Sea Era 1490.
Five years had passed since the battle at God Valley.
The seas were growing lively again.
As pirate crews expanded their power, the whole New World began to smell of gunpowder.
And it wasn't just the Overlord Pirate Crews.
Within the Rocks Pirates, mid- and high-ranking officers—and even ordinary members—who had neither retired nor joined another faction
had mostly formed crews of their own if they had any ambition, setting out to claim territory.
Among them were quite a few rising stars of the new era.
But after only five years, they were not yet strong enough to challenge the Overlord Pirate Crews.
The period of peaceful growth was over. The territories of pirate crews and other factions were beginning to meet.
To expand their territory and power, and to seize greater profits, they would inevitably have to go to war.
They would crush their enemies and swallow up their lands.
Small clashes began. One major faction after another first turned its sights on the small fry it could easily handle.
Submit or die.
Many people had realized what was happening.
An age of warring powers was truly at hand.
The New World was a vast Sea Area. Though it could not compare to the Four Seas combined, it was still a third the size of any one of them.
Today, the Overlord Pirate Crews occupied its waters.
Countless other factions were wedged between the many Overlord Pirate Crews.
Without enough strength, any faction was bound to face pressure from all sides.
The only places where a faction could develop in peace were the central and southern Sea Areas of the New World's first half.
No Overlord Pirate Crew with overwhelming power had emerged in that sea area.
The Marines' return to the New World had shaken