Chapter 1043

Seeing the two had no objections to the second point either, a faint smile appeared on Lin Cheng's face.

The key was these two points; once they were settled, everything else was trivial.

"The matter was urgent, so I only thought of the two points above," Lin Cheng said with a smile. "As long as you can accept these two points, all other conditions can be negotiated between us."

The Adventurer's Association had only been a rough plan in Lin Cheng's mind before this; it was just that this opportunity was rare, so Lin Cheng brought out this not-yet-fully-formed idea.

The specific details still needed planning, but the general policy was like this — this was never meant to be a highly restrictive organization.

"Who leads the Association? I need to know the force behind it — is it the Marines, or the World Government, or your Borusa family?" Ma Er pondered for a moment and voiced the question in his heart.

"It's you. The Association won't belong to any individual; it will be controlled by yourselves."

Lin Cheng explained, "Do you know the Marines' current senator model?"

"The Association will, on the basis of this kind of system, have representatives sent by all S-rank and A-rank adventurer teams to form a management committee, and you will manage the Association's operations yourselves."

Ma Er knew about the major moves within the Marines and had heard of the senator model, but he hadn't expected Lin Cheng to hand over so much power, not even keeping a single seat for himself.

"Aren't you going to arrange a position for yourself?" Ma Er asked.

"No. I'm a Marine; I can't join a second-party force," Lin Cheng answered without hesitation.

Although his purpose in raising this organization was to split off a faction among the pirates to use against the World Government,

meddling in the Adventurer's Association now would send the World Government a signal — that his Borusa family was about to rebel.

Stockpile grain widely, build high walls, delay claiming kingship.

These nine characters could be called the core thinking of the rebellion world; any successful uprising was certainly not the Chen Sheng and Wu Guang who cried "Are kings and nobles given their rank by birth?", but rather the Liu Bang who low-key farmed development until the very end.

What Lin Cheng had to do now was raise an organization that would give the World Government a headache, buy himself time to develop discreetly, and increase his odds of winning.

Weakening the enemy equals strengthening oneself — this kind of deep-level thinking was something Lin Cheng had learned from reading plenty of comment sections.

"Then what's the difference between a force propped up only by your Bai Huzi Pirates and now? It's just a change of vest," Ma Er said, somewhat deflated.

For the Bai Huzi Pirates, the most alluring part of the Adventurer's Association was Lin Cheng himself — the help of this world-class top powerhouse could completely relieve the pressure they currently faced.

"You don't need to worry about that. Although I can't join the Adventurer's Association, there's a more suitable candidate; he's more suited than me to managing the Adventurer's Association," Lin Cheng said, knowing what Ma Er was worried about.

"Yi Xiao — the powerhouse who, at the Summit War, suppressed many of your Bai Huzi division commanders. I'll persuade him to join the Adventurer's Association."

Ma Er and Ace recalled for a moment, remembering this powerhouse who had shone brilliantly.

But based on the battle records at the time, Yi Xiao had no record of single-handedly taking on an Emperor or an Admiral, so Ma Er wasn't sure exactly what level Yi Xiao was at.

Before, he might have assumed all Admiral-Emperor-level powerhouses were equally strong, but only after stepping into that realm himself did he realize the gap inside wasn't small either.

With his current strength paired with the Phoenix fruit, he could survive against any of the three Admirals or the Four Emperors, but defeating them or fighting to a draw was impossible.

Even when he and Ace had jointly struck Kaido at Fishman Island, they had only barely maintained a balance, utterly unable to stop the Three Disasters and the Flying Six from slaughtering the Bai Huzi Pirates.

Not to mention this time he and Ace's great battle against Lin Cheng — the results were even worse than when they had faced Kaido.

"You're overthinking it. My situation is rather special — basically, anyone in any aspect weaker than me gets crushed; numbers don't mean much against me." Lin Cheng explained somewhat helplessly, "You don't need to worry. When Uncle Yi Xiao goes all out, he won't be inferior to the Golden Lion at his peak — he's absolutely a top-tier powerhouse."

"Moreover, the Adventurer's Association won't only have your one S-rank adventurer team. A few years from now, an adventurer team called Hell's Angels will join, and they also possess Admiral-Emperor-level powerhouses."

The Hell's Angels adventurer team was a name Lin Cheng had just thought up; this adventurer team would be led by Magellan and Enel, with elite backbone members drawn from Lin Cheng's fleet as adventurer team members — it was Lin Cheng's way of meddling in the Adventurer's Association.

Completely letting go was impossible — just like the Senate Sengoku had set up, in this generation wasn't it still decided by Sengoku alone?

What Lin Cheng was doing now was the same trick: under the premise of surface democracy, Lin Cheng secretly held more than half the speaking power, ready to guide this force at critical moments.

As for the promised Admiral-Emperor level, Lin Cheng felt that once Magellan mastered his toxin transformations, reaching Admiral-Emperor level within a few years wasn't impossible — his foundation was already quite good.

Enel was even simpler — as long as Lin Cheng's whip cracked fast enough, this guy's potential would erupt along with the sound of the lash; he belonged to a rare group with a special physique.