At the headquarters of the World Economic Journal, newspaper delivery gulls surged toward the four seas like a sky-blotting dark cloud.
Morgans stood before the floor-to-ceiling window on the top floor of the newspaper building, his wings trembling violently. His beak gaped wide to its limit as he let out a sharp, maniacal laugh.
"Big news! Absolutely earth-shattering news! Those rigid Navy bastards have actually come to their senses!"
On the front page of the newspaper, several bold, black characters stabbed into the eyes of commoners worldwide, yet set the blood of countless desperadoes boiling instantly—
"Seven Warlords of the Sea System Established! World Government Grants Legal Plundering Rights!"
The rules were spelled out clearly: Once selected, all past bounties would be wiped clean. Not only could they sail the seas openly, but they could also legally plunder Non-Affiliated Countries and hostile pirates. The only requirement was to heed the Navy's summons.
On the very first day the news spread, all underground taverns across the four seas and the Grand Line erupted with roof-lifting madness and cheers.
For those desperadoes who had grown like weeds after Roger's death, dodging pursuit daily between blades and waves, this was no mere newspaper.
It was a ticket to heaven!
...
New World, an unknown sea area.
"Fufufufu! Seven Warlords? Legal Plundering Rights?"
On a massive sailing ship with a flamingo carved on its prow, Donquixote Doflamingo threw his head back and let out an extremely arrogant laugh, his pink feathered coat flapping wildly in the sea breeze.
At just seventeen years old, he already stood nearly three meters tall—a monster who had long made a name for himself in the New World.
Behind his trademark sunglasses, the corner of his mouth always wore that arrogant curve enough to shatter the hearts of the weak.
"Young Master, you... you're really going to sign up at the Navy's territory?"
Trebol's sticky body squeezed up from behind, his voice beneath the snot filled with apprehension. "The newspaper says the selection is at the G-5 Branch in the New World. That's 'Calamity' Kane's territory... That man is not someone to be trifled with."
"I am a Donquixote, flowing with the Creator's Blood."
Doflamingo stuck out his tongue, licking the wine stain at the corner of his mouth, his smile growing even more unrestrained.
"What those old fools at Mary Geoise owe me will be repaid double sooner or later. A mere seat among the Seven Warlords—they'll give it, whether they want to or not!"
His gaze swept past the churning waves, fixing on the direction of the G-5 Branch.
"Besides... I'm very interested in this Admiral Kane, who could conceive such a maddening system."
...
Meanwhile, in the first half of the Grand Line.
A bizarrely shaped giant ship, like a Mobile Castle on the sea, was cutting through the waves.
At the bow stood a tall, slender man with deathly pale skin and heavy makeup on his face.
Gecko Moria.
At this time, he was not yet the obese wreck whose spine would later be broken by Kaido.
Though his frame was large, his muscle definition was clear.
On the deck behind him stood his vibrant companions, full of youthful vigor, their eyes sparkling with a light untouched by despair.
His gaze held the sharpness and indomitable spirit unique to a young pirate.
"Kishishishishi... Legal status, immunity from Navy pursuit?" Moria clutched the newspaper in his hand.
His eyes pierced through the layers of sea fog, gazing into the distance toward the New World.
In his mind surfaced the place that haunted his dreams—Wano Country.
No one on the seas knew his secret.
In his youth, he had accidentally drifted to the Ringo Region of Wano Country. On the brink of death, it was the warm and kind-hearted locals who took him in, sparing no effort.
To honor this debt of gratitude, and moved by the genuine kindness of the people, he, with his formidable strength, was bestowed the country's most revered surname.
"Kozuki" Moria.
Not long ago, when news arrived of Kaido's brazen invasion of Wano Country, Moria was driven to a frenzy of rage.
He wished he could fly back to the New World immediately to rescue his beloved second home.
But he understood all too well what a terrifying behemoth the Beast Pirates were.
With his current strength alone, charging into Wano Country would be no different from leading all his companions to their deaths.
He needed power! A massive army! Endless resources!
This selection, he had to go! And he had to win it!
As long as he became one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, he could plunder small nations with impunity, using the corpses and shadows of countless powerful individuals to forge an invincible Zombie Army that feared no death and required no supplies!
"Kishishishishi..." Moria laughed wildly into the wind, his fighting spirit soaring, yet his laughter carried a chilling, murderous intent.
"Just wait, Kaido... The people of Wano Country will be protected by me, 'Kozuki' Moria!"
...
Grand Line, Gaya Island, Mock Town.
In a noisy underground bar, a man cloaked in a dark coat, with a ferocious scar running across his left cheek, sat alone in a shadowy corner.
Twenty-two-year-old Crocodile.
He had just begun growing a short stubble on his chin. His left hand was not yet severed, and between his fingers, he held a thick cigar.
"The power of the Sand-Sand Fruit has almost no match left in the first half of the Grand Line." Crocodile exhaled a thick cloud of smoke. Through the swirling haze, his sinister eyes fixed intently on the words in the newspaper: "Bounty exemption, access to government intelligence resources."
He was an ultimate schemer.
What he desired was never to be an ordinary pirate captain.
He needed a perfect springboard to plot for greater dominion.
Crocodile downed the whiskey in his glass, picked up his coat, stood, and melted into the vast night.
...
Three days later.
Punk Hazard, G-5 Main Gate.
When these various pirate magnates, each harboring their own ambitions and utterly blinded by greed, sailed through the turbulent currents of the New World and finally reached this legendary "Selection Holy Land"—
All ships fell into a deathly silence.
Only the rustling sound of waves against the hulls and the gulps of countless pirates remained.
"This... this is a Navy branch?!"
A New World pirate captain with a bounty as high as 90 million Berry found his legs trembling uncontrollably.
He craned his neck to the physiological limit of a human just to barely make out the full form of the Steel Behemoth before him.
Hundred-meter-tall alloy walls rose from the ground, their gray-black surfaces shimmering with a chilling metallic gleam under the sunlight.
Atop the walls, a massive heavy cannon was mounted every fifty meters.
The pitch-black muzzles were large enough for a grown adult to crawl straight into.
Though invisible to the naked eye, the Sea Stone powder mixed into the building materials at the base of the walls emitted a faint but persistent sense of suppression that permeated from all directions—noticeable to any ability user with even a basic grasp of Observation Haki.
On both sides of the harbor, twelve modified heavy warships stood anchored, imposing and silent.
The armor, twice as thick as that of ordinary warships, and the elite Navy soldiers standing on the decks—fierce-eyed, broad-shouldered, and thick-waisted, eyeing them like fattened pigs ready for slaughter—silenced all clamor.
"Gulp…"
Moria stood at the bow of the ship, a rare bead of cold sweat trickling down his pale face.
Even Doflamingo, who was usually lawless, wore an expression of utmost gravity behind his sunglasses.
With this level of firepower and defense… even if Whitebeard's fleet were to arrive in person, they'd likely shatter their teeth trying to break through!
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