The Difference in Military Rank

East Blue, Orange Town.

Buggy the Clown, captain of the Buggy Pirates, looked at the suddenly emerged Big Daddy Pirates. Seeing the officers of the Big Daddy Pirates, each of whom held a bounty higher than his own, a look of wariness appeared on his face.

"Captain Buggy, the Big Daddy Pirates' ship seems to be heading in our direction. Should we make a 'strategic retreat'?"

The acrobat Cabaji spoke up. He also served as the chief of staff for the Buggy Pirates, and upon seeing the luxurious lineup of the Big Daddy Pirates, he felt his legs go weak, unable to even steady his unicycle.

They had actually managed to crush the East Blue Overlord, the Krieg Pirates, and with a terrifying record of only eight people charging against five thousand.

"Captain, I also think we should go to other islands to do some sightseeing. After all, staying on one island for too long gets a bit boring."

The beast tamer Mohji knew that Buggy cared about his reputation, so he quickly changed his reasoning and tried to persuade him indirectly.

"Right! It's not that we're afraid of the Big Daddy Pirates; we just happen to need to plunder other islands to replenish our supplies! Hurry, hurry, hurry! What are you waiting for? Pack up and set sail! Can't you see that Richie is starving thin?"

Buggy the Clown immediately barked, thinking these guys were so clueless—didn't they know that time was money, and money was his life?

Following Buggy's order, the Buggy Pirates' circus troupe immediately packed up and set sail, fleeing at top speed, terrified of being cornered by Big Daddy and subsequently slaughtered.

On the other side, Daddy had indeed considered stopping by Orange Town to take down Buggy the Clown.

However, by the time they reached Orange Town, the Buggy Pirates had already long since vacated the premises, so Daddy and his crew headed straight for the Arlong Pirates in Cocoyasi Village.

"Buggy the Clown's Conqueror's Haki-level luck is truly beyond words!"

Daddy thought of the cockroach-like Buggy, who could turn every disaster into a blessing and reap all sorts of benefits, evolving from a small-time pirate to a Shichibukai and eventually a Four Emperor; the word "legendary" was the only way to describe him.

Inside the Loguetown Marine Branch.

Smoker the White Hunter had repeatedly requested permission from his superiors to leave his post and arrest the Big Daddy Pirates.

But every request was rejected, and he was sternly warned to behave himself and ordered to guard Loguetown, an important strategic location.

This was the entrance to the Grand Line in the East Blue, where pirate crews could land at any time, making the safety of the people's lives and property of the utmost importance.

Smoker could only wait until the Big Daddy Pirates landed in Loguetown before he could make a move to take down Daddy.

Cocoyasi Village, Arlong's territory.

Arlong looked at the bounty posters; the Big Daddy Pirates had actually wiped out the Krieg Pirates, which surprised him a little.

However, he simply concluded that Krieg was a complete piece of trash, which was why he had been taken out so easily.

He believed that his Fish-Man Race was the strongest race of all!

"Big Brother Arlong! It's time to collect the protection money for this month again!"

Chew the kiss-fish Fish-Man walked in and said to Arlong. Over the years, they had collected massive amounts of protection money from the twenty-plus surrounding villages to fund their food, drink, and entertainment.

This was the happiest time of their lives.

Compared to the dark and lowly life in the Fish-Man District, they preferred this remote sea area in the East Blue, where they could bask in the sunlight and enjoy the thrill of enslaving humans.

In Fish-Man Island, they lived in constant fear of oppression, but here, they could unleash their power to the fullest and let humans experience the feeling of being oppressed.

Only here did they truly live with dignity.

"Then go collect all the money! Not a single cent less! If any humans resist or don't have the money, kill them on the spot!"

Arlong gave a sinister smile. On Fish-Man Island and the Sabaody Archipelago, he was submissive, but here in the waters of Cocoyasi Village in the East Blue, he was the one and only emperor of the Arlong Empire!

"Understood!"

A group of Fish-Man underlings split into teams of three and headed to the twenty-plus villages to collect protection money.

Even just three Fish-Men were enough to make a village terrified enough to hand over their money obediently.

The Arlong Pirates, with fewer than a hundred Fish-Men, were enough to suppress over twenty human villages; these humans were as cowardly and timid as livestock.

Previously, Brannew, the commodore and commander of the 77th Branch, had actually dared to lead a team to crusade against the Arlong Pirates, only to be wiped out by Arlong and left to sink to the bottom of the sea.

This had made Arlong increasingly arrogant, believing that a Marine commodore was nothing more than that.

He might not have fully understood that there was a distinction between Marine Headquarters and Marine Branches, with a three-rank gap between them; for instance, a Branch Captain was only equivalent to a Headquarters Lieutenant.

Brannew, a branch commodore, only possessed the strength of a Headquarters Major.

Even Daddy hadn't understood these ranks when he first transmigrated, assuming a branch captain was only one rank lower than a headquarters captain, not realizing it was a full three ranks lower.

Branch captains like Captain Morgan and Captain Nezumi were equivalent to a lieutenant at Headquarters; if they had been at the Summit War, they would have been among the lowest-ranking cannon fodder.

The highest rank in the Four Seas branches was the branch commodore, while those in charge of the Grand Line and New World fortresses were mostly elites from Marine Headquarters.

The major generals and lieutenant generals of those Marine fortresses were actually not much different from those at Headquarters; they were simply Headquarters Marines stationed abroad, and depending on the importance of the fortress location, they were either equal in rank or at most one rank apart.

As for Smoker, a disciple of Zephyr, he had originally been a captain at Marine Headquarters like Hina, but because of his hot temper and frequent defiance of orders, he had been demoted three or four ranks to become a branch captain in Loguetown.

Of course, Loguetown was also a very important location, so it was possible his superiors were intentionally tempering Smoker's temperament.

Later on, Smoker was promoted faster than Hina; by the time Smoker became a Headquarters Lieutenant General, Hina was still only a Headquarters Major General!

In the original story, the Headquarters Lieutenant Fullbody could enter the East Blue from the Grand Line to pursue the remnants of the Krieg Pirates and capture Gin the Man-Demon alive, which spoke to his strength.

His rank as a Headquarters Lieutenant was actually on par with branch captains like Morgan and Nezumi, and his personal strength was even slightly higher.

With the monthly protection fee collection of the Arlong Empire, these twenty-plus villages were once again stained with a hint of blood.

Under Arlong's rule, the residents had to pay to buy their own lives every month: 100,000 berries for adults and 50,000 for children. Those who could not produce the money were brutally shot dead.

This sum had completely crushed the impoverished families; those poor souls unable to escape this sea area had already been slaughtered by the fish-men.

The fish-men of the Arlong Pirates took the oppression they had suffered on Fish-Man Island and inflicted it tenfold, a hundredfold, upon the civilians in the waters of Cocoyasi Village.

Having transformed from the oppressed into the oppressors, they acted with even greater cruelty, intensifying their brutality and abandoning all traces of humanity.

This was the hatred between two races.

When the Dreadnaught Sabre of the Big Daddy Pirates entered the waters of Cocoyasi Village, they could still see smoke rising from some of the small islands.

These were the tragedies of people being murdered and their homes burned because they could not pay the protection fee.

Witnessing these scenes, even Daddy, who felt out of place in this world, could not help but feel a flicker of rage.

Who isn't a nationalist at heart?

Those not of my kind, kill!