Old Komodo Doubts His Life! Ninety Million

Of course, the temptation lasted only a fleeting moment, and you would find... Ahem. After all, being a Colonel from Headquarters, Bogard adjusted himself quickly.

Although there were many scoundrels in the Navy, there were indeed many who truly held justice in their hearts.

It was just that Dunn's words left Bogard at a loss for how to respond.

Joining the Navy certainly wouldn't yield such gains.

Unless, of course, you were a corrupt Marine.

As for the Navy's justice, Bogard actually wanted to have a chat with Dunn about it, but Dunn clearly had no interest.

"Tell Captain Nezumi I'll be at the usual spot. Just calculate the bounties and have them delivered."

Dunn waved his hand and then headed toward the town.

By now, the town was already in an uproar.

It was truly rare to see such a grand spectacle: one pirate after another being escorted by the Navy to the base for imprisonment.

It had been almost non-stop, and everyone had come out to watch the excitement.

The patrons of the tavern had all gone out to the street to watch, and the tavern owner, Old Komodo, had also stepped out.

Watching the pirates being escorted one by one, Old Komodo even recognized quite a few; these were fellows with bounty posters.

"Is the Navy having a major operation? But I haven't heard anything. The Marines at this base don't seem to have been deployed, so where were these pirates captured?"

Old Komodo looked bewildered.

To capture so many pirates, the Navy would surely have to deploy a significant number of men, and whoever made the catch would claim the credit.

If they had been captured by Marines from another base, they wouldn't be brought here.

"I heard a pirate ship came straight to the pier and happened to run into the warship docked there, so these pirates just surrendered on the spot."

Someone spoke up to show off their inside information, though it was clearly only half-understood.

"The tavern isn't open today?"

A voice made Old Komodo turn around, and he saw the tall Dunn standing there, clutching his sword as he looked at him.

"It's open, it's open! I was just watching the commotion."

Old Komodo said, hurrying back toward the tavern.

"The usual, a glass of fruit juice!"

Dunn followed him into the tavern and sat down at the counter.

"Coming right up!"

Old Komodo didn't ask any questions, simply bowing his head to get to work, peeling fresh oranges to prepare the juice.

"Are there any new bounty posters?"

Watching Old Komodo work, Dunn asked.

"Bounty posters?"

Old Komodo, busy with his task, paused and looked up at Dunn.

Wait, those pirates couldn't have been captured by him, could they?

Old Komodo knew that Dunn was a Pirate Hunter.

No, that couldn't be right; there were too many pirates. How could one person possibly capture so many?

Old Komodo shook his head with a chuckle.

"There aren't many new ones. After all, the East Blue is the weakest sea, so there aren't that many pirates to begin with. Most are just setting sail and don't even have bounties yet. However, there is a big one recently."

Old Komodo said, pushing the freshly squeezed juice toward Dunn.

"A big one? Tell me about it!"

Dunn was somewhat curious upon hearing this.

"They say it's a pirate who came from the New World. After returning to the East Blue, he almost ran into the Navy at Loguetown but managed to escape. It's said to be a ship full of Fish-Men, and the leader is apparently named something like Dragon."

Old Komodo lowered his head to pull out a stack of bounty posters and began flipping through them.

"Arlong!"

Dunn said.

"Yes, yes, that's it, Arlong. They say he was a subordinate of a great pirate in the New World, with a bounty of a full twenty million."

Old Komodo was clearly amazed by such a bounty.

Although it was insignificant in the New World, in the East Blue, it was a great white shark.

"Do you have his location?"

Dunn watched as Old Komodo pulled out a bounty poster with Arlong's photo on it.

"No. This pirate just arrived in the East Blue, and even the Navy doesn't know the specifics. Other than the fact that he escaped from a naval pursuit, there is no other information at the moment."

Dunn nodded upon hearing this.

"However, this place isn't too far from Loguetown. If that guy were to run off in this direction, I'm afraid he'd stir up quite a commotion."

Old Komodo glanced at Dunn and sighed.

"This is an archipelago, after all. In the eyes of pirates, this place is a fat piece of meat."

An archipelago is composed of several adjacent islands that are very close to one another; they might have been connected originally, only to be separated when the sea level rose or parts of the land sank.

The 16th Branch Base, Cocoyasi Village, and more than twenty surrounding island villages were all located within the Conomi Islands.

However, Dunn did not respond.

It was still lively outside. Clearly, the escorting of such a large number of pirates had brought the entire town out to watch, and cheers could be heard from outside from time to time.

Perhaps they had recognized some of the pirates.

"Do you know what's going on with these pirates outside?"

Seeing Dunn turn his head to look outside, Old Komodo asked out of boredom.

"I caught them!"

Dunn replied casually.

Old Komodo was stunned, rendered speechless for a moment.

"Don't joke around. That's not just one or two pirates; how could you catch so many by yourself? But it looks like you really do know the news—why not sell the information to me?"

Old Komodo said with a chuckle.

This information could be turned into cash for him, or at the very least, he could talk about it at the tavern.

Such secret information was also a great way to attract customers.

After all, the people here were still very curious.

"Sure, 150,000 Belly!"

Hearing this, Dunn turned back, looked at Old Komodo with a smile, and stated his price directly.

"150,000? That's way too expensive. Wait, isn't that the money I collected for selling you information earlier?"

Old Komodo stared, his face full of speechlessness.

This young man was quite vengeful, but hadn't he only charged 100,000 Belly later on?

"Think about it: to be able to catch so many pirates, it must be a big shot. For such a big shot, could his information be cheap?"

"That's true!"

Old Komodo nodded at these words, then slowly and reluctantly took 150,000 Belly out from the counter and handed it to Dunn.

Dunn didn't stand on ceremony and took the money handed to him.

"The person who caught these pirates is me. I ran into the pirates gathered together and just rounded them all up in one go."

Dunn said earnestly.

Old Komodo's face turned a shade of green and white.

Could this young man be swindling him out of his money?

Just as Old Komodo was doubting him, two Marines walked in carrying large bags.

Upon seeing Dunn, the two Marines set the bags down and saluted.

"Hello, Mr. Pirate Hunter. This is the bounty the Colonel asked us to deliver; it totals 91,770,000 Belly."

"Are you done with the escort?"

Dunn looked at the two Marines and asked.

"Not yet, but the Colonel said we shouldn't keep you waiting too long, so we calculated the bounty first."

Dunn realized, then nodded.

After saluting, the two Marines turned and left.

"See? I told you it was me. I wasn't lying to you!"

Dunn said with a shrug.

"It really was you?"

Old Komodo was dumbfounded.

This young man seemed to have exceeded his imagination.

To capture so many people at once—just how strong was this guy?

Just as Old Komodo was questioning his own reality, Bogard at the dock contacted Garp, who had returned to his hometown to visit his grandson.

"Vice Admiral Garp, the person has returned."