800 Million Beli Bounty

East Blue, the island where Shimotsuki Village was located.

The waves pounded the shoreline, spraying fine white foam. Adams descended from the sky, his sharply defined muscles glimmering faintly beneath the rising sun.

A news coo happened to cry as it skimmed low overhead. The flapping of its wings caught his attention.

He raised a hand and flicked a Beli coin precisely into the pouch on the news coo's chest. The bird expertly dropped a newspaper.

Adams caught the still-ink-scented World Economy News Paper. His gaze did not linger for even a second on the headline concerning him on the front page. Instead, it pierced straight through the noisy words and locked firmly onto the very center of the page.

There, a wanted poster was pasted.

The man in the photograph was none other than himself. The angle was excellent, capturing him in the instant he swung from the side during one of his battles, his long hair flying and his eyes as sharp as blades.

Beneath the photograph was a number enough to leave every pirate in the Four Blues far behind--

800,000,000 Beli.

Adams's pupils contracted slightly. Then, the corner of his mouth lifted into an almost imperceptible curve. There was no joy in it, only a cold indifference bordering on mockery.

"Eight hundred million?"

He sneered inwardly,

What a... massive underestimate. They didn't even make it a billion.

As if it were nothing more than an insignificant number, he casually crumpled the newspaper into a ball. With a slight flex of both arms, the tough paper was easily torn into countless pieces like brittle dead leaves. He tossed them into the sea breeze, and they fluttered down into the waves, vanishing in an instant.

He did not even spare the fragments another glance before setting off toward