Chapter 553: The Four Governors and Dragon's Whereabouts
Sakazuki was appointed North Blue Governor.
Borsalino was appointed West Blue Governor.
Kuzan became the South Blue Governor.
The final East Blue Governor was Kyle, an outstanding individual from the same class as Sakazuki.
In the Bloody Battle, Kyle's performance could be described as renowned.
With his strange ability, most Pirates were unable to even get close; they would directly suffer mental breakdown and die.
Uncontrollable rapid heartbeat would cause an immense burden on the human body, leading to a complete loss of Combat Ability, or even direct death.
He once earned the reputation of "Smiling Grim Reaper" and even cut down more than one well-known Pirate.
Furthermore, he had a Government Background.
After all, Sakazuki and the other two had excellent performances in the Bloody Battle, so the fourth one certainly couldn't be far behind.
Kyle also had considerable prestige within the Marines.
There were also a large number of Marine Warriors who survived the Bloody Battle, a large Core Force, and excellent Marines to assist them.
Each of them led a massive Fleet of ten thousand people.
Their mission was not merely to clear out the Trade Routes, but the entire Sea Area.
Regarding the Sea Areas that had lost control, the Marines had realized their danger.
Even if they couldn't eliminate all the Pirates, they had to clear out the Pirate Strength that posed a threat.
Especially the Dark Islands and Islands of Chaos where large numbers of Pirates gathered.
The Intelligence Force of both the Marines and the Government would cooperate with them.
As for the First Half of the Grand Line, it would be personally cleared by Marine Headquarters leading the various Fortresses and Bases.
This could also be considered training for them by Sengoku.
With Fleet Admiral Kong incapacitated, although he could still maintain the strength of a Top Tier Combatant, he had lost the deterrence of the peak of the Great Sea.
Especially the severe injury to his abdomen, which was a fatal weakness, making him very fragile.
Coupled with the severe aging caused by his body collapse, Kong's strength was difficult to maintain, and his body condition was slowly declining.
The severe injury to his brain also made it difficult for Kong to have sufficient energy, and his speed of thought had somewhat declined.
Everything indicated that Kong would find it difficult to continue in the position of Fleet Admiral.
Therefore, Sengoku was currently temporarily assuming the position of Fleet Admiral, while Kong assisted Sengoku from the side.
In this situation, Sengoku could no longer launch offensives everywhere as before.
Garp refused promotion to Admiral.
Zephyr nominally held the Great General Military Rank, but he was mostly doing the work of Navy Chief Instructor.
In other words, the current Marines did not have any Admirals.
And the young successors had not yet grown up.
Although Sakazuki and Borsalino performed exceptionally well in the Bloody Battle.
They themselves had reached the level of Top Tier Combatant.
But they had only reached the threshold of Top Tier Combatant; they could not be considered Strongmen among them, much less true Admiral-level Combat Power.
Forcing them into the position before they were ready would not be beneficial to them.
They were not yet ready to bear the stress that came with the identity of a Marine Admiral.
They still needed a few years of growth.
As for the young Kuzan, only twenty-four years old, he still needed a bit more seasoning.
To accelerate their growth, Marine Headquarters used this opportunity to train their ability.
After all, a Marine Admiral is not only a Top Tier Combatant but also a General, and the ability to handle affairs is equally important.
Someone had already discovered that Dragon was missing; there had been no news about him for some time.
Dragon had great influence.
As an Admiral Candidate, son of Garp, possessing terrifying combatant strength, and great merit.
In the current situation, once this news spread, it would definitely cause a considerable blow to the overall Marines.
Therefore, the Headquarters Higher-ups adopted a method of handling it coldly, letting time make it forgotten.
As for Dragon?
He was wandering on the Great Sea, observing the World, seeing with his own eyes what kind of life the ordinary residents of this World lived under the rule of the World Government.
He did not recognize the path of the Marines and wanted to change this World in his own way, seeking true justice.
However, he had not found what this path was.
For roughly half a year, Dragon traveled throughout the Great Sea.
This time, he came to the Red Line.
He wanted to witness personally how the lives of the subjects here were under the direct rule of the World Government.
Draped in a black robe, a mysterious red tattoo had appeared on his left face at some point.
Transforming into wind, he wandered across the Red Line.
The scenes he witnessed left him greatly disappointed, or rather, they did not exceed his expectations; they were even more terrifying than he imagined.
What did he see?
Hell on Earth.
People starved to death every day.
The further the Area was from Mary Geoise, the more chaotic it was, having lost the most basic order.
He could not imagine that under the direct rule of the World Government, possessing several million Army, such existences as bandits would still appear.
On the Red Line, starting from an unknown time until now, there were already hundreds of thousands of thieves.
Due to the oppression of the World Government and the scarcity of grain, more and more people who could not survive began to resist the World Government.
Of course, they were not directly confronting the World Government, this colossus, but rather becoming thieves, joining thieves, wantonly plundering the property, food, and supplies of others to satisfy their own living needs.
In this place, the Red Line, under the direct rule of the World Government, they could only plunder.
The thieves were not gathered together but were large and small groups scattered throughout various places on the Red Line.
The Army naturally targeted these thieves for clearing out; this was their main mission.
However, the Red Line was too vast, and these thieves would usually disguise themselves as civilians, often deceiving the Army's search.
They would start operating again after the Army left.
For survival, more and more people became thieves.
Even if the Army eliminated some thieves, they would reappear not long after.
The number of thieves did not decrease; instead, the Red Line became even more chaotic.
It seemed that for a long time, the World Government had not effectively governed the vast Kingdom under its rule.
Most residents lived in cheap, small huts, finding it difficult to survive.
Some bandits with large factions even picked up weapons and actively resisted the World Government, directly clashing with the Army.
But in terms of weapons, the Army had an absolute advantage.
After all, supplies and munitions were all under the control of the World Government.
As for those ordinary residents, except for a portion who produced food on Farmland, they simply did not have the ability to produce weapons.
In most Areas, even the Farmland had already been abandoned.
For the sake of plunder, the thieves would often push towards the Core Zone, the closer to Mary Geoise, the closer to the Core Area.
Such a situation had never been good.
Since the Rocks Era began, such chaos had been continuously spreading and continuing.
But if it continued, it would not only affect Mary Geoise but also affect the connection between the Government and the Four Seas.
The lack of supplies was difficult to solve.
Especially given the World Government's current situation, they naturally would not focus on these ordinary residents.
On the contrary, in their eyes, they were nothing more than slaves.
Letting them live or die on their own.
In order not to affect the rule of the World Government, a cordon line was being separately set up in the North and South of Mary Geoise.
Enclosing roughly 100 million people inside.
As for the others, they would all be blocked outside the cordon line; they had been given up.
This was a huge project.
The Red Line encircles the World, and its width is at least several hundred kilometers.
Which means that the length of this cordon line alone exceeds a thousand kilometers.
These scenes fell into Dragon's eyes.
The Passage from the Red Line to the Great Sea was under the control of the World Government.
Without the World Government's permission or aid, most of these hundreds of millions of people could only wait for death.
Seeing this, Dragon knew he couldn't sit idly by and wait for death; he should do something.
(end of chapter)