The Gathering Pirates
Three large pirate ships were sailing on the sea.
Half a month has passed since the Night Pirates arrived in the New World.
The arrival of the Night Pirates has put the major powers of the New World on high alert, as it means they have gained another competitor. After all, the pie is only so big, and the more competitors there are, the less profit they can share.
Even so, their focus was not primarily on the Night Pirates, nor did they concern themselves with them. Although they were rivals, it would be foolish to make enemies unnecessarily.
The war Whitebeard Pirates and the Navy is nearing its end. The arrival of Navy Garp the Hero has increased the Navy's advantage. Facing the combined attack of two top Navy fighters, Whitebeard, now at his peak, is in no way at a disadvantage.
Both sides suffered losses, but none were serious. Ultimately, the Navy's losses were greater. They didn't dare to push the Whitebeard Pirates too far, because if Whitebeard got angry and acted recklessly, the resulting losses would be immeasurable.
Even so, it demonstrated the navy's formidable strength, and the spread of public opinion greatly enhanced the navy's prestige.
Near the center of the New World, the top pirate crews are vying for territory in the Chaos Sea, and some wars and conflicts have already begun, which is the norm in the New World.
However, compared to the previous uncertainty, they are now concentrated in one sea area, with more competitors and more intense competition.
After reaping huge gains, Big Mom Pirates and the Beasts Pirates began to consolidate their territories, adopting a defensive posture and not participating in the struggle.
The weaker pirate crews took advantage of the chaos.
Other pirate crews set their sights on other parts of the New World, such as unclaimed islands or islands occupied by the weak.
After all, the New World is vast, and now, war is raging throughout New World, with the emergence of four Sea Emperors and the presence of many ambitious pirate crews below.
A massive war to divide the New World has begun, affecting all pirates and other forces throughout the New World. This is the overall trend and will continue for several years until the New World is essentially divided up.
However, it won't stop. But major conflicts will turn into minor ones, and the competition for territory might even escalate into clashes between pirate crews.
Even in the Sagarlos Sea, which the Night Pirates have already claimed as their prize, some islands are now occupied by foreign pirate crews.
After all, it was an unclaimed island, White Bird Pirates' influence only covered a third of the sea. Even with the deterrent power of a strong force, human nature is inherently greedy, and this cannot be stopped.
The future landscape is already quite clear: a few emperors and multiple overlords will suppress the New World.
Weak pirates can only rely on the strong. Most pirates in this world are very self-aware, especially with the spread of images, which allows them to clearly recognize the gap in strength.
Even ambitious pirates need to develop stealthily or seek protection by joining the ranks of the overlords and emperors before they truly grow up and have the qualifications.
After all, the expansion of their power would inevitably affect them. For these emperors and overlords, how could there be any forces on their territory that were not under their control? Submission or death was their only choice.
Once the New World was basically divided up, New World was essentially left with only large and small pirate groups, much like the division of empires, kingdoms, and duchies.
The wars and territorial disputes that follow will then become battles between interest groups.
Weak, independent forces are simply unable to resist or survive, while the powerful also need to expand and establish their own power.
In the New World, they need to rely on the strong to survive. Each emperor is a huge power group, and some overlord-level pirate crews are also expanding, with the number of affiliated pirate crews increasing.
Even though the Big Mom Pirates and the Beasts Pirates are currently developing steadily, their power is rapidly expanding. Their formidable strength and the prestige of Sea Emperor have attracted many pirates to join them.
The Night Pirates, a dominant pirate crew, are led by "Dark Emperor" Teach, who possesses formidable combat power and territories across a vast sea.
Young and powerful, with enormous potential, he has not yet become the Sea Emperor, but for many, becoming the Sea Emperor is undoubtedly a foregone conclusion, just a matter of time.
This has led many pirate crews to consider joining the Night Pirates.
Whitebeard Pirates and the Flying Pirates are extremely powerful, reaching a point of saturation. They have numerous affiliated pirate crews, making it difficult to gain recognition even if one joins.
As newly formed Sea Emperor, the Big Mom Pirates and the Beasts Pirates attracted many people to join them.
However, even more pirates want to join the Night Pirates, because this is a new power in the New World with only a few affiliated pirate crews. Joining the Night Pirates would undoubtedly earn them Teach's attention.
More importantly, they had full confidence in the Night Pirates, not only in their strength but also in their greater potential.
Now, the Night Pirates are the largest and most powerful pirate crew below the Emperor level, after the destruction of the Ochoku Pirates and the Silver Axe Pirates, and the rise of the Big Mom Pirates and the Kaido Pirates to become the emperors of the sea.
No one objected, because the Night Pirates possessed three top-tier fighters: "Dark Emperor" Teach, "Shadow Dragon" Rediat, and "Fierce God" Ares.
Although Rediat's battle record is relatively small, his absolute suppression of a candidate for Admiral, his top-tier Mythical Zoan abilities, his position as the vice-captain of the Night Pirates, and his identity as the son of "The Lone Red" Redfield are enough to demonstrate his formidable combat power.
Let's not even talk about "Dark Emperor" Teach and "Fierce God" Ares.
In this respect, even the Bigmon Pirates and the Beasts Pirates, who have become Sea Emperor, cannot compare. What the Night Pirates lack now is the strength of "Dark Emperor" Teach and a powerful force.
Although the White Bird Pirates are expanding rapidly, Mostima's strength is not enough to control them, nor can Mostima command "Fierce God" Ares. Among the Night Pirates, Ares's status is above Mostima's. Apart from taking down a few rebellious pirate crews, where has Ares gone?
They wanted to join the Night Pirates directly.
As news of the Night Pirates' arrival in the New World spread, many pirate crews with similar ideas gradually gathered together.
However, they did not intend to target the Night Pirates.
The Night Pirates' route was known to many; it was the fastest route to the Saguros Sea. In the past two weeks, the Night Pirates did not linger on any one island for long, and even when they passed through the territories of other forces, no one dared to stop them.
Along this route lies an island called Blue Island, a small Spring Island Spring Island that is extremely precious in the harsh environment of the New World.
However, Blue Island was not occupied; instead, it became a pirate island, meaning that the island was almost entirely inhabited by pirates, with many pirate crews stationed Blue Island.
As word spread, more and more pirate crews arrived in Blue Island, including many that were quite famous in the New World.
Some pirate crews had already set sail when the Night Pirates were still in the Sabaody Archipelago.
More and more pirates are coming to Blue Island, making the already sizable Blue Island even more prosperous, with a population far exceeding that of the past.
Walking on the streets of Blue Island, you can often see familiar pirates who are well-known in the New World.
At the port of Blue Island, pirate ships were docked along the shore; at a glance, there were more than twenty pirate ships in total.
The captains of these pirate crews are mostly pirates with bounties of over 100 million Berries, and some even have bounties of 200 million or 300 million Beli.
The reputation of the Night Pirates has attracted countless pirate crews to join them, but only now has it truly exploded. Although the White Bird Pirates have recruited many members under the banner of the Night Pirates, these members are relatively weak, and truly powerful pirate crews will not join them.
Although Mostima is Teach's mole planted in the New World, representing Teach.
However, in the eyes of many pirates, Mostima primarily represents the White Bird Pirates, not the Night Pirates. Mostima is tantamount to joining the White Bird Pirates or becoming their White Bird Pirates, which is unacceptable to them.
Furthermore, Mostima's prestige was not enough; what they were truly waiting for was the Night Pirates, and the person they were waiting for was Teach, "Dark Emperor" Teach.
These were pirates who wanted to join the Night Pirates, and they had been gathering on this small island for about a month, or even longer.
At the port, there were many sentries watching, gazing out to sea, seemingly searching for or waiting for something.
They were waiting for the Night Pirates to arrive; they had received news that the Night Pirates would be arriving in Blue Island soon.
"How interesting!" In the waters not far from Blue Island, the flag of the Night Pirates flew high, cutting through the waves on the sea. The world-class Night Pirates ship, built with precious materials, could not be shaken even by the big waves.
On the Queen Anne's Revenge, atop the throne, Teach reviewed the intelligence reports with a smile. He had now received information about Blue Island.
"Heh, this was arranged by Mostima, wasn't it? To build momentum for the arrival of the Night Pirates." Teach immediately saw that someone was guiding the way; it was Mostima's doing.
With so many pirate crews, it's not enough to gather them together spontaneously; it requires guidance and the spread of the message.
One of them is a pirate with a bounty of 400 million Beli, "Boa" Iverson, who, as the name suggests, is a Zoan Snake-Snake Fruit user in Boa form.
In the New World, a bounty of 400 million Beli undoubtedly makes one a powerful figure.
Iverson was arranged by Mostima. A year ago, he was defeated by Mobius and joined the Snake King Pirates, becoming Mobius's subordinate.
However, it wasn't publicized; instead, it was secretly incorporated into Mostima's plan.
Iverson was the first to announce his joining the Night Pirates and wait for Night Pirates arrival in Blue Island, which directly attracted many pirates who wanted to join the Night Pirates, causing them to gather in Blue Island.
In this way, as long as these pirates are subdued, the power of the Night Pirates will undoubtedly expand significantly in a short period of time, which will also shorten the time required for the Night Pirates to expand.
Moreover, the fact that he subdued so many pirate crews at once is undoubtedly shocking news, without any war, simply by virtue of his powerful influence.
Such an event would greatly enhance the reputation of the Night Pirates.
Reporters were already waiting in Blue Island early on, eager to capture this moment; it was undoubtedly Big News Morgans.
Therefore, Mostima's efforts to build momentum for the Night Pirates are also aimed at expanding their Night Pirates. This will allow them to strengthen the Dark Night Pirates in a shorter time, addressing their weakness. This method will enable them to overcome this weakness in the shortest possible time.
The greater the strength and influence, the more beneficial it is for the development of the Night Pirates.
However, the results were far better than Teach had imagined. Blue Island was undoubtedly the largest area affected by Mostima 'Blue Island plans, or rather, by Iverson.
Along this route, there are two gathering places for pirates who want to join the Night Pirates. Because the New World is so vast, some pirates may not be able to arrive before the Night Pirates arrive, so they choose a suitable island along the route to wait for the Night Pirates to arrive.
It was much smaller in scale than the one in Blue Island, but there were still seven or eight pirate ships gathered there.
Besides the gathering place, there were also one or two pirate crews stopping on some islands along the way, wanting to join the Night Pirates, including quite a few lone pirates.
The combined number of these pirate crews is roughly equivalent to the number of pirate crews under the future Whitebeard Pirates.
However, the quality is far inferior, as is the overall number of pirates. The captains of the pirate crews under the Whitebeard Pirates are all famous pirates who are renowned throughout the world, and the powerful ones are no less than Marine Vice Admiral or Division Commanders.
Given Whitebeard's power, there were naturally more than just forty-three affiliated pirate crews. There were many others who accepted the Whitebeard Pirates' protection, but were not recognized for their strength. To become a subordinate pirate crew of the Whitebeard Pirates, one needed to be qualified.
In the future Paramount War, Whitebeard's side will have 50,000 people, which means that each pirate crew will have more than 1,000 people on average.
The Whitebeard Pirates' territory definitely needs someone to guard it.
Even now, if the Whitebeard Pirates and the Flying Pirates were to go to war, they could send out a massive force of over 100,000 if they went all out, which is something that the Big Mom Pirates and the Beasts Pirates simply cannot match.
Furthermore, the Whitebeard Pirates and the Flying Pirates have more powerful members. The most important thing for a force is the number of top-tier experts, which requires a vast territory and decades of accumulating prestige.
Even with so many pirates joining, they are still far from being able to compare with the Whitebeard Pirates.
However, the Night Pirates' power will expand rapidly, narrowing the gap between them and the Sea Emperor.