Pirate: Hades! ( One Piece)

Chapter 242: The World Government Enters the Arms Market

"It's finally over. When will the World Government send over those one hundred and thirty-one Devil Fruits?"

Hades was on a remote video call with his wife, Metis.

Recently, Metis had been quite busy.

 As Hades' wife and Chief Executive Officer, she was helping him assemble a Cabinet to assist in handling state affairs.

 She was overseeing the rational development of all domains within the Kronos Kingdom.

 She also had to keep an eye on the negotiations with the World Government.

In comparison, Hades' busyness was negligible.

 Once Hades had a good understanding of the Kronos Kingdom, he would naturally become idle again as the Cabinet was assembled.

 Moreover, he wouldn't put all his energy into handling state affairs; ensuring the improvement of his strength was his most important mission.

At twenty-eight years old, Hades had not yet reached his peak.

 Training was ultimately effective.

 Wearing high-concentration Seastone handcuffs, he dragged warships across the sand.

 As the number of warships increased, he could clearly feel his body improving in all aspects.

Furthermore, Hades now possessed a piece of black technology that could enhance his training results: the gravity field.

Gravity was something Hades had been having Nikola Tesla research, hoping to find a way to artificially control gravity.

 With massive funds investment, Tesla had clearly succeeded.

The ever-changing environment of the New World, with its countless special magnetic fields, created those unique islands and sea wonders.

 Gravity Island was one of them.

The strange magnetic fields of these islands caused the gravity on them to be very peculiar.

 Some Gravity Islands contained gravity up to ten times the norm.

 Some Gravity Islands contained gravity lighter than usual.

 Some special Floating Islands floated because of this.

Through studying the magnetic fields of these Gravity Islands, Tesla had researched special equipment capable of creating gravity fields.

 He was also able to miniaturize the device that emitted the gravity magnetic field into a small wristguard.

However, with the current technology of the Kronos Kingdom, they could create a gravity field with a maximum of thirty times gravity.

 The gravity field generated by the gravity wristguard had a small range, and the gravity intensity was only five times.

This was already sufficient for Hades.

 Placed in the world, this was definitely a cross-era invention that could allow Hades to maintain rapid strength improvement.

"The World Government will likely send the items within two weeks. The World Government also needs some time to collect them; they won't send all the good stuff."

Clearly, the World Government needed time to find some Devil Fruits of poorer quality.

"Heh, two weeks isn't long."

Hades didn't mind this.

 How bad could a Devil Fruit be, no matter how poor? In such a short time, what kind of substitute could the World Government find?

"Do you want the World Government to observe your succession ceremony?" Metis asked.

"Refuse," Hades said unceremoniously.

It seemed the World Government wanted to get involved again, but Hades wouldn't give them the opportunity.

 If the World Government were truly allowed in, it would inevitably leak some important intelligence.

The supervision of the Kronos Kingdom had already reached a certain limit.

 Ordinary residents might not feel anything.

 Under normal circumstances, outsiders simply couldn't enter.

Even Kronos Kingdom merchants were strictly supervised when entering and leaving the Kingdom, with checks for any extra suspicious individuals.

 They would touch a Seastone wall to see if there were any Ability Users hidden in the dark.

Solely through trade, the Kronos Kingdom could extract vast resources and wealth from the outside world, from all corners of the world.

Coupled with the Kronos Kingdom's independent currency system, Kronos Kingdom residents all had an ID card that was difficult to forge, representing their identity.

 Once suspicious individuals appeared, they would be reported.

Hades had also conducted a clear out of the entire kingdom.

The entire Kronos Kingdom had been built into an unshakeable iron wall.

The World Government's official team left the Kronos Kingdom.

This highly anticipated secret meeting finally concluded.

 No one knew exactly what the World Government and the Kronos Kingdom had discussed or what agreement they had reached.

However, afterward, rumors subtly spread, concerning Fish-Man Island and the customs duty at Red Port.

If no information were released, many people would surely overthink things.

 The World Government also released some information in a timely manner.

They also needed to provide some explanation to the member nations.

Some of the specific contents of the meeting could be guessed by various factions as time passed.

For example, while the meeting was underway, the World Government was already preparing to sell arms in various parts of the world.

This movement was noticed in the Four Seas, the First Half of the Grand Line, and even the Underworld.

Some member nations close to the World Government, and factions that believed they could gain more power and interests by relying on the World Government, also began to shift their stance.

 They were preparing to lean towards the World Government.

The World Government possessed such influence.

 Even though the World Government was weakened now, for the vast majority of factions, it was still incredibly powerful.

Only a handful of people knew the inside story and final casualties of the Battle of God Valley.

On the surface, the World Government's prestige had reached its peak after the downfall of the Rocks Pirates.

With the situation on the Great Sea remaining unchanged for a long time, the World Government's prestige would not decline in the short term.

Of course, after that, it would be another matter.

At least outwardly, the World Government, having defeated the Rocks Pirates, could be said to be at its zenith.

Coupled with the World Government's inherent influence,

many orders were sent to the World Government for a time.

However, this was based solely on the World Government's influence.

To continue expanding, they still needed quality to speak for itself.

Not everyone would give the World Government face, and the World Government's arms had no advantage compared to the two major Arms Tycoons.

The World Government also wanted to enter the Underworld.

 The "King of Arms"'s base was in the New World, and his influence was slightly weaker in the Four Seas and the First Half of the Grand Line, which was also the World Government's target.

However, compared to the surface, the competition in the Underworld was even more intense.

Although the Kronos Kingdom had said they wouldn't engage in suppression against the World Government,

the World Government couldn't complain about commercial activity.

The two major Arms Tycoons released news that they would jointly host a military expo next month with some other relatively well-known Arms Dealers.

They would showcase various newly developed weapons.

 At that time, it would undoubtedly be another military extravaganza.

These Arms Dealers basically had powerful factions behind them.

The World Government was also among them.

The World Government's joining was a bad thing, but also a good thing.

The downside was that there was one more party to share the interests, while the advantage was that the arms trade would transition from illegal to legal.

The arms trade in the Underworld was illegal.

 Once the World Government inserted itself, the arms transactions in the Underworld would become legal activities.

What the World Government did inherently carried political significance.

In this case, the number of factions capable of entering this industry would continue to increase.

With arms spread throughout the world, it would be impossible to curb them.

 How could this world ever become peaceful?

As long as the world remained chaotic, selling arms would always be a profitable industry.

(end of chapter)