Demacia Company's New World headquarters, Cake Island.
Garen was presiding over a military staff meeting to discuss Demacia Company's anti-piracy operations in the New World.
The attendees included Katakuri, Judge, Zephyr, Enel, Luo, baby-5, and Pudding.
In short, all the officers under Garen who happened to have nothing else to do were present.
The meeting itself was completely informal. Garen dictated the entire agenda, while everyone else was only responsible for offering suggestions.
"Everyone."
Garen got straight to the point with his question:
"Isn't this the New World?"
"I've been circling around Totto Land for days. How come I haven't found a single pirate?"
"Is there any way to lure out some pirates so I can clean them up?"
After sparring with Whitebeard, Garen had gained a clear understanding of his current strength:
He was evenly matched with Whitebeard. With the advantages of his data-based abilities, wearing Whitebeard down to death should not have been a problem. Calling himself the "world's strongest" would not have been wrong.
However, this strength still lacked absolute dominance.
At the very least, Garen was not strong enough to take down an entire Emperor crew by himself.
His successful assassination of Big Mom amid an army had depended heavily on luck.
And just over a month ago, Garen had killed Jack, Kaido's subordinate. He knew full well that he would likely face Emperor Kaido soon enough, and he could not count on luck working its magic again then.
Once war broke out, it would likely become a direct conflict between two major powers.
If the two sides were not far apart in strength, Garen's side would likely suffer considerable losses even if they won.
And if Garen wanted to crush Kaido, there were two ways to do it:
First, increase his own strength. Second, continuously