The Rocks Pirates held a gathering on an island in the New World's Olama Nation.
A large number of crew members drank themselves senseless.
"Creak..."
A pirate pushed open the door and stepped outside the tavern, taking a deep breath. He'd had quite a bit to drink that night.
His head was spinning a little.
So he decided to get some sea air.
Dark clouds blanketed the sky like a black cloth, and the wind howled over the sea as waves crashed against the shore.
The pirate looked out and thought he saw a glimmer of light in the distance.
"Boom!"
Thunder rumbled through the sky, illuminating the pitch-black night for an instant.
"A ship?"
In that flash of lightning, the pirate thought he saw a large ship sailing across the sea.
But he'd had a little too much to drink and couldn't be sure whether he'd really seen anything.
Gusts of wind blew toward him, kicking up sand and making his robe flap wildly.
The pitch-black night looked like an abyss. Waves crashed against the shore, and a little seawater splashed onto the pirate.
"Boom!"
Another bolt of lightning struck, illuminating the distant sea for an instant.
"The Navy!"
This time, the pirate hadn't mistaken what he saw. The ships sailing along the shore belonged to the Navy.
"Damn it, how did they find out we were here?"
The pirate frowned and hurried away, running toward the heart of Olama.
He rushed straight to the tavern where the officers were drinking.
"Creak..."
He flung open the door to the tavern where the officers were drinking.
"Hm?"
Whitebeard turned and saw a regular crew member pushing open the door to their tavern.
"Did you drink so much you got the wrong place?" Charlotte Linlin asked, a hint of killing intent in her eyes.
They were officers enjoying a drink, and this lowly crew member had dared to disturb them?
"What is it?" Patri Vic asked calmly after downing a bottle of fine wine.
"I... I..."
The pirate from the Rocks Pirates had suddenly found himself surrounded by so many powerful figures. He stammered in fright, overwhelmed by the officers' terrifying presence, like that of primordial beasts.
Even meeting their eyes made him tremble.
For a moment, he couldn't get the words out.
"Are you trying to disturb us on purpose, kid?" Golden Lion asked hoarsely, a cigar dangling from his mouth as he glared at him.
"Just say what you have to say."
Rocks glanced at him calmly and spoke in an even voice.
From the pirate's expression, Rocks could tell he had something to say.
He'd let the pirate finish. If it was something unimportant, then there'd be no reason to let him live.
"The... Navy's here!" The pirate was terrified, but he still managed to say what he'd come to tell them.
He had a feeling the officers in the tavern would kill him in an instant if he didn't speak up.
"What did you say?" Golden Lion sprang to his feet.
"Are you sure you saw the Navy?" Charlotte Linlin asked coldly.
"I... I saw them. I'm absolutely sure. The Navy... their warships are coming." The pirate swallowed and hurried to answer.
"Boom!"
As if to prove the pirate's words, a cannonball landed right outside the tavern with a deafening blast.
The door was blown away.
The pirate was torn to shreds by the explosion.
"Damn it, how did the Navy know we were here?"
Veins bulged on Rocks's forehead as he crushed the bottle in his hand.
If the Navy had planned to surround and wipe them out, they would have needed to gather intelligence first.
But they'd only arrived in the Olama Nation at noon.
Even if the Navy had learned of their arrival the moment they reached Olama, there was no way they could have gotten here this quickly.
After all, this nation was in the heart of the New World's lawless waters. It would take a full day and night to reach it from the nearest Marine Base.
How had the Navy arrived so quickly?
At that moment, only one possibility came to mind for all the officers.
"Someone on the inside sold us out," Patri Vic said gravely, frowning.
There was no other explanation.
"Damn traitor, selling us out!" Golden Lion snarled, his eyes sweeping over all the officers, cigar still in his mouth.
There was no doubt that the traitor was among them. Golden Lion just didn't know who it was.
"If I find out who the traitor is, I'll rip out his soul and torment him for all eternity," Charlotte Linlin declared, looking sternly over the assembled officers.
Although the officers of the Rocks Pirates each did as they pleased, and many of them held grudges against one another—
even when faced with powerful Navy forces or pirates, they rarely fought seriously and liked to take it easy—
there was one thing they all hated without exception: betrayal.
No one knew how much preparation the Navy had made to wipe out the Rocks Pirates this time.
They didn't know whether they'd survive the battle.
Among the officers, a bead of sweat appeared on Ochoku's forehead. He looked a little flustered.
He knew that if these officers found out he was the traitor, he'd be as good as dead.
"Boom!"
Another cannonball crashed into the middle of the tavern and exploded, raising a cloud of smoke and dust. When it cleared,
they could see that the cannonball hadn't hurt anyone.
"Wake all the brothers. It's time to fight."
Rocks looked toward the pitch-black, wave-tossed sea and spoke in a low voice.
Fifteen Navy warships had drawn close across the waters. A standard Buster Call used ten ships, but they'd added five more this time to make it even more destructive.
"Bang, bang, bang!"
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"
The fifteen Navy warships kept firing powerful cannonballs without pause.
These cannonballs were different from ordinary ones. They were roughly twice as powerful.
The Olama Nation had become a living hell. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled overhead, while countless black cannonballs fell like deadly scythes.
They killed large numbers of Rocks Pirates, and countless innocent people in Olama died as well.
Aboard a Navy warship, Kong frowned as he looked toward the faint lights flickering in the Olama Nation. He felt reluctant.
After all, wiping out the Rocks Pirates this time would cost the lives of countless ordinary people.
He watched for a long while, then finally closed his eyes, blaming all those civilians' deaths on the Rocks Pirates.
It was all because the Rocks Pirates had appeared here that they had to fire their cannons and kill those innocent people.
"Kong, you don't need to blame yourself. Once we crush the Rocks Pirates, we'll be heroes of the New World. No one will care whether a nation's people lived or died," the Fleet Admiral beside him said coldly, arms crossed over his chest.
That was right. They were doing all this to annihilate the Rocks Pirates. As long as they could destroy them, it would all be worth it.
So what if a few innocent civilians died? Hadn't pirates destroyed countless nations across the seas over the years?
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