The death of Golden Lion had indeed caused a tremendous uproar across the seas.
That legendary pirate who had dominated the New World and come within a single step of becoming the Pirate King had been killed by a pirate of the new generation.
Under the Marines' deliberate publicity campaign, such shocking news even came to represent the end of an era.
Following the news of Golden Lion's death, the wave of voyages sparked by the Pirate King era seemed to give way once more to an "Age of the Marines."
This time, however, there had been none of Roger's calculations before his death. The World Government had heavily promoted the matter through public opinion, hoping to erase the impact Roger had created.
Regardless of the methods used, under the force of that propaganda, the overall number of pirates around the world had indeed declined somewhat—but only somewhat.
As long as there were still people who yearned for treasure and desired to uncover the ambitions behind it all, there would be people like Luffy who chose to become pirates.
Those people were not so bad. Rather than pirates who committed every evil imaginable, they were more like adventurers.
Because the root of the problem had not been solved, those who chose to go to sea as pirates when driven into a corner where they could no longer survive were the true norm among pirates on these seas.
They had no dreams, only greed for wealth. Before their ambitions swelled, they would huddle in their own little patch of territory and continually ravage the surrounding villages and towns.
Then more pirates would be born, as those who could no longer survive either joined them or rose up themselves.
When someone could not survive, they would not care whether they obeyed the