The first half of the Grand Line, Angel Island. Mountain top villa, living room.
Sephiroth sat back on a long sofa, holding a World Economic News in his hand. He read the content on the newspaper unhurriedly.
Beside him, Perona, wearing a black silk short skirt, was holding a bag of potato chips, eating with a "crunch! crunch!" sound. The girl lay idly on the armrest of the long sofa, resting her fair and slender legs on Sephiroth's lap. Her delicate little feet were completely exposed to the air.
As if playing a prank, Perona would occasionally use her feet to lightly step and roam on Sephiroth's thigh. The skin on the back of her feet was fair and smooth, with faint blue veins visible beneath the fair skin. Her toes were round, her toenails were neatly trimmed and clean, and there wasn't a single callus on her pink soles, which were soft and delicate...
"The situation in the New World is becoming increasingly turbulent. The Beasts Pirates' Queen, Donquixote Doflamingo, defeated the great Pirate King Wang Zhi. The Beasts Pirates successfully occupied Hachinosu..."
"The World Conference passed new legal provisions: Any corporate organization is prohibited from accepting the protection of illegal Pirates forces in exchange for corresponding benefits. Once such an existence is discovered, the World Government shall have the right to investigate and punish the corporate organization, including but not limited to confiscating all its assets..."
Sephiroth frowned as he looked at the report in the newspaper. There were actually many similar legal provisions... For example, it was prohibited to provide assistance to Pirates, or to harbor Pirates, etc., otherwise it was a crime and would be severely punished. But... such laws had basically never been properly enforced. Why did the World Government suddenly introduce this law?
After Perona finished the potato chips in her hand, feeling unsatisfied, she first licked the potato chip powder off her fingers, then started eating again.
Bururu! Bururu!
The den den mushi on the table suddenly rang.
Sephiroth put down the newspaper in his hand, gently patted Perona's head, moved his body, and picked up the receiver.
"Hello? Who is this..."
"Boss, it's me..." On the other side of the den den mushi, Tesoro's deliberately lowered voice came through.
"Isn't it during the World Conference now? Why did you suddenly call me?"
"I just finished the meeting and boarded the ship returning from Red Port. More importantly, I have something important to report to you.
A new law was passed at the World Conference. It prohibited any corporate organization from cooperating with and exchanging benefits with illegal pirate forces. Because this law held the moral high ground, I united with several kings and tried to refute it.
However, the kings, led by Cobra, all felt that this law should be implemented to curb the development of pirate forces.
Later, I tried to find out the specific reasons through various indirect inquiries and found that this order came from the Gorosei.
Its purpose seemed to be to suppress our Umbrella Corporation, forcing us to either directly oppose the government or break ties with Whitebeard. Starting from the end of the World Conference today, this new law would be implemented ten days later.
"Crackle! Crackle! Crackle~!"
"Huh!? Boss, there seems to be static coming from your side... Is the den den mushi signal bad?"
"A little..."
"I already know about this matter, so let's leave it at that for now! I will find a way to solve this problem."
Sephiroth hung up the receiver, sighed, leaned his entire back against the soft sofa chair, and gently stroked Perona's pink hair that reached her waist. He closed his eyes and began to think. The Gorosei are the rule makers, the manipulators of the entire world. If they want to target the Umbrella Corporation, they only need to change the existing rules, stand on the side of righteousness and the general trend, and they can openly take action, thereby weakening or even destroying the Umbrella Corporation.
Facing such rogues who can change the rules of the game, the best way is… to flip the table! As long as you no longer follow the opponent's game rules, you will no longer be at their mercy.
But… if you flip the table directly, you will become an enemy of the World Government. With their means and power, if they operate at full strength, the Umbrella Corporation's industries will shrink significantly, and it will probably only be able to retreat to the New World and compete with the Four Emperors for limited resources!
Pluton is still under construction, Gods Breath has not been completely repaired, Poseidon has not been completely mastered... With the Umbrella Corporation's current standing army of over seventy thousand, wanting to go to war against the World Government's million-strong army is truly too reckless! As long as the World Government fights steadily and the two sides enter a war of attrition, the Umbrella Corporation will definitely be worn down to death! The problem now is, if the Umbrella Corporation doesn't go to war with the World Government, it will offend the Four Emperors Whitebeard.
That old man was not a good-tempered person, and he was especially concerned about his reputation, as was evident from the ironclad rules of his Pirate group. If Whitebeard was angered, setting aside everything else, the Umbrella Corporation's industries in the New World would definitely be ruined, and even Paradise would be affected. Furthermore, even if the Umbrella Corporation handled the matter with Whitebeard properly, if the suppression effect didn't meet expectations, the Gorosei would probably continue to use various schemes and plots to trip up the Company.
This situation was truly a dilemma, caught between a rock and a hard place.
Hmm! Wait, as long as the Gorosei achieved their expected goal, they would stop, right? After all, the Umbrella Corporation had interests intertwined with multiple countries. If the Company was completely destroyed and things went too far, it might cause major chaos.
In a game where the win rate wasn't zero, when facing a manipulator who could arbitrarily change the rules, if a player wanted to win, they must deceive the manipulator and make the reckless manipulator feel that they still had the upper hand, or that they had already achieved their goal. Thinking of this, Sephiroth couldn't help but curl the corner of his mouth slightly, a relieved smile appearing on his face.
Perona, who had eaten her fill, stood up and slowly sat into his arms, wrapping her slender and fair hands around his neck, and burrowing into his embrace, letting out a comfortable purr like a kitten. Sephiroth put one arm around Perona's graceful waist and quickly dialed Baccarat's number on the den den mushi with the other hand. After the call connected, he spoke:
"Baccarat, issue a public announcement in the Company's name right now, and also publish this news in the World Economic News."
"No problem! Boss, what announcement message do you want to issue?"
"Well!..."