For the sea, this was only the beginning.
Within two months, the fortunes of the Overlord Dragon Pirates and the Silver Axe Pirates had reversed.
The Silver Axe Pirates had occupied Wano Country, but they had undoubtedly lost.
They had no way to develop its resources.
Pirates were still pirates, after all.
And they did not even have the people for it.
Even the Overlord Dragon Pirates had needed the Kurozumi Family to manage their assets. The Silver Axe Pirates stood even less of a chance.
The Overlord Dragon Pirates had lost.
But Zack had proved through sheer strength that he had not!
The Sea Area south of the central New World descended into utter chaos, surpassing even the "beginner zone" in the center of the New World Front.
The level of competition was in another league entirely.
This vast territory could easily accommodate one Great Pirate of dominant stature, perhaps even two.
With no top-tier powers sharing its borders, the Buffer Zone that had once separated the John Pirates and the Silver Axe Pirates from the Pluton Pirates gradually blurred.
A Buffer Zone kept two top-tier powers apart, preventing their territories from meeting and conflicts from breaking out over one issue or another.
As long as neither side crossed it, peace could endure.
But when a neighboring top-tier power was destroyed or left, the Buffer Zone naturally disappeared.
Ordinary pirates had no idea what a Buffer Zone was, after all.
As long as they stayed out of Pluton Pirates territory, they could expand as they pleased.
Another month passed. The Silver Axe Pirates could no longer bear it. Though they occupied Wano Country, they might as well have been trapped in a cage.
Then came a new year: Sea Era 1500!
Word that the Silver Axe Pirates wanted to