Chapter 436: The Legend Roger is Targeted
The graduation of the first batch of students from the Elite Training Camp was just a minor matter, not even catching Hades's eye.
He only paid a little attention because his own son was graduating.
A series of events happened last year, both familiar and unfamiliar to Hades.
"Golden Lion" Shiki reached his peak, being called a Legendary Pirate, standing above many Great Pirates.
This was as Hades expected, but for the next two years, Shiki should enter a period of calm.
By this point, the Flying Pirates' Territory had reached its limit.
Further expansion would be difficult in the future.
The vast Territory also needed time for consolidation.
As long as it was managed well, even a Pirate Army of hundreds of thousands or millions wouldn't be an issue.
After all, some Kingdoms have armies of hundreds of thousands, let alone the Flying Pirates with such a massive Territory.
Of course, it was inevitable that some members would line their own pockets, especially within the Flying Pirates.
Moreover, even expanding the Territory further would hardly increase Shiki's prestige, unless he took another step forward, becoming the King of the World.
Hades wasn't sure about the Roger Pirates, but there was a high probability they wouldn't become Legendary Pirates.
The Flying Pirates were being supported by various Superpowers, serving as a benchmark for resistance against the World Government, much like the Rocks Pirates.
They wouldn't be given another opponent.
Furthermore, the Roger Pirates didn't participate in hegemony and had no conflict of interests with the Flying Pirates.
And the Roger Pirates were not the Flying Pirates' opponent.
At sea, solely relying on the Float-Float Fruit Ability, if Shiki were shameless enough, he could cripple the Roger Pirates by himself.
This era belonged to Shiki; that much was certain.
As long as he possessed sufficient interests, Shiki could completely command the vast number of Pirates in the New World.
He could form a massive Pirate Alliance no less formidable than the former Rocks Pirates.
The current Shiki possessed this ability.
Aside from the Roger Pirates and the Big Mom Pirates, whom they hadn't yet encountered, the Flying Pirates could easily bring about the downfall of the other Overlord-level Forces.
After the war, Shiki's prestige reached its peak.
The Flying Pirates also entered the fast lane of rapid development.
More and more Pirates joined the Flying Pirates, and more Underworld Forces and various Factions chose to befriend the Flying Pirates and become affiliated with them.
It was imaginable that the Flying Pirates' Faction would continue to expand.
Especially after the Great Pirate Era, the number of Pirates worldwide would increase tenfold, even dozens of times over.
In this situation, the Flying Pirates' Faction would undergo a further secondary expansion.
During the Rocks Era, the number of Pirates in the New World was at most four to five hundred thousand.
By now, the total number of Pirates in the New World had grown to seven to eight hundred thousand.
It was hard to imagine how many Pirates there would be in the New World by then.
Even after passing through the Four Seas and the Grand Line, a series of trials that sifted the weak, a massive number of Pirate Crews would still pour into the New World, not to mention the number of Pirates growing natively in the New World.
As for Whitebeard, unfortunately, he had already lost the qualification to become a Legendary Pirate.
The defeat of his Pirate Crew also had a certain impact on his reputation.
There were no clear requirements to become a Legendary Pirate; strength was only one aspect.
Prestige, Faction, and so on were all relatively important.
At the very least, in the eyes of many people on The Great Sea, Whitebeard was still unqualified.
Among the many Overlord-level Forces, the Whitebeard Pirates were only slightly stronger than the Pirate Crews established by a few Monsters like "Exploding Bear" Morant.
Not counting the Captains, their overall strength was even somewhat inferior.
Shiki was the protagonist of this era and would smoothly continue into the next era until the demise of the Flying Pirates.
Roger was also one of the protagonists of this era, but only for a short period, like a flower with a brief blooming season.
Hades was even feeling some expectation.
What would happen next?
Looking at the intelligence in his hand, the Roger Pirates had already become a target of the World Government.
They had become a key target of attention for CP0 Agents.
After all, the Roger Pirates' operations were too clearly directed.
For nearly eight hundred years, it wasn't that the World Government hadn't collected Poneglyphs; on the contrary, they had collected quite a few.
Although the World Government couldn't decipher the Poneglyphs, they knew what kind of content the Poneglyphs contained.
Therefore, the Poneglyphs themselves were useless to the World Government.
The World Government hadn't moved those few Poneglyphs, leaving them in their original locations and planting informants to see who would target the Poneglyphs.
The World Government had also guessed the Roger Pirates' purpose for entering the Big Mom Pirates' Territory earlier.
The information that Big Mom possessed three Poneglyphs was no secret to the World Government: one Red Road Poneglyph and two ordinary Poneglyphs.
Just like that, the Roger Pirates fell into the World Government's sight.
The Marines also shifted from their original laissez-faire attitude to supporting Garp in pursuing the Roger Pirates.
However, the effect was minimal.
The Marines' strength in the New World was too weak.
Apart from Garp wandering around, they basically only patrolled localized Areas in the central part of the Former Half of the New World.
That is to say, Sengoku guarded the World Government's gateway in the New World.
Whenever needed, Admiral "Black Arm" Zephyr could take action, but currently, his focus was entirely on cultivating the Marines' future.
Regardless of whether it was the Flying Pirates or the Roger Pirates, both were difficult existences to deal with.
The overall strength of both Pirate Crews was very powerful.
And especially the current Marines, they needed time to recuperate and focus their energy on the First Half of the Grand Line and the Four Seas.
Regarding the World Government's decision to deal with the Roger Pirates, one could only say they were willing but unable.
People had already been dispatched, but whether they would achieve success depended on luck.
At the very least, the Marines didn't hold much expectation.
Even if the Three Navy Admirals were all dispatched, it would be difficult to achieve.
For this reason, the World Government took a different approach.
"How interesting, to actually think of such a method?" Hades was somewhat looking forward to seeing what the Roger Pirates' reaction would be like then.
This information came from within the World Government, specifically from his friend Sterling Victor.
In recent years, relying on the Wano Country's ore trade, especially the Seastone trade, the Kronos Kingdom, the Eternal Kingdom, and the World Government had all gained extremely high interests.
Of the Seastone that flowed out from Wano Country, thirty percent was taken by the Kronos Kingdom, forty percent was divided up by the Eternal Kingdom and the World Government, and the remaining thirty percent flowed into the market.
Relying on this achievement, Victor quickly became a political rising star in Mary Geoise, taking on the position of Deputy Minister of Logistics, concurrently handling economic and diplomatic affairs.
Currently, the World Government and the Marines were not strong.
The World Government was also aware of this problem and knew that dealing with the Roger Pirates couldn't be done just by talking.
Furthermore, the Roger Pirates appeared and disappeared mysteriously, often losing their whereabouts, making it very difficult for the World Government's Intelligence Force to find them.
Therefore, in order to stop the Roger Pirates, someone within the Holy Land proposed an idea: to destroy the Roger Pirates' Pirate Ship.
The Roger Pirates only had one ship.
If this ship were destroyed, they would definitely quiet down for a while.
If the Roger Pirates still wanted to search for Poneglyphs, then they would continue to destroy their ships.
The person who proposed this plan was definitely a talent in Hades's eyes.
It had to be said that this idea was very creative and extremely feasible.
It also gained the recognition of the Marine Headquarters, making it the primary target for targeting the Roger Pirates.
(end of chapter)