"Mamamama~~ another interesting brat has appeared this year."
...
In the latter half of the Grand Line, within the "Totto Land" seas where the great pirate family, the Charlotte Family, was beginning to take shape.
Charlotte Linlin—still massive but not yet as bloated as she would become over a decade later—looked at the newspaper delivered by the "Homies" soldier she created, an intrigued expression spreading across her face.
"La la la—just a small pirate active in the first half of the Grand Line. He only managed to get a decent bounty by luck."
The Charlotte Family's eldest son, and also Totto Land's "Minister of Candy," the Lick-Lick Fruit user Perospero, flicked his long tongue and dismissed Vane as nothing more than a flash-in-the-pan pirate who would soon vanish into the sea.
"A Mythical Zoan… Kaido would definitely want it… Perospero, if that rookie can make it to the New World, take some men and go 'welcome' him. Make him understand that in this sea, you can only survive by attaching yourself to the strong."
In Big Mom's eyes, the only true powerhouses of the New World were herself, Whitebeard, and Kaido.
There were others who barely qualified as passable in strength, but in her view, they were already setting suns—possessing power yet destined never to achieve true greatness.
The interesting part was that both groups were essentially remnants of the Rocks Pirates, herself included.
"Mother has taken a liking to this young man!"
Most pirate crews start as groups of people united by shared interests—those interests might be spiritual or material.
But the Big Mom Pirates were an anomaly.
Her crew was something she had "given birth to." At the very least, its core members were her own children.
A pirate crew built on blood ties.
Of course, a massive crew couldn't be sustained by just a few dozen children. Non-blood-related pirates were still needed to keep things running.
"That Kaido is building his Beasts Pirates. A Mythical Zoan user is so rare—he'll definitely be tempted."
"But I like Mythical Zoan users too, mamamama~~"
In some ways, Mythical Zoans were even rarer than Logia types—especially those capable of controlling elemental energy.
"As you command, Mother. Though I wonder—do you want him as an affiliated pirate, or something deeper?"
There were many affiliated crews. But to truly enter the core of Totto Land, affiliation alone wasn't enough.
Marriage.
In Big Mom's eyes, a relationship second only to blood.
She had so many children—they were bound to marry. The shrewd Big Mom naturally intended to turn their marriages into tools to strengthen her power.
"Mamamama~~ a Mythical Zoan… Let's see if that brat can even make it to the New World first."
...
[Black Steel Daz Bonez – Bounty: 69,000,000 Belly – Dice-Dice Fruit user]
[Lion-Man Tant – Bounty: 47,000,000 Belly – Lion Fruit user]
[Poison Thorn Lena – Bounty: 43,000,000 Belly – Through-Through Fruit user]
[Gladiator Dice – Bounty: 38,000,000 Belly]
[Fish Giant Big Pan – Bounty: 30,000,000 Belly]
[Red Rose Baccarat – Bounty: 20,000,000 Belly]
[Talking Cat – Bounty: 200 Belly]
The newly added bounties for the Rocket Team pirates were either individuals with combat strength significant enough to draw Marine attention—like Gladiator Dice and Big Pan—
Or Devil Fruit users, like Baccarat.
Or both.
"Meow… 200 Belly. That's barely enough to buy a newspaper."
Meowth stared at his bounty in utter speechlessness. He felt that the cost of printing the wanted poster probably far exceeded his bounty itself.
"That's already pretty good. At least you have a bounty. Electivire, Charizard, and Gyarados don't even have one."
No one knew what the Marines were thinking. It was understandable that Strawberry hadn't seen Gyarados when it first appeared, so they hadn't issued a bounty. But they definitely knew about Electivire and Charizard.
If those three were included in the bounty list, their threat level wouldn't be any lower than Bonez's.
If Vane had to rank them, Electivire—after absorbing the energy of two stones—would definitely be first. With the current scale of electricity it could unleash, Vane would give it a bounty of 100 million.
Next wouldn't be the earlier-appearing Charizard, but the newly joined Gyarados.
The vast ocean environment—and humanity's helplessness against it—made Gyarados an even greater threat. Vane felt it deserved a bounty of around 50 million Belly.
Charizard's bounty would probably be around 40 million. There was no helping it—at this stage, humanity had far more methods to deal with aerial threats than marine ones. And while Charizard could fly, its speed wasn't particularly outstanding.
The Marines not issuing bounties for these three effectively concealed three major combat forces for the Rocket Team.
A good thing.
"My bounty went from 30 million to 47 million Belly!"
"The Captain's the real monster—he jumped straight to over 200 million!"
"The total bounty of our Rocket Team pirates… is already over 500 million!"
Vane alone accounted for half of it.
All the ship's officers had entered the bounty list. The only one whose amount hadn't changed was Martha. She had been among the first to be wanted alongside Vane—a politically motivated bounty. 25 million then, still 25 million now.
"The Marines and bounty hunters will definitely start targeting us more frequently…"
To pirates, a bounty was both an honor and a crisis.
"Briggs, how far are we from the next island?"
After leaving Whiskey Peak, they had stopped briefly at another island—a very small one. They hadn't stayed long and had continued onward.
There were multiple routes through the Grand Line, and they couldn't confirm which one they were on. But the next one or two islands were still predictable.
On that small island where they hadn't lingered, they had gathered information about the next two islands ahead.
"Captain, we'll arrive in about half a day."
Vane nodded.
The first of the next two islands was Twin Islands—one large and one small. Vane had never heard of it.
The second one he knew well—Drum Island, the famous medical kingdom.
He just didn't know what the Drum Kingdom was like at this point in time. Before that guy Wapol took the throne, Drum Kingdom had been considered a fairly well-governed nation.
Due to its harsh natural environment, pirate incidents were relatively rare.
But after Wapol took over, the medical kingdom gradually collapsed. Wapol gathered the best doctors to serve him personally. The others were either exiled or killed. From time to time, he would even go into towns to wreak havoc.
If civilians were injured or fell ill, they could only beg Wapol for mercy—or suffer and die.
"I wonder if Wapol has already taken the throne by now."
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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