Chapter 207: The Confusion Brought by the Bounty Posters
Dressrosa, King's Plateau.
Louis, with a cloud cluster in tow, slowly landed and then stepped through the castle gates. As soon as he entered, he was met with a series of excited gazes.
Louis met the unusually eager eyes and couldn't help but feel a little confused. "What's wrong?"
"Louis, your bounty went up again!"
"I remember... a bounty increase isn't a good thing, is it?" Louis didn't stop walking. He raised an eyebrow and crossed the main hall with the cloud cluster. He handed the cloud, which contained the Devil Fruits, gold, and other items, to the puppets, letting them put the things in the warehouse first.
Then, Louis walked to the sofa and sat down, taking the bounty poster that Daz Bonez handed him. On the poster, apart from the photo which remained unchanged, the bounty amount below it had changed again.
"Archangel" Louis
Bounty: 4,756,000,000 Berries.
Dead or Alive!
"It went up by almost a billion Berries..." Louis slowly put down the poster and said to himself.
Just then, Gerd's emotional voice sounded. "Our bounties went up a lot too!"
The next second, Road's gleeful voice rang out. "I'm now a powerful pirate with a bounty of 400 million Berries!"
"400 million Berries?" Louis was thoughtful. He had heard that Road's performance at that time was indeed not bad. To take two of Whitebeard's punches and still intend to fight back... it was said that even Gerd and Goldberg were looking at him in a new light.
Then, Louis looked up at Gerd and Goldberg and asked with interest, "What about you two?"
Gerd heard him, smiled, and bent down, handing the two posters in her hand to Louis. Louis took them and looked them over.
"Iron Rose" Gerd
Bounty: 435,000,000 Berries
"Shield Mountain" Goldberg
Bounty: 470,000,000 Berries!
The bounties of all three had reached the 400 million range, which was somewhat surprising to Louis.
"Where's Hajrudin's bounty?" After a moment, Louis thought of Hajrudin, who was currently working like a beast of burden, and asked again.
Hearing his question, Road's whole body jolted. He proudly took out Hajrudin's bounty poster and displayed it in front of Louis. "Hajrudin is now a great pirate with a bounty of over 700 million Berries!"
However, Road's showing off once again earned him a punishment from Gerd.
BONK!
"Ugh!" With the sound of a fist hitting flesh, Road let out a pained cry.
Immediately after, Gerd took the poster from him, handed it to Louis, and said, annoyed, "Honestly! How can the captain see it clearly if you're waving it around like that?"
"S-sorry—" Road, lying on the floor, replied weakly.
To this, Louis, while looking at the bounty, casually raised his hand, and a touch of golden light appeared, which he then flicked onto Road's back.
"Giant God Soldier" Hajrudin
Bounty: 725,000,000 Berries!
Dead or Alive!
"700 million Berries?" Louis raised an eyebrow and subconsciously remarked, "That's already a considerably high bounty."
To this, Goldberg grinned, revealing two rows of large white teeth. "Hajrudin was defeated by that 'Flower Sword' Vista after he defeated the Whitebeard Pirates' 'Buffalo' and another division commander. Otherwise, his bounty would definitely be even higher!"
Louis heard this and a comforting smile appeared on his face. "There's no need to be so hung up on it. 'Flower Sword' Vista is a world-famous great swordsman. He's one of the few top-tier great swordsmen who can fight Hawkeye. It's no shame to lose to him."
Hearing this, the group's eyes subconsciously focused on Yelena, who was in the distance playing with Ulti, and a look of admiration appeared in their eyes.
"In that case—"
"Yelena, who was besieged by several powerful division commanders, and instead turned it around, defeated them, and captured two of them... just how strong is she?!"
"..."
Yelena slowly turned her head, a thoughtful expression on her face. "It's not that exaggerated," she explained softly. "They had already fought with you and Louis's kinsmen, and a lot of their stamina had been consumed. My bounty didn't even increase. That's enough to prove it, isn't it?"
The group heard this and all showed an expression of "you're the strong one, so whatever you say is right."
Apart from the few gathered here, the members of the Buccaneer race and Louis's kinsmen had also been given bounties. The lowest was over 100 million Berries, while the leader of the Buccaneers, Artemis, Asmodai, and several other kinsmen were in the 500 million to 800 million Berri range.
Then, Louis shifted his gaze to Uta, who was in a corner, studying her own bounty poster.
"Uta, how much did your bounty increase?"
Louis felt that for Uta to have taken down thirty thousand people in an instant, it would definitely attract the World Government's attention. Her bounty would probably be raised to a considerably high level.
Uta heard him and, coming back from her thoughts, said with a strange expression, "It increased a lot. But the bounty poster, just like the ones for the Buccaneers and Lunarians, says 'Only Alive'—"
"'Only Alive'?" Louis heard her, raised an eyebrow, a hint of confusion in his heart.
Then, Uta walked over and handed her bounty poster to Louis.
"Siren" Uta
Bounty: 1,388,000,000 Berries
ONLY ALIVE.
Although she had only made a brief appearance, Uta's bounty had still been raised to nearly 1.4 billion Berries. But Louis was not surprised by this. Uta's lethality against low- and mid-tier groups was undeniable.
But what truly made Louis feel strange was the inconspicuous "Only Alive."
"'Only Alive'..." Louis's eyes flashed with confusion, and he subconsciously repeated the phrase.
It was understandable that the Buccaneers and Lunarians were marked as "Only Alive." The World Government had always been short on these experimental subjects. It wasn't strange for their bounties to demand them alive. But for Uta, who was clearly an ordinary human, to receive the same treatment... this was quite unusual.
"Is it because they want to reclaim the Siren Fruit, which should have been in the hands of the Celestial Dragons, and then continue to harass the super-large Sea Kings?"
"Or are they planning to have Vegapunk extract Uta's Lineage Factor to try and create an artificial Siren Fruit?"
Soon, a series of highly possible reasons rose in Louis's mind.
In the main hall, the group saw Louis fall into thought and all quieted down, looking at him. Gradually, they also began to think about the reason why Uta was wanted "Only Alive."
After a long while, a special idea sprouted in Louis's mind and quickly took root.
"Could it be that someone on Shanks's side inadvertently leaked Uta's identity as his daughter, and it was noticed by those people?"
"Do they mistakenly believe that Uta also has the blood of the Figarland family flowing in her veins?"
Before he knew it, Louis's expression gradually became a little serious. If it was just the fact that Uta was Shanks's daughter that was discovered, it might not have been enough for them to change her bounty to "Only Alive." But what if you added a Siren Fruit, which for hundreds of years had been given the task by the Celestial Dragons of acting as an artificial Poseidon to control the sea?
Louis felt that the "lost bloodline" of a Celestial Dragon family, plus a long-lost important fruit, really seemed to be worthy of the World Government's attention.
Other Celestial Dragons might not pay attention, but would the Figarland family also not pay attention? If the bloodline of their family had obtained the Siren Fruit, would they give up the idea of trying to control the Sea Kings?
Louis believed that even if the Figarland family learned that Uta was not Shanks's biological daughter, they would not care. Because from the beginning, what had attracted their attention was not the mere "lost bloodline," but the fruit.
After a long while, Louis reined in his diverging thoughts. Then, he turned his head to meet the purple eyes that were tilting to look at him, and said with great solemnity, "Uta, if in the future, I'm not around, and someone who claims to be related to Shanks comes looking for you, you must immediately get away from them. Only after you are far away should you try to make a move."
Louis's words made a strange light appear in the eyes of the others, and their expressions became puzzled.
However, Uta replied with a grin, "In that case, then you just have to keep me by your side all the time, right?"
Louis was taken aback. "The point is to be on guard against people who claim to be related to Shanks," he said, annoyed.
To this, the smile on Uta's face became even brighter. "I know! But as long as I'm always by your side, I won't need to be on guard against so much!"
"..."
"That's true, but..."
Louis suppressed his diverging thoughts and, with a hint of vigilance, buried them in his heart. After all, it was just a guess. Until it was further confirmed, Louis could only raise Uta's vigilance. After all, the possibility that the World Government simply wanted Uta's Lineage Factor was also quite high.
At the same time, on the Red Force.
Shanks, wearing a black cape, stood in front of the railing. His entire face was buried in shadow. His only remaining hand was gripping his daughter's bounty poster tightly.
On the railing in front of him, lay a smashed Den Den Mushi.
In the sea far away, floated a dense mass of sea beast and fish corpses.
Behind him, Benn Beckman casually placed the unconscious allied captain in a comfortable position. Then, with an unhurried pace, he came to stand beside his other partners. Immediately after, Beckman lit a cigarette, his eyes piercing through the smoke to land on Shanks's back.
"What are you planning to do, Shanks?"
Hearing this, Shanks slowly raised his head, revealing the cold eyes between his red hair. Facing the expectant gazes of his partners, he gave the captain's order in a cold voice.
"Set sail. We're going to intercept them and teach them a painful lesson—"
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