A moment later, Thorpe the Vicious Dog had climbed aboard and was on his knees, weeping as he begged for mercy. The other pirates swimming this way had already turned around and were frantically trying to get away from Dunn's ship.
Just moments ago, their captain had been the first to board that ship. While the other pirates had been expecting to take it over, they had witnessed a horrifying scene.
The people on board had pinned their captain down and were pounding him with clenched fists.
They could hear their captain's howls from far away.
The sound was enough to make listeners grieve and weep.
However, let their captain be the only one to suffer through this misery.
Though without a ship in the vast ocean, there was a ninety-nine percent chance you'd end up as fish food, boarding that ship meant getting beaten to death.
Dunn watched the pirates frantically swimming away from him, then turned his gaze to the sobbing pirate before him.
"Know any pirates?"
At the sound of Dunn's voice, Thorpe the Vicious Dog's crying came to an abrupt halt.
"Yes, yes, I do!"
Torff nodded repeatedly.
"Do they have bounties?"
"Yes, yes, they do!"
"Do you know where they are?"
"I do, I do... Uh, I mean, yes, yes!"
Torff hurriedly corrected himself.
"Take me there."
After saying that, Dunn sat down at the bow.
At Dunn's command, Torff hurriedly got to his feet. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he grabbed an oar and turned around to row. But a sinister smile spread across his face.
"Heh heh heh!"
There really were pirates there, but not just one—they were a whole group. It was a gathering place pirates had tacitly agreed upon, where they also sold the goods they'd stolen.
That bastard had dared to beat him.
Once they got there, he'd make him pay a hundredfold.
Little did he know, Dunn was watching his every move with Observation Haki.
Dunn could even guess what the guy was thinking.
But that was actually good news for Dunn. It saved him the trouble of searching. After all, he only had a vague understanding of nautical charts and such. He could probably make sense of a small-scale chart and follow it to a destination.
But Dunn, who didn't know much about navigation, couldn't read those large-scale charts.
Having a fish to lead the way was a good thing.
It was just that the boat sailed for several days.
People in the pirate world really did have unusual constitutions.
Torff wasn't being treated like a prisoner of war. He'd gone several days without a single sip of water or a bite to eat, yet he was still managing to hold on.
When he finally spotted a strange-looking island in the distance, shaped like an upside-down mushroom, delight bloomed across Torff's despairing face. He began rowing even faster.
Dunn tossed the orange peel in his hand into the sea, stood up, and looked toward the island. He extended his Observation Haki and immediately saw what was happening there.
There were a lot of people. Most were pirates, but there were also some merchants whose identities were unclear.
It was quite lively.
Dunn sat back down and watched Torff row furiously, giving a slight nod.
As expected, the instinct to survive was what brought out a person's greatest potential.
At the island's dock, a heavy pirate ship pulled in and stopped. A large group of pirates disembarked, excitedly.
After all, chances to come ashore and rest were few and far between.
"It's Asong the Lone Wolf!"
"What's that bastard doing here?"
Seeing the pirate step off the ship with a wolf pelt draped over him and a wolf's head perched on his own, many people looked wary.
With a bounty of 7.8 million Beli, he was already one of the East Blue's top pirates.
On top of frequently attacking inhabited islands, the guy also liked to attack pirate ships.
Even pirates didn't want to run into him.
Because most who did never met a good end.
In fact, many pirate crews who'd crossed paths with him had vanished completely, never to be heard from again.
"You bastard, you came here too?"
Some were afraid of a pirate with a bounty of 7.8 million, but others weren't scared of him.
The pirate who spoke was nearly four meters tall. He eyed the enormous battle axe, bigger than an ordinary pirate, and sneered.
"It's Giant Axe Onwa!"
"Giant Axe Onwa, with a bounty of 8.5 million!"
Quite a few pirates swallowed nervously and quietly backed away.
Were those two going to fight?
If they did and anyone got caught in the crossfire, they'd probably lose their life.
Pirates were vicious toward ordinary people, but they were also frightened of anyone stronger than themselves.
"Onwa, I don't want to start a fight with you right now. Since you came here too, you should know why I'm here. That dog-headed bastard is back."
Asong the Lone Wolf gave a cold snort and tightened his grip on his sword.
The people around them turned pale at once.
Dog-headed bastard?
Garp, the Marine Headquarters Vice Admiral from the East Blue?
That guy was back in the East Blue again?
Everyone fell silent.
If that guy had returned to the East Blue, it made perfect sense for these notorious pirates to hide out here.
After all, whenever Garp ran into pirates, he'd casually hurl countless cannonballs at them.
The pirates lucky enough to escape had vivid memories of that scene.
Just as the two pirates with bounties of seven or eight million stood facing off, a wild laugh rang out from the dock.
A small boat had just come ashore. A figure who looked as if he'd been hollowed out rolled off the boat, laughing wildly.
"Ha ha ha! You fell for it, you bastard! This place is a pirate den. You're going to die here, you bastard!"
Torff scrambled off the boat, laughing hysterically.
His laughter drew the attention of the pirates on the dock.
Then they saw a young man holding a sword rise to his feet on the small boat.
Damn!
The pirates who saw him froze, then looked disgusted.
How could he be so handsome?
That guy deserved to die.
That was what every pirate there thought.
Dunn swept his gaze across the dock, then pulled a stack of wanted posters from behind him.
"Let's see... Asong the Lone Wolf, 7.8 million. Giant Axe Onwa, bounty of 8.5 million. Bloody Hand..."
As he flipped through the posters and checked them against the pirates, he muttered to himself, calculating the total bounty.
But his words made the pirates on the dock look increasingly menacing.
Torff, who'd tumbled off the boat, barely had the strength left to laugh.
He'd been running on adrenaline before, but now that it had ebbed away, he was barely breathing.
"Let's see... 33.21 million Beli."
Under the pirates' hostile gazes, Dunn tucked the wanted posters back behind him with satisfaction. Only then did he lift his head and turn his gaze back to them.
"You're surrounded."
Dunn raised his voice and shouted.
"Wahahaha! What's this kid saying?"
"Gah ha ha! He says we're surrounded. That's hilarious!"
"What a boastful brat. Could he be a pirate hunter?"
One of the pirates had guessed the truth outright.
But the pirates didn't care.
After all, there were hundreds of pirates here, and only one of him.
No matter how you looked at it, there was only one way to put it.
The advantage was ours!
Before you continue