New World Marine Headquarters Medical Facility.
The current state of this place was an empty corridor, a hall filled with the smell of disinfectant, and a handful of doctors in white coats.
It had to be said that having no wounded soldiers seeking treatment was actually a good thing for the Marines.
An empty medical facility meant the Marines had the situation at sea well under control, with no major casualties occurring.
Smoker had once seen hospitals ten, even a hundred times more crowded than this.
That was two years ago, when he was forcibly summoned to Marineford to confront the pirate crew of the world's strongest man, Whitebeard.
Back then, on the plaza of Marineford, the number of elite Marines who died in battle alone exceeded ten thousand.
The wounded were countless!
Compared to the desolate scene before him now, that place was truly a living hell.
"Vice Admiral Smoker! You... why are you out of bed? what about your injuries?"
While Smoker was lost in thought, a pleasant female voice suddenly reached his ears.
Without looking up, Smoker knew who it was.
He instinctively pulled two cigars from his pocket, but before he could light them, they were snatched away by the newcomer.
Tashigi, wearing red-framed glasses, angrily grabbed the cigars and said indignantly.
"Vice Admiral Smoker! You're a patient! How can you smoke? Besides, this is a no-smoking area."
"Tashigi, my injuries have long healed. Lying in bed for so long, my body's practically rusting."
Smoker looked at Tashigi with a headache, but then noticed a trace of anxiety in her eyes, which made him pause slightly.
"Is something wrong, Tashigi?"
Tashigi hesitated, biting her lip before finally saying, 'Vice Admiral Smoker, Sakazuki-sama has issued a mandatory summons.' All officers ranked Lieutenant Commander and above must report here within seven days."
Smoker frowned. "A mandatory summons? Which Yonko is it this time? Did the Marines find leverage against them?"
Two years ago, Whitebeard had stormed Marineford to rescue Ace precisely because Ace had been captured.
And the reason the Marines had so publicly executed Ace was simply to set a trap.
It was an open scheme—Whitebeard knew it was a trap but had no choice but to walk into it.
Hearing about the mandatory summons, Smoker immediately thought of the war from two years ago.
"It's... it's the Beast God Pirates!" Tashigi bit her lip, her eyes revealing even deeper fear than two years ago.
"The Beast God Pirates?"
Smoker's pupils instantly dilated as he recalled that day on the island at G-5 base, when he encountered that Demon God-like man.
No, that wasn't a man—it was a complete monster!
From that monster, Smoker learned what true despair and powerlessness felt like.
All his hard-trained Devil Fruit abilities and Haki weren't even worth a scratch to that monster!
The reason he had been lying in the headquarters medical ward for over half a month was entirely thanks to the captain of the Beast God Pirates!
"I see. Did headquarters find leverage against them?"
Smoker calmed himself slightly and continued asking.Tashigi slowly shook her head.
"The specific details are currently being explained in the headquarters conference hall. We can go listen now. I've heard that many Marine officers stationed across the world have already gathered there."
"Alright, let's head over immediately!"
...
The atmosphere in the headquarters conference hall was terrifyingly oppressive.
Elite officers from Marine Headquarters sat with grim expressions, listening to Brannew explain everything about the Beast God Pirates from the podium.
By the time Smoker arrived, the hall was already packed.
Since the Summit War, the Marines had relocated their headquarters to the New World.
It was their major victory against the Whitebeard Pirates that allowed the Marines to firmly establish their presence in the chaotic New World.
On one hand, the Marines actively instigated conflicts among the major powers in the New World.
Meanwhile, supernovae like Straw Hat Luffy stirred up trouble among established forces, taking down some powerful figures and thereby reducing pressure on the Marines.
Although the rise of supernovae wasn't necessarily good news for the Marines either.
Compared to those deeply rooted veteran pirate forces, these reckless newcomers could actually be manipulated by the Marines as pawns.
But no one had expected that right after Straw Hat Luffy and Buggy were announced as the new Yonko, Barbarossa Caesar would suddenly emerge from nowhere!
He was an unprecedentedly terrifying figure.
In less than two months since his appearance, he had single-handedly rewritten the entire situation in the New World!
Smoker quietly made his way to the front row and sat down, recognizing several familiar faces.
There was Hina with a cigarette between her red lips.
There was Doberman with X-shaped scars covering his face.
There was Vice Admiral Momonga with a grave expression.
He even spotted a short, shady-looking man and a tall, beautiful woman.
They were the Admiral candidates Chaton and Momousagi, both far surpassing him in strength.
Noticing Smoker's gaze, Hina glanced at him with her cigarette, and Smoker keenly detected the worry in her eyes.
"Everyone! I must emphasize again that the current scale of the Beast God Pirates completely dwarfs what the Whitebeard Pirates used to be!"
Brannew slapped the blackboard beside him, which was covered densely with bounty posters - too many to count at a glance!
"The Whitebeard Pirates didn't have many fighters comparable to Admirals! Besides Whitebeard himself, only Marco the Phoenix was somewhat decent. But with the Beast God Pirates, the situation is completely different!"
Brannew operated the Image Den Den Mushi on the table, projecting a massive bounty poster.
On the poster was a mountainously built, majestic man with horns on his head, looking as if cast from steel.
He stood on a frozen sea, with numerous tiny pirate ships visible in the background.
Before him were two men clutching their chests and coughing up blood!
Every officer present was extremely familiar with the faces of those two bleeding men!
They were none other than Yonko Red-Haired Shanks and Yonko Blackbeard Marshall D. Teach!
Everyone in the hall stared silently at the man in the photograph, not making a sound.
Brannew pointed at the photo and said solemnly.
"This is the individual who, over the past two months, has had the greatest impact on the New World and even the entire world, with the most rapidly expanding influence! He established the Pirate Council, integrated the former Beasts Pirates and Big Mom Pirates, and now commands thirty-seven subordinate pirate crews!"
"He occupies the Totto Land waters and Buggy's Karai Bari Kingdom, ruling over the largest territory in the New World as the captain of the Beast God Pirates!"
"The elder brother of Kaido of the Beasts, husband of Charlotte Linlin, the Beast God! Barbarossa Caesar!"
"After joint deliberation between the World Government and Marine Headquarters, we have unanimously decided to raise this man's bounty to 5,233,000,000 Berries!"
"Latest intelligence indicates the reappearance of the long-missing Flying Pirates after more than a decade! They have now joined the Beast God Pirates!"