The Marine approval process dragged on for three months. It was rejected twice before Sengoku repeatedly emphasized that it would not involve any slave-related matters, and only then did the World Government finally give the nod.
No data collection related to slave trading—that was the World Government's bottom line, or rather, the Celestial Dragons' bottom line.
Sengoku reluctantly compromised. Of course, when it came to actual execution, they couldn't state it so bluntly. They simply announced to the public that this "official" missing persons organization had been established.
The message was clear—come to us instead of going to that pirate organization.
The Marines' credibility did indeed draw in quite a number of calls from civilians. Just as Sengoku had expected, the vast majority were cases of accidental disappearances. Only a very small portion could confirm that their relatives had been abducted by human traffickers.
For that small group, the Marines' response was simply, "Wait for further notice."
Searching for someone across the vast sea was never easy. However, with the Marines' capabilities, locating those who had gone missing due to other reasons was comparatively simple.
Once enough successful cases were publicized and their reputation spread, those few whose relatives couldn't be found would likely just sigh at their own bad luck. After all, so many others had been found.
The Marines were waging a "public opinion war" against Sleeping Island. Did Vane care? A little—but not much.
He had initiated this entirely to overturn Rocket Team's pirate image among the public. Three months had been more than enough. The Marines stepping in at this point actually helped ease Sleeping Island's workload.
Vane's move had only been a small experiment. The Marines, on the other hand, had no choice—they represented the official authority.
After competing with the Marines for a month, the staff on Sleeping Island actually found their work becoming easier and easier.
"1506 is almost here."
It had already been half a year since arriving in the New World. Aside from a direct clash with World Government personnel, Sleeping Island had remained remarkably stable.
The island's population had grown from the initial 2,000 brought over to more than 8,000.
In the first half of the Grand Line, the Fish-Man Pirates had been keeping a close eye on the slave trade. Vane would head over from time to time. The Slave King and other traffickers had indirectly supplied Vane with 3,000 people.
The Marine unit led by Strawberry had gradually relocated over 2,000 people from other places over the past six months. Originally, they had been the biggest contributors to population growth. Unfortunately, the slave trade in the first half had been so rampant that Vane and Meowth had directly crushed their KPI numbers.
Where did the remaining 1,000-plus people come from?
Some were immigrants from Fish-Man Island. Sleeping Island had now become the place with the largest number of Fish-Man outside of Fish-Man Island itself. Previously, that title belonged to Totto Land under the Big Mom Pirates. Now, Fish-Man Island recognized Sleeping Island even more.
Fish-Man had become the second-largest population group on Sleeping Island.
The rest had come voluntarily, temporarily residing or permanently settling for various reasons.
Some followed the Shipping King's fleet to conduct long-term business and ended up staying.
Some had simply found life impossible in their hometowns and sought a stable place to live.
In the New World, without Marine presence to maintain order, whether civilians lived well depended entirely on how poor their region was—or how stable the power backing it might be.
In places so impoverished that even pirates had no interest in them, those willing to accept lifelong poverty could put down roots.
But anyone hoping for a better life—at least something at the level of a proper town or village—would have to consider attaching themselves to a stable island.
In the original story, the territories of the veteran Yonko were all densely populated precisely because their domains were relatively stable.
There was no clear depiction of living conditions in Whitebeard's or Shanks' territories, but Shanks treated his subordinate captains well, and while Whitebeard was alive, the people of his homeland lived quite peacefully.
Only under Big Mom and Kaido were civilian conditions described in detail. Kaido ruled the closed-off Wano Country, where the people had no choice—they lacked the ability to even leave by sea.
Big Mom's territory was far more illustrative.
Those living in Totto Land were required to periodically give Big Mom half a month of their lifespan in exchange for a stable living environment. Even so, Totto Land's population was enormous, and the happiness index of its people was fairly high.
Civilians would rather sacrifice a portion of their lifespan than leave Totto Land. That alone showed how mediocre living conditions were elsewhere in the New World—at least in many places, they couldn't compare to Big Mom's rule.
After half a year of growing fame in the New World, Sleeping Island's appeal to outsiders had begun to show.
Over the past two months, more and more people had been arriving voluntarily.
Of course, many were just passing through—adventurers, merchants… and pirates. As long as they didn't cause trouble on Sleeping Island, Vane didn't care about their identities. Anyone who set foot here contributed to his GDP.
Docking cost money. Eating and drinking cost money. Shopping cost money… Even though many goods were sold by outside merchants and the Shipping King, that didn't matter—he could still collect taxes.
"So this is Sleeping Island?"
A pirate ship bearing a skull flag with tea-colored whiskers arrived at the port.
"Pirate ship, proceed to Port Two!"
Sleeping Island's port had expanded from one to two. Fujitora had pulled down a meteor to alter the terrain and create an additional docking harbor. Port One was for merchant ships and Sleeping Island's own vessels. Port Two was for pirate ships.
There were quite a few pirate crews visiting Sleeping Island. At peak times, five pirate ships could be docked simultaneously. Even on slower days, at least one pirate ship came and went daily.
Some were merely passing by for resupply. After Octagon Island, the two nearest supply points were Carnival Island and Sleeping Island.
Pirates looking to plunder supplies would most likely head to Carnival Island—it was more chaotic.
Those willing to pay for supplies were more likely to choose Sleeping Island, since things were run by rules here.
Sleeping Island also sold high-quality weapons and equipment. What was truly absurd was that some pirates would rob a haul on Carnival Island, then come to Sleeping Island to purchase weapons.
In short, the Corrupt King hadn't been having an easy time lately. Strawberry had been steadily siphoning away his population. The Shipping King had shifted his business focus from Carnival Island to Sleeping Island. And now even pirate business had declined significantly.
Under the guidance of port officials, the Brownbeard Pirates docked at Port Two. With them included, three pirate ships were currently moored.
Brownbeard glanced at the flags of the other two ships.
"Even pirates with bounties over 100 million are here."
His own bounty was only 79 million. In the New World, that wasn't particularly impressive.
He had gone from being a major pirate in Paradise to a small fry in the New World. The contrast was immense.
Fortunately, Brownbeard hadn't been crushed. One way or another, he had managed to remain in the New World.