Chapter 406: Tides of War: The Giants Move

“Why are the giants involved now?”

“Hundreds of thousands of them? Is there any pirate crew in the New World that could withstand an all-out assault from the Giant Kingdom?”

One of the vice admirals couldn’t help but voice his doubts. How were they supposed to fight that?

Exactly. The Giant Kingdom’s vast army—hundreds of thousands strong—was on the move.

A single Four Emperors pirate crew could never stand against that. And most importantly, none of the Emperors had real disputes with the giants. There was no reason for a full-out war.

Unless…

“That’s right. Intelligence suggests the Giant Kingdom is currently working in business cooperation with Karl’s Pirate Crew. It’s not hard to guess—Karl must’ve promised them something big in exchange for military readiness, maybe even to target the other Emperors or the Navy!”

As soon as Vice Admiral Tsuru read the report, she immediately realized what Karl was after. The Four Emperors weren’t his target.

Their real target was either the Navy or the World Government. Whitebeard, Kaido—those two didn’t even need mentioning. Karl came up through the ranks with them; they’re practically crewmates.

There were no major grudges between them. No reason to spark all-out war. As for Shanks, that was even simpler—he was just the kid on Roger’s ship back in the day. Karl had once gone out of his way to help Roger’s crew. Why would he ever turn on Shanks and the Red-Haired Pirates?

Besides, their territories don’t even border each other. There’s just no motive.

With all the other options off the table, it’s clear: Karl’s Pirate Crew is making these preparations to take on either the Navy or the World Government.

The Navy had almost managed to pull off a real kill on Karl in the past. And lately, his every move had been aimed squarely at the World Government—even causing over a dozen joined nations to defect.

The only thing nobody knew for sure was whether he’d go for one, or both.

“Udyr, you’ll be heading to Sabaody Archipelago. Stand by in case anything shakes up the New World!”

Udyr stood up and saluted Fleet Admiral Sengoku. “Yes, sir!”

Ten years ago, the Navy promoted him entirely on their own. He ate a Mythical Zoan-type Great Earth Bear fruit, breaking through to the admiral ranks.

It cost the Navy years’ worth of accumulated resources.

“Tradis, you’ll be responsible for holding down Navy Headquarters. If anything happens in the New World, we’ll need you to step in.”

Tradis had originally been Sengoku’s right hand. But thanks to a lack of top-tier talent, the Navy was forced to give him a Zoan-type Golden Eagle fruit and promote him to admiral. Out of the three admirals, he was definitely the weakest.

“Ah! No problem, Fleet Admiral Sengoku!”

“With the world in chaos, we can’t afford to stay the same. Start the massive conscription campaign, immediately.”

This situation gave Fleet Admiral Sengoku the perfect excuse to launch another large-scale recruitment drive.

Most of their soldiers would come from the Four Seas. Information from the Four Seas never flowed as freely as it did in the New World or along the Grand Line.

So over time, more and more people had started forgetting just what the Navy had done. This was just a precaution, in case things went sideways.

…

Of course, Karl in the New World was well aware of the Navy’s moves. He had spies everywhere—not just in Navy Headquarters, but spread across the entire World Government. The moment orders were passed down, he got the news.

He just scoffed and laughed it off. Even with massive conscription, unless the Navy gets top-tier strength, what good will numbers do?

Still, just to be safe, Karl ordered some pirate crews hiding in the shadows—and even some of his own sons and daughters—to set out to sea.

Almost overnight, the number of pirates across the Four Seas and the Grand Line multiplied. Local navies were thrown into chaos. Even with all their new recruits, those reinforcements barely kept the local pirates in check, let alone delivering enough fresh blood to Navy Headquarters.

All of this played out over the following days. Right now, the fiercest battles were still with Luffy’s group.

“Hey, Ye Fan, are you all done over there?” Luffy and crew were riding on the back of a massive scorpion, racing toward the royal capital of Alabasta.

Ye Fan nodded. The next instant, a cube-shaped sphere about a meter across appeared in his hand, wrapped in countless wires, with a timer counting down at its center.

This was the time bomb Crocodile had hidden inside the drum tower. There were many ways to set it off—not just a timer.

The main trigger was in Crocodile’s hands. As long as he pressed the button—so long as he was anywhere on this island—the signal would reach the bomb.

The explosion would flatten the entire capital and make sure there wasn’t a single member of the royal family left.

“Ah! Ye Fan, put it away!” Usopp caught sight of the bright red countdown, jumped up and dashed to Ye Fan’s side, waving his arms in panic.

If that bomb went off, none of them would get out unscathed.

“Yeah, just put it away already,” Chopper squeaked, hiding behind Zoro with only his huge head peeking out, tugging at Zoro’s sleeve.

Zoro and Sanji didn’t look worried. They trusted Ye Fan completely and knew he’d never let that bomb detonate.

“Ahahaha! Ye Fan, you’re something else—let me play with it!” Luffy reached out to grab the bomb, but Ye Fan stiffened, a bead of cold sweat trickling down his forehead. If Luffy got his hands on it and set it off by accident, that would be the end of all of them.

With a single thought, Ye Fan sent the bomb straight into his System space.

“What? I can’t even play with it for a second?” Luffy whined, sticking out his bottom lip and giving Ye Fan the most pitiful look.

Huh!

Seeing Luffy’s expression, Ye Fan felt like he was bullying some poor innocent girl. He shook his head hard, trying to clear away the image.

“Crocodile is taken care of. Next up is the Rebel Army. I wonder if Nami and the others are done yet?”

Ye Fan quickly changed the subject.

“Don’t worry, they’re dependable.”

“Of course! My crew’s the best there is!” Luffy declared, full of confidence in his friends.

The group’s figures soon disappeared into the depths of the desert.

After several hours of travel, they finally reached the heart of Alabasta—Alubarna.

“Goodbye, my delicious food,” Luffy drooled, mouth wide, watching as the huge scorpion panicked and scuttled away.

“Is that the Rebel Army camp over there?” Zoro squinted at the edge of the kingdom, dozens of kilometers away, where an endless field of tents sprawled.

That had to be the Rebel Army’s camp. But when did it get so close to the capital?

“It must be thanks to Nami’s success. Otherwise, there’s no way the Rebel Army would dare set up so close.”

That’s right—Nami and the others had already convinced Koza to give up attacking the kingdom, having learned that Crocodile was the real culprit, not the king.

Koza, after a brief moment to process the truth, put forward a single demand: a face-to-face talk with the king.

Koza himself didn’t care much, but he couldn’t have his hundreds of thousands of followers branded as traitors for the rest of their lives.

So the rebel army marched, moving their entire force closer to the capital.