The meeting lasted a full three hours.
At the very end of it, Luo Lan made his stance clear:
"Build. Build like your lives depend on it. Within three months, we need at least 18 ships completed. That's the bare minimum to form two full 'Jun Lin Fleets.'"
As for the money?
"I've got the funds. Just write the requests—I'll approve them. Take the approved slips to Karina for disbursement."
Although he hadn't brought down all the gold from Skypiea, what he had brought would convert to at least 80 billion Beli—more than the Navy's entire annual budget.
Right now, Luo Lan was nothing short of a super-wealthy tycoon.
If not for the fact that some construction was still in progress—temporarily preventing a rank upgrade for the Builders—he would've already advanced to A-rank.
Once he reached A-rank, Luo Lan planned not only to upgrade the existing shipyard, but to build a new one entirely.
Eighteen ships in three months…
Honestly, Luo Lan wasn't satisfied with that pace.
Of course, if you're building ships, you need people to crew them too.
Each ship would require over a thousand personnel. Currently, the Jun Lin forces under his command were still vastly insufficient.
Reinforcements were necessary. Immediately.
He'd give Cobra a call in a bit.
Starting next month, there needed to be 10,000 new recruits each month.
Otherwise, they'd end up with ships but no one to operate them. That would be embarrassing.
---
After settling the meeting on the second-generation warships,
Luo Lan made his way to the tenth floor of the branch building.
This was where Karina's office was currently located.
"Karina, you wanted to see me?"
"Yes. We need to have a serious talk about the gold."
"Alright, go ahead."
Luo Lan sat across from her at the desk.
This was a critical issue—and a complicated one.
Because this gold couldn't be exchanged for Berry through normal channels.
A few billion might be manageable, but hundreds of billions? That would crash the gold market instantly.
And if we're talking trillions?
Even if someone were willing to buy, the price would plummet like a rock.
What's more, just the gold from Skypiea—excluding that massive golden bell—was worth nearly 10 trillion Berries based on current market rates.
Figuring out how to handle it was a logistical nightmare.
"First, let's be clear," Karina began, "You can move some of it through black market channels—but the amount must be strictly limited. No more than 10 billion Berries's worth per year. Any more, and it will affect global gold prices."
"Even a 1% dip in price would cost us thousands of billions in Berry."
Luo Lan nodded. That made perfect sense.
They needed to convert the gold into usable funds, but also keep the market stable.
"So what's your plan?"
"It's simple," Karina said, snapping her fingers with a grin. "We skip market exchanges. We do direct point-to-point transactions—sell directly to nobles and royal families."
Luo Lan blinked. "What?"
"You really are dense sometimes," she sighed.
"Think about it. Our biggest problem is preventing the gold from flooding the market, right?"
He nodded again.
"So who can buy that much gold without dumping it back into circulation?"
"Or even if they do, only let a small amount slip through?"
"The answer: World Government-affiliated nobles and royal families."
"To them, gold isn't a trade asset. It's a collectible. A reserve."
"They're not going to sell it back into the market anytime soon."
"And that way, for a long period, we don't have to worry about gold oversupply crashing the market."
Luo Lan nodded again.
Indeed, even in the pirate world, gold was as much a hard currency as it had been in his past life.
And nobles, as always, adored hoarding it—whether as treasure or national reserves.
"So, your plan is to approach them one by one and conduct secret, private sales?"
"Exactly. If it's ornate, artistic golden artifacts, they might show them off. But if it's just gold bars…"
"…Then they'll hide it all away, right?" Luo Lan smiled, finally catching on.
Karina nodded firmly.
A few collectible items, sure, they'd flaunt in front of their noble peers. But if it were tons of solid gold bricks?
You really think you can flaunt that without the Celestial Dragons showing up at your door the next day?
Don't doubt it—it would happen.
So the buyers would stash the gold away in secret vaults. Unless they were in a desperate crisis, that gold would never see the light of day again.
This meant…
The sold gold would barely touch the public market.
And for the foreseeable future, that would keep prices stable across the pirate world.
"Alright," Luo Lan said. "We'll do it your way. Tell me what you need."
"I want full cooperation from the intelligence division," Karina replied without hesitation.
Luo Lan agreed instantly.
After all, he was no expert in this field—Karina was.
And he trusted her.
As for the intel division's involvement? That was only natural.
They'd need to travel far and wide, actively seeking out these nobles.
Karina couldn't do all that alone. She'd need assistance.
And the intelligence division?
They were the perfect team for the job.
---
When Luo Lan arrived at the door of his own office, he let out a deep sigh.
So many things, every damn day. Somehow, half the day had vanished already.
He pushed the door open and stepped inside—
And froze.
There, sitting on the office lounge sofa, were Gion (Momousagi) and Hina.
Hina, in particular, looked guilty.
What was going on?
"What are you two doing here?"
"Luo Lan," Gion said calmly, "I want a private training room."
"…Huh?"
Luo Lan's gut immediately twisted.
To avoid arousing Gion's suspicions these past few days, he'd disabled the gravity enhancements in the main training center.
Well… not all of them. He'd left a few private rooms running.
After all, the team couldn't just stop training because Gion was visiting, right?
They were gaining dozens of power units daily—missing even a single day was a huge setback.
They'd simply made sure to keep those private rooms locked when not in use.
After all, you couldn't tell by sight alone that something was off inside them.
Even if Gion suddenly wanted to train, there were plenty of unlocked rooms nearby. No reason to force open a locked one.
It should have been fine.
But judging from Hina's expression and Gion's tone—
Luo Lan realized:
Gion had discovered the training center's secret.
And somehow… Hina was involved.
---
https:// ko-fi.com/sami27