A few days later, on a stretch of sea somewhere in the New World.
" Luffy! Come look!!"
Chopper's shocked voice rang out, drawing the attention of everyone on the ship.
"Hey! Chopper! What's wrong? Why are you making such a fuss? You scared my fish away!"
Usopp, who was fishing while sitting on the edge of the boat, couldn't help but complain.
"You don't seem to have any fish there to begin with, do you?"
Franky removed his sunglasses and looked at the sea.
"Hey! Franky, don't say it out loud! I want Chopper to feel guilty!"
"What's wrong, Chopper?"
Luffy, who was lying on the Luffy of the ship, sat up and looked at Chopper on the deck with curiosity, asking him a question.
You have a new bounty!
"What?!!"
Upon hearing Luffy jumped up in a flash and rushed to Chopper at the fastest speed he had ever been, snatching the bounty poster from its hand and placing it in front of him.
"Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands,..., hundreds of millions, billions!"
"1.5 billion!!"
My bounty has increased by 500 million!
(☆▽☆)!
Luffy was incredibly excited at that moment; seeing his bounty increase made him feel sweeter than if he had eaten honey.
This made him even happier than when his net worth jumped to a billion after the Paramount War.
Although he defeated several powerful enemies in the Paramount War, overall it felt like he was just going through the motions.
As a result, their bounty increased significantly after six months.
They naturally knew that Xia Chen was largely responsible for this.
Therefore, even though his strength at the time was worthy of the 1 billion bounty, he always felt that something was missing.
Things are different now!
He earned this bounty through his own efforts, even without Xia Chen's involvement.
That's something to be proud of and happy about!
" Luffy, I feel you should pay more attention to this than your bounty!"
Robin waved the newspaper in her hand and said to Luffy.
"What is that, Robin?!"
Nami took the newspaper from Robin, opened it, and then a look of surprise appeared on her face.
This sight piqued everyone's curiosity.
" Nami- san, what does it say on it?!"
Sanji asked curiously.
Upon hearing this Nami glanced at everyone first, then focused her attention back on the newspaper in her hand and said:
The newspaper headline read, "The Era of the Four Emperors Re-enters! Straw Hat Boy Luffy, the Four Emperors of the New World!"
"Huh?!!"
Everyone gasped in surprise. Even Luffy himself was a little confused.
"He went to Whole Totto Land and came back as one of the Four Emperors?"
Sanji's tone was filled with curiosity. While their current strength wasn't weak in the New World, they were still far from reaching the level of the Four Emperors' pirate crews, weren't they?
Putting everything else aside, based on their experience Luffy Big Mom, Big Mom.
The most important thing for a pirate crew to become a Yonko-level crew is that the leader's strength must meet the standard; otherwise, how can they inspire fear in the world?
Of course, the size of the pirate crew under one's command is also very important!
Their pirate crew only has one ship and no affiliated pirate groups. They don't seem qualified to be one of the Four Emperors, do they?
"Do you think this could be a test by the World Government?"
Brook, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke up.
" Brook, what do you mean by that? Are you saying the World Government is going to attack us? No way!"
Chopper's face showed a hint of fear.
"I don't know! It's just a guess!"
Brook shook his head and said.
"I just think it's possible. The World Government never targeted us before because of Xia Chen, and now Xia Chen has been missing for over a month."
"I was wondering if this was a tactic by the World Government to test Xia Chen's current situation, making us a target for everyone, so that many pirates would be eyeing us!"
"We'll face much more pressure. If Xia Chen doesn't intervene, they might attack us!"
"Of course, all of this is just my speculation; I don't know the specifics!"
"You know what! It's very possible!" Jinbe nodded in agreement.
"It's common knowledge how much the World Government fears Brother Xia Chen, because the World Government's prestige has even declined considerably."
"So now that Brother Xia Chen hasn't shown up for over a month, they must be very eager to know how Xia Chen's doing!"
"It's perfectly normal to do something like that!"
After Jinbe said that, most of the people on the ship agreed with this statement.
"So what should we do now?"
Usopp's tone was worried.
"What's there to be afraid of! If they dare to come, we'll chop them down as many as they want! We'll just slaughter them all!"
Zoro smiled and said nonchalantly.
" Luffy, what do you think? Do you think we need to take any countermeasures?"
Nami suddenly looked at Luffy and asked a question, but the next second she regretted asking Luffy that question.
"What? There's meat to eat?"
Luffy's face lit up with surprise.
Everyone:...
"Okay! These are my questions!"
Nami sighed, her voice tinged with helplessness.
"Given the current situation, I don't think we really need to take any corresponding measures, since everything we just discussed was merely speculation!"
"Furthermore... even if that's the case, we don't know how the World Government will deal with us."
"Therefore, I think our most important task right now is to improve our own strength. Once we're strong enough, then no problem will be a problem, just like when Xia Chen was around!"
"He's not on the ship now, so we have to adapt to dealing with all sorts of crises without him, just like we've been doing for the past month!"
Sanji took a drag of his cigarette and said calmly.
" Sanji's right! Let's not worry about these things anymore, let's see how long it takes to get to Wano Country!"
"I'm really looking forward to it!"
Luffy said with a smile, his eyes revealing his longing for Wano Country.
"That's right! Let's focus our energy on Wano Country, the land of samurai. I wonder what it's like there?"
A hint of anticipation flickered in Zoro's eyes.
After hearing what the two said, the others stopped thinking about it. If the eldest and second eldest brothers weren't worried, what did they have to worry about?
If the sky falls, there are tall people to hold it up.
Meanwhile, in another sea area of New World.
An enormous elephant slowly moved across the sea.
And above the elephant, in the sky...
"Lord Xia Chen, what do you think of the publicity I did for your pirate crew?"