Konoha Yellow Monkey: The salary is in place, and Wukage is useless!

To be honest, Kizaru quite likes the atmosphere of the New World. It is a paradise for pirates, a garden for the strong, and a gathering place for scum.

Here, Kizaru has nothing to worry about, and it is not an exaggeration to say that the entire New World is his amusement park.

After inspecting the progress of Buggy's project, Kizaru left Kale Bali and came to a famous island, Beehive.

This is the birthplace of the pirate game and a paradise for pirates. The former captain of the Rocks Pirates, Rocks D. Gibeck, is the owner of this island.

After the battle in God Valley, the Rocks Pirates fell apart. One of the crew members, Wang Zhi, took away Rocks' leadership of the Hive and became the new master of the Hive.

In the original timeline of One Piece, Blackbeard seized the power of Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit after the Battle of Marineford, becoming a dual fruit user. His strength was further enhanced, and he replaced the Whitebeard Pirates to become the new Four Emperors. He also relied on his powerful strength to seize the leadership of the Hive from Wang Zhi and became the new master of the Hive.

Now, due to the appearance of Kizaru and the Land of Light, the direction of the war at the top has completely changed. With the help of Kizaru, the Whitebeard Pirates achieved a complete victory. Not only did they rescue Ace, but there were almost no casualties.

Even Whitebeard cured his old illness during his trip to the Kingdom of Light after the Battle of Marineford, and his strength and physical strength were greatly restored.

Without the influence of injuries, Whitebeard is no longer the sick tiger who can only have a few short bursts of energy in the Battle of Marineford. Instead, he is a monster who can attack with all his strength at any time and can even fight for a long time. He is known as the strongest man.

After Whitebeard's strength was restored and he established a long-term trade cooperation relationship with the Kingdom of Light and obtained a large amount of military supplies, one can imagine the fate of Blackbeard, the traitor of the Whitebeard Pirates.

Not only the Whitebeard Pirates and their affiliated pirate groups were hunting for Blackbeard all over the ocean, but even other underground forces and many pirates who wanted to join Whitebeard also joined in the hunt for Blackbeard.

Faced with the dilemma of being enemies all over the world, several subordinates of Blackbeard who had participated in his bold plan and who were gathered in Impel Down naturally chose to disperse and go their separate ways. They did not attack Blackbeard because they appreciated Blackbeard's "favor" of rescuing them from Impel Down.

Under such circumstances, Blackbeard naturally had no chance to seize the ruling power of Beehive Island from Wang Zhi, the old generation pirate. Now he didn't know where he was hiding in the sea, trying to survive.

After leaving Kale Bali Island, Kizaru secretly came to Beehive Island to meet an old acquaintance, whose nickname was "Sand Crocodile".

In a somewhat shabby bar on Beehive Island, Kizaru hid his body, walked through the noisy group of pirates, and came to the relatively quiet second floor.

On the second floor, near the window, Crocodile was sitting alone on a round stool behind an oak table. On the table in front of him was a bottle of whiskey that was almost half consumed. On the ashtray next to the whiskey was a slowly burning cigar.

It seems that this former Shichibukai is not in a very good mood. His face is gloomy and there is an unknown irritation in his eyes.

The invisible Kizaru walked to the position opposite Crocodile, moved the round stool back slightly, and then sat down.

Crocodile heard the noise and looked forward. He was startled to see Kizaru suddenly appear. He asked with anger flashing across his face, "How dare you show up in front of me, you bastard?"

"I thought we were already good friends after our last cooperation." Kizaru said with a smile. A clean, empty glass with ice appeared in his hand. He reached out and picked up the whiskey in a familiar manner and poured himself half a glass.

Putting the wine bottle back to its original place, Kizaru picked up his own wine glass and took a sip. After tasting the wine in his mouth for a moment, he slowly swallowed it.

Yellow Monkey put down the cup in his hand, looked at the Crocodile in front of him and said: "Crocodile, it seems that you are indeed down and out. If it were in the past, you would never drink such a poor quality of alcohol. Is this also considered whiskey?"

"Hmph!" Crocodile snorted coldly, picked up the cigar in front of him, and just as he was about to bring it to his mouth to take a sip, Kizaru snatched the cigar away.

"Asshole! Are you making fun of me?" Crocodile was angered by Kizaru's actions.

Kizaru, however, looked at the cigar in his hand as if nothing had happened. The pungent smell of the burning low-quality, damp tobacco made Kizaru throw it out of the window in disgust, causing a burst of shouting and cursing outside.

Under Crocodile's angry glare, Kizaru took out the cigar box he was carrying, took out two cigars from it, handed one to Crocodile and kept one for himself.

He cut off the seal on the top of the cigar, and then a flame appeared on his fingertips. After lighting the cigar, Kizaru puffed out smoke for a while, and said with a concerned look: "Crocodile, with your strength and wealth, how could you fall to such a state?"

Speaking of this, Crocodile became even more annoyed, "That design drawing of Pluto."

"I promise it's true!" Kizaru said with 100% certainty.

This is what made Crocodile even more depressed. He suppressed his anger and said, "There is indeed nothing wrong with the design, but it is simply impossible to realize it with the existing shipbuilding technology. I mobilized all the manpower and resources, and invested all my money. I replaced the shipbuilding designers and workers one after another, but the answer they gave me was just a pile of junk."

Kizaru understood after hearing this, "So you've spent all your money, but the ship hasn't been built, and you don't even see the hope of building it."

Crocodile nodded with a grim expression. He knew that this matter could not be blamed on Kizaru, but when he saw Kizaru, he saw the embodiment of the failure of his ambition to rule the sea.

"Pluto", one of the three legendary ancient weapons, an ancient giant ship with the terrifying power to destroy an island with a single shot, is so close to him, yet so far away.

“To be honest, I also sent the design back to the Kingdom of Light and had those researchers study it. They told me that it’s not realistic to replicate it completely, and they can only try to crack some of the technologies and transform them into new results that can be loaded onto our warships.” Kizaru said calmly.

Hearing this, Crocodile raised his hand and pounded on the table in increasing annoyance. He was not angry about the wealth he had accumulated over more than a decade going down the drain. To the Crocodile, money was nothing more than waste paper that he could earn back at any time.

What made him angry and depressed was the failure of the plans and ambitions he had been planning for more than ten years.

Pluto could not be created, and all his previous efforts became a joke. This was the reason why he gave up on himself.

Crocodile's appearance made Kizaru feel a little bored. He looked at Crocodile with disappointment, "Crocodile, your performance disappoints me. As a hero of the sea, do you choose to give up because of this little setback?"

Crocodile looked up at Kizaru after hearing this, "What do you know? Bastard!"

"I really can't understand your frustration. To destroy an island with one strike, why do you need weapons to accomplish such a thing? As a hero on the sea, you actually pin your hopes of conquering the sea on a weapon, a weapon made by the ancients. Your ambition is indeed too ridiculous, and your vision is too narrow." Kizaru said with a somewhat sarcastic tone.

Crocodile clenched his right hand on the table instantly, but facing Kizaru's ridicule, he had no position to refute.

It is no exaggeration to say that the man in front of him is the strongest existence in the ocean. This guy might be able to destroy an island with one blow. He himself is a perverted existence that is stronger than ancient weapons.

Crocodile looked at Kizaru and said with a bit of frustration: "Do you think everyone is like a monster like you?"

"Oh wow!" Kizaru laughed, "Are you praising me?"

"You!" Crocodile didn't want to talk, nor did he want to see Kizaru again.

Kizaru came to find Crocodile this time, of course, wanting to try to make him a force in the Land of Light. Putting aside Crocodile's strength, at least judging from his past of running a vibrant criminal organization, he is a good hand at organizational management.

Of course, Kizaru wanted to make the best use of such a talent. He looked at Crocodile, who was so angry and aggrieved that he couldn't speak, and continued, "Crocodile, did the battle with Whitebeard really break all your pride and ambition? Is Whitebeard so powerful that you can only rely on the ethereal ancient weapons?
After all, this world belongs to the strong, and only one's own strength is the foundation that no one can take away.

How long has it been since you last practiced your Haki and Taijutsu, Crocodile?"

Crocodile was shocked when facing Kizaru's last question. He recalled his experiences in recent years and was shocked to find that he was indeed obsessed with the plan of discovering "Pluto" and neglected his own training.

"Compared to any ancient weapons, only our own strength is truly powerful! Because I am strong enough, I can occupy the entire East China Sea, and the World Government will have no choice but to grit their teeth and agree.

Even if you create a new Hades, or find the ancient Hades, can you really protect it with your strength?"

"I"

"I can tell you the truth. Even with Pluto, you are no match for the three admirals of the navy. Not to mention the five elders who rule the world above the navy. The strength of those five old guys is even higher than that of the admirals."

The information Kizaru told at the end made Crocodile open his eyes wide suddenly. He did watch the live broadcast of the Battle of Marineford, but because Den Den Mushi was an unmanned long-distance broadcast, he could see very little information about some details of the battle, especially the final battle between Kizaru and the Five Elders.

Now, when he heard from Kizaru with his own ears that the Five Elders actually possessed strength above that of the admirals, the shock this brought to him was no less than the shock he felt when he first saw Kizaru transform into the Giant of Light during the live broadcast.

Crocodile looked at Kizaru and said in a complicated tone: "How powerful are you to be able to defeat the Five Elders and the Navy?"

Kizaru smiled slightly, "Just a little bit stronger than them."

A little bit? It should be a billion bits! Crocodile couldn't help but complain in his heart. (End of this chapter)