Chapter 274: Tug Of War
“Cough!”
Quickly sobering up with a technique similar to Life Return, Kaido finally entered his loyal meeting room and sat straight down in the main seat.
And with his seating, the air at the scene finally began to flow, with sounds of clothes rustling, whispering, and muttering gradually coming from below.
Subtly shifting his body’s center of gravity away from Miss La’s side, Kaido wasted no time and directly announced the start of the meeting.
“Looks like everyone’s here, so I won’t beat around the bush.”
“I called you executives here this time because I think our 《World War Plan》 should enter the next stage.”
At these words, aside from core executives like Burufaruto, Embers, and Aoxi, everyone else couldn’t help but let out a burst of noisy discussion.
No other reason—when Miss La proposed this 《World War Plan》 back then, these people weren’t present, so hearing Kaido suddenly mention this unfamiliar term now left them somewhat at a loss.
So our Beasts Pirates actually have something like this?
“World War”—sounds like some incredibly major plan~
“Boss Kaido, this 《World War Plan》 is…?”
As the acknowledged Number One Person under the core executives, Taolong naturally stepped forward to ask on behalf of everyone.
“This is the path that we Beasts Pirates set long ago.”
Embers spoke up to answer the question for Kaido.
“In fact, everything we’ve done so far has been following this plan step by step.”
“And this plan is roughly divided into four stages.”
“First step: occupy enough territory and enough money;
Second step: gather all the talent who can produce good weapons under our banner, letting them continuously develop the latest and best weapons;
Third step is to sell these weapons to every corner of the world;
And the final step is to control their wars by relying on those countries’ dependence on our weapons.”
Embers retold what Miss La had said back then in his own understanding—after all, if he repeated Miss La’s original words full of professional terms, these guys might not understand.
It could only be said that Embers’ memory was quite good; even after so long, he could still recount it pretty accurately.
……
Sure enough, after hearing Embers’ straightforward translation, Taolong and the others nodded, gaining a general understanding of this plan with its very Haki name.
“So we’ve basically completed the first and second steps of this plan by now?”
“Boss Kaido, you want to move to the next step of the plan?”
Burufaruto, who had just rushed back covered in dust, spoke up to ask at this point.
Compared to new executives like Taolong who were stationed locally and had less contact with the pirate crew’s core affairs, he as an elder in the organization still had some understanding of these matters.
The Beasts Pirates had now basically completed the accumulation of wealth and the iteration of technology, steadily seizing this massive cake of the world arms market.
“Well~ I think I’m the most suitable one to answer this question.”
Seeing Kaido’s gaze turn to him, Mr. Wright understandingly took out a stack of materials from his carried briefcase.
As Miss La’s nominal personal assistant and in reality the Beasts Pirates’ ultimate workhorse, he had almost single-handedly taken on all the pirate crew’s internal and external organizational work.
Basically, whether internal affairs or diplomacy, anything Kaido and the others found troublesome would be dumped on him.
The Beasts Pirates’ one main and two vice captains totaling eighteen islands were all carried on his shoulders alone—he was truly the Beasts Pirates’ runner-up in heavy lifting.
The Beasts Pirates could go a week or even a month without Captain Kaido, but not a single day without him, this ‘elder’.
Slightly organizing the documents in hand, Mr. Wright cleared his throat and began reporting on the pirate crew’s current situation.
“First of all, as Burufaruto said, our current accumulation of money and technology is already sufficient.”
“Even our revolver series and semi-automatic series firearms have already opened up a generational gap compared to mainstream flintlock weapons on the market. And precisely because of this, our weapons sell far better than those of other arms barons.”
“According to the latest data, through cooperation with 【Ratlan】 and other arms sales giants, the weapons produced and sold by Beasts Heavy Industry already occupy more than eighty percent of the entire New World weapons market.”
“The remaining less than twenty percent is in the hands of arms dealers backed by the World Government—this part of the market is relatively scattered and considered their reserved territory; forcing our way in would just be thankless effort.”
Eighty percent market share was no different from a monopoly; after digesting those arms families from the underworld, the Beasts Pirates could be said to have the throats of all sizes of countries in the New World in their grasp.
If they didn’t like any country, they didn’t even need to act themselves—just cut off the other’s weapon supply, then support the hostile country or faction, selling them the best guns and cannons…
Manipulating wars… the final stage of the World War Plan could almost be said to be complete in this narrow sea area of the New World.
“And our next step is to advance into the vast markets of the first half of the Grand Line and the Four Seas, then thoroughly digest them just like in the New World!”
“That way, we can use weapons to influence wars anywhere in the world, and then directly shake the foundation of the World Government’s rule!”
“…”
Bang!
“Good!”*n
Taolong and the other executives, hearing this, all slammed the table, their faces full of excited expressions.
They hadn’t expected the pirate crew to have grown to this extent without their knowledge.
Back then, they thought the few weapon factories the Beasts Pirates built were just for their own island garrison troops… they never imagined such a grand plan was behind it.
They had indeed joined the right pirate crew!
“Mr. Wright, from what you say, does that mean we can overthrow the World Government and take its place in no time?”
One island garrison executive couldn’t help asking via Den Den Mushi, his rough tone revealing undisguised excitement and eagerness.
After all, that was the pinnacle of world power—anyone hearing it would be unable to hold back~
Sure enough, once this question was raised, the meeting room immediately grew noisy.
……
“Regrettably, that day may not come as soon as you imagine.”
An ethereal voice suddenly took over the question, mercilessly dousing cold water on everyone whose hearts were burning hot, including that executive.
“Miss La…”
Seeing Miss La speak, everyone put away their casual postures and sat up straight again.
The executives on the other end of the Den Den Mushi also fell collectively silent, quietly listening to what Miss La would say next.
“La, what do you mean?”
Kaido asked seriously at this point.
“Simple: the Four Seas and ‘Paradise’ are not like the New World—those are the Navy and World Government’s home turf; we can’t act as freely there as we do in the New World.”
The New World was an extremely dangerous place of violence and confusion for ordinary people, but for tycoons like Kaido, it was the perfect breeding ground.
The Navy and World Government couldn’t fully extend their reach here for various reasons, so the Beasts Pirates could so easily swallow those weapons markets.
But once they reached the first half of the Grand Line and the Four Seas, the situation would completely reverse.
For the Beasts Pirates to compete with the World Government in those places would be like short arms fighting long arms—the difficulty would skyrocket a hundredfold.
“In fact, seizing the weapons market of the entire sea from the World Government… this step is also the most difficult, most time-consuming, and even most likely to fail part of the entire plan.”
Hearing the word ‘failure’, especially from Miss La’s mouth, everyone’s hearts skipped a beat.
So this plan could actually fail?
Weren’t things always smooth sailing before?
Seeing the crowd’s expressions of shock and doubt, Miss La could roughly guess what they were thinking.
“There’s risk of failure in anything; if you slack off and become complacent because of prior smooth sailing, the Beasts Pirates might lose badly.”
“After all, what we’re facing is a colossal entity that’s dominated this world for centuries—its strength and foundation are beyond our imagination.”
“Don’t underestimate any opponent, especially when theirs is far stronger than yours.”
After this speech on Discipline and Restraint, Miss La looked at the crowd and gave her conclusion:
“In short… this will be a long and arduous war of attrition.”
