Let us set aside the Marines of the four seas for a moment.
At Headquarters, promotions are governed by strict regulations.
First, there are the ordinary soldiers—those who enter Headquarters through standard recruitment. After completing basic training, they are ranked as Seamen Apprentices. From there, they climb the ladder step by step based on the military merit they accumulate. This is the path taken by ninety-nine percent of all Marines.
Then, there are those who perform exceptionally well at various branches and are recommended to Headquarters by their respective Branch Chiefs. Upon arrival, they undergo a unified assessment, which results in one of three outcomes.
The first is for those whose performance is utterly abysmal; they are sent back to their original branch.
The second is for those who pass the assessment; they are sent to the Headquarters training camp for further study. After graduation, the vast majority become company-grade officers.
The third is for those who perform exceptionally well during the assessment. These individuals are sent to the Elite Training Camp within the Headquarters training camp, where they receive the Marines' most top-tier systematic education. Upon graduation, the lowest rank they achieve is a company-grade officer, while the strongest among them can even become field-grade officers.
Of course, this path does not have an unlimited ceiling. According to regulations, the highest rank they can achieve through this route is Captain. To climb any further, they must still accumulate sufficient military merit.
Normally, these are the primary routes for rank advancement at Headquarters.
Well, except for Sean.
Sean was the only exception since Sengoku took office as Fleet Admiral; upon graduating from the Elite Training Camp, he was directly granted the rank of Commodore.
As for the military merit required for each promotion, that too is strictly regulated.
First, there are the nameless pirate fodder with no bounties. However, it should be noted that even among fodder, the merit points gained from killing or capturing them vary.
A pirate lackey from the four seas grants only 3 merit points. Those from the Grand Line grant 5, and those from the New World grant 10.
For pirates with actual bounties, calculating merit is even simpler: just remove the last four zeros. For example, a pirate with a bounty of one million Belly earns 100 merit points, while a pirate with a bounty of one hundred million Belly earns 10,000.
According to the rank promotion regulations of Marine Headquarters:
To promote from Captain to Commodore, one needs 50,000 merit points.
To promote from Commodore to Rear Admiral, one needs 100,000 merit points.
To promote from Rear Admiral to Vice Admiral, one needs 200,000 merit points.
As for the rank of Admiral, it cannot be achieved through military merit alone. Beyond merit, one must possess strength that matches the prestige of an Admiral. Consequently, the vast majority of Marines spend their entire careers capped at the rank of Vice Admiral.
As for Admiral... that is not something you can achieve simply through hard work or strength. More than that, you must possess the innate talent.
Doing the math: Sean's initial goal was to become a Vice Admiral at Headquarters. To reach that rank, he needed 200,000 merit points. Excluding fodder, that would mean capturing or killing pirates with a combined bounty of 2 billion Belly.
In the East Blue, aside from a few rare pirates whose bounties reached the ten-million range, almost everyone was below that mark. Most fell between one and two million, and some only had a few hundred thousand.
This is exactly why the East Blue is called the "Weakest Sea."
Therefore, it would be impossible to gather the merit points required for Vice Admiral within the East Blue, even if he completely purged the entire sea.
This was why Sean had planned the "Pirate Guerrilla Force" long before arriving in the East Blue.
Step one: Purge all high-bounty pirate crews in the East Blue.
Step two: Have his subordinates rotate strikes to continuously sweep away the remaining weak pirate groups.
Step three: While executing the second step, select a group of elites to form the Pirate Guerrilla Force, which would periodically cross the Calm Belt into the Grand Line to harvest pirates.
This was Sean's blueprint for the next two years.
'''
Inside the Branch Chief's office.
"Reporting! The General Manager of the Tokaf Construction Company has arrived!"
"Let him in!"
"Yes, sir!"
Soon, a burly man was led into Sean's office by a Marine.
"Commodore Sean, I am Mansour, the General Manager of the East Blue's Tokaf Construction Company."
"Mm. Sit."
Sean pointed to the chair opposite his desk.
"My requirements are simple," Sean began, cutting straight to the chase. "I want the entire island transformed into a fortress-style base. Additionally, I want a fully enclosed, circular defensive wall built 200 meters offshore around the island."
Mansour sat down, listening intently.
"Are you looking to create a fortress similar to the G-8 Branch?"
"Exactly. Can you do it?"
"Commodore Sean, the reason the G-8 Branch looks like that is because the island itself was naturally circular. They simply renovated based on the existing geography. However..."
"You're saying the 16th Branch doesn't have the same conditions as G-8?"
"Yes. Before coming here, I looked into the geography of the island where the 16th Branch is located. Although the area for several hundred meters around the coast is shallow water, building a fully enclosed circular defensive wall from scratch would still be incredibly expensive!"
Mansour nodded and spoke seriously. He wasn't trying to exaggerate the difficulty to inflate the project cost; it was simply a matter of fact.
Renovating an existing structure and building one from nothing are two entirely different concepts. Moreover, building in the open sea rather than on land increased the difficulty significantly.
Could it be done? Yes. But as Mansour said, the construction costs would be exorbitant.
However, the man sitting in front of Mansour was no ordinary person. He was Sean Campbell, renowned as one of the ten wealthiest men in the East Blue. Furthermore, Morgans had listed him as one of the top ten, and that didn't even account for the ten billion Belly Sean had acquired from Don Krieg. If that were factored in, Sean would easily rank in the top three of the East Blue.
"Just tell me," Sean said. "How many Belly will it cost?"
"This... for the complete project, I'm afraid it won't be less than 3.5 billion Belly!" Mansour gritted his teeth after a long silence.
In reality, 3.5 billion was very close to the actual cost. The Tokaf Construction Company would make almost no profit. But Mansour wasn't considering how much he could earn from a single order; he was thinking about the prestige. Once such a massive project was completed, the Tokaf Construction Company's reputation would explode across the East Blue.
The future earnings resulting from that fame would be astronomical. Therefore, it didn't matter if this specific deal wasn't profitable, as long as it was successfully completed.
"Construction timeline?"
"At least six months!"
"No. Too long. I want it done within three months."
"Commodore Sean, for a project of this scale, three months is impossible!"
Chapter [Number]: A Costly Investment
"Nothing is impossible. If something seems impossible, it's simply because the payment wasn't high enough. 4 billion Belly—can you get it done in three months?"
Mansour was stunned. Just a moment ago, he had been contemplating how to drive the costs down—even if it meant making no profit—for fear that a high price would deter Sean from agreeing to the deal.
But this man... he had just tossed in an extra 500 million Belly simply to speed things up?
He carried the unmistakable aura of a man with money to burn—the kind of attitude that believed any problem solvable by money wasn't a problem at all.
'I underestimated him...'
The reason Mansour had previously estimated at least six months was that this project offered almost no profit. The company couldn't justify diverting the majority of its workforce to this single job and ignoring other contracts. With a limited number of workers, six months was the absolute limit.
However, with an extra 500 million Belly, the company could now deploy a far larger workforce. Not only could they guarantee completion within three months, but they would likely walk away with a profit of around 200 million Belly.
Therefore...
"Deal! Tokaf Construction Company accepts the contract. We will definitely finish within three months!"
"I'll head back immediately to have the blueprints drawn. Give me three days at most; once the designs are ready and you've approved them, we can officially break ground!"
'''
Once Mansour had departed, the aura of generosity that Sean had projected vanished instantly.
He felt a sharp pang of financial agony!
He had already handed over 3 billion Belly to Sengoku for top-of-the-line equipment for the training camp and four warships. Now, another 4 billion! Out of the 10 billion he had squeezed from Don Krieg, 7 billion had already vanished.
'The World Government promised 30 billion Belly in compensation... they aren't just talking, right?'
At this moment, Sean had no way of knowing that, under Imu's direct orders, the Five Elders wouldn't dare play any tricks.
The 30 billion Belly had already been loaded onto a ship. Due to the staggering amount of money involved, the Five Elders had even dispatched a member of CP0 to escort the shipment.