An Unprecedented Record, the Highest Bounty in Paradise!
Speaking of which, there were plenty of mature beauties in the world of One Piece.
Among the younger ones were the 28-year-old Empress and the 31-year-old Hina, while the older ones included the 42-year-old Gion. All were beauties renowned across the four seas.
Thinking of these popular beauties, Ivan thought that taking a small loss to raise Homelander's approval rating to one hundred percent might not be so unbearable after all.
But he quickly shook his head and suppressed the thought.
After all, until his approval rating broke past fifty percent, he had no reason to resort to such extreme measures.
News of the Celestial Dragon's death spread across the world like a hurricane.
Upon arriving, Admiral Kizaru immediately commandeered the G-2 Branch, launching an unprecedented crackdown on pirates in the surrounding waters.
In the end, most of the Gran Tesoro's hull was destroyed by powerful fighters, and countless famous pirates were thrown into Impel Down. Even the two Shichibukai present each took several kicks from Kizaru before fleeing in a sorry state.
Gild Tesoro, however, surprised Ivan. He had come through unscathed, sacrificing most of his wealth to the World Government to secure his own safety.
Moreover, thanks to the full power of the Gold-Gold Fruit's repairs, the Gran Tesoro had not sunk.
Over the past few days, Ivan, as a member of the G-2 Branch, had diligently captured every pirate he encountered under Admiral Kizaru's command.
Having captured a large number of pirates in a short time, Ivan drew the world's attention to his strength. He was hailed as the most outstanding Marine rookie in a century, on par with Cipher Pol's rising star, Rob Lucci.
But that was the extent of the attention Ivan received. The world's eyes were now fixed on the center of it all-Fox.
Compared with Fox, these two rookies who had only just made names for themselves hardly amounted to anything.
But no one knew that the Marine rookie codenamed White Dove was the same person at the center of this incident.
He had orchestrated the incident, founded Shadow Garden, and become a living godslayer!
People had differing views of this godslayer. Some called him a hero, others called him a devil, some believed he would soon die, and even more hoped he would live forever.
But no matter what the world thought of Fox, Ivan would not care.
He would continue down the path he had envisioned for himself!
A few days later, Marine Headquarters, Marineford.
The massive fortress stood like a mountain range, its walls scarred with faded bullet marks and cannon impacts, bearing the grim traces of years gone by.
A large number of Marine warships were moored beside the crescent-shaped harbor, including Vice Admiral Comil's vessel.
At the heart of the fortress, the towering Marine Headquarters building pierced the sky.
Inside a tatami-floored conference room, numerous figures clad in Justice coats sat on either side of a conference table.
The atmosphere in the room was grave, and it was so quiet that a pin could have been heard dropping.
Amid the deathly silence, only the crunching of Garp chewing rice crackers could be clearly heard.
Sitting beside Sengoku, Brannew took a deep breath, rose, and walked to the whiteboard at the front of the room.
"As I'm sure you've all heard, a heinous incident occurred aboard the Gran Tesoro some time ago.
A noble Celestial Dragon, Saint Rosward, was assassinated at the Golden King's auction. The perpetrator was the pirate Supernova Fox, who recently received a bounty of 180 million for massacring a thousand people in the East Blue!"
"Hahaha, that kid did a great job! I never liked that bastard!" Garp stopped chewing his rice crackers and shouted indistinctly.
"Garp!" Garp's words infuriated Sengoku. "Watch your mouth. Remember who you are—you're a Marine!"
Garp stuck a finger up his nose. "Oh, I know."
Most of the time, Garp was willing to show his old friend some consideration.
Once Garp had quieted down again, Brannew scratched his curly green hair, breathed a sigh of relief, and continued:
"After killing the Celestial Dragon, Fox used some unknown teleportation ability to seize the Unicorn Fruit. He then left at his leisure despite being pursued by two Shichibukai, two Vice Admirals, and many other powerful fighters.
The subjects of today's meeting are to investigate the mysterious organization known as Shadow Garden and determine Fox's current bounty!"
Brannew took out two photographs and pinned them to the whiteboard. They showed Fox teleporting and using Earth Release, respectively.
"So far, Fox has demonstrated two abilities: teleportation and the manipulation of rock.
In an earlier battle, Fox displayed an ability resembling Armament Haki, but we later determined that it was not Armament Haki. He had covered his body with hard rock instead.
So Fox may be a Stone-Stone Fruit User, but the Stone-Stone Fruit is currently in the Donquixote Family's possession. Fox's ability is therefore probably from a newly appeared fruit, which we call the Tsuchi Tsuchi no Mi!
As for the teleportation ability he displayed, it probably isn't his own, but the fruit ability of another Shadow Garden member.
Likewise, the Teleport-Teleport Fruit already has an owner, so we call this Devil Fruit with the power of teleportation the Space-Space Fruit."
When Brannew finished, the mood in the conference room grew even graver. Even Garp realized the seriousness of the situation and sat up straight.
Vice Admiral Tsuru leisurely picked up her cup, moistened her throat, and spoke softly.
"Two newly appeared Devil Fruit Users? It seems Shadow Garden is a larger force than we imagined.
I suggest we make Shadow Garden a priority target for surveillance from now on, second only to the Revolutionary Army."
The others exchanged glances, then nodded one after another.
"I second that!"
"I second that!"
Once the discussion concerning Shadow Garden was over, Brannew pinned Fox's wanted poster beside the two photographs and raised his voice several pitches.
"Finally, Fox's bounty. Because Fox killed a Celestial Dragon, his crimes are heinous. He is cruel and vicious, one of the worst criminals of our time!
Therefore, we have decided to raise his bounty from 180 million Beli to 500 million Beli in one stroke!
His new bounty of 500 million Beli will be the highest ever recorded in Paradise, the first half of the Grand Line, in the history of the Sea Circle Calendar!"
Late at night, at the World Economy News Paper headquarters, aboard a giant, flying, teapot-shaped mobile fortress.
His eyes red, Big News Morgans looked with satisfaction at the sample newspaper he had personally worked overtime to rush out.
An employee looked at Morgans in confusion and asked, "President, is there any need to work this hard? Even at our normal pace, we could have the edition ready by tomorrow noon."
Morgans glared at his subordinate and scolded him.
"Idiot! Anything involving the Celestial Dragons has to be finished as quickly as possible.
We've already lost some time since receiving the news from our inside source. If we delay any longer, the World Government might find out we intend to spread news of the Celestial Dragon's death. When that happens, they'll certainly stop us to preserve the World Government's dignity.
You have to understand, this is big news—an exclusive report that can shake the world! How could we let the World Government suppress news this shocking?
Hurry, print it with everything you've got! I want the whole world to know about this!"