It would damage Marines reputation, but the World Government doesn’t care about such things. Anyway, no one will deliberately publicize it. Even if those within Marines who know the truth are dissatisfied, they don’t give a damn.
Marines are the military arm under the World Government, but it’s not the entirety of the World Government. They’re just a bunch of regular soldiers. If the compensation gets distributed properly, that alone is already much better than some remote branches.
Out in the remote Four Seas where the government’s influence is weak, a mere branch’s Lieutenant Commander can wield significant power over a region.
“Sengoku, this is the World Government’s arrangement, but we’re not without countermeasures. Most of the money this time will be handed over to Marines. You can decide how to allocate them.”
Sengoku had always followed the World Government’s orders, and Saturn didn’t want to make things too unpleasant. After a bit of pressure, he also granted additional funds for military expenses.
“There won’t be any large-scale battles at the moment. If you want to gather intel, you’ll have to handle that yourselves. We won’t intervene in that regard.”
Infiltrating pirate crews with undercover agents is a common tactic used by both the World Government and Marines. Whether it’s certain branches of Cipher Pol, or Marine Headquarters Secret Special Force—SWORD, they are all professional spy organizations.
However, the Beasts Pirates are an exception. Low-ranking spies hold little value since they can’t access important intel. To infiltrate the Beasts Pirates’ core, one needs strength.
There are people like that in the branches of Cipher Pol, but the problem is, they can’t send anyone. There’s a traitor from the Cipher Pol branch within the Beasts Pirates—Who’s-Who. He knows all the agents capable of infiltrating the core of the Beasts Pirates.
Each Cipher Pol branch has its own responsibilities. While CP0 is the strongest overall, they primarily handle protection, escorting, and capture missions. In contrast, CP9 members are more skilled in covert undercover operations.
Who’s-Who, once a genius of CP9, knows all too well the people who could execute such missions. Sending them as undercover agents wouldn’t be to gather intel; it would be straight-up gifting merits to Who’s-Who. Thus, the World Government has no intention of inserting more spies and has left this task to Marines.
World Government’s decision not to launch a large-scale operation was final. Sengoku had no choice but to return to headquarters with a substantial amount of military funds. Rebuilding G-1 and compensating the soldiers—all of that required money, and he wasn’t about to turn down free funds.
At the same time, a new bounty was issued for Kaido.
Kaido of the Beasts.
Beasts Pirates Governor-General
Bounty: 4,670,000,000 Berries
The person selecting the bounty photo couldn’t resist their occupational disease and replaced it with a new one. It was a shot of Kaido summoning thunder and lightning while trying to unleash the God of Lightning Tenjin.
The image of him drawing down lightning with one hand not only emphasized Kaido’s terror but also gained him a new batch of fans.
Hydra the Evil Dragon
Kaido’s Mount
Bounty: 300,000,000 Berries
Due to its eight dragon heads and regenerative abilities, Marine’s Intelligence Branch named Hydrachton as Hydra, giving it a special code name.
Hydrachton became the only giant Pokémon to receive a bounty. Emboar and Tyranitar were born earlier, but Marine viewed them as merely large, specialized weapons, unworthy of individual bounties since they hadn’t caused significant destruction.
At least they hadn’t caused much damage to Marines, but Hydrachton was different. Not only did it inflict heavy casualties on Marine the day it appeared, but it also emerged as Kaido’s mount.
Its ability to fly freely meant an even greater threat, which is why a bounty was specially placed on it.
Meanwhile, there was another unfortunate victim.
Queen the Plague
Bounty: 2,000,000,000 Berries
ONLY ALIVE
Below the wanted poster, there is usually a brief biography of the person, which provides a summary of what they have done, how vicious they are, and, in the case of special targets, details about their abilities and background.
At this moment, the brief description on Queen’s wanted poster had already been updated. As Queen read through it, even he was surprised at how “impressive” he was made out to be.
“Boss, as expected of you! A whole two billion Berries, even Brother King and Big Sis Shayna can’t compare to you.”
“Yeah, not just them! Katakuri and Marco can’t compare to you either. Aside from Lord Arceus, Boss, you’re practically the number one man under the Emperor of the Sea! Maybe only Beckman is on par with you.”
“Sigh… All of you, get lost! Just get lost!”
Hearing the flattery from his subordinates, Queen felt no joy—only agitated.
What’s there to be happy about with a bounty increase? Besides, making things more dangerous, it is completely pointless otherwise.
Recently, he’d been working overtime and had finally finished implementing the identity card system for Wano Country. Even common street thugs now had something to prove their identity.
Looking back, his overtime efforts seemed to have been worthwhile.
After chasing away his underlings, Queen flipped through the newspaper, trying to figure out what was really going on. After cutting through Marine’s propaganda, he understood how this new bounty had come about.
“This won’t do. I need to come up with a plan. If this continues, I’ll be sitting here waiting for death…”
Queen started thinking about how to save himself. One option was to try to rein in Kaido, to stop him from causing such large-scale disturbances, but this wasn’t really feasible—Kaido would never listen to his suggestion.
Or, he could push Arceus to the forefront, which would be the ultimate solution. That way, his days as the “King of Scapegoats” would finally be over.
However, the outcome would be the same. If Arceus truly had such intentions, he wouldn’t be needed in the first place.
“Hmm… Maybe I should think of a way to persuade Shayna and Misu. Those fanatics might be able to come up with something…”
Queen looked up at the clear sky but felt like the future was dark and bleak.
While his eyes were dim, there were others whose eyes were shining brightly.
…
“Impossible! Absolutely impossible! Your Intelligence Branch must be wrong! There’s no way this thing is Queen’s creation! That guy couldn’t possibly have this kind of technology! No way!!”
At Punk Hazard, Caesar Clown was angrily staring at the experimental data and analysis reports. His eyes were practically on fire. The three severed heads of Hydrachton, after being frozen, had been sent here for research.
Through an analysis of the blood contained within, Caesar discovered something unbelievable—this blood held a very special power.
All living organisms have Lineage Factor, which is the carrier of Devil Fruit’s powers. This is something they discovered in the blood of Devil Fruit users. Both Caesar and Vegapunk had made certain breakthroughs in this area.
But in this frozen blood, the concentration of Devil Fruit power was ridiculously high.
Rather than saying some animal ate a Devil Fruit, this phenomenon looked more like the Devil Fruit had come to life on its own.
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