Fame Begins to Spread!

In just one week, four of the Krieg Pirates' patrol fleets had been wiped out by Daddy and his crew, a piece of news that sent Krieg into a blind rage.

Krieg felt that his status as the overlord of the East Blue had been severely challenged.

After losing fifteen ships and over fifteen hundred men, the Krieg Pirates finally managed to identify their attackers, and this intelligence quickly made the front-page headlines across the East Blue.

This caused Krieg to lose all face!

It turned out that this overlord of the East Blue was nothing but a paper tiger, beaten to a pulp by a mere handful of people!

"Big Daddy Babaya, Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro, Kuro of a Hundred Plans—you are all dead meat!!"

Admiral Krieg roared at the newspaper. A traitor from the Barto Family, a bounty hunter, and a pirate who had supposedly been dead for two years—how could these three possibly be working together?!

"Gin! Pearl! Gather all our forces! We are going to hunt them down and annihilate them!!"

Krieg's eyes were bloodshot as he bellowed at his two capable subordinates. He had originally planned to coast for another year or two before launching his assault on the Grand Line, but he never expected that nearly a third of his forces would be destroyed in the East Blue by a few nobodies.

If he didn't avenge this insult, he wouldn't be a man!

The massive mobilization of the Krieg Pirates, the overlords of the East Blue, alarmed many other pirate crews, and those with less strength began to go into hiding.

East Blue, Loguetown.

Bartolomeo, the boss of the Barto Family and known as the Cannibal, stared at the newspaper. Upon seeing the news about Big Daddy Babaya, he immediately tore the paper to shreds, shouting that he would set sail to hunt Babaya down.

However, he was quickly suppressed by Granny Yubaba, who forbade him from causing trouble for Babaya.

After all, if the Krieg Pirates could finish off Babaya, there was no point in Bartolomeo going.

But if Babaya destroyed the Krieg Pirates, Bartolomeo would just be throwing his life away by going, so it was wiser to sit back and watch the tigers fight.

Dezaya, meanwhile, looked at the news in the paper with a complex expression, her eyes filled with intense worry!

She ran back to her quarters!

"Barto! Keep an eye on Dezaya and don't let her set sail to find Babaya!"

Granny Yubaba slammed a large bump onto Bartolomeo's head and said sternly.

"Understood! Granny!"

Bartolomeo stood trembling before Granny Yubaba like a kitten; Granny's cane really hurt when she hit him!

Loguetown, Marine Branch.

A white-haired Marine chewing on a cigar also glanced at the news in the paper, looking quite surprised. Six people against five thousand?

Are the rookies these days really that fierce?

Big Daddy Babaya, I've remembered your name. If you have the guts to return to Loguetown, I will personally arrest you for daring to consort with pirates.

Smoker immediately filed an application with Marine Headquarters to reinstate the bounty on Kuro of a Hundred Plans, while simultaneously launching a thorough investigation into Captain Morgan of the 153rd Marine Branch to bring justice for the past.

As for the gangster Big Daddy Babaya and the Pirate Hunter Zoro, they would need further observation, though in Smoker's eyes, both of them would end up with bounties sooner or later.

Because they were too ruthless—killing over a thousand pirate underlings—Smoker didn't believe for a second that they were good people!

East Blue, Orange Town.

Buggy the Clown saw that a ruthless force had emerged in the East Blue and couldn't help but consider lying low for a while; after all, his Buggy Pirates only had about a hundred men, and he dared not provoke the massive Krieg Pirates.

East Blue, Cocoyasi Village.

Arlong looked at the news with contempt. The overlord of the East Blue, Krieg? In his eyes, they were nothing but a bunch of trash.

Even though his Arlong Pirates had fewer than a hundred members, he was confident he could take down the five-thousand-man Krieg Pirates.

The strength of their Fish-Men was ten times that of humans; they could fight one against ten, or even one against a hundred, and on the sea, they Fish-Men were the true protagonists.

If he weren't worried that a war with the Krieg Pirates would cause casualties among his Fish-Man brothers, he would never have let a piece of trash like Krieg claim the title of East Blue overlord just by relying on numbers.

He was the pirate with the highest bounty in the East Blue, after all!

A girl with orange hair within the Arlong Pirates was also shocked by the news. How could six people possibly defeat five thousand?

But she didn't have time to worry about such things; she still had to go out to sea to make money.

However, a bold idea suddenly took root in her mind.

Now that the Krieg Pirates, the overlords of the East Blue, were in total chaos and deployed everywhere searching for people, perhaps she had more opportunities to steal the Krieg Pirates' treasure.

Maybe she could steal enough to buy back her village in one go!

Nami, her heart racing, immediately began to consider the feasibility of the plan.

On the other side, aboard a pirate ship.

Jango and the Cat Brothers were shivering, as if they were about to be torn to shreds by the Krieg Pirates at any moment.

Daddy and Zoro, however, continued to do as they pleased—eating when they wanted and training when they felt like it. As for Kuro, he frowned as he looked at his own photo in the newspaper.

He had been exposed after all!

"Zoro! Your heart still isn't ruthless enough; you let too many pirates get away!"

Kuro pushed up his glasses with his palm and spoke with an indifferent expression, though there was no blame in his tone. After all, he had already foreseen every possibility.

He simply felt that if Zoro harbored too much kindness, he would likely be at a disadvantage in the future.

But Daddy, that devil, was different; Kuro saw in Daddy's eyes a pure indifference, as if the lives of these pirates were even more insignificant than insects.

He could sense that Daddy treated the slaughter of pirates as nothing more than a game.

Kuro could even subtly perceive that Daddy was completely out of place in this world.

There was a sense of looking down upon the mortal realm, filled with arrogance and disdain, much like someone observing and toying with a nest of ants.

He did not understand why someone with Daddy's meager strength would possess such a gaze.

If he possessed the strength of a Shichibukai or one of the Four Emperors, Kuro would have nothing to say, but for now, such a look was still far too premature.

Could this guy be a Celestial Dragon?

Kuro shook his head, casting the thought aside; it seemed to be a personal issue with Daddy.

However, he quite admired Daddy's cold and ruthless nature; after all, emotions only hinder a person's judgment and the speed of their blade.

"Too weak! I can't even muster the interest to cut you down!"

Zoro did not want to admit to his own kindness; he simply couldn't be bothered to swing his blade at the weak, preferring instead to challenge those who were stronger.

"Next! Let's see what my limits are! Don't you dare fall so quickly!"

Daddy continued to gorge on meat, yearning intensely for that kind of formidable constitution capable of battling for ten days and ten nights; even if he couldn't reach that level, he had to aim for the tiers of five days and nights, or three days and nights!

"Hmph! I can go ten days and nights without eating and still be able to hack people to pieces! That bamboo-pole body of yours, Kuro, is another story!"

Zoro provoked Kuro. He was known as a beast-like swordsman precisely because he could relentlessly hunt down pirate crews for days and nights without giving up, possessing terrifying physical stamina.

In the original story, he was tied up for nine days without food or water, enduring the scorching sun, yet he still possessed formidable combat power after Luffy rescued him.