The leading group of pirates had intended to flee back to Krieg's camp for reinforcements, so at least they had some semblance of a goal.
However, once a mass incident began to gain momentum, it would develop into severe and unexpected consequences beyond anyone's control.
The pirates ran faster and faster, farther and farther, making an ever-greater commotion as they went.
Within minutes, countless other pirates who knew nothing of what had happened were swept into the tide of fleeing people.
Like a snowball rolling downhill, the group of fleeing pirates grew larger and larger.
Every street the pirates passed through was left empty. All the pirates there joined the fleeing formation, while the remaining laborers and porters timidly hid inside their houses.
Most of them did not even know why they were running.
"Brother, what happened?"
One pirate, who had muddleheadedly joined the escape, desperately kept pace with the crowd while asking the companion beside him in panic.
"I don't know either. Everyone was running, so I ran too."
Unfortunately, the companion he asked had merely followed the crowd as well.
Fortunately, there were always some thoroughly terrified and especially enthusiastic people in the fleeing crowd, loudly explaining the situation to those around them:
"The East Blue Knight from the newspapers has broken in!"
"Captain Pearl has already been killed!"
Similar shouts rose and fell, spreading from mouth to mouth through the panicked crowd.
This created an even worse effect.
Due to the inevitable subjective distortions of human information-sharing, the content of those shouts quickly transformed from realistic reports into outright fantasy after being passed among the pirates:
At first, they were still shouting the truth—that the East Blue Knight had slain Captain Pearl with one strike. Later, it gradually became the horrifying claim that the East Blue Knight