# Chapter 82: The Choice
"You've all seen it, right?"
Rocks pointed at the map, his Haki involuntarily emanating, carrying the weight of someone surveying the land.
"The Marines concentrating their strength in the New World means they can confront us, but they're celebrating too early."
"It's time to let them witness the true strength with which we'll sweep across the World."
Saying this, Rocks D.
Xebec looked at everyone, the madness flashing in his eyes was captivating, seemingly infecting everyone present.
His finger, condensed with dark Armament Haki, pressed onto the location of Stone Country on the map, leaving a deep imprint.
With numerous objectives, dividing forces was unavoidable.
However, the Rocks Pirates possessed sufficient combat power and had no fear of dividing their forces.
"These Member Nations are the objectives of our operation this time. Stone Country is mine. You four will choose the next four yourselves."
As soon as his voice fell, gazes fell upon the Four Kings.
Rocks was referring to the remaining four Member Nations in the New World.
As the battlefield of the New World, they faced the greatest pressure.
Most of the Marines' combat power was gathered in the New World, so reinforcements would definitely arrive faster.
And this, naturally, would be borne by the Four Kings, whose strength was second only to Rocks D.
Xebec.
The Four Kings stood at the very front, closest to Rocks.
"Violence King" Kosa was a terrifying monster four meters tall, covered in bulging muscles that could unleash destructive strength at any moment.
Behind him stood his many subordinates, each a renowned powerhouse in the New World, emanating a fierce aura.
"Golden King" Donovan's faction was slightly larger than "Violence King" Kosa's, with more military strength, because he was wealthy enough.
In terms of strength, however, he was slightly inferior to Kosa.
"Werewolf" Quilo's faction was relatively weaker.
As a member of the Werewolf Tribe, he was, in a sense, ostracized by some Pirates.
Moreover, there were quite a few Werewolf Tribe members on his ship, and his main cadres were all Werewolf Tribe members, making them quite exclusive.
In terms of strength, he was not at all weaker than Kosa.
The remaining one, "Death Gun" Leon, was alone but incredibly composed, a testament to his absolute confidence in his own strength.
"Bairden Kingdom will be mine," Kosa said first, flicking his finger lightly, leaving his own mark on the location of Bairden Kingdom on the map with a powerful force.
"Then I'll take on Washington Kingdom."
Golden King Donovan left his mark on the map.
With a head full of golden hair, he looked like a noble.
The incredibly wealthy Donovan could be said to have the best reputation among the Rocks Pirates.
Thanks to the Gold-Gold Fruit, Donovan possessed immense assets and was never stingy with treasure rewards.
Especially regarding the development of the Gold-Gold Fruit, he had also reached the awakening stage, but Donovan's development direction was somewhat different from the future "Golden Emperor".
In addition to the ability to control gold, Donovan could create gold.
The gold created in this way was permanent, not a temporary assimilation.
The situation where the ability user's ability would disappear upon falling unconscious or dying would not occur.
Regarding the development of the Gold-Gold Fruit, Donovan had long reached the gold synthesis stage.
His ability was equivalent to a synthesizer, requiring only some ore and metal to extract useful elements and synthesize gold of higher value.
Such a Donovan could practically rival a nation in wealth, possessing countless treasures.
The only possible impact was the large influx of gold into the World, causing the amount of gold to increase, and without an increase in demand, leading to a decrease in the value of gold.
Hades was well aware that Donovan had long been targeted by the superpower nation, Hilton Kingdom, the "Golden Kingdom".
Donovan's unrestrained behavior of creating gold had long affected the chaos of the entire Gold Market, and the decrease in the value of gold directly impacted Hilton Kingdom's interests.
Originally, the Gold Market was controlled by Hilton Kingdom, but now it was somewhat out of control.
It was like Kronos Kingdom controlling the entire World's Silver Market.
What would they do if a Silver-Silver Fruit ability user appeared who could create silver?
Kill him at all costs!
Or capture him alive and control him themselves.
Kronos Kingdom's attitude was Hilton Kingdom's attitude.
However, the current situation was also what superpower nations like Hilton Kingdom hoped to see.
For now, there was no need to weaken the Rocks Pirates.
Instead, they should further promote the growth of the Rocks Pirates to confront the World Government.
"Adams Kingdom."
"Werewolf" Quilo stated his objective.
"Then the last one, George Kingdom, will be mine," Lyon said with a light chuckle, wiping his beloved gun.
In reality, except for Lyon, the other three Kings chose Member Nations that were closer to their own territories.
In the Surrounding Seas of these Member Nations, there were Navy Fortresses monitoring them.
After the operation began, their first targets would not be the World Government Member Nations, but rather eliminating the Marine forces that could interfere with them.
These Navy Fortresses were the Marines' monitoring posts.
They couldn't let the Marines know their objectives immediately.
Attacking the Marine Bases would also give the Marines the illusion that the Rocks Pirates' target was the Marines, leading to mistakes in troop deployment.
In reality, they were hiding the actual objective of the Member Nations.
Furthermore, the Marine Vice Admirals guarding these Navy Fortresses simply didn't have the strength to threaten them.
The choice of Member Nations might have been made with this consideration, allowing them to weaken the World Government while also weakening the Marines' strength.
"What about these two then? Who wants to go?"
The objectives in the New World had been chosen.
Next were those in the First Half of the Grand Line.
Lincoln Kingdom and Wilson Kingdom were loyal supporters of the World Government, always standing on the same side as the World Government.
It could be said they had long been tamed by the World Government.
Compared to the New World and the Four Seas, the World Government and Marine strength was greater in the First Half of the Grand Line, and they could do more.
The Four Seas were essentially the World Government's base, possessing the vastest Sea Areas, resources, and population, and a greater number of Member Nations.
However, in the First Half of the Grand Line, the World Government and Marines had a stronger grip.
(end of chapter)