Pirates: It's not a mythical beast, it's a phantom god

"Like building bigger ships and stealing more money?"

Hearing Burfat's simple speech, Rao Shila couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

"Almost, but according to the ultimate goal of the Beasts, it should be to build a comprehensive weapons production factory."

In fact, after accumulating sufficient resources, the best next step should be to build a complete industrial system from heavy to light.

But Ira calculated that with the current territory and resources, it was completely impossible to support an industrial revolution in all areas.

Therefore, we can only settle for the second best and concentrate resources in the single field of military industry in order to achieve a technological breakthrough.

This is essentially a helpless compromise due to insufficient resources and technological accumulation.

After all, a single industrial system is doomed to fail in the long run. Without the influx of fresh capital from other fields, technological exchanges will eventually be trapped in bottlenecks and become stagnant.

Of course, these can all be solved later...

"Do we produce our own weapons? That would be nice, but is it necessary?"

"Wouldn't it be more convenient to just buy from or rob the arms dealers? You know, the New World is short of everything except arms dealers."

What Burfat said was true. The New World was almost the area with the largest weapons throughput in the entire ocean.

“It’s not difficult to obtain arms in the New World, but we need to do more than just build a weapons factory and use them ourselves.

Our ultimate goal is to monopolize the entire ocean weapons market, or at least the mid- to high-end market."

The real purpose of Pu is not the weapons themselves, but the market and war derived from the weapons.

"You mean changing careers to become an arms dealer?" Jhin quickly grasped the point.

“Yes, weapons are the most visible aspect of war.

Perhaps a sharper sword or a musket with a longer range could, at some point, change the course of a country."

"To put it in an exaggerated way, whoever controls the weapons controls the war."

"What we need to do is to take control of this initiative into our own hands."

"That's a pretty sharp point of view. I've never thought about that." After listening to La's argument, Jhin also felt it was feasible.

"But making munitions is no simple matter, La."

Kaido is actually the most sober one at this time. As a pirate who has been on the sea for many years, he knows that it is not easy to monopolize the arms market.

You must know that there has always been only one largest arms dealer in this ocean, and those so-called big arms dealers in the underground world are mostly just white gloves.

"I understand that this is a difficult matter, but it depends on our own efforts and we are not without a chance."

"I have collected and observed the weapons on the market today, and found that both the style and power are almost the same as those decades ago.

This means that even after decades, arms dealers still haven't completed upgrading their weapons, at least on the surface."

Because of the relationship between Haki and Devil Fruits, people in this world tend to pay more attention to high-end personal combat power, while weapons such as swords and guns tend to emphasize a casual attitude of "as long as they can be used."

Of course, there are some so-called magical weapons like famous swords, but they are more like icing on the cake to personal martial arts.

Even if an ordinary person gets a famous sword, he cannot become a swordsman overnight. A true swordsman can split mountains and seas even with a fruit knife.

As for the "ancient weapons", they were completely regarded as legends, and everyone just wanted to look for them all over the world instead of creating one themselves.

Moreover, the world government, as the largest arms producer, also seems to be intent on restricting the development of weapons or technology.

Although they conducted all kinds of experiments in private, there were very few results that were actually put on the table.

After all, the fact that there are too many and too advanced weapons stored by the civilian population will also have an impact on the stability policy they have always pursued. It is enough to maintain a number that can barely meet the consumption of internal fighting.

It is precisely this somewhat distorted market situation that gives La the confidence to catch up and break through.

After visiting Sean's laboratory, La realized that the technological level of this world is not as backward as it seems.

However, most advanced technologies have not been promoted and applied on a large scale, but have instead become the entertainment of a few people.

"And this is our opportunity."

“In fact, we can spend five to ten years, pooling all our resources to complete an iteration of existing weapons and turn Baishou into a world weapons factory.

Then completely occupy the blue ocean of the arms market."

……

After La finished speaking, there was silence again.

"..."

"This is not something that can be just talked about. Do you have any detailed plans?" Jhin's question was still sharp.

"This involves a series of issues including capital planning, talent recruitment, site selection, laboratory construction, raw material acquisition, worker recruitment, information confidentiality, channel establishment and market capture.

I'm sorry I can't submit a detailed and reliable plan in such a hurry, I only have a rough framework at the moment."

La said bluntly, picking up a few more sheets of paper from the stack in his hand and handing them to Jin.

Kaido and Burfat also glanced sideways, but after seeing the densely packed handwriting, they both withdrew their gaze and secretly sighed in their hearts:

[The handwriting is so beautiful!]

After reading it quickly, Jin said that this was indeed just a rough architectural plan without any specific details.

Of course, the fact that just the simplest architecture contained so much content was beyond Jin's imagination.

Everyone also expressed their understanding of this.

Although La always strives for perfection in her work, it is unrealistic to ask her to come up with a practical plan that involves many aspects in just half a day.

Honestly, it's incredible that La was able to grasp the situation of each island to such an extent in such a short period of time, and thus formulate a rough plan for the pirate group for the next ten or even several decades...

It also cleared the clouds and brought everyone's understanding of the development of power to an almost new level, which completely exceeded Kaido's initial expectations.

Originally, Kaido summoned La and the others just to discuss the next steps, but he didn't expect La to give him a big one.

It feels like you're still in the Axe-killing stage when you suddenly use the acceleration sync.

Burfat even suspected that La was a monster in the form of an ordinary person who had eaten the Human-Human Fruit.

Chapter 88 Beasts and War (Part 2)

"Go on."

Kaido did not dwell on this issue for long, but continued to ask Ra about his future plans.

"The core of this plan is to establish a military-industrial system that can monopolize the market."

"As for what happens next, as I said earlier, once we have captured enough market share, we will be able to use it to influence a country's political power.

After all, not every country has its subjects united, and there are many countries that are troubled by rebels.

And even if they don’t have it, we can make it happen for them.”

Perhaps it was because the balance was slightly tilted due to the lack of human factors for a long time. At the end, he suddenly said something that broke the bottom line of human nature, drowning everyone in silence.

Osi instinctively felt a little uncomfortable and leaned towards Oubei, but the other party pushed his finger against him with some disgust.

"Thus, these kingdoms became both our biggest customers and our levers for starting world wars.

If you were a rebel, would you buy weapons that were better than those of the Kingdom’s army?

If you were the king, and suddenly found that the mud-legged soldiers who used to only have sticks and pitchforks now had guns that were more powerful than your guards, what would you do?

The devilish words continued to be delivered through the ethereal and sacred voice, and there was an indescribable indifference between the lines, as if it was the highest level of blasphemy.

"Once we've exhausted the purchasing power of both sides, we'll unleash some weapons of mass destruction to help one side decide the outcome in a direct battle.

This will not only show off Baishou's strength but also serve as a form of advertising, making surrounding countries more eager to acquire Baishou's weapons."

"And when the reputation of Beast Military Industry truly spreads and becomes synonymous with victory, obtaining our weapons will require more than just Baileys."

[Hiss! This is too mean!]

Pirates have always acted in a simple and brutal manner, and sometimes they would resort to some means, which was nothing more than taking civilians as hostages to use as threats.

When a country encounters civil unrest, they mostly play the role of taking advantage of the situation, and occasionally act as mercenaries, but there are also many cases where they turn around and betray their employers after getting the money.

As La described, he didn't intervene personally but instead stirred up internal conflicts among others, then took advantage of both sides. After squeezing both sides dry, he used them as gunpowder and blew up everyone around him in pieces of flesh and blood...

The three of them said that they had finally opened their eyes today.

As if realizing that he had just done something wrong, La stopped in time.

“Of course, the above are just ideal situations.

After all, the World Government and the Navy cannot sit idly by and ignore the member states, and non-member states are often weak, lack resources, and have little purchasing power."

"Also, sometimes it's difficult to influence the outcome of a battle solely with weapons. When the gap in strength between the two sides is too great, it's unlikely that victory can be achieved by relying on the advantage of weapons," Jin added.

"Well, that's true.

Those naval branches are all well-equipped, but Kaido can go wherever he wants and leave whenever he wants.

As a veteran at sea, Burfat also knew how powerless the so-called strong ships and powerful guns were when faced with truly strong opponents.

The gap in personal martial arts strength in this world is simply too huge.

“I’ve considered this as well.

So I think that Beasts can provide mercenary services while selling arms, which can solve the problem of the pirate group's lax armaments that Burfat is worried about.

Generally speaking, we are mainly involved in the arms trade, and we, the Hundred Beasts, will be involved in any area related to the needs of war."

"Let the beasts become synonymous with war." La made the final conclusion.

This is actually the fourth stage of La's plan, which is the transition from selling arms to selling wars.

……

"Well! Well said! Beasts are war, and war is the meaning of their existence. Woo-la-la-la!"

Kaido, who had been silent all this time, finally took action at this moment. He laughed so freely and happily, so freely that he was even a little out of control, and even his domineering aura was aroused.

Waves that shocked the soul continued to spread with Kaido's laughter. Even Jin and Burfat were shaken to the point of being unsteady on their feet. Osi and Obe were also affected and stopped their little playful actions.

"Quack! Captain, what are you crazy about?" Ossi said dissatisfiedly as he tidied up his messy hair.

Ou Bei also hurriedly used his hands to protect the few remaining cakes.

"Boss Kaido, what are you doing..."

It was also the first time that Burfat saw Kaido lose his composure like this.

Kaido ignored everyone and continued laughing.

It was not until even Jin couldn't help but step forward to remind him that Kaido gradually stopped smiling and turned to look at Ra.

Seeing the small figure that remained unshaken under his domineering aura, he couldn't help but grin again.

"Little ghost, I now feel that bringing you to Baishou that day was the best decision I ever made in my life."

"It's my honor." La responded calmly without changing his expression.

"So according to your idea, how confident are you that this can be accomplished, and how long will it take?"

Kaido asked the last question, which was also the most realistic question.

"To build a mature military-industrial system, the initial accumulation of resources is the most time-consuming.

With our current land and resources, even basic construction will take at least ten years, and achieving the final goal is conservatively estimated to take at least twenty to thirty years."

Having said that, La paused.

"As for how sure we are...Excuse me, Captain Kaido, what do you think is the probability of the world suddenly exploding tomorrow?

As long as the probability of an accident happening is not zero, then the so-called certainty is nonsense."

"Ah."

Kaido nodded, agreeing with what La said.

"But it's taking too long, I can't wait that long!

Is there any way to speed this up? I'd love to be able to personally fight in a world war when it happens!

Kaido looked at Ra expectantly, hoping that this little guy who always brought him surprises could once again give him a satisfactory answer.

"Of course there are ways, for example, there is suddenly a place that is not only rich in resources and has a large population, but also has a hidden location that is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Ah~ It would be best if there were some rare and unique ores, and those ores could be used to forge powerful weapons...