"Did I hear you correctly? You want to move an island from one place to another? Are you sure it's the island, not just the residents on it?!"
Vivi asked in disbelief. While relocating an entire country's population sounded outrageous, it still seemed far more realistic than moving the actual landmass itself.
To her shock, Luffy nodded with complete seriousness. Yes, he meant the entire island, not just the people living on it.
Vivi was dumbfounded. Though she was a princess of a powerful nation, her worldview still had its limits. It was simply impossible for her to imagine how such a feat could be accomplished by human means.
Yet she didn't doubt Luffy was telling the truth. Rather than assuming he was joking, Vivi chose to trust in his experience and authority as a Marine admiral. If he said it could be done, then he must be capable of doing it.
But how on earth could such a thing be possible? The princess couldn't help but start to daydream, even looking forward to witnessing such an extraordinary event.
Luffy glanced at Vivi, whose thoughts were clearly drifting away. He frowned slightly, handed the newspaper to Ain beside him, and began to analyze systematically:
"Apart from Viola's ascension to the throne and some meaningless gossip, the newspaper only mentioned two other significant developments. First, Dressrosa has implemented military reforms and increased defense spending in an effort to build a more formidable army. Second, Viola plans to gather refugees and displaced people from nearby countries to boost her nation's population."
As Ain listened, she quickly scanned through the newspaper, efficiently filtering out irrelevant information. After finishing, she spread the paper on the table, pointed to a substantial section reporting on refugee initiatives, and commented with a smile:
"The journalist who wrote this report is quite skilled. First, they used celebrity gossip—the topics ordinary people find most interesting—to capture the attention of casual readers. Then, in the latter half, they quietly inserted extensive content promoting Dressrosa's virtues. Through this strategy, news about the kingdom actively recruiting refugees spread without seeming like propaganda. I suspect Viola paid Morgans handsomely to achieve this effect."
Luffy snorted disdainfully. "That bird-man will work for anyone with enough money. This demonstrates the importance of controlling media narratives—without it, maintaining good relations with someone like him becomes impossible, and many of our operations become much more difficult to execute."
Speaking on this topic made Luffy visibly irritated. During recent months, Morgans had fabricated stories about him being the "youngest general in Marine history," and now whenever any disturbance occurred anywhere in the world, the newspaper somehow implicated Luffy as playing a role in it.
It had reached such an extreme that when a king—whom Luffy had never even heard of—was allegedly betrayed by his wife, the newspaper blamed Luffy's "promiscuous lifestyle" for setting a bad example for people worldwide.
Luffy had been so enraged that he made several calls, cursing every member of Morgans' family tree until the publisher finally agreed to run three free promotional pieces for Wano Country.
These complaints weren't simply to express Luffy's personal hatred for Morgans, but rather to highlight the immense influence wielded by the World Economic News. Its reach was so vast that people across the globe had come to label Luffy as "flirtatious."
Throughout their diplomatic journey, several royal families had already expressed willingness to marry their beautiful princesses to him in hopes of forming political alliances. The more aggressive ones had even sent various beauties to his room in the middle of the night.
Luffy had been so frustrated that he'd resorted to sharing a bed with Ain—a move that quickly dispelled such unwelcome advances.
"Morgans may be annoying," Nami interjected, "but he delivers results when properly compensated. I believe that with this newspaper publicity, large numbers of impoverished people and refugees will soon begin voluntarily migrating to Dressrosa. The kingdom will likely send representatives to assist in this process, trying to welcome as many new residents as possible before the relocation occurs."
As Nami elaborated on Viola's strategy, Vivi emerged from her daydream and listened attentively, learning from others' experiences. She was determined to absorb these lessons so that when her time came to rule, she would be prepared to govern effectively.
"What about the military reforms?" Vivi asked, blinking her large, expressive eyes. "I remember that Dressrosa's population was only around 100,000. How is she going to transform their military with so few people? Is reform even necessary for a country that size?"
Her innocent question contained enough dismissiveness to drive Viola mad if she'd been present to hear it.