This… this is my bounty poster?
Fang Yi stared in shock at the wanted poster, which featured an image of him drawing his bow to shoot.
"That's right," Yameng said with a laugh, seeing his reaction. "The bounty isn't much, but it's your first. Plus, you're still a kid—the World Government would never slap a high bounty on someone your age."
But Fang Yi was overjoyed. Grinning as he looked at the poster, he said proudly, "Teacher Yameng, look! I have a bounty now!"
Yameng was a bit speechless. Only eight million Berries, and this kid was beaming like he'd won the lottery.
That's right—Fang Yi's very first bounty was a mere eight million Berries.
Still, it wasn't entirely unreasonable. Despite his incredible feat of defeating the Marine supernova Kizaru, his young age greatly influenced the amount.
Of course, Kizaru himself didn't acknowledge it as a real defeat. In his mind, had he attacked first, he wouldn't have lost. But the fact that he had retreated (or rather, strategically withdrawn) was undeniable.
News of Fang Yi's bounty quickly spread throughout the ship. Both Shanks and Buggy were green with envy. In the world of pirates, a bounty was a symbol of strength and reputation.
"Hmph! Only eight million? If I got a bounty, it'd be in the tens of millions!" Buggy huffed jealously, though his tone betrayed his envy more than his words.
"Hahaha! 'The Eerie Archer' Fang Yi… hmm, not a great nickname. Doesn't match my style at all," Fang Yi said smugly, ignoring Buggy's bluster.
Smack!
Fang Yi's smugness irked a few people—namely, his melee teacher, Jaba.
"You little brat—don't get cocky!" Jaba said, smacking the back of Fang Yi's head. "Having a bounty means people will start gunning for you. No one's going to underestimate you anymore. Bounty hunters, Marine officers… they'll all be coming after you!"
"Hehe… that's fine by me! I'm not afraid of them!" Fang Yi replied with a cheeky grin.
Meanwhile, in another part of the New World…
The Whitebeard Pirates had just finished a battle and were resting. Thatch walked over to their captain with a wanted poster in hand.
"Pops, take a look at this!" he said, grinning.
"Hm? What is it?" Whitebeard set down his sake jug and accepted the poster with a curious smile.
"Did Pops' bounty go up again?" Vista joked from nearby.
"Nope! But it is related to you!" Thatch said, waving him off with a grin.
"Gurararara… It's that little brat from Roger's crew!" Whitebeard laughed after reading the poster. "Marco, Vista—you'd better keep up!"
"Huh?" Marco and Vista looked at each other in confusion before walking over.
But when they saw Fang Yi's face on the wanted poster, their jaws dropped.
"Tch… only eight million? If it were me, I'd be worth tens of millions at least," Marco muttered—sounding suspiciously like Buggy.
"Hahaha! Didn't expect him to get a bounty so soon. He's something," Vista said with a chuckle. "Still, it won't be easy catching up to me."
Vista, being two years older than Marco and already a skilled swordsman before joining Whitebeard's crew, had long been a rising name. His current bounty was a whopping 34 million Berries.
So Fang Yi's eight million barely made him blink.
"Gurararara… Alright, boys! Get ready to set sail—we're not letting the Roger Pirates outpace us!" Whitebeard bellowed as he rose to his feet, his massive naginata in hand.
"Yeah!!" the Whitebeard Pirates roared in response.
Fang Yi could never have guessed that his first bounty would spark a rivalry between two of the most powerful pirate crews on the seas.
Elsewhere in the New World…
A pirate fleet of five or six ships was sailing toward a small island.
"Jihahahaha! Looks like Roger's been busy again. His bounty went up!" said Golden Lion Shiki, captain of the Flying Pirates and former high-ranking officer of the Rocks Pirates, as he flipped through a stack of wanted posters.
"Kehkehkeh… Word is he led an attack on Marines under Sengoku and even destroyed one of their warships. That's why the bounty went up," said Indigo, Shiki's subordinate—a weird scientist with a perpetual grin.
"I see… Hmm?" Shiki paused as he flipped through more posters, spotting a new face among the Roger Pirates' wanted sheets.
"What's up, Captain?" Indigo asked, noticing Shiki's thoughtful expression.
"This kid… looks familiar somehow," Shiki frowned.
"Eh? A kid this young, already getting a bounty? He must have something special. And look—he uses a bow and arrow!" Indigo said, sounding intrigued.
Shiki pondered for a moment, but still couldn't place Fang Yi's face. Eventually, he tossed the poster aside.
"Indigo! How far to our destination?"
"Almost there, Captain. Gonna go big this time?" Indigo grinned.
"Of course!" Shiki said, cigar clamped between his teeth, laughing as he stepped out of the cabin.
Ahead of them was Impel Down, the infamous prison island—one Shiki had visited once before.
Fang Yi's bounty didn't cause a huge stir outside of those who had met or heard of him.
Most people who saw it simply thought, "So young!" and then promptly forgot about him. His bounty was just too low to draw serious attention.
But later that night, just after midnight, Fang Yi was woken by a sudden flurry of system notifications:
"Congratulations, Host! First bounty acquired. +800 points. Bounty Interface unlocked."
"Congratulations, Host! Points exceed 10,000. Store is now upgrading…"
Groggy and confused, Fang Yi blinked and looked toward the bottom-right of his vision—sure enough, a new bounty system icon had appeared.
Curious, he tapped it.
What appeared was a pitch-black tower, shaped like a spire—narrow at the top, wide at the base.
It looked oddly familiar… and after a moment, Fang Yi realized—it resembled Impel Down!
Clicking on the first floor of the tower, he saw three empty prison cells. Nothing inside yet.
Reading the interface description carefully, he finally understood the function of this "Black Tower."
Whenever Fang Yi killed a wanted criminal, he could choose to "imprison" them in the tower. The system would then generate a virtual version of that person, lock it up in the tower, and reward Fang Yi with points equal to their bounty.
If he chose not to imprison them, he wouldn't get any points.
Right now, he had three prison slots on the first floor. To get more bounty rewards, he'd need to unlock the second floor.
But unlocking it required… spending points.
Fang Yi's lips twitched as he stared at the cost:
"Unlock second floor of prison tower: 100,000 points. Proceed?"
100,000 points?!
That was insane. Right now, he only got 1,000 points for locating a Poneglyph. That meant he'd need to find 100 of them just to unlock the second floor.
And that was only the second floor!
The lower parts of the tower were still blurred out, but he could see at least six levels. Knowing how the system worked, each level would be exponentially more expensive.
Fang Yi's head hurt just thinking about it.
But then another thought struck him.
Wait… my 8-million bounty gave me 800 points. That means it's calculated as 1 point per 10 Berries?
He had three bounty slots available. If he took down three criminals worth 100 million Berries each, he could earn 10,000 points per person. That'd be enough for 30,000 points—still far short, but better.
Or… three 300-million bounty targets, which would give him 90,000 points—almost enough.
Three 300-million bounty criminals… Yeah right!
That kind of bounty was rare in this era. The pirates worth that much were monsters. For reference, even Whitebeard, one of the future Four Emperors, was barely over 100 million when he first formed his crew.
Fang Yi had to admit—it was impossible right now.
Unless he waited until Luffy's era, when billion-level bounties were more common.
By then, his strength would be far greater—and so would the enemies.
He could take someone like Marco, who, as a Yonko's right-hand, would eventually have a bounty in the billions. Taking down just one of those could unlock the second floor.
Realizing this, Fang Yi felt a bit better.
Maybe it was best to save those three bounty slots until later.
Until the age of the next generation.