Three large pirate ships cut across the waters of the New World.
It had been half a month since the Nightfall Pirates entered these seas.
Their arrival immediately put many of the New World's major powers on alert. Another powerful pirate crew meant another competitor. The territory and resources of the New World were limited. The more forces that appeared, the smaller everyone's share became.
Even so, most forces did not focus their attention on the Nightfall Pirates.
They were competitors, yes. But provoking them for no reason would be foolish.
Meanwhile, the war between the Whitebeard Pirates and the Marines was nearing its end.
The arrival of the Marine hero Monkey D. Garp had tipped the battlefield further in the Marines' favor. Yet even while facing two of the Marines' strongest figures, Edward Newgate in his prime showed no signs of weakness.
Both sides had taken losses, but none severe.
In fact, the Marines suffered slightly more casualties.
They did not dare push Whitebeard too far. If he truly went all out in fury, the destruction could be unimaginable.
Even so, the conflict once again demonstrated the immense strength of the Marines. With the spread of propaganda and news reports, their prestige across the world rose significantly.
Across the New World, chaos was spreading.
Powerful pirate crews near its central seas were fighting over territory. Small wars and skirmishes had already begun.
This was normal for the New World.
But now the competition had become more concentrated. More pirates were gathered in the same areas, which meant fiercer battles for control.
The Big Mom Pirates and the Beasts Pirates, after gaining large territories, had temporarily shifted to consolidation. Instead of expanding further, they focused on defending and stabilizing what they had already seized.
Smaller pirate crews tried to take advantage of the chaos.
Others set their sights elsewhere, targeting unclaimed islands or territories controlled by weaker forces.
The New World was vast.
War was spreading across nearly every sea.
With the rise of the Sea Emperors and numerous ambitious pirate crews beneath them, a massive struggle to divide the New World had begun.
This conflict would last for years before the region settled into a relatively stable structure.
But even then, fighting would never truly stop.
Large wars would become smaller ones. Territorial disputes between pirate crews would continue to spark battles.
Even the Sageros Sea, which the Nightfall Pirates already considered their territory, had several islands seized by other pirate crews.
They were technically ownerless islands.
The influence of the White Bird Pirates covered only about one third of the sea. Even with powerful deterrence, human greed was impossible to suppress completely.
The future structure of the New World was already becoming clear.
Several Emperors, along with multiple powerful Overlord-level pirate crews, would dominate the region.
Weak pirates could only survive by attaching themselves to stronger forces.
Most pirates understood this reality clearly, especially now that visual Den Den Mushi broadcasts allowed them to witness the overwhelming gap in strength between the top powers and ordinary crews.
Even ambitious pirates needed time to grow.
Until they became strong enough, they either stayed hidden or joined one of the major powers for protection.
Because once the great pirate forces expanded their territories, independent crews inside those territories had only two choices.
Submission.
Or death.
Eventually, the New World would resemble a network of empires and kingdoms, each ruled by powerful pirate crews with numerous subordinate fleets.
Territorial disputes would become conflicts between powerful factions.
Weak independent crews simply could not survive.
Even strong ones needed territory and influence to maintain their position.
In such an environment, joining a powerful force became the safest option.
Each Emperor commanded a vast power network. Even some Overlord-level pirate crews were beginning to gather subordinate fleets.
Although the Big Mom Pirates and Beasts Pirates had only recently become Emperors, their strength and reputation were already attracting countless pirates.
The Nightfall Pirates were in a similar position.
As an Overlord-level crew led by "Dark Emperor" Teach, they already controlled an entire sea region.
Teach was young, powerful, and full of potential. Many pirates believed that him becoming a future Sea Emperor was only a matter of time.
Because of this, many pirate crews began considering joining the Nightfall Pirates.
The Whitebeard Pirates and the Flying Pirates were already enormous organizations filled with affiliated crews. Joining them often meant remaining insignificant among countless others.
The Big Mom Pirates and Beasts Pirates were also attracting huge numbers of followers.
But the Nightfall Pirates were different.
They were a rising force with relatively few affiliated crews.
Joining them now meant a far greater chance of gaining Teach's personal attention.
More importantly, many pirates believed the Nightfall Pirates had even greater future potential.
After the destruction of the Wang Zhi Pirates and the Silver Axe Pirates, and with Big Mom and Kaido rising to Emperor status, the Nightfall Pirates had become the strongest Overlord-level crew beneath the Emperors.
Few people disputed that.
They possessed three top-tier fighters:
"Dark Emperor" Teach
"Shadow Dragon" Redyat
"God of War" Ares
Even though Redyat had fewer recorded battles, his overwhelming defeat of a Marine admiral candidate, combined with his Mythical Zoan ability and his identity as the son of Patrick Redfield, was enough to prove his strength.
As for Teach and Ares, their power needed no further explanation.
In fact, when it came to top combatants, even the Big Mom Pirates and Beasts Pirates could not match that lineup.
What the Nightfall Pirates lacked was simply time and manpower.
Meanwhile, the White Bird Pirates continued expanding in the Sageros Sea.
But their captain Mostima was not powerful enough to fully suppress every situation.
He also could not command Ares, whose status within the Nightfall Pirates was even higher than his.
After eliminating a few rebellious pirate crews, Ares had disappeared somewhere unknown.
Because of this, many pirates preferred to join the Nightfall Pirates directly rather than become subordinates of the White Bird Pirates.
Mostima represented Teach in the New World, but to many pirates he was still primarily the captain of the White Bird Pirates.
Joining him meant becoming part of his crew's network, not directly serving Teach.
What they wanted was the recognition of Dark Emperor Teach himself.
As news spread that the Nightfall Pirates had entered the New World, pirate crews with similar ambitions began gathering.
Their destination was an island called Qingdao.
Qingdao was a spring island, extremely valuable in the harsh climate of the New World.
Yet it had never been claimed by any major power.
Instead, it had become a pirate haven. Nearly everyone living there was a pirate.
As the news spread, more and more pirate crews arrived.
Some had even set sail back when the Nightfall Pirates were still at the Sabaody Archipelago.
Soon the island became incredibly lively.
Walking through the streets of Qingdao, one could frequently encounter pirates who were well known across the New World.
At the harbor, more than twenty pirate ships were already anchored along the coast.
Most of their captains had bounties exceeding 100 million Beli. Some even had bounties of 200 million or 300 million.
All of them had gathered for the same reason.
They wanted to join the Nightfall Pirates.
Among them was a particularly famous pirate.
"Anaconda" Iverson, a pirate with a bounty of 400 million Beli.
As his nickname suggested, he possessed the Snake-Snake Fruit, Model: Anaconda, a Zoan-type Devil Fruit.
In the New World, a bounty of 400 million meant true strength.
What few people knew was that Iverson had secretly been defeated a year earlier by Mobius and had joined the Snake King Pirates.
This fact had been kept hidden.
Iverson was actually part of Mostima's plan.
He was the first pirate to publicly announce that he intended to join the Nightfall Pirates. Then he began waiting for Teach at Qingdao.
That single announcement drew countless pirates who shared the same ambition.
In a short time, Qingdao became the gathering point for dozens of pirate crews.
"Interesting…"
Not far from Qingdao, the flag of the Nightfall Pirates flew proudly above the waves.
Their legendary flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, cut smoothly through the sea. Built from rare materials, even violent waves could not shake it.
Seated on his throne aboard the ship, Teach read the intelligence report in his hand and smiled.
"So this is Mostima's arrangement."
He immediately understood the situation.
Gathering so many pirates could never happen naturally. Someone had clearly been spreading the news and guiding events.
Mostima was creating momentum for the Nightfall Pirates' arrival.
If they subdued all those pirate crews at once, their influence would expand dramatically overnight.
And the news would shake the entire New World.
Journalists had already gathered on Qingdao, waiting to record the event.
Mostima was not only strengthening the Nightfall Pirates. She was also building their reputation.
The results had exceeded even Teach's expectations.
Besides Qingdao, two other gathering points had appeared along the Nightfall Pirates' route.
Because the New World was so vast, some pirates feared they might miss Teach if they sailed too far ahead.
Instead, they chose islands along the route to wait.
Those places were smaller than Qingdao, but still held seven or eight pirate ships each.
There were also lone pirate crews scattered across nearby islands, all hoping to join the Nightfall Pirates.
In total, the number of crews was roughly comparable to the future number of subordinate pirate crews under the Whitebeard Pirates.
Of course, their quality was far lower.
The captains who served under Whitebeard were famous pirates from across the four seas. Many were powerful enough to rival Marine Vice Admirals.
During the future Marineford War, Whitebeard would gather more than 50,000 pirates.
Each affiliated crew averaged over a thousand members.
And that did not even include the forces guarding his vast territories.
If the Whitebeard Pirates or Flying Pirates truly mobilized their full strength, they could easily deploy over 100,000 fighters.
The Big Mom Pirates and Beasts Pirates were far from reaching that level yet.
Even so, the arrival of these new pirates would greatly strengthen the Nightfall Pirates.
Their power would expand rapidly.
And the gap between them and the Sea Emperors would begin to close.