"Everyone!"
"The Whitebeard Pirates didn't have time to take their supplies with them—they left behind a huge stockpile of wine!"
A drinker like Senju Hashirama nearly drooled at the news.
"Wine? There's wine over there?!" he exclaimed excitedly.
Aside from fighters like Payne and Jiguo Yuanyi, who only cared about combat, the rest of the crew immediately grew interested in the materials Whitebeard's crew had left behind.
After all, the Whitebeard Pirates, despite their defeat, had once been the strongest pirate crew on the seas. Their accumulated wealth and resources over the past twenty years were enough to match the lifetime gains of countless ordinary pirate crews.
In truth, Kronos and his crew had gotten incredibly lucky.
Whether Marco and the others left too hastily, or they simply didn't dare to carry supplies while retreating, the result was the same—they abandoned an enormous stockpile for the Kamui Pirates to claim.
And as fate would have it, Whitebeard had recently ordered massive quantities of supplies to be gathered from across the world, preparing for a decisive war.
As the world's strongest pirate at the time, Whitebeard only needed to say the word, and his influence across the seas guaranteed him unimaginable resources.
But now—
All those riches, enough to rival a kingdom's treasury, had fallen into Kronos' hands.
The Kamui Pirates erupted into laughter at their sudden fortune.
Not only was there endless wine and all manner of war supplies—there were also ten billion Berries!
With such wealth, the Kamui Pirates' strength was bound to rise to an entirely new level.
Yet, Kronos knew better than anyone that the greatest prize wasn't the supplies or the money.
It was the island itself—Honeycomb Island.
The island was no ordinary territory. For countless veteran pirates, it was nothing less than a sacred land.
Whether it was Rocks D. Xebec forty years ago, or Whitebeard, who had only just been driven out, both had one thing in common:
They built their empires with Honeycomb Island as their base, expanding outward to dominate the seas, crushing and annexing everything in their path.
The true value of Honeycomb Island wasn't its resources—it was its symbolism.
Moreover, the island sat at the very heart of the New World.
This was a true battleground, a strategic fortress. Whoever controlled Honeycomb Island could use it as a springboard to strike against all other powers.
That was why even veteran Emperors like Kaido and Charlotte Linlin, who already had vast territories of their own, still coveted it.
Because in the New World, Honeycomb Island was simply too important.
Kronos had understood this from the very beginning. His true goal was not just Whitebeard's defeat, but the complete takeover of Honeycomb Island.
Once word of this spread, the entire sea would take notice. The message would be clear: Whitebeard was old, and Kronos was rising in his place.
And this was also why Kronos had chosen not to kill Whitebeard outright.
Allowing a wounded, humiliated Four Emperor to live served another purpose:
It would draw bloodthirsty sharks from every corner of the sea.
Supernovas, Shichibukai, and even rival Emperors—all would target Whitebeard, eager to claim his head as proof of their strength.
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