral Ain…" the soldier stammered, "I wasn't careless… I was just… too excited…"
"Excited?"
"Yes!"
He grinned foolishly.
"Lord Rehn said this Special Material Transport Mission comes with bonuses, five times the usual amount!"
"Five times!!"
His comrade chimed in, face flushed.
"After this job, I can go home and get married!"
"I can buy my sister the best prosthetic!"
"Hahaha! I'm eating Sea King meat every day!"
This was G-5.
They were rough, crude, but real.
They risked their lives for money, for family, for a better life.
And Renzo gave them that chance.
Seeing these "money-loving" soldiers, Nami's anger miraculously vanished.
She felt… a strange sense of kinship.
"Five times the bonus…"
Her Berry eyes sparkled. She patted the soldier's shoulder.
"Good spirit!"
"But!"
She turned sharply.
"If you ever drop my, cough, Admiral Renzo's supplies again, your bonus is gone!"
"Yes, ma'am! Mission guaranteed!"
The soldiers roared in unison, morale soaring.
Ain looked at the gold piled high and finally made up her mind.
"Relay my orders!"
She activated her Den Den Mushi to contact the G-5 Engineering Department commander.
"Mobilize the 'Pangolin' Unit immediately to Secret Dock No. 3!"
"Rear Admiral Ain?" the engineer sounded confused.
Ain's eyes burned with G-5's signature madness and efficiency.
"If the warehouses aren't enough, we build more!"
"I don't care how! Drill! Blast! Dig!"
"I want a super underground vault beneath Dock No. 3, three times larger than the G-5 base itself!"
"What?!"
"Specifications," Ain said coldly.
"Triple-layer Seastone-reinforced concrete walls. Twenty-meter-thick alloy gates. Defense standards capable of withstanding a full-force frontal strike from a Yonko-level commander."
"Th-That scale! The time required!"
"Engineering Department bonuses, multiplied by five."
Silence.
Three seconds later,
"WOOOOOAAHAH!!!"
The Den Den Mushi exploded with inhuman cheering and machinery revving.
"Rear Admiral Ain! Leave it to us!"
The commander's voice trembled with beastlike passion.
"Even if you want us to drill through the Red Line, we'll finish in half a month!"
"G-5 Engineering! For the bonus! Advance!!!"
The ground began to tremble as massive drilling machines and frenzied engineers raced toward Dock No. 3.
Nami stood stunned.
Watching Marines more unhinged than pirates.
Watching Ain's lightning-fast command.
"An… underground vault?"
In her mind appeared an image,
A subterranean palace larger and grander than Dressrosa's royal palace.
Filled with nothing but mountains of gold, silver, jewels…
"Heh…"
"Hehehe…"
"HEHEHEHEHEHE!!!"
Her laughter turned villainous as she leapt up and hugged Ain.
"Ain-chan! You're a genius!"
"I've decided!"
She raised her hand high and announced to all the soldiers:
"This vault will be called 'Nami's Golden Land'! And when it's done, I'm putting the biggest, softest bed in the world at its center! I'll sleep every night surrounded by my treasures!"
"OOOHHHHHH!!!"
The soldiers erupted in deafening cheers.
And so, driven by the supreme power of money, G-5 began an unprecedented mega-project.
A mad, hyper-efficient infrastructure boom, built entirely around gold.