"Then trade them in!" Buggy said irritably. "I won't stop you, and I won't take a share of those bounties!"
Hikaru said leisurely, "You really want to give all the pirates to me? Think about it—how many pirates does Blackbeard have under him? I heard that when he set out this time, he had nearly eighty thousand pirates, and several more tens of thousands joined him along the way. Altogether, there are more than a hundred thousand pirates. Countless of them have bounties over a hundred million. If all those pirates were exchanged for bounty rewards..."
Buggy unconsciously swallowed. As he calculated Hikaru's proposal, he realized that if all of Blackbeard's pirates were really traded in for bounties, it would probably amount to an astronomical sum. Redeeming it all at once might even cripple the World Government's economy.
"D-Don't exaggerate!" Mr. 3 said from the side. "We're not idiots. Blackbeard only has fifty or sixty thousand men at most. Where would he get more than a hundred thousand?"
At that moment, Urouge beside Hikaru spoke up. "According to the latest intelligence from Kuzan in Dressrosa, Blackbeard's forces have been confirmed to exceed eighty thousand. That doesn't even include the logistical support personnel, so estimating a hundred thousand is not wrong."
"That many people?!" Buggy's fantasy was immediately dragged back to reality by that terrifying number. "How could we possibly beat them?"
"Didn't I just say that I've already laid out a tactical plan?" Hikaru said with a smile. "If we follow what I say, we'll definitely win. But we should settle the division of benefits after the battle first, so we don't end up arguing endlessly afterward and making fools of ourselves."
"Can we really defeat Blackbeard?" Buggy's heart pounded. After all, the pinnacle of his life had been accompanying