Ren didn't stay in Wano Country for long, because he was genuinely quite busy.
The overseas territorial disputes wouldn't be settled for years, and they were only growing more intense. The reason was that Shiki, that rule-breaking bastard, had launched a sneak attack on Big Mom's home base while she was away at the front lines.
As a result, the war had evolved from a dispute over Wang Zhi and the others' territories into a clash between established powers. And this time, the Marines had intervened as well.
The Marines had now freed up their forces in Paradise, giving them more time and energy to deal with New World pirates. Sometimes even Ren found himself inevitably drawn into the fighting.
But most of the time, his mere presence was enough.
With him there, Inazuma served as a stabilizing force. Unless a full-scale war was launched, kings would not clash head-on with one another.
Although Kaido had already departed for Wano Country, that guy hadn't completely turned his back on overseas affairs. Kaido still maintained some clandestine contact with Big Mom.
The swords and other weapons obtained from Wano Country were being exported, slowly amassing wealth overseas. But it seemed unlikely that Kaido would have a chance to rise to prominence before Roger became the Pirate King and was captured.
Right now, the greatest enemy Kaido had to face was Shiki.
Shiki would absolutely never tolerate seeing another pirate crew grow stronger. His ambition was no smaller than Rocks's, though the forces he had gathered fell far short of Rocks's.
Then again, while the Rocks Pirates had astonishing hardware on paper, they were fundamentally incompatible with one another. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been so easily crushed by the combined forces of the Marines and Roger.
Speaking of which, Ren had fought Whitebeard on some island a while back.
That middle-aged old man's strength was truly absurd—especially with the boost from his Devil Fruit powers, his attack power was simply staggering. But in the end, that battle still ended without a decisive outcome.
Three more years passed just like that.
In the Sea Circle Calendar year 1494, this was the year Kozuki Oden originally boarded Whitebeard's ship. But now, something even more momentous had occurred.
Unprecedented in history—the first Pirate King had been born!
That's right, before anyone even realized it, Roger had sailed around the entire world and found the location of Laugh Tale, the final island that no one else knew.
When Ren saw today's newspaper, even he was momentarily stunned.
This was five years earlier than in the original story.
"At this point in time, Roger's body should still be quite healthy..."
Ren suddenly realized that if the Roger Pirates disbanded at this juncture, then a still-robust Roger might not turn himself in so quickly.
"That would mean Ace could be born earlier, and Roger might even get to raise him for a while."
But more than Ace's situation, Ren was actually more worried about Orochi's side. In the original story, Roger's health was already failing, so he disbanded the pirate crew shortly after finding Laugh Tale.
But what about now?
After all, he still hadn't visited Wano Country yet.
If Roger got it into his head to follow Oden back to Wano Country for a visit, then Orochi and Kaido would be in serious trouble.
"Finding the final island—is that really such an incredible thing?" Yukiko was also reading the news, but she had trouble wrapping her head around the newspaper calling Gol D. Roger the Pirate King.
And what about this great treasure? She found it hard to believe that anyone in the world could possess more wealth than Inazuma.
It wasn't arrogance on her part. The autonomous mechanisms had already been sold to every corner of the world.
In terms of wealth alone, even Captain John's legendary treasure from the old days would be hard-pressed to compare.
Not to mention, the majority of Captain John's treasure had already fallen into their hands long ago.
"It must be something more valuable than money, right?" Ren said, shaking his head.
Although Oda had stated that the great treasure wasn't something intangible, he'd never explicitly said it was something as vulgar as money.
It might actually be what many fans had guessed—that the One Piece was a massive continent. Or at least something connected to the Great Kingdom from eight hundred years ago.
"But if no one has ever been there before, how does the World Economic Journal know that Gol D. Roger and his crew reached Laugh Tale?" Yukiko wondered.
"Don't tell me they made a big spectacle of it themselves?"
"Who knows. Those news folks really do have their ways." Ren shook his head.
He wasn't sure whether "Big News" Morgans had control of the newspaper in this era. But the news organization did frequently dig up all sorts of unknown insider information.
And sometimes, the more unbelievable a piece of news seemed, the more likely it was to be true.
Setting aside Yukiko's reaction, other pirates also had varying responses to Roger being crowned with the title of Pirate King. But for the great pirates who ruled the New World, at least for Charlotte Linlin, there was actually a fair bit of admiration.
She had sailed the New World under Rocks for so long, and naturally she had already noticed that the so-called Suishousei Island was not the final island of the Grand Line. So she readily accepted that Roger had reached Laugh Tale.
Besides, Roger's strength was formidable enough to merit it.
"Pirate King, huh?" Shiki curled his lip, clearly displeased. "Isn't that basically stepping on my head?"
"That bastard Roger becoming the Pirate King—I don't acknowledge that one bit!" he fumed.
"Men, set sail! Let's snatch that title for ourselves!"
"Becoming the Pirate King before becoming the King of the World—doesn't feel half bad!" With that thought, Shiki cheered up again.
In his view, only those with power deserved to stand at the summit.
Becoming the Pirate King just for discovering an island?
What kind of nonsense was that?
It wasn't like he was the King of Adventure.
Shiki genuinely acknowledged Roger's strength, but he acknowledged his own even more!
And so, although the timing differed from the original, the famous Edd War happened once again.
"Gurarararara! Big events just keep coming one after another." Whitebeard took a gloating swig of alcohol.
"That ought to put Shiki in his place," he added, bursting into laughter.
Although Shiki had gone after Roger in high spirits, the two sides didn't actually encounter each other until 1495. Whether it was historical correction or pure coincidence was anyone's guess.
The same time, the same place, and of course the same outcome as the original. The battle for the title of Pirate King ultimately ended with Shiki's defeat.
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