East Blue, an unnamed island.
Inside a natural cave, burning Skull Soul Lanterns cast an eerie blue-green glow across the walls. Shadowy figures stood along the passageway, letting out low growls from time to time.
"Momonga is coming to the East Blue?"
Inside the remodeled stone chamber, Lowett stopped what he was doing and turned around curiously.
"Y-yes."
A gaunt-faced man lay prostrate on the ground, not daring to raise his head.
"I heard the news in town. The newspapers confirmed it as well."
As he spoke, he took a newspaper from his clothes and cautiously shuffled forward on his knees, offering it to the pitch-black figure in the distance.
The next second, his hand was empty.
The shadow had already taken the newspaper and was standing before Lowett.
Taking the newspaper handed over by the Black Knight, Lowett gave it a swift once-over and curled his lips.
"So that's how it is."
Setting aside the possibility that the Marines had confirmed he was responsible for Branch 153's destruction, sending a Marine Headquarters vice admiral after him alone would have been unnecessary.
Lowett had never overestimated himself. He knew exactly what he was capable of right now.
Momonga had come to the East Blue because the Marines had seen the chain reaction that might result from an entire branch being slaughtered, so they had dispatched a renowned vice admiral to stabilize the situation.
Even in the chaotic Great Pirate Era, such an incident was exceedingly rare. The enraged Marine iron cavalry would undoubtedly tear apart any enemy daring to stand in their way!
In other words, Momonga had specifically come to kill people and establish authority.
He did not have much time left to prepare.
"You've done well."
Having figured out the issue, Lowett rolled up the newspaper. "Tell me, what reward do you want?"
"I wouldn't dare!"
The man trembled as he lay flat on the ground.
His name was Wallace, and he had once been the navigator aboard the "Great" Pirate Bruto's ship. There had been many pirates like him aboard who were not combatants, yet he alone had survived. Wallace knew perfectly well why.
Before this lord who could control death, even the slightest carelessness could cost him his life.
"Not arrogant, not impetuous. Good!"
Lowett smiled faintly. "Work hard for me. Here, so long as you are diligent and dependable, wealth, power, even immortality can be yours!"
"It only depends on whether you are worth my intervention."
Lowett was not boasting. To a mage, mere lifespan was among the easiest things to deal with.
If the body broke down, it could be replaced. If the soul weakened, it could be replenished. As long as a mage was willing to act, an ordinary person could live as long as they wanted, until their mind collapsed.
Once a soul evolved to the stage of an Official Mage, its lifespan was measured in millennia.
The greatest cause of death among mages was actually despair!
The existence of all kinds of Ultimate Mysteries not only drove mages onward, but also shackled the limits of their journey. They were natural chasms that could never be crossed.
Faced with centuries or millennia of fruitless pursuit, with the desolation of having wasted an entire life, most old mages would choose to retire from the world after recalling their youthful ambition.
With the aid of the Star Spirit.
Dust returned to dust, earth returned to earth.
They dispersed their souls and cast themselves back into the embrace of this world.
Necromancers, however, were rather wild...
Abrupt tonal shift.jpg
They would instead turn to the underworld, where Emperor Haisan would help them experience another life in a blank state. After all, to Necromancers, the world of the living and the world of the dead were not all that different.
So if Lowett ever summoned a skeleton warrior capable of magic, one carrying the template of some overpowered chosen one, he truly would not be surprised in the slightest.
Habit became second nature!
"I will not disappoint you, my lord!"
Immortality—what a magnificent goal.
Wallace trembled with excitement, then slowly crawled backward. Only after leaving the stone chamber did he stand up and jog away.
Roar!
The Black Knight let out a low growl, and the refined steel cat claws embedded in its bones trembled.
"I know."
A lack of intelligence did not mean a complete lack of thought.
As a biologically modified creature created to verify the results of Necromancer research, the Black Knight possessed basic thinking abilities and could evolve.
It was reminding Lowett that the living could not be trusted!
"Everything has an expiration date. Human hearts are even more so."
Lowett picked up the bloody surgical knife again and smiled. "If a part breaks, just replace it. Simple."
Then he pointed at the magic array in front of him.
"Come on, lie down on it."
"This enemy can swim, so be careful."
This was an island in the waters under Branch 16's jurisdiction in the East Blue. It was only half a day's walk from the village at the foot of the mountain, the one ruled by Arlong.
The Mage World was a human-dominated world. Aside from humans, there were either undead, elves, or Star Spirits. Orcs and dwarves, on the other hand, were creations left behind by certain mages.
Having come to this world, was it possible for him not to be interested in a species like fish-men?
Ten days later, Momonga arrived in the East Blue.
Following behind him were rows of pirates, bound in lines and escorted off the ship.
Under the horrified gazes of Loguetown residents and spies from every faction, several Great Pirates with bounties exceeding one hundred million were dragged ashore like dead dogs and thrown into Loguetown Prison.
Marine Headquarters Vice Admiral Momonga's strength instantly left a deep impression on everyone!
Over one hundred million!
If you think this book is good, remember to add it to your bookshelf so you do not lose it next time.
What kind of concept was that?
A one followed by nine zeros: 1,000,000,000!
In the East Blue, pirates with bounties exceeding ten million could already be called major figures. Bounties over one hundred million were nearly the stuff of legends.
Yet now, before the stunned eyes of countless people, it was not one but several pirates with bounties over one hundred million who had been captured and brought to justice.
A Marine Headquarters vice admiral was truly terrifying!
"You've brought me a huge problem, Senior Momonga."
Marine base in Loguetown, meeting room.
Smoker had his feet propped on the table, two cigars clenched between his teeth as he puffed out clouds of smoke.
His wild silver spiky hair, Marine uniform altered into a jacket with the front hanging wide open, black fingerless gloves, and Seastone jitte made him look more like a gang boss than a soldier.
This was the strongest active Marine in the East Blue, without question: the Smoke-Smoke Fruit user, "White Hunter" Smoker.
Stationed at Loguetown, the gateway of "the beginning and the end," he had crushed countless pirates hoping to enter the Grand Line. His work was so effective that Loguetown's economy had even declined, with shops shutting down.
Herding one sheep was work, and herding two was still work.
Pirate business was business too, wasn't it?
"I trust you can handle them, Smoker."
Momonga shook his head. "Consider it a test of whether your strength has declined over the years."
Bounties over one hundred million also came in different tiers. A few worthless fish who only dared to trouble him when gathered together were nothing to fear.
"Tch!"
Smoker curled his lips and did not answer.
As one of the gifted elites who had emerged from the Marine Headquarters recruit camp, Smoker had his own pride. Even after being assigned to the East Blue, he would never tolerate pirates pushing their luck.
Momonga's words were clearly a provocation.
"Then where do you want to start?"
Turning to look behind him, Tashigi, who had been following Smoker the whole time, jolted and quickly placed the documents in her hands before Momonga.
"First Alabasta, then the East Blue. I doubt you'll get any rest this year, Senior."
"Call me Vice Admiral Momonga!"
Momonga glared and barked the reprimand, then opened the documents. "I'm unfamiliar with the East Blue. You tell me."
"Tashigi... fine."
Under Momonga's piercing stare, Smoker rubbed his hair with a headache and sat upright.
"The most troublesome one at the moment is Lowett. The East Blue isn't like the Grand Line. If he finds any random island to hide on, we'll be searching for a needle in the sea."
Once they got to business, Smoker's expression immediately turned serious, without a trace of his delinquent demeanor.
"Second is Krieg. Word is that he has recently been recruiting men, intending to form a large fleet and break through Loguetown's blockade."
"Then there's the fish-man pirate crew Arlong, who has vanished for years. He is a pure racist, and his motives for lurking in the East Blue are sinister."
"And lastly..."
Smoker sneered. "Hundred Schemes Kuro, who isn't on the list. I keep feeling like he is both dead and not dead. The Black Cat Pirates have disappeared as well. It's unsettling."
Smoker did not care whether the Kuro who had been arrested was real or fake.
Compared to what Monka had done at Branch 153, he cared more about where Kuro had gone... If Lowett had not made such a huge mess of things, he would still have been kept in the dark.
"What a disgrace to the Marines!"
The two looked up at the sound. Tashigi let out a startled cry and hurriedly bowed to apologize.
"Don't look at me. She followed me on her own back then. You know... I have no interest in managing too many trivial matters."
"Hmph!"
Momonga snorted and skipped over the subject.
"Of these four, which one is currently the most likely?"
"That's the problem. None of them are likely."
Ignoring Momonga's blazing glare, Smoker answered seriously. "I told you, Vice Admiral Momonga, this is the East Blue... Once they find somewhere to hide, unless you give me an army of a hundred thousand, finding them will be harder than reaching the heavens!"
The East Blue's sheer expanse alone dwarfed the Grand Line.
The people on that list were each more cunning than the last. They were practically a new generation of cockroaches immune to insecticide, repeatedly frustrating Marine manhunts.
"So that's the situation!"
Momonga's head began to ache. He knew the Four Seas were harder to search than the Grand Line, but he had not expected things to be this difficult.
Thinking back on it, aside from Lowett's youth and inexperience, the soldiers beneath him had also put in considerable effort to locate Lowett in the first place.
"However..."
Suddenly, Smoker changed the subject.
"I do have a bit of unofficial information..."
"The waters under Branch 16's jurisdiction have the lowest frequency of pirate activity. Officially, of course, they claim it is because Branch 16 manages the area so well that pirates do not dare cause trouble... But according to some pirate chatter, the Arlong Pirates are stationed in those waters, so no one dares approach."
Putting his feet back on the table, Smoker blew out a smoke ring.
"Of course, it's only a rumor. It can't be taken as fact."
It could not be treated as fact!
Smoker had been ordered to guard Loguetown. He had neither the authority nor the reason to interfere in Branch 16's affairs based on a stray rumor.
But that had been before...
Now, Momonga was here!
"The Fleet Admiral once said that the East Blue was a small pond with big monsters and shallow water full of bastards. It seems that was indeed true."
A cold look appeared on Momonga's face as surging Sword Intent began to erupt from him.
"Tch, as if the Grand Line's waters were all that deep..."
Smoker muttered and waved a hand. "See you later, Senior!"
I forgot yesterday—thanks to reader Old Bro, Have One for the 1,000 reward. Thank you for the support!
Everyone, the book has been recommended. So far... the results have been average, so if you have votes, please sincerely cast one. Big Tree offers his thanks!
Before you continue