After finishing off Wang Zhi and dispersing the lightning, Doflamingo returned to his normal state and used Kenbunshoku no Haki (Observation Haki) to spread the news of Wang Zhi's death across the entire island.
The pirates, already steeped in betrayal and treachery, threw down their weapons and surrendered one after another as soon as they heard.
There were exceptions, of course. Was and the die-hard fans of Wang Zhi refused to accept reality and launched a final desperate resistance.
Unfortunately for them, the situation was already crystal clear. Was and the others were merely struggling pointlessly against the tide.
In less than half a day, Was was defeated by Vergo and thrown into a cell. The remaining pirates who continued to resist were all wiped out to the last man.
In the Donquixote family's temporary command post on Beehive Island, located inside one of the few intact grand council halls, Doflamingo and his top officers sat around a long table.
Doflamingo listened to Vergo's after-action report.
More than two hundred of the fighters Trebol had brought were dead or injured.
Nearly a hundred of the God Guard Squad that Diamante led had also been killed or wounded.
Doflamingo found these losses acceptable. War, after all, was something that had to be paid for with human lives.
There was good news as well: the original pirates of Beehive Island numbered in the tens of thousands. After this battle, around ten thousand had survived and surrendered.
With a wave of his hand, Doflamingo ordered them all to become the primary labor force for rebuilding Beehive Island's infrastructure.
He had Pica use his Devil Fruit能力 to level every building, then, according to his own blueprint, pile a large highground in the central position of the skull's interior, to become the Donquixote family's core district and, in the future, the most prosperous central city of Beehive Island.
Around the central district, he ordered the construction of tall walls, leaving only four massive gates in the cardinal directions.
Using each gate as the base of a main road leading outward, they would build four towns around the island's outer circle, named East Town, West Town, South Town, and North Town respectively.
East Town would focus on entertainment venues, with large amusement facilities for leisure and recreation.
West Town would specialize in the darker trades: casinos, brothels, and slave markets.
North Town would serve as the family district for the Donquixote family.
South Town would be a civilian district, a place for those who wished to join the new Beehive Island to live and survive.
Taking advantage of Beehive Island's favorable terrain, Doflamingo also ordered defensive works to be built on the island's outer rim.
Not only that, he envisioned creating, in the seas surrounding all of his bases, a natural lightning defense like that around Thunder God Island, leaving only ten controlled access channels as radar ports.
With such fortifications, anyone wanting to assault any of his bases would be forced to attack head-on.
Furthermore, as long as Doflamingo himself was on one of those islands, the lightning encircling the surrounding sea would become a natural offensive weapon.
All it would take was a flick of his fingers from within the island, and the pirate ships daring to attack from the front would be shattered to pieces by lightning.
Airborne invasions were even less realistic. Anyone wanting to attack from above would first have to figure out how to get through the lightning-filled sky.
Doflamingo was not the type to drag things out. Since he had decided to claim Beehive Island as his New World stronghold, he would naturally move quickly.
Once the meeting ended, Pica and Barrett began working together to flatten the buildings and reshape the terrain of Beehive Island.
For greater security, they transformed the walls around the central town into a double-walled, three-dimensional structure reminiscent of a great wall. Four giant gates were left leading outward, and at set intervals, towers were erected as garrison posts.
Diamante, Trebol, and Vergo led the combat personnel in acting as overseers, forcing the original Beehive Island pirates to work themselves to the bone rebuilding the new Beehive Island.
Doflamingo himself was no less busy. During the day, he used his能力 along the island's surrounding sea to construct the lightning defenses. At night, he returned to Thunder God Island to continue absorbing and training with its power.
Everyone was working themselves ragged for the construction of the new Beehive Island. During this time, Corolla and Was, who had been penned in by guards, tried to escape in secret.
The first time they were caught, they were beaten half to death. To prevent further escape attempts and to make them easier to supervise, they were both assigned to the construction crews.
The changes happening on Beehive Island were completely unknown to the outside world. With no one able to leave to spread word, no one could possibly know.
As for why there were no leaks:
First, Doflamingo had confiscated every single Den Den Mushi owned by the "laborers."
Second, any pirate whose identity looked even slightly suspicious was executed on the spot without being given a chance to explain.
That was not to say no one came to investigate. Totogu, the CP0 agent who was Wang Zhi's contact, a Paramecia-type Harden-Harden Fruit能力者, did come. The moment he arrived, however, he was savagely beaten by the "busy duo" of Barrett and Pica, then thrown into the labor force.
The two had every reason to be angry. They'd finally managed to get a moment's rest, only for Totogu to stir up trouble right then. No wonder they were in a foul mood.
If not for Doflamingo's order that Devil Fruit users were not to be killed for now because they would be useful later, Totogu might well have died on the spot.
Given the special nature of Totogu's fruit, which could reinforce any person or object, Doflamingo immediately added him to Barrett and Pica's team. The duo became a trio, and with Totogu's powers, not only did their workload become much lighter, but the fortifications themselves grew far sturdier.
Time flew by like a white horse flashing past a crack in the wall, and three months slipped away in silence.
Within those three months, the news that Beehive Island had changed hands could no longer be concealed.
The entire New World was shaken by Doflamingo's swift methods. There were, of course, pirates who refused to believe it or thought Doflamingo had simply gotten lucky taking down "the founding father of piracy," Wang Zhi.
After several rounds of disbelieving pirate crews tried to invade the new Beehive Island and returned in utter defeat, the pirates of the New World had no choice but to acknowledge that Beehive Island had truly changed rulers and that Doflamingo genuinely had the strength to claim it.
Over those three months, Doflamingo spent one month extending the lightning defensive perimeter around the new Beehive Island's surrounding seas to nearly five nautical miles, leaving only East Town and North Town with ports open directly to the sea.
He spent the rest of his time fully devoted to training and absorbing the power of Thunder God Island. Three months were just enough for him to finish absorbing it, and so it was. After taking in the strange power above Thunder God Island, Doflamingo could clearly feel his strength rising yet again. He also had a strong hunch that with the right opportunity, he would be able to awaken the Goro Goro no Mi (Rumble-Rumble Fruit).
Construction of the new Beehive Island also reached its intended scale. This was the advantage of Devil Fruits in a pirate world.
In just three months, thanks to the tireless efforts of Pica, Barrett, and Totogu, and the round-the-clock labor of more than ten thousand former Beehive Island pirates, all of the buildings had been completed according to Doflamingo's expectations. The only thing missing now was population.
Naturally, Doflamingo was in no rush on that front. As long as word got out that there was profit to be made and benefits to be had, in a man-eats-man place like the New World, he didn't even need to worry about limiting how many people tried to flood in.
Of course, Doflamingo had already instructed Trebol to release the news: anyone could join the new Beehive Island.
All they had to do was obey the laws of the new Beehive Island, register their identity, and pay different taxes depending on which town they lived in, and they would receive the protection of the Donquixote family.
Did anyone believe Trebol's announcement?
Naturally, some did.
Once construction was complete, Doflamingo allowed those pirates who wished to leave to go.
He had only one objective in doing so: to broaden his own reputation and aura. And it was thanks to the "invisible publicity" provided by those departing pirates that…
(End of Chapter)
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