The Target
Hearing Yasopp's shout, the members of the Red-Hair Pirates got excited. Regardless of whether they could see it or not, they all ran to the side of the ship to peer, causing the small Red Force to tilt slightly...
Amidst the violent, man-made jolts, Sig, Morio, Ooo all looked over with annoyance and disdain.
"Ah! It really is World Government ship."
"And there's a naval escort..."
"Did we really encounter Celestial Gold?"
"If it's not Celestial Gold, it must be something important!"
"Celestial Gold" refers to the gold supplied to Mary Geoise by the Affiliated Nation of the World Government. It must be gold, and this is the bottom line for the Affiliated Nation, because for some unknown reason, it is the thing that Mary Geoise cares about most.
The World Government may not care what trouble Affiliated Nation causes domestically, but if even a single cent of Celestial Gold, it will be annexed.
In the original work, the final push that helped Doflamingo seize the position of Shichibukai was the acquisition of a large amount of Celestial Gold, which he used as leverage. Of course, the reason why the threat was successful was because Doflamingo had already proven his strength and his status as a former Celestial Dragons before that.
Therefore, Sig also suspected that the Celestial Gold might be related to some secret of the Celestial Dragons. After all, judging from Enel's spaceship in the original work, gold seems to be able to serve as an energy source in this world.
The fleet that the Red-Hair Pirates have discovered now has a core flagship that is not a naval warship. The ship is marked with "Wor-Gov," which is the abbreviation for the World Government, and it is surrounded by many naval warships for escort, indicating that it is transporting something important, most likely Celestial Gold!
Everyone looked expectantly at Red-Hair —in the eyes of the pirate crew members, the fleet sailing in the East Blue should be a piece of cake for them.
"If we miss out on such a fat sheep, we can't be considered pirates! Morio, head southeast!" Shanks drew his sword and raised it, giving the order.
Sig glanced at Shanks' sword a few more times— Shanks' sword was named "Griffin," and according to Sig's common sense cultivated in this world, it wasn't among the top-tier or Famous Swords. However... through the Prison Demon, Sig realized that his sword also possessed a "Devil."
As Shanks gave the order, the crew cheered—as expected of the crew Shanks had handpicked based on his personal preference, not one of them showed any unease about "robbing the World Government," but rather they were all very excited.
Sig was now ready to fight; he couldn't just slack off after joining the fight.
At the same time, the naval fleet responsible for escorting them also saw a pirate ship charging straight towards them.
"Colonel Gurumi, pirates are approaching our forces from the northwest, and their speed... is slightly faster than ours!"
On a naval warship, the lookout reported to a neatly uniformed officer.
"What? Pirates?" Gurumi exclaimed angrily, snatching the binoculars and looking through them himself.
He wasn't worried about safety, after all, there were more than a dozen warships here, and it was a joint operation between two nearby naval divisions!
But...
They're protecting a big shot from "above" right now!
Within their territory, encountering pirates, especially those who dare to openly attack a naval fleet...
Even if we blast them to smithereens and eliminate them swiftly and decisively afterward, it would still be a disgrace.
"And it's just a pirate crew with no reputation..." Gurumi gritted his teeth in hatred.
Indeed, the Red-Hair Pirates' flag would be completely unfamiliar to a colonel in the East Blue Marine Division.
After all, the colonel in the East Blue branch only has the skull and crossbones flags of those arrogant pirate crews in the East Blue in his mind!
Furthermore, the Red-Hair Pirates' ship is quite deceptive; its size doesn't look like that of a large crew.
The escorting naval fleet immediately sprang into action—it was already humiliating enough that pirates had taken the initiative to attack the fleet, so they naturally had to perform well and try to salvage their reputation.
Each flag signal was standard, and the emergency assembly was conducted according to strict procedures...
On the World Government ship under escort, a group of agents dressed in tailored suits also noticed the "tension" among the surrounding warships.
Through Den Den Mushi, Colonel Gurumi informed them of the current situation and assured them that he would demonstrate the most standard pirate annihilation technique!
"Is the Weakest Sea branch of the Navy also the weakest Navy? How can pirates actually attack the Navy on their own initiative!" A CP9 agent complained somewhat unhappily.
The leader, with shoulder-length pink curly hair and round sunglasses, stepped out of the Captain and looked northwest.
"If the navy can handle it, then we don't need to worry about them," said Foz, the leader, nonchalantly.
As a promising young talent specially groomed within the secret intelligence agency CP9, 26-year-old Foz felt he could roam freely in the East Blue—"I'm here with so many CP9 spies, how could I possibly be robbed in the Weakest Sea?"
Today, Foz's position in CP9 is equivalent to Rob Lucci's ten years from now.
However, after glancing at him from afar, Foz's expression suddenly froze, and upon closer inspection, his expression immediately became serious!
At first glance, Foz saw the bull-horned prow and instinctively realized it was the style of Giant Race. Then he looked at the pirate flag...
Compared to the colonel in the East Blue, Foz was clearly more impressed by the pirates who made a name for themselves in the Grand Line, especially in the first half, the "Paradise."
The Red-Hair Pirates have been riding high these past two years, and not long ago they even defeated Patrick Redfield —the "Red Earl" of the Shichibukai!
Redfield's strength has indeed been touted by the World Government...
It is said that in exchange for a clue about a certain Devil Fruit, Redfield, who always kept to himself, accepted the World Government's invitation and became Shichibukai.
Later, Redfield was touted as "a Great Pirate who could rival the Whitebeard Pirates and the Roger Pirates single-handedly," and the World Government even claimed that "Redfield was evenly matched with Fleet Admiral Kong"...
Foz also knew that not long ago, Redfield accused the World Government of breaking its promise, threatened to withdraw from the Shichibukai, and attacked an island in the first half of the Grand Line, clashing with the Red-Hair Pirates happened to be passing by.
When the two sides clashed, Vice Admiral Garp arrived, and as reported by the WEC, Redfield was arrested and the Red-Hair Pirates escaped.
However, given the World Government's consistent practices, it's easy to interpret this report as "the Navy taking advantage of the situation," and that's indeed the case. It's just that... Garp wouldn't have lost even if he hadn't taken advantage of the situation.
Unfortunately, Sig didn't pay much attention to this Great Pirate who appeared in the game, otherwise he would have understood why Shanks recognized his Observation Haki —because Redfield's Observation Haki's effect was to read memories!
Compared to Sig, who only reads current emotions, Redfield can even access the target's memories, only lacking Sig's stealth...
"Quickly! Tell those idiots! Evacuate! Evacuate! Don't initiate combat!" Foz shouted to his men.
In a different context, Foz might have wanted to take on the challenge again, but although there was no Celestial Gold on board, there were tributes from the Affiliated Nation to Mary Geoise, so Foz dared not be careless...