If he had a choice, Luo Lan wouldn't want to contact Dragon.
Even more so, he wouldn't want to reveal that he was the leader of Jun Lin.
But Jun Lin wasn't ready yet. One month was simply too rushed.
If they acted now just to stop the Revolutionary Army, it would be entirely inappropriate. Because…
That would mean Jun Lin would be confronting hundreds of thousands of civilians—people who had been riled up and placed their full trust in the Revolutionary Army.
Suppressing civilians?
What a joke. That was something Jun Lin would never do.
The only viable strategy was to wait for the rebellion to succeed. Once the World Government and the Navy sent their suppression forces and the Revolutionary Army slipped away…
That would be the moment when the civilians would see the Revolutionary Army's true nature—and that's when Jun Lin could step in.
This way, Jun Lin wouldn't have to fight against hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.
However, this also meant Jun Lin would have to step into the open—and go to war against the World Government and its naval suppression fleet.
And that brought him back to the same old problem:
Jun Lin simply wasn't ready. The timing was too tight!
That's why Luo Lan took the risk to contact Dragon directly.
He even exposed his own identity in order to negotiate as equals.
But clearly, Luo Lan had underestimated Dragon. That man had terrifying depth.
Convincing him wouldn't be easy.
And just as Luo Lan was thinking about how to persuade Dragon next...
> "We can talk about this."
"What do you want?"
"I heard you sold four warships to the Navy Headquarters. I want the full design schematics and technology behind them."
"Absolutely not!!"
Luo Lan rejected it outright.
He had sold the Navy four completed warships—nothing more.
Even if the Navy managed to replicate them, they'd mostly be used against pirates.
That wasn't necessarily a bad thing for the world.
But if the Revolutionary Army got their hands on the blueprints and all the technology behind those ships…
They wouldn't use them to fight pirates. They'd use them for something else.
And that would only plunge the world into greater chaos.
Countless civilians would end up dying as a result.
> "That's our only condition. If you can't accept it, then there's nothing more to discuss."
With that, Dragon hung up.
Maybe he was confident that Luo Lan would eventually give in and call him back.
But he was wrong about that.
> "Luo Lan, what do we do now?"
Robin, who had listened to the entire conversation, looked worried.
> "If we can't stop him, then we delay him. Stall for as long as we can."
> "At the same time, notify all departments: the East Blue operations might need to be fast-tracked. Tell them to do whatever it takes to speed up preparations!"
Luo Lan paused for a moment, then gave his orders.
After that, he picked up the Den Den Mushi again and made another call.
Buru buru buru…
> "Morgans, it's me."
As soon as the line connected, Luo Lan spoke first, wasting no time.
> "What is it now? More news for me?"
> "Yes, but it's not for you."
> "Oh?"
Morgans sounded surprised.
> "I need to use your channels to deliver a message to the Five Elders. Can you do that?"
> "That's no problem. But what kind of message?"
> "Information on the Revolutionary Army's headquarters. I think those five old men would be quite interested."
> "What?! You know where their HQ is?!"
Morgans was stunned.
A minute later, Luo Lan set down the Den Den Mushi.
He leaned back in his chair and let out a long breath.
As cunning as Dragon was, Luo Lan had doubts about whether the World Government could truly take him down. After all, over all these years, even the Five Elders had failed to deal with him.
Still, targeting the Revolutionary Army's HQ would accomplish two things: it wouldn't involve innocent civilians, and it would also give Dragon a major headache—slowing down his operations in other areas.
Of course, based on what Luo Lan knew from the original story, there were many more ways to make Dragon's life harder.
But he didn't want to play all his cards in this one incident.
Otherwise, when the time came to truly eliminate the Revolutionary Army, he'd be left with nothing.
---
At the same time.
On the island of Baltigo.
Sabo, Dragon's personal disciple and the newly appointed Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Army, looked a bit uneasy.
> "Mr. Dragon, are you sure this is okay?"
> "It's fine. Luo Lan being the leader of Jun Lin surprised me too, but from what I know of him, he would never do anything that leads to the mass slaughter of civilians."
> "But even if he doesn't tell the World Government, if Jun Lin acts directly..."
> "He won't."
Dragon sounded confident.
> "If he does, that would mean opposing the hundreds of thousands of civilians from the Kingdom of Akado. What is he going to do? Follow the World Government's example and suppress them?"
> "I see two choices he can make."
> "First, he compromises with us and trades the warship schematics and all related technology in exchange for us abandoning our plans for Akado."
> "Second, he waits until our mission is complete and we leave Akado, and then Junlin takes action to stop the World Government's suppression forces."
> "Either way, we win."
So that was it.
Sabo didn't know much about Luo Lan, but if Dragon was this confident, he had no reason to doubt.
If they got the schematics, it would be a massive leap.
According to their intelligence, the Navy hadn't been able to reverse-engineer the four ships. They could only come up with watered-down, weaker versions.
But if they got the full designs and tech directly from Luo Lan?
The Revolutionary Army would gain a decisive advantage over the Navy in naval warfare.
And if the second option played out, with Jun Lin clashing with the World Government?
Even without knowing the outcome, the Revolutionary Army could use the opportunity to move freely and achieve their goals elsewhere.
Just as Dragon said—no matter which route Luo Lan chose, the Revolutionary Army would be the biggest winner.
---
At Mary Geoise.
Inside the "Room of Authority."
> "What do you all think of this intel from Morgans?"
Jaygarcia Saturn glanced around at the other four Elders.
> "He wouldn't dare lie to us."
> "Right. Even if it turns out to be fake, we'd only waste a little time. I see no reason why he'd deliberately mislead us."
> "So, shall we begin naval deployment?"
> "No. The Navy can't take charge of this. After all, Garp…"
Topman Warcury shook his head and rejected the idea.
The others understood immediately.
Right—if they let the Navy lead the operation against Dragon, how could they be sure Garp wouldn't leak the information?
> "In that case, we won't share any details with the Navy. Just have them prepare forces and await orders."
> "As for who leads the operation…"
> "I'll go personally."
Jaygarcia Saturn said calmly.
The other four looked at him in surprise.
"You're going yourself?"
---
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