Bounty is strength!
This was the most basic value held by pirates across these seas.
The higher your bounty, the greater your fame.
Pirates who sailed the seas also craved higher bounties from the Marines.
"Fierce Leopard Pirates, Fierce Leopard Plov!"
The moment Lin Ye saw the pirate captain, he recognized him.
Devil Fruits were truly rare on the seas. Over the past year, he had followed Moria across nearly the entire Grand Line and encountered only a handful of Devil Fruit users. Only two had dropped Devil Fruit ability traits, and one of those traits had even been a weakness.
Namely, the weakness that Devil Fruit eaters feared seawater. Lin Ye had been so annoyed that he directly shattered the trait.
"Brat, you actually know this captain's great name!"
Hearing Lin Ye call out his name, Plov burst into laughter. Fur rapidly grew across his body, and in the blink of an eye, he transformed into a leopard-man.
"I'll take your life first, then go find your captain."
Like a leopard, Plov turned into an afterimage as he leaped back and forth.
The surrounding pirate grunts were overjoyed at the sight and raised their swords in jubilant cheers.
Lin Ye curled his lip when he saw this.
Before crossing over, when he watched anime, he had thought people in this pirate world were mercurial and easily swayed by their emotions. It had seemed utterly ridiculous.
But after spending a year in this world, he had discovered that it really was true.
Especially among these pirates, where it was even more obvious.
They clearly knew Thriller Bark was right behind them and could crush their ship at any moment, sending them to the bottom of the sea.
Yet now that they saw their captain make a move, they seemed to have forgotten all about it and began cheering for him with swords and guns raised.
"Kid, you let your guard down!"
Plov suddenly let out a roar. His figure instantly appeared behind Lin Ye, and he raised his massive claw. After Beastification, he stood nearly three meters tall, and his enormous paw was almost half the size of Lin Ye's body.
Splat!
The massive beast claw stopped beside Lin Ye.
A sword wrapped in Armament Haki had stabbed backward into the leopard-man's chest, piercing straight through his heart.
"Impossible!"
The powerful vitality granted by the Zoan Fruit kept him from dying immediately even with his heart pierced.
The leopard-man's eyes were filled with terror as his towering body slowly reverted from Beastification.
Expressionless, Lin Ye pulled the sword from his heart.
[Picked up Armament Haki: Level 1] [Picked up Cat-Cat Leap: Level 1]
Oh, a drop!
As the notification appeared in his mind, Lin Ye's eyelid twitched. He turned to look at the burly man collapsed on the ground.
In the past year, he had never encountered anyone like Gol D. Roger, who had dropped five traits at once.
The most had been a major pirate with a bounty of 210 million who had died beneath Moria's hands. He had dropped Two-Color Haki and a kicking technique.
Most pirates dropped nothing. A few dropped one trait, and very few dropped two, though one of them might be a trash trait.
Retracting his gaze, Lin Ye swept his eyes around.
The pirates who had just been cheering were now all wearing terrified expressions, though their faces still held traces of wild delight, their weapons raised over their heads.
Lin Ye lightly tapped the deck beneath his feet, his longsword becoming a reaper's scythe.
Dark sword flashes swept past one after another, and the pirates aboard the ship died without a sound.
"Run!"
After twenty or thirty people had died, someone finally came to his senses and shouted.
But this was a ship, and below it lay the waters of the New World.
Abandoning the ship and jumping into the sea meant certain death.
Run? Where could they run?
On Thriller Bark, a pirate raised a spyglass and watched the situation aboard Lin Ye's pirate ship.
"Ah, the captain's at it again."
"At this rate, there probably won't be anyone left alive on that ship."
At those words, the surrounding pirates all nodded in agreement.
They had originally thought that after Lin Ye came aboard, he would first become a shipwright and handle chores like scrubbing the deck.
Yet Lin Ye had never done such work. Instead, in a short time, his status aboard the ship had risen rapidly.
It all came down to strength.
"I think the captain could handle those big-name pirates with bounties of one or two hundred million now. Too bad the captain himself is just too strong."
A pirate sighed emotionally.
"Enough nonsense. Get closer, but don't ram the ship over again, or all the treasure aboard will fall into the sea."
While Thriller Bark discussed matters on this side, the pirates began to act as well.
Meanwhile, Lin Ye's silent slaughter had come to an end.
Not a single person aboard the ship remained alive.
"Thirty-two?"
Lin Ye was not very satisfied.
Some decent-quality traits could be broken down into two or three Blank Traits, yet these hundred-odd pirates had only given him this much.
He did not know whether it was just his imagination, but he felt that the chance of these people dropping traits was decreasing.
But since there were too few, he would simply keep going.
Lin Ye bent his knees slightly and activated the Cat-Cat Leap he had just obtained.
His legs instantly tensed, and the strength in them increased nearly threefold.
His legs violently tightened, shattering the deck beneath his feet. Lin Ye shot a hundred meters into the sky, then shifted twice in midair before landing on another pirate ship speeding away.
"I'm delivering goods to Lord Kaido—"
Seeing someone leap directly onto his ship, a man who appeared to be the captain hurriedly roared before he could even make out the newcomer's face.
He intended to use Kaido's name to intimidate Lin Ye.
But before he could finish speaking, Lin Ye's sword pierced his throat.
Lin Ye felt not the slightest psychological burden in killing these pirates. Every last one of them deserved to die; not one would be wrongfully killed.
The slaughter continued.
The weapon on the verge of evolving into a Black Blade gave off a dim, muted gleam as it harvested the lives of the pirates aboard.
Lin Ye was reaping his rewards.
Elsewhere, Moria cleaved the opponent before him in two with a single slash. Without sparing a glance for the trembling pirates, he looked toward the pirate ship where Lin Ye was.
His Observation Haki had clearly caught Lin Ye's actions just now.
Clean and decisive, without the slightest hesitation.
"This brat has gotten stronger again."
Moria ground his sharp teeth together, producing a grating screech.
Moria had watched with his own eyes as Lin Ye changed from a weak little rookie into what he was now.
Previously, Moria had believed Lin Ye could not threaten him at all, so he had been happy to have such a capable subordinate.
But now, unease had begun to rise in Moria's heart.
This kid was only eleven years old this year.
On these seas, he was absolutely a monster among monsters.
But forget it. It was still far too early for this kid to threaten his position.
It was not as if Moria had stopped growing stronger.
After all, his goal was One Piece.
And next, he would defeat one of the rulers of the New World.
Kaido of the Beast Pirates.
These people had actually been delivering supplies to Kaido, and Kaido was in Wano Country.
A savage gleam flashed through Moria's eyes.
Moria, who had roamed freely across the seas, believed Kaido had merely set sail earlier and become famous earlier.
He was no weaker than Kaido.
He wanted to sit in the seat of ruler of these seas too.
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