The Death-Seeking Golden Lion (Ticket)

Over the next few days, it was time for Norse and Golden Lion Shiki to recuperate and recover.

Norse had not decided to kill Golden Lion Shiki.

Instead, he brought Golden Lion Shiki into a lush, verdant forest.

He used the ability Day-Day Earth-Day Air, drawing some of the life-force elements from within a radius of several thousand meters into his body to rapidly recuperate and replenish the various life elements within him.

Then, every day, Norse began eating and drinking heartily, gathering abundant ingredients from all over the island and bringing them back to the ship to freeze, dry, or pickle.

In Norse's eyes, the animal ingredients on Long Ring Long Land were exceptionally unique.

Where else could one find dogs over ten meters long?

Or rabbits five or six meters long?

Or even ordinary snakes hundreds of meters long?

Such ingredients certainly did not exist elsewhere. Even on Rare Beast Island, there would not be such peculiar creatures.

On the fifth day, a News Coo flew over the sea into the skies above the island.

It dropped dozens of bounty posters over Long Ring Long Land.

They reported Norse's bounty, and he had even been listed as a dangerous pirate of the Worst Generation.

The poster read:

Demon Back Norse—Bounty: 1.5 billion Berries.

Norse's bounty could be said to have skyrocketed in a short period of time.

To many people, this was surely an utterly incomprehensible stunt.

But in the eyes of certain pirates who sought fame and fortune, they were probably insanely jealous of Norse, cursing him up a storm and perhaps even feeling the urge to kill him.

Until now, hardly anyone had known Norse's name, and even fewer had ever seen him on the seas.

What was more, Marine Headquarters had sealed off all news regarding Norse's three major battles.

After all, it concerned Marine Headquarters' dignity. They had dispatched their frontline figures, yet every one of them had been utterly defeated by an unknown pirate.

Tell me, how were Marine Headquarters' admirals supposed to intimidate the pirates of the Four Seas in the future?

Thus, the government's stunt only made countless pirates across the seas find Norse even more mysterious, leaving them shocked and full of doubts time and time again.

Had something major happened in the Four Seas? No!

Had the conflict between the Four Emperors worsened? No!

Since nothing had happened, why did this one person's bounty keep soaring again and again?

Just who was this Norse?

Was Demon Back Norse already monstrously powerful?

Because of this, they had no idea how Norse's bounty had risen.

Of course, existences like the Four Emperors of the Sea surely had ways to learn the truth.

They learned that after Norse had first defeated Aokiji, the famed Marine admiral candidate of Marine Headquarters, his bounty had surged from an initial one hundred Berries to one billion Berries.

It should be known that Aokiji had been acting under orders from above and had specifically come to recruit Hancock as one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea.

At the same time, he had led ten Marine Headquarters warships into the Calm Belt, intending to establish Marine Headquarters' absolute strength before Hancock and the others.

Yet the unfortunate result was—

if Norse had not shown mercy, they would have been completely wiped out long ago!

Next, Instructor Zephyr, who had been temporarily assigned to the mission and still retained the status of a Marine admiral, lost an arm after battling Norse and returned in miserable defeat.

At that point, Norse's bounty had risen to 1.2 billion Berries.

And finally, there was this time.

Marine Headquarters' two major forces, Kizaru and Akainu, had it even worse.

Kizaru was said to have returned severely wounded.

Akainu, meanwhile, was hanging by a thread. It was suspected that treatment had failed, and he had been transferred from Marine Headquarters' infirmary into the hands of the World Government. No one knew what happened to him afterward.

Yet Norse's bounty rose directly from 1.2 billion Berries to 1.5 billion Berries because of this. The World Government and Marine Headquarters had even unanimously deemed Norse an extremely dangerous great pirate.

Thus, for the World Government to raise Norse's bounty to 1.5 billion Berries in less than a month was enough to show their recognition of Norse's strength and their deep wariness of his level of danger.

However, someone had recently exposed Norse's whereabouts.

As a result, large numbers of pirates from the Four Seas were heading toward Norse. There were even terrifying forces under sea emperors, sailing enormous ships from the New World and pursuing him across the Grand Line.

Naturally, Norse knew little about much of this. The only thing he knew was that his bounty had risen to 1.5 billion Berries.

"Damn it, brat, how did your bounty rise to 1.5 billion Berries?"

Suddenly, Golden Lion Shiki appeared beside Norse in a wheelchair. He rudely snatched the wanted poster from Norse's hand, only to be utterly stunned on the spot.

Then, Golden Lion's eyes suddenly reddened. He even shed a few old tears, which streamed across his bandage-wrapped face as he lamented miserably:

"I, Golden Lion Shiki, struggled and fought on these seas for decades. I nearly destroyed Marine Headquarters and overturned the deepest level of Impel Down's hell. Do you know how many Berries my bounty was?"

"How much was it?"

Norse genuinely wanted to know the answer to that question.

All this time, few people had known Golden Lion's true bounty.

Some said it was several hundred million, some said over a billion, and some said that since he had once contended with Roger, he must have been a great pirate worth several billion.

"1.8 billion Berries. Heh heh."

Shiki laughed at himself. "Many people believed that since I had contended with Roger, I should've had a bounty of several billion. Yet when the World Government issued my bounty for the last time after I escaped prison, it was only 1.8 billion Berries."

"Huh? Is 1.8 billion that low?"

Norse suddenly asked Shiki in return, "How much is my bounty now?"

Golden Lion froze for a moment before replying, "Isn't your bounty 1.5 billion?"

What Golden Lion really meant was—

Norse was still so young. From the time his bounty had been a mere hundred Berries until now, less than four months had passed.

Yet Norse's bounty had already risen to 1.5 billion Berries. How was a veteran pirate like him, who had struggled for decades, supposed to feel about that?

"Then between you and me, Shiki, who's stronger?"

Norse gave Golden Lion Shiki a serious look, thinking, I beat this guy into such a state, and he still thinks he's that strong?

Faced with Norse's question, Golden Lion Shiki suddenly felt every inch of his body ache.

After considering it again and again, he said, "I admit that your generation has produced a monster, but why did your bounty jump to 1.5 billion just because you defeated those two bastards? Were they really that strong? If I'd recovered even half my strength back then, trash like them would've been nothing more than stepping stones to me."

Golden Lion Shiki usually stayed ten thousand meters in the sky. He only knew that Norse's initial bounty had been a hundred Berries; he had no idea how many times Norse's bounty had risen in such a short period, or how much it had increased each time.

"Well, isn't that obvious? I'm stronger than you, and far stronger than them, yet my bounty is only 1.5 billion. What does that make me?" Norse said flatly, but he had no patience to explain the reasons behind the bounty to Golden Lion Shiki.

For a moment, Golden Lion Shiki was left speechless.

It even reminded him of a saying.

The strong truly could do whatever they wanted. Any resistance from the weak was feeble and useless.

When night fell.

Golden Lion Shiki suddenly sought out Norse, hoping to join forces with him to destroy the entire East Blue. The condition he offered was all the wealth he had accumulated over his lifetime as payment to Norse.

However, Norse rejected him on the spot and told Shiki that he could leave whenever he wished.

Who would have thought that Golden Lion Shiki, with his deep hatred for evil and unchanging nature, would retaliate against Norse and the others that very night?

While Norse and the others were fast asleep aboard the ship in the middle of the night, he seized the opportunity to secretly cancel all the gravity on the Kuja Pirates.

With just a touch, the Kuja Pirates began rising into the sky again.

As for Shiki, he sailed away on his island ship.

PS: This chapter was a necessary transition. It may have been brief, but there was no helping it.

Also, thank you to everyone who has recently sent tips and voted for me.