Mihawk, Everyone's Target; Smoker, the Blunt Hothead
New World, G-5 Marine Base.
On Sunday, Ortolan had nothing important to do, so he just lounged around in his office, wasting his time.
On his desk was a newspaper with a headline on the front page about the World Conference. Indeed, the World Conference had officially begun, with fifty Affiliated Nation families participating.
On the Marines side, Admiral Sengoku, Chief Staff Officer Tsuru, and Teacher Zephyr attended the World Conference as a delegation.
The breaking news at the World Conference mainly concerned the Revolutionary Army. The World Government officially announced that it would launch a full-scale attack and elimination campaign against the Revolutionary Army, striving to eradicate this group of thugs who intended to subvert peace as soon as possible.
The Affiliated Nation also expressed their support.
Later, some more questions were raised about Celestial Gold, which was also proposed by Alabasta. They hoped that the World Government could stop collecting Celestial Gold or reduce the amount of Celestial Gold.
However, it was clear that after the vote, there were 49 votes against, with only Alabasta supporting them.
But there's nothing we can do about it. After all, who would dare to vote in favor of something like this? They wouldn't even dare to abstain.
You Alabasta have powerful ancestors, so you can speak recklessly and the World Government can't do anything about it. We don't have that right!
Aside from the news about the World Conference in Mary Geoise, other sections also published some interesting tidbits of news, such as the fierce battle Red Hair Pirates and Hawk Eyes Jora Mihawk on Srikoff Island in the New World.
This wouldn't normally be considered a big deal, but while the two sides were fighting, the Whitebeard Pirates also passed by. According to unconfirmed rumors, Whitebeard Newgate, currently the World's Strongest Man, witnessed Shanks and Mihawk's duel and praised them, saying that they would eventually become top-tier fighters on the sea.
That wasn't the end of it. The duel between Mihawk and Shanks didn't produce a winner, because halfway through, the Marine Hero Garp's Dog Head Warship also appeared on Srikoff Island.
The Red Hair Pirates initially thought Garp was after them, since Shanks had previously been on Roger's ship and had a bit of a psychological aversion to Garp.
As it turned out, Garp didn't look for them at all. Instead, he chased after Mihawk and beat him up all the way. But in the end, Garp didn't capture Jora Mihawk. To use the description in the news, at the crucial moment, some mistakes were made, which caused Jora Mihawk to flee Srikoff Island in a sorry state.
This reason can only fool uninformed onlookers. The Garp's Dog Head Warship has very high performance. It can even chase Roger's Oro Jack. It is a warship of almost the same class.
What does Mihawk have? He only has a small boat. How could Garp not catch him?
It's obvious they've let the water out!
After Mihawk escaped Garp's pursuit, the Marines immediately changed Mihawk's nickname to 'Marine Hunter' and increased his bounty from 272 million to 400 million Belly.
Four hundred million Belly is already a very high bounty. Among the new generation of pirates who have emerged since the Great Pirate Era, Mihawk's bounty is the highest, tens of millions of Belly higher than Shanks'.
Not only did the Marines inexplicably target Mihawk, but after the Tea Party on Cake Island, the Big Mom Pirates also announced that they would list Jora Mihawk as a Big Mom Pirates target.
Anyone associated with Jora Mihawk will be considered an enemy by the Big Mom Pirates.
Suddenly, Mihawk seemed to be universally hated in the New World.
Those swordsmen who had been forcibly challenged by him in the past, as well as some swordsmen who had not yet been challenged by him but felt uneasy, also took the opportunity to issue a public announcement on the high seas, saying that Mihawk was such a thug who had no martial ethics and that everyone should kill him. They hoped that everyone would actively report his whereabouts to the Marines and the Big Mom Pirates, and strive to eliminate this dangerous bastard Mihawk as soon as possible and restore peace to the New World.
These waves of targeting make it seem as if Mihawk deserves half the credit for the New World's chaos and turmoil.
The onlookers at sea all felt that something was strange about this, but they couldn't figure out exactly what was wrong.
Some clever guys realized that Mihawk might have offended someone, but they didn't know who it was.
Only a few people who truly knew the inside story secretly lamented that there was now another person among those in the New World who couldn't be offended—that was G-5 Marine Base Commander Bane Ortolan.
If you offend the Marines, the most you'll get is a higher bounty. If you offend Great Pirate, the most you'll get is to lay low and not cause trouble on their turf.
But if you offend Bane Ortolan, you'd better quit the New World as soon as possible. He has connections in both the criminal underworld and legitimate organizations. You'd better find a place to hide and pray that Ortolan won't bother looking for you.
Looking at the quiet Den Den Den Mushi on the table, Ortolan still admired Mihawk. What a real man, so tough. Even in this situation, this guy could still withstand the pressure and didn't even bother to contact him to discuss the 20 billion Beli.
Ortolan felt that his targeting of Mihawk was quite obvious, and that Mihawk shouldn't be so clueless. But in reality, he had overestimated Mihawk's reaction speed in this regard.
So far, Mihawk hasn't noticed anything amiss. He even thinks it's all a coincidence and that he can avoid the limelight by keeping a low profile for a while, so he hasn't considered the possibility of it happening to Ortolan.
On the other hand, Shanks, after reading the newspaper, immediately noticed some key points and used Mihawk as a negative example to tell his crew that this was the consequence of offending Ortolan. He repeatedly warned them not to provoke the Marines Red Hair Pirates absolutely necessary.
In comparison, Shanks is more clever.
Putting aside the news in the newspapers, Ortolan was currently reading the Marines's internal monthly Monthly Bulletin. This magazine was a compilation of information circulating within the Marines. Every month, the Marines would compile some less important but necessary information for each department into this internal Monthly Bulletin and distribute it to various Marine Base via fax.
There was a dense, sparse collection of over seventy entries, ninety percent of which had absolutely nothing to do with Ortolan or the G-5 Marines. They were mostly trivial matters, and much of it was information that well-informed high-ranking Marines officers like Ortolan had already heard about.
However, there are two of them that Ortolan is particularly interested in.
Article 1: Captain Smoker, the former chief of the Third Officer Training Camp, engaged in a fierce conflict with a member of an Affiliated Nation with Vice Admiral Ferinance of the Marines Department. After serious discussion by the Department, Captain Smoker was given a severe warning, demoted to Lieutenant Commander, and transferred from his original post. His subsequent arrangements are pending.
Smoker had never dealt with Ortolan before, but he had seen him once at Teacher Zephyr's training camp.
Kuan, this kid was quite outstanding in that year's class, graduating as the top student and obtaining the rank of colonel.
Judging by the timeline, Smoker should have joined the Marines at the beginning of the Great Pirate Era. Now, almost four years have passed. Regardless of whether he was eighteen years old at the time, he should definitely be alive now.
And his rebellious personality is gradually starting to take hold.
Smoker, this guy, joined the Marines because he has an autocracy ability. He passed the political vetting completely. He is a native of the East Blue. He went to sea with his father once when he was a child. On that one trip, he was lucky enough to be hit by the autocracy ability, Smoke-Smoke and Fire.
Before he turned eighteen, he voluntarily joined the Marines's righteous family, forming relationships with people like Ortolan, Kuzan, Borsalino, and Sakazuki. At that time, there was a trend of "autonomous system worship" within the Marines, and Smoker, being an autonomous system user, was highly anticipated. He was directly recommended from the East Blue Branch to the Marines Headquarters and joined Teacher Zephyr in one fell swoop.
If things proceeded normally, as long as Smoker's performance wasn't too disastrous, his future career could be considered smooth sailing.
But this guy really doesn't understand things. His sense of justice is too strong, and he has violated organizational discipline many times. A guy like him has managed to Straw Hat at sea, but he's only a colonel, and he's even been sent to a fishpond in the East Blue.
It's clear how badly Smoker has ruined his own future.
After Alabasta, he underwent a shift in his mindset, believing that only with higher power could he better fulfill his responsibilities of justice. He then chose to compromise with reality, and that's when he took off. In just two years, he rose from colonel to lieutenant Vice Admiral, demonstrating the magnitude of the change before and after.