16 Chapter 15 - Speakeasy
Bob started putting his plans to motion after he got the rest of the money from the bandits and what was left from the pirates. The total amount along with what he confiscated from Vanthof was close to 200 million berries.
Seeing the amount in front of him, Bob really wanted to use it to upgrade his gear. But he resisted the urge, right now there were more important matters that needed to be tended to.
Bob hired some men from the town that worked on construction to build the interior of his base. He also asked Ash if he could renovate the tavern a little so he could move the location of the entrance to the basement. She more than happily agreed to his request.
Bob worked with the construction workers on the design, and after that he left it up to them to get everything done.
The construction wasn't that expensive, only costing around 10 million beli for everything to be built. What was expensive was the materials Bob needed. He had Dave get in contact with some men on the island in search of wood, bricks or metal.
While the island wasn't large, they did have a good supply of wood. Except the person that owned it wasn't willing to let it go cheaply.
Bob told Dave he could find some other wood then, but Dave assured Bob this was the best wood there was on the island. As long as he got this, he wouldn't need to buy some other material.
When Bob asked about the cost, he was shocked to learn it cost 30 million beli for it!
Bob was trying to conserve money, but it seems that would not be likely. Unwilling as he was, he still let Dave get the wood needed for the construction.
During that same day Dave also met with Jacob and his family. Jacob was the person Dave wanted to introduce him to, he and his family used to have their own ship but it was destroyed by the bandits.
When Bob said he wanted to hire Jacob and his family to man his ship, they readily agreed. Bob just needed to cover their food and shelter, as for pay they didn't want that much just a yearly salary of 5 million beli.
When Bob heard the cost he sighed. He wasn't sure how much others cost, but 5 million a year, wasn't that expensive?
Jacob assured Bob that he was more than just a helmsman, he was also a shipwright. The 5 million included Jacob and his family taking care of the ship if it incurred any damages.
Hearing that, Bob instantly agreed.
Jacob was close to 30 years of age, and he had 4 brothers. Each of them had wives and kids that needed to be cared for as well.
Bob knew it wouldn't be a good idea to bring their family onboard the ship, so he started to discuss with Jacob about a family care system.
In case anything happened to Jacob or his family while they were on a trip with Bob, his family would be taken care of. The only thing was that Jacob and his brothers had to pay Bob monthly for this assurance.
Bob even composed different life insurance plans for them. All of which were basic, but to Jacob and his family it seemed like a wonderful idea.
When Dave learned of this, he told Bob he should initiate this all over his organization. More people would be willing to join up that way.
Bob agreed to that, but told Dave to make his insurance plan better.
Dave was a huge help to Bob he always asked questions to make sure the ideas Bob were coming up with would be able to be implemented. He even did a few adjustments to them, which surprised Bob greatly.
Bob also brought in Ron and John to discuss the roles of the organization. This discussion took over six hours as each of them had their own ideas. John was pushing for a more militarized type of structure while Dave wanted it to be more business oriented. Ron was in between them and they tried to force him to pick a side.
Bob said that there would be one figure who would be the master of the organization, which was him. Under him would be the vice leaders, there would be four of them. Each one in charge of their own department. John would be in charge of the bounty hunting and assassinations, Ron would be in charge of intelligence, while Dave would be in charge of peoples request/finances. They asked what the last leader was in charge of, Bob said Human resources such as all their employees. They'd be the ones who work on hiring and firing employees as well as dealing with any complaints people had.
Dave asked who would be in charge of that, and Bob said he'd find someone. He thought of Nico Robin but sadly he couldn't have her. She was going to join Luffy's crew, he didn't want to mess with that.
Bob continued to explain the chain of command to them, showing them the titles and what the responsibility of each one would be. The list basically went as such, Master > Vice Leader > Administrators > General Manager > Employee. Employee's had a wide range of different ranks, thus Bob said they should implement a merit system. The better they do, the higher up they go on the list and are eligible for promotion and such. The pay would be better as well.
All three of them agreed to Bob's idea and Dave started coming up with slight adjustments on the spot.
Once that was settled, Bob started to relax more. Everything was beginning to bear fruit, and all he had to do was recruit the first few batches of people. After that, the more experienced ones would begin to recruit and train more people, and the process would just repeat itself after a while.
The pay was good, they had an insurance plan, and for some people they got to travel the sea.
Who wouldn't want to join?
The tavern was under renovation for a week before everything was finished. They still had the basement to work on, but the tavern looked much more smooth than before. It wasn't really a dump before, but compared to the way it was looking now, it could be considered one.
Bob had them add a bathroom to the place, as well as a kitchen. There were all sorts of small changes, but the biggest one would be the small booth. It was located in the hallway towards the bathroom, you just open the door and step into the booth. It was just a wooden wall without anything in it but a dial.
Bob opened up the booth and stepped foot inside. Once in he rubbed his hands together as he looked at the dial.
"I can't believe we can have one of these here. Haha, this is truly the best creation."
Bob started talking to himself as he moved the dial.
The dial was a small circle and it looked like an old school payphone. You basically just moved to dial certain numbers and you'd hear a click sound. Once that happened the wooden wall would open up and reveal a flight of stairs.
Yes, Bob was happy he created a speakeasy in this world.
Once Bob made sure everything worked, he was pleased with the construction workers. He didn't go down the stairs he just closed the wall and walked out of the booth. When he came to the main hall, he was surprised to see Ash.
She was wearing a white shirt and a blue skirt.
"Wow, you really changed the place up. I'm not sure what to say."
Ash said as she looked over the place again.
"You can just praise me, you know how much I love that."
"Pft. What are your plans now?"
Bob was slightly disappointed he didn't get any praise but he couldn't have it all.
"Well, there is still the construction on the base below so the workers will still be coming and going. However, all the materials are already down there, everything just needs to be built and put in order. You can run the tavern as before.
Jacob and his brothers already finished repairing the ship. It had some holes in it, and they also added a room to house various weapons. Jacob was talking about adding a room to work out in, in the future, but I told him he should hold off on that.
John finished recruiting some young men who were aspiring to become bounty hunters. After the thing with Greybeard a lot of men had ambitions to hunt down pirates. They didn't want anyone else to go through what they did. So he's been training them for this past week.
Ron… is being Ron. He's been mostly to himself this past week. I brought him a small booklet and a pen to keep on him at all times so he could communicate with others. I have no clue how the intelligence depart is coming along, but I have faith it'll go well.
As for Dave, he's been busy running around here and there. He's a talker so he's been doing just that, talking to the townsfolk learning information. He said its good to have a good connection with your own people so they won't betray you later.
As for me, i've been relaxing. However, I think another week here is good enough for everything to settle. Doubt the construction would be finished, but most of the newly recruited should have learned the basics.
So after the week is up I plan on going to Vile Island, got to go make some more money."
Bob explained.
Ash listened and nodded her head.
"Seems you'll be busy in the future, won't be coming here much then?"
"Idk, I might come back every now and again. But once things are up and running here there is no real need for me to return. I might come back to relax at the end of the year though, after some events are over with."
Ash seemed interested.
"What events?"
"Um, just a little bit of this and a bit of that. Ya know, those type of events."
"Right…"
Bob quickly changed the subject.
"So how goes the recruitment of that cook and girls?"
"Eh, not so good. The girls here aren't the best looking but the standards here are also not that high. So I was going to find some on another island to bring back here. As for a cook, I have no clue where to begin."
Ash said as she sighed and crossed her arms.
She was having a hard time and not making much progress in her quest to have the best tavern.
Bob knew of a great cook, Sanji. But once again, he was with Luffy so he couldn't hire him.
However, there was still Zeff but Bob highly doubted he would leave Baratie to come here.
As for females, Bob thought of Amazon Lily, there were tons of cute ladies there.
"How about you come with me to Vile Island? I'm sure you might be able to find some people that'll catch your eye."
"How can I do that? I have a tavern to run, I can't just close it to go on some road trip."
"Why not? We'll be back before you know it, a week minimum three weeks max."
"Thats a long time. I'll be losing money."
"Girl, you have a 100 million beli waiting for you on Vile Island! You're rich!"
