On the shattered coastline, Dragon and Dr. Trafalgar stood side by side. Their faces were equally pale, their eyes equally vacant. They stared blankly at the large ship rapidly submerging into the sea, soon disappearing from their sight.
"This is..." After a long while, Trafalgar's hoarse voice finally broke the silence. "...over? I thought we were done for."
Was that the power possessed by the Calamity Company? Roa hadn't even come himself, merely dispatching two executives with a few special cloned soldiers, and they had been utterly defenseless.
"Me too." Dragon's expression was equally bitter. When Bullet and King restrained him, he thought it was the end.
"But, neither of us expected Roa to be such a lunatic." Dragon's tone was heavy with pain.
A lunatic. What else could describe Roa but a lunatic? He mercilessly slaughtered their soldiers, trampling their dignity into the mud. Yet, on the other hand, he spoke endlessly of wanting to overthrow the World Government with them. And the craziest part was that Dragon felt Roa wasn't lying; he was serious about wanting to overthrow the World Government.
That guy's mind might not be right. Dragon couldn't help but think this. A normal person wouldn't treat allies this way, nor enemies.
"What do we do now?" Trafalgar's voice was filled with despair. "What Roa wants seems to be exactly what we want to do." If things developed as originally planned, wouldn't that just please Roa greatly? This… this… The bodies of their fallen comrades were still lying on the shore!
"..." Dragon also fell into an obvious contradiction. After a long silence, he finally let out a long sigh.
"The World Government is the tumor of this world. Only by uprooting them can this world truly usher in a new era!" he declared. "But Roa is equally dangerous! In the new era, there will be no corner that can accommodate him!" As he spoke, Dragon's voice was practically squeezed through gritted teeth, his fists clenching as if to crush the air.
"He wants to let us develop, doesn't he? Then let him have his wish! Only by growing stronger can we achieve our ideals and eradicate absolute evil like Roa!"
"I only hope that one day, when we've accumulated enough power and launch our attack against him, he won't regret today's decision!!" Saying this, the flames of fighting spirit reignited in Dragon's eyes.
Dr. Trafalgar just stared at him blankly.
"Gather the bodies of our fallen comrades," Dragon commanded. "Their vengeance will, one day, be repaid by Roa in blood!"
"Before that, we must first develop ourselves well."
"Before that," Dr. Trafalgar reminded him faintly, "we must first repay Roa's debt."
Dragon's body suddenly stiffened.
"Also, do we need to weed out the traitors in our ranks?" Dragon's expression darkened again. Not to mention whether they could even find them, how would they deal with them once found? Would it invite another "lesson" from Roa? But if they didn't find those people, they would continue to lurk like maggots, allowing Roa to always know the Freedom Fighters' every move.
Marine Headquarters. After hanging up the call with Dragon, Zephyr belatedly realized that his only remaining left hand had crushed a smooth chunk out of the solid wood desk.
"Roa!!!" Even with the volume deliberately suppressed, the hatred in his voice, like the roar of a demon, was chilling to the bone. Zephyr's eyes blazed with a tiger-like ferocity. "You deserve to die! You deserve to die!"
Must you obstruct me every single time I try to do something? Roa, Roa, Roa, Roa!!! When will you finally die?!
Besides anger, Zephyr also felt a hint of worry. Did Roa know about his relationship with Dragon? If this matter were exposed, it would be a huge problem! And the Freedom Fighters—Zephyr had placed great hopes on that army, but now, it seemed Roa had set his sights on them too. Could the Freedom Fighters, now infiltrated like a sieve by Roa, truly be trusted anymore?
No, at least Dragon could be trusted; that guy's determination to resist the World Government was stronger than anyone's. But from now on, their attitude towards the Freedom Fighters army had to change. Zephyr raised his left hand and rubbed his face. After a brief loss of control, his eyes regained their composure.
If Roa's goal truly was to overthrow the World Government, then even if he knew about his relationship with Dragon, he likely wouldn't expose it. That bastard kid's arrogance was undeniable.
Just you wait, Roa, I won't let you or the World Government off! All of you who corrupt this world deserve to die!
"Achoo!"
New World, the Germa Kingdom, floating somewhere in the sea. Roa suddenly sneezed.
Which guy is talking smack about me behind my back? he wondered.
"But Boss," Dylan, who had just rushed to find Roa, spoke respectfully, "is it really alright to expose our undercover agents to the Freedom Fighters like that?"
"What does it matter?" Roa said casually. "Putting aside whether Dragon would dare to do anything to them once he found them, can they even find all the embedded agents?" All of the Flevance people's actions were guided by Morgans' intelligence organization. From the very beginning, Roa's people had infiltrated the Flevance community, pretending to be Flevance natives and acting as enthusiastic guides. By now, the spies had completely integrated with the Flevance people. How could the Freedom Fighters, whose main composition was the Flevance people, talk about rooting out those agents?
As for whether humiliating Dragon like this would cause any problems—aside from anything else, Dragon had always been a man who prioritized the bigger picture. He could endure a lot.
"One more thing, Boss," Dylan continued, "The investigation you requested earlier has yielded results."
"Oh?" Roa raised an eyebrow. "Did you find out who's behind this?"
"Not yet. Morgans hasn't been able to get a lead on the other party, but the samples have been delivered." Dylan said, "Would you like to see them?"
"Hmm, bring Judge over too. We need an expert present for this kind of thing."
"Yes."
And so, shortly after, in this palace, the Boss, chief steward, and chief technical officer of the Calamity Company gathered around a table, examining something closely. On the table lay several weapons: rifles, heavy machine guns, and individual rocket launchers.
"They look so similar," Roa stroked his chin. "Are these really not weapons produced in our armory?" These weapons looked almost identical to those sold by the Calamity Company.
"They certainly look very similar," Judge said gravely, picking up a rifle for a closer inspection. "But if you look closely, only the exterior is similar—no, not just the exterior. Damn it, the internal structure has been copied too!"
"It's just that the manufacturing process is too shoddy! They're completely unusable in actual combat! Yet, the quality of the outer casing isn't inferior to ours at all!"
"Alright, this is plagiarism!" Roa instantly grew furious. "I'm just trying to make some hard-earned money, and there's some bastard trying to disrupt the market! Damn it to hell!"
About half a month ago, something happened. Several old buyers suddenly complained to Umit, their logistics channel, that the quality of newly purchased weapons had drastically declined. Three or four out of ten guns would explode, and the rest often had problems, either parts falling off or easily getting damaged. They suspected that the Calamity Company was cutting corners and trying to exploit them.
Umit took this very seriously, reporting to Roa while simultaneously launching an investigation. This investigation quickly revealed that several batches of weapons, not transported by him or the Fish-Men, had entered certain countries. These weapons also bore the name of the Calamity Company, but their quality was appalling.
Roa also took this matter very seriously once he learned of it. While he didn't care about his reputation at all, interfering with his money-making was unacceptable! Expanding the scale of the Disaster Knights, investing in Judge's research on artificial Devil Fruits, and cloning the Lunarian tribe—all required huge capital investments!
"Investigate!" Roa immediately activated all his intelligence agencies, vowing to uncover the truth!
The result of the investigation was just these weapons; nothing else was found.
"Who the hell is behind this?!" Judge was infuriated. "They clearly have enough technology to replicate weapons almost identical to ours, yet they deliberately produce inferior products to ruin our reputation!" Who on the seas with a bit of knowledge didn't know that Vinsmoke Judge was the head of the Calamity Company's R&D department? If this got out, where would he put his face?
"Judge, you're asking who's behind this?" Roa and Dylan both looked at Judge with a strange gaze.
Judge was bewildered by their stares. He asked cautiously, "What is it, Boss?"
"Do you even need to ask that question?" Roa said with some pity. It seemed that the mental reconstruction had indeed dealt a huge blow to Judge's emotional intelligence. "How many organizations on the sea have the capability to mass-produce these weapons?"
"And how many are capable of doing so without our intelligence capabilities finding anything out?"
Judge froze, then suddenly shrieked in anger, "Damn the World Government!!" Of course, it was the World Government. Who else could it be?
"They couldn't block our channels to stop us from selling weapons, so they tried a different approach?" Dylan also frowned tightly. "On one hand, they're passing off inferior goods to ruin our reputation, and on the other hand, they can directly seize our market share and steal profits. How despicable!"
"They are perfectly capable of competing with us honorably!"
"Compete?" Roa scoffed with a smile. "The World Government wouldn't do something like that." How could the World Government want to see this world progress? They even obstructed communication between affiliated countries, let alone promoting a general upgrade in the world's weapon technology.
"So, Boss, what should we do now?" Dylan asked. "Should we issue a statement?"
"Hmm, issue it." Roa nodded. It was time for a statement.
"But Boss," Judge said, "even issuing a statement won't help, will it? The World Government won't admit it, and we have no evidence. They'll just accuse us of poor quality control and slandering them."
"The government? What are you talking about? This statement isn't for them." Roa looked surprised, then turned to Dylan. "Tell those idiots who accidentally bought fake weapons to quickly purchase authentic ones again! The price will increase by thirty percent from the original. Since they couldn't carefully distinguish and gave the money that should have been mine to the World Government, they certainly need to compensate me!"
"Have Morgans and Umit thoroughly investigate and see who bought the counterfeits. Not a single penny of the due compensation should be missed!"
Upon hearing Roa's words, Judge was almost dumbfounded. Not only would they not compensate the victims, but they would even charge them compensation? As expected of the Boss, truly extraordinary!
Compared to Judge, Dylan's reaction was much calmer. He simply bowed slightly. "I'll contact the reporters immediately."
"As for the World Government," Roa curled his lips into a radiant smile, "I think they're due for a lesson too."
"Oh?" Judge's eyes instantly lit up.
"Judge, set sail," Roa commanded. "To Wano Country. I have a brilliant idea that needs to be discussed with everyone."
"Yes!"
And so, the Grand Snail Fleet slowly set sail, heading towards Wano Country. Along the way, Bullet and King returned smoothly and rendezvoused with the fleet. After dropping them off, Fisher Tiger and Jinbe returned to Fish-Man Island to begin their vacation.
Almost simultaneously, newspapers carrying Roa's statement had already spread throughout the New World. It must be said, people were once again dumbfounded. The statement revealed that the World Government was trying to undermine the Calamity Company's business by counterfeiting inferior weapons. This part wasn't surprising. Whether people believed it or not, it was at least somewhat normal.
The real key was that Roa actually demanded those unlucky fools who were deceived to immediately repurchase authentic weapons, and at an inflated price, calling it compensation to him.
And so, the entire world once again witnessed Roa's madness. He was simply not a normal person. And the most terrifying part was that those victims dared not refuse.
Roa's already notorious reputation became even worse. But there was one good thing: from then on, all buyers would carefully scrutinize weapons before purchasing, fearing they would also have to compensate Roa.
And so.
"That damned bastard! His goal is to force buyers to no longer be careless!" The masterminds behind it, the Five Elders, were greatly infuriated by this, repeatedly lamenting Roa's cunning.
"If that's the case, then improve the quality of the counterfeits and only use inferior parts for crucial components!" The World Government still had no intention of giving up. While issuing statements in newspapers to refute Roa's absurd claims, they also prepared to upgrade their products.
Meanwhile, the Grand Snail Fleet was on its way to Wano Country. On this day, the grand fleet, after a long time, docked at a port to replenish supplies. Roa, who hadn't set foot on solid ground for a while, also visited this small seaside town.
His arrival instantly cleared the streets. As the news of Calamity Roa's arrival spread throughout the small town, the city instantly became silent, not a single person visible on the streets.
"Boss," Bullet, who had landed with Roa, his eyes gleaming with ferocity, "should I go drag them all out?" Boss had finally found an interest in strolling, and they dared to disappoint him? The entire city deserved to die!
"No, is there still one person?" Roa looked with interest at the chubby figure running from the street corner. On this guy, he saw greed, excitement, and envy. A bit interesting.
"Lord Roa!" When he was still about ten meters away from Roa, the newcomer directly fell to the ground and slid on his knees, shouting hoarsely, "Please let me join your ranks! I have nowhere else to go!"
Oh? Roa thought with interest. Could I actually meet someone self-recommending like this?
However.
"Please! Lord Roa!" The chubby boy looked up, revealing a tear-streaked face.
Roa's eyes instantly widened. "This is! Dylan, I'm not mistaken, am I?!"
Beside him, Dylan was equally dumbfounded.
This face!!
"Hey, kid," Roa couldn't help but ask directly, "what's your name?"
The chubby boy quickly replied, "Teach! Lord Roa, my name is, Marshall D. Teach!"
Roa gasped instantly.
Could it be?
Captain, you bastard! The Rocks Pirates' past is being revealed too quickly, slapping me in the face over and over again