Pirate: I was just slacking off, do you really think I'm bad?

In the ports of Alabasta, after receiving promises from Crocodile, many young Alabastaans made up their minds to join Baroque Works.

Amidst the adoring gazes of the crowd, Crocodile waved and left the port for the Rainlands.

Welcome back, Crocodile!

The Rain Banquet was also filled with a large number of people from the Kingdom of Alabasta. They were worried that the crowds at the port would prevent them from seeing Crocodile, so they had no choice but to wait for him at the entrance of the Rain Banquet. Crocodile once again pretended to be honored, chatted with them for a few words, and promised to recruit people for Baroque Works before entering the second-floor office of the Rain Banquet.

As the heavy and precious office door clicked shut, Crocodile's expression instantly changed. His previously insincere smile vanished, replaced by a cold indifference and a murderous glint in his eyes, making him seem like a completely different person from the Crocodile just moments before.

"Hmph, a bunch of idiots. If it weren't for that guy, I would have enslaved you all long ago."

Crocodile's face darkened as he thought of the foolish crowd at the port.

He hadn't experienced the true pirate life in far too long, and now he was just like a dutiful marine.

navy!

Crocodile slammed the cup on his desk to the floor to vent his frustration.

Because of Raleigh's existence, Crocodile is now forced to suppress his ambitions while slaughtering pirates, and at the same time, he has to maintain his image among the people, which makes Crocodile very frustrated.

After a short rest, Crocodile got up.

He pressed a button in a hidden spot on his prestigious boss's chair, and a secret door suddenly appeared in the office—this was Crocodile's true secret.

Even when Raleigh came last time, he didn't find out where Crocodile's secret room was!

Push open the hidden door, walk into the narrow, dark corridor, and pass through an area inhabited by banana crocodiles before finally reaching the underground office.

Crocodile sat down in the larger office chair and closed his eyes to rest.

This time, the killing of pirates was relatively recent, and he was afraid of delaying his real business, so he kept killing to get back ahead of time.

After a long while, he pressed a button on his desk.

Before long, Paula, an executive of Baroque Works, arrived at Crocodile's office.

"Boss, were you looking for me?"

Crocodile opened his eyes, glanced at Paula, and then said:

"Have you found any information about Nico Robin, the Devil's Child?"

Paula cautiously replied, "Boss, we don't have any concrete information about Nico Robin yet, but a black market information broker sold me some unconfirmed information."

It is said that Nico Robin has been seen in the far north of the North Blue.

Upon hearing Nico Robin's message, Crocodile's eyes flashed, and he quickly said:

"Then hurry up and send someone out to check if it's true."

Pora said with a troubled expression;

"Boss, we are severely understaffed right now. We can't even fully control the situation within Alabasta, let alone the far north country in the North Sea."

Moreover, it is said that there is a mysterious force in the far north, which is very likely one of the important bases of the revolutionary army. Our people would be going to a den of dragons and tigers there; ordinary people are not up to the task.

Crocodile felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over his head.

He never imagined that such a remote country in the far north would have connections with the revolutionary army.

But thinking about it carefully, it makes sense. Nobody knows where the Revolutionary Army's stronghold is, and the far north is a country with weak control over the World Government.

However, he was still deeply unwilling to accept it.

"We don't need to worry about manpower for now. Our Baroque Works will be hiring a large number of people; we'll use these Alabasta people to fight the pirates in our place."

"Also, contact the black market information dealers more often and tell them that we can afford any amount of money, no matter how high, as long as we can confirm information about Nico Robin."

Crocodile doesn't care much about money; after all, at his level, a little bit of money is nothing.

He could easily make hundreds of millions of Berries by robbing a few cargo ships, after all, he was one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, and could legally plunder them.

Compared to Bailey, he needs Nico Robin more, because only Nico Robin can decipher the Poneglyphs preserved by the Alabasta royal family.

Crocodile was quite certain that he could find the legendary ancient weapon, Pluton, within this Poneglyph.

Crocodile's ambition is to use Hades to conquer the world.

Upon hearing this, Paula nodded repeatedly and said;

"Yes, Boss, I'll arrange the contact with the information broker right away."

A hint of weariness flashed across Crocodile's brow. He raised his right hand to rub his temples, then asked:

How is the Baroque Works organization going now?

Paula said confidently:

"Boss, Baroque Works is now on the right track. Most of our staff have been reassigned to combat roles, and we've even recruited many new officers."

However, due to the need to quell the pirates, a large number of the officers are currently scattered around the exit of Reverse Mountain and Whiskey Mountain.

"MR1 is in charge of Whiskey Hill, but he's running into some trouble. Many powerful bounty hunters want to stay in our town but are unwilling to follow our orders."

Crocodile's eyes turned icy cold.

He never expected that someone in Alabasta would dare to challenge him. Apart from Navy's Raleigh, Crocodile had never suffered a loss at the hands of anyone.

Because Edward Whitebeard died young, Crocodile did not begin his challenge against Whitebeard.

The only one who was brutally defeated was Christian Rowley of the Navy.

"Hmph, trying to take advantage of me? Aren't you afraid of chipping your own teeth?"

When the town first proposed the idea, the Baroque Works had already issued a similar warning, but most of the Baroque Works executives at the time treated it as a joke.

After all, Crocodile's power in Alabasta had secretly surpassed that of the king.

In their view, everyone else just needs to follow the rules when their boss makes something.

Whiskey Hill's unique geographical location destined it to be a place where pirates would pass through in the future, bringing with them a large amount of Berries and heads that could be exchanged for bounties.

Tell MR1 I am extremely dissatisfied with his progress; in Alabasta, I will not allow someone like him to exist.

No one can take my things for free without giving anything in return. If they intend to do so, then they have no reason to live.

Go and contact the people on this list, and try to get them all to join our Baroque Works.

Crocodile took a very thin file from his desk drawer and handed it to Paula.

Most of the people here are professional assassins or newcomers with some reputation in the underworld. You should try to leverage our financial advantage to recruit them into Baroque Works.

"If we manage to win over most of the people on this list, then we'll make our move on the Whiskey Hill group."

After receiving the list, Paula quickly left the office, leaving Crocodile with his eyes closed, seemingly resting.

After an unknown amount of time, Crocodile made a sound again.

He was laughing wildly in the empty office; if someone had seen him, they would most likely have thought Crocodile had gone mad.

However, only Crocodile knew how much repression he felt inside.

Ever since he met Raleigh, nothing has gone smoothly for Crocodile. It's as if there's an invisible rope around his neck that Raleigh holds.

Crocodile's every unusual action would result in a beating from Raleigh, which drove Crocodile to a state of impotent rage.

The reason why Raleigh can humiliate Crocodile without any fear of being attacked by Crocodile is simply because Raleigh himself is strong enough.

Crocodile's maniacal laughter just now was because he had finally realized this.

The strong should ruthlessly humiliate the weak!

When a person's strength is so great that they can deal with a country or a large power, the rules no longer apply to them. The only wish of the weak is that the strong can occasionally abide by the rules. Crocodile couldn't help but laugh at himself, realizing that it had taken him so long to see the truth of the world.

His frantic search for Hades was also in order to improve his own abilities.

However, Hades is not his true strength; at most, he is a weapon that gives him the right to speak on equal terms with the strong.

"Sooner or later, I'll get it all back from you, with interest!"

Crocodile's face was filled with a ferocious expression.

"General Raleigh, where do we go next?"

After Enel left, there was no one left to serve as Raleigh's lieutenant; only a messenger was left to relay orders.

At this moment, he was asking Raleigh about his next plans: "Let's go to Dressrosa and see how far Don Quixote has gone."

Raleigh said casually.

He doesn't have anything special going on right now; he spends most of his time accumulating power, mainly by collecting Devil Fruits.

The only Devil Fruits worth reclaiming for the Donquixote Family are Corazon's Silence-Silence Fruit and Sugar's Hobby-Hobby Fruit.

Apart from that, most of them are useless fruits and don't contribute much to improving the Raleigh Plan.

The reason for wanting to reclaim the Childlike Fun Fruit is because this fruit is too overpowered.

Once Raleigh's subordinates are turned into dolls by Sugar's Hobby-Hobby Fruit, even Raleigh isn't sure if he'll still remember them.

Just in case, it would be better for Raleigh to retrieve the fruit beforehand.

In the Kingdom of Dressrosa, the Don Quixote family had not yet replaced the original royal family.

They are currently only using their status as Shichibukai and Doflamingo's former status as a Celestial Dragon to strengthen their power in the Dressrosa Kingdom.

King Riku of Dressrosa naturally sensed that the Donquixote Family members had ill intentions, but due to their status as Shichibukai and the strength of the Donquixote Family executives, he did not take action against the Donquixote Family.

Doflamingo is not in a hurry to take revenge on the people of Dressrosa.

He had endured his anger for too long, so he didn't care about momentary pleasure, but wanted to bleed the country dry, drop by drop.

Leveraging his underground network and channels, he quickly launched a series of black industries commonly found in the underground world.

For example, illegal activities such as human trafficking, arms trafficking, and drug smuggling.

Large numbers of the residents of the Kingdom of Dressrosa were captured and sold by the Don Quixote family.

Although King Riku had no evidence of any of this, he intuitively felt that it was all related to Doflamingo, the head of the Donquixote Family.

Inside the Donquixote Family compound, Doflamingo lay comfortably on his sofa.

Below him were all his trusted confidants, especially the return of his younger brother Corazon, which brought a long-lost warmth to Doflamingo's dark heart.

Even though Corazon didn't talk to him much and dressed strangely, Doflamingo still trusted him enough to appoint Corazon as the heart of the Donquixote Family.

"Dover, our business has already captured one percent of the New World's underground market, and now they can finally see our presence."

"Torrepol said excitedly."

After they left the North Sea, everyone worked tirelessly for the future of the Don Quixote family once they established themselves in Dressrosa.

Step by step, they opened up channels and established stable supply and demand relationships with most forces, until today they can finally be considered to have entered the inner circle of the underground forces in the new world.

Don't underestimate the small percentage.

It's important to know that the New World is filled with numerous powerful forces, many of which have been operating there for more than two or three generations.

It's quite remarkable that the Quixote family achieved this in just a few years.

If it weren't for their status as Shichibukai and their connection to the former Celestial Dragons, the World Government and the Navy might have already launched a devastating attack on the Donquixote Family.

"Yes, all of this is thanks to everyone. The Don Quixote family will always remember your contributions."

Doflamingo raised his glass and addressed all the officers.

For the Don Quixote family!

"The Don Quixote family will surely rise to glory again under the young master's leadership!"

"For the young master!"

Doflamingo's words prompted the other executives to raise their glasses and speak loudly.

Everyone in the room was very happy, except for Corazon, who had only recently joined.

Corazon raised his glass, but there was no sign of joy on his face.

Although he is indeed Doflamingo's younger brother, he is also the adopted son of Fleet Admiral Sengoku and received his education from the Navy.

At this moment, he was already showing great restraint by not showing hatred; it was impossible to expect him to show a happy expression like others.

After Doflamingo glanced around, only Corazon's reaction made him frown slightly. However, he quickly relaxed his brow. After all, Corazon hadn't been back in the family for long, so it was normal for him to have trouble accepting it right away. Doflamingo just needed to explain things to Corazon carefully.

Doflamingo believed that Corazon would not let him down.