Chapter 249: The Situation of the Underworld in Sea Calendar 1486
Sea Calendar 1486: The Underworld Situation
Sea Calendar 1486, a new year arrived.
At this time, many people suddenly realized that nearly a year had passed since the dissolution of the Rocks Pirates.
The situation on the Great Sea had stabilized slightly, but only just a little.
Whether it was the Four Seas or the First Half of the Grand Line, the Sea Areas were vast.
Even though the Strongmen guarding the Four Seas could capture Pirates every time they acted, this was nothing compared to the enormous number of Pirates.
The number of Pirates had increased; this was the thought of many in the Marines, as if they were inexhaustible.
Large numbers of Pirates were first-class when it came to escaping.
The lack of mid-to-high tier combatants made it difficult for the Marines to efficiently capture Pirates.
A large number of former Four Seas Marine High Command being poached by Member Nations further reduced Marine Headquarters' control over the Four Seas.
Of course, the Marines were also trying their best to curb this situation.
At least some Trade Sea Routes connecting Member Nations had stabilized.
The World Government's involvement made the global Arms Trade competition fiercer.
The First Half of the Grand Line was the Sea Area where the World Government had the strongest control, and also the largest region for munitions dumping.
In the Four Seas, even though many Factions were willing to give face to the World Government, they wouldn't blindly purchase the World Government's munitions.
In the Underworld of the New World, competition had reached a fever pitch, and the Dark Kings of the Underworld were gradually emerging.
Except for "King of Arms" Victor, who already belonged to the Kronos Kingdom, he was completely unaffected by the downfall of the Rocks Pirates.
The chaotic World, the Underworld, instead allowed Victor's business to grow larger and larger, making his status as a Dark King unshakable.
"Sea Freight King" Umit became the second Dark King of the New World.
The chaotic Great Sea was a disaster, but also an opportunity.
Umit's Family originally operated a vast sea transport Faction.
With the support of the Kronos Kingdom, Umit perfectly took control of his Family's entire Faction, avoiding the losses caused by internal power struggles.
In this chaos, Umit integrated and annexed various sea transport Factions, becoming the King of the maritime transport industry in the Underworld of the New World.
Different from Victor, Umit operated on both sides of the law.
Even excluding the Underworld's sea transport Factions, Umit was openly a giant in the maritime transport industry.
By cooperating with the Kronos Kingdom, Umit could obtain large quantities of goods from the Four Seas and transport them throughout the New World, and even to the Grand Line Paradise.
By cooperating with "King of Arms" Victor, Umit could also transport Victor's munitions to the Four Seas.
Although the Kronos Kingdom possessed the power of the Mirror-Mirror Fruit, such power should not be abused to avoid creating dependence.
If something were to happen, these trade chains would all break.
In the process of cooperation, Umit could gain significant revenue and develop his own Faction.
Even without the help of the Kronos Kingdom, Umit could become a Dark King of the Underworld through his own strength in the future.
However, to develop to this extent, it would have taken at least ten or twenty years.
However, to truly spread his transport Faction throughout the World, Umit still needed a certain amount of time for development.
At least Umit's current transport scale in the Four Seas was not large.
The Dark Kings of the Underworld had always remained relatively unchanged.
It was mainly those few Factions.
The Stringtail Snake Group, representing the King of the currency domain, operated commercial trade, casinos, and various industries.
Of course, their most important industry was usury.
Therefore, the head of the Stringtail Snake Group in each generation was the King of the Underworld, also known as the "Usury King".
Even if one died, it wouldn't shake their foundation; they would just elect a new head.
Besides the Underworld in the New World, the Stringtail Snake Group also held considerable influence openly and even in other Sea Areas.
The Kronos Kingdom knew that behind the Stringtail Snake Group stood the Eternal Kingdom, one of the other Superpowers.
The current "Queen of the Pleasure District" was not Stussy.
The Pleasure Quarter was an industry secretly controlled by the World Government, an important money-making machine for the World Government, and a crucial place for obtaining intelligence.
Over the years, the Pleasure Quarter's Faction had expanded considerably.
Due to the World Government's losses, the Pleasure Quarter was even more needed to extract wealth from the pockets of those Pirates and Nobles.
Behind this, there were countless unknown victims.
Competition in other domains was also fierce.
To be precise, becoming a Dark King required possessing Faction and strength recognized by others.
The future "Warehousing Industry Old Shopkeepers" clearly no longer had the chance to become Dark Kings.
Many of their original customers had switched to the Dark Bank.
The appearance of the Dark Bank was exactly like a bayonet thrust into their main artery.
In half a year's time, the Battle Pyramid had been completed.
However, it had not been opened yet.
Now was not the time.
There were still many industrial chains related to the Battle Pyramid that needed to be established, preparing to supply hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of people in the future.
Even the entire Paros Island had not been developed, except for people from the Kronos Kingdom and the Pluto Pirates, who were prohibited from entering.
Kronos Kingdom.
Although busy, Hades was only busy for a period of time.
Once he had a good understanding of the entire Kingdom.
He handed over general matters to the Cabinet for handling, and Hades naturally had free time.
In the Treasury of the Kronos Kingdom, a large number of Devil Fruits were collected.
They were all gathered by the Kronos Kingdom from around the World through its connections.
Among them were also those collected by Hades during his time with the Rocks Pirates.
Through the Exchange, he had obtained quite a few Devil Fruits.
Of course, there were also Devil Fruits sent by the World Government.
Just a few days after Hades became King, the World Government sent the Devil Fruits over.
A total of one hundred and thirty-one Devil Fruits.
Among the large number of ordinary Devil Fruits, there were also some decent abilities.
Among them, over fifty Devil Fruits were completely unknown.
Even the World Government didn't know what their abilities were and could only roughly distinguish their type based on the Devil Fruit's shape.
The Kronos Kingdom didn't quibble over this classification.
Opening blind boxes was also quite fun.
Perhaps there were powerful abilities among them.
Moreover, he had the means to recover Devil Fruits.
He just needed to let some Pirates or prisoners eat them, and then recover them after determining the ability.
One Mythical Zoan, one Logia type, and two Ancient Zoans.
Even for the rare Devil Fruits, Hades didn't hold much expectation.
Mythical Zoan: Gargoyle Form.
It possessed a body as hard as rock and a special ability to absorb damage.
It seemed like a decent ability, but it had a fatal flaw.
That was, it couldn't use its ability in sunlight.
Once exposed to sunlight, its beast transformation body would petrify.
Light's counter to this Devil Fruit could be said to be extreme.
Even if one resisted with Armament Haki, the Haki consumption speed would be astonishingly rapid.
Furthermore, even without using the ability, as long as it was in sunlight, its own strength would be weakened as if encountering Seastone.
The fatal flaw destined it to be at the bottom of the Mythical Zoan types.
Of course, in special environments, this ability was still very powerful.
Logia Type: Mirage-Mirage Fruit.
As the name suggests, it creates mirages.
Many Logia-type Devil Fruits possessed the terrifying ability to evolve into natural disasters.
It seemed the World Government also didn't want the Kronos Kingdom to obtain overly powerful abilities, so they offered this Mirage-Mirage Fruit with nearly zero direct lethality.
However, in Hades' opinion, it was still decent, at least a bit better than the Smoke-Smoke Fruit.
Two Ancient Zoans: one Ancient Zoan: Land Crocodile Fruit, and one Ancient Zoan: Brontoscorpio Fruit.
The Land Crocodile was just a small crocodile, while the Brontoscorpio seemed decent to Hades.
Overall, there were no surprises.
He could only place his expectation on the other Devil Fruits.
Indeed, why would the World Government give the Kronos Kingdom a bargain? They would definitely try their best to minimize their losses as much as possible.
(end of chapter)