Chapter 33: A Billion-Berry Pirate Crew
On the deck of the huge black ship in the East Blue.
Sag was holding a bottle of wine in his left hand, slumped comfortably (though in an odd posture) on the throne, his eyes half-closed, enjoying the warmth of the sunlight.
The weather was good today, and he was sunbathing.
As for his subordinates...
Pearl was still being beaten by the pirates. Gin's treatment was the same as Pearl's, except that while one was screaming, the other gritted his teeth and remained silent. With each strike of the iron rod, a slight reverberation could even be heard from Gin's body, like the collision of hard objects.
It seemed he was beginning to grasp the knack.
"Sag!"
Lily suddenly appeared, holding a newspaper, her expression solemn. "Today's newspaper..."
Sag raised his eyes, took the newspaper from Lily, and his expression suddenly became solemn. "Hmm..."
He nodded and exclaimed in admiration, "Not bad!"
"What's not bad?"
Lily was stunned for a moment, came over, and looked in the direction Sag was looking. There was a news item in the newspaper about a beauty pageant, and below it was a photo of various women in revealing clothing, generously displaying their figures, offering visual treats to the readers.
Lily: "..."
"You're looking at this?"
"What else?"
Sag tossed the newspaper aside. "I don't read. Just looking at the pictures is enough. Lily, next time there's no need to show me this specifically. What's the point of pictures? I need to see the real thing."
"It's not about that!"
Lily's forehead bulged with a vein. She handed the three wanted posters that had been left behind because the newspaper had been taken to Sag's face. "We're wanted, Sag!"
Hearing this, the pirates who were still training stopped and looked over.
"Where, where!"
Renettia didn't know where she'd come from, and excitedly said, "Is there one for me? How much is the bounty?"
Sag pushed the wanted posters away, then took them in his hand. He glanced at them and was stunned.
He looked at Lily in surprise. "Thirty million?"
Killing a Marine branch captain shouldn't warrant such a high price. It should be because of the two kingdoms, plus the robbed towns, that it reached this amount.
"Seventy million Berries?!"
Renettia, who had come over, also saw the bounty and exclaimed.
"How, how, how much?!"
Pearl, who was bruised and swollen, and whose mind was unclear, was startled when he heard this amount.
As for the other pirates, they were even more dumbfounded. Although they weren't drowned, they were also at a loss.
"Is it very high?" Lily asked.
She had no concept of bounties. She just knew that Sag and she would definitely be wanted. After all, she hadn't heard much about the sea since she was a child, and now she was using navigation techniques, comparing theory to reality, and slowly becoming proficient.
"Of course it's high!"
Renettia was different. Although she was only ten years old, she had traveled the sea with her master since she was a child. In order to collect materials and news of shipwrecked vessels, she was familiar with the East Blue.
"There are no pirates in the East Blue with bounties over twenty million! Your thirty million is already very high, and it's your first bounty. Sag... seventy million? I've never heard of such a bounty in the East Blue. Only pirates from the Grand Line have that, and they have to be extremely dangerous!"
This bounty was unheard of.
Gin and the others were even more terrified. They were veteran pirates. They had robbed so many towns and merchant ships, and they were only twelve million and seven million, respectively. Even their leading captain wouldn't have jumped so much.
But now... seventy million, that was something they couldn't even imagine.
After the shock, the crowd became even more reverent.
"The Captain is indeed powerful. His first bounty is seventy million. We are the undisputed overlords of the East Blue!" a pirate shouted excitedly.
"Overlords of the East Blue! Overlords of the East Blue!" The other pirates echoed.
Gin had joined, so what else was there to say? Just join directly.
Sag shook his head and smiled. "Seventy million... the World Government is really giving me face. Is this amount because they hate me to death?"
He wasn't flustered. From the moment he killed the King of Oykot, he knew he would definitely be wanted.
Killing a king of a member nation, it would be a problem if he *wasn't* wanted.
It was just that the bounty amount was unexpected.
However...
He looked at the wanted poster other than his and Lily's, a photo of a boy wearing a straw hat, showing a bright smile.
"Monkey D. Luffy, huh..." Sag murmured.
It seemed he had just received his bounty too...
"Luffy? Is that the straw hat kid? He's also become famous..." Gin looked up at the sky, with a look of reminiscence.
That kid who defeated Captain Krieg was a good man.
"Is there anything noteworthy about this straw hat?" Lily asked, seeing Sag's unusual expression.
"No..."
Sag handed the wanted poster to Renettia, who was eager to take it, and said, "It's not important. Just a fellow pirate."
"Sag, why isn't there one for me?"
Renettia threw away the Straw Hat's wanted poster, looked at his and Lily's wanted posters, and asked, "If I'm wanted, shouldn't I have a title?"
"Who gives themselves a title on their own? What kind of idiot would do that?"
Sag said, "This thing, either according to appearance characteristics, or according to behavior style, is spontaneously called by people on the sea. Whether there is a title or not doesn't matter, it refers to the person anyway."
On the wanted posters, there were only names, no titles.
"Don't I have one?"
Renettia was disappointed to hand the wanted poster to the pirates who wanted to see it, and clenched her fists. "There will definitely be one for me next time!"
"Do you think it's a good thing?"
Sag shook his head. "Our pirate crew is now the most eye-catching in the East Blue. I'm seventy million, Lily is thirty million, Gin and Pearl together are nineteen million. The total value has reached one hundred and nineteen million, a pirate crew worth over one hundred million... and it's still in the East Blue, that's not a good thing."
The East Sea, with an average bounty of three million, had a pirate crew worth over one hundred million...
The Marines would definitely send a strong force.
Staying in the East Blue, within the scope of the World Government, they would be surrounded and suppressed sooner or later.
"Plans really can't keep up with changes..."
He had originally thought that even if he was wanted, the price wouldn't be too high. He could still stay in the East Blue for a while, at least let him master Haki, and let his subordinates' strength increase, before heading to the Grand Line.
But with this bounty now, it was definitely not good to stay. Only by going to the Grand Line, that mixed bag, would he not attract the attention of all the Marines.
Now, he could only go to the Grand Line first.
"Lily, how far is it to the next place?" Sag asked.
Lily thought for a moment and said, "According to the nautical chart, in three days, we can reach 'Shallow Sand Kingdom'."
Sag took a few large gulps of wine, looking at the boundless sea. "Then we'll stop there, get some supplies, and then recruit some subordinates, and then head for the Grand Line!"
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