The Pirate World Is a Damn Mess!

"Your coffee, fruit platter, and the latest newspaper, sir."

The Sabaody Archipelago was made up of many massive trees. The ground was formed by their roots, and bubbles rose up from it.

It lay before the Red Line Continent, halfway along the Grand Line.

It was an island of immense strategic importance. Though beautiful and prosperous, it still followed the pirate world's most basic rule: the strong prey on the weak.

Ten thousand meters beneath the island lay Fish-Man Island.

Like Sky Island, it was a place full of wonders.

At a five-story open-air café in the area around Grove 1, Chaos sat on the rooftop lawn, enjoying afternoon tea.

Groves 1 through 29 were home to slave-trading shops, human auctions, lawless zones, and the like.

Sitting beneath a parasol, Chaos picked up the coffee the waiter had set down, took a sip, and watched pirates come and go along the street below.

This area was much like Demon Valley Town. People drew their blades over the slightest disagreement, and most of the pirates here came from the four seas.

He hadn't found Bika yesterday, so he'd taken some time to come to the Sabaody Archipelago instead.

In the hour he'd been sitting here, he'd seen pirates clash in the street three times. More than a hundred pirate thugs had been killed or captured.

Thievery, insults, assault, robbery, bullying women—such things were everyday occurrences.

The unluckiest were the pirates who lost those street fights. They might already be waiting to be auctioned off.

The rest of their lives would be spent as slaves.

And in broad daylight, a few burly men might suddenly rush out at any moment, bags in hand, and target respectable women. They'd throw a sack over a woman's head and vanish into an alley with her.

She'd be sold, without a doubt.

"The pirate world is a damn mess!"

Chaos crossed his legs. The golden ring on his middle finger turned into a tiny fork, which speared a piece of fruit and fed it to him.

If he'd transmigrated to the Sabaody Archipelago in the beginning, who knew how things would've turned out?

He spread out the latest newspaper, crossed his legs, and sipped his coffee now and then as the golden fork occasionally fed him a piece of fruit. He really enjoyed this kind of leisurely life.

"No wonder he wants to recruit the Pirate King as his right-hand man. The strongest pirate crew in the New World, bar none!"

Most of this issue's news was about the Flying Pirates—or, more specifically, Golden Lion.

At present, the Flying Pirates were unquestionably the most powerful force on the entire sea.

They didn't just run rampant through the New World—they looked set on unifying it.

They fought stubborn pirate crews from time to time, crushing and then absorbing them, leaving the New World in a state of alarm.

"First Fleet captain, Predator Axios. Bounty: 1,738,000,000."

"Second Fleet captain, Narwhal King Rubit. Bounty: 1,670,000,000."

"Twentieth Fleet captain, Dragon Horn Jax. Bounty: 330,000,000."

"..."

Golden Lion now had twenty fleet captains under his command, each a renowned Great Pirate. Even the weakest, the captain of the Twentieth Fleet, had a bounty of 330,000,000.

In other words, the farther up the list a fleet captain was, the higher the bounty, with three hundred million as the minimum.

What did a bounty of 330,000,000 mean in this era?

In Luffy's time, it would've been at least five or six hundred million.

And that didn't even count the men under those twenty fleet captains. The strongest of them had bounties of at least one or two hundred million, while those below one hundred million were beyond counting.

In terms of influence, if Golden Lion gave up on conquering the world and aimed to become Pirate King instead, Roger might never have stood a chance.

Roger became Pirate King by reaching Laugh Tale. In terms of power, he couldn't compare to the Flying Pirates at present. He'd taken a shortcut.

In Chaos's view, there were two ways to become Pirate King.

The first was to take a shortcut like Roger: sail around the world and reach the final island, Laugh Tale.

The other was to use overwhelming strength and influence to bring the entire pirate world to heel, much like Golden Lion was trying to do now.

Unfortunately, that path was far too difficult. After all, when it came to fighting ability alone, plenty of people could go toe-to-toe with Golden Lion—and he couldn't do a thing about them.

Strong people like that were walking Great Ivans.

Golden Lion's influence wouldn't do him much good against them. Worse, he'd have to worry about those powerhouses targeting his men, which would be a far bigger problem.

But Golden Lion's ambitions went beyond that. He didn't just want to become Pirate King—he wanted to conquer the whole world and become King of the World.

Wasn't that just a plan to overthrow the World Government and start a new dynasty?

That was outrageous!

To put it bluntly, the Flying Pirates were the undisputed overlords of the sea, but overthrowing the World Government was pure fantasy.

The Navy alone could tie down most of their forces, without even counting the World Government's other hidden organizations. They hadn't ruled for eight hundred years for nothing. A dying camel was still bigger than a horse, and the foundations built over eight hundred years wouldn't just disappear that easily.

So Golden Lion's ambitions were doomed to fail.

Unless powerhouses and forces like Whitebeard, Roger, Lone Red, World Destroyer, Kaido, Big Mom, and the rest all joined together and worked in concert to overthrow the World Government, there might be some hope.

But every one of them was ambitious, a powerhouse with a heart as high as the heavens. Who would submit to Golden Lion?

Still, there was no denying that Golden Lion was a true overlord, a hero, a king. He was a man with extraordinary personal charisma.

After finishing the articles about the Flying Pirates, Chaos turned the page to the other news.

Most of it was still about pirates!

"Look, over there!"

"My god, why would a Great Pirate like him come to the Sabaody Archipelago?"

Suddenly, the street erupted in commotion. Most of the pirates looked tensely toward the far end, where a group was approaching. At their head was a burly giant, five meters tall, whose hands were thicker than thighs. The ground seemed to tremble with every step he took.

A fierce, murderous aura filled the street without restraint. Wherever he went, the crowd parted to make way, not daring to so much as breathe too loudly.

"Dragon Horn Jax, captain of the Flying Pirates' Twentieth Fleet."

"Bounty: 330,000,000."

That bounty alone was enough to scare a crowd of people.

And he was a fleet captain under the Flying Pirates. Even if he was the weakest one, he was still a notorious overlord of the sea.

"Guahaha!"

Dragon Horn Jax strode along arrogantly, while a crowd of his men followed behind, carrying swords or with guns tucked at their sides. They were all outrageously cocky, and plenty of them were pirates with bounties of eighty or ninety million, or even one or two hundred million.

In Demon Valley Town, pirates with bounties of eighty or ninety million—or over a hundred million—were Great Pirates. But now, those so-called Great Pirates were just other people's underlings.

With the Flying Pirates behind him, Dragon Horn Jax could practically run wild across the sea, as long as he didn't provoke any powerhouses he couldn't afford to anger.

"Captain, why does the Admiral want to recruit the Roger Pirates? Why'd he even send you personally to deliver the message?"

The crowd parted around them. One of the pirates beside Dragon Horn Jax spoke, looking somewhat impatient.

As far as he was concerned, they could've sent any subordinate. The Roger Pirates had made a bit of a name for themselves on the sea lately, but compared to the Flying Pirates, they were like a firefly next to the moon.

"Guahaha! No one dares defy the Admiral's will. If the Roger Pirates don't know what's good for them, I'll wipe them out with a flick of my hand."

"Ha ha ha!"

The pirates laughed without restraint. They didn't take the Roger Pirates seriously at all.

On the roof of another building, a great mass of sand gathered into a figure. A handsome young man with slicked-back hair and an earring in his right ear held a cigar in his left hand. Wearing a checkered, long-sleeved shirt, he watched Dragon Horn Jax and his men in the street, his eyes full of contempt.

"Dragon Horn Jax, captain of the Flying Pirates' Twentieth Fleet. A bounty of 330,000,000 berries. Just the right stepping stone for my journey to the New World!!"