Bounty of One Hundred Million

The next day.

When Ellie woke from her sleep, Luo Ze had already steered the Ghost Sword away from Dog Town.

The Ghost Sword traveled extremely fast. With Luo Ze running the engines at full power through the night, they covered a distance that ordinary ships would have needed two or three days to cross.

It was noon when Luo Ze was training in the training room, while Ellie, barefoot, hurried in from outside.

"Big brother, big brother! This is bad! You've been given a bounty!"

Ellie ran into the training room from outside. While she had been fishing on the deck just now, a flock of seagulls flew overhead. Soon afterward, several newspapers and a few yellow sheets of paper fluttered down from the sky.

Though Ellie was still young, she could recognize some words. When she opened the newspaper, she discovered that it contained information about Luo Ze. Among the yellow sheets was a wanted poster with Luo Ze's name on it.

So she hurriedly set down her fishing rod and rushed into the training room to tell Luo Ze the news.

"Whoa, it's so heavy in here."

The moment she entered the training room, Ellie felt as though she were carrying several blocks of lead. Her body became incredibly heavy, and even walking was difficult.

Meanwhile, Luo Ze was wearing weighted gear and lifting a barbell in that environment.

His upper body was bare, revealing his powerful muscles. Beads of sweat continuously dripped from his body, leaving his skin slick and gleaming as though it reflected light.

"Ellie? Why did you come in? Don't move yet."

Luo Ze froze briefly, then quickly stopped training and switched off the gravity machine in the training room.

Once the gravity machine was turned off, the lights in the training room returned to white, and the crushing weight pressing down on Ellie swiftly vanished.

"Phew... Big brother, it's so heavy in here. It was crushing Ellie to death," Ellie grumbled as she plopped down onto the floor.

Luo Ze took a towel from the rack, wiped off his sweat, and walked over to Ellie.

"Ellie, weren't you fishing outside just now? Why did you run in here? When big brother is training in the future, just call out from outside if you need something. You mustn't come in."

Luo Ze stroked Ellie's head.

Luckily, he had only set the gravity to twice normal. If he had set it any higher, the little girl definitely would not have been able to endure barging in like that.

"Okay," Ellie said with a pout.

"Oh, right, big brother, look. Some seagulls dropped these when they flew over our ship. There's something about you written on them."

Ellie placed the newspaper and wanted posters before Luo Ze.

"Oh? The Navy government moved that quickly? Luca only reported the results this morning, and the newspapers were out by noon?"

Luo Ze was somewhat surprised by the Navy government's efficiency. He took the sheets in one hand, swept his eyes over them a few times, and quickly looked away.

"Heh. Not only did those Navy higher-ups portray me as utterly evil, they even pinned a whole bunch of fabricated crimes on me."

After reading the newspaper, Luo Ze let out an unhappy, cold laugh.

Besides reporting the truth about Yate's case, the paper had piled all sorts of real and fabricated accusations onto him.

Things like attacking the Wheatcake Kingdom and looting its treasury. Or slaughtering the villagers of an entire village alone, calling him a heinous madman.

Luo Ze had not done any of those things. However, the Navy must have had plenty of unsolved cases before, and this time they had dumped them all onto Luo Ze.

"Hmph, those Marines really are a bunch of bad guys."

Ellie said indignantly. Luo Ze was the best person in her heart, yet those newspapers had written about him as though he were so terrible. It was truly hateful.

"Yeah. Even though they're Marines, most of them are bad guys. But Uncle Luca, the one we saw yesterday, is a righteous man. We were able to leave Dog Town so easily this time thanks to him."

Luo Ze smiled as he rubbed Ellie's head.

"Then Ellie wants to be a righteous person too." Ellie narrowed her eyes, enjoying Luo Ze's touch like a cat.

"Of course. But if you want to be a righteous person, Ellie, you first need to become very strong. That way, no one can bully you."

Luo Ze said with a smile.

"Mhm, Ellie will definitely become stronger." Ellie waved her little fist.

Luo Ze turned his gaze back to the wanted posters. Among them was one bearing his own face.

His gaze rested on the bounty amount for a moment, and he muttered to himself.

"Hmph, they really think highly of me. One hundred million Beli. Looks like they found out about me going to Boke Village and killing Kashal as well. But they didn't report that matter. This Navy government really knows how to take credit."

There was a reason Luo Ze said the Navy government knew how to take credit. After Luo Ze killed Kashal that day, the Navy government quickly received the information. They casually dispatched a squad of Marines from a nearby branch, captured the few remaining fish-men, and then put it in the newspapers, making those who knew nothing believe how righteous the Navy was.

Afterward, Luo Ze went to the bathroom for a shower. Once he was done, he had lunch with Ellie, then coaxed her into taking an afternoon nap.

Luo Ze changed the Ghost Sword's destination to the Ryan Sea. More than a month ago, he had already learned that Kid was in Ryan Town within the Ryan Sea.

However, because Luo Ze had needed to fulfill his deal with the old craftsman, he had made a trip to Boke Village. The journey there and back took a month, forcibly delaying the matter of Kid until now.

Kid might no longer be in Ryan Town, but according to the intelligence, he was still active in that stretch of sea. Luo Ze planned to sail the Ghost Sword to that sea first, then search for Kid's location.

Time passed quickly.

A month swiftly passed after Luo Ze left Dog Town.

The pirate world was an extremely turbulent world, where major events happened every day. Although Luo Ze's news had caused quite a stir in the South Blue that day, he had spent the entire month sailing at sea without showing himself even once. Gradually, people forgot about this newcomer who had flashed into view only briefly.

Over the course of that month, Luo Ze's Ghost Sword sailed from Dog Town to the Ryan Sea. Just now, the Ghost Sword carrying Luo Ze had finally entered the waters of the Ryan Sea.

Using the Ghost Sword's magnetic function, Luo Ze casually locked onto an island within this sea.

At noon that day, Luo Ze and Ellie arrived at an island called Haier Island.