Following those chaotic events, the Thousand Sunny encountered absolutely zero pursuit.
The enemy had given up.
Not only that, but the massive fleet originally dispatched to hunt down the Fire Tank Pirates had also been systematically recalled to base. The solitary catalyst for this sudden shift in military posture was simple: the Yonko Big Mom had sustained critical structural damage.
In the wake of this compromise, their sovereign territory was bound to face an influx of hostile factions. Over their decades of tyrannical rule, the enemies the Big Mom Pirates had accumulated and enraged could not be contained by a dozen Marine battleships.
Furthermore, it wasn't just Big Mom whose metrics had been severely degraded; all three of her elite Sweet Commanders were currently confined to medical bays with severe trauma parameters. This phase marked the absolute highest tier of structural crisis the Big Mom Pirates had ever sustained in their recorded history.
And the primary architects behind this imperial collapse were none other than the two brothers, Drake and Luffy.
The Thousand Sunny maintained a direct heading, smoothly tracing its navigation route across the sea toward Wano Country.
On a minor outpost island lining the outer perimeter of Big Mom's sovereign domain, a delicate, graceful girl stood with her beautiful eyes glistening with tears as she watched the distant silhouette of the ship slowly fade into the horizon.
The ocean breeze whipped across her face, gently catching the loose strands of hair framing her forehead. A solitary teardrop traced a line down her cheek, plummeting into the dirt to shatter into microscopic droplets.
The girl softly whispered to the wind, "Farewell... Sanji-kun..."
The entirety of the Whole Cake Island infiltration had been logged and processed from inception to conclusion by the President of the World Economic Journal, Morgans.
Utilizing his maximum logistical leverage, he orchestrated an extreme, high-priority distribution network, ensuring every single variable of the report was cleanly drafted and printed onto the morning editions within a single night.
Before the first light of dawn broke across the sky, thousands of News Coos took flight, soaring across the global trade winds to distribute the data. The explosive headline detailing the synchronized descent of the two brothers, Drake and Luffy, upon Whole Cake Island rapidly spread to every corner of the earth.
Two days later, as the Thousand Sunny sailed smoothly across a pristine stretch of open water, a News Coo dropped the latest edition onto the deck.
Nami settled the payment, unrolled the fresh sheet of newsprint, and instantly went rigid, her brain stalling as she processed the text.
"Nami, what exact data is printed on those sheets?" Luffy asked, breaking away from his raucous play with Chopper to look back with a curious expression.
The surrounding crew members smoothly halted their actions, their collective attention anchoring onto the front page. They understood that the events of Whole Cake Island were bound to trigger a media report; they simply lacked the metrics to calculate the true scale of the impact.
Nami forced herself to swallow her anxiety, casting a long, calculating glance toward the group before reading the text aloud:
"At the grand imperial gathering hosted by the ruler of the New World, the Yonko Big Mom, a joint coalition led by Vale D. Drake and Straw Hat Monkey D. Luffy, aligned with the Worst Generation's 'Gang' Capone Bege, successfully executed a high-intensity assassination protocol targeting the Emperor!"
"During the conflict, the older brother of Straw Hat Luffy, Vale D. Drake, engaged the Yonko Big Mom in a direct, isolated duel. VICTORY SECURED! His raw power metrics officially dictate that he possesses the structural leverage to claim the throne of an Emperor of the Sea."
"Concurrently, Straw Hat Monkey D. Luffy systematically dismantled a Sweet Commander carrying a bounty breaching the one-billion threshold. His baseline combat output scales to a monstrous tier, officially earning him the mantle of the Fifth Emperor!"
Reading further down the sheet, Nami's voice trembled slightly as the broader geopolitical ramifications processed in her mind:
"Furthermore, verified intelligence dictates that the newly ascended Yonko, Fire Emperor Ace, stands as the eldest sibling of this brotherhood, while the Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Army, Sabo, commands the position of the second brother."
"Vale D. Drake anchors the position of the third brother. Every single one of these prominent powerhouses stands as the biological or sworn older brother of the pirate Straw Hat Luffy. Following the structural fallout of this single deployment, the unyielding balance of power defining the Yonko for decades has been shattered completely."
"This brotherhood displays a statistical trajectory that suggests an intent to systematically monopolize every single seat among the Emperors of the Sea. Though the status of the Yonko Big Mom remains active..."
"The classic definition of the Four Emperors has officially ceased to exist. With the continuous ascension of these elite rookies, the era has graduated to accommodate a Fifth Emperor, a Sixth Emperor..."
Nami paused, her gaze flicking up to rest briefly on Drake and Luffy. It required zero strategic genius to process that the "elite rookies" mentioned in the text referred explicitly to the four brothers.
Taking a deep, stabilizing breath, Nami continued reading the closing paragraph of the front page:
"Yet, conventional military titles fail to capture the true magnitude of their collective threat level. A specialized re-evaluation is mandatory: The Legendary Four Brothers shall henceforth be recognized as a collective tier that sits perfectly parallel to the combined might of the Yonko!"
As the final words left her lips, Nami stood entirely stunned.
The narrative implication of the text was glaringly clear: the World Government was officially treating this brotherhood as an independent faction equivalent to four distinct Emperors of the Sea acting in total synchronization!
It wasn't just Nami; every single individual standing on the deck of the Thousand Sunny was completely paralyzed by the data loop. Did this imply that Luffy and Drake had essentially been codified as active rulers of the sea? Though it wasn't a standard, linear promotion to the baseline Yonko seats, their reputations had been elevated to sit perfectly parallel to that absolute peak!
Every crew member processed that metric with pristine clarity.
Studying the contents of the report, Drake felt a subtle wave of surprise ripple through his mind. He hadn't anticipated that Morgans would deploy this exact brand of media framing to translate the fallout of the deployment.
Structuring the text to explicitly state that their brotherhood was equivalent to a unified front of four Emperors... This was bound to trigger a massive, global panic.
And his calculations were entirely sound. The exact microsecond this morning edition hit the global distribution grids, the entire architecture of the world experienced a profound, terrifying tremor.
Any strategist possessing a basic capacity for logical deduction understood how catastrophic this data was. Two of these four brothers had already displayed the raw, undeniable capacity to duel and compromise a Yonko on equal terms. The remaining siblings, Luffy and Sabo, were exceptional prodigies whose individual talents and prestige had long since sent a resonance of fear through the high seas.
Two years ago, when the four of them had compressed their coordinates to stand shoulder-to-shoulder at Marineford, the top-tier command structure of Marine Headquarters had experienced a deep, instinctual wave of dread.
Back then, their collective strength metrics placed them, at best, within the upper echelons of elite combatants.
But today, with their variables re-calibrated, Drake and Ace stood firmly anchored within the absolute pinnacle of the Emperor tier. Every global faction understood what that variable meant against the balance of power.
It meant that the exact microsecond these four brothers chose to consolidate their forces into a single deployment zone, regardless of what faction attempted to block their trajectory, they would be forced to harbor extreme fear.
Even the absolute pinnacle governing the world—the World Government itself—would inevitably view the Legendary Four Brothers as the single most critical thorn in their side, a malignant growth that threatened to permanently compromise their authority!
They had to be permanently deleted from the world's ledger at the absolute earliest opportunity.
This was the immediate conclusion calculated by every rational entity across the globe. But while formulating the concept was simple on paper, executing the deployment... would mathematically prove to be an ordeal far more grueling than attempting to liquidate a conventional Yonko crew.
The New New World had officially transitioned into the Era of the Legendary Four Brothers. This was an immutable fact. No rational strategist could deny the metrics, because the data spoke for itself.
Simultaneously, the morning editions detailing the dawn of this new era filtered into the private sanctums of the world's most powerful entities.
The Yonko, Red-Haired Shanks; the Captain of the Beast Pirates, Hundred Beasts Kaido; and the remaining remnants of the Whitebeard Pirates all processed the incoming data loops within their respective domains.
As for why the report omitted any real-time tracking on Fire Emperor Ace... it was because he had already isolated his coordinates, initiating a solo transit toward Wano Country.
Naturally, the core vanguard of the Drake Pirates was actively charting a parallel course to reinforce that exact deployment zone.
While the global architecture was reeling from the shockwaves of the report, the atmosphere within Whole Cake Island was a scene of absolute, suffocating silence.
Currently confined to her medical bay to stabilize her severe internal trauma, Big Mom received a sudden, catastrophic update directly from the scouts stationed near the Kingdom of Germa: the assassination detachment she had covertly dispatched to liquidate the Vinsmoke royal line had been completely annihilated!
This entire Tea Party deployment had resulted in a devastating, near-fatal deficit for her empire. Even the ruler herself, alongside her strongest asset, Katakuri, was currently incapacitated by severe injuries. Based on their current diagnostic readouts, reclaiming their peak operational metrics within a standard timeframe was statistically impossible.
Not a single subordinate within the chateau dared to utter a word, fully aware that the Emperor's psychological state was hovering at a dangerously volatile threshold.
Big Mom remained entirely silent, but the sharp, venomous glint continuously flashing through her eyes verified a single mathematical certainty: she would never grant a pass to the infiltrators for this structural degradation.
This blood feud was permanently locked into her equations!
The Thousand Sunny
As the crew processed the staggering weight of the media report, several freshly minted bounty posters slipped from the interior folds of the newspaper, cascading onto the deck.
"Whoa!" Sanji instantly lunged forward, scooping up his personal wanted poster from the wood, his eyes locking onto the brilliant, shimmering sequence of digits tracing his new economic value.
330,000,000 Berries!
"My bounty actually scaled past the three-hundred-million threshold!" Shifting rapidly from pure shock to intense excitement, Sanji whipped around to grill the crew. "Hey! What exact value does that moss-head bastard's poster currently display?"
Brook paused, mentally retrieving the data from his memories. "If my tracking loops are accurate, Zoro-san's bounty currently sits at three hundred and twenty million Berries."
"Ahahaha! Yes! I've officially eclipsed that green-haired idiot's metrics! Fantastic!"
"1,600,000,000 Berries!" Chopper shrieked, his big eyes nearly popping straight out of his skull as his hooves shook, staring down at Luffy's new wanted poster.
The remaining crew members let out a synchronized gasp of pure shock, rapidly swarming his coordinates to inspect the print.
At that moment, Kenshin smoothly retrieved Drake's poster from the stack, extending his hand to hand it over to his captain. The exact millisecond Drake's fingers clamped around the paper, his physical movements froze.
The economic value assigned to his head was...
2,000,000,000 Berries!
Shifting his gaze to the adjacent sheet, he processed Kenshin's updated bounty parameters:
1,010,000,000 Berries!
This deployment had resulted in a massive, unprecedented scaling of their economic bounties!
The World Government would undeniably refuse to let them operate unchecked on the high seas after a display of this magnitude; the sheer level of existential threat they posed to the global structure was a data point any common citizen could see.
To scale their bounties to this extreme tier carried a narrative intent that was entirely self-evident.