Underworld Bounty

Bege slowly exhaled a thick ring of cigar smoke. Behind the haze, his gaze was sharp and calm.

"Join forces?"

"No thanks. I can't trust you people, and I don't think you'd feel safe turning your backs on me either. If you ask me, holding this meeting was a complete waste of time. Meaningless."

He paused, straightened his burgundy suit jacket, and concluded:

"We're better off doing our own thing. Whoever has what it takes to seize it, gets it."

After voicing his opinion, Bege headed straight for the warehouse doors. His men immediately followed, guarding both sides of him with the clear attitude that they had no intention of associating with those who walked a different path.

Watching Bege's departing back, a barely perceptible shadow flickered in Magadino's eyes behind his lenses.

He turned back to the remaining two and spread his hands.

"So, what about you? What do you say? Are you interested in joining forces?"

A sharp glint flickered in Liliana's eyes. She had no desire to see her own forces suffer losses in a head-on clash.

She lightly flicked away some ash and made a suggestion.

"I think we could try a different approach. Joint action carries too much risk. Just as Bege said, we lack even the most basic trust between us. I propose... placing a bounty on that brat."

"A bounty?"

Vincent and Magadino both looked at her.

"That's right."

Liliana's red lips parted slightly.

"Put out a bounty across the entire Underworld and make the amount high enough. Then plenty of killers who value money over their lives will come swarming in.

"We won't need to act ourselves or waste our valuable manpower. That brat named Dawn will most likely die without even a place to be buried."

As the one with the greatest visible assets among the four but comparatively weaker armed forces, she naturally favored this method of killing with borrowed blades.

An alliance was fundamentally unreliable. In the Underworld, which leader did not dream of becoming the sole ruler? Given the chance, she herself would not hesitate to stab a so-called ally in the back.

Vincent stroked his chin in thought for a moment, then nodded.

"True. There are too many variables in a joint operation. A bounty... that's a good idea. We won't have to sacrifice our own people."

"And if we let assassins handle it, we won't need to worry about them becoming a new problem after taking Hardbane Island."

In his view, killing people and running an organization were two entirely different things, requiring completely different talents.

Magadino pretended to ponder for a moment, inwardly cursing Liliana's cunning and Vincent's shortsightedness. His plan had been to trick the two into joining forces, then betray them at the critical moment and take the opportunity to swallow up their organizations. It seemed that plan had died before it was ever born.

He could only nod in agreement.

"Then let's do it. Shall we split the bounty according to proportion?"

"Fine."

"No problem."

The three quickly settled the details of the bounty. A deadly trap targeting Dawn quietly began to spread through the Underworld.

Several days later, Grand Line, a hidden building somewhere.

At dawn.

Within this complex tucked away in an unknown corner of the Grand Line, the atmosphere was even more sinister than the night.

Many people of varying builds, their faces concealed by hoods, masks, or high collars, moved silently through the narrow, damp corridors.

They paid no attention to the various human organs soaking in unknown fluids within the niches lining both sides of the corridor. Clearly, they had long grown accustomed to such sights. Their destination lay in the deepest part of the building.

This was an important sub-base belonging to one of the Underworld's kings, Pieklo, the Big Hand Funeral Director.

Pieklo, a major figure in the Underworld, publicly ran a corpse disposal business, but in truth, he was one of the sea's largest organ traffickers.

At the same time, he operated a vast assassin brokerage business. The assassin organization under his control was one of the most feared forces in the dark world.

Deep within the building was a tavern-like hall with an overwhelmingly oppressive atmosphere. Staff members were pinning newly arrived bounty notices onto a massive bulletin board. Unlike the World Government's official versions, these bounty notices were not only more exquisitely printed, with most featuring color photographs, but also thoughtfully included basic information about their targets.

Assassins of all kinds gathered before the bulletin board, silently searching for suitable targets. Each carried more or less an ineradicable scent of blood. With so many gathered together, the mixed stench was enough to make an ordinary person vomit, yet no one present seemed uncomfortable.

At the top of the bulletin board were almost all famous figures of the sea. The current uncrowned queen of the Underworld, "BIG MOM" Charlotte Linlin, held first place with a staggering bounty of three billion Beli.

Close behind her was "Beast" Kaido, whose rise in the arms industry had been meteoric and whose momentum was fierce, with a bounty of two billion Beli.

Further down were "Loan Shark King" Du Feld, "Shipping King" Umit, "Storage King" Giberson, Pieklo himself, "Garuda" Vinsmoke Judge, and others.

As for why the owner of this place also had a bounty posted here, the answer was simple. In the Underworld, having a bounty on one's head was not entirely a bad thing. Especially when it ranked high, it was, to some extent, a symbol of strength—a "medal of honor" in the dark world.

The World Government's bounties and the Underworld's bounties were two parallel systems that occasionally overlapped. In theory, killing a target wanted by both could earn two rewards, but those who dared to do so and succeeded were few and far between.

Most assassins habitually skipped over the legendary names at the top and focused on the middle and lower sections. Those were the targets they might actually be able to take down.

"Look! That brat from the Donquixote family in the North Blue, Donquixote Doflamingo, his bounty went up again! It's actually reached five hundred million!"

A hoarse-voiced assassin pointed at one of the bounty notices. It showed a young man wearing pink sunglasses, with short blond hair, a black shirt, a red tie, and an arrogant grin.

"What are those useless fools in the North Blue doing? They actually let some newcomer brat make such a name for himself? And this bounty is even higher than the official one the World Government put on him!"

"Heh, looks like the people in the North Blue have been driven into a corner. A brat like that? If I make a move, I'll have him in hand in no time. I'll head to the North Blue later. That money is as good as mine!"

The assassins discussed the bounty notice one after another, most of them looking down on the North Blue and dismissing the younger man. On these seas, the belief that age was directly proportional to strength was deeply ingrained in most people.

"Huh? There's an even younger one here!"

Suddenly, another assassin in the crowd pointed at a freshly posted bounty notice and shouted. Everyone's gaze immediately focused on it.

The brand-new bounty notice showed a blond boy with an extremely youthful face. He had azure eyes like the sea and handsome features. Though still young, there was already a faint sharpness between his brows that could not be ignored.

The photograph seemed to have been secretly taken from afar, yet his exceptional looks were still clearly visible. At the bottom of the notice, striking text read—Bounty Amount: 300 million Beli.

"Are you kidding me? What's wrong with the people in the West Blue? They can't even deal with a teenage brat?"

"A kid who hasn't even grown all his hair yet is worth three hundred million? Are Beli really this worthless now?"

"The West Blue... what decent experts could a weak place like that possibly produce? Those useless fools from the Five Great Families must be completely incompetent."

This high bounty immediately sparked widespread discussion and doubt among the assassins. In common perception, the Four Blues were synonymous with weakness and had never been known for producing top-tier fighters.

Amid the doubts and restless excitement, several assassins who were quite confident in their strength, or urgently needed money, had already turned and headed toward the reception desk, preparing to accept what they saw as an "easy and highly rewarding" mission.

They had already begun calculating how they would squander the three hundred million Beli after obtaining it. As for the possibility of failure? They had never considered it.

Instinctively, they refused to believe that the Four Blues could produce an abnormality that defied "common sense" and required them to take seriously. Monsters like that belonged on the Grand Line, especially in the New World.

Among the assassins heading toward the reception desk was a tall, thin man dressed in tight leather clothes, with an abnormally long tongue. He stuck out that long tongue, his eyes gleaming with cruel, excited savagery.

TO BE CONTINUED