The radio snail connected and was placed on Sage's desk.
He bit into a cigar, the smoke slowly rising in front of his face, as the receiver was placed to the side.
"Koza..."
Looking at the connected radio snail, which morphed into one with sunglasses and scars on its face, Sage smirked:
"I know you, the former leader of the Rebel Army, now a minister, aren't you?"
There was a brief silence on the other side of the radio snail, then: "The natural disaster, I didn't come for pleasantries. What do you want to do?"
"Well..."
Sage pondered for a moment, then laughed: "Let's first talk about recent events, shall we? Cobra is dead, right? The heir also disappeared, and the whole of Alabasta is now in a state of mourning, isn't it?"
"This information, you don't need to remind me specifically." Koza gritted his teeth and said, "Get to the point!"
"Heh heh heh, some things need a prelude, don't rush."
Sage laughed: "The sea level rose by a meter, I'm not sure if your country's coast suffered any damage, but given the area, a little damage shouldn't matter, right? After all, it's all desert, no real losses there."
"You..."
Koza's tone was clearly impatient, but Sage didn't give him a chance to speak and continued:
"On the first half of the Grand Line, a country called 'Lulucia' disappeared, most likely the work of the World Government. Do you know what this represents?"
Sage said: "It represents the World Government's ability to destroy any force."
"Isn't that a good thing?"
Koza mocked: "Eradicating pirates like you will bring peace to the world!"
Sage laughed sinisterly: "Do you really think so? Your king died during the World Conference, and the World Government gained power to destroy any force! Do you really think it's that simple?!"
The radio snail fell silent.
"Exactly, just as you suspected!"
Sage laughed: "The destruction was not just limited to pirates, and how can countries hand over all their choices to one side?"
"What exactly do you intend to do?"
"Cooperate!"
Sage said: "Since you took the initiative to call, it means there's something on your mind. Let's cooperate. You want to protect your country, and I want to strengthen my territory. Since territory is no longer the safest place, why not approach this differently... Let us collaborate!"
"What nonsense are you talking about?"
Koza opposed: "Even if I agree, what then? Alabasta is dirt poor, we don't even have enough food right now, how can we cooperate with you? I will not start a war, that would be slaughtering my own people!"
A desert nation, how could it be well-fed.
Even without Crocodile's past attempts to overthrow and the actions he took, as a resource-poor land coupled with annual Heavenly Tribute taxes, there are still many hungry people.
This is thanks to having a good king, if it were a lesser one, like the king of the Drum Kingdom, Alabasta would be living in hell.
"Who told you to start a war, what I want is exactly for you to be hungry."
Sage laughed heartily: "Those who can no longer survive, whom you think can live by changing their environment, send them all over!"
"In return, I will open factories in Alabasta, produce weapons for me, I will give you jobs, give you food, give you clean water, give you everything you need!"
Koza fell silent again, this time for a lot longer, while Sage exhaled smoke patiently waiting.
About five minutes later, the radio snail finally spoke: "We are not connected, and the location of Fishman Island makes it unsuitable, it is even more dangerous there!"
"That's not your concern, you only need to agree or not. Agree, and we'll sign a secret contract, disagree, and pretend I never said anything."
"How long..."
"Well, that depends on my results here. We can first sign an intention agreement. Once I find a safe route, then our cooperation formally begins."
"Deal... I hope I won't regret this."
"How could you regret freeing your people from poverty and hunger! Even if it meant aligning with pirates, you'd even do it with devils, willingly!"
Sage laughed loudly, ended the call, looked up to exhale smoke, and then pressed the cigar into the ashtray.
"A very good business deal, Lily."
"Is this a transaction?"
Lily asked with some confusion: "Alabasta is not our territory, is it really suitable to open factories over there? You won't collect taxes that way, Sage."
"Who said I'd collect taxes there? The treatment for my own turf and others' is definitely different."
Sage gave Lily a smile, "There are many companies at sea, especially those industries in the underworld, some are on islands, some in other countries. But no matter what, they only rent space."
"I'm different, since moving a large population is impossible, change the approach."
He suddenly bared his teeth, the sight of them, like a devouring beast, made Lily's heart skip a beat.
That strange feeling, as if facing a voracious beast, came again.
"Worthless desert land, I can place some heavily polluting industries there, of course, I will keep my promises. Once I completely control Alabasta's economy..."
Sage spread his hands, "I'm not that lowly, since I promised cooperation, I won't annex them. But they are essentially free-range, having another place to dump products isn't a problem!"