The Big Mom Pirates and the Beast Pirates were frantically seizing territories that had once belonged to Whitebeard.
Meanwhile, the Red-Haired Pirates hadn't even returned to their home base yet. After all, Shanks had still been showing off at Marineford just three days ago. Even once he did return, it was unlikely he would take the initiative to attack the Marines.
Therefore, the G1 Branch wouldn't face any major threats in the short term.
Still, as a precaution, Sean ordered Akainu, Momonga, and several other Vice Admirals to station themselves there, leaving behind the ten squadrons brought with them.
Furthermore, the fleet originally scheduled to return to the East Blue had their plans altered. Under Lucci's command, they sailed directly into the New World to station at the G1 Branch.
As for Sean, he took the remaining officers and had Blueno open a Door to return them to the 16th Branch.
Next, Sean had a great deal to prepare.
The shipyards, armories, cola factories—everything had to be relocated to the New World. Simultaneously, the G1 Branch needed to be rebuilt, as it would serve as the headquarters for the Marines in the New World moving forward.
To achieve this, Sean went straight to Mansour of the Tokaf Company.
He opened the conversation bluntly.
"Mansour, does the Tokaf Company want to expand its business into the New World?"
Mansour was momentarily stunned.
'The New World? I haven't even fully figured out the Grand Line, and now we're heading into the New World?'
More importantly, did the Tokaf Company even have the capability to operate there? The New World was hundreds of times more dangerous than the first half of the Grand Line.
Suddenly, he remembered a piece of unconfirmed news that had just reached him.
"Vice Admiral Sean, is that news actually true?"
"What news?"
"The report that the Marines will be split into two independent divisions, and that you will serve as the Fleet Admiral of the New World Marines?"
"You guys are well-informed. That news hasn't been made public yet, has it?"
"So it is true... Then the project you mentioned is..."
"The New World Marine Headquarters. If you don't have the guts for it, I'll find another company!"
"Wait, wait! We'll do it! We'll do it no matter how dangerous it is!"
Mansour's eyes widened.
The construction of the New World Marine Headquarters? If they pulled this off, the Tokaf Company's prestige would skyrocket! In the future, whenever they negotiated partnerships, they could simply lead with: "Our company handled the entire construction of the Marine Headquarters!"
Could any level of prestige beat that? A little danger was nothing compared to that kind of status.
Besides, they would have the protection of Vice Admiral Sean—no, soon-to-be Fleet Admiral Sean. This was a man capable of taking down Whitebeard!
"Fine. Now, let me give you the details," Sean said.
"First, regarding the location: it will be Bernard Island, the site of the original G1 Branch. (Since Marineford suffered minimal damage in this world, the island was not renamed New Marineford as it was in the original timeline.)"
"Bernard Island is large enough—even larger than Marineford—and it is surrounded by six smaller islands within a ten-mile radius, forming a natural defensive system."
"First is the main island, which will retain the design of a central island protected by a defensive wall. As for the other six islands, I want them built like this!"
As he spoke, Sean produced a piece of paper with a rough sketch and handed it to Mansour.
"This is..."
Looking at the sketch, Mansour's eyes widened again. Having spent his entire life in construction, this was the first time he had ever seen a fortress of this shape.
"This is a type of fortress I designed called a Shuttle Fort. Any problems?"
"None. As long as there are blueprints, we can build it. I just... I didn't realize you were so talented in fortress design, Vice Admiral—I mean, Fleet Admiral Sean."
"Just a flash of inspiration," Sean replied with a wave of his hand.
He certainly wasn't going to tell Mansour that he had plagiarized a famous design from his previous life.
"Right, regarding Bernard Island, I have five requirements."
"First, leave half the island vacant for the construction of a shipyard and a large number of factories. Weapon production will also be based here. As per the usual arrangement, coordinate with Barry regarding the shipyard's design. As for the remaining areas, build factories; coordinate the size and layout of those facilities with Retes."
"Second, the training camp within the headquarters area must be larger than the one at the 16th Branch. Design it to accommodate twenty thousand personnel simultaneously."
"Third, for the Marine residential areas, to avoid future headaches, build them for a capacity of one hundred thousand people. Additionally, construct a villa district for high-ranking officers, with no fewer than one hundred villas."
"Fourth, I intend to keep the research institutes underground. As for the required size and design, coordinate with Retes."
"Finally, expand the port. It needs to be larger than the current Marine Headquarters, with the capacity to dock three hundred large warships simultaneously!"
"Provided those five points are met, how long will it take you to provide the blueprints? And how long until completion?"
Mansour scribbled furiously in his notebook as he listened, then performed some quick calculations.
"Fleet Admiral Sean, most of these requests are manageable. However, Bernard Island is larger than Marineford. Using it as the central island and building a defensive wall five hundred meters offshore... the scale of this project is terrifying."
"Putting the central island aside, the defensive wall alone would likely cost around 20 billion Belly."
"If you add the central island and the Shuttle Forts on the six surrounding islands... the entire package would likely cost between 120 and 150 billion Belly. This..."
As he crunched the numbers, Mansour looked completely shell-shocked. A project costing over a hundred billion Belly? Even the main Marine Headquarters didn't have that kind of money, did they?
"Don't worry about the money. Just tell me how long for the blueprints and how long for the construction."
"The blueprints won't take long—three days at most. But the construction... it would take at least a year!"
"No, that's too long. I'll give you six months maximum!"
"Fleet Admiral Sean, even if I sent every single worker in my company and had them work day and night, it would still take a year!"
"Find a way!"
"There truly is no way!" Mansour shook his head.
However, Sean didn't buy it. In his logic, if there was "no way," it simply meant not enough money had been offered.
"I can increase the project fee by 15%. Furthermore, if you finish within six months, I will give you an additional 1% for every day you finish early."
"Of course, this is provided the quality is guaranteed!"
Mansour was stunned once again.
A 15% increase in the project fee?
150 billion became 172.5 billion? And on top of that, a 1% bonus for every day early?
In truth, it wasn't that there was no way to get it done.
While he didn't have enough manpower to finish the project in six months on his own, he could simply outsource the engineering, couldn't he?
Tokaf Company wasn't the only construction firm in the world; in fact, they didn't even rank in the top three of the industry. After all, before meeting Sean, Tokaf had merely been a construction company based in the East Blue.
If he outsourced the project to several industry giants and provided ample funding—with a clause stating that for every day the project was completed ahead of the six-month deadline, he would pocket a 1% rebate...
If it were finished in three months...
'Hiss.' He could pocket over a hundred billion Belly?
The total assets of the entire Tokaf Company didn't even reach a hundred billion, did they?
Therefore...
I'm taking this job!
"Fleet Admiral Sean, please rest assured. I will absolutely have this completed within six months!"
Hearing this, Sean was satisfied.
It was just Belly, after all.
With gold worth trillions of Belly in his hands, how could he possibly run out of money? Even if the project were finished in a single day, he could easily afford to pay out hundreds of billions of Belly!
It wasn't an issue at all.
'''
Ultimately, Mansour outsourced the vast majority of the project, uniting every construction company with even a modicum of fame in the world.
One company was responsible for a set of bastions, while two others collaborated on the defensive walls surrounding the main island. The various construction tasks on the center island were similarly distributed.
These were projects worth billions of Belly, and since the funding was provided in full and on time, the construction companies were instantly electrified. Fleets from these firms set sail from every corner of the globe, heading toward the New World.
Thus, the project that would later be hailed as the largest engineering feat in Marine history began in a blaze of glory.
As for the result...
It didn't even take three months. It was completed in just two and a half!
Although pirates had attempted to harass the site during the process, every single one of them was wiped out by Akainu and the others. They even captured over a dozen more Ability users, making the venture highly profitable.
As for the Emperors...
Big Mom and the Beast Pirates were still locked in a fierce struggle over Whitebeard's former territories. After all, among the Four Emperors, Whitebeard's domain had been the largest, the most prosperous, and the most populous.
As for Shanks, no one knew what he had been up to since returning to the New World; he had virtually vanished, leaving no news behind. This lack of interference contributed greatly to the project's smooth progress.
Simultaneously, the G1 Branch was officially renamed...
The New World Marine Headquarters.
Currently, the organizational structure of the New World Marines was as follows:
Fleet Admiral: Sean.
Admirals: Akainu, Gion, Lucci, and Hawkeye—four in total.
Vice Admirals: Doberman, Onigumo, Momonga, Jabra, Kaku, and Zephyr (who also served as the Chief Instructor of the New World Marines)—six in total.
Rear Admirals: Kalifa, Blueno, Fukuro, Kumadori, Ace, Sophia, and others—fifteen in total.
Commodores and Field-grade officers: 780 in total.
As for why there were so many Commodores and Field-grade officers... the reason was that over ninety percent of them were former Marines from the 16th Branch who had been promoted after the Paramount War. Their strength was formidable, and their military merits were more than sufficient.
People like Zoro, Usopp, and Nami were currently Field-grade officers.
In contrast, there were fewer than 500 Company-grade officers, as most of the personnel from the 16th Branch had already been promoted to the rank of Field-grade officer.
Finally, there were the ordinary Marines, currently numbering 28,000. The scale was originally intended to be 30,000, but they had suffered losses of 2,000 men during a previous attack before Sean and his group arrived.
Then there was the scale of the fleet.
Under Sean's direction, all the original wooden warships had been sent back to the main Headquarters. Sean simply looked down on them.
With the wooden ships gone, the New World Marines now possessed 2 battleships, 8 cruisers, 22 destroyers, and 40 frigates. In addition to these ocean-going warships, they had 24 high-speed patrol boats.
Furthermore, in Sean's plan, the fleet's scale was to be doubled within the next six months.
However, compared to the frenzied expansion of the fleet, the current number of Marines seemed unable to keep up. You couldn't just recruit people when you needed them, because new recruits required six months of training; otherwise, they had virtually no combat effectiveness.
Therefore, Sean decided to emulate the original story and initiate a...
World Military Draft!
He wanted to see if he could scout Fujitora and Ryokugyu ahead of time.
If he could, the New World Marines would have a lineup of six Admirals.
That seemed a bit insane! But he had to get those two.
To this end, Sean had already fully mobilized the intelligence department under Lucci's command.
The first step was to scour the casinos on every single island. Based on Sean's description, they were to look for a blind man...
One who wore a purple kimono and a scarf, had a circle of beard around his mouth, wore a deep purple sash, and had a penchant for gambling.