"The Overlord of the Seas, the Rocks Pirates' Stronghold Attacked!"
"The End of the Rocks Era? The Attacker Makes Away Unscathed, Two High-Ranking Officers of the Rocks Pirates Injured!"
"The Crushing Defeat of the Rocks Pirates, A New Rising Supernova!"
"The Blade That Sliced an Island, Will He Be the World's Strongest Swordsman?"
"Bounty of 2.39 Billion, Code Name: Raijin!"
A few days later, while resting at sea, Ren looked at the fabricated newspaper he had bought from a News Coo and was momentarily lost for words, chuckling in spite of himself.
Judging by the paper alone, an uninformed person might think the Rocks Pirates had been completely wiped out by him single-handedly. But in reality, only 40% of the newspaper's content was true; the rest was wild exaggeration.
Ren had indeed caused a huge ruckus on Pirate Island and escaped, but Golden Lion and Big Mom were not defeated by him as the newspaper claimed. In reality, the injuries those two suffered were far lighter than Ren's.
As for the matter of slicing the island in half with a single sword strike, that wasn't an exaggeration. There was indeed a brand new landmark on Pirate Island now—Muso no Issoku Ittokiri!
"However, I didn't expect them to issue a bounty for me. I merely attacked Rocks' base; how does that equate me with pirates?" Ren was quite dissatisfied with this, but the bounty poster and the alias were even more outrageous.
The image on the bounty poster showed Ren wielding the lightning from the sky as he unleashed Muso no Issoku. He looked just like a Thunder God. It was clear the photographer was likely on Pirate Island at the time.
"It's probably a World Government agent," Kurozumi Semimaru explained. In a place as chaotic as the Rocks Pirates' base, it wouldn't be hard for a few agents to blend in. The alias "Raijin" was likely heard by an agent during the conversation between Ren and Golden Lion.
"Even so, there's no need to issue a bounty for me," Ren shook his head. He had no prior criminal record. The Marines should be happy that someone stood up against Rocks, shouldn't they?
In fact, this bounty was causing quite a bit of dissension even within the Marines.
A few days prior, after receiving the intelligence sent back by the agent, the current Fleet Admiral, Kong, had convened a meeting.
"It is truly surprising. Someone actually had the guts to attack Hachinosu and even injured that Golden Lion and Big Mom." Hina held the intelligence, examining it carefully. Compared to the fake news full of exaggerated facts released by the News Coos, the information they had was much more accurate.
In reality, Golden Lion and Big Mom weren't seriously injured. The reason the intruder managed to escape was partly due to the other party's Devil Fruit ability possessing nearly extreme speed, and partly because the mess left on the island prevented them from leaving immediately.
"In any case, he is someone capable of going head-to-head with both Golden Lion and Big Mom. The current plan is to give him a bounty of 2.39 billion Berries." Kong took out the bounty poster. "And this one, the pirate Kozuki Oden, bounty of 300 million Berries."
"Wait, is it appropriate to bounty these two people just like that? They shouldn't have committed any illegal acts," Sengoku frowned. "At the very least, we should try to make contact with them and try to recruit this power to our side."
"If I could, I would want to do that too, but this is an order from the World Government," Kong shook his head. "According to the intelligence sent back by the agent, the cause of this conflict seems to be a Devil Fruit. And this person code-named Raijin is, without a doubt, already the user of the Goro Goro no Mi."
"Does that mean this fruit was originally prepared for someone else?" Garp asked, picking his nose.
"It's not just that. To trigger such a large-scale conflict, that fruit must be extraordinary," Tsuru shook her head. She had somewhat guessed the World Government's concerns.
A power developing silently in the shadows would inevitably make the World Government wary. If it weren't for the conflict over this Devil Fruit this time, they likely wouldn't have entered the World Government's field of vision for quite a while.
"Cowards," Garp scoffed, then turned his gaze to Zephyr, who had been silent the whole time.
"What's wrong, Zephyr? You've been staring at the bounty poster."
"Nothing, it just feels a bit familiar." He pointed at Ren on the bounty poster, speaking as he thought, "I feel like I've seen him somewhere before."
"Is that so?" Garp and Sengoku both crowded over, but they couldn't see anything.
Zephyr had seen Ren once last year, but since Ren's face changed slightly after using Full Reception, Zephyr only felt a sense of familiarity. As for Garp and the others, they were even more clueless.
"In any case, this matter doesn't need further discussion. Distribute it when the next batch of bounty posters is updated," Kong said. "And investigate the origins of these people... forget it, let's leave that to the CP agents."
Troublesome matters were coming one after another. Since the World Government considered these people enemies, let them have the headache themselves.
On the other side, Kozuki Oden and his companions, who had set sail again, also saw their own bounties.
"This is terrible. Lord Oden has actually become a wanted criminal..." Denjiro and the others covered their heads one by one, looking rather grim. In their hearts, Kozuki Oden was always a figure of the highest nobility. Now, seeing him turned into a wanted criminal with a price tag on his head made them feel very uncomfortable.
However, Kozuki Oden was quite happy. Previously, when he encountered pirates, anyone with a bit of fame would boast about their bounty before the fight. While a high bounty didn't necessarily represent strength, shouting it out always felt majestic.
"I'm only bountied for 300 million? This Berry currency... I remember, roughly..."
"About sixty thousand gold," Denjiro converted it for him. The purchasing power of Berries these days was much higher than it would be a few decades later. If calculated by the exchange rate thirty-some years from now, it would be about thirty thousand gold.
"Thirty thousand gold? The price of about three hundred white pigs?" Kin'emon had a momentary brain fart and said that sentence.
"Raijin, bounty of 2.39 billion... is the gap really that big?" Kozuki Oden admitted he was no match for Ren, but surely it shouldn't be a gap of two billion, right?
"The newspaper is also talking entirely about the Daimyo of Kuri," Kanjuro said. "Lord Oden, you were the only one awake at that time. Is what the newspaper says true?"
"To be honest, I'm not entirely clear on the specific situation either, but the part about slicing the island is true. Moreover, it didn't just slice the island..." Kozuki Oden recalled that earth-shattering strike from back then; even the sea had been sliced open.
"By now, a ravine over ten meters wide should have appeared there."
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