After returning to Marine Headquarters, Sengoku and the others immediately went to visit Kong in the intensive care ward.
Kong's condition was extremely poor. His life force was barely hanging on. Although his body possessed astonishing regenerative abilities, most of that vitality was being instinctively poured into repairing the massive hollow cavity in his chest.
The Marines' advanced medical technology could only sustain his life.
For injuries of this level, no amount of medicine or machinery could truly help. In the end, everything still depended on Kong's own recovery ability.
Meanwhile, inside the main conference hall of Marine Headquarters, every high-ranking Marine officer had gathered.
This was the first large-scale Marine conference since the beginning of the Golden Sea War.
Even high-ranking officers stationed across various seas and unable to return physically still attended through Visual Den Den Mushi.
The atmosphere inside the conference hall was heavy.
Compared to the Four Seas branches, the G7 Marine Branch was in far better condition. However, even they were far from comfortable. Their patrol range had already shrunk by nearly half.
To maintain the survival of the branch, Vice Admiral Prody had become increasingly aggressive during this period. Aside from regular fishing operations, he actively hunted pirates at sea.
With Prody's overwhelming strength, ordinary pirate crews stood no chance against him.
Within nearby waters, the infamous title of the "Robber Marines" had already spread among pirates.
And the source of that reputation was none other than the G7 Branch under Vice Admiral Prody.
After defeating pirates, Prody rarely bothered arresting them anymore.
The Marines themselves could barely feed their own people. Sending pirates all the way to Impel Down was simply unrealistic. Feeding prisoners consumed enormous amounts of food and resources, something the current Marines could not afford.
Prody himself was not an extremist either. Unless pirates had committed truly unforgivable crimes, he generally would not kill them.
However, their fate was still miserable.
Every ounce of treasure on their ships would be confiscated by Prody and used to replenish the G7 Branch's supplies. Anything valuable was stripped clean.
Even pirate ships that normally would have been destroyed were preserved and sold off for money.
In the end, the pirates survived, but they were released penniless.
Years of accumulated wealth vanished overnight.
The humiliation nearly drove some of them mad.
Under Prody's leadership, the G7 Marines had become terrifyingly thorough.
Nothing was left behind.
Many pirate crews had already suffered under their hands. As the reputation of the G7 Branch spread farther and farther, more and more pirates began deliberately avoiding those waters altogether.
To them, the G7 Branch Marines were monsters.
One particularly famous incident involved a pirate crew that had the misfortune of being captured by Prody four separate times.
Their captain was fairly strong and somewhat famous in the surrounding sea.
Naturally, strong pirates gathered wealth quickly.
The first time they were robbed clean and released, they gritted their teeth and started over.
The second time, they nearly cried blood.
The third time, the entire crew began trembling whenever they saw Marine sails.
By the fourth capture, the captain finally broke down completely.
"We're fucking vegetables being harvested!" he screamed in despair.
From then on, Prody's demonic reputation spread even further.
That pirate crew directly fled the sea region and swore never to return for the rest of their lives.
At the beginning, many G7 Marines still felt awkward about these methods.
After all, they were Marines.
But under Prody's shameless yet dependable leadership, they gradually adapted.
Eventually, the entire branch became influenced by him.
To their surprise, robbing pirates actually felt... pretty satisfying.
Especially when the targets were pirates, they felt absolutely no guilt whatsoever.
Because of this, while other Marine branches were collapsing under pressure, the G7 Branch was still managing to survive relatively comfortably.
Of course, within the entire branch, only Prody and Commodore Tokikake possessed the strength to independently lead teams out to sea and rob pirates efficiently.
"Commodore Tokikake and Lieutenant Commander Novoa are back!"
Someone suddenly shouted excitedly from the harbor.
"There must be another huge haul!"
Everyone immediately looked toward the sea.
A Marine warship slowly approached the harbor while towing two damaged pirate ships behind it.
The pirate ships were already empty, though traces of battle could still be seen everywhere.
As for the pirates themselves, the vicious ones had already been killed.
The rest were released.
Tokikake stepped off the warship first while Novoa followed beside him.
Although Novoa's rank was lower, he walked beside Tokikake naturally without the slightest restraint.
His hands rested casually in his pockets while a gentle smile remained on his face.
In just a few short months, Novoa had already fully integrated himself into the G7 Branch.
And with his astonishing performance, he had rapidly become one of the branch's most prominent rising figures.
His strength had improved tremendously.
Under Vice Admiral Prody's guidance, Novoa had begun learning the Six Powers techniques. Combined with his solid foundation, he quickly incorporated their explosive force application methods into his own martial arts system.
However, he focused primarily on Iron Body and Paper Arts.
Both techniques emphasized control over the body itself, which aligned perfectly with his pursuit of mastering Life Return.
Novoa understood himself very clearly.
Pure Six Powers techniques were not truly suitable for him.
As the user of the Steam-Steam Fruit, the most suitable path for him was combining martial arts with Devil Fruit abilities.
He only needed to absorb what was useful.
After witnessing Novoa's terrifying talent and learning speed, Prody had begun teaching him wholeheartedly.
On top of that, he had Tokikake, an extremely powerful fighter, serving as his sparring partner daily.
His life during these months had been incredibly fulfilling.
"Why'd they call us back so urgently?" Novoa asked casually while walking beside Tokikake. "Did something happen?"
"The New World War only just ended."
"Yeah." Tokikake nodded. "Headquarters meeting."
"All high-ranking Marines have to attend."
Novoa smiled faintly.
"That shouldn't have anything to do with me, right?"
"I don't know." Tokikake shook his head honestly. "Vice Admiral Prody specifically ordered both of us back."
"So it's probably related to you too."
Soon, the two entered Prody's office.
Inside the room sat Vice Admiral Prody along with two Marine commodores who served as his deputies.
At Marine Headquarters, commodore rank already qualified as high-ranking Marine personnel.
Naturally, Tokikake also possessed the qualifications to attend the meeting.
Of course, this was only because it was a large-scale conference.
Normally, truly important meetings were only attended by Vice Admirals and above, such as the Shichibukai meetings.
Large conferences like this were extremely rare and were usually held only when the Marines intended to announce major decisions to their core leadership.
Most of the time, they were mobilization meetings.
More than twenty years ago, there had been a similar mobilization before the war against the Rocks Pirates.
Naturally, the true secrets were only known by Vice Admirals and higher-ranking officers.
So what exactly was this conference about?
Even Tokikake felt slightly nervous.
"Novoa." Prody grinned when he saw them enter. "You already know about it, right?"
"Yeah." Novoa nodded, though confusion still lingered in his eyes.
"Then stay here and stand behind me."
Prody waved casually.
"Treat it as an audit."
Tokikake immediately understood.
This was essentially an unwritten Marine tradition.
Back when Kuzan was still young and hadn't become a Vice Admiral yet, he had already attended meetings by standing behind Garp.
Many promising Marine officers experienced the same thing.
Especially after graduating from the Marine Academy, elite recruits were usually assigned under powerful Marine veterans for further development.
Tokikake himself had once followed Borsalino after graduation and attended meetings alongside him from an early stage.
Of course, he never had speaking rights.
Still, that privilege alone already placed him far ahead of most peers.
Novoa also hadn't expected things to progress this smoothly.
Originally, he thought it would take years before he could come into contact with Marine upper-level decision-making.
"Then I'll gladly accept the opportunity."
Novoa smiled.
Suddenly, he pulled two bottles of liquor from somewhere and placed them directly onto the table.
He opened one bottle, poured a large glass, then respectfully handed it toward Prody.
"Old man, this took me a lot of effort to get."
"I'm offering it to you as a token of respect."
The rich aroma of alcohol instantly filled the room.
It was obviously top-quality liquor.
Prody's expression immediately turned serious.
"Novoa."
"Are you bribing your superior officer?"
"How could that be?" Novoa replied without changing expression.
"You're already old. You should learn to enjoy life a little."
"This is only a small gesture of respect."
"Please accept it."
Prody stared at him for a few seconds before suddenly bursting into laughter.
"Hahaha! You're right!"
"I'm almost at retirement age already!"
"Though I can probably still work another twenty years."
He raised the glass and took a slow sip.
Seeing this scene, Tokikake looked utterly speechless.
Without hesitation, he pulled over a chair, sat down, and poured himself a full glass too.
"Hey brat!" Prody's beard twitched furiously.
"That's MY gift!"
Tokikake ignored him completely and emptied half the glass in one gulp.
"Ah..." Prody sighed dramatically. "Young people these days truly don't respect the elderly anymore."
"If you want some, pour yourselves a drink too."
Tokikake glanced toward the two commodores nearby.
"Just don't tell anyone."
The two commodores had already been staring at the wine for a while.
The moment Tokikake spoke, they immediately moved.
If they had to sit there watching others drink without joining in, that would be torture.
Might as well all become accomplices together.
Tokikake handled interpersonal relationships extremely well.
Aside from his disastrous marriage proposal record, he was genuinely excellent at dealing with people.
He had many friends throughout the Navy.
Of course, part of that influence came from Borsalino, his close friend and former superior, from whom he had learned quite a lot.
Soon, the appointed time arrived.
The Visual Den Den Mushi was activated.
A massive conference hall appeared on screen.
Rows of high-ranking Marine officers sat solemnly in place while powerful auras filled the room.
Rear Admirals and Commodores stood respectfully around the perimeter or knelt quietly below.
Many people were still covered in bandages.
Their injuries had clearly not healed completely.
Marine conferences started strictly on time unless someone like Garp decided otherwise.
Only monsters of his level possessed the privilege of making everyone wait.
The hall looked enormous.
Yet many seats remained empty.
And everyone present knew exactly what those empty seats represented.
Sacrifice.
Eleven Vice Admirals had been dispatched to the Golden Sea War.
All eleven died.
Not a single one returned alive.
Combined with the two Vice Admirals lost in the New World War, the Marines had lost fourteen Vice Admirals in total.
The number of remaining Vice Admirals had shrunk to single digits.
Garp.
Tsuru.
Prody.
Two branch Vice Admirals similar to Prody.
Two veteran Headquarters Vice Admirals.
And three Giant Vice Admirals.
That was all.
Among them, Prody and several others were already elderly and nearing retirement age.
The losses were devastating beyond words.
Even among officers below Vice Admiral rank, nearly half had died.
Marine strength had completely fallen to its lowest point in history.
Novoa stood silently behind Prody without speaking.
Only a few people who recognized him glanced over briefly.
At the front of the hall, Sengoku slowly looked around the room.
Seeing everyone present, he let out a tired sigh before speaking heavily.
"The meeting begins."