After Shiki finished his speech, the World Economy News Paper published a special extra edition that day devoted entirely to it.
This ensured that the "Declaration of Independence" reached every corner of the seas, maximizing the incident's impact.
The seas erupted. For pirates in particular, Shiki's move outshone even Roger's earlier announcement that he would sail around the world in search of Laugh Tale.
Over the past few months, the great pirates of the New World had been busy preparing their independence plans, leaving the entire sea almost exclusively as Roger's stage.
Just half a month earlier, the Roger Pirates had fought an earth-shaking battle against the Marines in Loguetown.
The Fleet Admiral, Marine Admirals, and the Marine hero had all been deployed, yet they could do nothing against a single Roger Pirates crew, sending Roger's prestige soaring toward Rocks's.
With his formidable strength and unparalleled reputation, as long as he actually found Laugh Tale, he could become the Pirate King as a matter of course.
But this move of Shiki's had stolen more than half of Roger's spotlight.
Whether Roger ultimately became the Pirate King or not, Shiki had already become something like the supreme leader of the pirate world, a spokesman jointly chosen by all the great pirates of the New World.
And as one of the most important figures favored by fortune in the legendary great pirate era, Shiki had a Flying Fleet that could not be underestimated either.
Looking through the great pirates in the original story, almost all of them, whether senior officers under the Four Emperors or members of the Shichibukai, had risen after the great pirate era began.
Veteran powerhouses like the Four Emperors, on the other hand, had almost all risen during Rocks's era.
The legendary great pirate era between those two