The explosion Joker had orchestrated had not wiped out Mary Geoise entirely, but it had still dealt the World Government a devastating blow.
After all, nearly all the people in Mary Geoise who actually handled affairs and kept the World Government running had been killed or wounded. Even the Five Elders had been reduced to only three.
As for the remaining Celestial Dragons, expecting them to keep the World Government running? The Five Elders did not need to think with their toes to know that was impossible.
Simply getting the World Government operational again would take one or two years. Fully recovering would take at least ten.
Even the stockpiled treasures, the various classified files in storage, intelligence from across the seas, and the carefully cultivated elite agents had all gone up in flames with that explosion. Restoring them would take an unknowable amount of time.
No one knew how many intelligence agents who could only contact their superiors through a single line had lost those superiors in the blast. In a sense, the World Government's intelligence network had lost more than half its strength because of it.
More seriously, the World Government was not a unified nation, but an alliance of nearly two hundred countries. The explosion at Mary Geoise had undoubtedly stirred all sorts of thoughts in the hearts of countless Member States.
After all, the World Government's Heavenly Tribute was not easy to pay, and it was a heavy burden for the Member States. The reason they had been willing to pay in the past was, first, to have the Marines protect them, and second, because they feared the World Government's immense power.
But now, the World Government did not seem quite so powerful. And with it in complete chaos, perhaps the Heavenly Tribute... deserved some reconsideration?