The Navy's Response

News Coos swept over the sea.

Stacks of newspapers fluttered through the air, raining down upon the Four Seas like a torrential storm.

The world was thoroughly set ablaze.

The front-page headline was glaringly exaggerated, filling the entire page:

[Azure Dragon Rock wants to end the Great Pirate Era???]

[Want to seek treasure? Fine. But become a pirate—and you die!]

[The deeper meaning behind Vice Admiral Rock's words may reshape the world's order]

As the pages turned, it felt as though even the direction of the era was tilting with them.

At a certain port, a tavern was in an uproar.

"Did you see it?!"

"That lightning... the whole city was sealed off!!"

"That's not something a human could do, right?!"

Someone swallowed, their voice dry.

"That's not the important part..."

He lowered his voice. "The important part is—what he said."

"Become a pirate... and you die."

The tavern fell silent for a moment.

Someone sneered. "Hmph, easy for him to say!"

"The sea is so vast. Can he kill them all by himself?"

Yet after those words were spoken, few people echoed them.

Someone instinctively looked toward the sea, a trace of hesitation appearing in their eyes...

—What if someone like that really existed?

Somewhere in the New World, the atmosphere aboard a pirate ship was equally oppressive.

"Captain..."

A pirate could not help speaking up.

"Shouldn't we... lie low for now?"

The captain's face darkened.

His fists clenched tightly, because he knew full well that this was not a matter of being afraid or not.

—That man's very existence was changing the rules.

Yet on the other side of the sea, the atmosphere at Marine Headquarters was completely different.

Emotions that had been suppressed for so long were utterly ignited at that moment!

On the training grounds.

"Did