Aokiji opened his mouth, but in the end still didn't say anything, falling silent.
That's not what I was talking about at all, Sakazuki…
Or is it that you deliberately shifted the topic toward Endgame so I wouldn't keep pressing you?
And you, what do you think, Borsalino?
Aokiji turned his gaze to the other side, but Kizaru still looked as if he hadn't noticed anything, eyes empty as he stared at the whiteboard, looking like his soul had long since flown off somewhere…
"Comrades-in-arms, fellow officers!"
Sengoku's deep voice came from above: "Almost everyone is here, so let's start this meeting right away!"
"I believe all of you have already heard something before coming here—about just what kind of vile atrocity Endgame has committed again in the North Sea a few days ago!"
Sengoku stood before the whiteboard, his expression dark and grave, raising his right hand in indication.
On the screen, the image of that valley in the Lubunier Kingdom that had been turned into a lava hell instantly appeared.
"Three hundred and sixty-six Heavenly Celestial Dragons from seventeen families in Mary Geoise, simply because they'd been stifled in the Holy Land for too long, went to this country for an outing, but somehow Endgame got word of it and brazenly launched a sneak attack, carrying out an unprecedented massacre of the Heavenly Celestial Dragons!"
"Three hundred and sixty-six Heavenly Celestial Dragons, not a single one spared, all dead!"
The conference room instantly erupted!
Aside from the Three Great Admirals whose faces remained unchanged, quite a few Vice Admirals and Major Generals all showed looks of shock. They had previously heard some vague rumors that Headquarters had suffered a heavy loss again in the North Sea.
But they never imagined that the situation had deteriorated to this extent!
Over three hundred and sixty Heavenly Celestial Dragons?
Looking back over eight hundred years of Chronology of One Piece, the total number of Heavenly Celestial Dragons who died unnatural deaths probably only amounts to a fraction of that, right!
"Not only that, in the battle, our Navy Headquarters also paid a grievous price."
Sengoku's voice grew even heavier. "You've seen Sakazuki's injuries as well. In order to stop Endgame's atrocities, the eight thousand elites dispatched by Navy Headquarters were completely wiped out there! And even on the World Government's side, who rushed over to reinforce, two big shots fell!"
He took a deep breath, swept his gaze across the room, and his voice suddenly rose:
"From this we can see that the mastermind of this incident, Shano, has already far surpassed all pirates in cruelty! His level of threat to the World Government and to our Navy Headquarters is also the highest in history, absolutely unprecedented!"
"And with the ever-growing Endgame he leads under his command, calling them the greatest future enemy of our Navy Headquarters would be no exaggeration at all!"
"A gang like this—madmen, thugs, monsters! Their current bounty amounts no longer match what they are! They must be adjusted as soon as possible, Blanu!"
"Here, Marshal!"
Blanu stepped forward with a solemn expression and raised his hand to pin a huge warrant to the whiteboard.
"According to past practice, this man's warrant ought to be revealed last."
"But this time is different! The price we paid is far too tragic, so I ask all comrades to remember this face well from the very beginning! Remember well this beast who has committed countless atrocities and plunged the world into even deeper chaos—Shano!"
As his words fell.
The high-ranking Navy officers all clearly saw that familiar photograph.
And the updated bounty figure below caused a collective sharp intake of breath to instantly sound through the room—
[DEAD OR ALIVE]
[Governor of the Endgame, World's No.1 Sword Master Shano]
[$ 6,320,000,000]
"Six hundred and thirty-two hundred million Belly?!!"
"This… I'm not seeing things, right? That's more than ten billion higher than Whitebeard's bounty, isn't it?"
"Idiot, not just Whitebeard! It's ten billion higher than Roger—higher than Pirate King Gold Roger!"
"Even that Rocks back then never had a bounty this high!"
Amid a chorus of shocked whispers, some were drenched in cold sweat, some swallowed dryly, and some simply stared dead at the bounty amount, unable to speak for a long while.
Once bounty numbers reach a certain level, they actually lose their original meaning.
Because there is no external force or individual in the world anymore who can capture a criminal of this level just to exchange them for a bounty.
In fact, not to mention the tens-of-billions tier—those pirates with bounties in the more-than-one-billion Belly range have basically never had their bounties cashed in throughout history.
At this point, the greater significance of the bounty number is that it represents their level of threat to the world! Or in other words, their danger level!
The higher it goes, the harder it is to rise. Even raising it by just tens of millions, even simply surpassing someone by one rank, means a marked increase in how seriously the World Government takes them!
And this time Shano's bounty amount surged directly from just over fifty billion to six hundred and thirty-two hundred million Belly in one go!
Not only leaving legends like Whitebeard and Roger far behind, but also setting an unprecedented new record in history!
Truly, the most heinous criminal of all time!
As the murmuring gradually died down, the conference room fell into silence once more. Everyone could sense the terrifying weight behind this new warrant.
Blanu waited a while longer. When everyone had more or less digested it, he began adding new warrants to the whiteboard.
This time he started with Shano himself and posted them from highest down.
So in theory, this batch of warrants should be for the four highest core cadres of Endgame.
But…
To everyone's surprise, there were actually five warrants on the whiteboard.
"'Wind Erosion' Kuina, Deputy Captain of Endgame, top executive, bounty increased to 1.646 billion Belly!"
"'Star Fall' Issho, Endgame Headquarters top executive, bounty increased to 2.84 billion Belly!"
"'Thunder Meteor' Bartholomew Kuma, top executive, bounty increased to a flat 1.6 billion Belly!"
"'Earthquake' Jack, top executive—because he previously lost to Katakuri, his bounty has not been adjusted for quite some time. This time, his bounty will be raised to 1.42 billion Belly! Dead or alive!"
"All of you must have anticipated the scale of these four people's bounty increases, so I won't say much more on them."
Blanu's voice paused as he swept his gaze across the room and pointed at the last warrant:
"The following individual is, without question, the greatest focus of today's meeting besides Shano himself!"
On the screen, the image of a Holy Angel clad in silver-white armor with eight wings spread wide appeared in stark clarity.
The photo seemed to have been hurriedly taken on the battlefield, the image somewhat blurred, but the aura of sacred majesty still seemed to rush off the screen.
Some of the Navy officers present didn't even dare meet its gaze, turning their faces slightly away in ashamed discomfort.
"Before introducing this woman, I would like to first offer an apology here on behalf of my colleagues in the Navy intelligence division! We committed a major blunder in our previous work!"
Blanu bowed with a solemn expression, then pinned another warrant right next to Angewomon's photo.
Looking closely, everyone saw that it was a photo of an orange-haired girl, viciously biting into something that looked like cotton candy.
"This warrant, I'm sure none of you are unfamiliar with. It belongs to Shano's younger sister, Endgame's cadre, the 'Pet-Eating Demon' Nami, with a bounty of 350 million Belly. The reason it was at that level was because we mistakenly believed she had swallowed Endgame's pet Glutinous Rice Cake alive and deprived it of the Flame-Flame Fruit's power."
"However, the truth is nothing like that."
Blanu said in a low voice, "The latest intel confirms that this so‑called angel-like lifeform is precisely the Glutinous Rice Cake we mistakenly believed to have died!"
"Within the Endgame Pirates, there has never been any practice of changing pets every now and then, nor is there any Pet-Eating Demon. The source of all these misunderstandings is nothing more than the fact that this unknown lifeform named Glutinous Rice Cake has been constantly evolving!"