Chapter 179: The Moniker of the Past
"I only want to buy some resin for coating. Why do I need a permit from the Ryugu Kingdom?"
"Dear customer, what is your purpose for coating?"
"To dive the ship, obviously! What, did you think I was going to blow bubbles for fun?"
"Don't you know already? When a ship dives from here, where else can it go besides passing through Fish-man Island? Since that's the case, isn't it perfectly reasonable that purchasing these materials requires a voucher issued by the Ryugu Kingdom?
"The Ryugu Kingdom's branch office is right in Grove 1; it's not far from here."
The last time the Roger Pirates passed through Fish-man Island was many years ago. They weren't a merchant fleet and didn't travel back and forth every day, so they naturally were unaware of these changes.
After years of development, the Ryugu Kingdom had gradually gotten onto the right track. The coating mechanics on the Sabaody Archipelago had formed an Artisan Guild, spearheaded by the Ryugu Kingdom.
The Ryugu Kingdom provided protection for artisans who joined the guild and inspected their craftsmanship. In exchange, they could only coat ships that possessed a permit. The same applied to selling raw materials.
Of course, there were still artisans who refused to join the guild, and the Ryugu Kingdom didn't bother with them. However, whether the quality of their coating was guaranteed was anyone's guess.
Rayleigh could naturally buy raw materials from those places, but coating resin for a ship was far more critical than gasoline for a car.
Buying gasoline from an illegal workshop might ruin an engine. But if coating materials were substandard, the lives of everyone on board would be in peril.
"I clearly remember last time we only had to pay an entry toll... It seems the procedure has gotten much more complicated now."
When Rayleigh returned to the ship empty-handed, he casually complained.
Roger's crew couldn't exactly be called good people; in many places, Roger was even dubbed a "demon." But they inherently followed a certain set of rules.
When buying things at a port, they paid. Things like entry tolls were similarly paid.
Back when Kozuki Oden was first begged away from Whitebeard by Roger, Oden tried to take ingredients without paying in Mock Town. Shanks even warned him that he would be "killed by the Captain" for doing that.
"If it's a bit more troublesome, then so be it," Roger laughed. "After all, that place is Nereus's kingdom now. Speaking of which, it's been years since I last saw him. I haven't even seen a trace of him in the news lately."
"Didn't they report a while back that he helped the Marines crush Shiki's Flying Empire?"
"Hahaha, that's impossible! That guy Nereus wouldn't help the Marines for no reason. Besides, if he was truly the one who made a move, Shiki wouldn't have survived."
"Mr. Rayleigh, Mr. Gaban, who is Nereus?"
While Rayleigh and Roger were discussing the changes here, two eleven-year-old boys beside them had been listening intently.
The redhead was Shanks, and the red-nosed one was Buggy. Both were currently apprentices on Roger's ship.
"Nereus, huh... He's the current King of the Ryugu Kingdom. But eight years ago, we all called him the 'Vampire.' He is a rare powerhouse on this sea.
"I think... his bounty back then was five billion Berries, right?"
"Five billion?! Isn't that higher than Captain Roger's?!"
Roger's current bounty was also an astronomical figure, but it was still considerably lower than the stage he reached after becoming the Pirate King.
At this current stage, both Whitebeard and the Golden Lion had bounties a notch higher than Roger's.
In the eyes of the Marines, in terms of influence and overall threat level, those two massive pirate armadas were far more dangerous than the Roger Pirates.
But the number of people with bounties higher than Roger's could be counted on one hand. The moniker "Vampire Nereus" belonged to a name that was gradually being forgotten, remembered only by the older generation.
Therefore, suddenly hearing this bounty, Buggy was completely shocked, as if he had just heard something unimaginable.
"Idiot Buggy! Even if his bounty is higher than the Captain's, so what?! The Captain is the strongest!"
"Bastard Shanks! When did I ever say the Captain was weak?! I was just shocked by the amount of the bounty!"
At this time, Buggy and Shanks were good friends. They would fight side-by-side, and Shanks was even willing to give up the chance to land on the final island just to stay behind and take care of an ill Buggy.
But the two were also rivals; bickering and fighting happened constantly.
"No, in terms of pure strength... I truly am no match for him. And Fish-man Island is his home turf. In the deep sea, he is the strongest in the world."
Roger stated this conclusion with a grin, seemingly not caring about it at all.
Roger was merely stating an objective fact in his eyes. When it came to judging Nereus's strength, Roger was confident in his assessment.
In fact, on this entire sea, Roger felt that only Harald and Garp shared a similar understanding of him.
Although expressions of sheer disbelief plastered the faces of Shanks and Buggy, they still believed Roger's words.
They even started to mentally construct an image of the man, imagining an incomprehensibly terrifying monster.
However, on Roger's ship, another youth suddenly raised his head.
"Stronger than you...?"
Douglas Bullet. He was six years older than Shanks and Buggy, and the physical disparity was even greater; right now, he looked like a demonic muscleman.
It was said that on this ship, only Roger could definitively defeat him in strength. Even Rayleigh could only fight him to a draw.
To defeat Roger, to surpass Roger—this was the reason Bullet stayed on the ship.
And since Roger had personally admitted that Nereus was stronger, didn't that mean... as long as he defeated Nereus, it was equivalent to surpassing Roger?
Based on this logic, Bullet had developed a profound interest in the kingdom beneath the deep sea.
"Alright, enough of that. I'll go get the permit sorted out first. The poll tax of a hundred thousand Berries per person hasn't changed, right?" Rayleigh asked.
"That hasn't changed. It's been that price all these years. Well, I'm off then. The coating will take some time. Don't go disembarking without permission.
"If you want to go play, let Gaban take you."
Rayleigh directed this last sentence at Shanks and Buggy. Because of Nereus's martial deterrence on the Sabaody Archipelago, very few people dared to lay a hand on Fish-men and Merfolk. But that didn't mean slave traders had gone extinct.
And if Shanks was noticed by people from the World Government, it would probably lead to another heap of trouble.
"Got it, Mr. Rayleigh. We understand."
Shanks responded politely to Rayleigh's words. Beside him, however, Buggy was counting on his fingers, calculating something.
"Buggy? What are you doing?"
"I'm calculating the number of people on our ship, plus all those pirate ships diving down to Fish-man Island... Just how much money are they making?! What happens if you don't pay?"
Hearing Buggy's words, Shanks didn't know how to answer. But several veterans on Roger's ship burst into laughter.
In the end, it was Roger who walked over to Buggy's side. With a seemingly gentle but deadly serious tone, he said, "In that case... you would probably never see the sun above the sea again.
"That is the deep sea. Down there, do not attempt to provoke that guy Nereus."
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