Arceus's Pirate Journey

Chapter 57: Chapter 57: The Strongest Organization—Photographers

[Hundred Beasts Kaidou · Bounty 1.6 billion Belly, Dead or Alive]

The news they brought wasn’t anything too shocking, just an update on a Wanted Poster: Kaidou’s bounty was rounded up to 1.6 billion Belly, and he was given a new photo along with the prefix ”Hundred Beasts”.

It seems that in the Navy’s eyes, Kaidou’s escape from the branch base wasn’t considered a major event.

This incident also had a bit to do with Olga, because this time it wasn’t Kaidou who escaped on his own, but was rescued.

Although Olga and Elizabeth merely picked a lock, the Navy didn’t see it that way. They attributed a significant part of Kaidou’s escape to Olga.

The reason was simple: letting a pirate escape from the custody of a branch officer on their own and being rescued by others are two completely different concepts.

Though both are embarrassing, a jailbreak is far better than a prisoner escaping on their own.

This was also due to Hedro’s maneuver; he was a Vice Admiral nearing retirement and was quite helpless about the situation.

If the coastal defense artillery hadn’t fired and allowed Kaidou to leave directly, the base wouldn’t have suffered any casualties.

However, Kaidou’s retaliation with Hot Breath in response to the attack caused them quite a bit of damage.

With the prisoners escaping and the base damaged, the branch officer naturally had to take responsibility, so his retirement benefits were downgraded from General Level to Junior Admiral Level, which wasn’t too severe of a punishment.

This was related to how he defined the incident; he categorized Kaidou’s escape as an external intervention.

The consequence was that Olga and Elizabeth also received their own Wanted Posters.

The strongest agent in this world isn’t the supposedly strongest Heavenly Celestial Dragon’s shield CP0, nor the little-known CP9, nor the detectives from the Underworld.

The strongest title belongs to the photographers of the World Government and Navy.

Wanted Posters require photos, and most of these photos are provided by photographers, from small-time pirates worth a few million to monsters like Rocks.

No matter who the World Government declares wanted, not a single one has escaped the photographers’ lens.

Whether in the floating Sky Island or in the deep-sea Fishman Island, they can always be found.

In the realm of stealthy photography, they are absolutely the world’s best.

Unless a rare incident occurs, causing a photographer to forget to remove the lens cap, no one can escape their lens.

Olga and Elizabeth’s photos thus prominently appeared on Wanted Posters, but these photographers aren’t entirely infallible; at least Olga and Elizabeth’s true appearances haven’t been revealed.

Instead, it was two Zoroark and an Inteleon standing on Kaidou’s flame cloud. Though the Navy couldn’t bring Kaidou down, they did take photos.

These weren’t taken by the Radio Snail surveillance inside the base earlier; those only captured illusions conjured by Olga’s ability. Only when Olga was exhausted were they able to capture her transformed appearance.

As Hundred Beasts hadn’t made significant moves before, the Wanted Posters didn’t even include names, only labeling them as Prison Raiders, and both bounties were uniformly set at 50 million.

Olga hadn’t engaged in direct combat, and the Navy hadn’t even figured out whose ability created the illusions.

”Is this just trivial stuff?”

For Kaidou, the update on the Wanted Poster wasn’t a big deal; he had long passed the age of being excited over a bounty.

”No, but the remaining matters are Navy’s concern, the Admiral of the Navy Headquarters, that Black Arm Zephyr’s family was killed!”

As soon as these words were out, a hand composed of Dark Type Energy took the newspaper he was holding. The death of Zephyr’s family was indeed one of the significant events in Arceus’s memory.

This signified a shift in the mindset of a generation of Admirals. Though persuaded by superiors to retain his General rank, he retreated to the background, becoming the Navy’s chief instructor, later nurturing a cornerstone for the Navy over time.

With fire and water being inconvenient to handle paper items, four completed plates gradually perfected his power, and various energy hands were used skillfully.

”Zephyr really is... pathetic.”

The newspaper article detailed the unfortunate attack on Zephyr’s family, with the World Government expressing deep condolences and stating that the killers had been arrested and detained en route to Impel Down.

Never killing pirates, yet having all his family killed by them; this was the cost of adhering to his ”no kill” principle.

Moreover, for the family of a Headquarter Admiral to not receive adequate protection, allowing unknown pirates to kill them, and these pirates weren’t even eliminated on the spot — this was even more absurd.

Perhaps Zephyr had offended someone, leading to a conspiracy since Zephyr’s status with the World Government indeed had some issues.

With so many pirates on the seas who could qualify for the Seven Warlords of the Sea, they chose one who maimed Zephyr and killed his students to ascend — this is simply rubbing salt in the wound.

If they had even a little sense, they wouldn’t engage in such behavior.

Impel Down is known as a place of suffering, everyone knows that, but avenging blood debts personally is one of the few ways to achieve peace of mind.

Zephyr did this only because of the Navy’s regulations; adhering to them to this extent, besides being pathetic, left him with nothing more to say.

”This is the Navy for you, countless rules, the Heavenly Celestial Dragon’s lapdogs, though I must admit the food on the Prison Ship is quite good.”

Kaidou held a bias against the Navy, which is quite normal; you can’t expect a pirate to praise the Navy since people always seek a rational-sounding justification for their actions.

Initially, his resistance towards the Navy wasn’t so pronounced until the King of the Voca Kingdom forcibly involved him in the Navy’s World Recruitment, leading him to this path, and later spending his teenage years on Rocks’s ship.

At first, he was also a youngster who could question his compatriots why they acted as the Heavenly Celestial Dragon’s dogs, why they handed over the Heavenly Tribute.

The death of Zephyr’s family was like another alarm bell, smacking the Navy’s face hard, being the highest combat power of the Navy yet unable to ensure his family’s safety led to a temporary reduction in Navy enlistment.

But this applied mostly to the rank-and-file soldiers; some talented individuals recognized the chaos at sea, with some choosing to sail as pirates, while others joined the Navy to pursue their ideals.

”By the way, your bestowed abilities have strengths and weaknesses, right?” Kaidou suddenly asked a question after sending his subordinates off to transport supplies.

”Of course, what you see now are among the stronger ones. If I had to say, Queen’s is probably the weakest, as it’s the least taxing. Why?”

”Nothing much, there are still fourteen pieces to find... remember to reserve me a stronger ability.”