"Aokiji, should I say it's been a while? No, I suppose I should call you Kuzan now."
Allen casually took a cigar from the inner pocket of his coat.
He snipped the head of the cigar with two fingers pressed together, bit it in his mouth, snapped his fingers, and ignited the cigar with a flame that flared from his fingertips.
Taking a drag and slowly exhaling the smoke, Allen glanced back at Zephyr's silhouette behind the ice wall and said flatly, "I almost died by your hands before. What makes you think I'd hand him over to you now?"
"Well, you're still alive and kicking, aren't you? Don't be so petty. You know I'm not in the mood to fight you right now," Aokiji said casually, spreading his hands.
Allen remained silent, just quietly watching him. After a moment, he spoke up, "Even if I don't kill him today, he'll die by someone else's hands sooner or later. What's the point of you doing this?"
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I can't worry about things that far in the future. Who knows, I might even be the one to kill him myself down the line." Aokiji scratched his curly hair with a troubled expression, then continued, "Anyway, please give me a chance to catch up with Teacher Zephyr."
Allen looked at him with interest and countered, "And if I say no?"
"Then things will get troublesome..."
Aokiji's pupils narrowed slightly, and the freezing aura radiating from his body solidified a bit more, making the air feel bone-chillingly cold even from dozens of meters away.
The surrounding air temperature gradually dropped as the two faced off for a moment.
"Forget it," Allen suddenly spoke up. The various transformed traits on his body gradually faded as he returned to his original form. He sighed, "I suppose we were colleagues once. Well, it's not like we have to fight to the death every time we meet. He doesn't have many years left to live anyway."
With that, Allen turned and walked away, waving his hand without looking back. "After this, we're even."
Aokiji had let them go once before. Regardless of his intentions, that was a fact. This would serve as repaying that favor.
...
After leaving, Allen didn't return to the ship immediately. Instead, he headed to the center of the town.
Atop the highest spire building, a colorful flag with a black background fluttered in the wind.
It was Big Mom's pirate flag.
In the nearby buildings, many sheltering civilians hid indoors, their eyes darting as they secretly watched Allen arrive.
"Territory plus one..."
Allen chuckled lightly as he looked up at the flag on the spire, then leaped up.
"Look."
"That's the captain of the Demon Lion Pirates, right?"
"What is he trying to do?"
The civilians below murmured in confusion.
That was until they watched with their own eyes as Allen reached the spire and yanked out Big Mom's flag!
"This!!"
"Don't tell me he wants to...!!"
"No! Hey, someone go stop him!"
"Doing that will bring Big Mom's wrath down on the entire island!"
Seeing this scene, the civilians' faces were filled with shock, and all that remained in their eyes was sheer terror.
Destroying Big Mom's flag was an absolute, naked provocation.
Once she retaliated, everyone on the island could be implicated. In the worst-case scenario, their lifespans might even be extracted!
However, despite their fear, no one dared to step forward and stop him.
Compared to a punishment that might arrive at some unknown time, they were equally terrified of provoking the great pirate standing right in front of them, a man with a bounty of 2.1 billion Berries.
Thus, everyone could only watch in despair as Allen did whatever he pleased.
Snap!
Allen snapped the flagpole without hesitation. He raised his hand and snapped his fingers, igniting a cluster of flames at his fingertips, then waved his hand to toss the fire onto the pirate flag.
Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Big Mom's pirate flag was burned to ashes just like that!
"He actually did it!"
"We're doomed! It's completely over now!"
"Does he know this means declaring open war on the Big Mom Pirates?!"
"War... is going to descend upon us very soon...!"
The civilians secretly watching from below stood frozen in shock, their eyes filled with horror.
Up on the spire, Allen couldn't care less. He casually tossed the remaining two pieces of the flagpole down onto the street.
Of course, he didn't carry a pirate flag with him, so he could only wait to replace it later.
'Speaking of which, I wonder how Nami and the others are doing. The ship should be fine, right?' Allen thought to himself. He sat down right there, deciding to just wait for them to come find him.
The tower was very high, offering a bird's-eye view of the entire town. Allen smoked his cigar while watching the Marine soldiers gradually retreating from the island.
Before long, a white ghost floated over from the street. Soon after, Perona arrived with Nami and the others.
Only then did Allen stand up and jump down from the spire.
"Allen! How are you? Are you hurt?"
Nami asked with a worried face, hurriedly running up to him.
Allen just waved his hand, looked back at the top of the spire, and smiled. "I'm fine. More importantly, have someone bring a flag over to plant up there. From now on, this is our territory."
"Hehehe! That's so cool, Boss! We'll have someone get on it right away!" the Nyaban Brothers replied excitedly, eagerly running back toward the ship.
Nami asked with lingering concern, "What about that former Admiral? When we came, we saw the Marines already starting to retreat, and we also saw Admiral Aokiji at the coast..."
"Ah, I saw him." Allen quickly raised his hand to interrupt her barrage of questions, chuckling lightly. "He probably left with Zephyr. Don't worry, the battle is over."
"Eh? You guys didn't fight? Well, whatever, as long as you're okay." Hearing this, Nami sighed in relief, though still a bit confused.
Beside them, Sanji looked up at the spire with a thoughtful gaze, unable to help but ask worriedly, "Is it really okay to do this? Taking over Big Mom's territory isn't the same as what happened on Fish-Man Island. Isn't it a bit too early to declare war on an Emperor like this?"
Although they had friction with the Big Mom Pirates on Fish-Man Island, that was Whitebeard's territory, which originally belonged to neither of them; at most, they had just gotten there first.
This time was different. Cigar Island was undeniably the territory of the Big Mom Pirates. Allen was blatantly robbing them.
This was undoubtedly an act of declaring war.
"Although it's a bit different from our plan to challenge the Four Emperors a year from now, it doesn't matter. We'll have to fight them sooner or later anyway. One more debt or one less makes no difference," Allen replied dismissively.
He now possessed the power of the Dark-Dark Fruit, and he had also acquired the More-More Fruit and the Artificial Azure Dragon Fruit.
Both his own strength and that of his subordinates had taken a massive leap. Even if they went to war with an Emperor a little early, it wouldn't be a problem.
Their only remaining training was Haki.
As long as Sanji, Gin, and the others grasped the basics of the two types of Haki, the rest would just be fighting their way up. How could they improve without stronger opponents to serve as stepping stones?
So what if they were the Four Emperors? The Four Emperors were exactly who they were going to fight!
"Gather the administrators of this island and tell them to come to the ship. We'll hold a meeting tonight to settle some trivial matters," Allen finally instructed, turning and walking toward the port.
...
Night fell.
The Freewill was quietly docked at the port. The captain's cabin on the third floor was brightly lit. Allen sat on the sofa with his legs crossed.
On the sofa across the table, several figures dressed like mafia bosses sat trembling.
Cigar Island was rich in various types of tobacco. There were seven towns on the island, all of which engaged in tobacco processing and sales.
Behind the scenes of each town, a mafia faction was in control—namely, the group of people currently in the room.
Because of the tobacco business, Cigar Island had always been a place of prosperity mixed with chaos.
It attracted a large number of outlaws, and the extravagant spending of these outlaws spawned various gray industries, which in turn attracted even more outlaws.
The island used to be even more chaotic. It wasn't until eight years ago, when it became Big Mom's territory, that things stabilized slightly, though it didn't change the island's ecological nature.
Allen didn't plan to change anything either. This was a typical "Pirate Paradise" island. There were basically no decent people on the entire island, civilians included. Letting it continue as it was would be fine.
"One ton of premium tobacco products and one hundred kilograms of special-grade tobacco products every month, plus 20% of the profits from all your businesses."
"I'm only asking for this little bit. You shouldn't find it excessive, right?" Allen said in a deep voice, his eyes narrowing slightly as he stared at the mafia bosses who controlled the major towns.
The men exchanged glances, checking each other's expressions, and all revealed looks of disbelief.
At this moment, they all had only one thought in their minds.
Just this little bit?
"Um, did I hear that right? Can I confirm, you want 20% of the profits?" a white-bearded man mustered the courage to ask.
Allen nodded. "That's right, 20% of the net profits. If you think that's too little, you can always give me more."
"No, no, no, it's enough. It's already enough," the white-bearded old man waved his hands repeatedly.
The Big Mom Pirates demanded 30 tons of premium tobacco products every month, which was roughly half of their average monthly business profits.
Compared to her, Allen was practically a saint!
For the people on the island, a change in the ruler behind the scenes had basically no impact. They still had to pay their tributes; it was just a matter of how much.
As for the so-called protection provided, that was something to just listen to and not take seriously.
Just like how the Big Mom Pirates couldn't rush over from Totto Land when Allen snapped their flag, if Cigar Island were invaded by a powerful enemy in the future, it was equally impossible for Allen to arrive instantly.
The flag's main purpose was to deter small-time pirates from overestimating themselves. In the face of truly powerful pirates, such deterrence was useless.
Of course, being able to deter small-time pirates was still quite useful, saving these mafia bosses a lot of unnecessary trouble in maintaining their rule here.
In exchange, they needed to offer some money and supplies every month.
Calling it a trade definitely wasn't cost-effective, but they had no choice. However, if they considered these tributes as money to buy their lives, it seemed much more worth it.
Especially since Allen only wanted 20% of their profits.
20%! As for that one ton of premium tobacco products, it was just a drop in the bucket. They simply assumed Allen had a heavy smoking habit.
After a while, Allen added a few business agreements for them and then let them leave.
Taking 20% of their profits wasn't exactly a small amount, but Big Mom simply demanded too much. His good reputation was entirely propped up by his peers.
As for the few agreements he added later, they were actually related to some of his planned future layouts.
From now on, all the territories he occupied would be charged a "protection fee" in the form of a percentage cut. This percentage would range from 10% to 20%, depending on the businesses run on the island.
Since he was collecting money based on a percentage, the better the island was managed and the higher its economic liquidity, the more he would naturally gain from it.
Allen didn't need to rack his brains studying too much. He just needed to occupy more islands and then let the trade between his affiliated islands flourish.
Kaido and Linlin both had a bandit mindset of only taking things without putting in any thought. They completely lacked the business acumen of Doffy or the Sand Crocodile.
They possessed immense strength and power, and occupied vast amounts of resources, yet they hardly utilized these resources at all.
Of course, this was also related to their personalities.
One only wanted to have children and create a utopia where all races coexisted, while the other's mind was filled only with fighting, suicide, drinking, and an army of Zoan ability users.
To put it bluntly, neither of them put any effort into managing their territories.
Allen wouldn't become Kaido or Linlin, nor did he plan to focus solely on running businesses like Doffy and the Sand Crocodile.
In this Great Pirate Era, where transportation was closed off and commercial and cultural exchanges were hindered, simply vitalizing the trade between the territories under his control would naturally trigger unimaginable development.
Even in this world where the strong could rival entire nations alone, one should never underestimate the power that could erupt from the bottom up.
Allen stood up and walked outside, standing by the balcony railing as the cold moonlight fell on his face.
His short-term goals had all been achieved. Next, it was time for them to start expanding their forces and vie for supremacy in the New World.
Starting with the nearby islands, they would slowly devour the Four Emperors' territories one by one...
——————
——————
Half a year later.
The first half of the New World, Isle of Love Sanctuary.
At the entrance of a magnificent church, pirates were bustling in and out, carrying boxes of supplies, busy and excited about this bountiful harvest.
Some also had gloomy faces, seemingly having just experienced something infuriating.
There was a stone-paved road at the church entrance. Red leaves fell from the two rows of maple trees lining the road. The autumn wind was cool, carrying the scent of damp earth and fragrant vegetation.
Holding a bottle of whiskey, Allen sat casually on the steps by the entrance.
As always, he wore that tight black short-sleeved shirt, fully revealing the contours of his robust muscles. On his lower half, he wore loose white pants, which were still stained with quite a bit of dried blood.
Behind him, the church was engulfed in a raging fire, and heart-wrenching wails could be heard from time to time.
"Using the guise of charity to help the poor, while secretly engaging in the cannibalistic business of human trafficking."
"And this is actually one of the World Government's affiliated nations. It's absolutely disgusting. Even a pirate like me can't stand it. Bah!"
Not far away, Nami walked over with a dark expression and sat down beside Allen, continuing to curse, "Just looking at this wretched place makes me sick. Burning it down is exactly what it deserves."
"That's enough. The world is just rotten like this. It's not worth making yourself sick with anger over it." Allen turned to look at her, shaking his head with a helpless smile. He then asked, "Did you catch that pirate acting as the middleman for their human trafficking business?"
"Gin chased him all the way to the coast. He's already beaten him to death and thrown him into the sea to feed the fishes. Here, this is his wanted poster."
Nami casually handed over a bloodstained wanted poster.
Allen took it and glanced at it.
[Corpse Collector Doug Yuris], bounty: 440 million Berries.
"This guy used to be a professional assassin for the 'Major Undertaker', one of the Six Emperors of the Underworld. He went independent four years ago and became a pirate."
"He started laying low three years ago. Rumor had it he washed his hands of the business, but I didn't expect he actually hooked up with a World Government affiliated nation to run a human trafficking ring." Nami looked at the wanted poster in Allen's hand with disgust, then asked, "His subordinates have all been captured. How do you plan to deal with them, and the slaves locked up in the church?"
"I have no interest in human traffickers. Have Gin sink them into the sea to feed the fishes too," Allen said nonchalantly, casually tossing Yuris's wanted poster into the sea of fire behind him.
"We've taken in all those slaves. Have your divisions pick some to join the Freewill, and send the rest to the Third Fleet."
"Got it. Come to think of it, the Third Fleet is almost full. It's about time to start preparing the Fourth Fleet, isn't it?" Nami muttered while tying up her orange hair, which had grown to shoulder length.
Over the past half year, they had successively conquered 25 islands. Including this one, that made 26.
That averaged out to taking over one island a week. The actual number was even higher, but a few islands producing agricultural resources had been taken back by Big Mom's people.
Allen's main focus was currently on expansion, so he didn't pay much attention to the islands that were retaken.
The Big Mom Pirates were in a similar situation; their main focus was on carving up Whitebeard's former territories.
Even when Allen occupied some territories that weren't that important to Totto Land, they didn't react much.
It wasn't that Big Mom was doing nothing; it was just that they simply didn't have enough energy to spare.
Small-time pirates could be wiped out by sending just about anyone, but against Allen and his crew, unless Big Mom seized the opportunity to strike personally, anyone she sent would be on a one-way trip.
For the past six months, they had maintained a delicate balance with the Big Mom Pirates. Their grievances grew deeper and deeper, yet there was no sign of a large-scale war breaking out.
But both sides knew that once Whitebeard's former territories were mostly divided up and the situation in the New World stabilized a bit, the accumulated grudges between the two sides would rapidly escalate into a massive war.
And during these past six months, besides expanding their territory, Allen had also been spending money like water to massively expand his forces.
By now, they had far more than just one ship.
The crew members of the main ship, the Freewill, were the best of the best, with their numbers strictly kept around 500.
In addition to that, they had three fleets under their banner, each with about a thousand people.
According to Allen's plan, they would switch to an even larger ship in the future. Within two years, the main ship would expand to a thousand people, plus ten fleets to make up ten thousand elites.
Not just ten thousand people, but ten thousand elites. Allen's minimum requirement was that each elite could take on a hundred ordinary men.
It sounded like a pure fantasy. Nami had no idea where he planned to recruit so many people.
But Allen already had a plan in mind.
He would recruit as many scattered pirates on the sea as he could. As for the Four Emperors' territories, weren't they full of ready-made experts?
That was exactly how he had made his way ever since he set sail. He was far too skilled at absorbing other people's pirate crews.
He didn't need this many people for fighting, but he needed them to maintain his territories. The territories could continuously supply him with various resources, and those resources could be used for further expansion.
Until his expenses exceeded his income, he would never stop on the path of expanding his forces.