The fact that Dragon had defected was thus limited to the knowledge of a small number of people.
On the surface, Marine Headquarters remained calm. A few days later, Finn provided some scattered intelligence analysis about Dragon, most of which proved useless.
But no one blamed him. After all, Dragon was a high-ranking Marine officer. If he wanted to hide, he'd definitely cover his tracks before leaving.
He was intimately familiar with the Marines' various methods, so it was reasonable that Finn couldn't accomplish anything under such circumstances.
Soon, the matter of Dragon was set aside.
After all, from the current perspective, no one knew what Dragon would do after leaving the Marines.
As long as no serious incidents occurred, they'd just pretend he didn't exist.
Life suddenly became routine.
Finn now clocked in for work every day, conducted various intelligence analyses in the Intelligence Department, and participated in many strategic meetings.
After work, he'd go home to train and cultivate, occasionally taking time to exchange experiences with Zephyr.
Both strength and work progressed steadily.
Chief of Staff Tsuru began fully establishing new intelligence functions. Regarding Finn's previous proposals, some were approved and some weren't.
The proposal to form an undercover team was approved. The proposal to form a 'nonexistent' organization was also approved.
But the proposals from the CP agencies and the special forces unit weren't passed.
Finn didn't intend to investigate the reasons. He'd just made suggestions. It wasn't his turn to make final decisions, and it didn't affect his own interests.
After Chief of Staff Tsuru became busy, many analyses related to the Intelligence Department gradually shifted to Finn.
Sometimes, he even had to attend meetings on her behalf, perform formal staff duties, and provide the Marines with strategic planning suggestions based on intelligence analysis.
"This is the latest edition of a recently published civilian magazine on geographical discoveries. Please take a look first," Finn stood up and distributed about a dozen identical magazines to the leadership in the conference room.
Today, he'd come to the meeting again on Tsuru's behalf.
Finn, who'd proven his ability multiple times, wasn't questioned about such things.
So when he'd finished distributing the magazines, Admiral Sengoku flipped through his copy and asked, "What's worth paying attention to?"
"The seventeenth article, latest report from the Roger Pirates," Finn said.
The Unlimited Folk Geography Knowledge Magazine, precisely because it was unlimited, collected knowledge from various sources.
Pirates often played a significant role in new geographical discoveries, as they were always roaming the world. Conversely, the Marines didn't make as many new discoveries.
"Roger?" Garp froze momentarily, then muttered, "I had no idea those bastards would publish in an academic magazine."
"This is normal. Many pirates like to do this kind of thing. Wandering at sea is too boring. Sometimes, they have rich knowledge reserves on strange subjects. Whitebeard even published a review of the world's fine wines in the newspaper," Finn said very calmly.
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone in the conference room burst into laughter.
"If I remember correctly, Shiki also published a paper related to climatology under his name, though it can be seen at a glance that he didn't write it himself," Admiral Sengoku said jokingly with a smile.
That's right, pirates at sea were this peculiar.
After some joking, many senior Marine officers began reading the seventeenth article in the magazine.
After a while, the officers who'd looked amused moments ago gradually became serious.
Admiral Sengoku read the fastest. He closed the magazine and said, "In other words, the Roger Pirates have been searching for Poneglyphs and the like all this time in order to find the so-called final island?"
"At least that's what they said in the magazine. If the Roger Pirates didn't lie, then Water Star Island isn't the final island in the true sense, and reaching that island doesn't mean much. It can't complete the goal of sailing a full circuit of the Grand Line..." Finn said softly.
"The full circuit of the Grand Line," Sengoku murmured, his expression changing as he asked, "Is that the implication?"
"That's right. If a pirate is the first to truly conquer the Grand Line, they'll be crowned king," Finn said in a deep voice.
As soon as he finished speaking, the expressions of many Marine officers changed.
The origin of this saying couldn't be traced, but they had to admit there was indeed such a notion circulating at sea: the first person to conquer the Grand Line would be recognized as the Pirate King.
It's just that no one had ever done it, so it wasn't taken seriously currently.
Big players like Shiki never cared about these things. As the saying goes, everyone's path to becoming king was different. If Roger took this route, then Shiki took the route of hegemony. He wanted to conquer the world and suppress everything with force.
"For an ordinary person, it wouldn't be a big deal. But with Roger's current reputation, if he really conquered the Grand Line and found the final island, completing the feat of sailing a full circuit, he'd undoubtedly become the true Pirate King," Finn said seriously.
This was definitely something the Marines didn't want to see. Once Roger became the Pirate King, it would be just like the situation Finn had discussed with Chief of Staff Tsuru before.
In all likelihood, this fragile balance would break!
This would surely become a carnival feast for pirates. No one could predict what kind of disaster the excited pirates would bring to the world.
And his success would inevitably stimulate more ambitious people, like Shiki. Once these big players were provoked, who knew what kind of trouble they'd cause.
"Have you obtained any recent intelligence on the Roger Pirates?" Garp asked seriously.
Finn shook his head. "For the past three months, the Roger Pirates have completely disappeared from everyone's sight. The last intelligence we received was that they stole a vital item from Charlotte Linlin on Cake Island in Totto Land. This nearly triggered a major war in the Totto Land seas."
This important item was naturally a Road Poneglyph, but Finn didn't reveal this information.
Because the Marine intelligence acquisition hadn't specified what they'd stolen.
"That is to say..." Garp said with a somewhat uncertain expression.
"That is to say, the Roger Pirates are most likely searching for the so-called final island, in some uninhabited sea area, taking the final step toward becoming the Pirate King!" Finn said with a grave expression.
"This is really a serious situation..." Sengoku suddenly spoke.
To be honest, Finn had completely blindsided him during today's routine meeting.
The New World situation had been relatively stable recently. No one was causing trouble, so he'd thought he'd just come for a meeting today, chat, listen to recent developments at sea, learn about the rest of the Marines' work progress, then drink some tea and relax.
As a result, Finn had directly analyzed through a magazine that the Roger Pirates, who'd been quiet recently, were likely to become the Pirate King?
What the hell... Was his thinking too slow, or was the world changing too fast?
In fact, several years ago, the Roger Pirates had already arrived at Water Star Island, publicly recognized as the last island in the Grand Line.
But when they arrived at Water Star Island, they discovered there was another island beyond it.
The island was called Raftel and couldn't be reached using conventional means like Log Poses. After much investigation, they learned the island's location was recorded in Poneglyphs.
Afterward, they'd ventured into various seas searching for this information.
From the Marines' perspective, they didn't know the Roger Pirates' purpose, only observing that they were running around the world collecting Poneglyph information.
They'd been quiet for some time recently, whereabouts unknown.
Now, through a magazine analysis, Finn had deduced the Roger Pirates' purpose: they were searching for the Final Island, Raftel, wanting to conquer the Grand Line and become the Pirate King!
Therefore, when the fog cleared, Sengoku realized how serious the situation was.
"Increase efforts to track intelligence on the Roger Pirates. Garp, your leave must be canceled," Sengoku said seriously.
Finn nodded. "I've already ordered the Intelligence Department to intensify the search for intelligence on the Roger Pirates, but there have been no results yet."
Garp also responded, "I understand."
Sengoku held his teacup, took a sip, frowned, and seemed to be contemplating something.
After a long moment, he put down his teacup and said seriously, "Let's prepare for the worst. It's very likely we won't be able to stop Roger in time. So if he becomes the Pirate King, we need a contingency plan."
"Media suppression? If the news can be blocked, even if Roger finds the final island, as long as others don't know..." Gion said quickly.
Finn shook his head. "That's impossible. Although the World Economic News's stance is biased toward our Marines and the World Government, we don't actually control the world's largest-selling newspaper. And once Morgans learns that the Roger Pirates have conquered the Grand Line, he'll undoubtedly spread this news to the entire world."
Sengoku clearly knew Morgans somewhat. He nodded in agreement with Finn's analysis. "It's unlikely. We can't keep this lid on forever."
"But I think that guiding public opinion is very good inspiration. If we can use this to manipulate perception, it could eventually lead to civil war among pirates who don't recognize Roger..." Finn said softly.
Sengoku stroked his beard and nodded. "I think we can give that serious consideration."
This incident happened too suddenly. He was somewhat unprepared. After looking at the other Marine commanders, he said, "After you leave, think about countermeasures. We'll discuss it at the next meeting."
Soon, the conference room adjourned.
Finn walked out carrying documents. Gion caught up with him, patted Finn on the shoulder, and said with a smile, "Impressive, Finn. I went out on a mission, and when I came back, you'd become a Rear Admiral. You also captured the Red Earl with the Fleet Admiral. That's remarkable."
"It's acceptable," Finn said with a smile.
"I've heard of your nickname, the Violent Tiger of Marine Headquarters..." Gion raised her eyebrows teasingly.
Finn's expression darkened. "Can you please stop talking about this?"
Before she could speak, Finn changed the subject. "What mission did you go on?"
"There's a madman named Dracule Mihawk..." Gion said carelessly.
Finn's interest was immediately piqued.
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