Sea Circle Calendar 1466. The new year hadn't seen any major events yet, but the past year could absolutely be called the most shocking in eight hundred years.
The World Government, standing for eight hundred years, was actually beaten by a mere pirate into territorial concessions!
Of course, in the World Government higher-ups' eyes, letting go of the barren New World was just letting go—after all, their control there had never been strong. But ordinary people didn't think so.
Prestige accumulation required countless years, but collapse might only need an instant. Many allied nations began doubting whether the World Government could truly protect them from pirates, whether the Marines—whose Fleet Admiral was captured—could still dominate the seas like before.
Countless people unable to pay the Heavenly Tribute due to national oppression began considering setting sail. Even rumors spread that the New World was the true paradise—no exploitation, no oppression. True freedom existed there!
"White King Silas!" On a small pirate ship, a straw-hatted youth grinned broadly. "Wonder if he's reached this world's end?"
"Isn't that obvious?" Beside the straw-hatted youth, a blond young man in a checkered shirt lay on deck, curling his lips. "He's the strongest pirate in history!"
"Haha, not necessarily!" The straw-hatted youth's eyes gleamed. "Isn't history meant for breaking?"
"That has nothing to do with small-time pirates like us." Rayleigh bit into an apple. Having just set sail under a year ago, with powerful Marines deployed to the New World, this past year they'd encountered no real opponents. No opponents meant no bounties—so Rayleigh saying they were small-time wasn't wrong.
"Haha, don't say that." Roger hooked Rayleigh's shoulder, laughing cheerfully. "That Silas also took decades reaching his current achievements. We've only sailed one year—no rush."
"That's true too." For the new generation of pirates, Silas was undoubtedly legendary. Fifty previous years—utterly unknown. Finally aging, about to retire, he suddenly reemerged. Silent for decades, then he shocked the world in one move.
So now pirates said the Four Blues and the Grand Line's first half belonged to the World Government, but in the New World, only one name existed—White King Silas!
So some young pirates often used Silas for encouragement. Look at Silas—nearly eighty when conquering the New World. I'm only twenty, still young. When Silas was young, he was worse than me. A late bloomer—describing current Silas perfectly.
However, Roger didn't dare imagine himself still fighting at seventy or eighty. Unlike Silas and Rocks, Roger lacked great ambition. His dream was traveling the world, turning it upside down, making everyone remember his name. As for World King? Roger wasn't interested.
But Roger also knew the world was now divided in two—Silas occupied the Grand Line's second half, becoming the New World's ruler. So at his journey's end, he might face Silas.
"Hehe." Roger covered his face with his straw hat, showing a brilliant smile. "Now that's interesting!"
However, before meeting Silas, he encountered his life's destined opponent.
"Hey, isn't that flag a pirate's?"
"Where'd they come from?"
"From the shipbuilding craft, it seems like the East Blue—"
"What!?" A muscular young man dozing nearby heard the others' words and quickly scrambled up. "Where, where?"
"There." A Marine pointed at the distant small ship. Originally furious, Garp immediately lay back down. "Tch, just some small-time pirates. You guys handle it."
He'd thought his hometown produced some powerful pirate.
"Garp!" Hearing Garp's words, the warship's commander—a colonel—kicked Garp's butt. "Are you the colonel, or am I? I'm now ordering you to take people and eliminate this small pirate crew!"
"Ugh~" Hearing the colonel's words, Lieutenant Garp sighed heavily. After witnessing the New World's great pirates, Garp believed pirate strength correlated considerably with ship size. Pirate crews with large ships weren't necessarily powerful, but crews without decent ships definitely weren't strong.
Last year's battle caused pirate numbers in the Four Blues and the Grand Line's first half to surge at least twenty percent in the following months. Predictably, this number would continue rising.
So this time Garp's mission was accompanying warships patrolling the Grand Line's first half, eliminating rookie pirates in their infancy. For Garp—having experienced the Acropolis Port war and completely mastered Marine Rokushiki—this task wasn't difficult. Of course, couldn't call it easy either.
The Acropolis Port war remained vivid—the Marine defeat had a tremendous impact on Garp, even changing his usually carefree style. The reason for lying down was he'd just experienced battle and was currently resting.
However, the colonel specially sent by Kong to watch Garp wouldn't give him rest time. After the Acropolis Port battle, Marine top-tier fighter numbers dropped to historic lows. New Fleet Admiral Ortega needed to stay at Marine Headquarters; Haines Oran needed to protect Mary Geoise. Only Kong—one Marine Admiral—could truly act!
Know that six years ago, the Marines alone had three freely acting Admiral-level fighters! Yet one died in battle, and one defected. Even with later personnel supplements, Elephant Yama's and Portman Nissen's resignations left a gap too large for short-term filling.
So Kong could only place his hopes on the new generation. Whether Garp or Sengoku, both were Kong's currently favored targets. However, Kong was fortunate—Elephant Yama and Portman Nissen's resignation didn't leave only a mess. They'd also left two hidden legacies, namely Zephyr and Crane—two undercover agents successfully infiltrating the White Wolf Pirates!
Facts proved this Chief of Staff's wisdom. White King Silas was no longer an enemy the Marines could handle. The war's failure let Elephant Yama and Portman Nissen—these aged veterans—exhale their final breath.
When Kong next saw Elephant Yama, this former Fleet Admiral no longer had his past dignity, seeming to have aged ten years instantly. Only Chief of Staff Portman Nissen hadn't completely admitted defeat.
"White Wolf Silas's power has exceeded all our imaginations. Even five powerful fighters from the Holy Knights and CP organization couldn't keep him—so there'll never be hope." Neither the Marines nor others knew Imu's identity—they just thought she was a Holy Knights hidden fighter.
So in Portman Nissen's view, the Holy Knights and CP organization had five top-tier fighters ganging up on Silas, yet he still escaped. If the Holy Knights couldn't keep Silas, the Marines definitely couldn't.
"But White King Silas made one mistake!" Previously, though Silas had the "White King" title, most Marine higher-ups actually didn't acknowledge it, preferring to call him "White Wolf." But after this Acropolis Port battle, even Portman Nissen had to admit Silas was worthy of the "King" title.
"In this Acropolis Port battle, neither Crane nor Zephyr participated—but this doesn't mean Silas distrusts them. By my reasoning, this was to protect them." Truly participating in the Acropolis Port battle were only the White Wolf Pirates' veteran and official crew members. Though Stussy participated, she was just logistics personnel.
The Marines later received news that the White Wolf Pirates' veterans and official members participated in the Acropolis Port battle, while trainee members participated in the Steel Nation battle.
Right. When the Acropolis Port war erupted, the World Government's newly formed Seven Warlords of the Sea simultaneously invaded Steel Nation Goldenstein. Though that side's intensity wasn't as fierce as Acropolis Port, it was still a battle involving top-tier great pirates.
Unfortunately, the Warlords—who were merely great pirates—encountered Admiral-level Rona. If seven top-tier great pirates united, even Rona with Admiral-level strength would retreat, but the Warlords weren't united—giving Rona the opportunity to defeat them one by one.
The Acropolis Port battle was important. As the White Wolf Pirates' future logistics base, the safety of Steel Nation's eleven member nations was equally important—it was also Silas's care for Rona. Protecting civilians from pirate invasion was better than having Rona and her subordinate Marines oppose former comrades, right?
So the World Government's barely year-old Seven Warlords system was broken by former Admiral Rona. Warlords died, fled, or became prisoners. After this battle, the Seven Warlords were a hollow shell. Even if the World Government wanted to rebuild them, they'd need to see if the seas still had enough top-tier pirates willing to serve them.
But for the Marines, this wasn't bad. The Marines had originally opposed forming the Seven Warlords.
"Zephyr and Crane participated in opposing the Seven Warlords, using those pirates' lives to exchange for White King Silas's trust—nothing more worthwhile."
"Clearly about to retire due to age, even once disbanding the White Wolf Pirates, yet reemerged for unknown reasons. If Zephyr and Crane can find Silas's hidden secret, we might truly defeat him!"
Whether Silas's recently revealed Pure Gold or his so-called youth medicine—they were just treating the symptoms, not the cause. Even possessing these things didn't help improve strength. So Silas becoming so powerful definitely wasn't because of these.
"If nothing else works, send Crane." As Kong was leaving, Portman Nissen hesitated long before finally suggesting this last resort. "From the intelligence we've gathered, Silas treats his women well. If Crane can attract Silas, perhaps we'll have an opportunity to glimpse his secrets."
Crew members were ultimately just crew—even if Crane and Zephyr later became core members of the White Wolf Pirates, they might not discover Silas's secrets. But becoming his lover was different. Though this was cruel, from the moment he selected people for these roles, Portman Nissen perhaps had harbored such intentions.
"For justice, can we use any means?" Kong still remembered the words he'd shouted at Portman Nissen before leaving. But thinking of those Marine spies, thinking of how much a successful spy could benefit the Marines, even thinking of his previous actions at Sphinx, Kong despairingly discovered that to defeat Silas, this might be the only hope.
"Sorry, Garp, Sengoku!" Kong knew Crane, knew she was from the same recruit class as Garp and Sengoku. He also knew their past relationship was good. If Garp and Sengoku learned he'd asked Crane to do such things, he would lose their respect forever.
On the seas, Garp's warship finally collided with the Roger Pirates. When these two destined opponents clashed, their strength would continuously improve, even far surpassing ordinary Admiral-level fighters. But Kong couldn't see this future.
Acropolis Port. Because of the previous great battle, the entire island now had under one-tenth its previous habitable space—many places could collapse anytime. So the White Wolf Pirates simply transported another island from elsewhere, using the original Acropolis Port's island base for support.
After all, Silas didn't expect one island to restrain World Government entry-exit. If so, they'd need to move all of Sphinx over with Silas permanently stationed. What difference is there from a point-blank ultimatum at the World Government? Know that Acropolis Port faced Mary Geoise directly!
So Silas's personnel left here were at most monitoring World Government actions, detecting major moves immediately. Naturally leading this were trainees headed by Shiki. Possessing the Float-Float Fruit, Shiki was practically the pirate world's civil engineering genius.
Of course, to Shiki's face, Silas called it giving him an opportunity to exercise his fruit abilities, having Shiki, Zephyr, and Crane—three people—rebuild an island. Wasn't this training? With Shiki's powerful fruit ability, the three took under one month to completely renovate the entire island.
And just as the group finished work, preparing to return to the White Wolf Pirates, Crane received a message from Kong.