Chapter 225: Jörmungandr, The Expo, The New Era
The establishment of the Crime Bank is naturally related to Hades.
Hades' second son, Jörmungandr, is now ten years old.
At the age of four, he ate the Paramecia-Type Mirror-Mirror Fruit and became an ability user.
The Mirror-Mirror Fruit is the ability that Linlin's daughter, Brûlée, will possess in the future.
However, Hades had obtained it long ago.
A Mirror-Mirror Fruit user inherently possesses a Mirror World and can constantly move through it using mirrors.
The essence of the Crime Bank is a super logistics center built using the Mirror World.
Items stored in the Crime Bank are sent directly through mirrors to the Mirror World, where they are placed in a secret space, inside numbered, sealed safety deposit boxes.
The mysterious disappearance of Crime Bank staff is also due to them leaving through mirrors.
And the essence of the certificate is actually a mirror.
Crime Bank staff can precisely locate items using the certificate and then directly teleport the items through the mirror.
Although the mirror is small, even very large items can pass through it, which is quite miraculous.
Furthermore, as Hades' child, Jörmungandr receives elite cultivation from the Kronos Kingdom, so his development of the Mirror-Mirror Fruit is naturally incomparable to Brûlée's in the future.
In fact, in Hades' eyes, Brûlée barely developed the Mirror-Mirror Fruit at all.
Her so-called mirror replication could only scare others and didn't utilize the Mirror-Mirror Fruit's true potential.
The use of the Mirror World is available immediately after eating the Devil Fruit; it's a purely strategic auxiliary ability that doesn't consume stamina.
Jörmungandr possesses excellent Observation Haki talent.
He awakened Observation Haki at the age of five, and combined with the Mirror-Mirror Fruit, he can monitor the status of all mirrors connected to his ability.
He can remotely control the mirrors to deactivate at any time.
It was at this time that the Crime Bank truly began to make a name for itself.
Currently, the Crime Bank's main business is in the New World, and it will gradually expand to the Four Seas and the Grand Line.
Countless treasures pour into the Crime Bank, which the Kronos Kingdom will not use arbitrarily.
However, when these treasures become ownerless, they become the property of the Kronos Kingdom.
In essence, this is plunder.
But the Crime Bank has the strength to do this.
Aside from those Pirates with terrifying strength, many people are under the Kronos Kingdom's surveillance.
Once something happens to them, if there are no outsiders present, the Kronos Kingdom will take action to recover the certificate.
Once the certificate is recovered, everything they stored in the Crime Bank belongs to the Kronos Kingdom.
This is essentially a special organization that combines intelligence functions with massive profits.
Except for keeping a small portion of treasure on their person, most Pirates directly deposit the majority of their treasures into the Crime Bank.
They only withdraw it when they feel safe enough.
After all, compared to storing it in the Crime Bank, keeping it with oneself is slightly safer.
Many Pirates do this.
As for the remaining small portion of treasure, they exchange it for Beli at the Exchange, which ultimately still ends up in Hades' hands.
The existence of the Crime Bank has made some Great Pirates abandon the idea of plundering other ordinary Pirates.
Plundering them completely is impossible; they would ultimately gain nothing, only benefiting the Crime Bank.
Therefore, under normal circumstances, they only need to hand over a certain amount of treasure to be let go.
This is the authority of the strong, and the weak can only yield.
If they yield, they only lose a small portion of treasure.
If they don't yield, it's death.
In just a few days, countless Pirates felt relieved.
Trade fairs also began among the various Factions on Honeycomb Island.
This trade fair has a name, the "Festival of Darkness" belonging to Pirates.
Of course, the name "Pirate Expo" is more widely spread.
This was destined to be a grand event.
Countless treasures gathered at the Pirate Expo.
There were hundreds of Devil Fruits alone.
Some ordinary Devil Fruits are even stored in boxes in the mansions of Celestial Dragons.
Some Pirates who possess large amounts of treasure and crave strength immediately went to the Exchange to exchange for Beli and buy their desired Devil Fruits.
The entire island was filled with a joyful atmosphere.
Everyone knew that in two months, the Rocks Pirates would truly disband.
For them, this was the Rocks Pirates' last banquet.
It was also the final revelry!
Various Factions who received the news also brought some treasures to participate in the "Pirate Expo" in exchange for large amounts of treasure.
As time passed, the "Expo" grew larger and larger, and Honeycomb Island became increasingly lively, with people constantly coming from far and wide.
"King of Arms" Victor transported a large amount of munitions and held an arms exhibition on Honeycomb Island, which was extremely popular.
The "Queen of the Pleasure District" even moved her entire Pleasure Quarter to Honeycomb Island, starting a revelry.
With the Commanders of the Thirteenth Division of the Rocks Pirates suppressing the area, no one dared to cause trouble on Honeycomb Island.
Just two months, only two months.
If they couldn't even last two months, they would truly be showing disrespect.
Naturally, intelligence officers from the World Government and Marines infiltrated, but they didn't dare to utter a sound, and Hades didn't pay them any mind.
Both the Crime Bank and the Exchange were extremely busy during this period.
This was treasure worth over a trillion Beli, the accumulation of who knows how many Celestial Dragons, and even the terrifying accumulation of some Families over nearly eight hundred years, now all taken at once.
Among them were many precious Devil Fruits, which were sought after by many Great Pirates.
Even the Op-Op Fruit, which would be worth fifty billion Beli in the future, was nothing special on Honeycomb Island at this time.
The Flying Pirates, Five Peaks Pirates, Silver Axe Pirates, John Pirates, Devil Pirates, and so on.
One Pirate Crew after another was formed, including many Mid-High Ranking Cadres of the Rocks Pirates, who began to establish their own Factions.
These Pirate Crews frantically expanded their forces, recruiting Pirates to join them.
The most famous, Shiki "The Golden Lion", recruited twenty thousand Pirates in one go.
The massive Rocks Pirates instantly fragmented into countless Pirate Crews.
Two months passed in the blink of an eye.
The excitement of the "Expo" had long since faded, and Pirates continuously left Honeycomb Island.
Because they knew that Honeycomb Island would soon become unsafe.
"Death Gun" Leon had already left, his whereabouts unknown, likely finding a place to retire.
"Werewolf" Quero had no desire to continue the hegemony.
He was already a Sea Overlord.
Even though his body was still young, seeing the young Pirates constantly rising over the years, he felt he was getting old.
He only needed to settle in a corner and guard his own patch of land.
Besides the Werewolf Pirates, he also had his own race that needed protection and development.
Of course, the most important thing was that Quilo saw clearly that no matter what, he couldn't compete with the young monsters of the Rocks Pirates.
"Violence King" Kosa disappeared on the Great Sea.
After escaping from Impel Down, he also became a Lone Wolf.
Kosa, over seventy years old, belonged to the same generation as Steel Bone Kong.
Despite being able to maintain his peak state, how many years could he keep it up?
With the disbandment of the Rocks Pirates and the arrival of the New Era, it was time for them, the remnants of the Old Era, to make their curtain call.
Whitebeard, alone, had no intention of competing with them.
He began a journey across the Great Sea to find his family.
In the final division of interests, he had obtained a vast amount of treasure and several precious Devil Fruits.
He couldn't plunder too much from the others.
"Tyrant Dragon" Zak and "Demon King" Nash, who were weaker in strength, knew they couldn't compete with the other monsters and also left early.
However, being still young, they also possessed great potential, and quite a few people were willing to follow them.
Hades had no interest in the Rocks' Treasury.
The precious Devil Fruits had already been exchanged in private.
Taking the Devil Fruits required putting in equivalent treasure as a replacement.
The only thing worth noting was that red Road Poneglyph.
Thus, the candidates competing for this batch of treasure were in place: John, Silver Axe, Wang Zhi, Shiki, Charlotte Linlin, and Byrnndi World, six individuals.
With no significant gap in strength, the great battle did not unfold as expected.
The six easily divided the treasure and then led their subordinates away from Honeycomb Island, preparing to find a core base to expand their territory.
As for Wang Zhi, he remained on Honeycomb Island and occupied it.
With the fragmentation of the Rocks Pirates.
It was then that some people realized that the Rocks Pirates had truly become history.
The era of domination by one was over! The era of contending heroes had arrived!
The new era had come!
(end of chapter)